Esports
1 CommentThe next Hearthstone World Championship won’t happen at BlizzCon
Hearthstone is moving swiftly toward its 2016 World Championship event — group stages begin today, culminating in a series of finals matches during BlizzCon next week. BlizzCon finals for esports based around Blizzard games has become standard, but this may be the last year that will happen for Hearthstone.
That’s because Blizzard has announced a new yearlong format to its Hearthstone Championship Tour beginning in 2017. With the new system, each competitive season of Hearthstone will be tied to a specific content release. As such, the season as a whole will more closely follow the game’s new standard format, where certain card sets rotate out of play at the beginning of each new year.
To put it clearer: Assuming Blizzard keeps up the current pace of releasing three Hearthstone add-ons...
Esports
3 CommentsEarn free Hearthstone card packs to celebrate the 2016 Hearthstone World Championship
Hearthstone is a lot of things. For example, it’s a place to spend money, to experiment with wacky combos and to complain about randomness. But that’s not all! It’s also an esport, and the 2016 competitive season is about to come to an end.
Today Blizzard announced a special way fans can celebrate the upcoming 2016 Hearthstone World Championship and win some prizes of their own. Titled “Choose Your Champion,” the new promotion has its own page on the Hearthstone website, where players can log in and pick who they think will win the Championship this year.
Blizzard
By simply taking part in this promotion, players will win a free card pack from The Grand Tournament expansion. From there, they’ll win another The Grand Tournament pack for each win their player of...
Esports
6 CommentsPro Call of Duty player Phillip Klemenov killed in car wreck
The professional gamer Phillip "Phizzurp" Klemenov died early Sunday morning of injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Aurora, Colorado. Klemenov, who played and streamed Call of Duty competitively, was 23 years old.
Klemenov's partner, Adrianna Lemuss, broke the news of Klemenov's death, reports The Daily Dot. Lemuss was in the car with Klemenov. A third passenger was also killed in the single-car accident.
According to KCNC-TV of Denver, the car, a black Infiniti, lost control and overturned several times, hitting several trees and a utility pole. Police said alcohol and high speed appeared to be factors in the crash.
The report cited by KCNC did not specify who was driving, but Lemuss later disputed that alcohol was a factor, saying that Klemenov had been drinking water...
Esports
2 CommentsOverwatch's first big tournament pays out $100,000
Misfits, the European eSports team, took a $100,000 payday at the inaugural Overwatch Open Grand Final last night, the largest prize offered so far in the shooter's young competitive history.
Misfits, who brought aboard two fill-in players just three weeks before the grand final and were considered underdogs against EnVyUs, which had gone unbeaten since Gamescom in August. Still, Misfits prevailed, 3-1.
Misfits and EnVyUs split victories over the first two maps. After a strong third map performance, Misfits clinched the title on the fourth map, Lijang Tower, led by team member SoOn.
The match took place at Turner Studios' ELeague arena in Atlanta and was televised live on TBS as well as Twitch. An archived stream of the match's final map may be viewed below. The preceding maps can be...
Esports
3 CommentsHeroes of the Storm takes inspiration from League of Legends in 2017 esports plans
After a rough year for Heroes of the Storm’s esports scene — which included the 2015 world champion team disbanding — Blizzard is taking drastic action with some extremely ambitious plans for next year. And if you’ve played League of Legends before, these plans are likely to look familiar.
Today Blizzard announced that it will form the Heroes Global Championship program. Most notably, the HGC will implement new ongoing leagues for North America, Europe, China and Korea. The top eight teams from each of those regions "will be contracted and guaranteed both compensations and regular competition." Blizzard says this will increase consistency both in team rosters and in the scheduling of matches.
This is very similar to how Riot Games runs its League Championship Series for League of...
News
1 CommentNew CS:GO league will offer share of profits plus benefits to players
Seven U.S. esports teams today formed a new group called the Professional Esports Association (PEA), which will launch a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league early next year.
The founding teams are Team Solomid (TSM), Cloud9, Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), Immortals, NRG eSports and compLexity Gaming. The PEA plans a 10-week season with a prize pool of $1 million for its first year.
The PEA's founding follows the announcement of the World Esports Association (WESA) by ESL — the biggest league organizer in the world — along with a panoply of top European teams, including Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, Gamers2, FaZe, mousesports and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The team-owned PEA says that players and owners will receive a 50 percent share of profits as well as "a suite...