The Philippines won their second esports medal. But I’m sure Mang0 is happy for just winning his birthday tournament. Read more below.
Seven Filipino players stepped onto the podium to receive their medals, bouquets, and plush toys for an exemplary Dota 2 performance at SEAG. The team’s starting lineup consisted of four players from Team Adroit, who most recently competed at the MDL Chengdu Major. Their flexible and cohesive dynamic allowed them to win against a Thailand team that starred two players from Fnatic and win with a final score of 3-2.
Placements
About the event: The 2019 SEA Games is the first International Olympic Committee-sanctioned competition to host esports as an eligible medal event. Of the six games featured, Dota 2 was one of them. This is the Philippines’ second esports medal at the tournament, the first one for placing first in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
On December 8 in Toronto, Joseph “Mang0” Marquez held a Super Smash Bros. Melee singles tournament. The event was livestreamed to his Twitch channel and took place in the Red Bull AdrenaLAN, consisting of 16 participants.
Who’s who: Mang0 reached the top of the 16 competitors with relative ease, taking out other noteworthy players like James “Duck” Ma, Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby, and Zain Naghmi.
Some stats: Mang0’s Birthday Bash is Mang0’s third tournament victory of the year, following GOML 2019 and The Big House 9. Additionally, he has a very modest matchup spread against other top-six players. For example, he’s 4-3 against Zain, 2-1 against Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson, 2-2 against William “Leffen” Hjelte, and 3-4 against Hungrybox. As a result of this, speculations indicate that he may finish as high as the number two spot on the global year-end rankings.
It’s Mang0’s birthday and he’ll win if he wants to.
North American esports organization Team Liquid ultimately defeated Chinese team W.EDGM with a score of 3-1 during this last weekend’s Clash Royale League World Finals. Despite SK Gaming winning more games during the Seeding Tournament, Liquid ultimately beat both them and OGN Entus with a 2-1 score on their rise to champions.
Tournament details: The Clash Royale League is Supercell’s official esports league that pits six teams against each other for the lion’s share of a $400,000 prize pool. Two teams qualified from each of the accepted regions: OGN Entus and FAV Gaming from Asia, Nova Esports and W.EDGM from China, and SK Gaming and Team Liquid from the West. The event took place between December 3-7 at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles.
We just had our latest MAINGEAR gaming backpack giveaway drawing! The lucky winner is Brooke from Rogersville. Congrats for winning and we’re grateful for everyone’s support!
Sad you missed out? Don’t worry. We’re doing more drawings every Tuesday! So if you aren’t a previous winner,you’ve already been thrown back into the drawing for our next backpack giveaway! Stay strong, your time will come!
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has just announced a new Sports Emmy category, namely Outstanding Esports Coverage.
DreamHack just released their 2020 schedule, which includes 11 stops over three continents, including a return to India (for a third consecutive year). The production company specializes in esports tournaments and gaming festivals for esports titles like CS:GO, Dota 2, Fortnite, and more.
Some events: DreamHack Leipzig will be home to one of the Dota 2 Majors in addition to a CS:GO open event with a $1 million prize pool. DreamHack Anaheim will be the first event ever in the city and features a $250,000 Fortnite event.
The schedule
Bilibili, a Chinese anime and game-focused video platform, has reportedly secured the exclusive livestreaming rights in China for the League of Legends World Championship Finals. The deal is worth a reported $113 million USD over 3 years, ($37 million per year) — the result of a bidding war amongst Bilibili, Huya, Douyu, and Kuaishou. This is a meaningful milestone for esports, and highlights both the value of the Chinese esports audience, and increasing competition for esports media assets.
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Bugs aren’t an uncommon thing in big games, but when they potentially ruin things in a championship event, it gets a little serious. One irritating bug was recently introduced in a recent patch from Epic Games that nearly cost the winner of the World Cup a life.
The glitch: The problem in question involves the use of ziplines. These are scattered across the map and offer one of a very few mobility options to players. With a reduced arsenal to help with rotation, many players at the World Cup found themselves relying on these. The problem with ziplines now is that they cause damage to players when they shouldn’t.
The moment in question: Former World Cup winner Bugha is one of the biggest names in Fortnite and a player many folks want to watch in the FNCS. However, this zipline problem caused issues for his team in one particular moment. When Bugha set off to take down a squad, he used a zipline heading over to Weeping Wood. When he hit the ground, he suddenly lost 100 points of health. This left him looking to allies for a heal, which were fortunately close enough to administer. But this was a close call that nearly left the team with only three players.
A zipline hurts if you use your hands, so maybe Epic is trying to make things realistic. It can’t be healthy having a huge magnet as your only harness to a zipline.
Of the top five titles with peak viewer counts in November, four of them are for mobile games (League of Legends obviously being the non-mobile title).
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is best known as one of the most-watched influencers in gaming. But after this last weekend, he’s proven his commitment to the competitive gaming scene. The Fortnite Champions Series just took place for the North American East region and his four-man team won eighth place.
The team: Following the tournament, Ninja posted a Twitter video in which he expressed his post-game feelings. In it, he stated that he was pleased with the work of his team, which consisted of Nate Hill, Trevor “Funk” Siegler, and Malachi “Reserve2k” Greiner. He also took a moment to discuss what he thought about his own personal performance and future as a competitive player.
His remarks: Said Ninja, “I’m happy with how I played and how far I’ve come in terms of my individual talent. I definitely fell off a lot when I wasn’t focusing on competing. I wasn’t practicing my building, my editing. I wasn’t practicing literally anything, but I definitely think I’m back up to par with every single top player, and it feels good.”
The struggle to place: Since Ninja won Epic Games’ first official competitive event in June 2018, he hasn’t been able to play at the same competitive level, struggling to place anything better than seventh during the Fortnite World Cup qualifier. If anything, his best performance was placing fourth during the Creative competition at the World Cup.
In the meanwhile, Ninja plans on continuing to practice and focus on upcoming Fortnite events. We’re curious to see what kind of a mark he continues to make on the competitive scene.
Congrats again to Brooke from Rogersville for winning our latest backpack giveaway!
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We’re giving away a free gaming backpack every Tuesday to people who sign up here.
To start, you’ll get three entries in the drawing. Want more? Then refer friends, follow us on social media, and more.