The 2017 Hearthstone Winter Championship concluded in the Bahamas this week, with ShtanUdachi defeating Fr0zen to take home the winner's slice of the $250,000 prize pool. Meanwhile, the League of Legends LCS is heating up as we near the final stages of the tournament. There’s plenty to watch from the Dota 2 Asia Championships to the Overwatch: PIT Championship. We even have the Rocket League Championship Series to look forward to. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

The Giants had another tough week and they desperately tried to climb up from the bottom rankings, but G2 and Fnatic crushed their hopes of making it to this year’s playoffs. Meanwhile, Roccat managed to surprise everyone with their 2-0 victory over Misfits, which has given the team a chance to rival Fnatic for third place. Vitality on the other hand continued to prove that they are one of the most inconsistent teams in the EU LCS. They played extremely passive against Splyce, which resulted in two games with a lot of one-sided action. Vitality looked like a completely different team when they played their second series against H2k. Game one went in H2K’s favour, but Vitality’s managed to come back in game two by creating pressure around the map. However, a Baron throw saw H2K steal away game three and they broke open Vitality’s Nexus after a very close performance. This week’s schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

Cloud9’s series against Dignitas was a close one, but a clutch teamfight and major plays from Jensen’s Orianna gave C9 the power they need to dominate Dignitas. Phoenix1 were next on C9’s hit list and they proved critics wrong when they beat P1 2-0, which landed them with a place in this year’s playoffs. Meanwhile, Dignitas managed grab their playoff spot by eliminating Immortals, and they’ll be looking to secure another decisive win against Phoenix1.

Meanwhile, Team Liquid tried to avoid relegation in week nine by picking up two victories against TSM and FlyQuest. Team Liquid’s managed to beat TSM after DoubleLift’s Ezreal obliterated TSM’s bot-lane and carried his team to victory. However, FlyQuest’s Hai managed to stop them dead in their tracks with his Talon plays, and he secured a playoffs spot for FlyQuest and a promotion tournament spot for Team Liquid. The summer promotion starts today and the full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

Dota 2: Asia Championships

The Dota 2 Asia Championships group stage finished with Empire and OG taking the helm for the western teams entering the upper bracket, while Newbee and Invictus Gaming are the two Chinese representatives. The main event will feature a double elimination bracket, and the winners of each group will battle it out for a chance to land a place at the lan finals. OG and Newbee are kicking things off in the upper bracket today at 18:00 PDT / 03:00 CEST, while LGD.Forever Young will tackle iG Vitality in the lower bracket tomorrow at 02:00 PDT / 11:00 CEST. The full weekend schedule and stream can be found by heading over to the official championship site.

Overwatch: APEX Season 2

Lunatic-Hai faced Meta Athena on Tuesday during a tense semifinal match which saw the previous runner-up’s take Athena down for their third chance to win a major championship. Lunatic-Hai obliterated Athena on both Nepal and Eichenwalde, and they continuously punished their over-aggressive plays with decisive payload pushes. Lunatic-Hai will now face RunAway in the APEX finals on April 8th, but the APEX action doesn’t stop there as Meta Athena will take on LW Blue to contest the bronze title. The match begins today at 03:00 PDT / 12:00 CEST and you can catch all the action over on Twitch.

Overwatch: PIT Championship

The best Overwatch teams from Europe and North America have been busy fighting it out for their chance to claim the PIT title and their share of a $15,000 prize pool. Ninja’s in Pyjamas and Misfits are currently at the top of the European bracket, but this could soon change. SNG Ninjas and Movistar Riders are kicking this weekend’s action off today at 09:00 PDT / 18:00 CEST, while the North American branch will see Rise take on LG Evil later at 16:00 PDT / 01:00 CEST. Both the European and North American schedule can be found here, while the stream can be found over on Twitch.

Rocket League: Championship Series

Week three of the Rocket League Championship: Series is underway this weekend when NRG take on Denial Esports this Saturday at 12:00 PDT / 21:00 CEST. So far Selfless look to be the team to beat as they recently qualified for the playoffs with four wins. If Selfless can beat Atelier and G2 Esports this weekend, they can easily hang on to the top spot in North America. Meanwhile, European team Pocket Aces now sit at the top of the leaderboard after beating both Penta and Cow Nose in week two. The previous European leaders The Leftovers will be looking for a decisive win when they tackle Penta this Sunday. Make sure you check out out the full schedule and stream over on the official Rocket League: Championship Series website.

In a month, the top Dota 2 teams will descend upon Kiev, Ukraine, for the next in Valve’s series of official tournaments, the Majors. Modeled after the system introduced to CS:GO in 2013, these events began after The International 5 in 2015, each providing a $3 million prize pool and a $1 million grand prize. The event also introduced roster locks, preventing teams from changing rosters mid-season if they wanted to be given an invite to an event or its qualifiers.But the Majors also came with its own set of controversies and legitimate concerns. Namely, there are questions about how these Valve tournaments, regarded by the community as extremely important, have interfered with third-party events. 

For one, the roster lock was presumably intended to prevent organizations from abusing their positions and to protect players. Namely, roster locks reinforce the perception that “Valve invites players,” meaning that a banner doesn’t matter as much as the people who make up the squad. Stronger teams are more likely to stay together, giving players more stability. It was also a solution to the last-second shuffling of teams before The International or other large events, with the knowledge that banners were more likely to be invited to TI anyway. (For instance, Evil Geniuses, TI5 winners, were not directly invited to TI6 due to their frequent team changes; in previous years, the winner would be invited regardless of changes.)

A major side effect was how this weakened the post-event tournament circuit after each Major or International. These events were expected to be affected if they were too close to The International, but now they need to think about whether they want to risk being the first event after the Major. Massive tournaments now have to make the call about whether or not a squad should be allowed to play if a team locks in a different roster than its original. Plus, many players focus on Majors, and some may come to these other events exhausted or not at their 100% for other reasons.

