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South By SouthWest (SWSX) Gaming Tournaments Announced


Posted on February 27, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

The North American convention circuit is heating up once again with South By South West starting early next month, the Games Developer Conference rounding out March and the PAX East taking place in early April.

South By Southwest is more than a gaming convention – with creative works from the film and music industries also present. In terms of the gaming offerings at the show, SWSX has announced a number of Tournaments, Speakers and panels that will take place from March 9th thru the 13th.

The Discovery Stage is the central hub for SWSX’s gaming panel presence at this year’s convention. Sonic The Hedgehog’s official panel will be taking place on the Discovery Stage, for all of those fans of the Blue Blur. Castlevania Symphony of the Night developer and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night producer Koji Igarashi also has a slot on the big stage as well.

Here is just a small sample of the offerings at the Discovery Stage:

Legendary Koji Igarashi Chats Bloodstained: The Ritual
Emerging Visions: Game Studios of Latin America
Gotta Go Fast: The Official Sonic The Hedgehog Panel
Bringing Internet Culture to Linear Television

In terms of tournaments on offer, one of my favorite mobile games – Arena of Valor, a fast paced mobile MOBA will be taking the tournament stage by storm. I’ve written previously about how Arena of Valor provides an accessible, smaller scale MOBA experience without sacrificing the core gameplay elements and bright / flash graphics that can make MOBA games so addicting and satisfying.

Here’s the official description of Arena of Valor as provided by SWSX PR:

“Arena of Valor is a competitive 5-on-5 MOBA experience perfected for mobile, featuring turbocharged teamfights in quick 10-15 minute matches. A variety of champions fit any play style, making the game easy to pick up and play while still providing depth and complexity. Those who have mastered it will be in the spotlight at SXSW Gaming as they battle for the top prize on the Tournament Stage.”

Header Image Credit: Official SWSX 360 Video on YouTube.


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Call of Duty World League Final Groups Unveiled


Posted on August 15, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Activision has revealed the final 32 teams that will face off in 17 days at Call of Duty XP for the finale of the Call of Duty: World League, which began earlier this year. Some of these teams faced off this past weekend in a mini-event to fight for the right to partake in day one of the three day tournament.

What is up for grabs at the Call of Duty: World Leagues? More than $3 million dollars have been up for grabs during the World League and Activision is promising that the prize pool for this final bracket will be the largest in franchise history.

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Call of Duty XP will take place on September 2nd through the 4th and will be the public’s first chance to try out November’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare‘s multiplayer component. Also playable at the XP event will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered‘s multiplayer and the fourth downloadable expansion for COD: Black Ops III. More details about COD XP in Los Angeles is available on their official website.

Fans not able to attend Call of Duty: XP will be able to watch live coverage of the World League finale through MLG.TV and the live feed option in the PS4 version of Black Ops III.

Here is the full rundown of competing teams for the World League finale:

GROUP A

  • Millenium (EU)
  • Splyce (EU)
  • Livin the Dream (NA)
  • Revoltables (EU)

GROUP B

  • Rise Nation (NA)
  • HyperGames (EU)
  • Apotheon eSports (NA)
  • Supremacy (EU)

 

Black Ops 3_MP_Battle at Ruhanga_WM
GROUP C

  • Luminosity (NA)
  • Mindfreak (ANZ)
  • FAB Games (EU)
  • Chiefs eSports Club (ANZ)

GROUP D

  • Ground Zero (NA)
  • Allegiance (NA)
  • Epsilon eSports (EU)
  • PuLse Gaming (EU)

GROUP E

  • FaZe Clan (NA)
  • Team eLevate (NA)
  • Corn (NA)
  • Giants Gaming (EU)

 

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GROUP F

  • Team Infused (EU)
  • Team Kaliber (NA)
  • Most Wanted (NA)
  • Tainted Minds (ANZ)

GROUP G

  • Team EnVyUs (NA)
  • Orbit (ANZ)
  • Cloud9 (NA)
  • Team Vitality (EU)

