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Firefall hosts beta e-sports tournament
Yes, Firefall was serious about that e-sports thing. Like, super-serious, guys. Showing that it's in it whole-hog, Red 5 Studios announced that it will host the first open beta tournament series this summer. The tournament is called Go4Firefall and begins Sunday, August 4th. It will be run in cooperation with the Electronic Sports League and take place across North America and Europe. The best teams will take home some of the $10,000 and €10,000 prize pools over a series of weekly matches. Go4Firefall will utilize Firefall's Jetball mode. In Jetball, five-man teams have to fly or shoot a ball into their opponent's goal. The catch is that the ball carrier can't use weapons, making him or her a prime target for foes.
Steam accounts now link with Twitch accounts, Dota 2 makes first use of feature
Folks with both Steam accounts and Twitch.tv accounts can now make the two the best of friends, and by doing so alleviate a minor inconvenience associated with watching competitive Dota 2. Until now, players had to choose between watching Dota 2 tournaments either in-game or via Twitch, with the later option excluding them from receiving promotional items that randomly "drop" during events, provided that they had purchased virtual tickets. With this new linked account system, players watching on Twitch are still eligible to receive the special items, assuming their Steam account has the required virtual tournament ticket associated with it. Dota 2 is still expected to launch sometime before August 7 and the beginning of its largest annual event, The International.
World of Tanks celebrates July 4th via a big tank tournament
Tomorrow is the fourth of July, and if you're not aware, in the United States that date is kind of a big deal. So the staff behind World of Tanks decided that the best way to celebrate America's independence day is by having a bunch of armored vehicles take potshots at one another for big prizes. A tournament is running through the weekend for Tier III through Tier X tanks, with a big package of microtransaction cash going to the winning teams. All teams will be paired up into groups, fight other teams in the same group, and be scored according to victory or loss. Battles will be limited to 10 minutes maximum. The big winners will be the teams with the highest score after the dust settles. If this sounds like it's your sort of celebration, there's still time to gather your team and register; if you'd rather just play the game, there are also plenty of promotions running over the holiday weekend just the same. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
Firefall's final beta milestone and live action trailer [Updated]
The last closed beta milestone for Firefall is live now will be live this Thursday, June 27th, and it's a big one. Closed beta testers can explore the new e-sports-styled PvP game Jetball while taking part in the game's first story-based episode, Blackwater Anomaly. And this is meant as a big thing, big enough that there's even a live-action trailer (starring Tybee Diskin, whom you might recognize from the Nuka Break Fallout fan film) past the cut to help get potential players psyched about just what might be going on. Designed for five-person squads, Blackwater Anomaly sends players out into the storm to examine the eponymous anomaly at Blackwater Marsh, leading to a closer examination of why the Chosen have arrived and what motivates the attack on humanity. If you're intrigued and want to get in on the action before the start of open beta on July 9th, the Founder's Packs will still be available through July 8th. Everyone already in the beta can start enjoying this new content immediately. [Update: Red 5 has contacted us to let us know it has moved the milestone date from today to Thursday.] [Source: Red 5 Studios press release]
Guild Wars 2 launches authorized shoutcaster program
According to ArenaNet, the introduction of Custom Arenas and Spectator Mode to Guild Wars 2 has resulted in a surge of new tournaments, which naturally has been accompanied by a surge in people shouting about those tournaments. ArenaNet hopes to keep the shouts coming with the introduction of its Authorized Shoutcaster Program. Under the new program, Authorized Shoutcasters will receive notifications when highly rated teams square off against one another. Those shoutcasters can then jump into the match and stream the content live to what we can assume is a cheering throng of e-sports/Guild Wars fanatics. Streams will be delayed to prevent them from influencing the outcome of matches. ArenaNet has already selected its first set of shoutcasters based on their community contributions and shoutcasting bona-fides. If you'd like to be considered for the role, you can post a link to your stream on the official Guild Wars 2 forums. In other, somewhat related news, character slot expansions will be half-off 20% off (math!) from June 7th to June 9th. You can find the offer by checking in with the Black Lion Trading Company in-game. Oh! And don't forget: Massively is in the market for a new Guild Wars 2 columnist.
