STACK November 2016 Issue 145

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26 NOVEMBER 2016
GAMES
FEATURE
Three groups of Australians
recently flew to Jakarta,
Indonesia, for the International
eSports Federation’s flagship finals
series -- one of the notable few
eSports competitions with anti-
doping measures. Australia was
represented in Counter-Strike:
GO, League of Legends , and…
Well, despite being gaming’s most
elaborate method of flipping a
coin, some competitions still insist
on including Hearthstone -- but
with 50 million registered players,
we understand why. It’s also a lot
easier to share a $71k prize pool
with one person than a team of
five.
It was the climax of a
competition that saw SBS2
broadcast the first competitive
Counter-Strike match on Australian
free-to-air TV, and as SBS2
becomes SBS Viceland, we
understand more eSports content
is being considered. The actual
final in Jakarta had less luck -- after
the entire district’s internet failed,
live streaming was temporarily
halted.
As is the Australian
tradition, our Counter-
Strike team was in a
group with eventual
champions Finland. That
didn’t stop them making
it out of the group
with victories against
Italy, Tunisia, and the
Phillipines, but China halted our
progress in the first knockout
round.
Meanwhile, all that money
Riot is investing locally is paying
off, as our League of Legends
players scored revenge against
the Chinese to top their group
undefeated and make it to the
quarter finals. It was Team
Philippines who finally found a
solution to the hyper-aggressive
style that has emerged on our
isolated shores, but we’re still
ninth in the competition’s overall
top ten. Take that, Russia.
Riot’s ultimate goal with
salarying players locally is to bring
them up to the global level, but
with the World Quarter Finals
being held in Chicago, its attention
was elsewhere. Good thing, then,
independent competitions like
the IeSF in Jakarta and the recent
$10,000 tournament in Canberra
at Reload Bar were around to offer
our teams more experience.
Each month, STACK takes a brief look at what’s
happening in eSports, both locally and overseas.
eSports Round-Up
Junglist
with
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