STACK #158 Dec 2017

INTRO GAMES

Every month STACK takes a brief look at what’s happening in esports, both locally and overseas. esports Round-Up Jayden Perry with T he year is rapidly approaching its final weeks, but we’re getting a killer finale of esports action to cap off the year. just how talented their players are, felling Canada to take the title of World Champions. ANZ had teams in the World of Warcraft Arena

Blizzcon, the annual celebration of all things Blizzard, stole the show for November, with big announcements and even bigger esports. The Overwatch World Cup was the headlining act, debuting new spectator features as a preview for the hotly anticipated Overwatch League. This year team Australia got the chance to prove just how good the original Blank Esports lineup was, but unfortunately fell short of the quarter finals in a tight best of five against Canada. If there’s one series I’d suggest going back to watch, it’d be that one – it’s worth it for the insane Tracer duels alone. Canada moved on to the finals, but had to face the fearsome South Korea squad, who earlier in the weekend knocked out fan favourites, team USA. South Korea demonstrated

Throwdown. The ESL stage hosted the finals of Hi-Rez studio’s major titles, Paladins and Smite , giving two teams the opportunity to compete at Hi-Rez Expo. Reigning champions Kanga Esports continued their strong performance in Paladins to book their tickets overseas, but Smite had a more tumultuous outcome. After a staggeringly long final game in the best of five, Scylla Esports snatched victory away from Legacy by sneakily backdooring their base. Over on the Throwdown stage, Street Fighter V and Rocket League were showcased.

The Street Fighter tournament stage featured a fight cage, and through a day of tough battles, BKSama emerged with the top spot and a cheque for $2.5K. The atmosphere alone made it one of the best fighting game set ups in recent memory. The Rocket League community proved to be louder than ever as viewers flocked to support the top four teams in Oceania. JAM Gaming, Chiefs Esports Club, Pale Horse Esports and Scylla clashed for the chance to compete at the World Championships in November. The Chiefs squad continued their expected performance, finishing in first place, but Pale Horse came out of nowhere to commandingly take second. The surprise underdog tale never gets old. Esports DecEMBER Calendar : 7-10th Dec Overwatch League Exhibition Matches 7th Dec LoL all stars 8-10th Dec Capcom Cup 10-11th Dec Sydney Hearthstone Invitational

Championships and Heroes of the Storm finals, Blank Esports and Dark Sided respectively, but both found themselves eliminated before they

could make a splash in games dominated by international teams. For these games Blizzcon

PAX Australia featured more esports than ever before

is the pinnacle of competition, so the fact they

earned their spots there is a credit to their skill. At least Aussie Hearthstone

streamer NaviOOT and his squad finished second in the Hearthstone Inn-vitational! In local shows, PAX Australia featured more esports than ever before across two stages set up by ESL Australia and

What first got you into esports? What drew you to Overwatch ? The competition was the biggest factor that drew me both to esports and Overwatch in particular. While it's not exactly recognised by tournaments locally, I used to play World of Warcraft and raided in a number of Australian #1 guilds that attempted to push for high world rankings. This competition is what I really enjoyed, and then when Overwatch was released, I was able to transition my love for competition to a new game that I really enjoyed playing. Esports profile RQT mini-profile: You play support in Blank, but who’s your favourite Overwatch character and why? Despite playing support, Mei is probably my favourite hero. I love her abilities and really enjoy using the right click of her weapon to do serious amounts of damage and charge up her ultimate quickly. She also has good sustain to take a 1v1 or play away from healers. What’s your best esports experience of 2017? The best experience would undoubtedly have to be winning

against Japan to qualify for Blizzcon at the Sydney World Cup qualifiers. It was made all the better by the fact that we had 2,500 Aussies cheering us on as we did it. That will most likely be an experience I never forget. What was the experience like playing esports tournaments in Taiwan and internationally compared to playing locally? The teams are a lot better and take the game a lot more seriously internationally, which shouldn't come as a surprise since the infrastructure and culture is much different, especially in countries like Taiwan and China. There's also a lot more pressure for us to perform as a team since we're basically the representation of Australian Overwatch. Looking forward, what do you think is next for you and Blank going into 2018? It's hard to say right now what the future holds, for now we will be having a break from international tournaments until 2018 and then we'll see how it goes once more information is made available to players and organisations.

065