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”. . . . .
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. . . . .
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. . . . .
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. . . . .
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. . . . .
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. . . . .
Sixteen top Counter-Strike teams will be in action during the New Legends stage of the IEM Katowice Major 2019 major in Poland starting this Wednesday.
Two British players will compete in the New Legends stage, marking only the second time that players from the UK have made it to the top sixteen at a major. . . . .
FACEIT will bring competitive Player Unknown Battlegrounds to London this April for the FACEIT Global Summit.
Twenty-four teams will battle in London on April 16-21, with the final three days taking place at the ExCeL Centre.
All twenty-four teams will play on the first three days during the group stages with the top eight finishers proceeding directly to the grand final. The remaining sixteen teams will face-off in an elimination stage on April 19 with the top eight teams on that day also qualifying for the grand final. . . . .
(Image: Inside the Spodek arena © Helena Kristiansson – esportphoto.com)
The Intel Extreme Masters Katowice CSGO Major 2019 kicks off this Wednesday in Katowice, Poland.
Over the next three weeks, twenty-four of the best teams from all over the world will compete to win the most prestigious title in CSGO and their share of a million dollar prize pool. . . . .
FACEIT has revealed that the CSGO ECS Season 7 Finals will take place in London this summer.
The event will occur from 06-09 June; the SSE Arena in Wembley is hosting the final two days of the tournament.
This is the fourth time the London based company have chosen to hold their flagship event in their home city. FACEIT’s Valve sponsored major also took place at the SSE Arena last September. . . . .