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
Twitch to expand to selling games
Streaming giant Twitch will soon be in the business of selling games, according to a statement in its Twitter account.
“Twitch has always been the best place to watch, share and play games,” said Twitch in a tweet. “Soon, it will be the best place to buy games!.”
According to the reports, Twitch will give streamers a cut on each purchase made on their streaming page, and buyers will get exclusive rewards available only to those who bought games from Twitch.
Ibrahimovic invests in esports
Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic has invested into Swedish startup Challengermode, following the trend of football stars dipping money into the growing world of esports.
Challengermode revealed that they had raised $1.3 million from investors, including the Swede football icon, to support their first big project – a Nordic region university championship.
Ibra joins football celebrities like Ronaldo de Lima, Neymar and Gerard Pique in investing in esports, along with NBA icons Shaquille O’Neal and Magic Johnson, and MLB’s Alex Rodriguez.
Eddy set for return in Tekken 7
The capoeira-dancing, dreadlock-wearing Eddy Gordo will be back to annoy beginners and even long-time pros in Bandai Namco’s upcoming game, Tekken 7.
In a Youtube video released by the gamemaker, Gordo was shown flaunting his classic dance-to-fight style, including the low-kicks and the constant movement that is hard to time. He was even shown blocking with his head turned, before countering with of course, a dancing kick.
Eddy’s role in the story line is to exact revenge on the Mishima Zaibatsu, while the granddaughter of his master, Christie Monteiro, is yet to be announced.
Dota 2
DAC main event details released
The Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 will be held at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, according to the announcement in Dota’s Chinese page and was translated by Yahoo.
The Oriental Sports Center can house up to 15,000 viewers, and will also be the venue for the League of Legends World Championships semi-final in October.
DAC 2015 winner Evil Geniuses is invited into the event, along with OG and Chinese teams Newbee and TI6 winner Wings Gaming. Invictus, IG.Vitality, VGJ, LGD.Forever Young are the Chinese qualifier teams, while Team NP (Americas), Team Faceless (SEA), Team Liquid (EU) and Team Empire (CIS) are those from the regional qualifiers.
Liquid wins StarLadder StarSeries 3
Team Liquid has announced its return to the international scene with a dominant win at the StarLadder StarSeries Season 3 in China.
Liquid outclassed the veteran-laden Vici Gaming.J 3-1 in the finals, after sweeping Filipino side TnC Pro team in the semis. VG.J stunned three-time Major winner OG in its semi-final bracket to reach the ultimate series.
The Europe-based squad took home $135,000 as champion, with VG.J settling for $60,000.
Kiev Invitees to be revealed in Battle Pass Compendium
Valve has announced when and how it will name the eight teams to receive a direct invite to the upcoming Kiev Major.
According to the announcement, the teams will be revealed through the Winter Battle Pass Compendium, with a team announced every five minutes starting Friday, 7AM PST.
Those who are not invited can still reach the Kiev Major through the regional qualifiers, starting from the Open Qualifiers from March 6 to 9, and the Main Qualifiers from March 10 to 13.
LoL
Flash Wolves win IEM World Championship
Taiwan’s Flash Wolves outlasted Europe’s G2 Esports 2-0 in the delay-lengthened IEM Season XI World Championship at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland.
Technical issues marred the whole event, forcing teams to play semi-final series on the day of the final, before the last series itself got delayed by around two hours because of problems incurred after installing software during practices.
Team FW were dominant right from the start of the tourney, finishing the group stage spotless before outclassing H2k-Gaming 2-1 in the semis and defeating G2 2-0 in the championship round.
Bang reaches 1000 kills
SK Telecom T1 AD carry Bae “Bang” Jun-sik has reached the 1000-kill milestone during Game 1 of SKT’s match against KT Rolster in Week 6 of the LCK Spring Split.
Bang reached the millennium mark as his Ezreal killed Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong’s Thresh 17 minutes into the game. Bang finished the match with a 4/0/9 slash line and SKT won the series 2-1.
The 20-year-old Korean has been with SKT’s first team since December 2014, when he joined after spending 14 months with the S team of SKT. Prior to that stint, he played for Xenics Blast and NaJin Shield.
Spring Split Update
SKT T1 defeated KT Rolster to grab the solo top spot in the 2017 LCK Spring Split. In their Week 6 match, the three-time consecutive world champion outlasted KT Rolster 2-1 and celebrated its carry Bae “Bang” Jun-sik’s milestone achievement of 1000 kills.
In the EU LCS, Group A’s Misfits stunned Group B’s Unicorns of Love as the former moved closer to unbeaten group leader G2 Esports while the latter slid down to second in Group B following their second straight loss.
As of writing, Royal Never Give Up still leads the LPL Group A with four wins in five series, while Edward Gaming is atop Group B with the same record.
CS:GO
FaZe Clan, Heroic advance to IEM semis
After climbing out of their respective groups via different ways, FaZe Clan and Heroic are now assured of a semifinal berth in the IEM Season XI World Championships.
FaZe Clan needed to play a tie-breaker against Group A co-leaders Immortals and Astralis to reach the last-four, while Heroic had enough cushion in the quotient to beat out North and Natus Vincere for the semifinal slot.
Astralis is set to face Na’Vi to see who will face Heroic in the Last Four, while Immortals is to battle North with the winner playing FaZe in the semis.
Team Dignitas sign female roster
Team Dignitas, the esports organization owned by the NBA team Philadelphia 76ers, has signed the all-women’s CS:GO squad Team Karma.
The team will now compete under the Dignitas banner, starting from the IEM Challenge, the CS:GO tourney for women in Katowice.
Dignitas is currently looking for a male squad, as members of its original roster created their own club, Team North.
Overwatch
Blizzard releases Orisa
Through a Youtube video, Blizzard announced the arrival of Orisa, the Guardian Robot that could introduce the return of the Tank meta in Overwatch.
The robot’s primary attack is the Fusion Driver, which is a machine gun that impedes Orisa’s movement whenever she fires it. She also has Halt, a graviton charge that pulls opponents like a magnet.
Her best features are her defensive skills – Protective Barrier and Fortify. The Barrier blocks most incoming damage but allows Orisa to fire through it, while Fortify strengthens her armor that reduces damage taken for five seconds and also prevents crowd control while active.
