The confetti's been broomed off, the fancy as hell digital stage's dismantled, and the gargantuan silver-gold-and-glass Summoner's Cup has been stowed away for another year. No doubt, by now, the victory hangovers have finally passed for SKT T1's merry band, along with that of their and KOO Tigers' fans back home.

But they won't get any chance to rest. The preseason hijinks won't be having with any of it. Almost immediately after the world champions were crowned, the memory of it all was banished in favor of the excitement, drama and anguish of the post-Worlds roster swaps. North America, especially, is in an unending uproar as Peter "Doublelift" Peng found himself punted from the Counter Logic Gaming house... and onto the doorsteps of archrivals Team Solomid.

In fact, opportunities for AD carries have been extensive in just the last week. Controversial Grecian god of bot lane FORG1VEN's hinted at a return to the competitive limelights, Copenhagen Wolves' anticipated disassembly began with Freeze's declaration of free agent status, and CLG was spotted trying out former TSM player Wildturtle, just to rub more salt into their fans' emotional wounds. The seeming focus on bot lane talent isn't unexpected, given that the preseason Public Beta Environment tests are teasing a major change and general upgrade to the bot lane.

The next competitive season is going to be very interesting. But the real question is: will it be better than Season 5? There were a number of difficulties and disappointments in the last year (or years) that need to be addressed—and sooner rather than later. As Right and Proper as it is for South Korea's Faker to reclaim his throne, the overall dismal performance of China and North America (not to mention the scarily uncertain prospects of Taiwan's competitive future) has highlighted major weaknesses in the League of Legends competitive structure, and the responsibility for addressing them doesn't just lie with Riot. With rumors swirling of big names and even bigger wallets cashing in on the esports phenomena (are the Sacramento Kings REALLY bidding for an LCS spot?!), it's time to do a little growing up. Here's what I'd like to see in the next few months:

1. Better LCS/Challenger Integration

South Korea didn't just survive the Great Chinese Exodus of 2014—they came out of it somehow even more dominant than before. But it's important to note what their infrastructure implies. It isn't the ability to hire the very best talents in a region, jam their bank accounts full, and ensconce them in team mansions until it's time to play. When SKT T1 K won Worlds 2013, it was off the back of a roster of rookies and unpolished veterans. When they won this year, it was with a majority roster of sister team SKT T1 S players, who were something of a joke in seasons prior. The organization won't just go down as the single most successful in League history thus far—they'll also be known as the single best talent culivators the scene has ever seen.

The western scene does not, as yet, have a comparable program. If anything, they're cannibalistic—LCS teams have a bad habit of gutting Challenger teams of already-proven cream-of-the-crop players whenever they need to fill a role, and then discard them when it turns out that a lack of LCS experience means that the best Challenger players'll have a hard time keeping up. That not only disincentives Challenger play (creating solo queue conditions that are of questionable utility at best), but also means that teams outside of those already entrenched have a half-life measured in three-month splits. And even the entrenched should be wary—CLG's total implosion despite their most successful year to date is already threatening their bottom line as former Doublelift fans renounce their loyalty and cancel plans for purchasing branded gear.

It should be on the teams, not Riot, to develop an internal trainee program—if nothing else, then solely as an act of self-defense against entropy, time, and the constant background threat of carpal tunneling. Ensuring that the team will always have a wellspring of talent to draw from, even if you have to train them yourselves, isn't just good for the team. It's good for the entire region to encourage solo queue players to do their damnest to attract a scout. And if the KOO Tigers can do it without sponsors, if non-LMS, LPL or LCK players don't particularly expect to be paid well in the first place to be on a trainee team, that leaves even the poorest LCS team very little excuse.

2. Expanded International Program

Worlds needs more seeds. Brazil's been showing serious moves, getting more and more threatening to the premier regions with every year. Turkey's soccer teams are buying up slots for their circuits and paying esports analysts surprisingly great salaries to make them competitive. And Japan... if Riot were to sell Japanese voice packs internationally, the otaku culture in the west'll fund the entirety of the LJL for years to come, frankly, much less aiding Japan's voice actors and actresses with their famously dismal situation with compensation.

