E-SPORTS E-SPORTS ARTICLES

After the first day of Group A action, the favorite to come out of the group is in a hole. Rainbow7 was the odds-on favorite to emerge from this group heading into MSI, but the team is sitting at 1-2 and is in serious trouble. They need to win out and get some help from other teams in order to advance to the knockout round at this point. ... 

For the first time ever, perennial powerhouse SK Telecom T1 will not be taking part in the Mid-Season Invitational. SKT finished runner-up to Edward Gaming at the first MSI back in 2015 and won the event handily in both 2016 and 2017. ... 

There are some things that are constant in life. Death, taxes, and seeing Edward Gaming in the LPL Final. EDG was not expected to get back to the final after a rough start to the season. However, the team endured and ended up rallying despite having superstar Clearlove in the final for only a handful of games. ... 

This is the time of year when there is a lot going on in DOTA 2. The first major of the year came in late February, and the action has been fast and furious since that point. Epicenter XL will be the fourth premier tier tournament of the year in DOTA2, and it will also have a million-dollar prize pool. Twelve teams from around the world will duke it out to see who reigns supreme. The winner will get at least $350,000 for first-place as well as 750 DOTA Pro Circuit Points. This tournament is being held over a 10-day stretch in Moscow, ending on May 6, 2018. ... 

The playoff race is heating up as we’ve crossed the halfway point of the season in the Overwatch League. The New York Excelsior have a commanding lead on the rest of the league at 21-3, but the competition is fierce for the rest of the spots in the postseason. There is currently a four-way tie for second place, with three other teams within three games of second. That will lead to some incredible action down the stretch. Let’s take a look at some of the battles taking place in the East Division ... 

While most of the other major regions have already decided their winner for the Spring Split, the battles are continuing to rage in China. We are down to our final four teams, and this weekend we will have two semifinals series to determine who will compete in the LPL Grand Finals on Saturday, April 28.... 

Royal Never Give Up had a little bit of trouble dismissing Team World Elite in their playoff bout on Thursday, but the perennial Chinese powerhouse pulled through. RNGU got some excellent play out of xiaohu and Uzi in the mid and late game to end up with a sweep over Team WE.... 

The LCK gauntlet has gone as expected according to the seeds. SK Telecom T1 was able to beat KSV eSports before getting defeated 3-1 by KT Rolster. The way KT beat SKT led the oddsmakers to declare third-place KT the favorite over second-place Afreeca Freecs, but the Freecs showed their mettle by winning their first-ever playoff series in a 3-1 victory over KT.
... 

It’s time to crown a new champion in North America. After years of being ruled by one of three teams, either Team Liquid or 100 Thieves will win their first NA LCS crown and represent the region at the Mid-Season Invitational.For Team Liquid, this has been expected for quite some time. Liquid has continually poured money and resources into the team in hopes of success, but they have never been able to find the right combination until now.... 

You can argue that no region saw more surprising results than Europe during the Spring Split, but at the end of the day the two teams that most people expected to meet in the final did just that.
Fnatic was the favorite coming into the season and left no doubt that it was the better side facing Team Vitality in the semifinals. Fnatic was able to beat Vitality 3-1 thanks in part to a very good performance from Caps. That is great news for Fnatic who needed the mid laner to play well against Jiizuke. ... 

For the first time in the six years that the LCS system has been around, North America’s champion will not be one of three teams. Team SoloMid, Cloud9, and Counter Logic Gaming have dominated the arena over the past half-decade, combining to win all 10 championships that have been fought over. However, CLG was unable to make it to the playoffs and both TSM and C9 suffered defeats last weekend in the Quarterfinals.
... 

The Quarterfinals of the EU LCS Playoffs brought us some excitement, but in the end no upsets. Splyce was able to easily prevail over ROCCAT in a sweep, while H2K pushed Team Vitality to the edge before succumbing in the fifth and final game.
... 

Last Sunday gave us one of the wildest finishes we have ever seen in North American League of Legends. Due to the NA LCS switching over to a best-of-one format this year, the final standings had multiple ties, meaning that tiebreakers needed to be played in order to separate the teams. Over the course of a record five tiebreakers, everything was sorted out, as no seed was determined before these secondary matches. That led to a long night for every team involved.... 