Speaking of weakened tournament circuits, Valve’s lack of communication about large events has put many third-party tournaments on thin ice, particularly this year. The Boston Major was announced with just two month’s notice, notably affecting DreamLeague and almost affecting The Summit, a fan-favorite tournament. They did announce Kiev Major dates at Boston itself, but then they chose to change them, likely due to a mixture of factors: the stadium was being used for other sporting-related events, and the Dota Asian Championships were too close. DAC is hosted by Perfect World, which publishes Dota 2 in China, and it’s unlikely Valve would want to weaken relations.

Do the Majors affect tournament numbers? Two years in, it’s hard to tell quantitatively. Up until the “seasons” were implemented, there were more and more tournaments every year. In the 2014-2015 season, excluding Valve events there were 24 ‘premier’ and 38 ‘professional’ events, per Valve’s ticketing system, for a total of 62. The year before, 2013-2014, there were 20 and 48 respectively, for 68 total.

At a glance something has certainly happened, as in 2015-2016 there were 17 ‘premier’ and 22 ‘professional’ events for a total of 39. This year the scene is on track to reach similar numbers, though the elimination of a Major seems to have helped a bit. At this time last year, 11 premier and 14 professional tournaments had taken place since The International. The year before saw 11 and 14, and 2014-2015 saw 14 and 27 respectively. Still, as the Major system continues to settle in, we’ll see how it affects tournament production timeline-wise. There’s also the chance that outside investors don’t want to commit to Dota, given the increasing pool of esports that tournaments organizers can choose from.

Another tier down, meanwhile, smaller tournaments are affected by Valve’s lack of attention to unofficial events. While Dota 2 was originally acclaimed for hosting and being supportive of in-game tournaments of all levels, including during its beta years, in the past year or two several complaints had arisen from tournament organizers. The Reddit Dota 2 League, which has hosted many pros, including CompLexity’s Moo (and even professional actor Asa Butterfield) claimed that Valve had been ignoring its routine requests for in-game tournament hosting. Around the same time, other organizers reported similar issues, including UK’s BGL and a small university cup, and there have been other such complaints throughout the past few years.

The issue likely began over two years ago, when the Dota 2 Canada Cup was informed by Valve that there were several changes to how tournaments were permitted to run. Namely, while tournaments ticketed as ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ were given similar permissions, Valve chose to restrict in-game item distribution to premier tournaments only. The Canada Cup wished to distribute a courier named Bearzky, stating “we felt this was the proper way to attract viewers, get sponsors, pay teams a fair prize pool in the North American scene and pay designers and casters, put the profits towards larger prize pools.” In this original PSA, some players did comment that they didn’t necessarily want to pay larger amounts to get the cosmetic, which was a trend among these tournaments.

In hindsight, meanwhile, there’s the chance that Valve also had an extra motive for slowing the distribution of in-game items: the Compendium system. Valve supposedly allows Compendiums for Premier tournaments that can boost the tournament’s prize pool, including DAC 2015, but the DAC 2017 Compendium has been the first since the DotaCinema Captain’s Draft in January 2016. (In 2014, when the system was introduced, there were five third-party tournament compendiums, and in 2015, when the seasonal Compendium by Valve was introduced, there were three.) Either Valve has been reprioritizing which tournaments should receive one, or tournaments aren’t focusing on the Compendium as a prize incentive.

If it’s a change on Valve’s side, one could speculate that they’re trying to avoid too much money being drained from their own tournaments’ profitability. And, if that’s the case, it likely affects the prize pool of these premier tournaments, as Compendiums alone raised hundreds of thousands of dollars—sometimes into the millions—for these events.

Of course, the Majors circuit can’t entirely be just about Valve putting out cash cows. Otherwise, Dota 2’s infamously vocal pros and fans alike would be more critical (though they certainly were after teams were given only three weeks for the first roster lock). Valve clearly wanted to make a tournament system that added longevity to the core professional scene, and it has largely accomplished that task.

The roster lock system, especially with this year’s new “drop/add dates,” has been increasingly praised for protecting its players. For its all its flaws, as mentioned, it succeeds in making orgs and players less casual about shuffling and dropping its players mid-season. 

The presence of multiple Majors distributes the pressure of professional play more evenly throughout the year. Teams would arguably prepare for The International alone (for instance, Newbee streamed RPGs for several months after their TI4 win), but now they’re given motivation to work year-round towards each Valve event. 

Similarly, fans may be more likely to understand what’s going on throughout the year when they’re given a consolidated, official series of events to follow, allowing for greater scene loyalty. This is likely enhanced by Valve’s in-game advertising and the Compendium’s promotion of the Majors, including the True Sight documentary. (And speaking of Compendium, workshop artists’ creations are pooled into the Treasures within the Compendiums.) 

All in all, for players and Valve itself, the Majors system is a mostly win-win situation: players are given a reliable tournament circuit with good cash and more predictable stability, while Valve is profiting off the Compendiums and tournaments. Of course, there’s no denying that the system must affect other parties, but it has yet to be seen how the dust will settle. After all, a system that spans a year may take several years to show its true impact on everybody involved.

The open qualifiers for Dota 2’s Kiev Major were an opportunity for teams and players throughout the world to earn a shot at one of the biggest prize pools in esports. According to tournament organizer FACEIT it drew the most teams of any open qualifier for a Valve event yet, with over six thousand teams across the globe entering the various regional qualifiers. Unfortunately, even in an esteemed tournament, large crowds can draw troublemakers.

Case in point: a team called ‘Holocaust N****rs’ was able to progress through the first five rounds of the European open qualifiers. When a Reddit user drew attention to the team's name in a thread that has since disappeared, outrage and debate followed as the team continued through the event. The matter even drew ire from OG player Fly.

Many on Reddit and Twitter found themselves wondering where the FACEIT admins were during this period. When reached out for comment, a representative for the site explained that the team had worked around the administrators by using the offensive name in match lobbies. When used as a lobby team name, the FACEIT tournament system wouldn’t display the name to human FACEIT admins.

