-
Esports
Overwatch Pro Suspended For Saying Gay Rival Would Enjoy Sucking A ‘Fat Cock’ [UPDATE]
Dallas Fuel player Félix “xQc” Lengyel has found himself in hot water once again, this time for directing an insensitive insult at a player for the Houston Outlaws, shortly after the Outlaws swept Fuel 4-0 yesterday afternoon. Lengyel has been suspended and fined. During a stream yesterday evening, Lengyel took issue with Outlaws tank Austin…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 19, 2018 -
Esports
Overwatch Pro Loves Mercy Despite His Teammates Who Can’t Stand Her
There is at least one Overwatch pro who enjoys the character Mercy, even with her many controversial makeovers. Mikias “Snow” Yohannes, support player for Boston Uprising, stands by the controversial healer. “I think I would be the only support player that will tell you I actually enjoy playing Mercy,” he told Compete. What’s more, all…
By Maddy Myers Published January 19, 2018 -
Esports
Nearly Half Of All Overwatch League Matches So Far Have Been 4-0 Sweeps
Of last night’s three Overwatch League matches, two were complete blowouts that left no doubt as to which team was leaps, bounds, and jetpack boosts ahead of the other. The evening’s first match was a showdown between my dear orange-clad boys in SF Shock and the also-orange (but a worse orange) Philadelphia Fusion. The match…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 18, 2018 -
Esports
Overwatch League’s Dallas Fuel Lets Players Be Themselves, Even When That Causes Trouble
Last month, Overwatch pro Félix “xQc” Lengyel found himself apologizing profusely into a video camera from atop an accidental throne of cardboard boxes. It was not his finest hour, but in some ways, it’s just part of the job. Dallas Fuel is the closest thing to a star-studded lineup you’ll find in Blizzard’s fresh-from-the-incubation-tube Overwatch…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 17, 2018 -
Esports
Teenage Overwatch League Player’s Dad Pulled Him Out Of School So He Could Go Pro
Overwatch pro Lucas “Mendokusaii” Hakansson wasn’t expecting to drop out of school. The plan, originally, was for him to take a year off—not all that uncommon in his homeland of Sweden—to see if he could get good enough to go pro. One day, though, Hakansson’s dad Henrik met with the school’s administrators. “He didn’t ask…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 16, 2018 -
CultureThis Car Ain’t Right
Today on Highlight Reel we have weird cars, strange video game posture, unique Zelda flying techniques, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch…
By Chris Person Published January 16, 2018 -
Esports
Overwatch Players Are Imitating Their Favorite League Stars
Everybody I know who plays Overwatch’s pistol-slinging cowboy McCree is coveting the digital skin worn by Do-hyeon “Pine” Kim, the world class McCree pro who stole everybody’s heart last week in his debut Overwatch League match. It’s a dreary blue skin repping New York’s Excelsior team but wearing it is aspirational. If I dress like…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published January 16, 2018 -
Overwatch Player Uses Doomfist To Obliterate Pharah And Mercy From Orbit
Doomfist may not be able to fly, but he sure can fall with style. Even in the techno-magical cartoon world of Overwatch, what goes up must come down. Player wahw_ow, however, decided that the laws of gravity needed assistance in grounding a pesky Pharah/Mercy combo, and, in the heat of a gridlocked team fight on…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 12, 2018 -
Esports
My Hunt For The Mysterious Man Or Machine Controlling The Blizzard Arena’s Light-Up Halo
The Blizzard Arena stage has a massive light-up halo on the ceiling that serves as a progress bar for Overwatch objectives. As a team captures a point, the halo fills up with that team’s colors. It’s an impressive illustration of who’s winning. And it’s all manual. Or so I’ve been told. The other elements on…
By Maddy Myers Published January 12, 2018 -
EsportsMy First Night As A Philadelphia Fusion Fan
I’m too old for this. “This” is the official viewing party of the first match of the Philadelphia Fusion, the Overwatch League team owned by Comcast. I’m 34, and I’m at a college bar in West Philadelphia on a Thursday night. It’s crowded. I’m surrounded by cosplayers, cheerleaders, college kids and actual kids. I did…
