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June 06, 2016
For the first time ever, Capcom has stepped in to resolve an issue within the Capcom Pro Tour and it has ended with a player being banned temporarily from the event.
Whilst the altercation has nothing to do with Street Fighter at all, the problem was due to something that happened at an event. It was right for Capcom to act upon it and make a necessary statement instead of sweeping it under the rug.
The altercation involved Noel Brown, who many of us will admit is one of the top players within the competitive Street Fighter scene. Noel Brown did play Street Fighter V competitively but his best performance was with Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, which saw him sit among the top 10 players in the world.
According to Capcom, Noel Brown will be banned from future events due to his actions during Combo Breaker 2016. Below, part of the statement from Capcom has been provided.
"Over the past weekend, we were notified that an unfortunate case of sexual harassment occurred
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May 31, 2016
Whilst Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a PC-only title, we have some news about the game that should be heard by eSports fans alike. Recently a new TV show started on TBS called E-League. Supported by the same guys who give Shaq airtime, the E-League is perhaps the biggest thing that has happened to Counter Strike eSports yet.
The new show has put some of the biggest teams in the Counter Strike scene onto live television for the first time in years. By doing so, new attention has been brought to the world of eSports and people are finally seeing how big the world of competitive gaming has become.
Whilst Turner has chosen Counter Strike as it's focus game on E-League, it's clear that they are working hard to make something out of the eSports scene and they truly believe that it has a space alongside traditional sports. Whatever eSports games you enjoy to watch or play, the
E-League is big news for your own community because it shows that there's still room for even -
May 29, 2016
Tekken 7: The King of the Iron First will be a promotional tour for Tekken that will be making it's way through the competitive scene during 2016. The tournament will take place across North America with a variety of events opening up to allow players to participate.
There will be a number of events where any player can turn up to take part and the events will take place throughout the rest of the year until November 6. The list of areas supporting events can be seen below. If you'd like to see event locations and dates you should visit the Bandai Namco website.
+ Portland, OR
+ Atlana, GA
+ St. Louis, MO
+ Des Moines, WA
+ Minneapolis, MN
+ Chicago, IL
+ Philadelphia, PA
+ Sacramento, CA
+ Richmond, VA
+ Austin, TX
+ Southern California
+ Toronto, Canada
+ Pittsburgh, PA
Some locations, such as Chicago, will have multiple events. All events will have a $3,000 price pool, whilst the
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May 08, 2016
In a surprise move, British soccer team West Ham United has picked up an eSports player to add to their player roster. It may be unheard of, but we expect this kind of thing may be happening a lot more in the near future.
The player fittingly has competitive experience in the FIFA franchise and after seeing the player's talent, West Ham United went ahead and brought him under their wing. The player, who is known as Sean 'Dragonn' Allen is now a part of the West Ham family and will even have a West Ham jersey to wear at offline FIFA events. The jersey features the number 50 and his own username. In the recent FIFA 2016 Interactive World Cup, Dragonn came in second place. Despite failing to reach the first place spot, Dragonn was inches away from securing a victory.
After a superbly close 5-5 draw against Mohamad Al-Bacha from Denmark, Dragonn lost on Away goals in the New York finals.
West Ham United aren't the first soccer team to move into the world of eSports. In
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May 04, 2016
Overwatch may just be the next biggest thing in eSports. Recently an eSports event covering an Overwatch game that featured some familiar names made it's way to the front page of Twitch.
Pulling in over 18,000 viewers at peak, the Overkill tournament had a $5,000 prize pool on the line and it saw competitive teams battle it out in the Overwatch beta. Since then, the beta for Overwatch has ended but it was certainly a spectacular way for Blizzard to end the whole event.
During the 18,000 viewer peak, Cloud 9 and Reunited.gg played against each other in a huge, marathon-like best of nine series. In the series, Cloud 9 managed to come out on top with an impressive 5-3 score line. Despite winning two more games than Reunited.gg, the match was still a lot closer than you'd have expected and it really showed the eSports potential, both for competitive play and for the viewing experience.
