News

News Shanghai Dragons regret 2-2-2 role lock, pine for meta reversion By Olivia Richman News Atlanta Reign take down Dallas Homestand Weekend, next face Boston By Olivia Richman League of Legends FC Schalke 04 takes out Team Vitality in 2019 LEC Summer Playoffs By William Davis

League of Legends

SK Telecom T1 rolls over Damwon Gaming in LCK playoffs William Davis SK Telecom T1’s victory over Damwon Gaming was a two-for-one deal. The popular organization punched its ticket to the 2019 LCK Summer Finals and the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. What many expected to be a competitive series ended up being a massacre, as SKT ran through Damwon Gaming with little trouble. The squad is looking stronger than ever as it looks to lock up its second consecutive split championship. …

Dota 2

OG wins The International 2019, becomes first repeat TI champion Steven Rondina OG are the champions of The International 2019. The European squad completed its second Cinderella run at the world’s largest Dota 2 tournament, defeating Team Liquid in the event’s grand finals. The victory caps a dominant run at the event and nets the team $15,578,510 from the record-breaking prize pool. OG took the Aegis of Champions with a strong 3-1 victory, overcoming some early adversity before closing out the event in …

News

NYXL discuss playoff meta, dealing with 2020 OWL changes Olivia Richman New York Excelsior came out on top in the battle of the New England Overwatch League teams at Los Angeles Valiant’s Homestand Weekend, defeating Boston Uprising 3-1. The match went as expected, with NYXL dominating the majority of the maps and team fights. But when the Boston Uprising attempted to deny NYXL the fourth and final map, Hae-seong “Libero” Kim had fans screaming as he wiped the Uprising with Doomfist in …

Dota 2

The International 2020 will take place in Stockholm, Sweden Steven Rondina The International 2020 is heading to Stockholm, Sweden. The reveal was made during a special announcement ahead of the grand finals to The International 2019. “Next year, Stockholm is excited to host this global celebration by welcoming the tenth International Dota 2 Championship to our wonderful city. Stockholm is bursting with creativity, and the passion for Dota runs deep,” Stockholm mayor Anna Konig Jerlmyr said in a short video. “We …

Dota 2 OG and Team Liquid set for The International 2019 grand finals By Steven Rondina News Team Liquid advances to TI9 grand finals after beating PSG.LGD By Steven Rondina League of Legends CLG reverse sweeps Clutch Gaming in LCS playoffs third-place match By William Davis

League of Legends

TheShy is the only Invictus Gaming player in the LPL All-Pro team William Davis Many believe there is a curse when it comes to the League of Legends World Championship, where the winner is doomed to struggle the following year. That’s likely a superstition, but Invictus Gaming’s season has certainly helped to reinforce this idea. The LPL revealed the 2019 LPL Summer Split All-Pro team and only one player from the defending champions made the cut. Top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok is the lone …

Counter-Strike

Mousesports defeats G2 Esports, advances to Berlin Major Legends Stage William Davis The hyped matchup between G2 Esports and Mousesports turned into one of the best matches of the StarLadder Berlin Major thus far. The match culminated in a fantastic game 3 on Vertigo, which was ultimately won by Mousesports. G2 struck first with a dominant 16-5 victory on Train. Audric “JaCkz” Jug led the way with a total of 24 kills, complemented by Kenny “kennyS” Schrub’s 11 opening kills. While G2 …

Counter-Strike

CSGO sets new record for average players, breaking 2017 mark William Davis Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has reached its highest number of average players since its release in 2012. August has been a good month for the first-person shooter. The number of average players went over 402,000, a significant increase compared to the 393,000 in the month of July. The previous record was established in February 2017. The number particularly stands out at this time of the year. Historically, CSGO has had a …

Counter-Strike

Vitality face elimination at Berlin Major with DreamEaters upset Steven Rondina Despite being regarded as a potential candidate to win the StarLadder Berlin Major, Team Vitality now finds itself on the brink of being eliminated from the Challengers Stage. In one of the opening series of day two, the heavily favored French squad once again found themselves struggling against an unheralded Russian squad. They were narrowly edged out by DreamEaters in a game on Inferno. The game started in awkward fashion …

OG defeat PSG.LGD in TI rematch to qualify for grand finals gabhernandez Dota 2 Once again, the TI8 champions have proved that they can break a TI curse and potentially become the first two-time holders of the Aegis. History repeated itself as OG knocked down PSG.LGD to the lower bracket finals. The best-of-three series was a tight one that came down to the wire. The first game brought much hype, especially for the Chinese Dota 2 fans watching in the arena. Their home team …