By Dan McQuade Published January 12, 2018 -
CultureCosplay
An Overwatch (Cosplay) Love Story
For their one-year wedding anniversary last year, Kalindi and her husband decided to indulge in a little Overwatch cosplay. Kalindi made both outfits: a standard Mercy for herself, and Soldier 76’s Daredevil skin for her husband. You can see more of Kalindi’s cosplay at her Facebook page
By Luke Plunkett Published January 11, 2018 -
Esports
Last Night’s Dallas-Seoul Game Showed How Fun Overwatch League Can Be
The Overwatch League’s first night of competition kicked off with hundreds of thousands tuning in on Twitch to watch a slightly tuned up broadcast, OWL’s experienced commentating crew, and two boring, lopsided opening games. Both the Los Angeles Valiant and the Los Angeles Gladiators steamrolled their opponents (San Francisco and Shanghai, respectively) without much resistance…
By Patrick Redford Published January 11, 2018 -
Esports
A couple audience members at the Overwatch League season one debut just got their Pepe sign taken away. They’d been using Pepe, a meme commonly associated with alt-right movements, to cheer on Dallas Fuel. Oddly, the video feed in the arena briefly zoomed in on it at one point. Eventually, the two audience members were…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 10, 2018 -
Esports
The Blizzard Arena has a slick setup for in-person Overwatch League spectators, featuring screens with the faces of all six players throughout every match, underneath larger screens of their hero lineup. You can’t get that on the Twitch stream, nor can you hear the crowd scream “USA! USA!” whenever Seoul Dynasty makes a mistake.
By Maddy Myers Published January 10, 2018 -
Esports
No Overwatch League Team Signed The Game’s Most Notable Female Pro To Their Roster
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—During yesterday’s Overwatch League media day in Los Angeles, one of the most mentioned names belonged to a player who’s not even on an OWL team. Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, a top-level Zarya player who overcame a rash of cheating accusations and threats in 2016, was on the tip of everybody’s tongues, but nowhere…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 10, 2018 -
Esports
No One Knows How To Run An Overwatch League Team Yet
When it launches tonight, Overwatch League will become the biggest undertaking in the history of esports. Backed by massive investments from sports billionaires and tech companies, esports, if you choose to believe the hype, has finally grown up. And yet, despite the fact that Overwatch League is ostensibly a global undertaking with teams “based” on…
By Will Partin Published January 10, 2018 -
Esports
Report: Twitch Signs Two-Year Deal With Overwatch League Worth At Least $90 Million
Overwatch League’s two-year deal to stream its matches on Twitch is the biggest such contract in esports history, worth at least $90 million, according to a new report from Sports Business Journal Twitch will stream all regular season and postseason contests and serve as the sole broadcaster for half of the league’s 12 weekly matches,…
By Emma Baccellieri Published January 9, 2018 -
Esports
A Viewer’s Guide To Overwatch League
Overwatch League kicks off tomorrow in the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA with a trio of matches starting at 7 pm Eastern. Blizzard will broadcast the league’s games via both Twitch and Major League Gaming. Preseason matches only broadcasted on MLG, which had the dubious benefit of no available viewership statistics. Now that the debut…
By Maddy Myers Published January 9, 2018 -
Fan Creates New Overwatch Maps That Look Like The Real Deal
It would be easy to look at this video, listen to the music, check the quality of the design and lighting and models and think hey, these are our first looks at some new maps for Overwatch. But nope, they’re all the work of 3D artist Joshua Llorente. NOTE: I published this post in error…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 8, 2018 -
Esports
There’s an official Overwatch League app now. It gives you quick access to match streams, VODs, a season schedule, team standings, results (with or without spoilers), alerts that matches are happening, and a few other odds and ends. Seems useful! You can grab it for free on the App Store or Google Play
By Nathan Grayson Published January 8, 2018