Just because it’s Christmas, that doesn’t mean Esports comes to a standstill! Even over the festive period, there will be Esports competitions for you to enjoy, whether you enjoy betting on the outcome, or you enjoy watching the action as it unfolds. And with so many tournaments to choose from, there’s something for everyone, whether you prefer the more well-known Counterstrike Championships, or you’re looking to discover something new like Hearthstone – you can get stuck into whichever you prefer. Here is a rundown of a few tournaments that are taking place over the Christmas Season.

Esports: An overview

If you’re new to Esports, getting to know more about it can be helpful. Esports tournaments see professional gamers going head-to-head as a team or one on one to play a video game against each other. Esports events are hosted all over the world, by developers and the ESL, which is the league responsible for many of the tournaments you’ll see being held across the globe. Some of the most popular types of games that are featured in Esports competitions include Multiplayer online battle arena games, first-person shooter games, and real-time strategy games. Fans often watch these competitions closely online, and some are even lucky enough to head to an event in person. Many betting platforms offer Esports odds to bet on, to make the event more exciting, and interactive. 

Hearthstone 2022 World Championship

Hearthstone is a bit different from what you would expect when it comes to Esports – it’s not like your Counterstrike or League of Legends – it’s a strategy card game that’s played online, and if you’re looking for something different, you can watch some of the best players, 16 of them to be exact, play this game to take the title of Hearthstone Champion. There are four Grandmasters, four Chinese Gold Series, and eight Masters Tour winners – but who will come out on top? With a $500,000 prize pot up for grabs, it’s all to play for from the 16^th to the 19^th of December.

IESF 14^th World Esports Championship

Running from the start of December, the 1^st to the 12^th is the international Esports Federation championship. Leading up to Christmas, this could be the event to watch – hosted in Indonesia this year. There are a few tournaments that will take place throughout the championship, like TEKKEN 7, Dota 2 and eFootball. If you’re familiar with Esports, you’ll know that the winners often get a hefty prize pot – and the IESF championship is no exception, winners will get their share of $500,000.

CS:GO Blast World Finals

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a huge name in the Esports world. And there’s no surprise really, it ticks all the boxes that make for great Esports as a first-person shooter, tactical game. It’s the 4^th instalment in the counterstrike series and sees two teams going against each other in various objective-based games. There are various modes of the game that allow players to carry out various tasks. These world finals which will be held from the 14^th to the 18^th of December will see some of the best CS:GO players in the world compete against each other, for incredibly exciting viewing. The finals are being held in Abu Dhabi this year, which is where the top 8 teams in the world will gather to face off. The team that wins will be rewarded with a huge $1,000,000 – a fitting Christmas gift.

Global Esports Games

Another Esports event that gamers will have their eye on before we’re all fully immersed in the festivities is the Global Esports Games which begins on the 14^th of December and concludes on the 18^th. This tournament doesn’t just focus on one game, but it encompasses a range of some of the best Esports games worldwide, like Dota 2, eFootball, and Street Fighter V. These games take place in Istanbul and take place to show their support of Esports, and when it comes to breaking barriers in sport.

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FIFA has long been the top name in soccer games. PES might have had a few years where it competed with it, but for around a decade now, FIFA has been the top dog. This is why it’s no surprise that it has all of the biggest names in the sport included. The biggest event for this year’s release is definitely the announcement that the World Cup will be included in FIFA 23.

Past FIFA World Cup links

FIFA has a long and storied history of being linked to the World Cup. Long before the esports revolution, FIFA was intrinsically linked with the World Cup. The first release of the game was in time for the 1994 World Cup. Although on the Genesis it didn’t have much of a link to the World Cup, it did on other systems. The Sega-CD and 3DO versions of the game featured a lot of full-motion video from past events. Although it didn’t bear the name of the World Cup, it still had a lot of imagery that helped link the event in the minds of players.