GROUP H

  • OpTic Gaming (NA)
  • compLexity (NA)
  • PNDA Gaming (NA)
  • Team LDLC (EU)

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UMV Unveils Minimalist Line of Designer Clothes Aimed At E-Sports


Posted on June 9, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

UMV has announced a clothing line designed especially for e-sports players, streamers and broadcasters. This new line is called “Ult” and takes a minimalist approach to game focused fashion inspired by the Los Angeles streetwear aesthetic. Ult will not only feature conventional short sleeved tees but also long sleeved tees, hoodie, hats and jackets. UMV says that they are working alongside designers like The Seventh Letter.

Ult will be unveiled on their official website as well on the convention floor on June 13th, the first day of the E3 Expo. Alongside Ult UMV is also launching a line aimed squarely at broadcasters with wearable technology at the forefront of their design philosophy.

The Seventh Letter founder, Corey Zoltan had this to say about their partnership:

“Many of our streetwear fans also love competitive video games so getting to collaborate with ULT esports makes perfect sense, and we are excited to offer that to the community,”

Do you think that a line of e-sports specific clothing makes sense? Let us know in the comments section! Broken Joystick’s staff are in California and will be covering everything breaking from E3 2016 all next week.


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Paragon Early Look


Posted on April 3, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

I was lucky enough to get in to the Beta test phase of Paragon from EPIC studios. The game is very ambitious Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that is challenging many of the traditional MOBA elements, while still keeping to the genres roots. The first thing that anyone who plays this game is going to notice is how pretty it it. The game is rendered in Unreal engine 4, and everything looks amazing. Colors pop, champions animations are fluid and beautiful, and the map is alive with terrain that is anything but flat.

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look at that map, look at how it undulates, and is alive

The second thing you are likely to notice is that this is an over the shoulder Third person style of game. Instead of League or DOTA’s top down perspective you get a single over the shoulder camera. Fans of Smite will be familiar with this perspective, and it serves well in Paragon, giving the game a more epic feel. One of the first things I noticed about the games perspective is that it makes ganking and surprising your enemy much easier.  Its too easy to zero in on an ememy in front of you and forget to check left and right and even behind to make sure you arent goign to get ganked. This combined with the extreme variety of terrain made the game really refreshing. Paragon is also working on a fresh take of items and levels.

Most MOBA games have items and levels and talents, Paragon sets out to break this mold with its card system. It still has leveling, but EXP is not passively instead it drops from mobs that you kill. Each enemy or mob kill drops drops amber colored orbs which you pick up to earn CP(card points) and EXP. Last hitting is still very important, as the amber that drops from minions will be summoned to you (With a very fluid pretty animation) if you are the one to last hit the minions. You also get more EXP and CP from last hitting then you do from just killing minions. Card Points or CP are the currency of the game, and experience is how you level the games abilities. Paragon does not have items as you might traditionally think of a MOBA having, instead you make a deck of cards, consisting of three types of card. First you pick a primary strain card, this is like your passive and you always start with this card. Next you pick several active cards that you can buy and equip like items, these are bought with card points and some are passive stats and others are active abilities, most right now are pure stats but the game is still in its infancy with many more cards to come. A few exmples of active cards are potions (Which the game handles on a charge system 3 uses before refresh) and wards. The final card type is upgrade cards and these slot in to existing equipment cards (think of how MMOs let you slot weapons) to give the equipment card more stats. most equipment cards have three upgrade slots and its in these upgrades that you really get in to a champions build.  I may chose to equip a card that has damage, but slot that card with some health to help me survive dishing that damage out, or perhaps armor pen to get that damage past a powerfull enemies defenses. All of the item cards that I have seen have three upgrade slots, and once you finish upgrading the card you receive an additional upgrade bonus. This system keeps the game adaptable and intresting, because while most items cost 3CP some upgrades and deployables cost as little as 1. Card points are awarded fairly frequently, but they max around 40 so keeping in mind what you are building is a good idea. Each time you use a card it is “consumed” and you can not use it again during that match, so keep that in mind when building decks.

cards

see all of that on the left? those are cards that this STEEL has in their build right now.

