Archive for Esports

The Aspen 2015 X Games have kicked off already — they can be viewed on various ESPN networks, provided you have a cable subscription — however one portion of the X Games can be viewed without any pay access. Partnered with Major League Gaming, X Games is streaming the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament on MLG.tv at no cost. Highlights from the CS:GO tournament will be shown during the television broadcasts of other X Games events.

Some controversy already surrounds the CS:GO playing field. After qualified team Clutch Cats pulled out of the tournament, Torqued (formerly team iBUYPOWER) the second highest in both qualifiers, was overlooked in favor of Team Liquid. Despite going out in the second round of each qualifier, Team Liquid was chosen over the arguably more deserving Torqued. Many reasons had to be a factor in MLG’s decision, however a match fixing scandal involving Torqued and previous team iBUYPOWER members may have been a factor.

The Daily Dot initially broke the news of a potential scandal, citing particularly poor decision making and gameplay from iBP, text messages, as well as suspicious betting. The last part is of particular note, as betting on CS:GO matches yields thousands of dollars of in-game weapon skins (patterns and designs) every tournament. The biggest betting site is CSGO Lounge, where there are active bets for individual matches made nearly every day. With this much real-life money on the line, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility for match-fixing to be a major concern.

Given that this is the first major ESPN and X Games venture into CS:GO, it is no surprise they decided to “play it safe” and invite Team Liquid. While CS:GO tournaments regularly receives over 100,000 unique viewers, the partnership of highlights and cut-ins to the main ESPN broadcast could bring about more growth to the Counter-Strike community. The games begin Friday with a round robin group play where the four teams in each group play a matchup against one another, with the top two teams advancing to the bracket stage. Up for grabs is a $50,000 prize pool split among the top four finishing teams, plus betting wins — and losses — for viewers at home.

(Featured image via Monster Gaming)

As the reach of streaming services continues to grow ever further, the competition to offer streaming options increases — from Amazon-owned Twitch.TV to MLG.TV, YouTube, or even Azubu.TV. Now, Dailymotion is throwing its hat into the ring. With the announcement of Dailymotion Games, the new platform aims to tap into the massive professional and casual stream market.

According to their press release, gaming content already accounts for 180 million video views per month on Dailymotion as well as 11 million unique viewers monthly. The latest addition to the esports streaming scene offers a similar function to existing services including a chat box, user-controlled commercial breaks and an app for both iOS and Android is already available. The official website still says the product is in Beta, however hundreds of channels are already live and ready to be watched.

For doubters questioning if someone can make a living merely streaming a game, Winter, a teamless player who primarily streams StarCraft II, recently answered this on Reddit. He cites a $60,000 income in 2014 — between ad revenue from his stream plus donations — before taxes are accounted for. Given that he does not compete at the professional level and has won a mere $600 in prize money from competitive tournaments in his career, his stream generates more than a livable wage.

Considering the fact StarCraft II is, at best, the fifth most watched game behind League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Hearthstone, clearly streaming services and those who use it will be constantly searching for the best platform. It remains to be seen if Dailymotion can knock Twitch off of their pedestal as the leader of streaming services, though more competition can only be a good thing.

Gaming industry giant Razer is demoing their new Forge TV product at CES this week and the first impression of the device are quite favorable. Forge TV is an Android powered gaming platform, but rather than a full size (not to mention cost) console, it is about 4” by 4” and is considered a micro console. Don’t be fooled by the small size, as it packs a Qualcomm 805 processor, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. After accounting for the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, about 14 GB of usable space remains.

Forge TV seems to fill a niche that I wasn’t sure was clearly defined, a place below multi-hundred dollar price tags yet above more casual mobile options. The micro-console itself goes for $99.99, though you’ll need to spend an extra $50 on the Serval controller bundle. Given that the Serval normally goes for $80 as a stand alone device for Android gaming, paying $150 for both the controller as well as the console is a great deal.

The hands-on experience with both Forge TV and the controller was pleasantly surprising. I was admittedly skeptical walking up to the little box, wondering what kind of punch it could really pack. With ports for an ethernet cable, HDMI, USB 4.1 plus a wi-fi connection, I didn’t have much faith regarding the true guts of the device. Once I was in-game, the graphics didn’t blow me away, but was certainly a clear step above mobile Android gaming. While multiplayer games were not set up, Forge TV does support up to four controllers.

