General News
NBA announces 17 teams join 2K league
The National Basketball Association has announced that 17 of its 30 teams will participate in the inaugural season of the NBA 2K League, an esports competition that will mirror the real-life NBA from the draft, to summer league, to the 82-game season and to the bracketed playoffs and the glorious stage of the finals.
“This is the first step in what promises to be an extraordinary league, bringing together the world’s best gamers and showcasing elite competition on an international stage,” said NBA 2K league director Brendan Donohue.
Defending champions Cleveland Cavaliers and their rivals Golden State Warriors headline the 17 teams which are namely: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Indiana, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Toronto, Utah and Washington.
Take Two (game creator) and NBA will recruit players and will give them virtual profiles to develop, and won’t allow them to use the profiles of stars like LeBron James and Stephen Curry. These gamers will be drafted into teams, and can be traded as well.
Dota 2
OG beats home team VP, wins 4th Major
At this point, it is not even news anymore. 😉
OG turned back home crowd darling Virtus.Pro in the Kiev Major final to bag their fourth Valve-sponsored event, raising its previous record that it set in the Boston Major.
VP not only pushed OG to the brink but also threatened its dominance in the Majors and raced to a 2-1 lead in the final behind amazing play from offlaner Pasha and midlaner No[o]ne.
But the Boys in Green-and-Black mustered the poise and mentality that made them many-time Major winners, and pulled off an upset that was encapsulated in the deciding Game 5, where OG had to overturn a 10K net worth disadvantage and beat VP from behind.
Ana was the backbone of OG’s comeback spirit, as his Troll Warlord struggled against No[o]ne’s Outworld Devourer in the early game but fought his way through to an 8/4/10 KDA and a full six-slot item list with a consumed Moonshard to boot. He dealt 88.8% of the team’s damage done to buildings and even outfarmed Ramzes’ Alchemist by 9k.
OG has won four of the five Majors Valve has sponsored, with only the Shanghai Major slipping from its grasp.
With two Major wins, only one target remains for OG this year – The International 2017.
Post Kiev Roster Shuffle
After the intense Kiev Major event, teams are now trying to iron out flaws in their lineups with the hopes of winning big events to secure an invite to The International 2017.
The first big teams to make the move are Team Secret and Team NP, with Secret replacing its support pieliedie with YapzOr, who earned fame with his time with the now-disbanded team B)ears.
NP, who discarded two players after getting kicked out in the early stages of the DAC 2017, signed pieliedie, along with former Liquid and Alliance player FATA. Former midlaner Aui_2000 will be moved to support, while FATA will take care of the midlane.
Complexity Gaming also released two players, its trial midlaner 747 and its offlaner Monkeys. Staying in the team are captain Melonz, support Zfreek and carry Moo.
Virtus.Pro secures 3rd EPICENTER invite
After its fantastic runner-up performance to OG in the Kiev Major, Virtus.Pro has secured the third invite to Russia’s premier Dota tournament, EPICENTER: Moscow 2017.
VP will also serve as a home-town favourite in the tournament, as it has three Russian players in Ramzes, Pasha and Solo.
OG and Evil Geniuses were the first two teams to be invited by Epicenter, which will have a $500,000 prize pool and will be held at the VTB Ice Palace from June 4 to 11.
League of Legends
LPL to repeal relegation, will move to a franchise-based league
China’s LPL will be the first regional league to abolish the promotion-relegation system and move to a franchise-based one, according to an announcement from its own Weibo account.
The Score first reported the announcement and its translation, along with tweets from Wanplus reporter Bryan Yu and LPL journalist Sheng Yi.
According to the translation, LPL will start the switch in the next Summer Split but will allow all the current 14 teams to buy franchises and stay on the top league, and will expand the number of teams in the future.
The new system will be city-based, and will see teams play home and away games.
LPL’s second tier, the Secondary Pro League and the third tier, PGA will merge into one division and will become the developmental league of the LPL.
MSI Update
NA LCS’ Team SoloMid and TW/HK/MO region’s Flash Wolves defeated Southeast Asia’s GIGABYTE Marines and Turkey’s BAU SuperMassive, respectively to earn their spot in the last group stage of the Mid-Season invitational.
TSM avoided a major upset from GAM after the American team won three straight maps following two stunning losses to the SEA representatives in the best-of-five series.
The Wolves were more dominant, sweeping their Turkish opponent with ease. FW won Game 1 with a 17-2 killscore, Game 2 with 23-3 and Game 3 with 25-6.
GAM and SuperMassive will now fight for the remaining spot in the final group stage, where TSM and the Wolves are waiting along with China’s Team WE, EU’s G2 Esports and three-time world champions SK Telecom T1.
CS:GO
Impressive Gambit wins at DreamHack Austin 2017
Gambit Esports lost just one map on its way to a dominant championship win at DreamHack Austin 2017 at the Austin Convention Center.
The Europe-based team started its campaign with a narrow 25-23 win over Denmark’s Heroic but it was almost smooth sailing from there. Aside from a 23-25 loss in the Nuke Map to G2 in the semi-final, Gambit won all games, and swept Immortals with similar 16-12 scores on Train and Inferno.
Gambit pocketed $50,000 out of the $100,000 prize pool, while runner-up Immortals took home $20,000.
