The Collapse Of Blizzard's eSports Scene

Those who think esports occupy a small, forgettable faction of the entertainment industry are unequivocally and undeniably wrong. Esports may seem small due to a lack of mainstream coverage, but the budding industry is a global phenomenon with a fanbase in the hundreds of millions. Still, esports continues to be difficult to wa

Blizzard Entertainment, once the birthplace of the modern MOBA thanks to Aeon of Strife and Defense of the Ancients , tried their hand at creating a MOBA with Heroes of the Storm . Released in June of 2015 at the very height of MOBA popularity, HotS struggled to gain the same kind of following as its larger brethren. Although innovative and link web page containing many changes to the core gameplay that made it both easier to learn and more "fun", HotS was plagued with poor monetization as well as technical and hero balance issues. Blizzard finally admitted defeat in December of 2018 by moving developers to other projects and canceling the game’s official tourname

Moving on to the MDL Chengdu Major in November, TNC would continue to keep the attention focused on them. The Philippine phoenix soared through the Major nonchalantly and almost effortlessly, which led from win to win. Their prominent and reused slam dunk strategy with Earthshaker and Morphling secured most games and ultimately led to their tournament crowning. However, the calm nature of their teamwork and almost family-like bond between the players contributed greatly to their achievements. TNC pocketed $300 thousand and lit a new flame in the professional Dota 2 scene as a team to look out for in the fut

Blizzard, rather than come to a compromise to benefit all parties, chose instead to abandon KeSPA and partner with Global StarCraft League (GSL) . The decision was catastrophic from the start, as KeSPA prohibited its member teams from participating in any StarCraft II competitions. The best talent in the world was effectively prevented from playing in any tourname

Hearthstone has issues with its esports scene as well; mainly in that it seems unable to settle on the format for qualifying its players for competitions or to select the best format for its annual championships. This is understandable when a game releases - but it's been five years now since launch. Since then, we have seen players qualifying through Blizzard sanctioned tournaments, then needing to qualify in four distinct seasons, and now there's an overhaul of the previous tour system to a three-tiered sys

Both LoL and Dota2 would arrive in open beta roughly around the same time, but Riot got the jump on Valve by releasing League of Legends in October 2009. Since then, LoL 's popularity has simply exploded. By 2012, LoL was the most popular game in the world and by Jan of 2014 the game had 67 million people playing it every month. LoL was easily the most popular game viewed on either YouTube or Twitch, and with that many eyeballs came an exploding eSports scene. Professional tournaments began in 2011 with the League of Legends World Championships providing the best team in the world a top prize of $1 mill

There's a term in economics called "market saturation." It basically means that a product has become so common in the market that everyone who wants the product either already has it or can easily get it. It happens to basically everything, but you can see it often in certain widely distributed items, such as cars, snack foods, and yes, video ga

Aphelios has 5 unique weapons that each start with 50 Moonlight (Ammo). His basic attacks cost 1 Moonlight, and his abilities (Q and R) cost 10. Once his Moonlight hits 0 he will switch to the next weapon in the queue. Also, instead of upgrading his abilities when he levels up (like the other 146 champions in the game), the player can choose to upgrade either his Attack Damage, Attack Speed, or Armor Penetrat

As mentioned several times in this list, the original purpose of the league was to settle disputes between city-states. This role is reinforced by the abundance of military personnel available to select as champions in the game. Characters such as Swain, ruler of the major nation of Noxus, hold lofty titles in the region they repres

With Aphelios' 5 weapons, two teamfights will never play out the same. The way he wants to approach a full 5v5 or a small skirmish will depend on his current main and off-hand weapons. The Calibrum, Infernum, and Crescendum Moonlight Vigils are very strong during developing teamfights, especially in small areas. The AOE damage and healing can win fights single-handedly. He can also use the AOE crowd control from his Gravitum Moonlight Vigil to initiate or disengage a fi

Imagine an esports equivalent of ESPN. ESPN works because coverage of most traditional sports is basically the same. You point a camera at the field and watch what happens while two "experts" talk about what’s going on. Esports won’t and can’t work like this. Every game is drastically different from the next, with its own graphics, mechanics, and strategies to be emplo