Infinite Crisis joins MLG as an official esport
Being in the middle of its first round of closed beta testing hasn't stopped Turbine Entertainment's DC Universe MOBA, Infinite Crisis, from making the grade as an official Major League Gaming selection, the developer announced today in a joint release with the esports organization. MLG will kick off the burgeoning relationship by streaming Infinite Crisis matches from Warner Brother's E3 booth, starting on the morning of Tuesday, June 11, and lasting through the rest of the conference. From there the game will be showcased at various events until it's fully released, at which point it will join the likes of League of Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in MLG Pro Circuit tournaments. Warner's other competitive DC Universe property, Injustice: Gods Among Us, was recently revealed as an official selection for this year's EVO2k fighting game tournament series in Las Vegas. At this rate, we expect Arkham Origins' rumored multiplayer mode will soon be announced as an event in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
Dota 2 introduces 'Interactive Compendium' tournament companion
Valve has supplemented its upcoming "The International" Dota 2 tournament with a new virtual book, the "International 2013 Interactive Compendium." Available for $10 on the official Dota 2 shop, the Interactive Compendium will deliver news on the tournament and allow players to vote on tournament-related matters, such as post-tournament competitor awards. The Interactive Compendium also unlocks "special virtual item drops throughout the tournament," according to Valve, in addition to matchmaking tournament-minded players and letting folks make predictions on tournament match outcomes. Once the August 7 event has come to a close, players will be able to read each other's Compendiums to see how accurate those predictions ended up being.
Blizzard purchases IGN Pro League
Blizzard has bought the technology and other assets related to the IGN Pro League. The future of IPL was up in the air due to IGN layoffs back in February with 1UP, UGO, and Gamespy closing shop. Now we know what the fate of IPL will be. Some members of the team will be moving over to San Francisco to work on "high-quality web and mobile content in support of Blizzard games" but it appears that the actual operations of IPL will be coming to a close. Other members will be joining Blizzard's existing eSports team and possibly assisting them with the recently announced Starcraft 2 World Championship Series. Personally, I've enjoyed watching the League of Legends and Starcraft 2 tournaments that IPL held. I'm quite sad to see them go as I was impressed by the level of quality in their productions. Best of luck to everyone involved!
IGN Pro League technology purchased by Blizzard
Do you like eSports? Blizzard Entertainment clearly does, as the company has just purchased the technology and assets of IGN Pro League. Several employees came along with the acquisition, including former IPL general manager David Ting. The hard assets will be used to promote various events centering around Blizzard's online games, while the staff members are joining Blizzard's internal eSports teams according to initial reports. Needless to say, this marks the end of IPL's competitive gaming coverage, which has in the past included games such as League of Legends and StarCraft II. The brand does not go with these employees or assets, meaning that last weekend's $100,000 Shootmania launch event was the final broadcast for the IPL. It remains to be seen what will be launched from the expanded Blizzard team, but representatives from the company were quite clear in stating that this is a move meant to promote the company's online and eSports presence.
Jet Li: There's 'no good reason to debunk virtual gaming as a sport'
Jet Li may be known for his martial arts prowess, but he's also an avid gamer according to an interview translation at MMO Culture. Li recently attended an Age of Wushu PvP tournament and had some interesting things to say about e-sports and the validity of video gaming as a sport in general. "If poker card games and chess both have the players sitting down and are considered sports, why not virtual gaming as well," Li explained. "There are two kinds of sports: one physical and one mental. There is no good reason to debunk virtual gaming as a sport, and I believe the participants of such virtual PvP events have the same mentality as physical athletes."
