Author: Pedro Romero
Recently, Southeast Asia has been rising in prominence throughout the competitive Dota scene. Besides, its pub games are revered by pros and fans as one of the most intense globally. Its catalog of strong teams has expanded to contend on equal footing with other regions.Gone are the days of singular teams like TNC Predator and Fnatic representing the region with a sliver of a chance of actually winning tournaments. In its place are teams like BOOM Esports, T1, and Talon Esports, who each own a lineup of world-class players that poses a major threat to the rest of the field.Although…
Ordinarily, when players see Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker loading into their server, they hold their breaths in anticipation. Having seen him make a multitude of skillshots and world-class plays either on stream or in LAN, they look forward to what kind of madness they will bare witness to this time around.Since switching to Valorant from Counter-Strike in late 2020, yay has gradually become one of the best players within North America, incessantly clicking heads and leading each of his respective teams’ offensive drive for each tournament.By that regard, it wouldn’t even be farfetched to one to take a step further and…
Nearly a week into the 2022 VCT Masters: Copenhagen tournament, fans have witnessed the reinforcement of various key things that continue to paint Valorant as the most exciting esport. True to the event’s pensive motto, it has seen the emergence of great players, the regression of others becoming nothing more than pretenders, and an innumerable amount of great matches.One of the main protagonists in this latest chapter of Valorant esports has been Paper Rex, APAC’s back-to-back reigning champions who are vying to claim their region’s first ever international crown. Despite crashing out last season with consecutive group stage exits in…
XERXIA’s’ participation in the 2022 VCT Stage 2 Masters: Copenhagen tournament ended prematurely as they fell to Japan’s Northeption 2-1 to bow out of the group stage in last place of Group A.Despite coming into the event with high expectations on building from their international success from last season, XERXIA receives the bitter honor of becoming the first squad eliminated from the Danish capital. Regardless, whether it was because of the low time they had at their disposal to prepare for the event or the subsequent mistakes they committed during those all-important matches, XERXIA will surely reflect on their shortcomings…
Heading into the 2022 LEC Summer Split, there was plenty of intrigue surrounding Misfits’ newest starting top laner, Irrelevant. Not only was he promoted to the main roster from the organization’s academy team, but he was also slated to replace HiRit as their newest starter for the second half of the year, which served as the de facto qualifying process for the World Championship.With plenty of responsibility and presumed pressure–not to mention Misfits’ woes at the start of the split, which saw them drop their first four games of the season–Irrelevant had plenty of obstacles to overcome at the beginning…
Northeption opened their journey in Masters: Copenhagen by landing in the loss column by falling to DRX of Korea 0-2 in the tournament’s opening match. Despite showing sufficient pushback to the Korean team’s offense in the series’ first map, their momentum eventually fizzled out as they dropped by a 13-1 score on Bind.Suddenly, Japan’s representatives for this event already find themselves on the verge of elimination. They will now have to focus on facing the loser of EMEA’s FunPlus Phoenix and APAC’s XERXIA on the near horizon to extend their maiden international voyage in professional Valorant’s highest stage.Critical as NTH’s…
Ordinarily, when a team stumbles into the postseason with a lackluster sub-.500 record, fans expect them to lose and get eliminated upon facing their first obstacle. They would make way for the other more capable teams to contend for the top in their respective leagues. Such was the situation for NRG Esports, who started their journey in the 2022 North American VCT Stage 2 Challengers playoffs in the lower bracket, having compiled a 2-3 record in the group stage.Unfortunately for the spectators, NRG opted to take the unconventional route in their march for possible Masters: Copenhagen qualification. Wins over Evil…
Around the time professional Valorant player Aproto announced his departure from Luminosity Gaming, he underwent at considerable setback. On top of shouldering the fact that he was teamless for the first time since the summer of 2020, he felt a considerable regression in his gameplay in a way he never experienced beforehand.All of a sudden, the customary gusto that accompanied his playstyle had vanished and what was displayed in the meantime left much more to be desired. A sense of stagnation filled his psyche which was only exacerbated folowing his departure from LG as he felt there was not much…
The inaugural Collegiate Rocket League World Championship was held in Dreamhack Dallas from June 3-5, where 16 universities converged to decide which was the best team around. Given that the collegiate RL scene was formed roughly five years ago, this event was seen as a watershed moment for its community which had overseen its development and development. Eventually, CRL allowed for the inclusion of European teams for the World Championship, with six teams making the trek across the pond and into the Lone Star State to take on NA’s best for the global crown.Among the EU representation was Salford Lions,…
Stockton University was defeated by Northwood Blue University in the grand finals of the 2022 Collegiate Rocket League World Championship through a 4-0 sweep, finishing as runner-up.Given Stockton’s arduous journey towards reaching the finals, which saw them win the quarterfinals and semifinals in relative succession all on the same day, before receiving the sweep, it would have been unsurprising to see them lament from their failure of becoming world champions well into the night.Instead, as said by Brian “Busse” Busse, the team will cope having maintained their pride. After all, in collegiate Rocket League’s inaugural global event, it was them…