Things had changed by 1998. At this point, FIFA had overtaken the other games on the market to become the biggest player in the game. Kick-Off and Sensible Soccer were no longer the top games out there. International Superstar Soccer offered arguably better gameplay, but FIFA was still the biggest name. It capitalized on this for the 1998 World Cup. Not only did FIFA 98 feature a few mentions of the World Cup, it also had an additional game released at the same time.

FIFA Road to the World Cup was the first explicit mention of the tournament by a FIFA game, but it was just the start of the tournament links.

Tournaments and evolution

As the game advanced so did what it offered. Instead of releasing additional games during the World Cup, EA decided to create add-ons over the course of the season. This meant that it didn’t cost players as much as it had in the past. However, new features could still be created for players. This included online tournaments where players could compete against each other in simulated World Cups.

It’s happened quite a few times now with different releases. It’s not just the male World Cup that’s included either. The female World Cup has been included in newer editions of the game. This has allowed players to enjoy the World Cup in a number of different forms in the game.

While FIFA hasn’t become a huge player in the world of esports just yet, with the global popularity of soccer, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a regular and popular tournament. There are even talks that an Esports World Cup could become a regular occurrence in the future. This is something that a lot of players would look forward to, especially if it was linked to the World Cup itself.

Qatar 2022

Obviously, Qatar 2022 hasn’t been without its controversy. However, it’s unlikely that this will negatively impact on what FIFA does with the game. The inclusion of Qatar 22 content will ensure FIFA 23 sits in line with other editions of the game. As it’s one of the best received versions of the game, it makes sense for players to have the opportunity to play at the latest version of the biggest soccer tournament in the world.

This means that there will likely be online tournaments taking place in the future, especially as the tournament itself gets started. The game will also include the option to create tournaments for players, which means that if you’re playing FIFA, then you will have the opportunity to create a World Cup between you and your friends. Of course, some will have an unfair advantage, especially if they get to pick one of the better teams in the game. However, if teams are chosen with a random draw, it will allow the tournament to be a little bit fairer.

With more content being added all the time, it really is an exciting time for FIFA players. Whether we will see a top-quality esports tournament in the near future still remains to be seen. It goes without saying though that there is definitely the potential for players to enjoy one of the most interesting events of recent times. Qatar 22 and FIFA 23 could create a fantastic experience for esports players.

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Online games have become a massive part of our lives contemporarily. With the upsurge in technology, there's hardly anyone who plays physical games as the same amount of fun and interaction can occur while using your computer. In this case, the category that is rapidly evolving is esports.

These games can be found in various applications offering the best variety and help you stay updated about the top esports news. And not just this, they can improve your cognitive abilities, strategic abilities, and leadership skills. Let's have a closer look at a few best e-sports apps.

1. eForce

With the increasing responsiveness of smartphones, eForce have shaped itself to be a strong esports platform.  Keeping a strong foothold in the gaming industry, it is offering a massive collection of games. The app is polished and provides you with events, listings, and scores right away. The app opens straight into a calendar displaying the events scheduled for the day. You can use the controls at the top to navigate through and check out the events of your liking.

It also holds up a news section showing the latest news related to esports from all over the world. The tournament section helps you browse the upcoming tournament together with the participants in them.

The uninterrupted gaming app is just what you might be looking for to kill your boredom while engaging in something productive. It has a clean interface, is super simple to use, and doesn't irritate with any spams.

This is available for iOS only.

1. Strafe

If you're looking for a more established app in the esports market, then strafe is a great choice. It has the experience, a great interface, and detailed information about whatever you might be looking for. After opening the app, it asks you your favorite esports game, followed by your favorite tournament and players. This is to provide you with the information that you're interested in only, instead of delivering the global news.

Be it the news, updates, or scoring, strafe offers complete information on every aspect. The app caters to the professional eSports team matches, providing a more focused viewer experience. It covers everything related to the match, from the latest news suggestions, to live streams, to videos relevant to the games you've chosen.

The flexibility and the user control of the app is a huge perk. It gives you a calendar, feed, and discover catering to all the possible news and updates you're looking for. It is definitely worth a try and is currently available for iOS and Android.

