The Starting Five: Stories You May Have Missed (Dec. 2 – Dec. 5, 2016)
The Starting Five is eSports by INQUIRER.net’s short weekender round-up. Miss any stories from last weekend? This is the place for you.
Presenting, the Boston Major
We know, we know: Execration missing the Major sucks for Filipino fans.
But this weekend’s Boston Major has honestly been off the chain in games! Virtus Pro are showing why they are the top favorites, the Chinese teams in LGD are styling over their opponents and Digital Chaos and Complexity are eager to prove that there is more to North American Dota than EG.
Hell, the opening games saw RAMPAGE kills with the first day already featuring two! That’s gotta be RIP for someone’s predictions.
Our choice of game to watch? The VP vs. Newbee game. Watch the boy-Pharaoh RAMZES666 dance around Newbee and win despite trailing all game.
The battle continues on Thursday, 11PM, Dec. 8, 2016.
NA’s big weekend
North America has been the butt of many eSports jokes over the years.
“Weakest region” “Clown car region”, these have all been used to describe NA’s performances when it counted in international events.
But over the weekend, North America bagged some pretty impressive wins. EnVyUs Overwatch won the OGN APEX League after a whitewash match against Afreeca Freecs Blue, 4-0.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoMXXlkxyPg
OpTic Gaming also won big, winning the ELEAGUE season 2 title after defeating Astralis. Once more, the underdog NA team defied the odds by climbing through stiff competition and winning their first major title as a team and organization in CS:GO.
And finally, Liquid’s NuckleDu, representing NA, became the Capcom Pro Tour 2016 champion.
What a weekend.
Vainglory Worlds!
It’s the Vainglory world championship, and one of the under-reported suprises came in the form a Filipino team captain competing in the main event!
Although they did not make it through to the finals of the playoffs, SEA team Infamous, captained by 15 year old Justin Timothy “Spaghetti” Carmona Bersamin made it to the worlds tournament of mobile MOBA Vainglory.
The 15-year old, known for his aggressive style, is the head of the three-man group flanked by his teammates from Singapore. You can learn more about his career here.
I, for one, welcome our new Pirate Overlords
The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan patch dropped last week and with it some exciting new cards for Hearthstone that are sure to change up the professional scene!
The early contenders for best deck (and probably tournament scourge) have to be the new Pirate enablers, turning the ResidentSleeper Warrior into the Face-is-the-place deck of the format.
While nothing is solved yet, pros are weighing in on the archetype with Dog already reaching Legendary ranks just 3 days after the patch hit!
Still, some pros are busy tweaking and brewing new decks just in time for new year events for Hearthstone. What are you guys running?
Events to look out for:
Here’s the bracket for the Dota 2 Boston Major Main event. The event continues on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, at 11 PM Philippine Standard Time.
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