“Their name while on the FACEIT platform was absolutely normal and contained no offensive language” FACEIT told us. “While on the FACEIT platform all team names are visible to our admins and can therefore be controlled.” “However, once the tournament has started and in-game lobbies have been formed, teams can then use a different in-game name from their FACEIT team account name. So in this instance once they joined the Dota 2 in-game lobby what they do within the new server client is outside of our control as it cannot be seen by our team and it’s no longer part of our platform. By the time the issue was raised the team had already lost the tournament so we were unable to take any action.” 

They point to their policies, which state that an inappropriate name or avatar is cause for a one-week matchmaking ban. Had the team been caught before their loss, this means they would have been barred from playing for the duration of the tournament. This also raises the question of whether opposing teams or spectators in earlier rounds were willing to bring up the issue with the admins, or were aware of the anti-obscenity policies in place (or cared at all). 

Dotabuff co-founder ’Lawliepop’ also responded to the controversy, sharing the site’s official stance:

“This is a cut and dry situation. Names including hate speech are completely unacceptable,” she says. She explains that they already have anti-obscenity and anti-hate policies in place, including censoring avatars and team or player names. However, there’s only so much the site could do, given that they merely scrape data from the Valve API. 

“I think with this particular name, it's an egregious situation due to the fact that it is in a Valve qualifier,” she says. “Ultimately, this is a place where Valve has the opportunity to improve the standards they have for names in Dota. Anything Dotabuff does is just a band-aid on the problem and not a real solution.”

While the Dotabuff staff often comes together to figure out how to implement anti-hate policies, even the moral question of doing so as a data aggregator is tough to answer.

“I want to remove the names, but at the same time I feel conflicted. This is a part of the community, and often Dotabuff will be the only record of it. I don't want erasing the existence of hate to convince the community that these things don't happen. I don't think that part of playing a game should include subjecting yourself to hate speech to participate.”

“I really hope that 5 years from now we can look back on this as part of Dota's ugly past and something we have moved on from.” 

It’s already become a tricky situation. In the brief time between the statement and the time of writing, a Reddit user claimed that the word ‘negro’ got filtered out on the Dota 2 results site. This drew claims of anglocentrism: while the word is a slur in many countries, specifically both American continents (especially in the USA) and Europe, it’s the direct translation of ‘black’ in Spanish. 

Controversy surrounding racism and other “-isms” isn’t new to the Dota 2 community by any means. The most pertinent example of a race-related meme is 'three Merlinis,' referring to the respected Asian analyst, player and caster. The joke is meant to imply that three Asians on a stream look similar, even if they’re far from it.

Most recently, caster TobiWan became upset when a similar 'fat, normal, skinny Tobi' joke rose to the front page of the Dota 2 subreddit, featuring three white, blond men of different sizes, including Tobi in the middle. While the community came to support him when he expressed his discomfort, many pointed out that when woman personalities faced similar harassment, Tobi himself told them to deal with it or grow a thicker skin, highlighting a double standard in the community for different personalities.

Veteran player Singsing was also recently brought into the spotlight when his channel submitted and had approved racist emoticons, featuring blatantly crude black stereotypes, as well as mods with crude commands for ASCII art, including one that spelled out the n-word in a fancy font. It was also noted that Sing had some of the ASCII commands and modded bots for at least a few months, if not years. While Singsing himself was put under blast for the emoticons themselves, it brought Twitch’s credibility into question given they approved the emoticons. Plus, there was the issue of how Twitch staff would let the streamer use these tools when many staff would spectate and often participate in the stream and its chat.

The community and developers in the Dota 2 community have had mixed experiences with, and reactions to, the various offensive and crude happenings that come with such a vast and diverse international community. While the developers of the game and its peripheral sites hold a degree of power over what makes it into the public, the community has the ability and responsibility to discuss and inform about harmful actions that could hurt both those within the game and onlookers, especially given how user-centric the Dota 2 scene is. A politically turbulent age brings those looking to escape from everyday life into Dota 2, and the scene will have to learn how to confront hostile and exclusionary viewpoints so everyone can play fairly and safely.

For over a week, teams on nearly every continent clamored for the final eight spots at Dota 2’s Kiev Major. Now, eight days later, eight teams have emerged from regional qualifiers and must prepare for the next step.

This Major’s qualifiers have been more intense than ever. In SEA, where not a single team was given an invite, teams fought for two chances to represent their region. Meanwhile, South America had its first-ever regional qualifiers, separating its unique community from that of North America, and CIS was given its own chance after being stacked with European teams. Champions of the Winter Battle Cup, the in-game tournament system, were given a chance to participate as well.

To fill out the final eight slots of the Kiev Major LAN event, South America, North America, Eastern Europe/CIS and Western Europe were each given a qualifier spot, and China and SEA fought for two.

With these changes in place, hundreds of teams entered the heat of battle. Now, we have our winners.

The first team to reach the finish line was Faceless from the SEA region as the Singaporean squad, which includes vets Black^, iceiceice and xy-, took down three regional rivals with scattered Filipino pros. After tying with two other teams 7-2 in the group stages, they were given a run for their money, especially against TNC Pro, which delayed the inevitable after their base was torn apart. The team has already shown a solid record in its short time together, Kiev aside, and if their LAN run is anything like their qualifiers, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

In the final day of qualifiers, Filipino org TNC Pro caught up in the loser’s bracket to earn the second regional spot. Like much of the region, they also had a hard battle to the top, especially against ex-finalists and local rivals Mineski.GG. They eventually earned the privilege of being their country's representative. After reuniting TI6 member Raven with fellow teammates Kuku and Sam_H, they’ve been one of the more prominent teams in the region (and even internationally) in the time before the qualifiers, so it's a matter of how they’ll stand once again against elite teams. Will they surprise in Kiev like they did at TI6?

In the western hemisphere, Team Secret picked up a hard-fought EU West spot after a difficult run in what’s considered to be a “stacked” region. Alliance, the TI3 champs, had come from defeating fan favorite B)ears in the loser’s bracket for the grand finals, but Secret were able to take them down in a tense but clean 2-0 match. Secret, which is a former European favorite banner that now features vets pieliedie, MP, KheZu and MidOne, had their reputation tarnished after Puppey and Kermal, respectively the captain and owner, were accused of holding back money from winners; EternalEnVy of Team NP claims some is still missing. Kiev will be Secret’s first Majors appearance since the claims surfaced after The International 6.