The load times between the games were brief, though there was an instance where the game did give about a 15 second loading screen. That was the exception more than the rule as other levels loaded quickly. At one point my controller did disconnect from the micro-console. Our demo booth had a hard wired connection rather than wireless and it took a simple unplug, plug it back in to fix the issue.

In addition to the gaming potential, Forge TV also showed off its Google integration. From the home menu, familiar options such as Play Music, YouTube, Play Movies & Television shows etc. all appeared. Other apps already on board are Crackle, Hulu Plus and Red Bull TV. The little box also sports Google Cast, thus allowing you to stream web based content directly to your television.

One thing  I missed out on was a chance to see Razer Cortex in action. Cortex allows Forge TV to utilize existing PC games via a $34.99 software add-on. Granting the ability to play PC games on a console for barely half the price of a console game is an impressive move, however I personally don’t like Day 1 add-on costs. Perhaps something like a 7-day free demo will be released by Razer to entice potential buyers.

Minor quibbles aside, I came away very impressed with what Razer has done with Forge TV thus far. As someone who leans towards being a PC gamer, a cheap micro-console that I can play my computer games on has a ton of appeal.

Header photo courtesy of Razer

Fellow video game enthusiasts, today is a magical day! The annual Steam Holiday Sale went live today, putting hundreds of games on sale. Steam, the game distribution system designed by the Valve Corporation, is free to download, and many games themselves are also free. While these games are limited to PC/Mac/Linux (sorry console gamers), the Holiday Sale is a great time to make bulk purchases to last you all of next year. Most titles are on sale, however two of the three most played games are free to download and play, in Defense of the Ancients 2 — more commonly referred to as DotA 2 — and Team Fortress 2. For sports related titles, Football Manager 2015 is the fourth highest played title thus far today.

In Football Manager 2015 you are tasked with building a competitive soccer club and juggling things from scouting and trades to developing a strong youth program. While the 2015 version is not on sale, the full price is $49.99, the 2014 version is discounted to down to $14.99. Rugby Manager 2015 is marked down to just $9.99.

If you prefer to take the pitch yourself rather than run the operations behind the scenes, Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 — winner of the gamescom Best Sports Game 2014 — is 15% off, costing $33.99 right now. For those who would rather take to the court rather than a soccer field, NBA 2K15 is also 17% off sticker price, going for $49.79

Released not even four months ago, The Golf Club is a solid golf experience in lieu of actually stepping onto the fairway. For me, golf is only available about half the year, thanks to the lovely Michigan snowfall. The Golf Club offers tournament and league play, as well as an option to challenge your friends on existing courses or even build your own. Thanks to the Holiday Sale, one can pick up this title for $24.99, 30% off the regular price.

Possibly the best sports simulations games is Out of the Park Baseball 2015, and of course it is being discounted. On sale for $14.99, OOTP was already given a detailed review by the handsome and brilliant Bradley Woodrum. If you’re looking for a game for a baseball enthusiast, do them a favor and grab OOTP while it is on sale.

In addition to the titles highlighted here, Steam also has dozens of racing games from F1 2014 (half off at 24.99) to Nascar 14 (going for $7.99). Given the fact that Steam is free to download, as are 170 different games, if you’re scrambling for a holiday gift, Steam’s free-to-play games, as well as their sale, make for a great option.

(Header image via Steam)

Soda — or as some call it, “pop” — and video games have a long history of working well together, be it in your friend’s basement, at an arcade or corporate sponsorship. Today at 4pm eastern Coca-Cola will take the next step in their esports interest with a debut Game-A-Thon event in Atlanta. The games will also be streamed via Coke’s Twitch.TV channel, however exactly which games are being played remain a mystery.