The last week of the EU LCS Spring Split’s regular season was insane. Every team could potentially make the playoffs headed into the week, so it was sure to be one full of excitement and heartbreak. The games lived up to the billing. H2K completed a rally to go from worst to first, and Splyce and G2 ended up having to play a tiebreaker in order to determine who would get the second automatic bid into the EU LCS semifinals. After a season full of twists and turns, will the playoffs be more of the same?... 

The last week of the EU LCS Spring Split regular season is sure to be incredible. All 10 teams are still eligible to make the playoffs at this point, with six teams at either 7-9 or 6-10. Even though teams like H2K and Unicorns of Love were supposed to be awful as they were rebuilding, they have turned it around enough to still be competitive.... 

This is the penultimate week for the EU LCS Spring Split and everyone is still in position to make the playoffs. Six of the ten teams will make it to the playoffs and only two spots look sewn up at this point. G2 and Fnatic needed some time to get going, but they have looked like the top two teams in Europe over the last month.... 

The Overwatch League is back in action and we’re off to a great start after the first break. The signing period saw many teams make moves, with some of those new acquisitions making an instant impact in the first week of Stage Two. Former London Spitfire players Rascal and Fissure played key roles in their new teams’ wins, while aKM proved that he was the DPS player that the Dallas Fuel needed in order to start playing better. Will any of the other mid-season acquisitions reward their teams in Week Two?... 

After a short break, the Overwatch League is back in action. We have already seen some thrilling gameplay this week as new roster additions and new maps have shaken up the status quo. On Thursday, the Houston Outlaws upended the London Spitfire 3-2 in a thrilling series, while later in the day, Philadelphia Fusion’s new addition Eqo showed that he could play with the best in the world. Thanks to some fantastic Genji play, he helped Philadelphia dominate the Boston Uprising on the first map en route to a 4-0 sweep.... 

No one expected Team Vitality to be the team to beat in Europe at this stage of the season. Vitality is 7-1 and two games ahead of the field in the EU LCS near the halfway point of the season. Jiizuke is the toast of the league with incredible performances on an array of champions. He has outplayed almost every mid laner that is considered elite in Europe at this point, but faces his toughest challenge yet this week. If Vitality are able to defeat G2, the current Kings of Europe, it’s hard to not consider them the favorite to take down the Spring Split title.... 

The moment we were hoping for has finally arrived. Seoul’s loss to the Los Angeles Valiant on Wednesday night blew the door wide open for the last spot in the Stage One Playoffs. With a win, Seoul could have all but locked up the spot, but the loss opens the door to a five-way race over the last few days.... 

This is the penultimate week of the First Stage of the Overwatch League. Last week was rife with upsets as Seoul, London, and New York all suffered their first losses of the season. However, that wasn’t enough to shake up the top of the standings, as all three are still at the top of the table at 5-1.... 

Through the first two weeks of the first stage of the Overwatch League, one thing is clear. The Korean teams are just as good as we were led to believe. The Seoul Dynasty, London Spitfire, and New York Excelsior are all undefeated at the top of the table. There is a clear gap between those teams and the rest of the OWL, but one of them is bound to lose their first game on Friday. That’s when the Seoul Dynasty and New York Excelsior square off for the first time this season.... 

There isn’t a game hotter than Overwatch right now. The first week of the Overwatch League posted impressive viewership numbers, and it looks like Blizzard’s gamble may have paid off.In Week One, the chalk held up for the most part. The Philadelphia Fusion and Boston Uprising were the only two underdogs that won, and neither team was too big of an underdog on the betting line. Will the second week of action have something different in store?... 

The top dogs of League of Legends are set to get started in just a few days. The LCK Korea Spring Split has already given us some big news with defending world champions Samsung Galaxy being bought out by KSV eSports. Samsung falling under such a huge brand will give it the resources necessary to remain competitive in the arms race that is Korean League of Legends.... 

In just two weeks, the EU LCS Spring Split will start. There has been a major shake-up in the region. The lack of franchising and instability has meant that many of the European teams lost their top players to teams in other regions. While a couple teams were able to put together pretty strong rosters, many of the usual contenders have some major question marks. Many are already calling for Europe to be the weakest of the major regions, yet that’s not going to stop these teams from duking it out over the next three months....