Esports

StarCraft II‘s New Deadly Tactic: Rushing With Pylons

Cannon rushing, a popular early game tactic, was just the beginning. With a patch already out and Legacy of the Void on the horizon, get ready for even more aggressive Protoss, rushing and beating you with the most basic thing they can build: Pylons. An update a few weeks ago added the ability to the…

Europe’s Best League Of Legends Teams Bulldozed Out Of Worlds

Europe’s Fnatic and Origen have been two of the very best League of Legends teams at the World Championships this year, so fans went into this weekend with high expectations for their semifinals games. Neither team managed to live up to them, as both went 0-3 in their matches against Korean rivals. Yesterday’s Origen games…

League Pro Runs Face-First Into Wall Trying To Escape Opponent At Worlds

We’ve shown you a lot of great plays from the League of Legends World Championship games this month. There are certainly a lot of them. But what about the not great ones? Witness, my friends, the glory of professional eSports stars making the same clumsy mistakes the rest of us do. In game two of…

Today’s League of Legends World Championship semifinals games are underway. Today is European team Fnatic against Korea’s KOO Tigers, and it’s already looking like a real bloodbath. Watch on YouTube, Twitch, or Azubu

Top Korean League Of Legends Team SKT Still Hasn’t Lost A Single Game At Worlds

The powerhouse Korean League of Legends team SKT had already set a new record before today’s semifinals games against European challenger Origen, with their perfect 9-0 winning streak at the World Championships. Today, the question for eSports fans was: can Origen somehow interrupt that? Once again, SKT said nope. Today’s semifinals match-up was very clearly…

European League Pro Outmaneuvers Strongest Team At Worlds With Incredible Juke

The newly formed European League of Legends team Origen is widely expected to lose its match-up against the legendary Korean squad SKT. Their first game of today’s World Championship semifinals didn’t change that. But an amazing series of fake-outs did show that Origen isn’t going down easy. Barely five minutes into the game, two SKT…

The League of Legends World Championship semifinals kick off in ten minutes. Today’s game is reigning Korean heavyweights SKT against newly-minted (but still powerful) European team Origen. This one’s gonna be goooood. Watch on YouTube, Twitch, or Azubu

Why We’re Going To Keep ‘Spoiling’ eSports Results

Ever since I began covering the League of Legends World Championship this year, I have received complaints from readers asking (or demanding) that I stop spoiling the outcomes of games in my articles. After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided that I can’t do that. You all deserve an explanation as to why. Spoilers are…

League Of Legends Pro Fined $556 For Giving Opponent The Finger

On the last day of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship group stage, European pro player Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten said in an interview that he expected American team Cloud9 to lose their match that was about to begin. Star C9 player Hai “Hai” Du Lam responded by flipping him off. That cost Hai $556.…

Activision Hires Former ESPN Boss To Run New eSports Division

The company behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft is starting a new eSports division. Activision Blizzard announced the move today, vowing in a press release to come up with “all-new ways to deliver the best-in-class fan experience across games, platforms and geographies.” The division will be headed by two industry veterans: Major League…

DraftKings Crackdown Hits Video Games

Nevada’s ongoing investigations into daily fantasy sites DraftKings and FanDuel aren’t just impacting sports fans; they’ve affected followers of games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 as well, with fantasy esports site Vulcun forced to cut off players in the state. As part of a statement posted on the company’s site (via Gamasutra), there’s…

StarCraft II Match-Fixing Scandal Leads To Arrests & Lifetime Bans

Team Liquid is reporting that up to eleven people have been arrested in Korea in association with allegations of match-fixing and illegal gambling on StarCraft II matches. A statement released yesterdayby the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) names one of those arrested as Park Wae-Sik, head coach of the pro team Prime. Another named is Choi…

World’s Best Smash Bros. Player Loses, Ending 53-Tournament Streak

Gonzalo “Zer0” Barrios, a Smash Bros. Wii U player so good that he hadn’t lost a tournament in over 50 attempts (and had a “bounty” on his head), finally lost a tournament this weekend. At the MLG Finals, Zer0 went down 3-2, 3-1 to Nairoby “Nairo” Quezada. You can see it go down below (the…

One Bad Call Costs Star Korean League Of Legends Team Its Spot At Worlds

Today’s League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals match-up was between KT Rolster and KOO Tigers, two top Korean teams. Korea is the strongest region in the world for League eSports, so the games were incredibly close. KT Rolster ended up losing the fourth and final game because of a bad call totake Baron Twenty six…

Worlds Shoutcasters Have A Funny Theory About League’s Dragons

In every game of League of Legends, a dragon flies into the map. Someone kills the dragon. A few minutes later, another dragon shows up. Why does he come to the exact same spot where his fellow dragon was murdered? You might ask. Wouldn’t he notice something’s up? Today Riot’s Worlds shoutcasters gave a dark…

Today’s League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals match-up starts now. It’s between two juggernauts of Korean pro teams—KT Rolster and KOO Tigers, so It’s bound to be exciting. You can watch above, on Twitch, on Azubu, or on LoL Esports.

Chinese League Of Legends Teams End Disappointing Run At Worlds

Top European League of Legends team Fnatic crushed its Chinese opponent Edward Gaming (EDG) today in the game’s World Championship quarterfinals match-up. This brought China’s hopes of making it to the end of the 2015 Worlds tournament to a sharp and sudden close. GG, China. Today’s poor showing by EDG complete one of the most…

‘Game-Altering’ Bug Disrupts League Of Legends World Championship [UPDATE]

The second League of Legends World Championship game between European team Fnatic and Chinese challenger EDG was put on hold today due to an issue with one of the player’s “Q” keys. After determining it was a “game altering bug,” Riot decided to start from scratch. The Q key issue first began to show itself…

We’re 15 minutes into the League of Legends World Championship games of the day, and it’s already getting preeeeetty intense. Watch the Fnatic vs. EDG best-of-five matchup on YouTube (above), Twitch, or Azubu. Oh, Riot’s LoL Esports site. GL HF!

League Of Legends’ Best Team Streamrolls Yet Another Challenger

Going into the League of Legends World Championship match-up today, the question wasn’t if the Korean powerhouse team SKT was going to lose to Taiwanese challenger ahq e-Sports Club. It was: “Will ahq manage to take a game or two off of SKT’s perfect winning streak?” SKT just answered with a resounding nope. SKT is…