The neighboring team in EU East/CIS to win the local spot was Virtus Pro, the aggressive Russian team that was favored during the pre-Boston competitive season and won The Summit. With Solo in the captain’s chair and a star squad beside him, they had a perfect group stage and were able to pull off a full run through the winner’s bracket, defeating the roster of long-standing CIS banner Team Empire. After dropping game one, final two games in the match were won in dominating and persuasive fashion, each wrapping up in under 22 minutes. VP will need to bring this fast and furious game to Kiev and hope other teams won’t learn how to shut them down like they did in Boston.

The atmosphere of the North American qualifiers was tense, especially with recent shuffles and drama hanging in the air. BuLba had just left Liquid to form international squad Team Onyx, and CompLexity rose up from the open qualifiers after their mid left, bringing in pub star and 9k MMR player 747.  It came down to these two teams, and Team Onyx rose to the occasion to win for the NA spot. The team is certainly an all-star lineup, especially with DemoN returning from his time with TNC and Fnatic to help the SEA region improve, and now they’ll set out to be the newest crew of celebrity power in NA.

South America’s qualifiers were packed with a few small and unfortunate, but fortunately resolved, controversies. Unknown, whose banner once represented the region at Valve’s Frankfurt Major, ragequit mid-game long before what’s politely acceptable. In another match a caster was assigned to the region but reportedly wasn’t informed on their active channels, and international casters scrambled to cover for them.

Despite these issues, the South American qualifiers proved entertaining to watch. In the end, SG e-Sports from Brazil came out on top with an emotionally-charged victory over established squad Not Today. Each player has been working hard to succeed in the local professional scene since 2014, and now the recently-formed squad will represent their region and proud country in Kiev.

China’s qualifiers were fairly stacked, as many the teams that fought for Kiev were considered to be fairly equal in tier. In the first set of finals, two different Invictus gaming squads, the main roster and the Vitality squad, faced off against each other for the first qualifying spot. The two sister squads had intense battles, but IG.V proved their worth and took the prize.

IG’s main roster, featuring renown vets BurNing and Q, still had a shot at the second slot, and Vici Gaming’s main roster came up from the loser’s bracket to give them a run for their money with an intense rematch series. IG still proved stronger and won the second spot, filling out the sixteenth slot for Kiev’s main event. 

The Intel Extreme Masters in Poland came to an exciting end last weekend, with CS:GO’s FaZe Clan stomping Astralis 3-1 in a nail-biting final. Meanwhile, Team Dignitas beat Fnatic during the Heroes of the Storm Western Clash and StarCraft II’s TY secured a victory against Stats. Currently, League of Legends’ LCS continues to dominate the headlines, but there’s plenty of action to be had elsewhere. There’s drama from CS:GO: StarLadder to the Rocket League: Championship Series. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

Misfits have continued to impress fans as they proved that they could even rival the best teams. In week six Misfits managed to take down Unicorns of Love after they closed out the series thanks to a crucial Baron fight. Meanwhile, H2k took on their old rivals Fnatic and both teams appeared to be evenly matched, but Fnatic started to crumble under the pressure. Game two also went in favour of H2K and they took the top spot in the group B bracket. G2 may have suffered a disappointing loss against Flash Wolves in IEM last week, but they beat back the opposition to claim the top spot in the group B bracket. It’s looking extremely close between G2 and Misfits and time will tell who will remain on top this weekend. This week’s schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

Team Liquid entered week six with a shakeup to their roster to help steady their disappointing start to this year’s LCS. They faced Immortals and their new ADC Youngbin had trouble finding his feet on to the LCS stage, but Team Liquid eventually secured their third win of the season.  However, Echo Fox managed to steal a win from Team Liquid, but Echo fell to Cloud9 after Akaadian got out-jungled by Contractz. Meanwhile, Team SoloMid was back to their dominant selves after they beat both their former rivals Counter Logic Gaming and Team Dignitas. The competition is heating up as we enter week seven of play and all teams will be looking to climb the competitive ladder. The full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

CS:GO: StarLadder i-League Season 3

The best American and European teams will clash for their chance to secure a place in the LAN finals of the StarSeries, and with potential $300,000 at stake, only the top two teams from each bracket will secure tickets to the finals, held in Kiev, Ukraine. Matches will be played in a best-of-three single elimination, which will heighten the pressure and leave little room for error. OpTic Gaming and Eanix are kicking things off in America today at 17:30 PST / 02:30 CET, while the European games kick off Saturday with Team EnVyUs vs. BIG at 07:00 PST / 16:00 CET. The schedule and stream for both playoffs can be found here.

Rocket League: Championship Series

Rocket League is back with season three of its famed championship series and eight teams from North America Europe will compete for the $300,000 prize pool. Season three will also include players from Oceania for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how they compete against their North American and European rivals. There’s also been a host of roster changes in the offseason and we expect this year’s RLCS to be more intense than ever. The North American open qualifier final is kicking off on Saturday at 12:00 PST/ 21:00 CET, while the final of the European open qualifier starts at 04:00 PST / 17:00 CET. Make sure you catch all the action over on the official Rocket League Twitch channel.

Dota 2: Kiev Major Regional Qualifiers

The Kiev Major qualifiers have been taking place all around the world and the best teams will be fighting it out in the regional qualifiers today. In Europe, Elements Pro Gaming, Team Secret, Ninjas in Pyjamas, B)ears, ALTERNATE aTTaX, Cloud9 and Alliance will battle it out. Elements Pro Gaming and ALTERNATE aTTaX are kicking things off at today at 04:30 PST / 13:30 CET, but the action doesn’t stop there as various matches will be played throughout the day.

In North America Team Freedom, NP, Onyx, Complexity Gaming, Wheel Whreck While Whistling will clash. NP and Onyx start their series today at 13:30 PST / 22:30 CET, while the South American branch begin their battles at 13:00 PST / 22:00 CET when the Mad Kings take on Midas. The South American bracket delivered a major surprise this year as neither Infamous nor Not Today managed to reach the top four of the first open qualifiers. Instead, the four South American squads advancing into the regional qualifiers are Union Gaming, Team Unknown, Mad Kings and the Argentinian squad Vultur Gaming.

