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Esports
Former Overwatch Teammates Reunite As “Laser Kittenz”
A new Overwatch team is set to make its debut on the international stage. Laser Kittenz is made up of the former Bench Boys roster and two other players, and the team will be looking to establish itself in the upcoming Overwatch League. In a report from ESPN Esports, the team says it is currently…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 19, 2017 -
Esports
Hearthstone Team League Finals Cap Off With Gimmicks And Miracles
Hearthstone is often thought of as a one-on-one card game, but in the Trinity Series, teams battle each other rather than single players. In last night’s final matches of the tournament, four teams converged to see whose decklist could outlast the others’. Where most Hearthstone tournaments bracket individual players into a best-of-five format, having to…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 19, 2017 -
Esports
Dota 2 Pro Goes Undercover As A Tree, Dies Anyway
Ludwig “Zai” Wåhlberg isn’t even 20-years-old and he’s already won over $1.1 million in esports prize money. In an exhibition match on Friday against recently formed Onyx, the Evil Geniuses player decided to transform into a tree and try to mess with his opponents just for the hell of it. Monkey King is the latest…
By Ethan Gach Published March 18, 2017 -
EsportsThe Weekend In Esports: Duty Calls In Texas
Call of Duty returns in a big way this week with the World League Open for Infinite Warfare in Dallas. The last chance for teams to earn a spot in stage 1 of the Global Pro League, competitive Call of Duty’s big spring event, all eyes will be on Northern Texas to see who can…
By Ethan Gach Published March 18, 2017 -
Esports
Breath of the Wild Speedrunner Gets Minutes Away From World Record, Watches Game Freeze
The race to rush through Breath of the Wild has produced blistering speedruns. A run on track for a new world record came to a sudden end yesterday due to a deadly foe: technical issues. The current world record for Breath of the Wild is well under an hour. Currently, Orcastraw hold the top spot…
By Heather Alexandra Published March 17, 2017 -
EsportsLittle-Known Overwatch Team Is Tearing Up The Apex Tournament With Bizarre Strategies
Before the latest season of the big APEX Overwatch tournament series started, few knew the name Meta Athena. Now people are watching their matches with balled fists and clenched jaws, wondering what sort of diabolical trick they’ll come up with next. Meta Athena is a pro Overwatch team made up mostly of high-school aged Korean…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 16, 2017 -
EsportsMeet The Student And Teacher Writing The Course For Dota 101
“I wanted a game that hated me.” That was how Sean Plott, also known as “Day9” in the professional gaming world, described the allure of Dota 2. Plott had made a name for himself in the days of StarCraft, where he taught players new and old how to better themselves at the strategy game. Now,…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 16, 2017 -
EsportsInside The Unregulated And Scam-Filled World Of Video Game Betting
Gambling on esports matches is, right now, unsafe and unfair for bettors, just as gambling on traditional sports is. As you’d expect, people are still doing it anyway; and as you’d expect, laws and regulations have struggled to keep up. The facts, neutrally stated, are simple: In the United States, esports betting—as with sports betting…
By Maddy Myers Published March 16, 2017 -
Esports
Meet the Street Fighter Pro Who Intentionally Picks Underrated Characters
When Xian placed first in Street Fighter V in the Capcom Pro Tour’s Final Round 20 tournament, his fans were happy but confused. Xian had won the tournament by playing as Ibuki the entire time, a shocking departure from his typical pick, F.A.N.G. Xian’s wins as Ibuki, in contrast to the “low-tier” characters he tends…
By Maddy Myers Published March 14, 2017 -
Esports
Dota 2 Player Gets Put In Cliff Timeout By Enemy Team
Dota 2 uses terrain height in a unique way: depending on the distance, it can cause attacks to miss, provide a vision advantage, or in this case, trap an enemy player on a cliff for a long, long time. In the winner’s finals of the CIS regional qualifiers for the Kiev Major, Virtus.pro and Team…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 13, 2017 -
EsportsStreet Fighter V Player Delivers Epic Pop-Off After Crushing Rival
Rivalries drive esports, and there’s few places with better beef than the fighting game community, or FGC. Joshua “Wolfkrone” Philpot and Kenneth “KBrad” Bradley’s ongoing feud came to a head last night at Final Round 20 in Atlanta, Georgia, and the resulting conclusion could be called the “pop-off heard ‘round the world.” It’s hard to…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 12, 2017 -
Esports
Singer At French Street Fighter Tournament Screams ‘Hadoken’ Into The Void
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche. I think this guy who screamed “Hadoken” over and over again at the Street Fighter V French Cup crowd might have some idea what that feels like. Apparently, a musical group called Neko Light Orchestra was asked to play…
By Ethan Gach Published March 11, 2017 -
Esports
12 Smash Tournament Organizers Quit After Leader Accused Of Multiple Acts Of Sexual Harassment
Several core members of the BEAST crew, an organization that hosts an annual Super Smash Bros. tournament, announced their departure today in the wake of sexual harassment allegations brought against BEAST head organizer Lolex. In a statement posted on the r/smashbros subreddit, the group says they were shocked and upset to learn about Lolex’s behavior,…
By Eric Van Allen Published March 11, 2017 -
Esports
The Highs And Lows Of Hearthstone, Embodied In One Turn
Disguised Toast did nothing to disguise is joy and disgust at a particularly torturous turn of luck during last night’s stream Soaking up damage throughout a match against a Priest deck, Toast finally unleashed Twisting Nether to clear the board and relieve some pressure. He also had Atiesh equipped, a weapon that summons a random…
By Ethan Gach Published March 11, 2017
