tournament
Latest
Natural Selection 2 dev approves fan-driven championship
Developer Unknown Worlds has heard the pleas of its fans and has decided to greenlight a worldwide championship tournament for its flagship shooter, Natural Selection 2. Tournaments are generally created by developers to promote a game, but in this case the idea for the event came from the Natural Selection 2 fan community. The only hitch is that Unknown Worlds is a relatively small firm which readily admitted that it couldn't afford the $30,000 necessary to host such a tournament. Undeterred, the fans pushed harder: "We will organize it, Unknown Worlds. We will fund it. All we ask is that you help us," wrote members of the community. Finally convinced, Unknown Worlds has agreed to the tournament, assuming the community is able to raise the necessary $30,000 funds. If that occurs, the tournament will host 24 of the best Natural Selection 2 players from around the world in a round robin tournament to determine who is the best of the best. If you'd like to donate to the tournament fundraiser, you can find full information on the game's new GoFundMe page.
The Summoner's Guidebook: The real hero of the LoL World Championships
If you watched or heard anything about the League of Legends World Championships, it's almost certain that you heard about Faker. Perhaps the best mid-laner in the world, Faker was the star of the show at the World Championships. With his incredible midgame plays, he distinguished himself as "Faker the playmaker" early in the tournament. But in most of the games where he dominated, Faker didn't do it alone. In fact, a good many of the other world-class mid-laners gave Faker a run for his money. He often did poorly in the laning phase, largely due to counter-picks and targeted bans. But even with the picks and bans against him, SK Telecom T1 had a secret weapon -- their jungler bengi. Before Faker would get the ball rolling, bengi would arrive from the most unexpected locations and often with perfect timing, giving Faker the early game advantage. Throughout the mid and late games, bengi would be everywhere, always at the right moment to win the match for his team. While Faker had an impressive highlight reel, it was really bengi's constant coverage that pushed the team to the top.
On the ground at the League of Legends World Championships
It was about 1 p.m. at the Staples Center on Friday, and there was already a crowd. Five hours later, the mass of people would swell to many times the size, as security officers struggled to cram people into the building. At first glance, one could confuse the fans flooding the street as normal sports fans, but then you notice the cosplayers, the Intel-sponsored jerseys and an enormous Tryndamere statue. The Staples Center was packed to the gills with fans all eager to watch one thing: the final matches to determine who would walk away with the Summoner's Cup and the title of League of Legends World Champions.
SK Telecom T1 sweeps League of Legends World Championship
Korean team SK Telecom T1 (SKT) swept Chinese opponents Royal Club (RYL) 3-0 to win the League of Legends World Championship and claim the $1 million prize last night. The Grand Finals were held at the Staples Center in front of 13,000 live fans and, according to a tweet from GameSpot's Rod "Slasher" Breslau, more than 1 million concurrent viewers online, not including viewers from China or South Korea. Despite the pre-game analysts desk all picking favoring RYL to come out on top, it was SKT that dominated. While the first two games in this best-of-five set went 30 minutes or beyond, the final blow that saw SKT crowned champions came in at just under 21 minutes. The entire world championship can be watched via the YouTube embed above, but if you want to skip the pre-game chat and speculation, the first match starts at 1:54:20, the second match starts at 2:47:54, and the final match begins at 3:53:00. Update: The original text of this article stated that "all" of the analyst's desk had picked RYL to win. This was referring to the desk of player analysts moderated by Joe Miller, and did not factor in votes from the analyst desk at the Staples Center. The article has been updated for clarity.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning how to not lose from the League of Legends pros
The League of Legends World Championship semifinals are over, and unfortunately the two teams I was hoping would advance ended up losing. The matches were good, especially the SKT1 versus NJBS matches. Definitely watch them! However, this week I'm going to get back to basics, and by that I mean guides on improving your game. I've been talking about Worlds for weeks and I'll be at the finals in LA around the time you're reading this, which would make for four weeks of straight coverage about the LoL World Championships. That feels lazy to me. I have been watching a lot of pro matches lately, both the tournament matches and just random streams and casual matches. One thing that came to mind for me was improving our losing games. We all have them, and of all the games that we should improve upon, those are the games that are the most important. Pro players take bad lanes or feeding teammates and make wins instead. How do they do it?
The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL World Championships finally enter the quarter finals
I will be completely honest. I was really getting sick of the group stage of the League of Legends Season 3 World Championships. It was dragging on for too long, especially when the advancing teams had been virtually locked in well in advance. Only Gambit and Ozone were in a position to actually fight for a top spot. OMG, SKT1 and Fnatic had locked in their spots and we were subjected to matches where pros ran goofy compositions and stopped trying to win. Now we're in the actual tournament portion of the event, and the eight teams in the top spots all really deserved their places. With the exception of one matchup, all of the quarter final matches were extremely close, nail-biting games. It is easier for for me to point out which matches are not worth watching than it is to point out the really incredible matches because the majority of the games were utterly fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat constantly.