Meanwhile, over in the Chinese bracket Young Elite managed to win the open qualifiers, while EHOME missed their second major after they lost to Vici Gaming Team Max. China is kicking things off with a match between CDEC and Cavalry at 18:00 PST / 03:00. The competition is certainly looking fierce and the new meta changes from 7.02 will make this an event you won’t want to miss. The full schedule for all the regional qualifiers and links to each stream can be found here. 

The dust in the Dota 2 scene has settled, and eight squads have been chosen to battle for millions in the Kiev Major.

Hailing from three international regions, they have been directly invited to the LAN finals of Valve’s event in Ukraine in late April, each eyeing a slice of a multi-million dollar prize pool. While eight teams have yet to be brought into the ring from their own regional qualifiers, those guaranteed a spot are already among the top of the world.

The teams given direct invites are as follows:

• Wings Gaming (China)
• OG (Europe)
• Ad Finem* (Europe, with a fully-Greek lineup)
• Team Liquid (Europe)
• Evil Geniuses (North America)
• Digital Chaos (North America)
• Newbee (China)
• Vici Gaming “J” (China)

* Ad Finem have subsequently let their Dota 2 team go, but the invite stays with the players who are expected to announce a new team soon.

The first invite went to The International 6’s defending champion Wings Gaming, which had a versatile and fiery showing at the annual event back in August. While their performance hasn’t been outstanding since their 5th-8th place finish in Boston, they’ve held onto their roster and held their own against many other teams across the globe. At the very least, it seems that at least the stable TI6 roster and regular appearances kept the team worthy of consideration. Wings can always rise again, though they may have to fight through other regionally-strong teams—and further, those at Kiev—to reach their peak potential.

Boston Major champs OG had the opposite issue (if one can call it that) in the past year. While they fell in an unexpectedly-difficult match at TI6, the squad worked back to full strength through a new lineup and won December’s Major. The European squad returns for a fourth potential Major win after maintaining an impressive regional showing, led by a strong captain who thoroughly understands his teammates’ strengths and has adapted to the changing tides of several patches. They now need to overcome the resurging momentum that other teams have picked up since Boston. Of course, any team can have tricks up their sleeve, and OG is no exception. 

As the Greek 'underdog' team, the squad formerly known as Ad Finem’s main showing was in the Boston Major itself through their inspiring second-place run. The team brought high energy and mind-blowing individual performances to the stage that garnered a quick, passionate following and brought hope to the Greek scene. However, their focus on Boston seems to have let everything else fall to the wayside: that, or their lack of presence in tier-one matches forms a vicious cycle. Still, Valve rewards stability in regard to their own events, and with this in mind not inviting Non Finem would work against the developers’ own ethos. Now that they’ve been invited, the community will be kept asking: will they step it back up for Kiev?

The third and last European invite, Team Liquid, was once dubbed the rivals of reigning regional champions OG, and now they’ve proven yet again to be a formidable foe with cohesive and memorable performances. They took the sole European qualifying spot for the Dota Asian Championships, and they ran from the qualifiers of last month’s StarLadder tournament to take the grand prize. Team Liquid hasn’t showed up this well since the lead-up to last year’s spring Manila Major, where they came second, only falling to OG. Now, their new post-Boston lineup looks to repeat last spring’s run, but hopefully with the optimal outcome this time.

North American teams also brought their A-game to the Boston Major, and they’ve kept it up since then. Even immediately after 7.00 dropped, Evil Geniuses maintained their pace by winning the China Top cup the following weekend. They’ve been dominant in their few professional experiences since then (minus the offbeat Elimination Mode tournament), and regionally, they’ve been unshakable as the top North American team in the game, as they have been since their TI5 win. It’s just a matter of how they will emerge of their training, then, into both DAC and Kiev. If their recent history alone could talk, it’d say that their opponents need to stay on their toes.

Speaking of opponents, much of the same could be said for Digital Chaos, which took second at TI6 and fell to Wings. Since then, the team has shuffled, but they’ve kept presence in both the regional and international scenes. After their surprising loss to Ad Finem during the Greek team’s hot streak at Boston, they’ve gone on to win ESL One Genting and qualify for DAC, maintaining the versatility that made the TI6 squad successful. Their wins overall haven’t been as persuasive as regional counterparts EG, but they certainly aren’t a force to be reckoned with and are a competing regional name against the TI5 winners.

On the other side of the world, despite complaints about the presence of five Chinese teams at Kiev, nobody can say the remaining two invited teams haven’t worked for their spots. In a trying time for the region, Newbee, playing under the TI4 champions’ banner, have performed well, taking second at ESL and winning the Dota 2 Professional League. The team has kept their place at the top of the region with a uniquely safe but proven approach to their lineups, playing to their team’s strengths. The region recognizes their power as well, as they were directly invited to DAC where they’ll show their chops before Kiev.

Last but absolutely not least is Vici Gaming J, where the “J” represents the official endorsement by Chinese-American basketball pro Jeremy Lin. If he had any say in putting the squad together, it shows that he’s absolutely in the loop for the Chinese scene, with a mix of proven players and rising stars. While their individual picks are somewhat predictable, their strength individually and as a team have been more than enough to push them to the top. The formula clearly works well, as they were one of four teams Chinese qualifier teams that made it through a tough pool for DAC, and they qualified for and nearly won the StarLadder event, defeating OG and only falling to Team Liquid. In Kiev, VG.J may be looking to establish themselves more formally on an international scale as a dominant Chinese force.

With a month and a half between now and Kiev, eight teams yet to qualify, and plenty of matches and tournaments until then, it’s hard to say who of the above may come out at the top if any. The Majors have already been a source of pride and surprise, even in the short time since their inception. Of course, with teams like these already leading the pack and an already-vibrant new meta from 7.00 to 7.02, we can be confident that it’s going to be the Dota event to watch. 

For the first part of our guide covering the CN and SEA teams of the Kiev Major, click here.