Unfortunately this is a bit of double edged sword. Building wrong means your game is over, period. If you take a deck for crit chance for example and you end up against a team who is mobile with a lot of armor your going to have a really bad time. I found that since decks are limited to 40 cards you can really only build for one thing, with a tiny flavor of something else. For example I might build a crit chance deck, and mix in some armor and life, so that I can survive long enough to deliver that damage. Since cards are consumed on use, when building decks you need to make sure that you have enough diverse cards to slot all of your items to full and get their bonuses.

The playable roster for Paragon is currently quite small, but has a good variety of types of champions. Assasins, Rangers, Casters, Tanks, and fighters all currently exist in game and no two heroes really feel the same. A lot of this is due to the fact that there are basically 5 attacks per hero and none of them feel bland or the same. Some champions are melee, other are ranged, and some are able to mix the two together. Champions still have an “ultimate” and basic attack, but the difference is there is no auto attack. Instead you will be manually firing or slicing at your enemies, all be it with a basic attack that consumes no manna. As far as I can tell, most of the champions I have played have one buff and 4 active abilities. I like the mix of combat so far, and its pretty clear that traditional MOBA roles are here.

Paragon

Character designs are mostly variation on metal and flesh

During the games that I played my team split off in to our lanes, just as anyone would, and our jungler took off in to the jungle. The jungle in this game is absolutely bonkers, its a maze of passages through the center of the map that spreads out and is surrounded on both sides by high canyon walls. What a cool feature this is, its one of my favorite things in the whole game. The map is just so pretty, everything is moving, or alive, or shiny. Its one of the best examples I have seen of the current gen unreal engine put to effect. I found myself pretty immersed in the game no matter what i was looking at.

Overall im looking forward to this game, I think with time and investment it can be a major part of my play rotation. I have been having so much fun streaming it, and just playing it in general. Right now I really want to take a deep dive in to decks and building but as of now thats pretty hard with the only option being vs AI on one level or people on a whole other level. I hope that EPIC can add some more difficulty to the AI or a more causal non-ranked PvP mode. Overall I say if you want to play a new refreshing MOBA spring the 20$ for the beta access for this game. If you cant wait it is coming to the masses sometime this summer for free on Playstaion and PC


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StarCraft II World Championship Series Premiere League Begins Tomorrow


Posted on March 1, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void’s World Championship Series winter season culminates in a 32 player premiere league finale that kicks off tomorrow.  These 32 highly skilled finalists have honed their strats &  stretched their clicking fingers through both the WCS Regional Qualifiers and WCS Challenger rounds to prove that they are some of the best in the world.

What’s on the line? $35,000 for first place and 3,000 WCS points.  These points are used to determine who the final finalists will be who compete at the WCS Global Finals at the end of the year.

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Here’s a peek at some of the prizes on the line at this week’s winter finale:

1st Place
$35,000 USD & 3,000 WCS Points

2nd Place
$15,000 USD & 1,400 WCS Points

3rd & 4th Place
$10,000 USD & 900 WCS Points

Even if you don’t follow the current StarCraft II meta, which some of us just don’t have the time or dedication to do, watching high-level play can still be enjoyable. It’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement as the tension between players rise in a long match, or that one moment when a player pulls off an unlikely strategy and absolutely crushes their opponent.

If you want to read up on WCS rules, bracketing structure and how players advance you can check out the official BlizzardWCS site or this thread. We’ll update this story with links / embeds of WCS streams as soon as they come online.


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EA announces esports league


Posted on December 12, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

It was only a matter of time. One of the the largest AAA publishers on the planet has decided to lumber in to E-sports. Led by Peter Moore (former COO of EA) it seems that EA will open up “a new Competitive Gaming Division” Moore said:

“As the latest step in our journey to put our players first, [the Competitive Gaming Division] will enable global eSports competitions in our biggest franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, Battlefield and more,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said, in a statement provided to GamesIndustry.biz. “EA’s CGD will seek to build a best-in-class program to centralize our efforts with new events, as well as the infrastructure to bring you the world’s preeminent EA competitive experiences.”

