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Blizzard partners with ESL for an open Overwatch 2 esports circuit
After the death of the Overwatch League, Overwatch esports will have a more open format starting in 2024. Teams from North America, Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Asia can compete to take part in two global Overwatch Champions Series tournaments.
Esports tournament organizers ESL and DreamHack have merged
ESL Gaming aims to 'shape the future of esports and gaming.'
'Starcraft II' finals will skip BlizzCon in favor of new ESL Pro Tour
Starcraft II matches at BlizzCon are no more. Thanks to a new three-year partnership between ESL, DreamHack and Blizzard, we'll now be getting brand new ESL Pro Tour formats for both Starcraft II and Warcraft III: Reforged, and it'll come with a hefty prize pool of over $4.6 million.
Discord signs eSports pros to use its chat app
Discord has become something of a gaming chat-app phenomenon lately, partnering with Spotify for in-chat soundtracks, adding video chat and screensharing and bringing verified official game channels to its service. Now the company plans to expand into the eSports realm by partnering with more than 20 teams, including Team Liquid, DreamHack, and almost every Overwatch League team out there. The program launches February 22nd on the company's verified servers and will let team members and fans chat, share news and discuss upcoming matches.
Twitter will livestream ESL and DreamHack eSports tournaments
Twitter's initial foray into livestreaming eSports must have went well, as it's expanding the range of tournaments it covers in a big way. The social network has reached deals to stream 15-plus ESL One, DreamHack and Intel Extreme Masters tournaments over the course of 2017. ESL will also make its own originals for Twitter, including a half-hour show that covers competition highlights and behind-the-scenes stories. The first tourney to get the treatment is Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, which starts on March 4th.
Swedish eSports festival Dreamhack drops CEO Robert Ohlen
Following a lengthy tenure as head of one of the world's most prominent eSports festivals, Dreamhack CEO Robert Ohlen has been "relieved of his duties," according to Fredrik Nystrom, Dreamhack's head of PR. Instead of exiting Dreamhack gracefully, Ohlen opted to publicly protest the decision via odd, grammatically baffling tweets. "Truth. Honor. etc. dont exist May @DreamHack die an ignoble death This is the last communication from BossDH a pox on all you're houses [sic]," Ohlen wrote, later adding that he had "just been sopranoed." The Daily Dot claims Ohlen's release follows "an internal power struggle" at Dreamhack, but offers no details on the cause or results of this conflict. Ohlen has been replaced as CEO by self-described "festival guru" and former Dreamhack events manager Marcus Lindmark. [Image: Wikimedia]
DreamHack Hearthstone tournament plagued by cheating allegations
Did he or didn't he cheat? That's the controversial question surrounding a Hearthstone tournament winner this week. At the DreamHack Hearthstone tournament, Radu Dima won 3-0 in the final round and was rewarded with a $10,000 check. However, during the second game Dima received a message on Battle.net revealing the details of his opponent's hand. Dima reported the message after the match, and the officials declared that the information would not have helped him and said that he could keep playing. But this prompted viewers to go back to look at earlier Battle.net messages that some are saying contain coded hints about opponents' cards. The organizers of the tournament have yet to comment on the situation. Dima declared on Reddit this morning that he won fair and square.
Bridging the gap between casual and pro at the Chicago Dota 2 Winter Open
At Ignite Gaming Lounge in Chicago, Illinois, the crowd is losing its mind. It's grand finals of the Chicago Dota 2 Winter Open, a two-day, double-elimination, 16-team throwdown, and for some reason someone has just picked Meepo. For those of you who aren't in the Dota 2 loop, suffice to say that Meepo isn't a standard hero pick for a tournament. Picking Meepo in a match with $1,000 on the line is a lot like jumping out of a plane and wishing for a parachute -- an incredible, amazing story if it works and an embarrassing, painful death if it doesn't, with the odds heavily on the latter. The announcers, broadcasting the match simultaneously on Dota TV (Dota 2's in-game spectating client) and Twitch, are dumbfounded. The chat channels are exploding. And as everyone witnesses the Meepo gamble pay off in the most incredible way, the excitement only expands and intensifies. But perhaps what's most special about this Meepo pick, about this final game between two local teams that have bested challenger after challenger, is not the risky strategy or the money on the line. What's special is that anyone is watching it at all.
Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard to make appearance at DreamHack Winter 2013
Blizzard Entertainment will be making an appearance at DreamHack Winter 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden -- and it's just been announced that Warlords of Draenor will as well. DreamHack is the world's largest digital festival and holds the official world record as the world's largest LAN party, promising an exciting time for Europeans attending the event and also an opportunity to play and see Warlords of Draenor, the new WoW expansion, firsthand. Along with Warlords, those attending will also be able to play both Hearthstone and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. In addition, Blizzard will have several Hearthstone-themed contests for those attending, including a sound-a-like contest, a card-crafting contest, and a contest that will have players finding clues and building decks out of seven secret cards in order to challenge the Hearthstone crew. If that weren't enough, the European Community team will be on-hand to say hello, chat, mingle, and maybe even settle down to play some Diablo III. If you missed out on BlizzCon, this is the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse and some hands-on-time with the next expansion. DreamHack Winter 2013 takes place November 28 - December 1, 2013. For more information on the festival, as well as tickets and scheduling, be sure to check out DreamHack's official site.
The Gathering 2012 to bring world's fastest internet to Norway, leave Swedish laundry out to dry
Dreamhack's record breaking 120Gbps connection was fast enough to replace a certain household appliance, but next to what's Norway's cooking up it looks almost antiquated. The Gathering, Norway's annual week-long LAN party, plans to set a new world record for the "fastest internet access in the universe" with a 200Gbps connection. "No way we would let the Swedes keep the lead on this," says Gathering head of information Simon Eriksen Valvik, "we didn't just raise the bar a little, we moved it a story up." The connection is reportedly faster than the combined bandwidth of Thailand, and will be capable of downloading 5,120 songs a second. Don't bee too envious though, the ludicrously quick network is only temporary. Representatives from Altibox, the Norwegian network that's partnering with The Gathering to break the record, say that Norway simply doesn't have the capacity to support these kinds of speeds on a day to day basis. The gap is being filled with foreign internet capacity, piped in by Level 3. Tickets for the event are already sold out, so speed freaks desperate for the fastest internet in the universe will just have to settle for the fastest internet in the neighborhood. At least until next year.
Visualized: Sweden's Dreamhack in pictures
What does a legion of Swedish LAN party-goers and a 120Gbps internet connection look like? Something like this. Dreamhack, officially (according to the Guinness Book of Records) the world's largest LAN party, offered up all sorts of gaming thrills along the lines of StarCraft II and Counter-Strike to the 12,000 attendees. It looks like the air was thick with excitement, perspiration -- and hopefully a little air freshener.
Fnatic pro gaming team gets limited edition headset and mouse from SteelSeries
As you may well be aware, professional gamers have been getting more and more pro over the years, even including the sort of product endorsements you'd expect from professional athletes. Case in point: this new limited edition headset and mouse pair from SteelSeries, which each sport the colors and logo of Team Fnatic. They are being released to coincide with the Dreamhack Winter LAN party / digital festival, and they're otherwise identical to SteelSeries' existing 7H headset and Sensei gaming mouse. Those interested will be able to pick up both the mouse and headset (pictured after the break) at Dreamhack or online for $100 and $140, respectively.
Cisco, Telia to activate 'world's fastest internet connection' at 120Gbps, sounds pretty Swede
If the Swedes can dry a load of laundry on a 40Gbps internet connection, just imagine what they could do with 120Gbps. Melt polar caps? Solve the debt crisis? Dry three loads of laundry? The possibilities may be limitless, but we'll all find out soon enough, because Cisco and Telia are aiming to break the 120Gbps barrier by the end of this weekend. It's all part of this week's DreamHack, a Swedish digital festival that the Guinness Book recognizes as the "world's largest LAN party." This year, the two companies will attempt to set up a 300 kilometer-long connection from Jönköping to Stockholm, designed to serve (in theory, anyway) up to 750,000 people at blazing speeds -- of course, only 20,000 or so will be at DreamHack. The project has been in the works since last summer, with Telia constructing the fiber network, and Cisco handling hardware duties with a pair of power-packed CRS-3 routers (scalable to a total capacity of up to 322Tbps!). The companies say that the connection, if successful, would set a record for network "capacity utilization," allowing all 750K users to stream music simultaneously and to download an entire movie in just .047 seconds. It'll take us a lot longer to pick up our jaws from the ground.
The Old Republic opens the beta blast doors for its final testing weekend
On the Massively staff there are the Haves and the Have Nots of the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta. The Haves use their glorious position to grind the morale of the Have Nots into the dirt, leaving these poor saps weeping while the Haves go to a bar and high-five each other with Wookiee paws. It's enough to make you feel like you're in a high-tech trash compactor of emotions. If you're like our Have Nots and have yet to get into the SWTOR beta, BioWare has good news for you today. The next beta testing weekend, which is scheduled for sometime later this month, will open up to everyone who's applied before November 11th. If that's not you, there's still a good chance you can get in, as BioWare will be handing out additional beta keys via sites like Massively in the near future. According to an additional FAQ covering this event, this will probably be the final beta testing weekend for the MMO prior to its December 20th launch. Even if you're not in a SWTOR launch country, as long as you have signed up or get a key, you'll be invited to test this season's hottest ticket. BioWare also announced that SWTOR will be available to play at this month's Dreamhack gaming event, from November 24th through the 27th.
