Eight months later, we can say with absolute certainty that the statement was grown in the deepest levels of Blizzard’s PR dungeon, sprinkled with the highest quality of Corporate brand bullshit, and masked with enough perfume so as to hide its decaying stench long enough for people to forget about the whole thing. Two heroes have been released, and a number of events that focus on selling skins are all players have been given, and there is no reason to expect anything m

San Francisco Shock star Jay "sinatraa" Won took over the _ Overwatch _ League in 2019. Remaining consistent through meta and rule changes, the 19-year-old damage player earned his spot on everyone’s _ Overwatch _ radar. The San Francisco Shock reached the Grand Final of each Overwatch League stage in Season 2, and won stage 2 over the Vancouver Titans. Once in the postseason play-offs, the Shock suffered an unexpected early loss to Atlanta Reign. Led by sinatraa, the team went on an incredible lower bracket run to the Grand Final. Their dominance continued in the Final, where Shock came out victorious with a 4-0 scoreline. Along with the _ Overwatch _ League, sinatraa aided Team USA in a victory at the _ Overwatch _ World Cup. Sinatraa was named the MVP of both the _ Overwatch _ League and the _ Overwatch _ World Cup. The standards the 19-year-old set this year will live on in _ Overwatch _ ’s esports hist

Those who think esports occupy a small, forgettable faction of the entertainment industry are unequivocally and undeniably wrong. Esports may seem small due to a lack of mainstream coverage, but the budding industry is a global phenomenon with a fanbase in the hundreds of millions. Still, esports continues to be difficult to wa

DOTA2 's hero pool is full of counters and somewhat well-balanced heroes. Each patch usually introduces pretty major changes to the game, but players are never tied to a certain meta. Because the game isn't just decided on meta heroes but micro-level plays, items, builds and such, you can successfully run almost any composit

But it’s mostly a farce. Those who play the most popular games at the highest level get all the limelight and all the cash. For everyone else, streaming—where personality trumps skill—is the only way to make money from gaming. If the community stays as segmented and hastily constructed as it is, it’s tough to imagine esports becoming anything better than what it already is. If you’re happy with the current state of esports, good for you. But for someone who wants a more entertaining and structured esports community, something has to cha

However, while it's easy to understand the game and get into it, it's still a complex MOBA title and will be extremely difficult to master. The good news is, your learning curve won't be as steep to climb as in DOT

As 2019 comes to a close, esports fans are left to reflect on the best competitive moments of the past year. Jaw-dropping plays, unbelievable tournament runs, and shocking levels of consistency from the world’s best players. Five of the biggest esports titles saw their biggest talents rise to the top, taking their rightful places as some of the best players in the wo

It took years for any manner of reconciliation to occur. Even then, it was purely done for business reasons, resulting in all teams playing in the Proleague as the main space for competition. This merging into one space over-saturating the player market: since there were many more teams vying for the top spots and sponsorship, large numbers of popular players retired and many fans lost interest as their favorites left The Mageseeker boss guide sc

There is perhaps one main reason that Starcraft II failed to reach the same monuments levels of popularity. First, there was conflict from the beginning in regards to the ownership of Intellectual Property Rights with the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA), and the corresponding ability to broadcast the g

_ Counter-Strike _ ’s Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut made a splash in 2019, lighting up scoreboards with a consistent form that rivals the game’s best historic talents. The 19-year-old star debuted with Vitality in late 2018, and immediately turned heads as the newest French star. Following in the footsteps of legendary AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, ZywOo took over every server he played on . In 2019 alone, ZywOo lifted trophies at cs_summit 4, the ECS Season 7 Finals, and EPICENTER 2019, earning the MVP accolade at each event. Vitality also reached the Grand Finals of ESL One Cologne and DreamHack Masters Malmö, and, despite losses, the teenager was named MVP of both tournaments. ZywOo boasts staggering statistics, having maintained a 1.31 rating for big LAN events in 2019. His consistent performances this year place him among _ Counter-Strike _ ’s very best, and this is only the beginning of his car

That might've been where it ended but for another custom map in yet another Blizzard real-time strategy game called Defense of the Ancients . The general idea for Defense of the Ancients (which was soon shorted to just DOTA ) was basically the same as Aeon of Strife , only DOTA utilized Warcraft III 's new hero units to full effect. The map also added purchasing items, expanded hero skills, and various neutral encampments that could be killed in order to gain an economic advantage over the opposite side at the risk of being caught between a belligerent mercenary camp and an ambushing en