Rumor: Titan might be a time-traveling, earthbound MMO
The folks over at Project Titan claim to have a huge leak on Blizzard's upcoming Titan project from a reliable (and unnamed) source. While we are certainly wary of rumors, particularly on this scale, the author says he is "extremely confident" about the leak in particular. So what is Titan, according to this post? Several bullet points sketch a picture of an MMO that is based on Earth, is big into historical mythology (including Greek, Roman, and Viking myths), and involves "a lot" of time travel. The leaks says that Titan will play from a third-person view, has a new game engine, could also be headed to consoles, and has a strong e-sports emphasis. The leak purports that over 150 developers are working on Titan, including Jay Wilson. Apparently we'll be seeing a teaser of Titan at BlizzCon before it goes into friends and family testing in early 2014. So what do you think? Is this too elaborate to be a hoax, too vague to be the real thing, or a possible advance insight into what Titan is? Sound off in the comments! [Thanks to Mynsc for the tip!]
Shifting Perspectives: Spring cleaning
Every week (sort of), WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, the bookmarks folder gets the root cellar treatment. I've been away from the game since the holidays due to what I will politely refer to as technical difficulties. (I have a variety of impolite terms for it too, but this is a family blog.) During that time, I've watched the game from the sidelines and have grown bored enough to do some maintenance on stuff that usually gets ignored until I'm rooting through it in a hurry. Add-ons were updated, dead blog links were sent to their folder, interesting ones were added, and then I turned to my collection of bookmarks in order to prune there as well. I have a pretty sizable cache of druid or druid-related links that's grown over the years, and a lot of them are still pretty interesting. In the absence of the ability to talk about what's actually happening in the game with any fluency, I thought it might make a decent stopgap Shifting. This is a selection that's kept me absorbed for many an hour on a snowy weekend, and it ranges from comparisons between druid and warrior tanks in the classic game to where you fall on a healer's priority list when you're a jackass.
Guardians of Middle-Earth: A fun game doomed by its business model
The MOBA genre has exploded in recent years, with global giant League of Legends becoming the most actively played video game in the world and competitive tournaments getting more viewers than some televised sports. Today's MOBAs appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike, but until recently very few had crossed the console barrier. Released on PS3 and XBox 360 last December, Guardians of Middle-Earth took traditional DotA gameplay and made the quite experimental leap onto consoles. I'm not much of a console gamer (you can take my mouse and keyboard away when you pry them from my cold, dead hands), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how Guardians of Middle-Earth stacks up against its PC-based counterparts. Monolith Studios has done great things in adapting MOBA gameplay to a console control scheme and audience, and the core game really is a lot of fun to play. But in charging an initial purchase price for a game that relies on having a large community, publisher Warner Bros. may have accidentally consigned Guardians to the scrapheap. In this hands-on opinion piece, I explore Guardians of Middle-Earth and ask why it's already a ghost town just three months after launch.
Twitch introduces ad-free Turbo subscription service
Popular video streaming site Twitch has announced a new service called Twitch Turbo. For $8.99 a month you can turn off all the ads on the site, get priority customer support, and unlock a special badge, chat colors, and custom emoticons that only Twitch Turbo subscribers can use. Twitch also streams lots of eSports events and other videos that would otherwise be interrupted by commercials.If you subscribe to knock the ads off completely, eligible Twitch broadcasters will still be paid for their views. Twitch says this is "just the beginning of what we hope to offer through Twitch Turbo," and that more "benefits and enhancements" for both viewers and broadcasters (including the official Joystiq Twitch channel) are likely coming soon.
PBS mini documentary covers eSports' many bases
Off Book, the PBS webseries that previously investigated what makes indie games so darn creative, has produced an eight minute documentary on the history of the eSports its four major facets: RTS, MOBA, FPS and fighting games, the latter of which are too cool for acronyms.
League of Legends kicks off third season of e-sports
League of Legends is about ready to begin its third season of the League Championship Series, and this time Riot Games is bringing a few interesting changes to the field. Season 3 goes live on February 7th for North America and Europe and features four-days-per-week of streamed e-sports as teams battle to become the best -- and bring home the dough. For Season 3, Riot is fiddling with the structure to make a new league ranking system that should offer a "greater sense of progression." Players will battle it out in six tiers of similarly matched teams until the cream rises to the top. To help all players understand the changes, Riot's provided a handy infographic and FAQ covering the pertinent points. There's also a goofy promo video of players running around an empty stadium in slow-motion, and you know you want to see that. It's after the jump. Thank us later.
