Blizzard Entertainment, once the birthplace of the modern MOBA thanks to Aeon of Strife and Defense of the Ancients , tried their hand at creating a MOBA with Heroes of the Storm Beginners of the Storm . Released in June of 2015 at the very height of MOBA popularity, HotS struggled to gain the same kind of following as its larger brethren. Although innovative and containing many changes to the core gameplay that made it both easier to learn and more "fun", HotS was plagued with poor monetization as well as technical and hero balance issues. Blizzard finally admitted defeat in December of 2018 by moving developers to other projects and canceling the game’s official tourname

It’s unclear whether universal control over games that operate under the catch-all domain of esports will ever exist. Escalating conflict between streaming platforms that compete for viewer attention certainly isn’t helping the case for unified growth. It’s also worth questioning whether universal control is even needed. Larger titles seem to be doing just fine supporting their own leagues. A 16-year-old just took home $3 million at the first-ever _ Fortnite _ World Cup, after

All this seems to indicate that the sun is setting on the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The latest genre to sweep the gaming world is the battle royale, which rose to prominence in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite . Other games are adding battle royale modes to their multiplayer options, while games like Apex Legends add battle-arena-like special abilities to the battle royale form

Amer "Miracle-" al-Barkawi is known across the world as one of the best professional Dota 2 players in the world, but during the MDL Disneyland Paris Major grand finals back in May, he truly lived up to his name. In the first game of the grand final match, Miracle- played to his assets and took down Team Secret four times that led to four rampages that won Team Liquid the g

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

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

Making headlines and defining this year is OG’s record-making win at the International 9 last August. The team became the first back-to-back winner, first team to win two Ti’s, became the highest-paid professional esport players in the world and achieved that with a clean slate of zero matches lost during the International 9. And of course won $15.6 million in the proc

The farming aficionado himself proved that on the right occasions, Dota 2 could be played and dominated by one person. Day 2 of the International 9's group stage's was where Artour "Arteezy" Babaev confirmed that not

TNC Predator made impressive achievements and left standard-setting records in their trails. The start of excellence began with the team’s roster change and introduction of two new players, Park "March" Tae-won and Damien "kpii" C

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 last year of the decade has undeniably been one of the best years since the game's birth. Records have been broken, and some made new, history has been forged, and the flourishing passion that makes up the community has never been more uncountable. But the story doesn't end here, with Dota 2 at unprecedented heights of success, it continues to climb alongside its professional counterpart, which speaks nothing but prosperity for its future in 2

In fact, the way that mana is handled in Legends of Runeterra is distinct from most other games. Up to three unspent mana in a turn is carried over as spell mana in the next turn, allowing for the potential to make complex plays. Normally other card games do not allow for this kind of mana banking and players want to be as efficient as possible with their tempo plays, and not spending all or most of one’s resources in a turn is often problematic. By allowing a portion of that unspent mana to be banked each turn, strategies around tempo shift considera