Valve is finally releasing new content for Dota 2. TNC Predator is likely to find a non-meta way of dominating further with this latest patch. Read more below.
The Outlanders patch is set to shake up the meta and bring Dota 2 some fresh content after one of the longest breaks between updates in the game’s history. Competitors and fans have been chomping at the bit for changes, decrying the “state of the game and historically low player count.” Valve is notorious for taking its time in release new game content, partially on account of quality checking and scheduling around competitive tournaments.
Initially, the Outlanders was announced to be released “after the next Majors event,” but no other date was given. Since the Chengdu Major just just wrapped up (more coverage to follow below!), one of the developers took to Reddit to say that November 26th is likely to be the day that the new patch hits live servers.
Perhaps new heroes like Snapfire and Void Spirit will rally old and new players alike to hop back on Steam and duke it out with some shiny new items.
The Phillipines’ own formerly dark horse outfit TNC Predator took down Chinese powerhouse Vici Gaming on home soil at the Chengdu Major this past weekend. With this win, TNC has cemented themselves as a frontrunner team with an almost guaranteed in to next year’s International tournament.
Going off-meta: TNC managed to best Vici in the grand finals in four well-fought games by playing its own brand of Dota, featuring off-meta picks like Night Stalker carry, a Morphling/Earthshaker combo, off lane Venomancer, and favoring heroes like Disruptor instead of common picks like Gyrcopter and Faceless Void. Their confident approach shifted the tournament’s playing field, proving that creative gameplay will always propel a good team to the very top.
Continuing to dominate: It was a spectacular showing overall for the team who also bested another Chinese mainstay, Invictus Gaming, in the lower bracket finals. Does this signal a rise in SEA region dominance going into 2020? We have plenty more Major events to find out before the International, but keep your eyes on the Philippines.
CS:GO had its moment in Asia this weekend as well, but instead, this tournament featured two European finalists duking it out for the gold. Germany’s mousesports eventually came out on top, besting Finland’s ENCE team in a rather dramatic CSGO Asia Championships.
MVP: The team’s AWPwe Özgür “woxic” Eker even walked away with MVP status at the end of the event.
A second chance: The two teams faced off in Group B during group play, along with teams AVANGAR and ViCi. ENCE beat mousesports 2-1, which lead them straight into semi-finals. However, mousesports showed the power of perseverance and strong individual play by defeating ENCE in a best of three.
Youth and Sports Minister of Malaysia, Syed Saddiq, announced some massive plans for the country’s esports scene, called the Malaysia Esport Blueprint. This comes after The International Dota 2 tournament taking place there last year and the first Mobile Legends World Championship just concluding last week. Now they’re looking to continue hosting landmark esports tournaments on a regular basis.
One plan to rule them all: One initiative is UOA Bhd and Razer teaming up to build the nation’s first esports arena. Additional components of the plan include introducing athlete welfare, addressing gaming addictions, holding regional esports conferences and summits, establishing a National Esports League, increasing the participation of women in esports, and creating licensed esports training centers.
Five priorities to bind them: The blueprint consists of five strategic priorities. This includes developing athletes for esports excellence, heading toward responsible gaming and esports ethics, providing better access to esports infrastructure, building a sustainable esports ecosystem, and constitute good law and good governance to esports.
Check it: The full plan can be found here.
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It was just after November 3, 2018. Professional players from Heroes of the Storm had just witnessed Gen.G esports defeat Team Dignitas in the Heroes Global Championship (HGC) grand finals. For their efforts, they took home a sizable $500,000 cash prize.
Now came time to prepare for the 2019 HGC. Global organizations sponsoring teams reached out to Blizzard asking how the professional circuit would operate the following year. But they were met with half-hearted replies. And that’s because something was up.
Finishing blow: Suddenly came the announcement from Blizzard president, J. Allen Brack. Cuts were being made to the game’s development team as well as a death sentence to the competitive scene. In that one post, hundreds of players, talent, and contractors became unemployed. There were no further statements from the company. The competitive scene was invariably over.
To hell with it: Likely the biggest cause for this change was how the announcement for mobile game title Diablo: Immortal was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response by franchise fans. Blizzard felt pressure to make things right and thus decided to ramp up production of Diablo 4 to have it ready to reveal at 2019 BlizzCon.
Steady as she goes: The remaining development team on HotS has continued to turn out new content, albeit at a much more reasonable rate than before. Before things were shut down for HGC, the development team at HotS was the biggest on campus and had most sizable workload to deal with. But now they’re taking things much more slowly.
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