Esports

Famous Speedrunner Narcissa Wright Is Back From Retirement, But Still Worried About Health

Breath of the Wild is an exciting game for speedrunning, inspiring attempts before the game was released and early world records. The game’s unique structure and pace is now bringing famous speedrunner Narcissa Wright out of retirement. Narcissa Wright is a speedrunner best known for her work on games like Ocarina of Time and The…

Street Fighter V‘s Hot Ryu Used to Be Grimy Ryu

During a Game Developers Conference talk yesterday evening, Capcom’s art director Toshiyuki Kamei showed off some early prototypes of the now-infamous Hot Ryu from Street Fighter V Well, it’s not necessarily the Hot Ryu design so much as a scantily-clad design for Ryu with a beard, but in my book, that still counts as a…

The invites for the next Dota 2 major in Kiev were announced today. Eight teams receive a direct invite to the tournament, while a mixture of regional invites, Battle Cup Champions and the winners of the open qualifiers will fill out the field. Below are the directly invited teams: 1. Wings Gaming 2. OG 3.…

Riot Risks Stifling Creativity In League By Banning Players With Unconventional Strategies

Last week, a player who goes by “Take the Draw” in League of Legends was handed a 14-day ban. The punishment wasn’t because of the champion they played, but the way they were playing it—and now, Riot risks setting a precedent for how you have to play the game. At the start of a normal…

Hearthstone Developer Records A Rap About Journey to Un’Goro Expansion

The trailer for Hearthstone’s latest expansion, Journey to Un’Goro, doesn’t feature anyone bursting into song. This came as a disappointment to many fans, given that the trailers for previous expansions like Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and The League of Explorers included corny but lovable songs. The Journey to Un’Goro trailer has some epic music in…

To Maintain High Ranks, Overwatch Players Will Need To Play Way More Often Now

Yesterday’s Overwatch patch will force players with high competitive skill ratings to play at least seven games a week or see their ranking decline. It’s a smart move to combat foul play, and in the comings weeks, top Overwatch players should see fewer “smurf” accounts and more fair skill rankings. In response to the patch,…

Street Fighter V Newbie Shows Everyone How To Take Down Supposedly Overpowered Character

As Street Fighter V moves into its second season of competition, players are scoping out which characters may be a problem in the months to come. Urien, who joined the game last September as a piece of downloadable content, has already garnered Capcom some side-eye due to his seemingly overpowered moveset. However, a simple counter…

Top Street Fighter V Competitor Sees Huge Potential in Newcomer Kolin

Street Fighter V’s second season begins in earnest on Tuesday, February 28, when Kolin joins the playable cast. As with any addition, her arrival signals a shift in high-level play, and competitors are already doing everything they can to suss out her capabilities in preparation for the 2017 tournament circuit. A pseudo-newcomer to the Street…

Overwatch Pros Sniped Off A Ledge After Ambush Goes Wrong

The Immortals Overwatch team has an impressive damage-dealing duo in GrimReality and Agilities, but every now and then, it’s nice to see a couple of greats get cut down. The internet enjoyed schadenfreude at Immortals’ expense during yesterday’s Overwatch “Monthly Melee” semi-finals, where our two anti-heroes got way too cocky about sneaking out onto a…

For Honor Is Basically A Fighting Game 

For Honor is bloody and hectic. Each exchange of blows helps you learn how to fight an opponent. Underneath a mess of micro-transactions, For Honor hides the soul of a true fighting game. We take a critical look at it in this video. Transcript: When I first booted up For Honor, I was dismayed. The…

New Hearthstone Expansion ‘Journey To Un’Goro’ Adds Quests To Matches

Blizzard unveiled the next expansion for Hearthstone today, bringing with it a series of mechanical adjustments and a massive overhaul to deck-building options in April 2017. Dubbed “Journey To Un’Goro” and slated for an April release, the set will be prehistorically themed, filled with dinosaurs and primal elements. Some of the more intriguing cards already…

Dota 2 Team Accused Of Peeking At Match Stream, Which May Or May Not Be Cheating

An amateur Dota 2 team lost during the StarLadder FastCup this weekend when their wards—temporary items that provide crucial vision of the map—were picked off one-by-one, with alarming accuracy. The other team was not clairvoyant, but rather appeared to be getting outside information. “Stream sniping” is the act of viewing another player’s stream to gain…

Unknown Lucario Player Starred In This Month’s Best Smash 4 Set

At this weekend’s Frostbite Smash 4 tournament, competitors ZeRo and Tsu faced off in a tense grand finals match that could only be compared to the last fight between Dragon Ball Z’s Goku and Cell. Diddy Kong main ZeRo was, for two years, the top Smash 4 player in the world. He’s great at Diddy…

Japan’s Comeback In Smash Bros. Crew Battle Leads To Trash Talk

America’s team in the Smash Bros. Wii U Crew Battle at Frostbite 2017 had a big lead going into the second half and things looked to be coming up roses until Japan replied with a slew of brutal matches that left many of the game’s top pros bruised and bloodied. It all began with Kirihara…

Rocket League Player Nails The Crossbar For Huge Upset

Though played with rocket-powered cars, Rocket League is still soccer at its core, and a shot right at the crossbar can still beat the goalie out for a huge goal. Alexandre “Mout” Moutarde, a sub for The Leftovers, played with two others in the Rocket Royale today under the guise Northern Tactics. The three got put…

Lifecoach Retires From Hearthstone, Citing Imbalance In Competitive Scene

Hearthstone’s balance woes continue to take their toll on the competitive scene, as popular pro player and streamer Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy announced his retirement yesterday. A former professional poker player, Koy is well-known for his analytical approach, often counting the numbers and possibilities for as long as the game clock will let him each turn. According…

Nobody Expected A Shiny Hunter To Beat Pokémon Champs At Weekend’s Big Tournament

Against all odds and expectations, a “shiny hunter” who had just started learning to play competitive Pokémon doubles defeated the reigning world champion as well as a two-time US National champion during this weekend’s tournament. Right now, the One Nation of Gamers Pokemon Invitational is underway, and it is the first Pokémon tournament sponsored by…

Team Liquid Likely Secures Kiev Major Invite With StarLadder Victory

After missing December’s Boston Major and struggling the past few months to stay abreast of a tough European Dota 2 scene, it looked like Team Liquid might have to go through the gauntlet of European qualifying for the upcoming Kiev Major. Performing well at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season Three finals was their best hope…

Dota 2 Pro’s Best Just Isn’t Good Enough

Team Secret’s Clement “Puppey” Ivanov made a great play call only to have the enemy team do him one better. Sometimes, despite a team’s best efforts to win, the esports gods have other ideas. It was that kind of day for Team Secret during the StarLadder Season 3 group stage when, even after outplaying opponents…

Unknown Kirby Player Upsets Top Smash 4 Pro At Frostbite 2017

This weekend’s Frostbite 2017 is a tournament solely devoted to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In the pools, anyone is fair game, as Elliot “Ally” Bastien Carroza-Oyarce learned after getting upset by a relatively unknown Kirby player. Carroza-Oyarce is one of the best in the game, ranked in the top three on community site…