However, if you want your kids to develop some basic skills with some easy games according to their calibre to slowly get to understanding the eSports apps' information then you must have a look at Unlimited Gamez Mo. It is an amazing site to develop these skills.

1. Twitch

As per Business Insider, e-sports have formed a center of entertainment worldwide, whose market growth is only trending by the day. Twitch is probably the number one pick for most people due to its undisputed player in the video game streaming market. This supremely popular app was released in 2011 and since then it has covered a massive area in the e-Sports market. Currently, it has more than 15 million daily active users. You can access the chat function, and watch any live video stream you want.

The option to search and browse your favorite channels and tournaments is also available. If you're into the streaming, you can go live from your mobile device. The navigation through the settings and controls gets a little tricky on the mobile phone but is just as user-friendly as it gets with a desktop version.

The app is divided into three sections of following, discover, and browse. The following tab will display what games you're currently following. Clicking on a particular game will open live streaming, videos of broadcast and premiers, highlights, and clips. You can also click on your channel. The discover app suggests streams and content that it thinks is relevant to your liking. It may be live stream, videos, clips, or popular games. Through browse, you can effectively search through games to find a channel, video or clip you want.

You can enable notifications to get alerts on your mobile phone, be it android or iOS. All in all, twitch is a winner.

1. Upcomer eSports

During the time of quarantine, everyone wanted to remain functional. The way quarantine changed the esports market is just astounding. In this market, eSports holds a fair share of success. Providing a complete and interactive experience to its users, it has made a great name for itself.

It delivers news, real-time scores, and tournament updates. Set up your favourite game and team when you get started and get all the relevant information about your desired games. You can also receive notifications from the app as soon as there is news.

It has a wonderful tournament bracket system which allows you to visualize tournaments as they take place or have a look at how the players played in the past contest. These brackets keep on updating as matches progress to show you the actual standing of your favorite team.

1. ESPN

Our last pick for the best eSports apps is ESPN. It is not just a renowned sports news channel but has a full-blown eSports website and app, delivering the latest news on sports at any time of the day. ESports is anyhow a sport and therefore ESPN is also a part of the market to provide coverage.

It helps you keep up with the fast-paced eSports world to track your favorite player's stats or the scores of your favorite team's matches. It provides a myriad of great information on news, scores, and tournaments that are not only limited to eSports but a bunch of traditional sports.

Conclusion

Keeping up with the latest trends, news, and scores is super important when you have your favorite team playing a match. In such a case, an eSports app is a huge rescue that delivers instant news together with live streaming so that you never have to worry about missing out on your favorite tournament.

If you have more apps to add to the list above, mention them in the comments below!

Author Bio:

About Michelle Joe: Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences, and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on twitter: @michellejoe524

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ONE Esports joined forces with a South-East Asian esports management company IO Esports to introduce a US $100,000 SEA Dota2 League which is set to unfold in an online format from June 18 to July 19.

ONE Esports announced the upcoming SEA Dota2 tournament on Friday via a blog post on their official website and on social media. As revealed, the tournament will consist of seven invited Dota2 teams along with three teams who will qualify through ONE Esports regional online qualifiers, which will be open for all players in the Southeast Asia server. Click here to check the calendar of the matches for this and many other tournaments.

The ONE Esports qualifiers will take place in two sessions. The first qualifiers will run from June 4-5 and will grant two tickets for the main event, while the second will take place from June 6-7 and will have only one ticket for the main event on the line.

The qualifiers are open for any team that fields at least three players, who are residents of any of the following countries: Australian, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.

Players and teams can sign up to compete in the qualifiers on the official ONE Esports website (www.oneesports.gg). The contestants have to be at least 18 years of age to sign up or send a filled consent from a parent or legal guardian.

As of May 25, 26 out of 128 spots have already been filled by Dota2 teams Team ENTs, Team CR, SMC Predator, ShenZhen, Lunch Chow Gaming, Ikh Mogul Gaming, Newbee, team unknown, MS Chonburi, unreleasedph Esports, Old Boys, Ground Zero, Passion Team, Universe 7, Burmeseghouls, Kingpins, QuestionMark, Team Pyramid, GoodFellaz, Veteran, Todak, Focus Arena Dota2, LGD International, Flower Gaming, NGID M11 and Neon Esports.

