With Season 4 of the StarCraft II WCS ANZ competition set to conclude this weekend live at Sydney ESL Studios, Daniel 'Deth' Haynes continues to bring us all up to date with the action so far. Even though it breaks my heart to see a fleet of Protoss Void Rays go down in flames like in the clip below.
The core Battlefield experience, where large teams fight it out on a sprawling map, isn't the sort of thing that translates well into a competitive esport. Mainly because it's unpredictable, with individual and squad performance sometimes not really factoring into the overall score. Because, it isn't always about that. And so DICE and EA have spent considerable time creating Incursions, which is every bit Battlefield 1's competitive esports mode.
Where Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans across Australia and New Zealand can qualify for the global esports tournament brought to you by ASUS. Which, has a prize pool of $500,000 USD. Not too shabby. The ASUS Republic of Gamers ROG Masters Qualifiers will pave the way for one team each in CS:GO and Dota 2 to represent ANZ at the Grand Finals in November.
With Season 4 of the StarCraft II WCS ANZ competition set to conclude this weekend live at Sydney ESL Studios, Daniel 'Deth' Haynes brings us up to date with all the action so far. With Season 3 top players Sean 'Probe' Kempen and Ethan 'iaguz' Zugai already through, an additional six slots were open for players to try and get through.
Wow, that definitely came out wrong. But, the sentiment is this - the Overwatch Pacific Championship (OPC) is returning, starting today, and broadcasting every Friday for Season 2. Teams from Japan, South Korea, Australia, and more will be once again battling it out live every week from Blizzard's impressive Estadium in Taipei.
With all the Rainbow Six Siege action to be streamed at twitch.tv/rainbow6. After five weeks of intense competition the Grand Final will see teams ATHLETICO and CORVIDAE face off for the title of ANZ Champions 2017. The live studio final will begin at 5.30pm on Saturday.
Another major esports season of competition wrapped up over the weekend with OpTic Gaming finishing in first place at the 2017 Call of Duty World League Championship. For those familiar with the name, OpTic are one of the premiere teams when it comes to competitive shooting. But that didn't stop the final match-up with Team EnVyUs providing some thrilling moments.
Winning a staggering $10.8 million USD, from the largest prize pool ever amassed for a global esports event - $24.5 million USD. Yeah, competitive Dota 2 be popular. And exciting to watch too, with over 4.7 million people tuning in to stream the event from across the globe. In addition to the sell-out crowd in Seattle.
Which means it's time to party like it's 1999! Assuming of course you put of playing the original a year because it came out in 1998. Anyway, the point is that the fantastic 4K widescreen remaster of Blizzard's classic sci-fi RTS, StarCraft, is now available! And best of all it includes both StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War expansion in addition to matchmaking, leader-boards, and player profiles.
Yeah, a surprise Elon Musk appearance anywhere means that some serious future science is about to go down. And his appearance over the weekend at the Dota 2 International came in the form of a fancy OpenAI bot that was able to beat one of the world's best players in 1v1 standard tournament rules.
With Jack Etienne of Cloud9 purchasing the team for London, and sports industry leaders Stan and Josh Kroenke purchasing the team for Los Angeles. This comes after last month's announcement of the first seven cities and teams. And the beginning of a steady stream of Overwatch League news as the massive and exciting esports endeavor ramps up for its inaugural season of competition.
With Aussie StarCraft legends, Legionnaire and mOOnGLaDe, set to play an exhibition match to celebrate the release of StarCraft: Remastered on August 15. The StarCraft II WCS ANZ Challenger Season 4 Finals are all set to take place once again at ESL Studios in Sydney on August 26. Where, in addition to all the great local StarCraft II action one lucky audience member will get the chance to win a trip to Seoul, Korea.
Live all week from Orlando, Florida. As one of the largest esports currently in the industry 2017 saw a staggering 19,000 Call of Duty players compete for their chance to be on one of the 32 teams have facing off at the championship kicking off at the Amway Center this week with a $1,500,000 prize pool up for grabs. And even with such a huge volume of talent Australia and New Zealand will be represented by teams MindFreak, MindFreak.Black and Tainted Minds.
At The Intertantional, the major Dota 2 esports tournament currently taking place in Seattle all week, Valve took the time to announce a brand new game it has in the works for 2018 called Artifact. Now, before you get too excited thinking it might be something to fill the gap left by Half-Life or Portal the full working title is Artifact: The Dota Card Game. Yeah, a CCG for Dota along the lines of Blizzard's Hearthstone and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
Which will explore "how the video game Call of Duty grew into one of the biggest global entertainment franchise blockbusters of all time". The film, from Devolver Digital Films will make its VOD debut on September 19. Strangely, as per the trailer after the jump, it has been created without any involvement or consent from Activision. Which means it should be less of a promotional piece and more of a documentary.
Where, a whopping $1,000,000 USD prize pool will be up for grabs. For those that posses an almost superhuman ability to strafe, shoot, and jump and react faster than some sort of FPS-playing robot that is. The Quake World Championships are being held at QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas, August 25-28 AEST with Dan "Astroboy" qualifying for his spot at the North American regional last weekend.
Called The Next Gamer, it will broadcast on YouTube where 10 players will reside in a Sydney house and battle it out to get a spot on one of Australia's best League of Legends teams. Applications are coming soon so be sure to bookmark this page. And as per most reality competition shows expect challenges to also come in the form on non-LoL activities that will test "mental fortitude, physical fitness, and teamwork".
As the Invitational draws closer, DOTA 2 has received a new update aimed at newcomers. Which is great news because trying to learn the ropes of an already established and popular MOBA can be quite the daunting task. The update itself sounds great too, covering what could be seen as the biggest obstacles or hurdles for new players.
With a sizable USD $70,000 of the even more sizable USD $350,000 Paladins Global Series committed to players in Australia and New Zealand. For those that need a reminder the Global Series is a tournament aimed at aspiring Paladins players from across the globe, and will consist of 10 monthly tournaments.
A few weeks ago Blizzard revealed the first seven cities that were joining the upcoming Overwatch League - which is still on track to commence later this year. Basically, it's an esports endeavor that is aiming to follow in the footsteps of some of the biggest sporting leagues in the world like the NBA and NFL. And now, we've got new juicy details about players, salaries, and team structure.