E-SPORTS E-SPORTS ARTICLES

The CS:GO season will come to a close with one final event in lovely Cancun this week. Eight of the best teams from around the world will take part in ECS Season 4 from Friday to Sunday with more than just pride on the line. This is the last chance that each team will have to earn some nice money right before Christmas with $750,000 up for grabs in this one. FaZe is the big favorite heading into this one based on its track record as of late, but there are some teams capable of knocking them off. Let’s take a look at some of the matches in the first day of action.... 

The Koreans have dropped a game at All-Stars. For the first time ever, Korea looks vulnerable as the top team in the world and the LCK might not win the All-Star Tournament. Sure, this is largely an exhibition, but the Koreans are usually so talented that they roll right over every other team. The LCK All-Stars fell to the LMS All-Stars as Zoe went through the ban phase and FoFo first picked it. The new overpowered champion was hard to stop and Faker was unable to do much against her on Taliyah. She should be banned out all day on Friday unless teams want to continue to experiment with or against her.... 

Over the last two weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity as teams shuffle their lineups in preparation for the 2018 League of Legends season. The franchising model in North America has brought even greater attention and more talent to the region, while the lack of something similar in Europe has thrown that region into chaos. Some of the biggest teams in the EU have yet to sign full rosters and some of the top talent has fled the region as a result. That will make Europe the weakest of the major regions this season, and is something to keep an eye on going forward. Now, let’s take a look at some of the key moves so far.... 

One of the last premier CS:GO tournaments of the year will take place in Odense, Denmark in about two weeks. The best teams in the world will gather in this idyllic European city to see who will take home $225,000 of a $750,000 prize pool. FaZe and SK Gaming are the two favorites to no one’s surprise with hometown favorites Astralis not far behind.... 

Although Perfect World Masters is defined as a Minor, a decent-sized prize pool and the chance to earn qualification points for The International has brought many of the top teams in DOTA 2 to this event. Although the Chinese sides are the overwhelming favorites in this tournament, there are some other squads like Team Secret and Mineski that can upset the apple cart and disappoint the Shanghai crowd. This tournament will be a week long and with a $300,000 prize pool, we are guaranteed to see some quality action.At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!... 

There’s plenty of buzz for the inaugural Overwatch League set to kick off in January 2018 and last seven months. The high price tag for a franchise coupled with the backing of Blizzard and a who’s who list of owners has brought eSports into the forefront. Even Forbes is writing articles about the potential of the Overwatch League and its ability to grow because of its use of traditional sports ideas. This will also be the first truly international sports league with teams from the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and China taking part. With this much buzz, there’s already betting lines available so let’s take a look at who to bet on and who to go against.At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!... 

The biggest moment of the year in eSports is upon us. After over a month of action in four former Olympic venues around China, the League of Legends World Championship is set to take place at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing early Saturday morning. SK Telecom T1 is looking to put a hard stamp on its title of best team of all-time, while Samsung Galaxy is aiming to keep their Korean rivals from becoming the first team to ever threepeat. This is sure to be an exciting finale and there will be plenty of hype in the buildup to the final.... 

As for Team World Elite, they have not been the team that we expected. Although they had to advance through the qualifier in order to get to the Group Stage, they were the non-Korean team with the best odds to take down the title. They had a lot of trouble against Cloud9 in the Quarterfinals though and would have lost to a better team.At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!... 

The biggest mismatch of the Quarterfinals will take place early Friday morning in China when the reigning champions take on a team that few believed would get to the knockout stage. SK Telecom T1 is the most decorated team in League of Legends history. The Korean superstars have won three of the last four World Championships and were the favorites to win it all coming into this year’s event. They are still the favorite according to the oddsmakers and are expected to cruise here.Misfits are heavy underdogs. This is the first time the European squad made it to Worlds and they raised eyebrows when they outperformed North America’s best team in Team SoloMid and Taiwan’s best team in Flash Wolves. They don’t have near the talent that SKT does, but do have one superstar on the team.... 

The first leg of Group D action was fascinating last week, and we can only hope for more of the same during the second leg on Saturday morning. Misfits, Team SoloMid, and Team World Elite are all tied at 2-1 in the group heading into Saturday’s matches. While TSM and Team WE were the two favorites and were expected to be in this spot, Misfits inclusion here in place of Flash Wolves is the most surprising development of the first week of games. Of the three European teams here at Worlds, Misfits were considered the weakest, so seeing them with more kills than Fnatic and G2 combined is quite surprising.... 

There’s still time left for teams to rally at the League of Legends World Championship, but the sands are slipping through the hourglass. Because of the nature of the tournament, teams will play half of their matches on the last day, so that will be the most important time to succeed. However, teams have to get themselves in good shape first with some solid performances over the next couple days. What will happen on the third day of action at the 2017 League of Legends World Championships?... 

Ahq e-Sports have been unable to best Flash Wolves in recent years, getting knocked out by the four-time LMS champions in each of the last four seasons. Still, they continue to qualify thanks to points, just like they did this season.In their past three World Championships, ahq e-Sports have went 3-3 in the Group Stage, and that was good enough to get them to the Quarterfinals back in 2015. This year, 3-3 would be considered an incredible feat in a group with SK Telecom T1, Edward Gaming, and Cloud9.... 

