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Esports

Once a niche subculture, esports and competitive gaming have now become a mainstream phenomenon. The Overwatch League and Call of Duty League feature wealthy owners from the NFL, League of Legends and Dota 2 regularly sell out stadiums, and Fortnite has its own World Cup. The next big sport could be a video game.

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Something tells me these two things might be related.

According to a report in Bloomberg, Call of Duty League teams are negotiating a deal with Activision Blizzard that will increase the amount of money teams receive from skin sales while loosening restrictions on the kinds of sponsorships deals teams can make.

Meanwhile...

Last week, OpTic Texas owner, Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez, sued Activision Blizzard for $680 million, calling out the company’s alleged 50 percent event and merchandise revenue split requirement and its exclusive rights to the most lucrative sponsorship partners.


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RunAway fighting!!

In news designed specifically for Overwatch esports nerds, the legendary Korean team RunAway has announced that it will return to participate in the OWCS.

RunAway’s arrival in the second season of the Overwatch League, forming the Vancouver Titans’ inaugural squad, made for the best season of competitive Overwatch not seen since the days of the Apex Tournament. They’re a beloved team with a fiercely loyal fanbase that will certainly bring excitement to the OWCS.


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The LCS has a new commissioner — and it’s back to streaming on weekends.

The top League of Legends esports circuit in North America will now be led by Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman, Riot Games announced on Tuesday. Zimmerman is perhaps best known as in his role as an on-air personality for the league’s streams.

The schedule change, by the way, is much-needed; last season, games aired during the week, which meant I missed most of them.


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The LCS is shrinking.

Just a day after the League of Legends World Championship concluded, Riot has announced that the LCS — the game’s top league in North America — will be contracting. Both the Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses are exiting, bringing the league to just eight teams for the future.

The news follows turmoil with LCS players earlier this year, and league mainstay TSM also exiting the competition. (It’s been rough for esports all around.) Riot says more details on “the full, long-term global strategy” for League esports and the LCS are coming in early 2024.


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The Overwatch League is done.

“We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said in a statement to PC Gamer. “We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We will share details with you all in the near future.”

There had been signs this might be coming, like Wednesday’s press release from Toronto Defiant’s owner announcing its exit from the league. In October, Activision Blizzard said it was building a “revitalized esports program” for Overwatch.


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A huge upset.

The return of the Overwatch World Cup — which has been on hiatus since 2019 — ended with the kind of upset few would have predicted, as Saudia Arabia topped China to win the two-day tournament at BlizzCon 2023. If you missed it, you can check out the full highlights right here.


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What’s your ETA?

The opening ceremony for the League of Legends World Championship is usually pretty exciting even if you aren’t into League; last year’s featured Lil Nas X teaming up with a holographic mech (you can watch it below). We don’t know exactly what to expect this year, but the 2023 event at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul will include both K-pop stars NewJeans and the fictional boy band Heartsteel, and it takes place on November 19th at 4AM ET.


This one is for Challenger-level fans of Worlds.

iam8bit and Riot Games are releasing a vinyl set of the anthems for the League of Legends World Championships from 2014-2023 (including NewJeans’ new track). Pre-orders start on Friday at 12PM ET.


A promotional image for the League of Legends Worlds Anthems vinyl.
Image: iam8bit and Riot Games
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The Superb OWL Grand Finals tournament is live.

What is likely the last Overwatch League Finals tournament has just begun. This year, eight teams will participate in a double elimination bracket live in Toronto to decide this year’s champions.

This year, the Atlanta Reign are likely to take the trophy making them the first (and probably only) expansion team to win the championship. Hopefully, the Grand Finals match will send the League off with a bang and not a whimper.


Hey, maybe don’t?

As fans process the news that the Overwatch League is very likely in its final season, the teams themselves have apparently not gotten the memo, tweeting blithely in the face of their own looming destruction. But hey, at least Florida’s being cool about it.


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Worlds is going back to South Korea.

The League of Legends World Championship is taking place in South Korea this year from October 10th through November 19th. Here’s hoping we get another spectacular, tech-filled show ahead of the finals.


LoL Esports

[LoL Esports]

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Riot Games really wants you to know it believes in esports.

It’s not a great time for esports — major organizations have had to do layoffs or even sell themselves to one another. But to help assure the community it’s still committed to esports, Riot Games’ president of esports just published a ~3,500 word blog post about the economics of the industry and some of its future plans.


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They’re like Overwatch skins, but IRL.

The sixth season of the Overwatch League kicks off next month, and while there are some big changes in store — a shift to Overwatch 2, teams in new cities, lots of confusion in China — I’m mostly excited about the deluge of new kits, particularly this inaugural Seoul Infernal jersey.


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The big League of Legends midseason tournament is headed to London.

The Mid-Season Invitational, or MSI, pits top League teams from all across the world, and it’s one of my favorite gaming events of the year. MSI takes place over the course of many days in May, and you can buy tickets starting later this month.


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Don’t you forget about me.

The folks at the Overwatch League Head Office shared a Grand Finals highlight video capturing all the match’s best moments. Since this is coming more than a month after the Grand Finals ended,

I have the suspicion that during this offseason — with no word how long it’ll be or in what capacity the Overwatch League will return when the fate of its four Chinese teams and the handful of teams that practice with them is up in the air thanks to the deal between Blizzard and its Chinese publishing partner NetEase has now dissolved — Blizzard wants to remind fans of all the fun they had watching in-person and online.


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Check out these Baron steals.

The League of Legends World Championship finals were this weekend, and the competition was absolutely wild — and I’m not just talking about Lil Nas X’s performance.

The best-of-five match-up between T1 and DRX went the distance, with plenty of thrilling moments, including multiple Baron steals from T1 that dramatically changed the shape of the series. Ultimately, DRX managed to pull out the win, ending Faker’s chance at another Worlds title. If you missed it on Saturday night, check out these highlights.