Esports

The Ten Most Defining Moments of League of Legends‘ Third Season

League of Legends stepped up its game as an eSport in 2013. More than 30 million people watched the World Championship finals, and it became the number one online game in many countries, including South Korea. After such a strong year, it’s no surprise a video with the best moments of the season would be…

LoL Contracts Get Heavy With Players, Ban Rival Streaming

First reportedin a story on OnGamers, if you’re signed up to take place in League of Legends’ League Championship Series, your contract bans you from streaming any game that can even remotely be seen as competition for Riot’s online juggernaut. That doesn’t just apply to streaming other games alongside their LoL broadcasts. It bars them…

League of Legends, Turned Into Final Fantasy VII… Has Potential

Would it be possible to transform League of Legends into a JRPG, specifically, Final Fantasy VII? The answer is yes! Thanks to Brazilian YouTuber Pato Papao, we now have a highly detailed LoL / Final Fantasy crossover fan-video, with the appropriate dances, moves and skills. There’s also plenty of extra little tidbits for those who…

Aw, Hel — Hi-Rez Studios‘ Smite is officially releasing on March. Having accrued some 2.5 million worshippers during open beta, the god-on-god MOBA will undergo a baptism-by-fire following its March 25 release, with a $100,000 launch tournament held in scenic Atlanta, Georgia. Still waiting for them to add Jesus.

Meet League of Legends‘ newest playable champion: Yasuo, the Unforgiven, a martial artist who uses the power of wind to defeat his opponents. He sure has some pretty exciting skills, especially his wind wall ability, which blocks all enemy projectiles—something that’ll likely cause ranged heroes many headaches. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every…

League Of Legends‘ Worlds Draw An Oscar-Worthy 32 Million Viewers

We knew a lot of people were watching SK Telecom T1 battle their way to the Summoner’s Cup in League of Legends‘ Season 3 World Championship, but 32 million? This year’s Oscars had 41 million, and that’s packed with people paid to make us love them. My first thought upon hearing the news, released today…

eSports Is Getting Its Own Network—MLG.tv [Corrected]

Video gaming’s not a sport? Don’t tell that to MLG.TV—an Internet-broadcast network that’ll showcase the league’s major events and, yes, broadcast a studio show with highlights and news, akin to the coverage that, yes, real sports get. MLG announced the new programming venture today in this story at TechCrunch. The broadcast will stream up 1080p…

What It Feels Like To Become StarCraft World Champion

Over the weekend, sOs (pictured) beat out 15 other competitors to take the title of 2013 StarCraft II World Champion. Dude seems pleased. As he should be! That’s not just the leap of a man who’s now a champ, but a man who is also $100,000 richer for his troubles. The pic was taken by…

Blizzard Turned StarCraft II Players Into Trading Cards

Further proving that eSports is all grown up and should be recognized as a real sport, Blizzard created a deck of StarCraft II trading cards. Baseball and basketball players have trading cards—why shouldn’t these guys have at least a few? The cards you see above will be handed out to lucky attendees during the game’s…

Blizzard has revealed the very first key artwork for their upcoming all-star game, Heroes of the Storm, which we should be seeing more of tomorrow at BlizzCon. Everyone’s here: Sylvanas from WoW, Nova from StarCraft, the Witch Doctor from Diablo, even Illidan and Anub’arak, I’m already sold! Here’s the full image with Tychus (a single…

Fake World of Warcraft Trailer Is Full Of Dream Features

BlizzCon starts Friday, and the hype around what could be a brand new World of Warcraft expansion is already out of hand. What will it be this time? Nagas? More Burning Legion? YouTuber iabeckman671, famous for his WoW Machinima, has his own (very fake) take: a trailer for every fan’s dream WoW expansion. It has…

League Of Legends Player Says He Makes Almost $1 Million A Year

And you thought guys only got into esports for the chicks Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez is 23 years old, and plays League of Legends for SK, a professional team from Europe. He’s good, very good, but he’s not one of the world’s best Not that it matters. According to a report on Spanish news site ABC,…

63 of DotA 2‘s 102 heroes, transformed into the angriest and cutest possible creatures by digital artist LS It’s really hard to pick a favorite. Maybe the trio of Traxex, Tiny and Pudge in the second row. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and art…

Top StarCraft Player Leaves For League of Legends

Sad news for StarCraft fans, but great news for League of Legends fans. Lee “MarineKing” Jung Hoon, one of the most famous and iconic personalities of the StarCraft eSports scene is stepping away from space battles and entering League of Legends territory. According to South Korean site Inven, he had several reasons to switch, one…

How To Play StarCraft On A Completely Different Level

On the left: 25 explosive Zerg units controlled by StarCraft II’s AI. Just a few of them would be enough to crush the thirty defenceless marines on the right. But the world’s best player, Innovation shows us how to control and split them properly, with insane speed and accuracy. This terrific moment was part of…

League of Legends‘ Newest Champion Got A Catchy Music Video

Jinx, the next addition to the League of Legends roster, looks more like some villain from the DC Universe than one of Riot’s champions. And her explosive introductory music video, performed by Agnete from a band called Djerv, further intensifies this. I like the way how they mixed 2D and 3D animations to create the…

Watch The League of Legends World Championship Right Here

The League of Legends Season 3 world championship is going down tonight. You can watch the whole thing, live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, right here. Korea’s SKT T1 will be facing off against China’s Royal club for the championship. The whole thing is streaming at Riot Games’ Twitch Channel, and is embedded…

League of Legends Fan Favorite Gets A Catchy Parody

You have to be in a League of Legends World Championship finalist team to get the attention of devoted fans and get an awesome The Offspring parody song—like this one from The Yordles on YouTube. SK Telecom T1 and its Mid laner, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok—whom this tune is dedicated to—will participate in the World Championships…

Balky Internet Almost Ends StarCraft Champ’s Tournament

An Internet outage in the Austin, Texas area nearly sank a world-class StarCraft II player’s bid to advance in the game’s world championship tournament. His uplink stabilized in time for him to gut out two match victories and advance, however. GameSpot reports that Choi “Polt” Seong Hun—the reigning North American champion of the StarCraft II…

Making A Living Off Of YouTube

Over the years YouTube has proven to be a vital tool in the growth of gaming communities. Call Of Duty is one game that has been instrumental in developing new personalities through gameplay commentaries, weapon breakdowns and now competitive gaming. And gamers have found ways to make these video productions their full-time jobs. One YouTuber…