Welcome to the Weekly Recap, where we gather the top stories that happened in the past week to help you catch up with the busy world of eSports!
General News
Switch issues threaten esports potential
Problems with the newly launched Nintendo Switch may make it hard for the console to become the next big thing in esports.
The issues range from loud crashes, blue/orange screens, dead pixels, in-game artifacts, unrecognized cartridges and design flaws.
Rival console PlayStation 4 had similar problems in its launch, with its famous Blue Light of Death.
Millenial Esports opens arena in Vegas
Millenial Esports has finally opened thE Arena, its first esports tournament hall located in Las Vegas, USA.
thE Arena (that’s how it’s spelled), can house 900 attendees, and can accommodate up to 250 watchers in stadium-style seating. It has 150 gaming consoles, and will have more than 300 PCs added in the future.
It already hosted the qualifier to the North American Halo World championship.
Dota 2
Puppey apologizes for 2016 drama
Team Secret founder and captain Clement “Puppey” Ivanov has written a public apology for all the allegations that were made against him and his organization in his team.
Former Secret player Jacky “EternalEnvy” Mao last year wrote a long scathing blog about how Puppey mishandled his duties as captain and organization owner. Envy also wrote that Puppey verbally abused teammates and even challenged one to a physical fight.
A day before Puppey’s apology, Secret relieved long-time director Kemal Sadikoglu of his post, claiming the organization wants to go on a different direction.
Kiev Major invites revealed
The eight teams who are directly invited to the Kiev Major have been announced through the Winter 2017 Battle Pass Compendium.
Invitees: Wings Gaming, OG, Ad Finem, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, Digital Chaos, Newbee and Vici Gaming J are all invited to Kiev.
The regional qualifiers are now ongoing, with China and SEA regions getting two spots each, along with one team from the EU, CIS, North America and South America regions.
Ad Finem’s roster leaves org
The five members of Ad Finem’s Dota 2 team left the organization as whole, days after getting an invite to the Kiev Major.
According to the Facebook post, the all-Greek lineup who finished as runner-up in the Boston Major did not renew their contracts with Ad Finem.
Top e-sports journalist Wykrhm Reddy stated in his Twitter account that the players will retain the invite as long as they stay together in their next team.
League of Legends
Liquid add Adrian, Doublelift to save season
With the team slouching at 3-9 in this year’s Spring Split, Liquid added support Adrian “Adrian” Ma and AD carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng with the hopes of saving the team from relegation.
Doublelift is from Team SoloMid but was dropped for Jason “WildTurtle” Tran, while Adrian played for Phoenix1 for the first part of this season.
“We believe that with our two new additions, Doublelift and Adrian, we can bounce back to form and avoid relegation,” said Liquid boss Steve Arhancet.
Galio rework to be released soon
With the remodeling of Tanks underway, get ready to see the bigger, better but still amazingly arrogant winged titan Galio!
Players who enjoy smashing stuff and tanking damage for your teammates while looking like the MVP will have a grand time using the reworked Colossus.
His passive allow him to deal a great amount of pain using his basic attacks, while his ult allows him to enter a clash from the sky, destroying enemies on impact.
Spring Split Update
SKT T1 is now three series wins ahead of KT Rolster in the 2017 LCK Spring Split after the world champion swept Jin Air Green Wings in Week 7. SKT T1 is at 10-1 for the Split, while KT is at 7-3.
In the NA LCS, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid keep pace on top, with both teams sweeping their opponents in Week 6. C9 (10-2, 21-8) thumped Fox and Fly, while TSM (10-2, 20-11) downed CLG and Dignitas.
G2 Esports remain dominant in the EU LCS as Week 6 saw the team thrash Vitality for its eight straight series win to remain as perfect leaders in Group A. H2K outclassed Fnatic 2-0 to be co-leaders with Unicorns of Love in Group B.
Group A’s Royal Never Give Up beat Group B’s Edward Gaming in a battle of group leaders in the LPL. RNG is now at 6-1 in series, two wins above Group A second placer Invictus Gaming. Edward Gaming is tied with Team WE at 5-2 in Group B.
CS:GO
ESL announces IEM Sydney
Esports tournament organizer ESL Gaming Network announced it will hold the first ever Intel Extreme Masters Sydney.
The tournament will open the 12th season of the IEM this May 6 to 7 at Qudos Bank Arena, which can host up to 18,000 spectators. It will be a CS:GO tourney with a $260,000 prize pool.
Sydney will now join the list of cities to have hosted IEM events, following Katowice, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Cologne and Sao Paolo.
Astralis wins IEM XI
Astralis shrugged off a poor start to turn back FaZe Clan and win the IEM Season XI CS:GO World Championship in Katowice, Poland.
FaZe bagged the first map in the best-of-five finale but the all-Dane squad swept the next three maps to lift their second major trophy in six months.
Astralis took home $104,000 as winner, while FaZe settled for $44,000.
Overwatch
O-League club could cost at least $2M
Those planning to buy a franchise in Blizzard’s upcoming city-based Overwatch League might cost at least $2 million, according to a report from SportsBusiness Journal.
The cost might even skyrocket to more than $10 million in big market cities like Los Angeles and New York.
