Called Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back, the internet has decided that the return of a middling platformer starring a bobcat from the 16-bit era is another case of nostalgia gone bad, or one step too far. This new Bubsy, the fourth or fifth game in the series, also sees the return of publisher Accolade. Well, the name at least. For us at AusGamers though, we see this as the return of the original esport.
As part of this year's Overwatch World Cup, which will once again culminate in the finals held at BlizzCon, one of the Group Stage events is coming to Sydney next month. From July 21-23 the Star Event Centre in Sydney will play host to the Group Stage qualifier that includes Australia.
Naturally. Because when it comes to Australia, Victoria is best. And you should probably forget the rest. Ahem, okay so over the weekend the Oceanic Pro League held the first ever League of Legends: League of Origin event where states across Australia, and the entire country of New Zealand battled it out to see who would reign supreme. With Victoria edging out New South Wales in the finals 3-1.
Pitting state against state is a long and proud tradition that as Australians we're always more than happy to get behind, even outside of the wide world of sports. Riot Games Oceania is holding the League of Origin from 2PM AEST on June 3-4 where the top Oceanic Pro League (OPL) and Oceanic Challenger Series (OCS) pro players from NSW, QLD, VIC, and NZ will go head to head.
Becoming the first professional sports team in the Oceanic region to do so, making the Adelaide Crows the owners of Legacy eSports. A move that makes sense and follows a trend among the traditional sports community that will see more and more expansion and focus on esports going forward.
UK-based Computer Planet has put up a nice infographic covering the history of esports, from the days of Space Invaders to the Nintendo World Championship to the exciting spectacle of watching the likes of Counter Strike and League of Legends today. As depicted in the picture it's worth noting that esports has shown incredible growth in both popularity and the money generated -- especially this past decade.
After the recent Intel Extreme Masters event it's great to see that Australia is hosting some great esports events. And now we can add the Overwatch World Cup to the list where Group C and D matches are schedule to take place in Sydney this winter. And yeah, included in the mix is Australia. Weirdly New Zealand's Group G games will be held in California.
Although Call of Duty World League Global Pro League is a bit of a mouthful it will house 16 Call of Duty teams from around the globe across two stages of competition, with each offering USD $700,000 in prizes. Not too shabby, especially when the outcome will affect the placement in the Call of Duty World League Championship, where another USD $1.5M will be up for grabs. Taking place in Columbus, Ohio, Stage 1 kicks off this weekend with Australia's Mindfreak going up against some stiff competition.
With eight more rounds to go before the playoffs. And things are looking good so far for Australian team, Blank Esports, who are currently sitting in first place on the ladder. And they'll be taking on Hong Kong Attitude tonight from 9:00 PM AEST, and then Japanese team SunSister, on Sunday, 24 April at 9:00pm AEST. Both matches can be streamed here so be sure to tune in and support our Aussies!
With Australian team Blank Esports competing against squads from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. The top three teams of the 11-week season will proceed to the playoffs where a prize pool of $357,000 AUD is up for grabs. Click through for the times.
As eSports continues to build and grow here in Australia (aka 'Oceania'), Throwdown Esports, which is owned by Showdown -- the exclusive distributor of Twitch Media locally, has announced three Super Leagues featuring Rocket League, CS:GO and League of Legends with a decent prize-pool split among them as well as pathways into larger global competitions.
In an interview held in Korea with Overwatch’s eSports global director, Nate Nanzer, it was revealed that the Overwatch League that was announced at BlizzCon last year will commence in Q3 2017. Touted as a real sports league with teams, players, salary caps, seasons, and finals, the Overwatch League will start off more compact before expanding in 2018.
As in the real deal NBA, who are partnering with Take-Two (publishers of the NBa 2K series) to create a new professional gaming league aimed at bringing together all the great basketball gamers from across the globe to compete in Virtual B-Ball. According to the press release the new NBA 2K eLeague will be "the first official eSports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league."
With more than $1 Million of that being set aside for prize pools. Since its debut Rocket League has garnered a fan-base in the millions and thanks to its incredible design, and how fun it is to play. Which has also led a large number of people simply watching Rocket League matches. It's one of those game that makes total sense as an esport, and in 2017 developer Psyonix is looking to expand its commitment in this area. Which includes an Oceanic region for the Rocket League Championship Series!
The winner's of SMITE's Oceanic Regionals — formerly Adspace, and before that Pandamonium — have signed team sponsorship with the LG Dire Wolves. This is an interesting turn for the team. Read More
The final day of the Major is upon us, as the last four teams will play for a share in the $3,000,000 USD prize pool. The teams left are Evil Geniuses, who rallied well yesterday to take down the menacing Virtus.pro — and they're fighting OG, whose new look team post The International are looking as good as ever. In the other semi-final, Digital Chaos, who have been cruising since the Group Stages ended, and Ad Finem, a Greek team with competing in their very first major. Let's see how it went down!
Day 3 of the Dota 2 Boston Major Main Event opened with Virtus.Pro vs Evil Geniuses. From there WG.U fought OG, DC and NP duked it out and Ad Finem faced off with LGD.Forever Young. Let's take a look at how the matches went down.
Day 2 kicked off with a bang as NA favourites DC took on Team Faceless. After that Chinese juggernauts EHOME took on NA newcomers Team NP, Chinese juggernauts Newbee took on EU newcomers Ad Finem and then Chinese juggernauts LGD Gaming took on Chinese newcomers LGD.ForeverYoung. Let's take a look at the best matches from the day.
The first day of the main event is underway now, and here's what you might have missed! We'll try to pick out the best game from each series for you to watch, although it might be hard if the stomp is on too hard.
The Group Stages have wrapped up, and the Main Event kicks off tomorrow morning! We'll be covering the Main Event, taking you through what you missed and picking out a few highlight games as well, so ... Read More