Tag: gaming

By Verona Parker

SEL S2: Week Two Roundup

CSGO

TPO continued their dominant form in SEL with another strong performance against 4Dimensions. The favourites displayed confidence and coordination en route to a 16-7 victory. 4Dimensions looked competitive, however, and will one to watch as they strive to recover from this setback.

Highlands Fatties got off to a roaring start against Lunarc and quickly pulled away to a six round lead on Mirage. Lunarc fought back well to close the deficit and looked like they might be able to pull off the comeback. Ultimately, their slow start proved too much to overcome; the Fatties claimed a 16-11 win and will go on to face TPO for the first playoff place. . . . .  . . . read more

By Verona Parker

SEL S2 – Week One Roundup

SEL Season Two has finally started and, after a week of competition, our competitors are on the road to Glasgow. Join us as we remember the week’s events and look forward to the upcoming games.

CS:GO

TPO Esports, the reigning champions, began the new season as strongly as the ended last year. Fresh off a victory at BigWAN in Falkirk, TPO had a dominant performance on the CT side of Mirage and led 13-2 at half-time en route to a 16-3 win over Omni. . . . .  . . . read more

By Verona Parker

Rainbow Six Siege Breaks And Enters Into SEL Season Two

Sledge will be coming home to Scotland as Rainbow Six Seige for PC joins the SEL Season Two line-up.

Esports Scotland will be running an online qualifier, scheduled at the end of April and into May, using the Swiss format. Teams with a winning record will compete in a knock-out tournament to find the best Rainbow Six team in Scotland.

ESS will host the grand final during Resonate at the SEC in Glasgow on 20-21 July 2019.

Qualifier sign-ups will go live this Thursday and prize pools, as well as further details for competitors, will be announced soon.

Make sure you like our Facebook, follow us on Twitter and tune in on YouTube to see the latest updates as soon as possible.

By Verona Parker

SEL Season 2 – Coming Soon

How far will you walk?

After a successful first season, Esports Scotland will be getting bigger and better for SEL Season Two.

There will be four games to compete in during the next season which includes a mix between old favourites as well as exciting new titles. Keep your eyes glued to your screen as we will be announcing details of the upcoming tournament over the next week.

If your prefered game hasn’t been chosen, don’t panic! SEL Season Two will be just the beginning for Esports Scotland in 2019. To start with, we will support our awesome followers by hosting community nights in other games alongside SEL.

Make sure you join our Discord and get your voices heard over on Facebook and Twitter as we get ready to evolve Scottish esports.

By Verona Parker

Overwatch League Confirms: Home Games Begin In 2020

Blizzard officially announced Overwatch League franchises will play home-and-away games for the 2020 season, becoming to first esports league to do so.

OWL commissioner Nate Nanzer confirmed the decision at South by Southwest Festival on Friday; he called the move “an important step for esports”.

The updated league will operate in a similar way to American Major League sports with teams split into Atlantic and Pacific conferences. Teams will play most of their games against franchises from their region, but there will also be inter-conference play.

OWL has introduced home games for the 2019 season with “homestand weekend series” where one franchise hosts matches for the whole league at a local venue. Dallas Fuel will host the first homestand weekend at the 6,275-seater Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas on April 27-28.

Current plans indicate that away teams will go on road trips to minimise the distance players will be expected to travel. Nanzer said: “we think we’ve come up with a scheduling model that really allows for the global vision to be realised while minimising the impact of back and forth of travel on the teams and players.”

Blizzard has previously expressed a desire to expand from 20 teams to 28, but Nanzer confirmed that it is unlikely there will be any expansion before the 2020 season. “It’s safe to assume that in 2020 we will launch with the 20 teams we have right now,” he said.

The decision means that top-level Overwatch will come to the UK in 2020 as the country is home to London Spitfire, the current reigning OWL champions.

By Verona Parker

ESPN Announce North American College Esports Championship

ESPN has announced the formation of the College Esports Championship in a press release this Tuesday.

According to the statement, CEC will feature esports teams from hundreds of colleges across North America. Colleges will compete in online qualifiers with the top teams qualifying for offline finals.

Houston will host the first CEC LAN finals on May 10-12 during the Comicpalooza event at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The winners of the first competition will receive scholarships, ESPN has said.

“As universities continue to grow their esports programs at the varsity, non-varsity and club levels, we’re proud to be providing a platform for national exposure and recognition of some of the most talented players in the collegiate space,” said John Lasker, vice president of digital media programming for ESPN.

Multiple games will feature in the CEC; Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, StarCraft II and Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition are all scheduled to appear.

Collegiate esports have seen an increase in participation recently with esports societies being created at colleges and universities across the world, including the UK. The University Esports Masters, held in July, saw varsity teams from all over Europe compete in League of Legends.

By Verona Parker

Dota 2: DreamLeague Stockholm Major Primer

DreamLeague Season 11, the third Major tournament of the 2018/19 Dota Pro Circuit, begins tomorrow in Stockholm. Sixteen qualified teams spanning every region will battle for their share of a million dollar prize pool. This article introduces the four top teams heading into the competition.