Scheduled to last four hours, the Game-A-Thon will pit five esports figures and players against each other in the mystery games in order for the prizes to be donated to various charities. Keeping the players in the dark about what exactly they’ll be playing is all part of the fun. In an interview with GamesBeat, Matt Wolf, head of global gaming for Coca-Cola was quoted saying:

We are interested in gaming. It’s big. We know it. We’re being smart and focused about how we approach it. As we head into the end of the year, this opportunity with our friends at Twitch is a great way for us to cap off the year with a great on-site production. We can give back to the players and to a charity for the holidays.

While Coca-Cola has helped in the League of Legends realm, specifically with their Coke Zero LoL Challenger League, this marks their first major foray into other games. Caffeinated beverages — not to mention energy drinks — have been a part of video games for years. From the Halo “Gamer Fuel” to Mountain Dew and their double experience points for Call of Duty games, to personal sponsorships by Red Bull for StarCraft II players such as Bomber, major beverage labels continue to appeal to gamers and esports fans with both their carbonated drinks as well as their efforts within the gaming communities. Cracking open a can to drink while watching your favorite game or team suddenly doesn’t necessarily equate to beer and baseball anymore.

The numbers are in for the League of Legends Worlds and they are staggering, and not just the $1 million prize pool. Riot Games, developers of LoL, posted the viewership numbers for their world finals. The event itself was spread out over 15 days of competition and totaled 100 hours of gameplay to decide the champion.

According to Riot, the finals were broadcasted in 19 different languages utilizing 40 different casters and play-by-play partners. The grand finals between Samsung White and  Star Horn Royal Club was watched by a peak of 11.2 million viewers, the equivalent of almost all of the censured population of Ohio. Put a different way, it was as if Oregon, Oklahoma and Connecticut combined to tune in simultaneously.

Throughout the road to the grand finals, LoL Worlds caught 27 million unique viewers and 288 million impressions to see Samsung White win it all. The 179 million hour total of esports watching outpaces the 151ish million hours of the video Gangnam Style by Psy which recently broke YouTube. This year’s fall classic went a full seven games and average 13.9 million viewers, though the final out of game seven was viewed by 27.8 million people. The numbers between esports and baseball are suddenly comparable, not to mention the sold-out 45,000 seat Sangam Stadium venue.

On Riot’s website, dating back to January of this year, they claimed over 67 million users played LoL every month. Of them, 27 million play daily and Riot’s servers carry the load for 7.5 million people at peak hours. The world’s most popular video game is showing no signs of slowing down. Who else ready to tailgate for an esports match? If it’s too cold outside, how about a BarCraft instead?

(Header photo via Riotgames.com)

God Save The Queen! Esports is coming to London in the form of a specific arena designed for tournaments, league play and ladder competitions. Gfinity, a company whose mission statement is “to help push esports within the UK to a professional level, to raise awareness and to provide an arena for gamers to showcase their talent” is working on the first building of its type in the country.

No stranger to the realm of esports — Gfinity hosted G3 and its $145,000 prize pool spread across four different games — the arena is already slated to hold an astonishing 30 live events next year. With seating for up to 500 spectators to view the competitions unfold, the building may not be as large as Major League Gaming’s (MLG) new Ohio event building, it is nonetheless a great first step. The confirmed events include games such as StarCraft II, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Halo, FIFA 15, League of Legends and Hearthstone. Gfinity has set aside $500,000 for these tournaments in addition to their weekly cups (weekly tournaments) plus six “open” events where anyone can come to the arena to chase their professional gaming aspirations.

Though this is new to the United Kingdom, mainland Europe is no stranger to hosting massive local area network (LANs) games and live tournaments. From DreamHack to Electronic Sports World Cups (ESWC), esports have spread across Europe as quickly as their internet connections will take it. The UK has hosted previous annual large-scale LANs before, notably the yearly Insomnia events, however nothing in the same scale as what Gfinity has planned for 2015 and beyond.

With new venues, tournaments and competitions, esports — despite recent controversies — continues to grow around the world. With a multitude of streaming platforms ranging from Twitch.TV to YouTube to MLG.TV, the way to watch and esports at home is wide open. The live-and-in-person options are finally catching up.

(Header image via Gfinity)

As popularity in a sport grows, so too can the inherent trappings that go along with being in the mainstream. Fame and money come into it, which can sometimes lead to foul play. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a game by Valve Corporation that will be shown on the X Games in January, was hit with a massive cheating scandal over the past few days. Already three individual professional  players and two teams have been banned by Valve’s anti-cheat program, VAC.