The full team list cam be viewer HERE.

ONE Esports unveiled Team Adroit, BOOM Esports, Fnatic, Geek Fam, Reality Rift, T1, and TNC Predator as the seven directly invited teams to the main event, which is slated to begin on Thursday, June 18.

Teams attending ONE Esports Dota2 SEA League group stage will be put in one group, where they will play in a round-robin best-of-two (Bo2) format. After the season comes to an end, the bottom two teams will get eliminated while the rest will advance into the playoffs, which will take place on July 15-19. The playoffs will be played in a double-elimination Bo3 format, except for the grand finals, which will play out in a Bo5.

SEA Dota2 League full schedule:

Regular Season: June 18-July 12

– Round Robin, Bo2 series

– Top 8 teams proceed to playoffs

Playoffs: July 15-18

– Double elimination bracket, Bo3 series

Grand Finals: July 19

– Bo5

SEA Dota2 League prize pool distribution:

1st – $40,000

2nd – $20,000

3rd – $15,000

4th – $7,000

5th-6th – $4,000

7th-8th – $3,000 

9th-10th – $2,000

ONE Esports Dota2 SEA League will mark the second major Dota2 tournament organised by ONE Esports, following Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, which took place in December 2019.

The next ONE Esports-organised tournament is Dota 2 Invitational Jakarta, which was originally scheduled to take place on April 17, however, merged with ONE Esports Dota 2 Invitational Indonesia and got rescheduled to November 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

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Recent reports unveiled Riot Korea are planning on hosting an online League of Legends tournament, which will feature teams from League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) and Pro League (LPL).

The LCK-LPL event is said to take place sometime in the upcoming weeks, ahead of the summer splits in both Asian leagues and will act as a replacement for this year's Mid-Season Invitational, which got cancelled last month due to the growing fear of COVID-19 pandemic.

The ins and outs of the upcoming event are still a mystery, seeing how there have been no news regarding the format, schedule and participants. However, according to Kenzi, who was the first to bring the information about the event to light, all the details about the tournament should become available sometime next week.

"Ahead of the summer season, an online event match will be held involving the LCK team and the LPL team," said Kenzi.

"Riot Games prepared for the event after the spring season."

The first to come up with the idea of an international tournament was Joe Marsh, CEO of T1, who talked about the possibility of hosting a friendly match between LPL and LCK sometime in May. In his Twitter post, he called out T1, Gen.G, DragonX, FunPlus Phoenix, Top Esports and JD Gaming – six of the strongest Asian LoL teams to "hang out online".

The concept quickly gained traction amongst the League fans, who did not hesitate to show their support for the idea, while most teams gave positive answers.

Some fans have already started to speculate the tournament will resemble Rift-Rivals, where LCK and LPL teams will go head-to-head to determine which region has the right to call themselves the strongest Asian LoL region although nothing is confirmed yet. Having said that, if the upcoming tournament will use the same format as the Rift Rivals, there is a question about what will happen with the third slot. In the previous iterations of Rift Rivals, LCK and LPL were joined by League of Legends Master Series (LMS) and Vietnam Championship Series (VCS), which merged into Pacific Championship Series (PCS) at the start of this season and since PCS was not mentioned so far, there is a possibility the upcoming tournament will only feature Chinese and Korean LoL teams.

It's worth noting, however, that Kenzi explicitly specified that Riot Games' idea behind the exhibition tournament will be "different from the competition proposed by Joe Marsh" and that more information is expected to be officially announced next week.

“Due to the cancellation of the MSI, the offseason will be for about two months. We are preparing a temporary competition," said Riot Korea.

"Not many things have been decided yet, but details and schedules will be announced later on. We hope this event will be a great present for the fans who are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

No matter how Riot Korea decided to approach the competition, it's still nice to see they're doing their best to provide LoL fans with some international competition that was taken away from the community since MSI was postponed, meanwhile, Rift Rivals was outright cancelled.

