Blizzard dropped the ban hammer this past week on four different players for “win trading,” including two well-known professional players. All four players are now disqualified from the World Championship, and the two pros have apparently had their entire Hearthstone account shutdown as w
As soon as the game started, I couldn’t help but squeal with joy as my team passed effectively, and scored their first ever goal under my command. 1-0. Hurrah, I cried! My first match, and I’m winning! This game is great! Five out of Five! Play resumed following my striker’s outstanding goal, and I became momentarily distracted by a pretty girl walking p
The last matchup of the night. Université Laval has been a dominant force throughout the tournament, and they had no intention of slowing down with a shutout in the first match. However, University of Buffalo has earned their spot here in the Grand Finals proving that they were also a force to reckon w
Almost immediately, we lost another goal. 1-2. I just didn’t understand what I was doing wrong — why was the MOBA game ranking guide punishing me for taking control of what was clearly the worst team in the league? Eventually, after many failed shots at goal, we lost the game. I was kicked back to the training menu, and I began to contemplate my next mo
I’ve never really liked soccer. Unfortunately, here in the UK, it’s a mainstay of our society — when two men meet for the first time, a usual topic of small talk would be something along the lines of ‘So, which team do you support?’ Usually I grit my teeth and mutter something popular: ‘Oh, Chelsea for sure. That Abramovich did some great things. Anyway, how about that swimming competition the other day
Let’s address the rumor first: It was reported by the Daily Dot and others earlier this month that ESL, one of the largest eSports organizations, might be partnering with Twitch and fantasy eSports website Vulcun to create a tournament on par with League of Legends League Championship Seri
Such a new major event with backing from some of the biggest names in eSports would likely draw a lot of attention. There was also a rumor that the companies involved might create exclusive deals with only certain teams or existing competitions. This is causing some of the organizers of existing smaller tournaments to fear that they could lose influence if such a super league was announ
The queen of the “carry everyone else” complex, Riven. With countless 1 vs 5 montages on YouTube, Riven spits on the concept of team games. While she remains unbalanced (why she has the only shield in the game that scales with attack damage is a mystery to everyone), she does still require a mechanical mastery and quick reflexes. That fact is probably what makes her so detrimental to League of Legends as an overall game. Many pro-players and streamers have mastered those mechanics and pull off amazing individual feats. This means that there are exponentially more players, after having watched the pros, who believe they are just as capable to replicate it. The game already has a toxic community from players’ inability to get along. You throw in an outlet for selfish players and the problem is only made wo
Valve posted on the Dota 2 website that it hopes the new series will address some of the specific issues that the game has faced within the competitive scene. Namely, teams that want to participate in the Major Championships will have to have a set roster all year long. This seems to be an attempt to get teams to stop reorganizing or recruiting team members shortly before The International each y
So what’s the future business model for games? It depends on the individual company and the product they’re producing. A single-player RPG seems like fixed price is the right model, but considering the popularity of online multiplayer, we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them. As time goes on, the purely single-player experience may fall by the wayside—already, we’re seeing more games implement multiplayer modes in previously single-player ga
Even if microtransactions might be backed by good intentions, that doesn’t change the way they feel to gamers. EA’s own Mass Effect 3 ‘s day-one DLC had many fans up in arms —if the DLC was ready at launch, why wasn’t it included in game, especially since it contained a character many long-time fans of the series were dying to see? It’s easy to be cynical; EA knew players wanted to know more about the mysterious Protheans and knew they’d be willing to pay money for it, so it’s possible they changed their business model for more profit. That, coupled with the introduction of war resources that required multiplayer grinding for the best ending, microtransactions to get better weapons and characters in multiplayer, and the controversial ending, left fans of the series feeling exploited and skeptical for the fut
Opening the match, both teams find themselves at Cursed Hollow. Buffalo starts out strong looking like they might actually win the first game. However, they get sloppy later and Cal Poly takes advantage of their missteps. Pomona’s coordination was on point and was able to pull out the first