Last fall, 24 teams from around the world competed for a near $5 million prize pool at the League of Legends World Championship. The finals were held in front of a sold-out, 20,000-person crowd at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France. An estimated 100 million more watched online. For reference, 98.2 million people tuned in for Super Bowl L
The game is very forgiving for players who are struggling as it rewards you regardless of how well you perform. For instance, if a player loses multiple rounds in a row they achieve a gold payout to help them win the next ro
However, they seem to be content to sit in the pit they’ve dug for themselves. The Blizzard of today seeks to execute an entirely different vision than the Blizzard of twenty, and even ten years ago. Past performance is often a strong indicator of future action, and if in the future Blizzard were to gut Hearthstone’s esports and development team to reinvest into Call of Duty and Candy Crush , there would be no reason to be surpri
There are a lot of different items in this game with varying tiers of power. The only way to get these items is to beat the creep rounds that pop up between matches. If you win you choose the item you want if you lose you are given a random i
With Aphelios’ 5 weapons, two teamfights will never play out the same. The way he wants listen to this podcast approach a full 5v5 or a small skirmish will depend on his current main and off-hand weapons. The Calibrum, Infernum, and Crescendum Moonlight Vigils are very strong during developing teamfights, especially in small areas. The AOE damage and healing can win fights single-handedly. He can also use the AOE crowd control from his Gravitum Moonlight Vigil to initiate or disengage a fi
Hearthstone has issues with its esports scene as well; mainly in that it seems unable to settle on the format for qualifying its players for competitions or to select the best format for its annual championships. This is understandable when a game releases – but it’s been five years now since launch. Since then, we have seen players qualifying through Blizzard sanctioned tournaments, then needing to qualify in four distinct seasons, and now there’s an overhaul of the previous tour system to a three-tiered sys
Ashe is the leader of the Avarosan tribe. Known as the Iceborn warmother, Ashe uses the magic of her people to wield Avarosa’s True Ice Bow. This bow allows her to apply frost to her enemies in order to slow them d
OG proclaimed by the community as the dream meme team set standards high, kept things interesting, and amassed a following of fans like no other. Their strive paid off, and with it, the earnings, pride, and hearts of those that believed around gathered to congratulate and commemorate another monumental moment in professional Dota 2 hist
Forwarding one month ahead, Miracle amazed the community once again at the Epicenter Major. The professional player one-shotted Roshan with Arc Warden with the help of an arcane rune to reduce the cooldown of his hero’s ability, Spark Wra
As official and fundamental as it sounds, OG’s rise to greatness started with odd compositions. The tournament went from the regular meta to hero nature bending builds, which led to surprising match wins. Most notable was Ana’s Core Build IO, which sustained and reigned alongside controlled neutral creeps. Ingeniously stumping enemy teams because of the irregular composition made it the highlight of the event. Ultimately, OG made it clear that they wanted to win fashionably and to have fun in the proc
Veirous Cosplay recreated an identical Darius costume that is just as intimidating. The Canadian cosplayer structured every last bit of armor down to the lion head shoulder blades. He even has his own Battleaxe p
One of the most important expenditures of gold is to upgrade your heroes. Upgraded heroes have better stats which allows them to live longer and deal more damage. To upgrade a hero you need to have three carbon copies of that hero in your reserves then sacrifice those heroes to upgrade the
To no one’s surprise, the long-awaited release of Starcraft II launched with esports as an integral part of Blizzard’s marketing strategy, and yet, it never reached those same peaks as its predeces
Noticing the popularity of the Auto Chess mod that was gaining ground with Dota fans, Valve decided to create an official version and capitalize on the market with Dota Underlords . The game has eight players go head to head tournament style on boards similar to chess. Players win by buying and upgrading heroes, using items, and implementing clever strateg
It’ll be difficult to get accustomed to Aphelios’ laning phase. He starts with Calibrum and Severum and doesn’t learn his Q until level 2, so depending on the lane players will need to adapt to two different playstyles. Summoners can either play aggressively to hit level 2 first, or be overly defensive and let the enemy laners push until Aphelios can get level 2 safely. What makes Aphelios strong is his versatility. Players will need to adjust their main and off-hand weapons of choice based on lane matchups. Use Calibrum (Sniper Rifle) when the lane favors poke and harass. Severum (Pistol) and Infernum (Flamethrower) are strong against defensive lanes giving Aphelios sustain and pushing power. Crescendum can be used to provide huge damage during a gank while the crowd control that Gravitum (Graviton Cannon) provides can be used both offensively and defensiv