The actual cheats themselves was detected not by Valve, but rather a competitive gaming league, ESEA. Once confirmed as a cheat, the league contacted Valve directly regarding the cheating and thus the bans were handed down via Valve Anti-Cheat or VAC. The programs used to improve the player’s aim is allegedly contained within a mouse software or on Valve’s own Steam Cloud, thus both went previously undetected by VAC as well as being usable while playing in a live-in person tournament. A game hack to improve aim such as an aimbot or aim lock, when the player has no vision or knowledge of the opposing player, is a blatant cheat.

The three players banned by VAC — dubbed as a VACation by reddit’s r/globaloffensive — are Simon “smn” Beck, Gordon “SF” Giry and Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian. The significance of such an advantage cannot be understated, as killing the opposing team is often required to win rounds. In a competitive format, the first teams usually play a best of 3 across three different maps. First team to 16 round wins will take the map win.

These bans, as well as other players coming under suspicion, most notably Robin “Flusha” Rönnquist, come just before a major tournament at DreamHack Winter. According the DH website, the CS:GO alone portion of the tournament offers a prize pool of $250,000. Of the original eight invited teams to DH, two teams with the now banned cheaters have been disqualified.

With esports gaining more momentum and access to casual fans as well as the inquiring non-gamer, to see a cheating scandal of this magnitude hurts the CS:GO community, though not all is lost. While cheating is nothing new, other esports have had such events unfold and bounced back. In June of 2010, the StarCraft community was rocked when a match fixing scandal was confirmed in the most prestigious SC league, ProLeague. Then a total of 11 players were confirmed for throwing games in exchange for money from various gambling websites. While it is an entirely different game, it does give hope to CS:GO enthusiasts about bouncing back.

(Image via Valve’s Steam Store)

NBC News has a story centered around how the rise in popularity of e-sports has led to a rise in gambling on e-sports. Writer Keith Wagstaff talks to people from Pinnacle Sports, one of the premiere online gambling sites around. And in 2014, e-sports were the eight most popular subset to bet on, beating out golf.

According to the article:

Since 2011, the year when Pinnacle began accepting bets on e-sports, the volume of trades placed on video game matches has doubled every year, Hudson said. The company has hired a team of eight e-sports traders responsible for setting lines and wagers.

This was, of course, inevitable. We humans never met a contest we didn’t like to wager on. And while side bets and friendly wagers go hand-in-hand with competition, the rise in both popularity and purse of video game tournaments is undoubtedly going to bring along its share of side action. With over 350,000 e-sports bets placed on Pinnacle alone in 2014, it appears the gamblers have officially gotten their dirty little fingers in e-sports.

(Header image via Piotr Drabik)

$750,000 in prize money — more than Xander Bogearts made this year and more than twice as much as Anthony Rendon made —  is up for grabs this weekend at BlizzCon. The annual expo put on by video game developer Blizzard Entertainment, BlizzCon, marks the start of the weekend’s world championship matches and for the first time the games will be live-streamed to ESPN3 as well as Twitch.TV. BlizzCon starts today and has been long host to championship world finals for Blizzard from StarCraft II to World of Warcraft. This year the company has also included their new latest project, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and posted a total prize pool of a $250,000 for each game.

The ESPN3 schedule was tweeted out yesterday afternoon and will include an impressive array of viewing options for all three games today, starting at 12:45 eastern.

According to ESPN3’s schedule, they will also show the  matches leading up to and including the grand finals for each game tomorrow.

If you happen to be interested in more than the in-game action, there is the option to purchase the virtual ticket for BlizzCon, granting access to Q&A panels, exclusive previews and the ability to re-watch sections at a later date for the people who are too busy to sit and watch a stream for 10 hours.

Given ESPN’s recent backing of esports with their partnership between MLG and the X Games it should be no surprise to see even more events being streamed via ESPN3. With the general acceptance of esports rapidly growing — including professional players getting not just student visas to stay in the United States, but full on athlete visas — and the increased ease of access to live games via streaming services, expect more esports events to be shown to a wider audience.