And it's just plain necessary, if they want these developing markets to stay developing. SEA and Taiwan is a brilliant case study for this. Within the span of a single season, the Taiwanese teams' separation from the Southeast Asian market led to their best-ever competitive performance... while SEA struggles to stay ahead of less-experienced teams in Oceania and Turkey, despite years of competitive experience to their advantage.

Of course, it would help a lot—a LOT—if Riot included preferential assistance there. Taiwan's going to struggle mightily in 2016 to hang onto their players, now that the LPL learned that there's serious heavyhitters just off their coast that doesn't have Korea's communicative issues on Mandarin soil. The limited endemic sponsorships in the LMS region helps nobody's cause, and the local economic and cultural support for esports in Brazil and Thailand is "limited" to put it politely. Now that esports in general has the attention and consideration of decidedly non-endemic, international-scale sponsors, some due consideration should be given to the bootstrapping and nurturing program of these younger circuits.

3. Improved Player Protection

Whoo boy. The last year's been interesting. Just recently, Hong Kong Esports owner Derek Cheung was found guilty by Riot's Taiwanese representatives of pressuring his team to deliberately lose games for preferential seeding—a situation that cost his team a seeming slap of the wrist in the form of $6,000 (200,000 Taiwanese dollars). To be fair, though, there's strong implications that his players rebelled—they won a game off the set anyhow, which either means they were truly uncomfortable with the idea or Midnight Sun Esports has some soul-searching to do. And, frankly, that's nothing compared to what Meet Your Makers threatened to do with a former player's mother! And then there's the delayed payments that cost Immunity Esports' future participation in all League of Legends events, the accusation of poaching between LCS and Challenger teams, players finding out that they got kicked by reading a Reddit post instead of being told about it face-to-face... the list goes on.

Esports drama is a given—it's part of what makes it so alluring—but there's a point where it's just downright unprofessional and harmful. The lack of transparency over contracts and compensation doesn't help either—team owners of even the best-funded organizations get defensively clammy when asked for details, and players hinder themselves by refusing to rock the boat and disclose, giving everybody (including themselves) only the muddiest idea of what's fair, proper, and market-average.

It's about time that esports agents stepped into the field. Shady and borderline business practices need to be stopped before they have a chance to start at all, and having professionals negotiate on behalf of the players' interests will at least mitigate the most harmful of these practices.

Of course, the players themselves need to recognize that they simply don't have the business acumen and expertise to do the negotiations alone, or to recognize when they're getting contractually screwed. Whether enough of them realize this to make a dent in the status quo is almost another problem unto itself.

4. A Fancier Worlds

Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the pomp and ceremony this year. Sure, following up on 2014's act was going to be hard: a full traditional Korean orchestra with Imagine Dragons as headliners at the gargantuan Sangam Stadium was pretty much pulling out all the stops at once. This year we got... a music video, a digital stage, and a closing ceremony that was mostly interviews.

Mind you, it was a really nice stage. But the circumspect nature of this year's ceremony did not go without notice. And it raises questions about the prestige of the event. While topping itself every year is hardly a sustainable endeavor, 2015 set a disappointing baseline—we're here to celebrate the accomplishments of teams that struggled through a month of top-of-the-line international play, so the least you could do is make them feel like heroes for doing so.

And the least you can do is increase the payouts for them too. The prize pool's remained unchanged for three years now, and at the very least it's time to adjust it for inflation. But coupled with the greater market investments in esports, the accelerated growth of competitor platforms, and the development of streaming culture, and the $1 million afforded to the world champion team feels kind of... piddly.

From a marketing standpoint, it casts the greatest League of Legends event of the year in a less serious light compared to DOTA 2 or CS:GO's majors, whose payouts are reaching proportions actively comparable to more conventional competitions. It also makes top-level talents and organizations wondering whether they might not gain more from hitching onto the prestige of such programs. And that is a dangerous train of thought to go unaddressed.

5. REPLAYS

For goodness sake. Amsterdam and Chicago servers are both activated. Turn on replays already! We've waited literal years for it! Five long years! League analysts are driven half-made by the ramshackle tools they're using in its stead—give them a break already! Replays in 2016 or bust!