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I’m about as surprised as I was when Battle Front had no campaign. Look EA makes some of the biggest games that exist, Battlefield, Battle Front, Madden, Fifa, all EA properties. Activision-Blizzard already has their own E-sports division, and its an obvious space that EA can fill in with their massive bulk of money. I would expect tournaments to happen often, some kind of world championship, and lots of money.  I cant say I dislike the idea, I mean more money usually means more plays, more leagues, and better structure, but honestly i don’t trust EA as far as I can throw them.


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Germany & Poland To Compete For Glory In CS:GO Tournament Hosted By eSport Specialist ‘Playday Online’


Posted on October 28, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

Playday Online, the League of Legends and Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) international eSports tournament specialist and platform has announced that registration has begun to their upcoming CS:GO Poland vs. Germany tournament hosted and sponsored in a collaboration with PaySafeCard and Pukawka.pl.

The main tournament will occur November 2nd, with semi-finals and finals being broadcast on Twitch.tv Tournament details have been posted online and players will  compete for a combined pool of prizes worth €2.000 to the top-7 contestants. The cap has been set to 128 competing teams, and there will be a random draw of an extra €200 to a lucky team by the end of the event.

Registration is here, and further information can be found on the users website https://playdayonline.com/


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Tekken 7 World Championship Qualifiers Coming To Europe


Posted on October 9, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Did you know that Tekken 7 is getting its own World Championship tournament? The European qualifying rounds will be happening during Paris Games Week on October 29th!

The top 16 players from the qualifying rounds will battle it out for the 3 spots – who will move on to the finals in Japan this December. Whomever takes the top spot will also win a paid flight to the Japanese finals and 1500 Euros. This whole thing sounds pretty sweet – winning money for playing a game that hasn’t even seen a commercial release yet? Sign me up!

Bandai Namco had this to say about the European qualifiers:

With the EU qualifiers for the TEKKEN 7 World Arcade Championship, we wanted to offer a chance for our very own TEKKEN players to take part in the biggest TEKKEN tournament to date! With a total of 10,000,000 JPY in the prize-pool, the chance to fight against the best players out there and a shot at the World Champion crown: we are sure that our fans will love the idea and give their all!”

If you can’t be in Paris at the end of the month don’t worry the whole even will be live-streamed on Bandai Namco’s Twitch Channel.


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Counter Strike: Global Offensive World Championship Set For Oct 8th


Posted on October 3, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Get hyped for the World Championship for Counter Strike: Global Offensive which has been set for October 8th 2015!  Some of the top CS: Go players from 16 different countries will be traveling to Belgrade to do battle. The CS: Go World Championship is a major event is a joint venture between Hitbox and E-Frag!

More than 79 teams competed In continental finals which took place this past May.

If you’re going to the festivities in Belgrade they will have a small pavilion with other games like League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer and HearthStone for attendees to play while they wait around for matches to begin.

If you can’t be there you can always watch their livestream here on the 8th!

 


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Call of Duty World League – A New E-Sports League Announced


Posted on September 24, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards

Activision announced the creation of a brand new E-Sports league for competitive Call of Duty called Call of Duty World League which is set kick off just after the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops III.  This new league will be divided into two different divisions – The Pro Division and The Challenge Division. Both of these new divisions will have their own finales at the end of the upcoming season Activision said.

In the fall of 2016 Activision will host the Call of Duty Championship which will showcase talent from both of the divisions mentioned above. With more than 3 million $ (USD) on the line it sounds like the Call of Duty World League could bring some of the best players some really hefty prizes.

Alongside an official Twitter and Facebook supported by developer Tryarch the Call of Duty World League also deliver updates through the Call of Duty Official Website. As we move closer to the January start of its first season we will bring you more coverage!


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