E-SPORTS E-SPORTS ARTICLES

The fourth major tournament of the 2018-19 season will take place next week when 16 teams from around the world vie for supremacy at MDL Disneyland Paris. There is a $1 million prize pool and 15,000 DPC Points to dish out, and every stage of the competition should be thrilling. The top teams are more concerned about the cash and the international glory, while the lesser teams are looking to collect the points they need to qualify for the most lucrative tournament in Esports, The International. T... 

We really haven’t covered the Overwatch League much in 2019. Most of our attention has been focused on League of Legends, but it’s time to make amends and look closely at the Overwatch League with the Stage 2 Playoffs rapidly approaching. Last week, the Overwatch League made history by moving outside its Los Angeles home for the first time ever in the regular season. Dallas was the site of eight matches, and the Dallas Fuel were the first team outside of Los Angeles to host a game. That has spar... 

The Mid Season Invitational is slated to start on May 1 as eight teams battle for as many as two spots in the main stage. Group A is the proverbial Group of Death. Play-In favorites Phong Vu Buffalo and 1907 Fenerbahce were drawn into the same group with two of the strongest teams from weaker regions in Bombers and Isurus Gaming. You could make the case that the four best teams in the Play-In Stage are those teams, and it’s a shame that only one has a chance to advance to face Team Liquid for a spot in the main stage. ... 

This year’s Mid-Season Invitational looks to be the most anticipated MSI ever. For the first time ever, the competition will take place in three cities instead of just one or two, and we should see some exciting matches as the rest of the world gets better and better. The champions from Korea and China are the big favorites, but for the first time ever, a team from the West has a real chance. The 2019 Mid-Season Invitational will have four stages and will take place over three weeks from May 1 to May 19. ... 

Three teams that were in Champions Korea in 2018 took part in the 2019 LCK Spring Split. They didn’t just hold their own, they dominated, and after Griffin finished the regular season with the best record while Sandbox Gaming and DAMWON Gaming made playoffs, there is plenty of attention on this year’s LCK Summer Promotion tournament.... 

No one expected JD Gaming to be here. We’ve seen teams run the gauntlet in China before, but those were teams we saw coming. Royal Never Give Up ran the gauntlet in the 2018 Spring Split to win the title and make it to the Mid-Season Invitational, yet that was something we considered somewhat likely after Uzi sat out most of the regular season and only joined the team closer to playoffs.... 

Team Liquid are out to win their third straight North American title. Liquid were the dominant domestic team in the region last season, and that has continued into this year with the squad finishing the regular season with the best record in the NA LCS. The last team to win three straight split titles was TSM, so it’s only natural that they would be the ones to have to stop Liquid from matching their mark. TSM are decent underdogs to do so, but they certainly have more than a fighting chance.... 

A new name has led to a new playoff format and the LEC will determine its champion over the course of two days this weekend. Last week, the top two teams in Europe met to see which team would get an automatic spot in the final. G2 ended up beating Origen 3-0 to grab the automatic spot, following through on a great regular season that led to them finishing as the No. 1 seed. That defeat wasn’t the end for Origen though, and they can once again meet G2 to determine Europe’s champion. However, they are hefty underdogs against Fnatic on Saturday. ... 

The chalk held up in the first round of the NA LCS Spring Split Playoffs, but it was close. Team SoloMid weren’t expected to drop a game against Echo Fox, but they lost the first game and were taken to 41 minutes in the decisive fourth game before advancing. The other series between FlyQuest and Golden Guardians was remarkably close. FlyQuest managed to knock off Golden Guardians in five games, but it was a coinflip series and Golden Guardians could have easily won instead.... 

The first week went according to script in the LEC Spring Split. I thought Team Vitality would be able to put up a fight against a red hot Fnatic team, but that turned out to be false. Fnatic smashed Vitality in all three games of a 3-0 sweep with Fnatic racking up 27 kills in under 22 minutes. The other series was more competitive, but not by too much. Splyce played their typical late-game style and cruised to a 3-1 win over SK Gaming.... 

Even though they are on a three-game losing streak heading into playoffs, Team Liquid are the odds-on favorite to win the 2019 NA LCS Spring Split. Liquid have been the best team in the region throughout the year, and no one is discounting their chances after their recent losing run. They already had the No. 1 seed in North America all wrapped up, and while they weren’t quite trolling in those last three games, they weren’t playing great team compositions either. Liquid are looking to win their ... 

After taking last week off, the first round of the 2019 LEC Spring Split Playoffs will kick off on Friday, March 29. In the first series of the weekend, defending champions Fnatic will look to avoid the upset when they face on a game Team Vitality side. Fnatic finished the year on an eight-game winning streak after a rocky start, but they have roared back like a champion. The second series will see Splyce take on newcomers SK Gaming after SK beat Schalke 04 in a tiebreaker to get here.... 

It took nearly the entire season to see separation among the middle of the pack in the LCS. Team Liquid has been the best team in the region all year long and just wrapped up the No. 1 seed last week. Cloud9 needs just one win to finish second and Team SoloMid will finish third, but the other three playoff spots were complete toss-ups prior to last week. Now, FlyQuest is in the playoffs and set to be either No. 4 or No. 5, and Golden Guardians is in a very good position to make the postseason. T... 

