How to Analyze Your League of Legends Replays
A common piece of advice given to players who want to get better is to “watch replays of their games.” In previous versions of League of Legends, there was no easy way to do this. Now that Riot has...
Blizzard Announces Nerfs to Druid and Fiery War Axe
Nerfs are officially coming to Hearthstone. After the past month of Druid dominating ladder, Blizzard finally decided to do something about it. But it's not just Druid who's getting some tweaks. Several staple cards have been hit by Blizzard's...
Should Players Be Forced to Give Loser Interviews at TI?
Valve's boldest production choice at TI7 was the addition of interviews with players just moments after they had been eliminated from the tournament. In traditional sports, loser interviews are very common -- you'll often see them included in coverage...
League of Legends Meta Analysis: 2017 Summer Playoffs
All but two berths have been decided for the 2017 League of Legends World Championships, with the remaining spots up for grabs in the European and North American gauntlets. As far as most analysts are concerned, all of the...
Why CS:GO Needs a Live Overwatch System
In terms of anti-cheat prevention systems, Valve’s VAC System does an okay job for the most part. There's also Overwatch, the crowdsourced demo review process designed to catch cheaters, which, while albeit not as instant as VAC, is somewhat...
The Definitive Guide to Playmaking in League of Legends
In League of Legends, playmaking begins with an assessment of the current game state. When you're trying to make a play, it's important that your team doesn't allocate more resources than necessary, otherwise you'll expose yourself to retaliation across...
Hearthstone Meta Report: Druid, Murloc, Priest, and Pirate
The current Hearthstone meta revolves entirely around Druid. At rank one, Druids make up over 60% of the decks, and across all decks, that number sits at around 30%. For the sake of our collective sanity, we're going to...
Path of Exile: The Best Dark Pact Builds
When Path of Exile's 3.0 patch launched, Grinding Gear Games added three new offensive skill gems. They also tossed in a host of support gems, but only three of them are used as actual skills: Storm Burst, Charged Dash,...
Dota 2’s Complicated Relationship with Reddit
Now is as good a time as any to talk about the tangled web of the Dota 2 subreddit and its relationship with the actual game. I'm going to assume you're acquainted with the fascinating social matrix that is Reddit....
Big Bang Patches: The Risky Nature of Huge Updates
Nowadays, most big games rely on a constant stream of updates and expansions to keep things fresh and new. Hearthstone adds new cards, World of Warcraft adds new areas and bosses, Path of Exile adds new mechanics and content. Games like...
Resources, Strategies, and Tools for Getting Better at Dota
Want to become a better player, but don't know where to start? Me neither, most of the time. Finding a place to start training your Dota skills can be difficult, if not downright intimidating.
In many ways, mastering competitive gaming is...
Gamer Space: Reimagining the PC Bang
It's a little past 1:00 AM. I've just stumbled out of the gated doors of Net8 Esports Arena, a PC bang in Richmond, British Columbia after a 3-hour Overwatch/League of Legends session with a group of longtime friends. My eyes are...