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

It was the result that everyone expected. SK Telecom T1 have won the League of Legends World Championships for a second time. The only surprise was that they didn t go undefeated throughout the tournament. KOO Tigers managed to take a game off them in the grand final, but in the end SKT overwhelmed their Korean brethren to emerge victorious.

Let s take a look back at some of the best moments from the finals. Prepare to see a lot of SKT s mid laner Faker. He is the best player in the world, after all.

The cavalry arrives: SKT v KOO Game 1

Watch the entire game here.

KOO played fairly well during the grand finals, particularly in the early game. In game one they had a slim lead after about 10 minutes, and they must ve thought they d be able to extend it here in the bot lane.

It looked like SKT had been caught out, and Kuro teleported down to help secure the kills against the two apparently defenseless SKT bot laners. However, within seconds, the entire SKT team showed up to defend their comrades, and SKT got three kills that would later help them secure the game.

Faker baits out two ultimates: SKT v KOO Game One

Watch the entire game here.

Towards the end of game one, SKT had a pretty commanding lead of about 11k gold. They had a firm grasp on the game, but Faker wasn t going to get complacent.

It looked as though KOO s Smeb and PraY had timed their ultimates well. Riven s Wind Slash would take Faker low, and PraY s Super Mega Death Rocket would finish him off. However, Faker uses Zhonya s Hourglass (an item that grants you a few moments of complete protection) to perfection and avoids both abilities. SKT get the kill on Smeb just to rub salt in the wound.

A moment of madness: SKT v KOO Game Two

Watch the entire game here.

SKT s early game troubles continued in game two. For a team that s usually so calm and collected, and one that never seems to make the wrong call, this moment of madness cost them two kills.

Just minutes into the game, SKT caught out a couple of Tigers in KOO s jungle, but it looked like they had got out to safety. For Bengi and MaRin though, the red mist descended and they each dove under KOO s second tier turret. They did get a kill, but they both ended up losing their life for it.

Bengi walks into trouble: SKT v KOO Game Two

Watch the entire game here.

Both Bengi and MaRin did a lot of dying in game two, and it was actually a surprise that SKT got the victory in the end. Just moments after that risky dive above, both of them were in trouble again in the bot lane.

Three KOO Tigers dove MaRin and got the kill. Bengi foolishly decided to take on all three of them and simply walked up to his tower, hoping it would protect him. It definitely didn t.

Faker s had enough: SKT v KOO Game Two

Watch the entire game here.

When your team is losing their heads around you, sometimes you just need to take matters into your own hands. KOO was setting up yet another dive in the bot lane, but Faker somehow managed to stop it from halfway across the map.

As we ve seen him do multiple times throughout the tournament, Faker took on his opponent in the mid lane one-on-one and came out on top. This pressure caused KOO to abandon their dive in the bot lane, and allowed SKT to slowly come back into the game.

KOO gets on their way with a delayed ace: SKT v KOO Game Three

Watch the entire game here.

After two defeats, everyone was thinking KOO would roll over and allow SKT to take the championship undefeated. However, they weren t giving up that easy, and came out of the blocks at full pace yet again in game three.

KOO outplayed SKT in their own jungle, got a couple of kills, and then SKT just seemed to walk to their demise like lambs to the slaughter. All five members of SKT went down, and if it weren t for the low death timers at the start of the game, this would ve been an ace five minutes in.

Smeb takes on two players and the tower: SKT v KOO Game Three

Watch the entire game here.

KOO were playing well in game three, and it seemed like they were doing it without their star top laner Smeb. However, he hadn t been sitting idle all game. He had been farming up, and suddenly showed his presence 35 minutes into the game.

Smeb, who has played Fiora masterfully throughout the entire tournament, took on MaRin and Bengi, as well as the inhibitor turret, and took them all down while SKT was knocking on the door of KOO s base.

MaRin faces his toughest test yet: SKT v KOO Game Four

Watch the entire game here.

SKT s top laner was lined up against one of the best players of the tournament in KOO s Smeb, but his most nervous moment came at the start of game four when there weren t even any Tigers around.

There was a Gromp though, and although he s just a neutral minion who lives in the jungle, he packs quite a punch at level one. MaRin managed to take down this scary adversary, but he was only about half a second away from having egg all over his face.

