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
Dorna Sports bares MotoGP 2017, bigger plans for 2018
Dorna Sports are working with Milestone to hold the MotoGP 2017 Esports Championship, a competition mirroring the famous motor-bike racing competition.
According to the Esports Observer’s report, this year’s esports competition will be the baby step towards a bigger, better and richer competition in the 2018 calendar.
The prize pool for this year’s competition is yet to be confirmed, though BMW, a major sponsor, will put a BMW 2401 car on the line.
Tottenham’s new home can host big esports events
Expect London to become the host of big esports events in the years to come.
Tottenham Hotspur are having their stadium, White Hart Lane, remodeled and are planning to use it for non-football events, including big esports competitions.
The new stadium can probably seat around 50,000 people, including 8,000 in VIP, ideal for esports if the trend in viewership continues to rise.
“The football stadium will be available to watch esports, which regularly attract crowds of 50-60,000 spectators in Korea and US, and could prove to be another opportunity to monetize the structure,” said Tottenham executive director Donna-Maria Cullen.
Dota 2
Post-Kiev Major Roster Shuffle Update
The biggest change since our last update was 1437 joining TnC Pro Team as its new support player that is responsible for the drafting and play-calling roles. 1437’s move was made possible by the retirement of ryOyr from the Philippines-based team.
TnC looks to be enjoying 1437’s arrival, as the team is 4-0 at the StarLadder Invitational with sweeps over DAC 2017 winner Invictus Gaming and European veteran team Alliance.
In Malaysia, Fnatic relegated Meracle to the substitute position and placed former Warriors.Gaming Unity carry Ahjit on the 1 position.
TI7 Prize Pool Watch
As of writing, the prize pool for The International 2017 stands at $9,559,599, according to Valve’s official tracker.
Note: The tracker is updated hourly, so it could have increased by the time you have read this.
The pool has increased from $8.04 million to its current amount, (+ around $1.5 million!) since our last Weekly Recap.
By this time last year, the prize pool for TI6 was at $8.5 million, meaning that this year’s TI7 prize pool is 12.27% ahead of TI6’s pool.
Will it breach the $10M mark before the weekend is over?
Team Random players get banned from China, splits up
The five players of Team Random have split up after getting slapped with a lifetime ban from Chinese events by the Association of Chinese Esports.
ACE, the esports governing body created by esports teams, has decided to ban the TI6 winners from future events after they breached the contract by suddenly leaving the Wings organization.
According to a Reddit post that translated the Weibo announcement of the parties involved, the roster decided to leave Wings as a group after the Wings failed to pay salary obligations despite having a cut on the players’ TI6 winnings, which was more than $9 million.
Wings then sent the case to ACE, which banned the players for contract breach, with the alleged push from rivals Invictus Gaming and LGD. After learning of their ban, two members of the roster, named ‘Y and faith_bian, messaged Wings to convince ACE to repeal their ban, claiming they did not want to leave Wings in the first place.
Shadow, also speaking for the remaining players blink and iceice, posted in a blog that all five players made the decision together, knowing they could possibly get banned. He stated ‘Y “threw them under the bus” with his “sneaky” message to Wings and promised he will never play with him again.
League Of Legends
SKT fave to rampage through and win at MSI
Among the last four teams standing at MSI, it is of course the giant from Korea that is favored to win the Mid-Season Invitational 2017.
Three-time world champion SKT T1 is set to face Flash Wolves in the MSI semi-final, while China and Europe clash as Team WE and G2 Esports meet at the other bracket.
SKT is yet to lose a series in this competition, though the representative from Taiwan is one of two teams who split a series with the Korean club.
WE is also undefeated in series, but drew three of its five games, though the Chinese team swept its series against G2 in the group stage.
SSong to join Immortals as head coach
Immortals have decided to imbue a form of Korean LoL into their tactics as the NA team signed Ssong as its new coach in the coming LCS Summer Split.
Ssong last worked for Longzhu Gaming but he is most known for steering ROX Tigers into a LCK summer split championship and a semi-final finish in a Worlds competition.
“SSong is well-respected in Korea for his competence and ability to manage both player relationships and in-game strategy,” said team CEO Noah Whinston.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
C9 stuns SK in Subaru Invitational final
Cloud9 whacked SK Gaming with the upset axe with a 2-0 win at the online Subaru Invitational final.
The US-based squad was a minnow among big fishes in the tournament but surprisingly opened its tournament with a 2-0 win on NRG Esports. The team then swept Counter Logic Gaming before outlasting the favorite Brazilians, SK Gaming, in the final, where the score was close at 16-12 at Cobblestone and 16-14 at Train.
C9 took home $10,000, half of the pool, while SK Gaming pocketed $5,000. Immortals and CLG split the remaining $5,000.
OpTic Gaming earns last invite to ESL Cologne
ESL One: Cologne has completed its lineup of competitors after naming OpTic Gaming as its final invitee to the July event.
OpTic join 11 others as invitee to Cologne, while other teams can reach the event through two European qualifiers, one China qualifier and one North America qualifier.
OG joins Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, G2, Immortals, mousesports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, North, SK Gaming and Virtus.Pro as invites.