The regional qualifiers for Valve’s Dota 2 Majors have lately been a source of controversy, especially in Europe, and the developers have certainly taken notice. Some massive changes have been made for the regions that we’ll be looking at today for the Kiev Major qualifiers. 

Teams in Europe have argued that past qualifiers have been too cutthroat, and they’ve since advocated for separate qualifiers for EU East teams. Meanwhile, South American players often find it difficult to connect to their North American opponents, much less fight through them for a spot at the LAN event. These two continents’ issues clashed when teams in Europe switched to the Americas qualifiers for a better shot (with limited success) before the Boston Major. Valve approved the tactic, but only because there were no rules at the time stating that it couldn’t be done. 

Valve likely heard these regions’ cries for help and have added two new qualifier spots, splitting EU East from EU West and South America from North America. In addition to solving some regional congestion issues, this move will put a new spotlight on regions that were previously lumped in with their neighbors.They have also implemented a three out of five rule, where three of the five players must reside in their qualifying region or else be disqualified. This may cause some confusion for multinational teams, but open qualifier admins at FACEIT plus Valve will likely step in to help with decisions. 

So how will this affect the Kiev Major’s early rounds? Who will we be seeing in the regional qualifiers’ invites, and who will be invited to Ukraine without needing to suffer the regional struggle? 

Here, we’ll look at the remaining regions’ squads, with consideration given to their performances at this past weekend’s Starladder. 

Europe West (EUW)

Considered a hub for both LAN events and esports organizations, the Dota 2 scene in Europe has been especially tightly-contested the last few years. In previous years, it was considered a 'bloodbath' due to the mix of Eastern and Western European teams. Now, due to the split, teams have a bit more room to breathe—which isn’t saying much due to the high number of qualified teams in the region. Of course, there are some teams that stand out among the rest. 

The shoo-in for this event’s direct invite is OG, the winners of the Boston Major, who have continued to show potential in the time since the Major and 7.00’s subsequent release.  Despite their loss at Starladder to second place winners VG.J, they had a solid run at the event. The team’s experienced lineup and effective, smart captaining have make the team a force to be reckoned with.The bigger question on everyone’s minds is who will be invited into the regional qualifiers.  Ad Finem, the Greek underdog who caused a fan movement in Boston, may be invited out of respect, but the question is their ability to qualify. Their performance has been relatively weak outside of the Major itself, but Valve may be willing to give them another shot, as there will probably be plenty of room in the regionals for them plus others. 

Team Liquid will absolutely be a stronger contender here. Despite losing to Ad Finem in the Boston Major qualifiers, they kept working and, after one player swap, managed to qualify for DAC. Their Starladder victory will certainly be a golden frame on either a certain regional invite or a second direct invite, depending on Valve’s mood. 

A new player-run squad called B)ears gave Liquid a run for its money in the DAC qualifiers. The mixed-nationality team hasn’t had any other chance to shine yet, but Valve values the quality of a team’s players as much as results, and the mix of veterans and fresh blood may make them a solid choice for a chance to fight their neighbors. 

Although Team Secret has fallen out of favor due to scandal over its core players, they showed a bit of potential at Starladder and may be considered for an invite. Also fighting for a spot: Cloud9, formerly Imperial, who nearly won WESG but has been making the tier 2 rounds; Alliance, who make frequent appearances in tournaments with few tangible results; and ProDota, who have been consistently playing at the top of tier 2 tournaments.

Europe East (EUE)

It’s often difficult to talk about EUE teams without talking about the EU scene they used to be a part of. Still, the EUE teams have historically performed well internationally, so there’s quite a bit to look at for their region’s qualifiers. Virtus.Pro is the most stable presence in the scene. Despite their 5th-8th run at the Boston Major and lack of DAC qualification, they’ve shown up and performed well at a number of large and tier 2 tournaments with a solid roster.

At the very least, a consistent roster seems to be an important factor for Valve.Team Empire has made several major changes to their roster, but they managed to qualify for DAC through their EUE qualifiers. Working off this alone, they may snag a regional invite, but their hit-and-miss results may also make Valve unsure.

There are several other teams of note, including Effect, which revamped its roster and took second in the DAC qualifiers, and Vega Squadron, which has been training in the tier 2 circuit. Recently, the latter took down Team Empire in a tier 2 tournament. It’s unknown how many slots EUE will be given, though, as it’s an offshoot of the main EU qualifiers.

North America

North America has always been a contentious matter in Dota 2, but strong showings by a select few teams have garnered a degree of international respect. Namely, Evil Geniuses will likely receive a direct invite after a notable Boston run and a win in China immediately after the 7.00 patch. 

Digital Chaos is still powerful for their region, having won ESL One Genting. However, they took last in Starladder, and they were taken down by NP in the DAC qualifiers, so they will likely be less preferred over Evil Geniuses. NP may be a sure choice for regionals as well. They have presence and star power in the scene, perhaps without the results of DC and EG but certainly with enough strength to put up a fight. They were present at the Boston Major’s main event, and they qualified for DAC, so a regional invite to secure their Kiev spot may be in order. 

Regional upsetters WanteD are centered around EG owner and ex-captain PPD, with a mix of nationalities playing. They registered in time for regional qualifier consideration and Valve's emphasis on players over team plus the limited nature of American qualifiers in the past are all factors in their favour. With that in mind, WanteD may be able to grab a regional invite. After all, if PPD knows anything, it’s how to play the metagame at every level. 

There's a question over whether NA mainstay CompLexity will be able to find a full roster in time for invites, as one player left recently (though it seems they’ve found a strong temporary replacement). There is also the newly-formed Onyx, spearheaded by several notable NA players in a similar manner to NP. Depending on Valve’s mood, both CoL and Onyx may need to show their worth in the open qualifiers due to a lack of solid results. 

Other than the above, a number of tier 2 teams are present to fill in the regional qualifier’s gaps, such as FDL, Freedom and Doo Wop. There’s also, of course, the classic personality/player wild card team and extreme crowd-pleasers Vegetables Esports Club. They could re-emerge for a shot at the prize. 