#ThingsFakerDoes: SKT v KOO Game Four

Watch the entire game here.

Hashtags about Things Faker Does or Just Faker Things have been around for ages now, and each time we see him play he reminds us why.

All tournament long he has picked Ryze (the only player to do so), and not a single player had an answer to it. The sad thing for his opponents is that if they had banned Ryze, then he probably would've had something equally as deadly up his sleeve. SKT took a hold of game four and never let go, and how well he plays Ryze in this clip is just another example of things Faker does.

Faker rolls over the competition: Opening Ceremony

With his own face emblazoned across the LED stage below him, Faker took a run up and did a forward roll before taking his place alongside his SKT teammates. We re used to him rolling over his opponents, but we didn t think we d see it happen in real life.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The players of SK Telecom T1 won $1 million this weekend and can now call themselves the best League of Legends players in the world. Most people called them that already, but having won the League of Legends World Championships grand finals this weekend in Berlin, they now have the official title. They can also boast of being the only team to win the tournament twice.

However, the players haven t really thought about what they re going to do with the money yet. In fact it seems that their priority right now is to go back home after a month spent travelling to cities around Europe and playing against the best teams in the world.

It s been a month since we left Korea, and obviously I m missing home. I just really want to go back home and have some delicious Korean food, said SKT s support player Lee Wolf Jae-wan in the press conference after the final. We were told that the players favourite place for food on the trip so far was in Berlin, but that might be down to the Korean restaurant in close proximity to their hotel.

As for the prize money, I haven t thought about it yet, but I hope I can put as much of it into the bank as possible, said SKT s mid laner Lee Faker Sang-hyeok. The 19 year old has already won Worlds twice, and is widely recognised as the game s best player. He isn t content to rest on his laurels, however. Faker doesn t want a repeat of 2014, when SKT failed to even make it to the World Championships. After I won in 2013 I was not able to make it to Worlds immediately after the following year. That shows how difficult it is to stay at the top, and I will have to put in a lot of effort to stay there this time.

I was a little disappointed that we didn t win the tournament without any defeats at all

SKT s coach Kim kkOma Jung-gun is also keen to keep the effort up and not stumble like last time they won. I don t know how the upcoming games are going to turn out, but because we ve had such intense practice time during Worlds, I think we can go back to Korea and do very well he said.

A lot of work has gone into this victory. Ever since we came to Europe we ve only been in practice rooms and at the venues so we don t really know what the difference between Europe and Korea is, joked SKT s ad carry Bae Bang Jun-sik. Their top laner Jang MaRin Gyeong-Hwan added that for a lot of us, it was our first time in Europe. We did get some time to travel around each of the cities and it was an awesome experience. Personally I think the enthusiasm the fans have in Europe is amazing, and much higher than in other regions around the world.

SKT T1 only lost a single game in the entire tournament, and that loss came in the final against the KOO Tigers. The rest of their games were won with apparent ease. Despite their overwhelming success, the tarnished undefeated run did sting a little for the players. I feel really happy that SKT has won Worlds twice, said Marin. But I was a little disappointed that we didn t win the tournament without any defeats at all.

SKT were also keen to point out their troubles in the game that they did lose, and even in ones where it seemed like they were largely on top. I think KOO Tigers were able to take advantage of our mistakes in the early game, said MaRin. In the first game they tried too hard, and that s why they failed. Other than that they got ahead because we made mistakes.

The two teams in the final, SK Telecom T1 and KOO Tigers, were both from South Korea. European teams had a surprisingly good showing at Worlds this year, but ultimately Korea proved to be the dominant region, just like it has done for the past few years. What did the players think about the apparent gap in quality? I feel really happy to have proven that Korea is where e-sports started, said Bang. My coach talked to one of Riot s analysts Krepo [Mitch Voorspoels] and asked him why the European teams are doing better at this tournament. He said that Fnatic has an awesome coach, and Origen s players try really hard. So I think if other players and coaches put as much effort in as they do the other regions will do better.

It s going to be really hard to predict who will win in the future

Fnatic, Cloud 9, and other western teams were actually really good in our practice games against them, said Faker. If I had to pick one team in the tournament that I was impressed by it would be Fnatic. MaRin added that even though Korea won Worlds this time round, Europe has Fnatic, China has EDG, and all the Taiwanese teams are really good as well, so it s going to be really hard to predict who will win in the future.

