Author: Pedro Romero
When it comes to competitive Valorant, no team has been more synonymous with maintaining excellence than KRÃ Esports. As the only team to appear in every international event in VCT history, the LATAM squad have left an indelible mark through their impressive string of results against the rest of the world.No one has surely forgotten their incredible run in Valorant Champions 2021, where they nearly supplanted Gambit Esports to reach the grand finals, and the vital role they played in increasing the game’s popularity in Latin America.Incredible as their track record has been, however, it’s difficult to absorb how their…
In 2022, ESL Gaming and Qualcomm Technologies announced the start of the Snapdragon Pro Series, a platform consisting of various mobile esports titles allowing players from all over the world to compete amongst one another through three specific tiers. These tiers feature Open, which serves as an entry point for aspiring players, Challenge, where people vie for regional supremacy, and Masters, which decides the world’s best through international competitions.Since then, the SPS has expanded to numerous regions and nine mobile games, the latest of which is Call of Duty: Mobile, whose publisher Activision agreed with the ESL FACEIT Group to…
Due to how the ESL Challenger tournament was formatted, the broadcast talent in charge of covering the event did so outside of the place it was actually taking place. Instead of being present on-site in Atlanta, the crew worked remotely from Stockholm. Nonetheless, as is custom for ESL Counter-Strike events, all but one person was in the venue to serve as both the arena host and sideline interviewer throughout this tournament: Mike “DarfMike” Winnick.Since starting his CS broadcast career in 2017, DarfMike has risen up the talent ranks to cover significant events under different roles like the ESL Challenger League,…
Coming into ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023, not many expectations were set for South American team BESTIA and their chances of going far in the tournament. While they were able to qualify from the region over the likes of Imperial Esports, ODDIK and RED Canids, two of their players became unable to attend the event due to visa issues. That led to BESTIA picking up Nicolás “NikoM” Miozzi and Roberto “reversive” Themtham as stand-ins less than two weeks before the start of the tournament.Despite all this, BESTIA managed to take down North America’s M80 2-0, clinching the second map after a…
When M80 paired up with BESTIA in the Group B elimination match at ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023, many expected the North American team to come out on top and vie for a spot in the playoffs. And that was with them having to replace IGL Marcus “maNkz” Kjeldsen with Rory “dephh” Jackson as a stand-in.However, BESTIA, who reached the event by winning the South American qualifier, defeated M80 2-0 to knock them out of the tournament at the first hurdle. Now M80 will look ahead to 2024 where, on top of getting set to compete in ESL Pro League Season…
The last professional Counter-Strike tournament of 2023 took place deep in the Southeastern United States as DreamHack Atlanta played host to ESL Challenger, where eight teams competed for the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize money. And due to the event taking place in North America, it was only appropriate for there to be North American talent present in the lineup sheet.Among those who contributed to the broadcast was 19-year-old caster Garret “Phy” Schier. Phy started his career during the peak of the COVID-19 global pandemic after spending countless hours watching pro CS on HLTV.org. Since then, Phy, alongside Cole…
While DreamHack Atlanta served as host for notable events like ESL Challenger and Starcraft II Masters, it also set the stage for other fledgling titles in the space, like Call of Duty Mobile; which launched in 2019 and has since built a competitive scene and a prestigious World Championship tournament.Among the broadcast talent that covered this year’s edition was Lauren “GlitterXplosion” Laracuente, who ‘ on top of making her first appearance in an offline LAN for CoD Mobile ‘ was also the host for the occasion. With a career that spans nearly a decade, Glitter has covered a variety of…
Wolves captured China’s first-ever Call of Duty Mobile World Championship after taking down Indian side GodLike 4-2 in the grand finals at DreamHack Atlanta. After defeating their fellow Chinese team, Qing Jiu Club, Wolves matched up against a GL team that had just taken down tournament favorite Luminosity Gaming in the semifinals.Nevertheless, despite the possibility of GL completing their unlikely run to the top, it was Wolves who finished as the world’s best team, breezing past their opponent to become world champions.Following the Wolves’ CoD Mobile World Championship victory, BLIX talked to Su ‘Anzai’ Ruihao about the team’s successful journey…
Twenty-one-year-old French Starcraft II player Clément “Clem” Desplanches became the latest of a long line of Terran players to clinch a major event by winning the ESL SC2 Masters Winter tournament at DreamHack Atlanta.It’s the result of an impressive run for Clem that saw him defeat various strong players like Park ‘Dark’ Ryung-woo, Kang ‘Solar’ Min-soo and Joona ‘Serral’ Sotala. By doing so, Clem captured his first-ever international tournament in his career ‘ after winning numerous European titles within the game.Following the event, BLIX talked to Clem for an interview about his victory, what adjustments he made this year, how…
Apeks capped off their eventful 2023 season with a grand finals appearance in ESL Challenger Atlanta 2023 against Virtus.pro in front of a raucous North American crowd. Continuing the momentum from their second-place finish in the Elisa Masters Espoo tournament, Apeks cracked the top two once again following victories over GamerLegion, The MongolZ and Monte en route to the finals and looked to have the potential to win the whole thing.However, an equally as excellent VP team seized the tournament from Apeks’ grasp as a 2-0 result went the former’s way to capture the ESL Challenger trophy and $50,000 in…