After playing several hours of Genesis , I have this vague desire to play more. I don’t totally credit that to anything unique to Genesis , however. The simplified experience is nice in some ways. I didn’t use voice chat, and there’s obviously no text chat, so other players couldn’t be toxic without going out of the way to send PMs, which didn’t happen. The connection was surprisingly stable even on wi-fi. It was also nice to play a MOBA without a definitive meta, with beginners who are just there to have fun (and don’t have the map awareness to avoid my gan
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
Riot Games has launched a beta for its new online collectible card game (CCG), Legends of Runeterra . Players are flocking to try it for themselves, and some are wondering how Best HotS heroes to play the game since it offers some large innovative designs over similar ga
Those are the basic details Ranked Leagues. If you are getting kills and finishing in at least the top te, you’ll be earning RP and climbing through the ranks. The entry cost gets more expensive as you climb, and the amount of RP required to reach the next division increases as well. Reaching Apex Predator will be no small feat, but with enough time and dedication, it can be d
Still, esports is often treated like one entity. In reality, individual games play out more like anthologies—unconnected by the umbrella term that defines them. Like a thin layer of algae on the surface of an abandoned pool, esports as a title masks the diverse ecosystem that exists beneath the surface, suffocating its variety and preventing outsiders from getting in the water. Even if you are a huge fan of one title, other games remain largely uninteresting and impossible to watch. As a result, can anyone really call themselves a fan of espo
Along those lines, Respawn has also detailed their policy of loss forgiveness for this series. This applies to any match where you would normally finish at a net negative, but the loss was potentially due to something outside of your control. Respawn defines these situations as when match made teammates leave the game early, client errors, and “other cases where we determine you are not to blame for leaving the ga
Coverage is bad because esports are hard to watch, not the other way around. It all stems from an inability to produce universal coverage. Too much diversity or segmented viewership may not seem like an issue on the surface, but it is. Maybe you’re simply saying “well, no one is asking you to watch every esport,” and that’s fair. Maybe communities are fine existing in their own worlds—far out of the reach of other gaming communities. But it does create a barrier for the industry to break into mainstream entertainm
Season 2 of Apex Legends is here and with it comes a brand new ranked mode called Ranked Leagues. In Ranked Leagues, you gain points for your success, earn new and better titles as you progress, and once and for all show your squad mates who is the real al
Building up your hero is automated by default. If you don’t “pre-order” a late-game item, the game will prompt you to buy the next affordable recommended item as soon as you have the gold. When you level up, the game will automatically apply a point to an ability. Since you can’t freely choose targets with a mouse pointer, there’s a priority system. With a click of the left stick, your hero will cycle between targeting creeps, structures, or enemy heroes. It’s all streamlined, designed for console players who probably never played a PC MOBA. Fortunately for experienced players, it can all be turned off. Well, except for the game pad controls. The devs are planning to eventually put Genesis on PC, but have stated that they don’t plan on incorporating mouse and keyboard contr
The biggest change is the addition of a win condition. Either team could destroy the opposing base to claim victory, but they can also just get 60 kills. The idea, I imagine, is to stop that endgame drag that always happens in close matches. Both sides hunker down in their bases, carefully turning back creep tides and maybe jungling. But mostly they play it safe, retreating the moment a team fight seems to be going bad. It’s tedious, boring, and only amplifies post-match toxicity because the stalemate usually ends when someone gets antsy and gives up a team fight. In Genesis, you can play it safe all you want but one side will eventually get 60 kills. In theory. In my 6-7 hours of play this only happened once. That match still went on a little too long. So while the ultimatum does pressure teams to actually push lanes, it isn’t a complete cure for turtl