eSports Weekly 10/03/16

 

2016 League of Legends World Championship

The biggest international tournament for the biggest eSport is finally here: the 2016 League of Legends World Championship. With over $2 million on the line and eternal glory, six different regions and sixteen teams will come together across the United States.

The first event is the Group Stage is currently taking place in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA from September 29 - October 2 and October 6-9.

Next, the Quarterfinals takes place in The Chicago Theater in Chicago, IL from October 13-16.

After that, the Semifinals takes place in iconic Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.

Finally, the Finals are set to come back to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA. Notably, the same location as the 2013 Worlds Finals.

The first week has come to a close.

Here's the group results after the first week:

The story of this week is that there are no perfect teams. Groups A and D have three way ties for first place while Groups B and C have two way ties for first. The week was full of upsets and stomps that confounded the most confident analysts. Notably, Europe was a complete fiasco as the entire region only has one win from H2k to their name. Korea still seems the strongest while NA and China look similar. Furthermore, the wildcard regions have exceeded expectations with two wins for Albus NoX Luna and a win for INTZ e-Sports.

If you're short on time, here's the key games to watch.

Day 1:

• G2 vs CLG: If you're an NA fan and like seeing some salty EU tears than this game's for you.
• ITZ vs EDG: The wildcard team take down the number one seed with some fantastic plays.
• TSM vs RNG: Want some crazy support carry plays? Look no further. I would watch this one if I could pick one from this day.

Day 2:

• SKT vs C9: Watch Faker stomp. This is what dominance looks like.
• TSM vs SSG: Bjergsen and Svenskeren are really good.

Day 3:

• ROX vs G2: Watch the best top laner in the world do the best play of the entire week.
• FW vs C9: A extremely long game. Tense and somewhat fun to watch but clown fiesta.

Day 4:

• ANX vs G2: More salty EU tears. Watch this upset.
• CLG vs ROX: A crazy upset. Watch it!
• SKT vs FW: Another upset. What's up with this day?

For in-depth coverage of each day and each game, check out lolking's coverage:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Overwatch Open

The Overwatch Open was organized by ELEAGUE and FACEIT with a gigantic $300,000 USD prize pool. Taking place from September 25-30, the Overwatch Open featured a Group Stage with best-of-three matches and a single elimination Playoff with best-of-five matches.

The tournament was divided into the North American region and European Region where the finalist from each region would compete in the Grand Finals.

Here's how the tournament went down in NA:

As to be expected, Team EnVyUs took down both Cloud9 in the Semifinals and Fnatic in the Finals 3-1 to advance to the Grand Finals

Here are the results from EU:

In EU, Misfits was able to advance through a close 3-2 match against Rogue.

 

In the Grand Finals, Misfits beat Team EnVyUs 3-1 through a great attack on King's Row, a strong defense on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, and a decisive 3-1 victory on Lijiang Tower. With this win, Misfits won $100,00 USD, the biggest cash prize in Overwatch tournament history thus far.