Tag: eSports

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)

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

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.

The SMITE World Championships
source: http://i1.2pcdn.com/node14/image/article/201501/10/20150110030835a0dznq300a371o4k.jpg

Continue reading A Simple Guide To Surviving Your First Esports Event

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.

Continue reading How to Set Up a Scrim on Gamer Launch

Rocket League is Redefining eSports

With high-octaned racers outfitted for one of the most popular international sports, Rocket League is changing the face of eSports.

Rocket League came out of nowhere. Effectively a sports game where you ram your car into giant soccer balls, Rocket League doesn’t seem to have the surface potential to become an eSport. While there are competitive communities in some sports games and some racing games, they pale in comparison to the eSports communities that gather year round to watch people play MOBA’s, for example.  Continue reading Rocket League is Redefining eSports

How to Find Amateur eSports Tournaments

If you care about eSports,you probably know some of the big tournaments already. Red Bull Battle Grounds, ESL One, League of Legends World Championships, the International. These are where the best of the best get together, sometimes under one roof, to play the games they love.

But what if you’re not playing for Na’Vi or the LA Renegades? What if it’s just you and your friendly team of 5 that want to get together and play some League in a friendly competition? Well, what you’re looking for is an amateur tournament.  Continue reading How to Find Amateur eSports Tournaments

The Best Games for Your Guild: MOBA Edition

Just a few weeks ago, we compiled a list of the best (read: most active) MMOs for guilds. But team play happens in more than just one genre. Although the word “guild” might be specific to MMOs, the need for a good team and an active community is not. So this time around, we’re going to shine the spotlight on some MOBA games that are perfect for you and your guild.

MOBAs are great for groups that want shorter play times and more competitive elements. They tend to be much more fast-paced and goal-oriented than MMOs, and don’t demand as much of a time commitment. (But we can’t promise you won’t willingly sink all your hours into them anyway.)  Continue reading The Best Games for Your Guild: MOBA Edition

What we learned from Dota TI5, and what’s next in eSports

You’ve all heard the news by now: North American team Evil Geniuses won the Dota 2 International tournament on Saturday. Their victory earned them a whopping $6.6 million prize. The event garnered a lot of attention across sports and gaming outlets alike.

The International 2015 was a big deal for a lot of reasons – a record-breaking $18.4 million prize pool, lots of upsets in the brackets, and action-packed matches all tournament long. But in the larger scope of things, the Dota 2 TI5 reiterates something we’ve all known for a while: eSports is gaining some serious traction – not only in the gaming community, but in the world of sports as well.  Continue reading What we learned from Dota TI5, and what’s next in eSports

Favorite Team Secret Knocked Out of the International

It was supposed to be their year.

Team Secret was billed as a Super Group of Dota 2 players. That’s not an exaggeration ­­ their official Facebook page lists them as “The world’s leading Dota 2 players together on one team.” They’re the kinds of Dota 2 players even casual fans have heard of ­­ from Puppey to Arteezy to S4, and now they’re out of the International 5.  Continue reading Favorite Team Secret Knocked Out of the International

How to Host an eSports Tournament

So you wanna host an eSports tournament?

Maybe you’ve heard about the money that Valve made off their DotA 2 tournament, the International. Maybe you just want to try and do some regional organizing for your local school. Whatever the reason, you have eSports tournament fever.

This article is going to focus on the small time basics for starting up your own eSports tournament.  Continue reading How to Host an eSports Tournament