Esports Archives - Page 60 of 97

The Weekend In Esports: Bow Down Before Whispy Woods

Pros from the far reaches of the less traditional fighting game community descend on Orlando, Florida this weekend to make sacrifices to that tree dude from Kirby. CEO Dreamland is the first event of its kind dedicated to brawl-style fighters and will give top talent across games like Melee and Smash 4 (Wii U) a…

By Ethan Gach Published April 15, 2017

Esports

New League Patch Offers Tank Players Some Freedom

With the last few playoff games for the spring split closing out in the coming weeks, the League of Legends season has almost reached its midpoint. Traditionally a time when competitive play takes a break and sweeping design changes can be made that radically shift approaches to the game, Riot has announced the first batch…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 14, 2017

Esports

Overwatch‘s Most Popular Player Steps Back From Competing So He Can Stream More

For quite a while, Brandon “Seagull” Larned has led a dual life. Sometimes, he’s a pro player for NRG Esports. Other times, he’s the most popular Overwatch streamer in the business. One guy with two time-devouring careers. Something had to give. Today Larned, who’s known for his dazzling Genji plays, announced that he’s stepping down…

By Nathan Grayson Published April 13, 2017

Esports

How Not To Cheat At League of Legends

Just as the history of conventional sports is essentially a history of cheating, the same is true of gaming. In the modern day, though, with billions of dollars involved in competitive gaming, cheating is shadier, more consequential, and involves rewards far greater than the free lives offered up by the infamous Contra code. In the…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 13, 2017

Esports

The Best Taunt In Fighting Games Involves Tricky Musical Combos

Of all the ways players taunt each other in fighting games, there’s no taunt as stylish as the trumpet solos that players can pull off in Skullgirls Players can perform as police-officer-turned-brass-instrument “Big Band” and have used him to play an impressive array of songs, from James Bond’s theme to “Song of Storms” from The…

By Maddy Myers Published April 11, 2017

Esports

13-Year-Old Prodigy Wins Pinball World Championships

This past weekend, the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (or PAPA) hosted the world championships of pinball, bringing flipperheads together under one roof to compete on classic machines for the top score and prize. It was a fantastic display of pinball wizardry, marred only by an incomprehensible production set-up. Twelve different machines stood as the…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 10, 2017

Esports

Fnatic Upset Top European Team In League Playoffs

This weekend marked the kickoff of the League Championship Series’ spring split playoffs, and in the European region, top team H2K finally met its match against a revitalized Fnatic. H2K was a clear favorite in today’s match, with a 10-3 record for the season compared to Fnatic’s 6-7. Having beat Fnatic 2-0 in regular play,…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 9, 2017

Esports

Bizarre Modes Lead To Insane Rocket League Goals

We’re halfway through season three of the Rocket League Championship Series, and to celebrate, several teams are participating in an invitational today where the maps and settings were determined by viewers. Opening the action were Atelier and Denial Esports, who would soon be plunged into the sound and fury of community-nominated novelty game modes. Game…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 8, 2017

Esports

The Weekend In Esports: Tecmo Super Bowl Returns

Tecmo Super Bowl is back! Re-live the glory of the most beloved sports game of all time by watching its top players face-off this weekend in the game’s annual Madison Bowl. 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 be watching…

By Ethan Gach Published April 8, 2017

Esports

RunAway Blows 3-1 Lead In Overwatch Apex Finals

OGN, a Korean esports organization, hosted the grand finals for Overwatch Apex Season 2, and it was a barn-burner. RunAway, a Cinderella story team with no organization, met the titanic Lunatic-Hai, a team whose only loss in the group stage was to RunAway. A mixture of revenge and underdogs, and a grand finals that went…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 8, 2017

Esports

King of Fighters XIV Puts New Spin On Countering Fighting Game Fireballs

The fireball is perhaps the most iconic move in fighting games. Along with the uppercut, it forms the basis of the genre’s most foundational strategies. As such, fighting games have evolved so that one or two characters in any given release usually have interesting ways to counter them. The PlayStation 4 game King of Fighters…

Ian Walker Published April 7, 2017

Esports

Dota Match Turns Into Five-Hour Melodrama

At about 11:00 p.m. local time a day ago, in the European West servers of Dota 2, 10 players queued up for an average, unranked match. Over the course of five hours, these players would rage, taunt, abandon, create new accounts, and become good friends. It was an odyssey of Dota matchmaking, a play in…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 7, 2017

Esports

How Much Do Pro Gamers Sweat?

“Blood, sweat and tears” appears on many a weight room motivational poster, but isn’t quite as applicable to esports as it is to more traditional sports. There arecertainly tears, after wins and losses, and injuries are becoming commonplace as pros get older. Curious, we reached out to esports competitors in all sorts of games to…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 7, 2017

Esports

Fighting Game Community Falls In Love With Street Fighter Veteran’s New Look

Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez lost every single one of his Street Fighter V matches during Eleague’s invitational last week. But, somehow, he emerged from that seven-string loss looking cool as heck. A full week later, Street Fighter fans still can’t stop talking about his sunglasses. The former Street Fighter veteran turned YouTube star has not been…

By Maddy Myers Published April 6, 2017

Esports

University Of Utah To Offer Varsity League Scholarship

The University of Utah has announced a varsity esports program, starting with League of Legends. Part of the Pac-12 Conference, Utah is the first Power Five school to sponsor this type of program, and it doesn’t plan on stopping at one game. The team, sponsored by the EAE video game development program, hopes to expand…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 6, 2017

Esports

Anime Fighting Games Are About To Get A Great Chance To Shine On The Competitive Scene

A group of event organizers have taken it upon themselves to establish a tournament circuit for a trio of overlooked fighting games, hoping to provide them a greater platform for success and raise their profile in the process. Burst League is a circuit devoted to a fighting game trio including Guilty Gear Xrd, BlazBlue: Central…

Ian Walker Published April 6, 2017

Esports

Pro Counter-Strike Team Loses Round Due To Notorious Grenade Glitch

In Counter-Strike, nobody’s entirely certain how molotov cocktails are supposed to work when smoke grenades enter the picture. Sometimes smokes put out molotovs when they land on top of them, but not always. Other times, smokes magically douse flames through walls. Recently, it even happened in a pro game. During a StarSeries Season 3 match…

By Nathan Grayson Published April 5, 2017

Esports

Why Kirby Is Low-Tier in Super Smash Brothers

Kirby is a controversial character, especially among competitive Super Smash Brothers players. Even if you don’t play games, you probably know who Kirby is. You know his deal. He’s cute. He’s pink. He says “hiiiii” in falsetto. He looks like a marshmallow. And he swallows his enemies whole, which is weird and humiliating and would…

By Maddy Myers Published April 3, 2017

Esports

Madden Pro Trips Over His Own Players

This weekend, the Madden Challenge is pitting virtual football’s best against each other one last time before the championship in May. Though the players behind the controllers are pros, the quarterbacks in the game could use a little work. Tuning into the series, the literal first play I saw on stream had Eli “Trueboy” Clayton’s…

By Eric Van Allen Published April 2, 2017

Esports

Blind Player Racks Up A Win At His First Street Fighter V Tournament

Competing in a Street Fighter tournament is hard, especially if you’re blind. But that didn’t stop a Dutch player by the name of “Sven” from managing to take a few sets off his opponents in the early rounds of Spain’s Sonic Boom tournament for Street Fighter V. Playing as Ken, Sven faced Musashi’s Akuma in…

By Ethan Gach Published April 2, 2017