MOBA
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The free-to-start Pokémon MOBA arrives on Nintendo Switch in July
'Pokémon Unite' is coming to Switch in July and mobile in September, giving you a 'free' MOBA you can play across platforms.
Riot's League of Legends show 'Arcane' arrives on Netflix this Fall
Arcane, the first animated series based on Riot Games’ League of Legends universe, is coming to Netflix this fall.
'Auto Chess' is going back to its roots with a MOBA spinoff
The auto battler started as a mod for ultra-popular MOBA 'Dota 2.'
‘Wild Rift’ finally made me a ‘League of Legends’ player
A couple of years ago, I decided to open Twitch and watch some professional League of Legends. The mobile-optimized game has detailed models of each champion, for instance, that you can rotate and generally admire while you’re selecting a loadout and waiting for your fellow teammates to pick their champions.
'League of Legends: Wild Rift' open beta comes to Europe on December 10th
The 'League of Legends: Wild Rift' open beta is coming to Europe and other areas on December 10th, giving many more people a chance to try the mobile MOBA.
'Dota 2' will get year-round updates and crack down on 'smurfs'
Valve is shaking up 'Dota 2' by promising a steady stream of updates and efforts to fight 'smurfs' who create accounts to hike their win rates.
'Pokémon Unite' is a free-to-start MOBA for Nintendo Switch and mobile
The Pokémon Company and Tencent are developing a League of Legends-style free-to-play game.
Watch Riot's 'League of Legends: Wild Rift' gameplay reveal here at 11AM ET
Follow along with Engadget as we watch Riot showcase the first gameplay from the upcoming mobile and console version of 'League of Legends.'
‘Crucible’ proves that Amazon is finally serious about video games
Crucible is a promising blend of the MOBA and battle royale genres.
Why does Riot Games keep making virtual bands?
An unusual concert took place before FunPlus Phoenix and G2 Esports battled for the League of Legends World Championship last weekend. The Grand Finals in Paris opened with Valerie Broussard singing "Awaken," a track released at the start of the year to celebrate the upcoming esports season. The performance ended with a magical blast that threw Broussard and her backup singers into the air.
'Dota 2' will match players sooner if they're open to different roles
Play class-based games and you'll know that it's tough to convince people to play certain roles -- there are only so many people who'd rather be the support character than the front line hero. Valve's solution for Dota 2? Give players an incentive to fill those roles. Its latest update to the game adds a Fast Queue option that bumps Ranked players to the front of the line when they're willing to play with all roles selected.
Riot urges 'League of Legends' pros to keep quiet on 'sensitive' issues
Riot is trying to keep its hands clean after Blizzard banned a pro player for supporting Hong Kong protests on-camera. The League of Legends developer's esports head John Needham has issued a statement saying that Riot has "reminded" pro players and hosts to avoid discussing "sensitive issues" during broadcasts, including politics and religion. It argued that personal views should stay "separate" as there was no way they could be "fairly represented" in the space of a game tournament. There's not enough room for the patience and subtleties these subjects require, the studio said.
Louis Vuitton is making a case for a major 'League of Legends' trophy
How do you know esports have made it into the mainstream? When a French fashion house wants to get involved, apparently. Louis Vuitton is partnering with Riot Games on a unique Trophy Travel case for the Summoner's Cup awarded to the winner of the League of Legends World Championship on November 10th. The maison has previously only created these cases for major conventional sports like the FIFA World Cup and America's Cup -- it's a huge leap to produce a trunk for a gaming competition.
'Dota 2' champions won more money than top Wimbledon players
It's not just Fortnite champs who are making conventional sports players seem underpaid. OG has won Valve's The International Dota 2 tournament for the second year in a row (the first time any team has won back-to-back), pulling in a record-setting $15,603,133 out of an even larger $34,292,599 prize pool. That's not just the largest top prize in esports history -- it could also be a windfall for each of the five team members.
Valve's latest 'Dota' spinoff is 'Underlords,' free beta starts next week
Now that Dota Auto Chess mod maker Drodo has announced plans to release PC Auto Chess as an Epic Games Store exclusive, Valve is releasing its standalone version, dubbed Dota Underlords. In this game, players join the game with seven others while "building, combining, and leveling-up a crew in a battle of dominance for the city of White Spire." The point here is supposed to be the use of tactics over quick-twitch reflexes, and players who've purchased a $10 Dota 2 Battle Pass can try it out right now. An open beta is slated to begin after "approximately a week" of stress testing of the preview which includes eight-player multiplayer, play vs. bots, or teams against other players and/or bots. The open beta will be available for Steam on all platforms plus Android and iOS, with cross-play and progression carrying over no matter where you play. It looks like Valve has learned a bit from the launch of its last Dota spinoff, Artifact, and now it will be up to players to decide if it's more successful.
'Dota 2' app rewards you for predicting pro match winners
Valve doesn't just want you to watch Dota 2 eSports matches -- it wants you to have a small stake in them. It just released a Dota Pro Circuit app for Android and iOS that lets you win Shards (the in-game currency for Dota Plus members) by predicting the winners of Circuit matches. It's sports betting, just without spending real money beyond your existing subscription.
A ‘Dota’ veteran’s take on ‘Arena of Valor’ for Switch
I've been playing multiplayer online battle arena games -- better known as MOBAs -- for the best part of two decades. First it was Dota, back when the game was still a custom Warcraft III map. Steam tells me I've sunk over 2000 hours into Valve's Dota 2, and I must've spent at least another few hundred hours dipping into both League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm. MOBAs are a genre I could never see working on consoles -- controllers just don't have enough buttons, nor do thumbsticks have the precision of a mouse. And yet I just spent a significant slice of my weekend completely glued to Arena of Valor, a port of a mobile MOBA that was released on the Nintendo Switch last week.
Mobile MOBA ‘Vainglory’ is coming to PC
Although it's far more common to see PC games ported to mobile (Hearthstone, The Talos Principle, This War of Mine), that formula is occasionally reversed. Super Evil Megacorp's Vainglory is a case in point -- the high fantasy MOBA is coming to both Mac and PC.
'Arena of Valor' beta registration for Nintendo Switch is live
Arena of Valor was one of the biggest games at E3 this year, you just didn't know it. Like Super Smash Bros Ultimate it was featured in the Nintendo Direct broadcast, and, like Smash there was also a giant tournament featuring the game in downtown LA last week. It's also the biggest mobile game in China, free to play and backed by Tencent.
Valve adds more flexibility to 'Dota 2' pro competitions
The world of eSports is growing at a rapid pace. Games like League of Legends and CS:GO are becoming more mainstream by the day. While Dota 2 holds the record for the highest total eSports prize money but Valve feels its competitive scene has lacked structure. To rectify that, it's unveiled a number of changes that it hopes will legitimize its Dota Pro Circuit (DPC).