The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL Season 3 World Championships' group stage
I am at a bit of a disadvantage here. At the time I'm writing this, the group stage isn't over, but you guys will be watching the last of it around the time you read this. Regardless of the time delay, there have been some great matches at the League of Legends Season 3 World Championships. The matches haven't been the only thing good about the tournament. Riot has added a lot of presentation quality, including pro interviews and an analysis desk. In spite of some minor technical issues, this has been a very solid tournament thus far.
PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rozelle on LoL Season 3
I was really excited to step into Riot's press room on Friday at PAX Prime. We had just finished the first series of matches of the day, and it was pretty exciting to talk to people about the matches yet to come. But I don't think anyone was more excited to talk about League of Legends' e-sports scene than Whalen Rozelle, or RiotMagus as he's known on the internet. As the senior e-sports manager at Riot, he's tasked with making sure that events run smoothly, and I took the opportunity to ask him about the format for Season 3 -- especially improvements over Season 2 and the lessons Riot will be taking into Season 4.
PAX Prime 2013: SMITE's graphical updates, 10v10 mode, and e-sports
I found myself in unfamiliar waters as I waded into the Twitch booth at this year's PAX Prime. All around me were gamers -- but not just any gamers. These guys were wearing jerseys with sponsorship logos and carrying custom gaming mice and headsets. These guys were pro gamers, and they were there to play SMITE. I had a different agenda, so I tracked down Hi-Rez chief operating officer Todd Harris to talk about upcoming changes to the game. He admitted to me that his team isn't doing a lot of big changes, but that is largely due to the game's continuing success. He did have a few things to show me, though.
PSA: Halo 4 World Championship finals streaming live this weekend
The world's top Spartans will finish the fight for a grand prize of $200,000 this weekend at PAX Prime in the Halo 4 Global Championship Finals, Microsoft announced today. If you're at PAX Prime, Microsoft is hosting the event in Benaroya Hall from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST until Sunday. If you're unable to attend, the rounds leading up to the finals will be streamed on TwitchTV today from 11:30 to 4pm PST. Spectators eager for the the final rounds can watch tensions mount via a livestream on Xbox Live and HaloWaypoint.com starting at 4 p.m. PST. The stream will be hosted by Major Nelson, Blair Herter and Jessica Chobot.
Alliance wins The International 2013 Dota 2 tournament, earns over $1.4 million
The winner of The International 2013 Dota 2 Championship is Alliance, a group of five players from Sweden. Alliance beat out team Natus Vincere in a five-game match to earn the title and win more than $1.4 million. The five-day event was held in Seattle, Washington this year, and had a prize pool of over $2.8 million. Natus Vincere won the tournament in 2011, the first year it was held during Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and took home $1 million. Valve is offering replays of the event on the official Dota 2 site.
EVE Evolved: Alliance Tournament XI Grudge Match
The largest alliance war in EVE Online's history is currently underway, with the latest battle to hit the news reaching over 4,000 players and shattering the world record for players involved in a single PvP battle. While massive battles like are becoming a regular occurrence in EVE and have dominated the news lately, the strategy of just throwing thousands of ships at the enemy and seeing if it works doesn't work in every corner of New Eden. Wormholes, for example, limit the mass of ships entering a hidden Sleeper star system at once, promoting smaller-scale conflicts that are more about deep strategy and execution than scale. So it is for EVE Online's annual alliance tournament, a fairly matched drawing that attempts to simulate what would happen if small squads of ships from opposing alliances met on equal terms. Teams are drawn randomly against each other and put together squads of ships within the bounds of an imposed point limit. This year's tournament involved only 64 teams and had no elimination stage but still managed to pump out 128 action-packed matches with full commentary and studio coverage. The grand final even played host to the biggest grudge match in Alliance Tournament history as Pandemic Legion faced off against Hydra Reloaded. In this week's EVE Evolved, I round up all the matches in this year's massive Alliance Tournament and discuss the explosive final that saw old tournament rivals face off for glory and huge in-game prizes.
Today's live gaming: Pokemon, Dota 2, Starcraft 2 and Zelda
A trio of eSports competitions are streaming for your viewing pleasure today, as is the kickoff of a week-long Zelda marathon for charity. Coverage of the Starcraft 2 World Championships' European league has already begun, but the American league will start reportin' for duty at 4 p.m. EST. Day 4 of The International's main event continues at 3 p.m. EST, which can be viewed here or live in Dota 2. The Pokémon World Championships for video game finalists start at 8 p.m. EST, with the trading card game finalists following at 10:30 p.m. EST. You can watch both here. If you're more into watching people raise money for charity rather than for themselves, the Triple Speed Runners are launching a week-long Zelda Marathon at 7 p.m. EST. The marathon will follow the timeline of the Zelda series rather than the order of each game's release, starting with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Prizes can be won by watching the stream, but 100% of donations will go to Child's Play Charity.