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Arena of Valor World Cup (AWC) 2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced by Tencent this Thursday.

The decision was made to prioritise the health and safety of all those who would be involved in the tournament, as stated by the AoV developer and publisher. Tencent also assured its fans and players that all possibilities to keep AWC on the schedule were explored, however, due to the ongoing situation caused by the pandemic, no other option was left but to cancel the event altogether.

"We are making the difficult decision to cancel the Arena of Valor World Cup (AWC) 2020 due to the evolving global situation surrounding COVID-19. Our commitment has always been to prioritise the health and well-being of those involved. This is what ultimately led us to making this decision," read the announcement.

“Our esports team has been monitoring the situation very closely and heeded advice from relevant authorities. This is an unprecedented period for offline and online sports- especially so for international events – and everyone is striving to do their utmost for their communities, and planning around the situation. We would like to assure players and the fans that we have explored all possibilities before landing on the decision to cancel AWC 2020."

"We are still committed to bringing AOV esports content to our community. The team is hard at work putting in place all our plans and we share more details with you soon.

"These are challenging times for all of us, and we would like to thank our AOV community for your understanding and continued support. The health and well-being of everyone is of utmost priority to us now."

AWC is just one of many esports events that was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, most of which were cancelled, indefinitely postponed or opted to move the competition to an online format. As it stands now, it's still unclear whether AWC will follow the footsteps of other major Dota2, CS:GO and League of Legends tournaments who transitioned to online play, however, Tencent unveiled more information about the future plans should be revealed soon.

The AWC is one of the biggest and most prestigious tournaments in the international Arena of Valor esports scene. It's an annual competition which features the best AoV players from all over the world, who compete under their national flag instead for an esports organisation. The first iteration of AWC was held in summer of 2018 in the United States, where we saw Korea defeat Thailand in the grand finals to hoist the trophy and secure the mouth-watering US $200,000 in tournament winnings.

The 2019 edition of AWC was held in Vietnam from June 27 to July 14. Just like the 2018 AWC, it featured $500,000 prize pool with 12 teams in attendance. Korean national team, who reached the finals in 2018 crashed out of the event without winning a single match, whereas 2018 runners-up Thailand made it to the quarter-finals, where they got eliminated by Thailand Wildcard. The 2019 AWC ended with a grand final between Chinese Taipei and Vietnam, with the latter edging out a close 4-3 win to secure a title of world champions and $200,000 in tournament winnings.

The grand finals match had a peak viewership number of 764,358 people, making it one of the most-watched esports events of the year.

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ESPN Esports announced its own VALORANT Invitational tournament, featuring teams made up of players from other esports titles including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite ane more.

The ESPN's VALORANT Invitational is set to begin on Monday, April 20, pitting professional esports players from various esports titles against each other to determine which esports best prepared its players with the needed skills to dominate in VALORANT. As revealed, there will be a total of eight teams from seven different game titles, including CS:GO, Fortnite, LoL, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex and Overwatch. Joining them will be VALORANT Developer team

Although this can hardly be considered as a serious tournament, we can be sure the competitive fire will be burning brighter than ever, seeing how the even is said to feature some big names from the esports scene. Having said that, it's obvious some players will enjoy a significant advantage over their competition, namely Counter-Strike players, considering their game has many elements similar to VALORANT.

Nonetheless, it seems like the field is fairly balanced, as it's hard to undervalue esports pros from other titles, given that they're all incredibly gifted esports athletes, who should do just fine in any game they are thrown into. Talking about teams to watch out for, we will also see VALORANT Devs, who are not to be overlooked, not only because they will most likely field the ex-CS:GO pro Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo, but also because this team just recently defeated a team of prominent FPS streamers, which included ex-CS:GO pros Michael "shroud" Grzesiek, Jaryd "summit1g" Lazar, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, Kyran "dizzy" Crombie and Erik "fl0m" Flom.

