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Blizzard’s president apologised on stage at BlizzCon for Hearthstone Hong Kong omnishambles
Blizzard could announce Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, a new WoW expansion, and Hearthstone Auto Chess live on stage at BlizzCon--and they did--but none of that would sit right if they didn't address the cloud over this year's fanfest. Their decision to harshly punish a Hearthstone pro player for declaring "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" in a post-match interview has upset many over the…
US Congress members ‘concerned’ over Blizzard’s Blitzchung ban
Blizzard’s dropped ball over Hearthstone pro Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai voicing his support for protesters in Hong Kong continues to roll downhill at alarming speed. Now joining the players, casters, and Blizzard employees making their discontent heard are members of the United States Congress from across the political spectrum. Incredible job, Blizzard.
Riot Games warn League Of Legends pros away from political issues
Riot Games have said "we want to keep our broadcasts focused on the game, the sport, and the players" in a public statement preemptively warning against political protests in their tournaments. The League Of Legends 2019 World Championship is currently underway and Riot doubtless want to avoid 'doing a Blizzard'. You know, like how after a Hearthstone player voiced support for Hong Kong's pro-autonomy protests…
Blizzard’s statement on Blitzchung’s ban digs them deeper [Updated]
Update: Blitzchung has responded with a statement of his own. Details below. Blizzard Entertainment have, after several days of silence, released a statement about this week’s chaos. It all began when they, by their admission, “reacted too quickly” to pro Hearthstone player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” during a post-match interview. It has escalated since then, with casters…
A veteran Hearthstone player and commentator is pulling away from Blizzard after they banned pro player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai for voicing support of Hong Kong's pro-autonomy protests in a post-match interview. Brian Kibler has commentated several official Blizzard tournaments but now he's pulling out of casting this year's Hearthstone Grandmasters finals at BlizzCon. "I will not be a smiling face on camera that tacitly…
A big League Of Legends tradition is to drop a new song for each year's World Championship, a battle anthem evoking the drama and dangers of clicking on wizards. A big Rock, Paper, Shotgun tradition was for Pip to squint at the new video and say "yeah, but it's not as good as the Imagine Dragons one, is it?" It is in tribute to my…
Feature: Turn page
With a few minutes on the countdown until the Overwatch League grand finals, I realised I had a problem: I didn’t know who I was supporting. Neither San Francisco Shock nor Vancouver Titans are my team, but usually in any matchup there’s a narrative I like more, players I’m fond of, some quirk or another that’ll push me in one direction. But Shock and Titans…
Feature: Two teams remain
I had a different opening paragraph for this article until I went looking for a header image. Now I've deleted it, and instead I'm going to talk about why I'm in love with this picture of Park "Saebyeolbe" Jongryeol. This is my 22nd and penultimate entry in this column, and choosing a lead photo is always one of my favourite parts, because there are also…
Feature: The beginning of the 2019 season was 6 decades ago
The regular season of the Overwatch League is over, wrapping up with a local event in – well, in Los Angeles, where it usually is, but in a different bit of the city. Just a few weeks of playoffs to go until we crown a victor. Then we’ll get to thinking about next season, when teams will be shipped all over the globe for similar…
Dota 2’s mega esports event The International has wrapped up, with OG lifting the aegis for the second year running. The team will take home a cool $15 million (£12.2m), as well as the honour of being the first team to win the event twice, let alone twice in a row.
Feature: Embrace not knowing what on earth is happening
With just a couple of weeks left in the Overwatch League, the simulation is falling apart. Sure, things have been unpredictable throughout, but I’m currently staring at the stage four standings and it says Washington Justice are first. First! They’ve won five games in a row after just two in the whole of the rest of the season. It’s almost as though making giant structural…
Russia wins Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Nations Cup, UK manages not to come last
Competitive Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is a strange beast. Teams rack up points across multiple games for eliminating others and being one of the last few left alive, in various amounts depending on the tournament. That usually means that you can tell who’s going to win before the end, but not this time. Home team South Korea had pulled ahead early and stayed there – until the…
Evo 2019’s best storyline is a wholesome Dragon Ball FighterZ rivalry
Dragon Ball FighterZ is not supposed to be the main event at fighting game tournament Evo. But at any event like this, it’s the best stories that rise to the surface. In the fighting game community of late, those stories often involve Dominique “SonicFox” McLean, and, when it comes to DBFZ, his rival Goichi "GO1" Kishida. This year, it was GO1 who triumphed – but…
Feature: Roadfrog and friends
Welcome to stage four of the Overwatch League! It's finally happened: damage-dealing heroes are back, forced in by Blizzard introducing a role lock that enforces two of each category. That’s why this week, we’re mostly going to be talking about tanks.
The thrill of corn beneath your fingers. The drama of a well-executed tractor turn. The hush that falls over the crowd as players begin to reap their harvests. That’s right, Farming Simulator League, the competitive digital agriculture we’ve all been waiting for, has finally kicked off. Teams of three compete to prove themselves the very best efarmers around, growing, harvesting, and depositing hay to gather…
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Competitive Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds’ eye-trackers creep me out
All my regular esports tournaments are on cooldown at the moment, so I’ve had my head peeked around the corner of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds for a bit. It’s good! I like getting into a new scene and deciding which team to support. I like how it gradually builds across the course of a match from something I’m not really watching in the background to the engrossing…
Feature: There's not much more of a Breakthrough than this
I’ve said two things here multiple times. Firstly, this season of the Overwatch League is one of upsets and unpredictability. Secondly, I love and cherish Shanghai Dragons. But I still wasn’t ready for the Dragons to face a playoff gauntlet of the big three teams, New York Excelsior, Vancouver Titans, and San Francisco Shock, and beat them one after one to become stage champions. In…
Your next Starcraft II opponent might be a robot in disguise
Google's DeepMind AI division will likely end up making the next generation of military killbots, but before then, at least they'll provide new challenges for the esports crowd. In January, their "AlphaStar" StarCraft II agent trounced a crew of pro players ten to one. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, they've unleashed AlphaStar on the European public. According to this official blog post, AlphaStar…
Feature: I don't know what peach thing is about and at this point I'm too afraid to ask
The Overwatch League’s season three has hurtled towards its playoffs, locking in all of the places for next week. Although Shanghai Dragons didn’t have to make it quite so close, did they? My poor heart could barely take it. And now they’ll be facing New York Excelsior in the quarterfinals, a team that heard people (me) say that they were squarely in third place behind…
Feature: This is a complicated way of saying I have no idea what's going on
Know It OWL: The only thing more fake than the meta is the power rankings
Stage three of the Overwatch League didn’t seem like it would be especially exciting. The Goats meta remained untouched by major balance patches in the break. Teams had mostly established themselves at the top and bottom of the rankings, though there was plenty of jostling in the middle. Even in the first couple of weeks, things seemed to be progressing as expected, but for a…
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