Star Wars: The Old Republic lists 2011 event appearances
Are you ready for the Star Wars: The Old Republic Hyperdrive or Bust World Tour 2011? OK, that might not be an official thing (and seriously, wouldn't you love a t-shirt with that on it?), but BioWare has announced the community events that TOR will be attending this year. So if you're willing to make the journey and eager to get some face-time with both the game and the developers, here's where you can make it happen: E3 in Los Angeles, CA (June 7-9) San Diego Comic-Con, CA (July 21-24) Gamescom in Cologne, Germany (August 17-21) PAX Prime in Seattle, WA (August 26-28) Eurogamer Expo in London, UK (September 22-25) New York Comic Con (October 13-16) Paris Games Week (October 21-25) DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden (November 24-27) You can read all of the details of The Old Republic's worldwide journey on the Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Events page.
League of Legends Season One championship announced with $100,000 in prizes
For anyone who has ever wondered what the whole "league" part of League of Legends was referring to, Riot Games has announced the season one championship, which will be held at this year's Dreamhack Summer event in Sweden this June. The season one circuit will end on May 2, at which time Riot will choose the world's top eight teams (three from North America, three from Europe and two from South East Asia). These teams will be flown to the Dreamhack event and compete for three days beginning on June 18, culminating in the championship round on June 20. Riot hasn't specified exactly how much the winning team will walk away with, though there is a total of $100,000 in cash prizes up for grabs. And to think Mom said "those free internet games" wouldn't get you anywhere! Lest a flight to Sweden is a bit too much for your pocketbook to bear, the championship matches will be available via live streaming.
Aion's first Eye On Community for December
The Aion team had plenty to say in the latest Eye on Community segment, released on Friday. The question of the week, unsurprisingly, centered around the nine-minute "Visions of the Future" trailer released recently. Fans have had a million questions, mostly different versions of "What is this, and when will I get to play it?" Since it's a work in progress, specific answers are unfortunately few. "Some of the features highlighted in the trailer are further along in the development process than others. Because of this, we aren't ready to share or speculate on timeframes." While it was exciting, the trailer wasn't the only recent news. The Aion team returned from DreamHack with photos and stories galore last Monday, the same day that they banned 26,000+ bot accounts. It looks like they had a bit of fun with the bot accounts, to which we say "more power to you!" The Aion community was active recently too, creating quite a few things that are worth looking into if you're an Aion player. The full Eye on Community entry can be read here.
DreamHack to feature its own WoW realm
DreamHack, the world's biggest LAN party (according to Guinness), takes place in Sweden twice a year. They've just made an announcement of interest to us WoW players: at this year's summer event (June 13-16, assuming "Juni" means what I think it means), they'll have their own WoW realm. This is something that not many events have been able to do in the past. They'll be hosting an Arena tournament at the event, with prizes to be announced in the future. We can expect the realm to feature premades and gear and enchant vendors, like previous tournament realms. They also mention "live showing of raids;" I'm not sure we've seen realms with premade PvE play before, so that should be interesting. More information on registration is going to be released "within the next few days;" we'll keep you posted. Is anyone thinking of competing at DreamHack? Has anyone gone before? [thanks, Raful]
WoW 3v3 tournament ended, videos from the finals
The Dreamhack Winter festival in Sweden ended last week, and video footage of the Electronic Sports League World of Warcraft 3v3 arena tournament that took place right there in freezing Northrend Northern Europe is now online. The series went right down to the wire in a best-of-five between MoB-TurtleForce and team Pandemic. The videos are a little blurry (see below), but the grand final is definitely worth watching if you're at all interested in seeing competitive gaming in an MMO, with five extremely close games and amazing teamwork. Check them out! As we covered previously, the tournament itself arose from the ashes of the deceased WSVG, and whilst the high quality feed of the event was broken, it's nice to see it went off without *too* many hitches. And it gets better -- the commentary was almost passable.
White Lions are the last career for High Elves?
Just a little bit of fun speculation about the last class for Warhammer Online's High Elves-- GOA, the company co-publishing WAR in Europe, apparently put up this big display picture at Dreamhack, and Warhammer know-it-alls have identified that High Elf on the right as a "White Lion," supposedly a career straight from the miniatures game.Of course, we have no idea what this means-- previous speculation has called the White Lion career a DPS-based pet class (wielding a melee-two hander and fighting with pets?), and while the miniatures class looks completely different, there's no doubt that there is definitely a white lion fighting alongside the Elf in the picture above. All of this is still just rumors, however -- we won't know what that last High Elves career is until they announced it -- but hey, at least it's a cool looking display.