The event is set to take place over three days from April 20-22, starting on Monday at 2pm CT on the ESPN Esports Twitch Channel

As of Sunday, April 19, only three teams have unveiled their full rosters ahead of the ESPN Esports VALORANT Invitational. Those teams are: Team Rift (League of Legends), Team Mirage (CS:GO), Team Canyon (Apex)

Team Rift will see five League of Legends active and retired professional players including a few legendary names in Team Liquid's ADC Yiliang Peter "Doublelift" Peng, ex-Team SoloMid top laner Marcus "Dyrus" Hill, former Dignitas ADC Micheal "imaqtpie" Santana and his former teammate and mid laner Danny "Shiphtur" Le, as well as Immortals jungler Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero.

Team Mirage will field five retired CS:GO players in Major winner Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, Spencer "Hiko" Martin, as well as Braxton "swag" Pierce, Keven "AZK" Larivière, who are mostly known for their involvement in iBUYPOWER match-fixing scandal.

The last announced team, Team Canyon, will field five Apex Legends pros in Timothy "sYnceD" Putrow, NRG Esports member Brandon "Ace" Winn, former CS:GO player turned Apex Legends pro Kyran "dizzy" Crombie, Team Liquid member Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson and his teammate Justin "Kellar" Kellar.

Other five teams are said to be announced by Monday, on the official ESPN Esports' Twitter page.

Team Rift (League of Legends)

Yiliang Peter "Doublelift" Peng

Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero

Danny "Shiphtur" Le

Micheal "imaqtpie" Santana

Marcus "Dyrus" Hill

Team Mirage (CS:GO)

Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham

Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert

Spencer "Hiko" Martin

Braxton "swag" Pierce

Keven "AZK" Larivière

Team Canyon (Apex)

Timothy "sYnceD" Putrow

Brandon "Ace" Winn

Kyran "dizzy" Crombie

Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson

Justin "Kellar" Kellar

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Team Liquid defeated Evil Geniuses 3-0 this Sunday, to clinch the title of ESL Pro League Season 11 North American division champions, marking their first S-Tier tournament title in over six months.

Despite their recent struggles and iffy performances, Nick "nitr0" Cannella and co. entered ESL Pro League S11: NA as one of the main favourites to go the distance and the reigning Intel Grand Slam titleholders did not hesitate to prove just that. Liquid's run through the regular season was not impressive, given that they dropped two games against Swole Patrol (0-2) and FURIA (1-2), however, by pocketing commanding wins over 100 Thieves (2-0), MiBR (2-0) and Evil Geniuses (2-1), Liquid comfortably secured a top-two seed and a direct bye into the semi-finals.

Waiting for them in the ESL Pro League S11 semi-finals were no other than Liquid's biggest regional rivals, Evil Geniuses, who failed to improve upon their first meeting with Liquid and suffered a 14-16 and 12-14 series defeat, which saw Liquid advance into the final stage of the tournament. The two North American CS:GO juggernauts met once more in the grand finals, this Sunday, April 12, after Evil Geniuses picked up a 2-0 win over FURIA and were now set to upset Liquid, but it soon became clear that nitr0's squad are still the superior North American squad in these derbies.

To say Liquid picked up a convincing win would be an understatement, seeing how they completely stomped Evil Geniuses on both Dust II (16-11) and Vertigo (9-16). Liquid did not need to play the third map of the series, as they were awarded one map win as the upper-bracket team. This win marked the third consecutive time Liquid triumphed over Evil Geniuses at the tournament while extending nitr0 and his crew's streak against EG to nine series in a row.

The grand finals came down to an excellent showing from Keith "NAF" Markovic, who played a pivotal role in Liquid's win on Dust II, while he received some help from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski on Vertigo, where the duo took over the game and carried their team to victory.

The Grand finals kicked off on Dust II, where Evil Geniuses had a legitimate chance to come out ahead, given that their head-to-head record with Liquid showed 1-1. In the opening few rounds, it seemed like the series will, in fact, be close, as the teams went back and forth and ended up splitting three maps apiece six rounds in. At that point, Liquid started to rally and put up an impressive defensive half, spearheaded by NAF, who helped Liquid win seven out of the remaining nine rounds, which sent Liquid into the second half 10-5 up.

