eSports Update – 10 Things You May Have Missed!
The Shanghai Major has quickly gone from being one of the most exciting events in eSports to one of the biggest disasters this week. Concerns for player safety, poor living conditions, compromised play and a bad viewer experience has turned a jewel in Valve’s crown into a piece of coal.
Rocket League creators Psyonix announce their new Championship Series in association with Twitch.
With the annual Katowice event coming up in a couple of days Goldper 10 has released 5 stories you may want to follow throughout the event.
Last November Riot became the first eSports league operator to implement minimum contractual requirements for top teams and players. This week they’ve made another huge play with the announcement that they are standardizing the penalties for more than 30 different team and player offences in amateur and professional play.
Read more about these top stories and more below.
James “2GD” Harding and the case of professionalism vs. personality
A Dota 2 tournament with $3 million at stake, a Chinese production company that fell down on the job, and a notorious chatterbox hired and fired as the host—this weekend’s Shanghai Major hit rock bottom in the blink of an eye. If you somehow missed all the drama, you can recap the events in countless posts and articles, some tending to side with the now-unemployed James “2GD” Harding, others slightly in favor of Valve boss, Gabe Newell, who did the firing.
The incident has triggered a debate over the cultural paradigms of esports. As a grassroots movement, esports has always had its own culture and spirit. It was a long and bumpy ride from mom’s basement to the grand sports stadiums. But here it is: esports is now in the spotlight of mainstream attention, argus-eyed by most, not welcomed by many. This attention has caused a sudden reconsideration of what was formerly held most dear. Is it still OK to cheer when the terrorists-side team wins in Counter-Strike? Is the “Grill” meme actually misogynist?
Read the full story here
A lost keyboard and ‘a big s***show’ have derailed Dota’s Shanghai major
The Shanghai Major has quickly gone from being one of the most exciting events in eSports to one of its biggest disasters. Concerns for player safety, poor living conditions, compromised play and a bad viewer experience has turned a jewel in Valve’s crown into a piece of coal. There is no excuse for it.
The normally standoff-ish Valve made unprecedented moves last week by publicly firing the host of the tournament, James “2GD” Harding after he opened the English broadcast by using the word “cunts,” and making an awkward and inappropriate joke about masturbation during the stream. In addition, Valve boss Gabe Newell announced that production team KeyTV responsible for the English broadcast would be fired and replaced. It was a much-needed and welcome sign of a more hands-on approach from Valve to make Dota more professional, but this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Read the full story here
Rocket League Championship Teaser
5 Great Storylines To Pay Attention To Heading Into Katowice
With the annual Katowice event coming up in a couple of days, I’ll be highlighting some of the more prominent storylines to consider heading into the prestigious event.
As a disclaimer – unlike previous years, this years’ Katowice event is not valve sponsored thus the event will not have stickers or drops. The lack of valve sponsorship has also resulted in the use of a different format. At this years’ Katowice, only twelve teams will be in attendance. In place of the normal double elimination, GSL style groups, Katowice will be utilizing the classic IEM counter strike format; two six team round robin group stages with the winner of the group stages being directly seeded into the semi-finals and the 2ndand 3rd teams in the group stage progressing onto the quarter finals. The format will allow every team to play in a minimum of 5 matches against 5 different opponents which is great for the teams that have to travel half way across the globe.
Read the full story here
Chinese Hearthstone players get another shot to win a Ferrari
After one of the most unusual prizes in all of esports went unclaimed last year, Chinese Hearthstone players will have another shot at winning a Ferrari in 2016.
The prize, put up by NetEase CEO William Ding, was meant to spur the Chinese contingent to glory in the CN vs EU tournament last March. The Ferrari was only on the line for the Chinese players, while the Europeans had to settle for a share of €52,000 ($58,950).
The Chinese players ultimately lost out to their European counterparts, with Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh defeating Apostolos “Hawkeye” Karaiskos in the final. Ma “SleepyShaman” Mingyang and Wang “TiddlerCelestial” Xieyu were the best performing Chinese players, reaching the semi final stage.
Read the full story here
THE CYBER SPORTS LEAGUE, A REFRESHING LOOK AT ESPORTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
When the average gamer in the Middle East thinks of eSports, they visualise The International and The World Championship, they picture gaming legends such as Cloud9 and Fnatic, they think of Starcraft 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. While eSports has taken leaps and bounds to be recognised as an actual sport in countries across the globe, the eSports scene in the Middle East has still been sadly overlooked and often missed. Cyber Sports League plans to change that.
The brainchild of Karim Mousa and Nassim Ghaith, Cyber Sports League is relatively new to the local eSports scene but the company makes up for it by staying true to their audience and gaming roots; it’s an organisation for gamers, by gamers and while that saying may be stepping into Razer’s territory, it’s true.
Karim and Nassim both grew up in Abu Dhabi and joke about being born with controllers in their hands, such is their passion for gaming. They grew up following eSports leagues around the world such as the Major League Gaming (MLG) and the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) however they noticed and despaired at the fact that the the UAE and Middle East didn’t have a similar platform.
Read the full story here
Intel and ESL Aim for More Women in eSports
Ahead of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) finals in Katowice, Poland, March 4-6, Intel and ESL have launched a new AnyKey diversity initiative to attract underrepresented members of competitive communities, such as women, LGBTQ participants, and people of color.
Jesse Sell, senior manager of pro gaming, business and strategy at ESL, says AnyKey initiatives are already underway with several new elements on display at Extreme Masters Katowice.
“We’re looking to broach a subject that most shy away from,” Sell says. “It’s a daunting road that lies ahead, but we have a fantastic team on board and we’re confident we can make a difference.”
Read the full story here
Lawyer’s perspective: A legal evaluation of Riot’s new competitive penalty policy
Last November Riot became the first esports league operator to implement minimum contractual requirements for their top teams and players. This week, Riot made another huge play with theannouncement that it is standardising the penalties for more than 30 different team and player offences in amateur and professional play.
What has Riot done in the past?
Previously, Riot has handled offence investigations and penalties on a very case-by-case basis, which in its own words has led to “inconsistency”, “unpredictability” and “delay”. Take for example ‘elo boosting’ (where one player plays on another’s account in order to increase their ranked league rating): there have been 10 cases investigated by Riot (according to esportspedia) with punishments ranging from a 14 day account ban to an indefinite suspension from all Riot organised tournaments, fines and in one case apparently even community service. In cases of toxic behaviour, suspensions have ranged from 14 days to upwards of an entire Split.
Read the full story here
fREAKAZOiD Begins Second-Stage of Anti-Bullying Campaign
Ryan “fREAKAZOiD” Abadir has recently entered the second stage of his multi-level campaign to end bullying. The C9 entry fragger hopes that, by harassing Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostylev in public, he can broadcast the harmful effects of bullying to the entire CS:GO community.
“Bullying is something that can really bring a person down, kind of like how s1mple’s team really brings him down,” said fREAKAZOiD. “We, as a community, need to be aware of how destructive the effects of bullying are, kind of like how s1mple needs to be aware of how many teams he’s been kicked from.”
In regards to his recent actions, fREAKAZOiD said, “I’m pretty sure that s1mple doesn’t mind, since I don’t think he understands English anyways.”
In order to take their anti-bullying campaign to a global audience, fREAKAZOiD and fellow teammate Jake “Stewie2k” Yip plan to publicly embarrass s1mple at an international tournament. Unfortunately, the duo are concerned that their bullying in PUGs will simply not match their performance in LANs. Furthermore, their plan hinges on both C9 and TL participating in an international tournament.
Read the full story here