The six best teams in Europe are looking to prove their mettle and earn the right to travel to southeast Asia for the Mid-Season Invitational by winning the LEC Spring Split Playoffs. G2 and Fnatic are the two favorites as they have combined to win 11 of the 12 European titles since League of Legends was organized into the current regional system, but many will be looking to hop on Origen after a strong regular season that saw them finish second. Let’s look at each team heading into the start of... 

The top three spots in the NA LCS appear set with just two weeks left in the regular season. Team Liquid will almost certainly finish first in the region at 13-1 after sweeping Cloud9 last weekend. C9 are two games behind them and look set to grab the other first-round bye with an 11-3 record and a sweep of their own over Team SoloMid. As for TSM, they are likely stuck in third at 9-5, but in 2018, they would have loved to be in that position after underwhelming all year. FlyQuest are alone in f... 

The last week of the Spring Split regular season is sure to have a lot of excitement. All we know at the moment is that G2 have clinched the No. 1 seed, and Origen, Splyce, and Team Vitality have qualified for the playoffs. The last two playoff spots are up for grabs though. Fnatic, FC Schalke 04, Misfits, and SK Gaming are all gunning for those spots, and that will make Friday and Saturday do-or-die days. Fnatic and FC Schalke 04 have the inside track to those spots, but Misfits and SK Gaming a... 

There is a clear delineation between the haves and the have-nots in the NA LCS. Team Liquid and Cloud9 are the best teams in the league at 11-1 and 10-2, and they are all but guaranteed to earn the two first-round byes in the Spring Split Playoffs. Team SoloMid looks set to finish third with a record at 7-5, but the last three playoff spots are entirely up in the air. The other seven teams in the LCS are either 5-7 or 4-8, and teams will look to shake off the chains of mediocrity this weekend.... 

The playoff race in the LEC is going to be incredible to watch down the stretch. G2 has already locked up a spot (and the No. 1 seed in all likelihood), and Excel and Rogue aren’t going to make it. However, there are just two games between second place and eighth place in the LEC, and that means two teams are going to be incredibly disappointed and wonder where it all went wrong in a couple weeks. Team Vitality are likely in at 9-5 with games against Excel and Rogue left, but the other four pick... 

We are now two-thirds of the way through the first LEC Spring Split, and we likely know the fate of three teams. G2 is almost assuredly going to get the No. 1 seed with an 11-1 record and a three-game lead on second-place Team Vitality, while Rogue and Excel Gaming are both probably going to miss out on the playoffs with a 2-10 record at this point. That leaves seven teams jockeying for position with five playoff spots remaining, and no team wants to miss out now. This week’s matches should furt... 

The eight new Legends have been crowned, but only one team can win IEM XIII Katowice on Sunday. The quarterfinals of the event will kick off this Thursday with Natus Vincere taking on Faze Clan and Team Liquid facing Ence. They will continue on Friday with MIBR playing Renegades and Ninjas in Pyjamas looking to upset tournament favorite Astralis. Everyone playing at this point has guaranteed themselves at least $35,000, but all eight teams are out to start 2019 with a bang with a $500,000 first prize. ... 

We are starting to see some separation in the NA LCS. After a couple weeks of it being Team Liquid, Cloud9, and then everyone else, we now have some teams that have put themselves on different tiers than everyone else. For the most part, things have started to shake out like I thought they would. I thought Team Liquid and Cloud9 were clearly the two best teams in the region, and I believed that 100 Thieves were very overrated. However, there have been some definite surprises too, chief among the... 

Well…G2 won’t be finishing the regular season undefeated. After finishing up the first round robin undefeated and smashing most of their foes along the way, G2 were smashed themselves by Origen last week. Their Sylas pick fell flat and the bottom lane couldn’t muster a single kill in the defeat, leaving them with some adversity going into a break for the first time all season. They will look to get back to their winning ways, but they face a tough test from second place Schalke.... 

Through three weeks, we still don’t have a ton of separation in the NA LCS. Team Liquid is the region’s undisputed heavyweight and Cloud9 is looking like the top challenger, but the other eight teams are either 3-3 or 2-4. That should lead to some pretty even spreads, yet that’s not what we’re seeing from the oddsmakers. Only one game is classified as a relative toss up, as they continue to think teams will separate themselves. I think that’s a mistake, especially now that we’re experiencing big changes on Patch 9.3, and I’m loving the underdogs this week. ... 

We’re in a weird meta right now. During the LCK’s week off for the Lunar New Year, Riot dropped Patch 9.3 and made some significant changes. There have been major nerfs and buffs to a number of champions, but some of the ability changes have broken long-standing parts of the game. The ability to combine Frostfang and Kleptomancy together has made it so where some laners don’t have to worry about farming and don’t try to kill minions. Instead, they are constantly poking their enemy counterpart, a... 

It turns out that Team Liquid have been as dominant as everyone feared they might be. Liquid are the only undefeated team left in the NA LCS after two weeks of action, and they will be heavily favored in both of their matches this week. They are playing two mediocre teams in Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming, and they are close to a -400 favorite in each. The question going into this week is whether or not we will see some separation in the middle of the pack. There are current six teams that have 2-2 records. ...