Esports

A Blizzard/MLG Tournament Is Not The Place To Cheat At StarCraft II

The 2013 World Championship Series, a massive global StarCraft II tournament being put on by Blizzard and MLG, ran into some controversy last week, with some Chinese players found guilty of cheating in the tournament’s qualifiers. Speaking with GameSpot, MLG and Blizzard reps said “During the qualifier there was suspicion of player maphacking, cheating, and…

Kicked Out By His Parents, He Played League of Legends To Make Rent

This new documentary short from Machinima shares the story of Peter “Doublelift” Peng, a professional League of Legends player who was kicked out of his home and relied on pro gaming to pay his rent. (Thanks, Ryan and Zach.)

A Rare Look at the Blazing-Fast Hands of a StarCraft II Champion

Korean players excel at StarCraft, putting enormous effort into improving their game. We see the results of those efforts in game replays, but rarely do we get to peek over the shoulder of one of the world’s top players as their supernatural hands do horrible things to their opposition. This is Korean pro gamer StarTale_Sound,…

It’s just been announced that Blizzard—makers of Diablo III and Starcraft 2—just bought the technology and assets for the IGN Pro League eSports promotion

Blizzard’s Boss Shows Everyone How To Watch A Starcraft Tournament Properly

This awkward yet funny moment happened during yesterday’s stream of the Starcraft II WCS series in South Korea, showing Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime making himself at home (well, technically he is). Front row, some pizza and the best pros in front of you—that’s the way to do it. Blizzard just announced its plans for a…

Jet Li Says Video Games Can Totally Be A Sport

Well, here’s an unexpected champion of the plight of the professional gamer: martial arts/acting legend Jet Li. Attending a PvP event for Age of Wushu, a martial arts MMO, Li said “If poker card games and chess both have the players sitting down and are considered sports, why not virtual gaming as well.” “There are…

Blizzard just announced the StarCraft II World Championship Series. More on Battle.net. [Official Site Thanks, Sang!]

Korean Pro Gamer Flash Has Some Deep Rituals When It Comes To StarCraft II

Among other Korean pros, legendary Brood War player Flash—already switched over to and having great success in StarCraft II—attended MLG Winter last weekend. He is usually considered to be playing the game on a wholly different level—and this video, showing him measuring the placement of the keyboard in his booth, with a ruler no less,…

Should Competitive Gaming Be On National TV? Experts Are Divided.

Competitive gaming has millions of fans. Its biggest stars earn six-figure salaries. Yet it’s nowhere to be found on American television. You may happen upon bowling, lumberjack contests, or even rock-paper-scissors while channel surfing, but nary a match of StarCraft or League of Legends More and more people are devoting their lives to playing in…

Call of Duty isn’t a big deal in the world of e-sports. Microsoft, Activision and $1 million are hoping to change that

This Starcraft II Song Will Teach You A Lesson In Valuing Esports

Temp0, well-known in the Starcraft II community as the guy who remixes hip-hop and pop songs while adding his own lyrics and voice, put up a new video yesterday. This time he reminds us with this catchy remix that Starcraft II as an eSport is still alive, even if other games like League Of Legends…

Major League Gaming will “one day” make their own ideal eSports shooter, the PA Report reports. Makes a lot of sense!

Entire League Of Legends Team Disqualified For, Yes, “Toxic Behaviour”

The crackdown continues. League of Legends developers Riot have banned three more e-sports hopefuls from the game, this time only days away from a LoL Championship Series qualifying event in Poland. The three players—Khaled Abusagr, Nicolaj Jensen & Simon Näslund—were all banned having repeatedly been suspended for poor behaviour (such as verbal abuse), while Jensen…

More League of Legends Players Banned For “Toxic Behaviour”

Continuing a recent crackdown on the kind of behaviour that gives the game a bad rap (at least amongst those who don’t play it religiously), League of Legends developers Riot have permanently banned two prominent eSports players for their “toxic behavior in-game”. Ilyas Hartsema, aka enVision, whose “peak harassment score placed the account among the…

Compete In A Halo 4 Tournament For One Of 2,800 Prizes During Spartan Ops’ Mid-Season Break

Today 343 Industries announced a partnership with Virgin Gaming to host their Halo 4 Infinity Challenge, a free-to-enter tournament in lieue of Spartan Ops updates during the almost month-long mid-season break. You can register online for a shot at one of 2,800 prizes, including the grand prize of a 343-designed Ford Raptor truck modeled to…

What’s Wrong With League of Legends?

League of Legends is a beast. An unassailable success that every other games developer or publisher is trying to figure out. Based on hours of play, it’s the most played video game in the world, notching upwards of 1 billion hours logged every month. Millions of people jump online every day to battle it out…

Is Someone Starting a League of Legends Fantasy League?

I suppose this was inevitable. When you have eSports, with all the markers of professional sports-superstars, commentators, million-dollar prizes-at some point you’ll wind up with fantasy eSports. Domain watchdog Fusible spotted three registrations on Thursday and, combined with their owner, it suggests someone’s looking to create a fantasy League of Legends league. Who knows how…

As Fans Say StarCraft Is Dying, Blizzard Plans Some Big Changes

This November, hundreds will compete in a StarCraft II tournament run by the folks at Major League Gaming. The total prize pool will be $76,000, and the winner will walk away with a cool $25,000. Not bad for a weekend of playing video games. But some say that’s just not big enough. And if you…

League of Legends World Championship Draws Over 8 Million Viewers

On October 13, the League of Legends season two world championship tournament concluded, and one team, the Taipei Assassins, walked away with the $1 million prize. Today, Riot announced just how many LoL fans watched it happen. The stadium where the competition took place held 8000 spectators. Another 8,282,000 unique viewers—well over eight million people—tuned…

Today is the 40th Anniversary of the World’s First Known Video Gaming Tournament

In October 1972, video games were still mostly an after-hours pastime in corporate or university laboratories. Pong had been installed only one month earlier at a Sunnyvale bar called Andy Capp’s Tavern (today a comedy club.) Forty years ago today, just up U.S. 101, on Stanford’s campus, computer science students saw this flyer tacked to…