In fact, one map saw Cloud 9 get 99/100 percent for the capture on LiJiang Tower before
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April 22, 2016
I've always thought that Rocket League looked like an absolutely solid title but after a bit more of a look at the latest update, it turns out that the game does actually have room to get even better. Instead of just adding new cosmetic items or a new arena, the next Rocket League patch will add new gameplay content that could add hundreds of hours of new fun and completely change the direction of future eSports events.
The biggest new addition is the new game mode named Hoops. As the name suggests, Hoops is a basketball inspired mode. The new game mode will feature a 2 v 2 setup on a new arena called Dunk House. To get players in the spirit, NBA flags will be added as cosmetic items in the new update too. The new flags can be purchased, although the NBA logo will be given out for free.
To begin with the Hoops mode will be limited to unranked but a ranked playlist could be possible in the future. So far Psyonix is yet to confirm the future of Hoops, we'll have to see how well
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April 16, 2016
The next Street Fighter update will be adding some new content for Street Fighter V and it will be paving the way for the next DLC character, which we all know will be Guile. For a while, however, the exact landing date for Guile hasn't been known. So when exactly can we expect to see Guile in Street Fighter V and how will he work as a DLC piece?
Guile has been around for a long, long time so it's definitely pleasing some fans (and potentially frustrating others) to see him make a return in Street Fighter V. Not only has Guile made a name for himself in the main Street Fighter story arc, but he's been in plenty of other crossover titles too, including Marvel x Capcom and Street Fighter x Tekken. So Guile was previously announced as DLC but fortunately he will be available for free to all players until the Zenny shop opens, at which point we're guessing players will have to pay points for him.
Guile will have his own Character Story and set of trials too and to sweeten the
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April 10, 2016
Season 3 for the Mortal Kombat X Pro League has now been announced and it will feature 16 players from across the world. This time round, players from Latin America will get their first chance to qualify for the top 16 spots, whilst other regions will include CIS, Europe and North America.
In the previous two seasons, SonicFox managed to take the trophies but this time there is even more on the line and more chances for up and coming talent to get in on the action. After the qualifiers, the 16 man tournament will be held in Burbank, California and players will be fighting for a $200,000 first place prize, twice that of the previous season. Altogether, $500,000 has been put on the line in season 3 and the other $300,000 will be awarded to runner up players.
Absolutely anybody can sign up for the Challenger Cup and by doing so they'll be able to get the chance to fight their way into the qualifiers. ESL has also confirmed that a later season will be coming for Mortal Kombat
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April 07, 2016
Could you imagine eSports being played alongside the Olympics? It seems like a far-fetched idea that couldn't possibly ever make it's way into reality, but recently the British government backed an international committee that has been designed to bring eGames to the world, an event that will be treated similarly to the olympics.
The first eGames event will be held this year in Rio De Janeiro alongside the 2016 Summer Olympics. Following on from that, future Olympics events will have coinciding eGames events too.
Like the Olympics, there will be no cash prizes given out for players - instead, bronze, silver and gold medals will be awarded. The first event will have players from Brazil, Britain, Canada and the U.S.A but future events are planned to host more countries.
So far, besides the medals there are no other incentives to attend the eGames events, so it's going to be hard to get a busy team like OpTic From COD/Halo or Fnatic from Counter Strike/League of Legends
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April 04, 2016
After pro player Naded's great performance at the Halo World Championship, he has managed to grab himself a deal with none other than OpTiC Gaming. Naded will now join the new OpTiC Halo 5 crew as the third currently announced member of the newly formed lineup.
We now have just one more player to be announced before we have a completely fresh OpTiC Halo lineup that may actually stand a great chance at competing and performing well at a high level again.
Not only is Naded a good choice for building a well-performing Halo team for Halo 5: Guardians and potential future releases, but he also has a lot of great brand value. Naded has been considered to be one of the top Halo streamers out there and he has pulled in quite a lot of viewership, especially compared to other streamers within the Halo community.
If you've been following the OpTiC Halo team then you'll know that the other two currently confirmed members for the team are Flamesword and Maniac. Flamesword has been