Starting Five: Stories You May Have Missed Last Weekend (April 2-3)
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.
“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly“
For Overwatch fans, the newest cinematic trailer just dropped and boy, is it intense.
In Alive, Overwatch tantalizes both lore and gameplay fans alike with a high-octane short featuring the game’s premier sniper, Widowmaker.
There’s so much to unpack in this ~6 minute short. More of the Overwatch world is being fleshed out while simultaneously hyping up people for the action of actually playing the game. While we have a competitive Overwatch recap coming out later today, whet your appetites on a truly sick sniper shot.
The BIG one: Luminosity win a CSGO Major
Brazilian team Luminosity have won the first-ever, million-dollar CSGO major! Faced with a daunting finals opponent in Na’Vi, the team led by 1.6 vet and all-around player Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Luminosity bested their European counterparts 2-0 in a blistering finals set.
THE BIG ONE. Luminosity take home the cup after a truly impressive run at the MLG CSGO Major (Photo by: Monster Gaming on Twitter).
Along the way, Luminosity displayed some truly beautiful Counterstrike, besting Liquid and a streaking Spencer “Hiko” Martin.
Marcelo “coldzera” David was rightfully name MVP for Luminosity after some truly sick displays of AWPing prowess. Just check out that 1 v 4 on Mirage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGZ_8OmYqNk
Congratulations to Luminosity Gaming!
…and the loyalty award goes to…
After 1039 ticketed games playing for Na’Vi, Danil “Dendi” Ishutin has broken the record for most games played for one team in competitive Dota 2.
BORN TO WIN. Na’Vi’s Dendi has long since been the face of the Na’Vi Dota 2 division. His 1039 games played for the Ukrainian eSports org makes him the longest-running franchise player in Dota 2 (Photo by: Natus Vincere).
The record was previously held by Airat “Silent” Gaziev who played for Team Empire before his departure last February. In his time in Na’Vi, Dendi has won an Aegis from the first-ever The International. He has also been the face of the Na’Vi Dota 2 squad after the team made consecutive finals runs at The International 2 (losing against Invictus Gaming) and The International (losing against The Alliance).
Needs renovation…
Despite a hearty win at the Heroes of the Storm SEA qualifier, Renovatio I from the Philippines finished in 11-12th place at the Heroes Spring Global in Korea, last weekend.
The team faced stiff competition in their group where they met eventual finalists, EDward Gaming. While the team from the Philippines failed to make the top 8, Renovatio I’s run is only the beginning.
Events to look out for:
Fans of Dota 2 will have a packed month as the Starladder Invitational is but two weeks away. Past that, Filipino fans need only count days before the first ESL event in Philippine hits our shores.
But before all that: The BeyondTheSummit Southeast Asian tournament is up today! Both Mineski teams (vanilla and X flavors) are up together with WG.Unity and MONGOLZ.
eSports by INQUIRER.net will be releasing more content for both upcoming events so if you’re a fan of Dota 2, stay tuned!
Banner photo from MLG
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