ESL and YouTube: Healthy Competition or Bad Business?
When it comes to watching esports competitions online, many people turn to Amazon’s popular streaming platform, Twitch. It's the largest streaming service among Western audiences, with 9.7 million daily active users. For many in the esports industry, livestreamed video...
PRL Interview: Rocket League Community Shoots for the Stars
Pro Rivalry League (PRL) was created with the intention of bringing together the Rocket League community, creating a place where dedicated players could hone their skills, compete for prize money, and launch their esports careers. While the professional scene in every...
Path of Exile: A Visual Walkthrough of Act Five
With the release of Path of Exile: Fall of Oriath on the horizon, players with access to the beta have began exploring this massive new expansion in preparation. Until now, Path of Exile's campaign had four sections ("Acts"), but in Fall of...
Path of Exile: The Joy of Racing
This month, as Grinding Gear Games prepare to release their highly-anticipated 3.0 patch, Path of Exile is hosting a series of events, many of which are races of various kinds. I've talked about racing before, and you should definitely...
NA LCS Analysis: TSM Explores New Strategies
TSM has enjoyed great success with Hauntzer playing a tank and Bjergsen playing a control mage. Now they’re trying to break their own mold by role swapping. No, Hauntzer is not the new TSM mid laner. Instead, TSM is...
The Best West Coast Community Servers in CS:GO
Community servers in CS:GO are a popular alternative for players looking to expand their horizons beyond the fairly limited pool of options available on Valve's official servers. While third-party platforms like ESEA, FACEIT, and CEVO offer an improved 5v5 experience, most...
Elitism in Esports: Check Your Ego at the Door
If you’ve ever played any competitive game online, you’ve probably experienced more than your fair share of elitism. Someone doesn’t like something you did, so they call you a “bronze scrub" or ask if you're "boosted." Or you get...
Negativity in Professional Hearthstone: Whose Fault Is It?
Without professional players, esports wouldn't exist in the form it does today. They're the lifeblood of every game, which means the success and failure of an esports title is, ultimately, in the hands of the best players. Recent events in...
U of MN Esports: Scholarships, Community, and Careers
The University of Minnesota is part of the Big Ten Conference, an organization that fosters intercollegiate sports, primarily in large state universities. Recently, the U of MN has made local headlines for offering esports scholarships to students -- for...
How to Beat Act I of Dota 2’s Siltbreaker Campaign
Dota's latest event, a multiplayer co-op campaign called "Siltbreaker," has officially gone live, only a week (give or take) after the initial release date promised by Valve. It's only available to players who have purchased the Battle Pass for...
Overwatch: A Year in Review
By now, Overwatch has penetrated mainstream gaming culture so pervasively that it's easy to forget that the game is still, at least relatively speaking, fairly young. I had to do a double-take myself when I saw Blizzard's video announcing their...
First Impressions on Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath
Today, we're going to talk about the changes to Acts 1-4 in Path of Exile's upcoming highly anticipated 3.0 release. There's a plethora of new content to be found in Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath, and enough changes...