Esports

The U.S. League Of Legends Finals Games Were Over Before They Even Began

The North American League of Legends Championship Finals (NA LCS) that went down this past weekend at Madison Square Garden was a mostly epic affair. There was one major exception: the actual finals match that took place on Sunday night. Playing in the standard best of 5 playoff format, Counter-Logic Gaming (CLG) dominated its first…

Pics Of A Massive Weekend In eSports

One weekend. Two events. Three countries, three stadiums. While the LCS Summer Finals were going on in both New York and Stockholm, the biggest Counter-Strike event of the year, ESL One, was also being held in Cologne Millions watched the events from home, but what makes for a more impressive visual are the thousands who…

The broadcast of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ESL One Finals match between Fnatic and Team EnVyUs is underway. You can watch it live on Twitch or in the embed below.

The final match of the League of Legends LCS Summer Playoffs is today at 4pm ET at Madison Square Garden in New York. The scene yesterday for the third place match was wild (photo by Ben Gilbert for Tech Insider), with about 20,000 11,000 fans (a sellout) packing the place out as well as the…

The League of Legends LCS Summer Playoffs 3rd place match is tonight at 6pm ET. Get excited! It’ll be streamed live on Riot Games’ Twitch, which I’ve embedded below.

Today is day two (of three) of the Pokemon World Championships, which include both video game and TCG Pokemon, and you can watch all of what is sure to be madness right there on your electronic internet device via Twitch. I’ve got the stream embedded in this post as well.

Rocket League’s MLG Final Ended In The Most Exciting Way Possible

This morning, for the first time, Major League Gaming ran a Rocket League tournament. The stakes were relatively low. The prize pool was meagre. At stake — not much really. Bragging rights. No-one could have predicted how insane the final outcome would be. Rocket League, as an eSport, is in its infancy. This was really…

Smash Bros. Can Be A Gateway Drug For eSports

Can’t get into eSports? Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Many of the scene’s bigger draws are laden with technical jargon that can be off-putting to newcomers, so you might be better off starting with something like Smash Bros. That’s what Ian Danskin did, and he makes a pretty compelling argument for it in…

Oh, They’re Just Defusing A Bomb Through The Floor

This isn’t a new trick (it’s almost a decade old!), but it’s still a good, clean look at a tactic that, while often outlawed competitively, is still awesome considering the teamwork and timing required. (Below is a gfycat, so if you’re on mobile and it’s not auto-playing, just tap on the thumb and it’ll take…

Does Australian eSports Have A Drug Problem?

“We were all on Adderall,” Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen said. That was the moment when the latest eSports scandal kicked off in earnest. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, who is still featured on the official CS:GO tips and tricks video page, had lit the fuse: it was time to talk about drugs again. This post originally…

League Of Legends Pro Pulls Off Amazing Baron Steal

Earlier this year, the pro League of Legends team Team SoloMid (TSM) was sorely embarrassed when one of their opponents stole a baron right out from under them—with a blind shot, no less—during a tournament game. Now, they’ve finally had their revenge. Sort of. During the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) semifinals this weekend,…

The first woman to make it into the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) is going to keep playing after all, she said on Twitter (via Reddit). Maria “Remilia” Creveling originally said that she was planning to step down from her position on team Renegades after winning the LCS qualifying game last week.

The League Of Legends Championship Series Has Its First Woman Player

On Wednesday night, the pro League of Legends team Renegadeswon a victory against Team Coast, securing themselves a spot in the next League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Making it into the big leagues is normally routine news, but RNG’s win was special. It was the first time a woman made it into the LCS.…

The Mainstreaming of Esports Is Slow, Sure, and Not Over Yet

As a good American I was filled with a jingoistic fervor after the triumph of the Evil Geniuses at The International, the world championship for Dota 2, this past weekend. I like video games. I like sports. But I’ve never watched esports, not a single match of Starcraft 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Heroes…

No More Smoking Weed During Pro Video Game Tournaments

Are you a professional Counter-Strike or Heroes of the Storm player who likes to, as the kids say, indulge in the reefer? You’ll have to hold off during professional ESL tournaments, according to new rules posted last night by a representative for the eSport organization. In a post on Reddit yesterday, ESL’s PR boss Anna…

League Of Legends Pros Aren’t Happy About Riot’s Latest Lag Fix

Late last week, Riot revealed plans to relocate the North American servers for its popular online multiplayer game League of Legends from Portland to Chicago. The plan is to centralize the location of the servers, and thereby reduce lag for the greatest number of players possible. What could be the problem, you ask? The only…

I Went To Australia’s League Of Legends Final And I Was Very Confused

According to Steven Hassan there are many different types of cults. There are destructive cults. The kind that separate you from family and friends, brainwash you — all that strangeness you hear about on 60 minutes. Moonie-style shit. Scientology. That’s one side of the cult spectrum. This post originally appeared on Kotaku AU. Then there…

Valve Put On A Dota 2 Match With 20 Players And It Was Crazy

Games of Dota 2 are usually played with two teams of five. So what happens if you double that number? A lot of things, most of them involving killing and/or dying. Valve pulled two surprises out last night during The International 5 (T15), its ongoing eSports event for its popular MOBA. The first was this…

Valve’s Dota 2 Tournament Stage Looks Pretty Cool

This must be one of the coolest eSports arenas we’ve seen so far. Valve’s annual Dota 2 tournament The International kicked off yesterday and they’ve built a stage that fits the $18 million total prize money. It’s not just the Dota map projected onto the stage, but whenever someone uses Ultimates or even basic spells,…

Watch Dota 2’s Biggest Tournament Right Here

The annual tournament for Valve’s popular online multiplayer game Dota 2 is just getting started, and this year the crowd-sourced prize pool is bigger than ever before. 16 teams will compete for prizes totaling $18 million over the next five days, with the first place team winning $6.4 million. Technically The International 5 (or TI5)…