eSports – Gamer Launch Blog

Is multiplayer destroying single player games?

Over the past decade or so multiplayer has become a rather ubiquitous feature in video games so that when it doesn’t show up in some form it’s almost shocking. Even most games designed for a single player format have at least some sort of co-op mode, allowing players to either take on special missions designed for more than one player, or to play the already existing single player component with a buddy.

For some fans of single player oriented games, this may sometimes seem like a bane. Many have accused game developers of favoring the additional multiplayer mode and losing focus on the single player aspect of the game. But is it really as big of an issue as some fans are making it out to be?

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2 lessons the eSports industry can learn from Valve’s Shanghai flop

A few weeks ago, Valve completely bombed their Dota 2 Shanghai Majors. You’ve probably heard about all of it by now — but in case you haven’t, here’s a quick rundown:

Fired a beloved community caster in the middle of the event
Let their CEO openly call aforementioned caster an “ass” on Reddit
Multiple sound failures in-game and during player interviews
Repeated game delays, some as long as an hour and a half
Game freezes and a plethora of other technical issues
Poor camera work
Covering team fights and critical moments via replays

The list could go on.

But the question is….what exactly went wrong? How does a multi-million dollar tournament get screwed up that badly? And how can Valve (and other companies) avoid this kind of spectacle in the future?

(Source)

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SMITE Rostermania is Shaking Up Season 3

Now that the SMITE World Championships are over and teams are looking ahead to Season 3 of the pro circuit, a lot of changes have been happening to the team rosters. Some teams have disbanded entirely, players have shuffled around, and new teams have been formed. The changes have been so frequent — and in some cases, so drastic — that the SMITE community has lovingly dubbed it “rostermania”. Some are even calling it “roster-pocalypse”.

Regardless of what they’re called, these roster switch-ups have fans hyped to see how these new teams perform in Season 3. Here’s what we know about the roster changes so far.

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What does the gaming industry mean for Atlanta’s economy?

For gamers, the fact that the video game industry is growing isn’t much of a surprise. However, it might surprise them to know that one of places where it’s growing most is Atlanta, GA. Over the last few decades gamers have associated game development in North America with the West Coast and the North West — particularly places like California and Seattle. If any place in the South was known for gaming it was Austin, Texas where companies like Bioware and Trion keep additional studios.

Atlanta, on the other hand, wasn’t widely known for its contributions to the video game industry until CCP — creators of EVE Online — bought White Wolf, the company responsible for the tabletop/LARP RPG series World of Darkness. CCP purchased the company, and announced the World of Darkness MMO in 2006. Because White Wolf was based out of Atlanta, CCP decided to set up a studio in one of the city’s suburbs, becoming the largest game development company in the area at the time.

At the same time, another game company had set up shop just north of Atlanta in 2005, and begun working on their first online game, Global Agenda, which launched in 2010. That company, now widely known for its MOBA, SMITE — and its growing eSports program — is Hi-Rez.

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A Simple Guide To Surviving Your First Esports Event

With the SMITE World Championships just around the corner (Jan 7 – 10, 2016) several member of the Gamer Launch family are gearing up to attend the event. For some of us this is an annual event, while others will be making the trip to watch their favorite teams play for the first time. This got us thinking about all of you who might be attending your first live esports event in the coming year and what we can tell you to make the trip as stress-free and fun as possible. So, with that in mind, we’ve compiled this guide to surviving your first ever esports event.

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Everything You Need to Know About the SMITE MLG Pro League NA Finals

Now that the SMITE Super Regionals are over, there’s just one event left before the World Championships in January. This weekend, December 5-6, MLG is hosting its NA Pro League Finals for SMITE on Xbox One.

The top six North American teams from the regular MLG Pro season will be facing off for their share of a $50,000 prize purse and a spot in the Xbox One Invitational at the SMITE World Championships next month. This event marks the end of the first competitive season we’ve ever seen for a MOBA on console.

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SMITE Super Regionals EU Quarter Finals results

SMITE Super Regionals

It’s Day 2 of the SMITE Super Regionals, and four European teams have battled for victory in the Quarter Final round. We saw a lot of upsets and surprises this time around, as some long-standing favorites were unseated and games that should have been sealed deals turned into back-and-forth struggles.

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SMITE Super Regionals Are in Full Swing

The road to the SMITE World Championships is getting shorter and shorter. This week, North American and European teams will be facing off in the Super Regionals event to decide who will nab the top spots for the World Championship in January.

Day 1 is already over, with four NA teams battling head-to-head in the Quarter Final round. Team SoloMid took on Team Enemy, and Enemy came out on top with a 3-1 upset in the best of 5 round. In the second game of the day, old rivals Cloud9 and Cognitive Gaming faced off once again. If you tuned into the SMITE World Championships last year, you know that Cloud9 and Cognitive had a showdown for the first place prize. Cognitive came out on top then, but Cloud9 turned the tables this time around and took the second Quarter Final win in a 3-0 shutout.

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How to Set Up a Scrim on Gamer Launch

As 2015 starts winding down, the eSports season is just heating up. Korean team SK Telecom T1 just took home the world championship titles for League of Legends last week, and we’re about to see some serious action at BlizzCon this weekend, with championship tournaments happening for Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. The SMITE World Championship Series is on the horizon as well, with the Super Regionals coming up in two weeks.

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Here’s what you missed in the SMITE for Xbox MLG Pro League Qualifiers

Over the weekend, some of the best SMITE Xbox teams gathered in New Orleans to battle for a $10,000 prize in the MLG Pro League Qualifiers. This is just one more step in the road to the SMITE World Championships. Team eLevate ultimately grabbed the big win after starting near the bottom of the group stages and fighting through a tough bracket. Here are a few of the highlights from this action-packed event.

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