South America

The South American Dota 2 scene is highly unstable, but their perseverance has to be rewarded as they have one of the highest Dota 2 populations. The formation of a South American Qualifier will probably put their regional pubstars on their toes, but the new need for consistency and strength hasn't made the region any less prone to shuffles. As in many other regions, the top teams have undergone massive changes, so Valve may look for brand power as well as player ability.

The Peruvian brand Not Today has had some success, but the team underwent a full revamp since their last tournament. The players themselves have had varying degrees of success, though, with two players earning fourth at WESG as Infamous. Plus, with an influx of new members in the last few days, Valve may be keeping an eye on them. 

Speaking of Infamous, the squad was somewhat strong before the facelift, but now their future remains uncertain due to the changes. The team’s captain has remained on board, and so there’s a chance that he can lead his new members through whatever qualifiers they may need to accomplish.  

Other than these teams, very few are actually currently prepared to accept invites, and so it seems that only two will be directly invited to regional qualifiers. This means that there’ll be a massive fight for the open qualifiers spot, and new players or rusty vets can brush up and face more stable teams that have fought against more experienced squads. There’s hope that this will create a new burst of interest in the regional competitive scene—something the populous region needed.

For more on the EU West, EU East, North American and South American teams of the Kiev Major, click here.

As the snow melts in the north, Dota 2 fans’ eyes shift towards western Europe, anxious but excited for Valve’s upcoming Kiev Major—and more importantly for now, for the invites to the LAN that are yet to be sent.

This tournament is one of two events sponsored by Valve in the time between the annual International. These Majors offer $1 million to the winning team and a guaranteed spot at the next event so long as the team’s lineup remains locked in. The Kiev Major is also, notably, the first official event in the CIS region, which is known for its large population of players and fans. 

The invite process for the Major isn’t always clear, but Valve's commitment to including as much talent per region as possible is. The number of direct invites, or teams guaranteed to appear at the LAN event itself, has remained pretty inconsistent - even for their top-level events. For those that aren’t directly invited but worthy of consideration, there are also regional qualifier invites, where invited teams from several regions fight for a spot at the event. Within those are also the open invites in which any team - yes, even you and your recent MOBA converts - may participate for a chance at a spot in the regional qualifiers. Open qualifier teams have certainly gotten far: Peruvian team Unknown.Xiu was present at 2015’s fall Frankfurt Major, and some teams, suffering from shuffle deadlines, have had to fight back to the top - specifically for TI6.  

In part one of this primer, we'll discuss about two of these regions: China and Southeast Asia. Each of these Eastern areas are hotspots for Dota 2 competition, with a large number of in-houses in the Chinese community and a fierce, dedicated circuit of Filipinos, Malaysians, Singaporeans, and more fighting across the isles.

Much will be settled after StarSeries Season 3 this upcoming weekend, where many of these teams will fight it out. The Dota Asian Championships’ recently-finished qualifying rounds may be an indicator for who’s strong at the moment, as only four teams were actually invited, and the rest needed to fight in similar regional qualifiers. Valve is surely keeping their eyes on these results as open and regional qualifiers draw near.

In this first part of two previews, we’ll peek at who in the East to look out for during the Kiev Major’s invite process.  

China

As always, the Chinese Dota 2 scene remains highly competitive. The most recent international showing was at ESL Genting, where Newbee took out TI6 champions Wings. The latter was also knocked out fairly early in the Boston Major, and so Valve may not be keen to give them a direct invite. Meanwhile, Newbee has been giving a strong showing in the scene, and so they may be under consideration. If not Newbee, then perhaps IG.Vitality will have a shot: the team qualified for SL and will show their chops this weekend. 

Also strong in the running at SL is the VG.J team, endorsed by honorary captain Jeremy Lin, which also qualified for DAC and is participating in Starladder this weekend.

IG’s primary team may certainly be under consideration as well, as they won the second Chinese spot in the DAC. While their tournament results aren’t spectacular, their appearances are fairly consistent, and it would only be fair to hand an invite.

Many other teams in the Chinese scene have faced roster swaps and mild performances, including Boston Major teams LGD.Fy and their main LGD squad, and haven’t shown up in international settings. Still, Valve likely has at least once source keeping their eye on the in-house and Chinese circuits, and so the slots will certainly be filled with a tightly-packed open qualifier round.

Southeast Asia

A label of “underdog” isn’t quite fitting for teams of SEA, but they’re often treated as such. With a bad reputation from public game behavior and connectivity issues, much of the community underestimates the power of this region, despite regularly consistent performances in official and/or major international tournaments.

For instance, Malaysian Warriors Gaming Unity took a 5th-8th place finish in Boston and have showed consistent top results in a number of tier 2 tournaments. However, their local rivals Faceless have been a constant presence in major tournaments, placing among the top international teams, especially impressive for their short existence. The two teams will likely be top contestants for a direct invite, and the other will certainly put up a fight in regionals.

After two major fall shuffles, Execration, hailing from fan-packed Philippines, seems to be doing well after recently curing three out of their five TI squad members. Showing consistent strength, TNC most recently won WESG and qualified for the upcoming SL tournament, and so they’ll more likely than not fight for a Kiev spot too.

Execration had been a regional powerhouse and received a direct invite to Boston, though they were tragically unable to participate due to visa issues. However, they won’t be appearing in Starladder nor DAC, and thus they won’t be able to show their strength. There’s a good chance Valve will give them another chance through the regional qualifiers, given their stellar reputation and massive Filipino fan base. 

Also from the Philippines is esports organization Mineski, which has two squads, GG and X. Mineski.GG has had consistent top results in regional tournaments, and the latter has certainly been training. If Valve had to choose between the two, GG would certainly make the cut, though there may be room for both. 

Normally, at least one iteration of Korean org MVP is given an invite, considering the respect shown for the country’s esports history and the consistent showing of the org at Valve events. However, their more renown Dota 2 team, MVP.Phoenix, split after Boston, and MVP.Hot6 hasn’t been given a chance to shine yet. Depending on whether Valve has their eye on other regional teams, they may have to fight through open qualifiers, but there’s no doubt that there’s potential in this team, given the mix of experience present.

