opinion
Dota 2: What Is a Battle Pass?
Dota 2 is free-to-play, which means that Valve can't rely on selling copies of the game to turn a profit. Instead, the game is supported by microtransactions, and in-game cosmetics sales are not only popular, but incredibly lucrative for Valve....
Esports Ain’t Easy: What Valve Can Learn from Riot Games
Over the past year, Valve's updates to CS:GO have been few and far between, but while these patches lack in frequency, they've almost always been significant. In the time that's passed since the release of the R8 Revolver, Valve have...
Riot’s Tainted Minds Verdict: Breach of Contract
Riot Games have concluded their ongoing investigation of Australian gaming organization Tainted Minds, and released a public statement with their findings and issuing a final verdict on the case. According to Riot, players on the team's roster informed Riot that their employer...
Ranking the CS:GO Majors: Part Two
Every CS:GO Major is major, but some of them have been more...major than others. If you missed the first installment of our look back at the CS:GO Majors, check it out here.
5. ESL One: Cologne 2014 - The Original Kings Get...
The New Negev and R8 Revolver: Why, Valve?
Valve’s most recent update to CS:GO on April 12th, 2017 was quite the doozy. After removing the R8 Revolver and Negev from competitive play for a while in order to rework the weapons, Valve have re-added tweaked versions of...
The People Behind the Pixels
The brutal Canadian winter is finally coming to a close, and the scent of spring is in the air. The changing of the seasons signals the countdown to my favorite tournament of year, The International. I started playing Dota after I began following...
The Crow’s Eye Review: Puzzles to Piss You Off
Too lazy to read? Watch our review in less than 4 minutes.
As a big fan of puzzle adventures and horror games, The Crow’s Eye by 3D2 Entertainment was definitely on my “must-play” list. The Crow’s Eye is a first-person...
Ranking the CS:GO Majors: Part One
The eleventh CS:GO major will be run by PGL in Krakow, Poland in July, according to Valve's latest announcement about the event. It's a good time to look back at the first ten CS:GO Majors. While Counter-Strike might not...
Steam Workshop Artists: The True Value of Cosmetics
One of my favorite things about large Dota 2 events are the special cosmetics that Valve releases to support these tournaments. There's something undeniably appealing about the idea that my purchase directly suppors artists and my favorite players--from my own...
Esports: When Private Politics Meet Public Personas
We've covered esports figures and their professional personas before. While many athletes come under fire for what they say and do outside of the game, personalities in the esports world are a bit more likely to be repeat offenders...
The Digital Highwaymen of Overwatch: “Pay Me or I Throw”
Gather 'round the campfire, kids. It's time to tell some ghost stories. This episode of Are You Afraid of The Dark? is called The Tale of the Esports Extortionist and it's almost as scary as the episode with Zeebo... Almost.
It's the harrowing...
RumbleMonkey and Legal Grey Areas in Esports Betting
As Esports Edition's resident betting and and gambling expert--on paper, not in practice--I'm always fascinated by the way that new companies try to monetize the esports industry. RumbleMonkey is the latest player to throw their hat into the ring, and the...
