With one leading directly into the other. The Rainbow Six Summer Series is a new month-long series commencing January 19 that will encompass an online single elimination affair. Open to teams over the age of 15, all ANZ Pro League Season 9 teams will be eligible and invited to participate. All remaining slots to be filled by the best teams from the PC Go4 tournament on January 13.
As one of the biggest local esports events it should come as no surprise that the Intel Extreme Masters will return to Sydney in 2019 - bigger and better. Thanks in part to the continued partnership between Intel and ESL, which will see a massive $100 investment from the pair to "shape the future landscape of esports through innovative technology, tournaments, and events".
Alongside the first major Smash Bros Ultimate tournament for the freshly released hit. Plus many more fighting games, community activities for all ages and player skill, and an exclusive early version of Dead or Alive 6 to play. The main draw of course is the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour, where players from Japan, Singapore, the USA, and ANZ will go head-to-head.
With seasonal esports now a major thing with established teams, events and a list of games working to continue to legitimise the burgeoning competitive gaming space, a few titles standout as industry leaders. Today one such game, Overwatch, which won Best Esports Game at The Game Awards, has had its upcoming regular season schedule revealed as we close in on 2019, with tickets also now available for purchase.
That will encompass competitions for both Magic: The Gathering Arena esports and tabletop Magic competitive play - with a $10 million prize pool. Called the Magic Pro League (MPL), it will feature 32 of the top Magic players from around the world for Arena play. In addition to this Mythic Championship events will also introduce classic tabletop play.
Razer's Kraken line sits somewhere in the middle in terms of price-range, it's certainly not budget nor is it something that sits on the higher end of the audiophile spectrum. That said the new Razer Kraken Tournament Edition, reviewed in the bright Razer-green colour scheme, transcends its price point to offer great sound across a range of activities. Including being taken on the go, when not in THX Windows 10 PC mode.
With their captain hospitalised just hours before boarding the plane to Rio de Janeiro where the Season 8 Invitational would be taking place at Jeunesse Arena in the Olympic Park, Aussie Rainbow Six Siege team FNATIC caused a massive upset, defeating North America's Evil Geniuses, breaking into the top four of an international competition for the first time.
With both games scoring eight nominations each, including the Game of the Year - where we could honestly see it going either way. That being said it has been a fantastic year for games with both Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and indie darling Celeste snagging four nominations each, alongside seven for Marvel's Spider-Man and three for Capcom's Monster Hunter: World.
A name that has been around for over two decades, we go through the history of Alienware, the rise of esports, and becoming the market leader with co-founder Frank Azor.
With Australian team FNATIC representing the ANZ region after putting in a strong performance at PAX Australia where they defeated Japanese rivals NORA-Rengo 2-1. Although their Quarter Final match up is against the first-seed North American team Evil Geniuses, the Aussies have been performing well this year and definitely have what it takes to go far in the finals.
For the third consecutive year, which will see the best CS:GO teams in the world battle it out at Qudos Bank Arena, May 3-5 2019 - competing to take their share of the impressive $250,000 USD prize pool. This is a major win for Australian esports as IEM Sydney 2019 will be host to the second CSGO Intel Grand Slam event of the year.
Ahead of the League of Legends: League of Origin this November 17, the best players from the ANZ region made the trek to the Esports High Performance Centre at the Sydney Cricket Ground to train. And announce the captains for each team ahead of the playoffs this weekend at Riot Games studio in Sydney.
Paris Eternal and Guangzhou Charge. With the Guangzhou Charge representing a home region that encompasses the Guangdong-Hong-Kong Macau Greater Bay Area of China. And Paris, representing snooty France. The land of the baguette.
And no, he won't be playing, rather he'll be investing. He's doing it as part of an investor group who are currently funding Team Liquid, the parent company behind aXiomatic.
With both teams set to make their debut in the 2019 Overwatch League Season kicking off February 15 AEDT/NZDT next year. Weirdly both teams are sporting a black and red colour combination, which is probably just a coincidence - as both teams home cities are pretty far apart geographically.
With Hearthstone Global Games, Heroes Global Championship Finals, Overwatch World Cup Finals, StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals, and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship - BlizzCon 2018 is going to be another huge year for esports. And with five Australian and New Zealand teams competing, that's just one more reason to tune in.
At the Extremeland Zowie Asia tournament in Shanghai, China, CS: GO and OpTic India player Nikhil 'Forsaken' Kumawat was caught cheating and using an auto-aim hack during a match-up against Vietnamese team Revolution. Once officials grew suspicious and began looking at Forsaken's PC he attempted to delete the hack before it was found.
Pitting state against state in sport is something that Australians know all too well. Sure, when it comes to international competition we all stand behind the green and gold as one, but locally, it's Victoria or nothing. Or NSW. Or QLD. Or, the other guys. After a successful run last year, Riot Games is now partnering with the AFL to bring back League of Legends: League of Origin on November 17.
With the best League of Legends teams in the world set to compete live from Incheon, Korea early next month, Event Cinemas is set to bring all the action to the big screen in select cities across the country. With tickets only $15, added goodies like an in-game skin and bonus swag bag make this something LoL fans will want to pencil in their calendars.
Which was inevitable thanks to the addition of eight expansion teams coming to next year's competition - scheduled to kick off on Friday 15 February, 2019. The new Overwatch League teams will join the two existing divisions with Paris, Toronto, Washington D.C. and Atlanta joining the Atlantic Division, and Vancouver, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Hangzhou joining the Pacific Division.