Full Overwatch League 2020 schedule revealed, features global events Olivia Richman News Blizzard has revealed the entirety of the 2020 Overwatch League schedule.  Next year is set to be a huge one for the OWL as it will be the first season where the league reaches true global status. After years of being almost exclusively hosted at the Burbank Studios in California, the show is going on the road for events held in the home cities of every franchise. The OWL will …

Overwatch update hits PTR, bringing nerfs to Symmetra and others William Davis News A bundle of nerfs has landed on the Overwatch PTR. The 1.40 patch is now being tested, and it looks to bring the first round of balance changes since 1.39’s implementation of role queue. The update aims to soften some of the strongest heroes in the game right now, but does not offer any real buffs to weaker ones. The biggest change is a significant downgrade to Symmetra’s Photon Projector. …

LEC Summer Playoffs kick off with Rogue upsetting Splyce William Davis League of Legends The 2019 LEC Summer playoffs are off to a surprising start. Despite entering with a young squad, Rogue opened the playoffs with an upset win over Splyce. Out of the five players on the team, only Oskar “Vander” Bogdan has LEC playoffs experience. The rest of the squad is angling for a championship for the first time, but showed no nerves under a brighter spotlight. Rogue is one of the up-and-coming teams …

Team Liquid advance to TI9 top three, eliminate Team Secret Steven Rondina Dota 2 Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi seems to have Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s number. In the lower bracket semifinals of The International 2019, Team Liquid eliminated Team Secret 2-0 in quick fashion. It is the third year in a row that Secret has been eliminated from TI by Liquid. Game one was a signature performance from KuroKy. The Liquid captain helped his team win The International 2017 with crafty drafts that were defined by …

Team Secret run over Vici Gaming, move to TI9 lower semifinals Steven Rondina Dota 2 Team Secret have finally hit their stride. Facing Vici Gaming in the lower bracket, the two-time major winners scored one of the most lopsided series wins of The International 2019 to this point. Though Vici Gaming was held up as one of the favorites to win the tournament, Secret steamrolled them for a 2-0 victory. Secret took a page out of OG’s book in game one, putting carry player Michał …

Void Spirit is the new Dota 2 hero at The International 2019 Jared Wynne Dota 2 Another new Dota 2 hero is premiered at the biggest esports tournament of the year. Dota 2 developer Valve showed off the second of two new heroes making their debut at this year’s edition of The International. This latest hero is named Void Spirit, and he brings with him clear links to a few existing heroes already in the game. Three spirit heroes have long been present in Dota 2: …

G2 Esports starts strong at StarLadder Berlin Major, goes 2-0 Steven Rondina Counter-Strike G2 Esports is off to a strong start at the StarLadder Berlin Major. The enduring French squad ended day one of the Challengers Stage with a 2-0 record. The team scored impressive victories over TYLOO and DreamEaters. G2 started its day with a big showing versus TYLOO. The Chinese squad played a solid all-around game but were consistently flustered by heroics from the individual members of G2. After ceding a …

OG vs. PSG.LGD set for The International 2019 upper bracket finals gabhernandez Dota 2 PSG.LGD has a chance for revenge at The International 2019. Shanghai’s favorite team scored a 2-0 victory over Chinese rival Vici Gaming. The win sets PSG.LGD up with a spot in the upper bracket finals. Vici Gaming started the best-of-three series with an early aggression that quickly translated to three kills. PSG.LGD avoided early team fights as best they could from there, looking to make space for Wang “Ame” Chunyu …

North out to 2-0 Berlin Major start after big opening day wins William Davis Counter-Strike We’re only one day into the Starladder Berlin Major 2019, and North have already made a serious statement to the rest of the field.  The Danish North squad managed a slight upset of INTZ on Train by a dominant score of 16-5, then squeaked by Syman 16-14 in another game on Train. The moral of the story may be to ban train against North, though it’s still very early into …

Six arrested in major CSGO match-fixing case in Australia Olivia Richman Counter-Strike The first major match-fixing case in Australian esports history has resulted in the arrests of six people.  A betting agency had tipped off officers about suspicious activity at a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in March. By the time police got involved, five matches had been impacted by players who were “arranging to throw matches” in order to benefit from bets they had placed on those matches.  The six men arrested …

TNC Predator eliminated by Team Liquid on day 2 of TI9 main event gabhernandez Dota 2 After a strong group stage run, TNC Predator fell short in the main event of The International 2019. The team dominated Team Liquid in the group stage with a clean 2-0 sweep and denied the former champions an upper bracket slot. However, TNC Predator found itself in a rematch against Liquid in an elimination series at TI9. This time, the tables turned. The Filipino team looked strong as it kicked …

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