Team Dignitas won Rocket League’s season five championship earlier this year. It was not easy, though, requiring a long run through the lower bracket that culminated in a back-to-back best-of-seven series against NRG Esports. Despite a nail-biter in the final match after NRG tied things up 3-3 with what some have called the best goal in the game’s history, Dignitas managed to pull it out in overtime. This weekend, they’re expected to do so again.
In North America, the fall league has been more competitive, with Cloud9 and G2 Esports taking top spots just ahead of the slightly less consistent Evil Geniuses and NRG. Meanwhile, Dignitas finished its season in Europe undefeated. That earned the team a top-seed going into this weekend’s championship, meaning it won’t play until the second round when it takes on Evil Geniuses. While Rocket League is not stranger to weird ball spins and unlikely upsets, it’s hard to see any team being able to unseat Dignitas given their commanding performance in arguably the tougher of the two regions.
If Dignitas goes on to secure the season six championship as well, not only will three 20-year-olds walk away with a $200,000 pot to split between them, it’ll also mark Dignitas, whose squad previously won the RLCS finals when they were Gale Force eSports, as Rocket League’s latest and best dynasty in the game’s short but vibrant history. Of course, there are still nine other teams currently in contention who would love to stop that from happening.
Matches have already been ongoing throughout today, and they’ll continue on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET, with the grand finals slated for Sunday at 8:00 p.m. You can watch all of the matches here or streaming in the feed above.
Counter-Strike’s IEM Chicago 2018 is also this weekend after a long week of group matches. The semifinals begin on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. with the grand finals on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Those matches will be streaming here.
Artifact, Valve’s new card game, doesn’t come out until December, but the company is already pushing its pro scene with a Preview Tournament this weekend featuring a $10,000 prize pool. Games begin on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. with 128 players, followed by a single-elimination bracket between the remaining eight on Sunday. That event will only be available to watch on SteamTV.
Finally, the Chess World Championship also got underway today, with the second in a series of matches scheduled for Saturday. While it’s not an esport, you can still watch it like one, with matches streaming live on Twitch, complete with commentators and a input from randos in the chat. There will also be video of the event itself available over at World Chess’ Youtube channel.