Team Secret, the most recent Major champions, aim to sustain their dominant start to 2019 in Sweden. The international team followed up a win at the Chongqing Major in January with a commanding victory at ESL Katowice, finishing the tournament with a 16-1 record and enter this tournament as many peoples’ favourites.

Chongqing’s beaten finalists, Virtus Pro, are best placed to end Team Secret’s recent domination. The Russians already claimed the Kuala Lumpur Major, the first Major of the season, back in November and will try to put a disappointing performance at MDL Macau behind them. Virtus Pro has proved themselves worthy as one of the best teams in the world multiple times, can they do it again in Stockholm?

Perennial outsiders Evil Geniuses hope to improve on their recent third-place finishes and qualify for their first final at a Valve sponsored tournament since 2015. The American team will be encouraged by their victory over Virtus Pro in Macau, but they need to replicate that feat on a bigger stage and under higher pressure if they hope to win at the Major.

PSG.LGD are capable of beating any rival on their day, but they have been off the boil since their shocking loss to OG in the final of The International 2018 in August. The Chinese representatives will need to recapture their form from last Spring if they hope to challenge the likes of Team Secret and Virtus Pro in Stockholm.

The DreamLeague Stockholm Major gets underway on Thursday at 1230 GMT with the group stage. The tournament concludes on March 24 with a best of five grand final at 1530 GMT.

By Verona Parker

CSGO: Bracket For ESL Premiership Spring 2019 Finals Revealed

The four teams to appear at ESL UK’s Premiership Spring 2019 Finals in Manchester are now known after this evening’s playoffs.

The Pensioners, featuring former BIG star Owen “smooya” Butterfield, overcame LFAug 2-0 in the first match of the day to secure their place in the finals. The Pensioners struggled early in the group stage but have won all five maps played since the popular AWPer started standing in.

Fierce Esports will join them after narrowly beating London Esports on both maps to win 2-0. Fierce, who used to play as London Esports, overcame their opponents in overtime on mirage to take map one before turning around an early deficit on nuke to close out the series.

Both teams advance to the LAN finals at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester on March 31. The Pensioners open the day against Group A winners ReflexEU, followed by Fierce Esports versus Group B champions Revelation Gaming.

The victors of the four-team bracket will be crowned ESL Premiership Spring 2019 champions and take home a £5,500 grand prize.

Finals for the ESL’s Rainbow Six Premiership will occur the same weekend with the teams in attendance determined on March 16.

By Verona Parker

UK Players Head To China For WESG

WESG kicks-off in Chongqing, China this Thursday and will host tournaments in CSGO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, PES, StarCraft and Vainglory. We will be taking a look at the two players from the UK will compete at the tournament.

Joshua “RiSky” Hayward will feature in the StarCraft II tournament which starts on Monday.  RiSky, a Zerg player, frequently competes at international offline events including the recent IEM Katowice. A familiar name in the UK StarCraft II scene; he has been victorious in seven of the last eight Epic.LAN tournaments.

RiSky is in Group D and will face last year’s WESG runner-up Park “Dark” Ryung Woo, who is considered one of the top players in Korea. The group also contains two of the best talents outside of Korea, Polish superstar Mikołaj “Elazer” Ogonowski and Taiwanese youngster Ke “Has” Yu Feng.

Jack “DeadDraw” Bancroft, a Hearthstone player with TeamViral, begins his campaign on Thursday. DeadDraw, a relative newcomer to the HearthStone circuit, qualified for the Chinese event after beating veteran James “Greensheep” Luo in the UK qualifier.

DeadDraw will play in the challenging Group B. He will have to overcome former WESG champion Euneil “Staz” Javiñas from the Philippines and former WCA champion Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov from Russia to advance to the knock-out stage.

Both UK players face stiff competition in the group stages but have a unique opportunity to taste their mettle against some of the best players their scenes have to offer.

WESG begins this week and will conclude next Sunday with a day of finals, including the finals of the Hearthstone and StarCraft II tournaments.

By Verona Parker

CSGO: Astralis Make It Two In a Row @ IEM Katowice

Astralis won their second consecutive Major championship at IEM Katowice after beating ENCE in Sunday’s final. The win marks Astralis’ third Major title overall, a record they share with Fnatic.

The Danish team had a flawless run through the knock-out stages; they beat NiP and MIBR 2-0 en route to the final. On the other side of the bracket, Finnish outsiders ENCE eliminated two top three ranked teams, Liquid and NaVi, during their fairy-tale run through the tournament.

Astralis was the heavy favourites for the match-up with 99% of pick ’ems predictions selecting the dominant Danes to win. Despite a spirited performance from ENCE on train, the Finns could not overcome the odds and lost 2-0.

After the trophy ceremony, a tearful Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen dedicated his win to his father who recently passed away. He said winning this major was “probably the biggest wish I ever had, to make my father proud and my family but also all of our fans.”

Astralis will defend their title at the next Major, to be held in Berlin this August and September.