Liquid translated their momentum into the second half, where they picked up the opening three rounds to get themselves up 13-5. After realising they're eight rounds down, Evil Geniuses finally found their rhythm and won five consecutive rounds, which swung the economy their way and put Liquid in an unenviable position, however, a crucial 1v3 clutch by NAF helped Liquid seal the map at 16-11 and with that secured a 2-0 series lead.

With their backs against the wall, Evil Geniuses got off to a strong start on Vertigo, thanks to Tarik "tarik" Celik and Ethan "Ethan" Arnold who produced a 2v4 turnaround to secure the pistol round. Although EG got themselves 3-0 up, their enthusiasm did not last for long, as NAF once more found his rhythm, and with another phenomenal performance helped Liquid end the first half 8-7 up. At this point, it seemed like we are in for a close second half, however, EliGE had other plans and joined the fray with big multikills, which helped Liquid completely dominate on the T-Side and clinched a commanding victory with 16-9 and 3-0 in the series.

This marked Team Liquid's first S-TIer tournament title since they won Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Chicago back in July 2019 and their second ESL Pro League title after ESL Pro League Season 9 – Finals.

For his contribution to the team and his performance throughout the tournament, EliGE was crowned as the ESL Pro League S11 NA Most-Valuable-Player.

The 22 year-old averaged an impressive 1.29 rating against Evil Geniuses across the grand finals series, which was far below NAF's 1.65 rating, but EliGE's consistency across the entire tournament proved to be the deciding factor in the reward landing in his hands. ElIGE ended the tournament featured in the stat leaderboards in 14 different categories, four of which he ended with the highest marks – 1.27 rating, +84 KDD, 90.5 ADR and 0.82 KPR.

This marks EliGE's fourth MVP award of his career, with his previous awards coming from DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals and IEM Chicago. The North American rifler was also declared as the fourth-best CS:GO player last year.

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Combo Breaker 2020 has been officially cancelled this Wednesday, due to the team's concern regarding the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

Combo Breaker is one of the biggest Fighting Games esports tournaments of the year, so it's understandable to see the announcement has left the whole Fighting Games community in shock, while the organiser Rick “The Hadou” Thiher and his team have their own problems to deal with, as they have to issue refunds and cancel all previous preparations for the event.

The unfortunate announcement surfaced on the official Combo Breaker website, with a detailed explanation of the situation as well as plans for the future.

"The COMBO BREAKER team is gutted to announce that, following government guidance and our own judgment regarding COVID-19, COMBO BREAKER 2020 is cancelled," read the announcement.

"We recognize the significant impact this decision has on our attendees, partners, sponsors, staff, venue, and community, but believe it is currently the only move to make. May we collectively make it through this difficult time as passionately as when we all began."

The next wave of Combo Breaker promotions was slated to launch this week, including an announcement that Combo Breaker 2020 will be powered by Astro Gaming, who also helped the organisers secure the Schaumburg Convention Center for this year's event.

The blog post unveiled that all attendees who already purchased community or competitor pass will be eligible for full refunds, which will be processed on April 20. That being said, there will be some exclusions from what can be fully refunded, such as Village of Schaumburg or Cook County taxing fees, as these are non-refundable without an individual claim letter delivered by each registrant to the local governments.

Those who already booked a room at the Combo Breaker's hotel, Schaumburg Renaissance Marriott, will have their room reservations automatically transferred to Combo Breaker 2021. There is also an option to call the hotel directly and request the room reservation to be cancelled, in which case a full refund will be issued.

The Hadou also addressed the issues with travel plans, urging the fans and others who already booked their flights to contact the airline companies and enquire about a possible refund or other forms of compensation for cancelling the flight.