Riot Games' plan to standardize eSports
Ask a couple of Riot Games' employees what goes into choosing players for League of Legends' annual World Championships, and they'll rattle off a strange series of acronyms and words that represent tournaments from around the world: Major League Gaming, the IGN Pro League, ESL's Intel Extreme Masters Series, OGN, IPL, Dreamhack, Tales of the Lane, and so many more.The route from just playing for free online to the top of the World Championship ladders is so confusing and circuitous that most press outlets don't cover it, most players don't follow it, and even most eSports fans couldn't explain it all. There's a jargon to it (littered with player and team names full of weird capitalization and strange spellings) that's about as complicated to understand as the notoriously complex game itself.Riot's Vice President of eSports Dustin Beck even says that a recent tournament he attended was a big mess on its own: "The tournament kept pausing, it never started on time, you didn't have a schedule to know when your favorite teams were playing. It wasn't a fun experience, for me."Still, eSports is one of the biggest factors in League of Legends' overwhelming popularity, with thousands of people attending these tournaments, and millions (almost ten million, in fact) watching live online. So how does Riot plan to smooth out those wrinkles that keep an even larger audience out of the game? The company will take the game into Season 3 within the next few weeks, and with it begins Riot's eSports headliner, the League of Legends Championship Series.
SOE partners with Major League Gaming for PlanetSide 2 e-sports
SOE has partnered with Major League Gaming in order bring the world of competitive e-sports to PlanetSide 2. "Over the next few months, the PlanetSide 2 and MLG teams will work closely to develop ideal competitive gameplay features and settings to showcase the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter," according to a press release. Neither company has specified what those features and settings might be, but PS2 creative director Matt Higby and SOE CEO John Smedley have long maintained that the firm was developing its sci-fi shooter sequel with an eye on the competitive gaming arena. SOE and MLG will also collaborate to create original programming, with a broadcast schedule due "in the coming weeks."
Two more League of Legends players banned for jerkiness
Riot has banned two more League of Legends pros for excessively adolescent behavior. Last December the company sent Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera packing, and now Illyas "enVision" Hartsema and Damien "Linak" Lorthios are joining him in exile. Both players will be banned from both this weekend's LCS Season 3 Qualifier and LCS play next year according to the ruling on Riot's forums. enVision has been reported in a whopping 29% of his matches, which PC Gamer says is six times more than the average EU LoL player. He has also been punished 18 times, including two account bans, throughout his LoL history. Linak boasts a 20% report rate and, like enVision, has a peak harassment score in the worst .06% of all EU accounts.
Sins of a Dark Age plans to evolve the MOBA genre
Over the past few years, the Defense of the Ancients-inspired MOBA genre has spawned some of the biggest games on the planet. League of Legends has become one of the most played PC games in the world, and both it and Dota 2 now pump millions of dollars per year into competitive tournaments. It looks like MOBAs are here to stay, but the genre is still relatively young and there's plenty of room to experiment with new gameplay. Upcoming MOBA Sins of a Dark Age plans to evolve the genre with the addition of a new Realm Quest feature. At random points throughout a match, quests may spawn that change the rules of the game and provide new opportunities for conflict. Developer Ironclad Games, known for its Sins of a Solar Empire franchise, hopes this will add a new strategic level to the game that favours players who can adapt to changing circumstances and take advantage of the opportunities that quests present. Sins of a Dark Age will be free-to-play on release but you can join the closed beta now by purchasing a Founder Edition package. Read on for our interview with Ironclad co-founder and producer Blair Fraser on the Realm Quest system and plans to support competitive gaming in Sins of a Dark Age.%Gallery-175225%
