Esports

The Wildest Matches From Compete‘s Street Fighter Pro Challenge

This past Saturday, we opened the doors to the Gizmodo Media Group offices and welcomed any and all challengers to try their hand at beating a Street Fighter V champion. From young newcomers to surprise upstarts, and even other pros lurking in the waters, here are some of our favorite moments from an incredible night.…

What Street Fighter Pros Think Of Ultra Street Fighter II For The Switch

This past weekend, Compete hosted several Street Fighter pros and commentators at our offices for a public event where fans could sign up to battle against top SFV players. Since we had this all-star roster of Street Fighter aficionados hanging out at our offices, the Compete staff pulled them aside to preview the Nintendo Switch…

Dota 2 Patch Makes Death More Punishing

The next mainline Dota 2 patch hit the game’s servers today, and with it came a litany of balance changes meant to address the most pressing concerns in the wake of the Kiev Major. With The International 7 looming on the horizon, it’s time to fine-tune the game that will be played for millions in…

Smash Champion Loses First Tournament This Year In Wild Match Against Top Player

Super Smash Bros. Melee champion Adam “Armada” Lindgren lost his first tournament this year against crowd favorite Joseph “Mango” Marquez at yesterday’s Royal Flush tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After it looked like Lindgren would take home #1, Marquez made an adrenaline-fueled comeback that made the audience go wild. Leaving few openings for Marquez’s…

Dota 2 Commentator Reveals She’s Been Diagnosed With Cancer 

Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden, one of Dota 2‘s most prominent casters and streaming personalities, revealed earlier today on her Twitch channel that she has cancer and will start undergoing treatment for it later this week. “Well I have breast cancer,” she told her viewers during her daily Dota 2 stream. “It hasn’t spread. It’ll…

Pros Continue Reviving Old Rivalries At The Latest Smash Bros. Melee Tournament

This was the scene in the Tropicana Showroom Theater in Atlantic City last night after the day’s Smash Bros. Melee matches had wrapped up as some of the game’s beloved pros tried to resurrect a decades old rivalry between East and West coast players. In the middle was Ryan “The Moon” Coker-Welch, a top-ranked player…

Street Fighter Pro Brings Down The Champ At Compete Event

In the last block of the night at our “Can You Beat An Esports Champion?” event, Du “NuckleDu” Dang was the first pro to drop all day. Kevin “Die3mini0n” Landon, a professional Street Fighter player himself, took down NuckleDu in a tense mirror match-up. Both players were on Guile, exchanging blows and projectiles in a…

Here’s To That Guy Creeping Around The Witcher 3 Card Game Tournament 

Meet Gaunter O’Dimm. Or at least some dude dressed as Gaunter O’Dimm, a mischievous, devil-like bloke from The Witcher 3 and competitive gaming’s own Vanna White. His job is to walk players to their seats and stare at the camera like that theater undergrad who is all about getting into character and strolling around the…

Watch Street Fighter Pros V. Jamokes At Our NYC Event

Starting now and going into the night, Street Fighter V pros Bryant “Smug” Huggins, Justin Wong and Du “NuckleDu” Dang will take on a crowd of challengers live from our New York offices. Throughout the day, visitors can stop by to play the pros, and after they fail (or succeed), they can stop by the…

The Weekend In Esports: League Of Legends, Madden 17, And The Gwent Challenger Finals

The weekend’s competitive gaming starts with a card game inspired by a Polish fantasy series and ends with two people calling last-minute plays in a virtual recreation of NFL football. Aren’t esports great? Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us know what you’ll…

Survey: 42 Percent Of Esports Viewers Don’t Play The Games They Watch

Not everyone who watches the Super Bowl plays football, and it turns out the same is true for the League of Legends World Championship. According to research done by analytics firm Newzoo, 42 percent of esports viewers surveyed do not actually play the games they watch. Specifically, Newzoo studied the esports viewing habits of people…

Blizzard Responds To Controversial Rumors Of $20 Million Overwatch League Buy-In Fee

Blizzard’s official Overwatch League is supposed to be the thing that catapults Overwatch esports to the next level. This week, though, it’s become an ominous cloud hanging over the scene. In the past nine days, nine days, no less than five esports organizations have dropped their Overwatch teams. Why so many? And why now? A…

Dota Pro Counters Time Travel With Map-Wide Grappling Hook

In today’s qualifier matches for Dota’s The Summit 7, Natus Vincere’s Danil “Dendi” Ishutin found himself warped away from a fight by Vega Squadron’s Disruptor. With seconds to save himself, Dendi landed a chain onto a nearby tree and took a journey through space and time. Disruptor’s “Glimpse” ability warps an enemy hero back to…

You’re Invited To Take On Top Street Fighter V Players In NYC This Weekend (Or Watch Others Try)

The concept we had was simple. Pit some of the world’s best pro gamers against regular folks. So that’s what we’re doing this Saturday. Do average gamers stand a chance against these guys? The elite players: Nuckledu, Justin Wong and Smug, all ready to battle you in Street Fighter V Their opponents: You! Or others…

Can Magic’s Latest Expansion Save A Stale Meta-Game?

The release of a new Magic: the Gathering expansion is usually a joyous event for players, and this spring’s ancient Egypt-themed Amonkhet set should have been an easy hit. Instead, players are reeling from a competitive scene that has lately been dominated by a couple of overpowered cards, and hoping that Amonkhet can breathe fresh…

Ex-WWE Announcer Emcees Video Game Wrestling League Finale

Wrestling fans might be used to hearing Justin Roberts introduce names like John Cena, Daniel Bryan or The Undertaker. But for the finale of the Video Game Championship Wrestling series, Roberts himself took to the mic to announce the entrance of rejected Street Fighter concept Zubaz and the dark lord of Hyrule himself, Ganondorf. The…

Five Pro Gaming Teams Drop Overwatch In One Week [Update]

It’s been a gnarly handful of days for the professional Overwatch scene. Since last Tuesday, four organizations have dropped their Overwatch teams, citing a lack of certainty about Blizzard’s upcoming Overwatch League and potentially prohibitive costs they’ll have to pay in order to join it. Today, esports organization compLexity bid farewell to their Overwatch team…

Tekken 7 Pros Booted From UK Championship On Suspicion Of Collusion

Justin “King Jae” Nelson’s third place finish in Sunday’s UK Tekken 7 Championship Birmingham Qualifier won him a spot in the upcoming finals at MCM London Comic Con. But because of alleged collusion between him and Charmel “C-Krizzle” Miedji Koloko during their match in the third round of the loser’s bracket, both players were banned…

A note to readers: Our recent story about a supposed group of transgender gamers being denied entry into an esports tournament was based on a hoax. Please see the original, updated story for more. We apologize for the mistake.

Ten Years Ago, Dead Or Alive Launched The Careers Of The Highest-Paid Women Pro Gamers

Vanessa Arteaga had been playing fighting games since she was a child, long before she became one of the highest-paid women in competitive gaming history—but her tens of thousands in winnings still pale in comparison to the millions that her male peers have made in competitive gaming in the years since. Her older brother started…