They swept Royal Never Give Up in the finals and were considered the third favorite to win the 2016 World Championship. However, they were upset by Brazilian upstarts INTZ e-Sports in their very first game and ended up finishing second in the group to H2K. That meant a date in the knockout rounds with ROX Tigers who efficiently dismissed the Chinese champions in the Quarterfinals.EDG doesn’t have the same high expectations heading into this year’s World Championship, but is still considered one of the favorites. They again won the Summer Split Championship, knocking off RNGU 3-2 in the finals, and will be a favorite to make it out of Group A alongside SK Telecom T1.... 

Fenerbahce doesn’t have any history, but did make some on the way to Worlds. They started by knocking off long-time Turkish champs BAU SuperMassive in the TCL in order to reach the Play-In Stage. Luck intervened when they were drawn into a group with the weakest team from a major region, Hong Kong Attitude.Fenerbahce was able to win the group by beating Hong Kong Attitude in two of its three matches, thus earning the right to play against a second-place team from another group. They were paired against Team oNe eSports and beat the Brazilian champions 3-1 in order to make it to the Group Stage.... 

Success has eluded this team on the international stage though. Last year, G2 was abysmal at both the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship, combining to go 3-13 in those two tournaments. Even worse, none of those three wins were against teams from major regions as the two wins at MSI came against BAU SuperMassive and the one win at Worlds came against Albus NoX Luna.This season, things went a little bit better for G2 at the Mid-Season Invitational. They went just 4-6 in the Group Stage, but knocked off Flash Wolves twice and split with GIGABYTE Marines and Team SoloMid. In the knockout round, they shocked everyone by defeating Team World Elite and even took a game off of SK Telecom T1 in the finals. They are hoping to take the next step at this year’s Worlds and at least win their group.... 

This last split was a trying one for Misfits. They finished 6-7 and barely made it to the playoffs. However, instead of getting bounced early, this team played its best League of Legends ever in the playoffs.Misfits surprised everyone by sweeping Unicorns of Love in the Quarterfinals and then followed that up with a stunning upset of Fnatic in the Semifinals. They ended up being swept themselves by G2 in the Finals, but the win gave them enough points to automatically qualify for Worlds.... 

Last season, Samsung Galaxy entered Worlds as the ‘other’ Korean team, and were almost an afterthought. They had to go to a decisive fifth game against KT Rolster to make it to Worlds and weren’t considered the equals of SK Telecom T1 or ROX Tigers.They proved they were one of the best teams though and in doing so showed just how far ahead Korea was as a region compared to everyone else in League of Legends. Samsung was able to win their group and then swept Cloud9 and H2K in order to reach the finals. There, they lost 3-2 to SKT in an extremely tight series.... 

Earlier this year, they finished behind the representatives from the four other major regions at the Mid-Season Invitational with a 4-6 Record in the MSI Group Stage. That led to them not getting a Pool 1 seed and meant that they would get stuck in the same group as a champion from one of the stronger regions.It looked like TSM had lucked out when the groups were first announced. They were placed into the group with the weakest champion in LMS champion Flash Wolves and European newcomers Misfits. However, that group got turned on its head when Team World Elite was drawn into the group and now TSM are once again staring down the barrel of an early exit at Worlds.... 

This has been the best team in China in 2017. Although they had to go through the regional qualifier and the Play-In Stage in order to get to Worlds after losing to Royal Never Give Up 3-2 in the Summer Split semifinals, they were great in the regular season and are battle tested on the international stage.By virtue of winning the Spring Split Playoffs, Team WE qualified for the Mid-Season Invitational and shined in Brazil. Team WE went 7-3 in Group Stage and beat every other team present at least once. They crashed out in the MSI Semifinals, but came back strong again at Rift Rivals. There, they beat Flash Wolves and SK Telecom T1 to help China beat Korea and Taiwan.... 

SK Telecom T1 may have won this year’s Mid-Season Invitational, but the talk of the tournament was the GIGABYTE Marines. The representatives from the GPL were not expected to do much at the Mid-Season Invitational, much less be the qualifier out of the Play-In Stage. However, they were fantastic in the Play-In Group Stage, winning their first five matches to earn the right to take on BAU SuperMassive for a spot in the Group Stage.... 

Flash Wolves have dominated the LMS these last two years. They have now won four straight domestic championships, only dropping one game in the process. Flash Wolves set a new standard during the 2017 LMS Spring Split, going undefeated through the regular season before beating ahq e-Sports for yet another title.... 

Fnatic is one of the blue bloods of League of Legends. They won the first ever recognized World Championship back in 2011 and made the semifinals in 2013 and 2015. They have made Worlds in six of its seven seasons, but missed out for the first time ever last year.... 

Cloud9 has its work cut out for it if it is going to return to the Quarterfinals at Worlds. Last year, Cloud9 turned heads by coming in second place in a group that included SK Telecom T1, Taiwanese champions Flash Wolves, and Chinese heavyweights IMay. They may have been swept by Samsung Galaxy in the Quarterfinals, but they were the one North American team that made it out of the Group Stage and did the region proud.... 

Surprise, surprise. The greatest team in League of Legends history is the favorite to win another World Championship. SK Telecom T1 has won three of the last four titles and is a slight favorite over compatriots Longzhu Gaming and Samsung Galaxy to claim this their fourth title in five years.... 

Last year, Immortals were regular season wonders only. They were phenomenal in both the Spring Split and Summer Split in 2016, going a combined 33-3 and looking like an unstoppable freight train in those games. Something happened to this team when it came time for the playoffs though. They were bounced in the semifinals by Team SoloMid in spring and Cloud9 in summer and that forced them to have to go through the North American Qualifier in order to make Worlds....