The International: A Primer on Dota 2 and the biggest single-game tournament in eSports history
Dota is a Big Deal. The original Defense of the Ancients, which was nothing more than a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, became a core pillar of the competitive online gaming scene thanks to its tight balance and deep strategy. It was played by millions and showcased at tournaments across the globe. Dota is considered one of the primary influences on the now booming genre of games that we refer to as MOBAs; League of Legends is supposedly the biggest game in the world, but without Dota, it would have never existed. When Valve snagged the mod's developer, known as IceFrog, and charged him with making a sequel, expectations were high. Dota is a game celebrated for its intricate design, complex metagame, and robust character roster -- the pressure to improve on this formula without losing the basics was immense. It took over two years of somewhat closed beta testing to get everything right, and changes rolled out every week like Clockwerk. But that's all history. Dota 2 launched last month, finally. For better or worse, the game is considered complete (minus a few heroes). And what better way to celebrate the launch of a hotly anticipated title than by throwing one of the biggest tournaments in all of competitive gaming? Welcome to The International.
The International 3 begins, prize pool over $2.8 million
Valve's The International 3 championships for DOTA 2 kicked off this week with a prize pool worth $2.8 million, the biggest for a single event in eSports history, Gamespot reported on Saturday. The event began on August 2 with a 1v1 Solo Championship and a Wild Card match. The roster for the Solo Championship and the upcoming All-Star match were chosen by fans using the Compendium, an interactive tool that rewards players with virtual item drops for predicting the outcome of matches. Each purchase of the $10 Compendium contributes $2.50 to the prize pool. Valve writer Ted Kosmatka tweeted that The International had 400,000 concurrent viewers during its first day. Riot's Season 2 Championship series for League of Legends peaked at 1.1 million concurrent viewers last year, making it the most-watched competitive gaming event of all time. The International's main event begins on August 7 and will conclude on August 11.
Here's where you can watch EVO 2013 this weekend
Want to watch top-tier competitors fight it out in Super Street Fighter IV, Injustice, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and other crowd favorites? International fighting game tournament EVO 2013 is being broadcast live from Las Vegas across a trio of streams this weekend, so you don't have to miss a minute of the action. Three main channels will feature different games throughout today and tomorrow: srkevo1, srkevo2, and srkevo3. Twitch offers its own dedicated hub for the event, and if your brain can process all three streams at once, fighting game community website Shoryuken suggests using Multitwitch. The three streams are also embedded after the break below. Finals will be broadcast via the srkevo1 channel on Sunday. The tournament will additionally be simulcast in Japanese, for overseas viewers. A full schedule of featured games is available here.
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.
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]
MU Rebirth begins beta sign-ups
Never get to attached to an upcoming game title in this industry, as it can change at the drop of a hat. Webzen has renamed MU Chronicle R to the somewhat-less-unwieldy MU Rebirth and announced that the title is now accepting sign-ups for its closed beta test. MU Rebirth is a remake of MU Online with a heavy PvP emphasis. The level cap will remain at 400, although Webzen says that it is significantly speeding up the leveling process so that players will hit that number in two hours. Yes, you read that right. This plays into the "rebirth" feature, which allows players to go back to level 1 while retaining gained stats. The closed beta test of MU Rebirth will run from July 3rd to the 10th. Webzen will be hosting a global PvP tournament during the test, although details for this contest are forthcoming. [Source: Webzen press release]
I went to a Dota 2 tournament and not one person called me a noob
There are many things you could say about people who play MOBAs. Most of those things would be negative. Games in the MOBA bracket, most notably League of Legends and Dota 2, have a reputation for being unkind to new players, both in terms of the mechanical skill required to play and the vitriolic communities that tear apart new players for not being instantly granted that skill upon downloading the game. Conduct in MOBAs is so awful that it has become a design issue. Riot Games created a Tribunal system that allows players to report the bad behavior of others, and Valve has done much the same thing. Every new developer showing off an in-development MOBA is at some point asked the question, "How are you going to deal with all the jerks?" Built-in mechanisms for handling abusive teammates and opponents are now considered mandatory features. There is no question that some MOBA players are bad apples. But something has always bothered me about the pigeonholing of these gamers into this negative space. Surely not all MOBA players are elitist snobs waiting to smack down any new player stupid enough to join a public match. Surely not all of these passionate gamers are horrible humans waiting in the dark to pounce on unsuspecting noobs with a barrage of verbal abuse; there have to be some friendly diamonds in the manure-piled rough. I swung by the first-ever Chicago Dota 2 Open, billed as the biggest open Dota 2 tournament in the Midwest, to find out.
