To no one’s surprise, the long-awaited release of Starcraft II launched with esports as an integral part of Blizzard’s marketing strategy, and yet, it never reached those same peaks as its predeces
Crescendum (Chakram): Can't auto attack again until the projectile bounces back, but when returned, it resets his basic attack. Casting abilities creates copies of the chakram which then strengthens his basic attacks based on the amount he's hol
Both LoL and Dota2 would arrive in open beta roughly around the same time, but Riot got the jump on Valve by releasing League of Legends in October 2009. Since then, LoL 's popularity has simply exploded. By 2012, LoL was the most popular game in the world and by Jan of 2014 the game had 67 million people playing it every month. LoL was easily the most popular game viewed on either YouTube or Twitch, and with that many eyeballs came an exploding eSports scene. Professional tournaments began in 2011 with the League of Legends World Championships providing the best team in the world a top prize of $1 mill
As 2019 comes to a close, esports fans are left to reflect on the best competitive moments of the past year. Jaw-dropping plays, unbelievable tournament runs, and shocking levels of consistency from the world’s best players. Five of the biggest esports titles saw their biggest talents rise to the top, taking their rightful places as some of the best players in the wo
_ Tekken _ phenom Arslan "Arslan Ash" Siddique skyrocketed to the top of the fighting game scene in 2019. Though he competed in very few professional events the year prior, Arslan Ash cemented his name in FGC history in 2019. The 24-year-old kicked off the year at Evolution Championship Series Japan, where a lower bracket run ended in a Grand Final victory over Alexandre "AK" Laverez. He next won the TGU x SEA Thailand Major over two-time EVO champion Jae-Min "Knee" Bae. The _ Tekken 7 _ star then doubled up on his EVO Japan title, defeating Knee once again to take home the EVO Las Vegas title. He became the first player to win EVO Japan and Las Vegas in the same y
So what happened? The same thing that’s happened with almost every big innovation in gaming: it arrived, it peaked, it got iterated to death, and then it finally died. Or it’s at least in the process of dy
Many consider Blizzard’s Star Craft: Brood War to be the foundation of all esports. By 2006, the game was established as a mainstream juggernaut icon in Korea and the global community. It was the first game to bring in big-name sponsors and had fans watching all over the world. At the height of its popularity, the video below gives a picture of the scope of popularity and production value that went into the ga
Back in the LEC, G2 won the Summer season before moving on to the World Championship. They advanced to the Worlds play-offs, racing past DAMWON Gaming and SKT to reach the Grand Final. Though FunPlus Phoenix took home the Worlds title, G2 Esports had a formidable year. PerkZ was a massive part of G2’s legendary run, in which they stood just one series away from a never-before-done grand slam. He fit into the AD carry role nicely, holding his own against the game’s b
There's a term in economics called "market saturation." It basically means that a product has become so common in the market that everyone who wants the product either already has it or can easily get it. It happens to basically everything, but you can see it often in certain widely distributed items, such as cars, snack foods, and yes, video ga
Long-standing G2 Esports mid laner Luka "PerkZ" Perković took the _ League of Legends _ world by storm in 2019. Prior to this year's season, G2 announced their addition of former Fnatic mid laner Rasmus "Caps" Winther. As a result, PerkZ moved to the AD carry position. The risky move left many wondering where the team was headed, though G2 came out the other side even stronger than before. With PerkZ as their carry, G2 won LEC Spring after topping the regular season’s leaderboard. They next attended the Mid-Season Invitational, where they took down Korean powerhouse SK Telecom T1 and destroyed North American side Team Liquid to take the cr
In most games, a character can hold one weapon or similar item in each hand, sometimes requiring two hands. Anything else would be in their inventory. This isn’t the case in League. Not only are players able to buy as many as six different swords, it's often encouraged. Especially on certain ranged champions, the confusing bit is how someone would manage to make use of them all simultaneou
Blizzard Entertainment, once the birthplace of the modern MOBA thanks to Aeon of Strife and Defense of the Ancients , tried their hand at creating a MOBA Patch analysis with Heroes of the Storm . Released in June of 2015 at the very height of MOBA popularity, HotS struggled to gain the same kind of following as its larger brethren. Although innovative and containing many changes to the core gameplay that made it both easier to learn and more "fun", HotS was plagued with poor monetization as well as technical and hero balance issues. Blizzard finally admitted defeat in December of 2018 by moving developers to other projects and canceling the game’s official tourname