The region’s most famous team, Fnatic, has had some rocky times lately. After failing to qualify for Boston, which was captured in Valve’s True Sight documentary, captain Mushi left, as did many of their other members. It’s unknown if the org will pick up another group before at least the open qualifiers, but it leaves fans both local and international shaken for now. 

Fortunately for Valve and regional fans, SEA has no shortage of teams aiming for the win. In other words, even if any of the above teams don’t make it, there are squads such as Geek Fam, Clutch Gamers and HappyFeet with extremely limited experience but solid potential to keep an eye on. If nothing else, these open qualifiers will certainly be entertaining. 

The DreamHack Masters CS:GO tournament in Las Vegas came to an exciting conclusion last weekend, which saw Virtus.pro defeat SK Gaming 2-1 in a nail-biting final. League of Legends’ LCS continues to dominate the headlines, but there’s plenty of action to be had elsewhere. There’s drama from the Dota 2: StarLadder i-League to the Hearthstone: Asia-Pacific Winter Playoffs. We even have the Smite SPL to look forward to. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

In week five of the EU LCS we saw the leaders of both group A and B, G2 Esports and Unicorns of Love face off against each other. G2 took both games after they starved UoL of objectives and gold in the first game, while the second game was won thanks to Zven’s quadra kill in the mid-lane. Meanwhile, Splyce has improved tremendously and Kobbe’s Jhin managed to secure the team’s victory against Fnatic going 8/1/9. The competition is heating up and Misfits are still looking to rival G2 for first place. This week’s schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

Team SoloMid have had another great week and their early game has improved considerably since the start of the LCS. In the third game in their series against Cloud9, Bjergsen’s Zed and Hauntzer’s Shen showed excellent control and synergy, which gave TSM an early advantage that allowed them to apply pressure all over the map. FlyQuest suffered an unexpected defeat against Dignitas when Hai picked Jarvan mid, while Team Liquid followed their same pattern of winning one game and losing the next two. Team Liquid may have been defeated by Counter Logic gaming, but they still have a chance to show improvements as we head into week six. The full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

Dota 2: StarLadder i-League Season 3

The Dota 2 StarLadder i-League is kicking off this weekend and only the best teams will advance to the playoffs. The finals of the upper part of group А's bracket, OG faced off against Team Secret. In the first game both teams were extremely close but, OG began to snowball a lead and won more team fights. The second round of the series followed a similar pattern and OG took complete control once again. You can check out the full schedule here, while the stream can be watched over on Twitch.

Hearthstone: 2017 HCT Asia-Pacific Winter Playoffs

Last weekend the Americas branch of the Hearthstone Championship determined which four players (DrJikininki, DocPwn, Tarei and Fr0zen) will be competing at the Hearthstone Winter Championship in the Bahamas. This weekend we’ll see which players have what it takes to represent Asia and be crowned the HCT Asia-Pacific Winter Champion. The matches kick off today at 18:00 PST / 03:00 CET, and continue the same time Sunday. You can find the weekend’s schedule and official stream here.

Smite: SPL 2017

The second week of the SPL will continue this Saturday where Elevate and NRG eSports will clash. Obey Alliance delivered a shocking blow to NRG when they beat them 2-0, but NRG will be hoping to put this loss behind them and beat Elevate this weekend. The last time NRG lost a set was to Paradigm at the Super Regionals in 2015, so the upcoming clash will certainly be interesting and could go either way. Make sure you tune into action at 10:00 PST / 19:00 CET. You can find the weekend’s schedule and official stream here.

The League of Legends LCS continues to dominate the headlines at the moment, but there are actually a fair few other events taking place this weekend. There’s plenty of action from the CS:GO: DreamHack Masters to the Heroes of the Storm: Global Championship. We even have the Hearthstone Winter Playoffs to look forward to. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

H2K Gaming bounced back from their tough loss against G2 by beating Team ROCCAT, while G2 Esports earned its sixth straight series win after sweeping Origen 2-0. The Giants and ROCCAT are still the underdogs of the tournament, but both teams are determined to improve their scores this weekend where they’ll face H2K and Splyce. The competition’s looking extremely fierce and we can expect to see some exciting games as we go into week five. This week’s schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

Echo Fox had another fantastic week as jungler Akaadian snowballed his team with an early advantage that allowed him to apply pressure all other the map. Team Dignitas even managed to secure their second win when they defeated in EnVy 2-0. Meanwhile, Team Liquid narrowly lost their match against Cloud9, but Piglet and Reignover showed great potential with their jungle and AD carry plays. The full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

CS:GO: DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017

Following the success of the first ever DreamHack Masters in Malmö, DreamHack has taken their explosive CS:GO tournament to Las Vegas. The World’s best CS:GO teams have been busy battling it out at the iconic MGM Grand and Garden Arena for their chance to win the $450,000 prize pool. The competition is set to be fierce and we will find out whether anyone has what it takes to beat the current titleholders Ninjas in Pyjamas. The full schedule can be found here, while the stream can be found by heading over to Twitch.

Hearthstone: 2017 HCT Americas Winter Playoffs

Last weekend the European branch of the Hearthstone Championship Tour kicked off and determined which four players (Pavel, Neirea, GreenSheep, and ShtanUdachi) would be competing at the Hearthstone Winter Championship in the Bahamas, as well as crowning Pavel the HCT EU Winter Champion. This weekend we’ll see which players have what it takes to represent the Americas and be crowned the HCT Americas Winter Champion. The matches kick off on Saturday at 08:00 PST / 17:00 CET, and continue Sunday at 09:00 PST / 18:00 CET. You can find the weekend’s schedule and official stream here.

Heroes of the Storm: Global ChampionshipSeven teams have booked their ticket to the Western Clash at IEM Katowice. Tempo Storm, Team 8, and Gale Force eSports from North America made the cut during week four of play. Misfits secured their spot after defeating Team expert 3-0, while fellow European teams Fnatic and Team Dignitas will also be joining them. Both NA and EU schedules can be found here, while the stream can be viewed by heading over to Twitch.