Esports Weekly Update – Stories you may have missed!

 

SonicFox wins a third ESL Pro League title and takes home the largest cash prize in Mortal Kombat history

The ESL One Frankfurt Dota 2 finals will be broadcast by German television channel SPORT1 with live streams of the entire event available on the channel’s website and SPORTS1 esports app.

It seems that EG have once again axed Canadian player Aui_2000, being the second time this has happened, this year.

 

Esports are coming to German television with ESL One

The ESL One Frankfurt Dota 2 finals will be broadcast by German television channel SPORT1 with live streams of the entire event available on the channel’s website and SPORTS1 esports app.

The $250,000 Dota 2 tournament features eight of the best teams in the world packed into German football stadium Commerzbank-Arena for the third straight year. Last year’s event featured more than 1 million online viewers and 30,000 live attendees who watched Team Secret take the title. This time, the finalists will duke it out on live television, with the grand final match broadcast on channel SPORT1 on June 19 at 8pm CEST.

SPORT1 is a free television station broadcast in Germany that usually airs football, basketball, and other sports. It seems committed to its first esports foray, offering the full event streamed live on its website along with “up-to-the-minute esports reporting” on its mobile platform.

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UNiVeRsE and zai back to EG. Aui_2000 kicked again.

It seems that EG have once again axed Canadian player Aui_2000, being the second time this has happened, this year. In addition to this, EG have confirmed the arrival of Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora and Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg. UNiVeRsE was last seen leaving Team Secret in the middle of the Manila Major, as confirmed by Team Secret’s Team Director.

Once again, we see Team Secret and Evil Geniuses swapping players only a few weeks before the The International 6, in what seems to a habit to be expected from the two and a habit that attracted a lot of public backlash.

It all started with Saahil “UNiVeRsE” leaving Team Secret in the middle of the Manila Major according to an announcement posted on Twitter, by Secret’s Team Director, Kemal Sadikoglu. Since then, Team Secret has seeked a replacement for Saahil and one was found in the form of former EG player, Kanishka ‘Sam’ “BuLba” Sosale.

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Owners of professional video game teams in a battle of their own

Months after Susan Tully and friends bought a pair of professional video game teams for an estimated $1 million, her four-man “Call of Duty” squad finished its season in 11th out of 12 places.

A loss in a post-season gunfight would relegate Tully’s H2K squad to the second-tier league. There, exposure and sponsor interest would dissolve.

The distress Tully felt as she spent an April afternoon in a small, dark Burbank video studio watching her team attempt to avoid demotion was not the emotion she banked on when she put her money into the burgeoning industry. But upheaval is becoming something of a routine for the investors fueling pro video gaming’s rapid rise.

China’s richest man, Russia’s richest man, the U.S.’s fourth-richest man and a string of American multimillionaires all have ties to teams now. So do former Lakers and a current Rams lineman. Companies involved in e-sports include Alibaba, Coca-Cola, TBS and PokerStars.

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SonicFox wins a third ESL Pro League title and takes home the largest cash prize in Mortal Kombat history

Saturday was supposed to be the day that Dominique “SonicFox” McLean’s reign as king of Mortal Kombat was supposed to end.

There was just one problem: Someone forgot to tell SonicFox.

Critical Reaction’s SonicFox defeated all comers on Saturday to win his third consecutive ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League title. Along with the championship belt, he took home $75,000, the largest prize in Mortal Kombat history.

Over the past 12 months, the 18-year-old SonicFox has now won the four largest cash prizes in the history of Mortal Kombat and four of the six largest prizes in fighting game history. He won $60,000 for his victory at the Pro League’s first finals in July, then took home nearly $37,000 the following week at Evo 2015. He won another $60,000 for his Season 2 Finals victory in January, then netted $75,000 on Saturday.

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