Those who registered for the event will receive a few gifts from Combo Breaker, which incudes COMBO BREAKER Badge, 0-page Commemorative Magazine, COMBO BREAKER Pin and No Coast, No Kings Lanyard. All gifts are expected to be shipped after all refunds are processed, which should be sometime in early May, so everyone should have the gifts at home by Memorial Day Weekend. The Hadou stated, however, that there could be some delays with the shipping the gifts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the cancellation of the event, Combo Breaker will still offer Combo Breaker 2020 merchandise, which can be found on their official store. Merchandise includes hoodies, hats, badges, stickers, posters and much more. In response to enquiries about how fans can support Combo Breaker, the store offers two additional items in 50-page Commemorative Magazine featuring articles, illustrations, photos, and interviews and COMBO BREAKER Arcade Token and protective case, which is available for $2, but also allows you to name your own price as part of an “In Us We Trust” support opportunity.

All proceeds from the merchandise will help Combo Breaker recoup development and costs, as well as ensure that Combo Breaker will return in 2021.

Combo Breaker Retrospective Stream

Additionally, Combo Breaker is said to work with a videographer Hold Back to Block, streamers Team Spooky, and host Sajam to provide a 3-day retrospective broadcast, which will feature marquee matches, stories from the past attendees of Combo Breaker's 5-year-long history as well as clips of special moments.

While this won't be the event broadcast Combo Breaker had hoped to deliver, the organisers hope it will help "fill some of the void over what was supposed to have been COMBO BREAKER 2020 weekend." The Combo Breaker Retrospective stream is set to air on May 22-24, 2020.

Although nice gestures from the Combo Breaker organisers, it's very unfortunate to see an event of such calibre cancelled due to the COVID-19 spread. This, however, is not the lone case of cancelled esports event, as there are a plethora of other tournaments that were either cancelled, postponed or moved to an online format.

The post Combo Breaker cancelled amid COVID-19 pandemic appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

NBA is set to host an esports NBA 2K tournament, which will feature NBA professional players competing on a virtual court, with all matches said to be broadcasted live on ESPN.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has to date reportedly infected over 800,000 people across the globe, over 170,000 of which in the United States, most of the sports scene has come to a stop in a bid to ensure wellbeing and security for the players and fans.

After Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, NBA decided to halt its play and a day later announced the league will suspend the 2019/20 season to prevent any further spread of the deadly illness amongst its players and the fans. Its esports counterpart – the NBA 2K League followed suit and announced its 2020 season, which was slated to begin on March 24, will be postponed indefinitely. That consequently left basketball fans from around the world without any basketball action to watch while most of the population is homebound – up until now.

According to reports, the American top-flight basketball league opted to follow the footsteps of Formula 1 and transitioned into the esports world, by announcing an online esports basketball tournament, featuring NBA pro players, who will get a chance to duke it out against each other on a virtual court while the doors to their arenas remain shut.

As announced, the event is set to begin on Friday, April 3 and it will likely see one of professional NBA players from each of the 30 teams compete against each other. Some sources also claim each team is expected to have one NBA 2K pro involved in the event, however, it remains to be seen whether that pro will be playing for the team or simply help NBA pros with their preparation for the event as a coach.

To date, no NBA organisation has yet to unveil which of their players will attend the NBA 2K event, however, it's expected for the announcement to surface sometime in the following days. That being said, we can make a solid guess which players are likely to participate in the esports competition, considering many NBA stars showed their love for the gaming world by turning to streaming since NBA shut its doors.

Some names that pop up are Gordon Hayward, Paul George, Jeremy Lin, Luka Doncic and Devin Booker, who is already tied with 100 Thieves esports organisation and is a fairly successful streamer on Twitch, where ha amassed over 81,000 followers to date.

Ben Simmons is another name that might be seen at the event, given that the Australian NBA star has been heavily involved in the gaming scene recently, having also participated at the FaZe's Warzone tournament.

Many fans, however, will be hoping to see the NBA superstar LeBron James make his appearance, yet it may not be the optimal decision, considering the three-time NBA champion stated before he takes his NBA 2K matches very seriously, much like the games he plays at the Staples Center. That might spark some interesting moments, but given his charisma and strive to be nothing short of the best in everything he does, some frustrating moments might be afoot.

The post NBA announces players-only NBA 2K tournament appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.