Every year, the winning team of Worlds has skins made for their most popular champions that they played during the tournament. The all important question was, which champion, and what sort of skin would the players desire? I think Rumble and Fiora already have really good skins, so I would pick Renekton, said MaRin. As for SKT s jungler Bae Bengi Seong-ung, he would choose Elise. Right now there s only one real skin for Elise that I could use, so I wish there was more variety for her.

Much has been made about Faker s broccoli hair style at this year s Worlds, even to the point where he promised to eat one on stage if they won the tournament ( he did). I hope a bald champion will be made to have broccoli hair like myself he said.

Another non-game related talking point the forward roll Faker pulled out during the opening ceremony. I was really embarrassed by that, but I hope you liked it, he said. The young League of Legends master hasn t announced any plans yet about what he ll do if SKT win Worlds for a third time next year—but if the team play as well in 2016 as they have done in Europe over the past month, I m sure we ll find out soon enough.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

On October 1st, sixteen teams arrived in Paris, France for the League of Legends World Championship, grinding their way through a two week group stage for the honors of advancing into the playoff brackets. The talents were international, spread among three teams for each of Korea, China, Europe and North America, two teams from Taiwan, and a representative each from Brazil and Thailand.

Now, only two remain.

The story so far

This year's World Championship has been dramatic. In the wake of 2014's mass exodus of Korean pros, including the entirety of last year's world champions and their sister team (along with their coaching staff, analysts, and six or seven dozen of their peers) the playing field was expected to have finally been leveled—at least for China. The LPL teams had tenaciously clung onto the silver medal for two straight years, falling short against their Korean rivals time and again at every international event since 2013. The European and American teams, meanwhile, were desperately trying to figure out a way to break through the Eastern stranglehold on tournament titles—a feat they've failed to achieve since Russia's legendary Moscow 5 was disbanded and reformed as the thus far ill- fated Gambit Gaming.

This year, a breakthrough seemed imminent. China's Edward Gaming dominated not just the domestic circuit, but clinched a long sought victory over SKT T1 during the Mid -Season Invitational in Tallahassee, Florida. America's darlings Team SoloMid took gold at IEM Katowice further back in March, setting the stage for a western revival.

Then, after a triumphant week one, North America fell apart so badly that all three teams failed to make playoffs. China was drawn and quartered, with only Edward Gaming surviving group stages to lose 0- 3 to Fnatic. Europe survived the quarterfinals—and was swallowed whole in a collective 0- 6 semifinals defeat. A tiger stalks a proud dragon for the world title, and South Korea is assured its third world championship title in a row.

The grand finalists

KOO Tigers

The KOO Tigers' Worlds story has been a microcosm of their organization's year- long history. They were originally rejects of NaJin em Fire—an organization that's consistently made it to Worlds but failed to accomplish anything particularly interesting. The players that left for the Tigers weren't considered the cream of the crop even within their own team, but nonetheless became one of the vanishingly few non KeSPA teams to not only make it into OnGameNet Champions but even find success.

Matching their losses to the Taiwanese Flash Wolves, they were also the first Korean team in years to lose an international tournament. But from that position of weakness, they've clawed and scrabbled their way back to relevance. Though they fell in the Korean summer playoffs against KT Rolster, they got their revenge at Worlds with a decisive 3 -1 victory to face off against European superstars Fnatic. Fnatic proved no issue at all against a team that's strategically grown by leaps and bounds over the course of the month—Huni was no match for Smeb's terrifying Riven, Fiora and Hecarim.

While their teamplay has been close to immaculate, especially against Fnatic, the KOO Tigers never did manage to put together a game plan versus this current incarnation of SKT T1 over the course of the year. Their best bet might be to suppress top laner MaRin entirely—but even AHQ's Ziv, despite a stellar individual performance, hasn't figured out how to do that with any real success.

SKT T1

In the Starcraft scene, the term "bonjwa" is an honorary title given to a player whose dominance over the scene extends across extensive tournament titles and multiple years.

Faker may be the first League of Legends player to qualify for such an esteem—though 2014 was a rough year for the SKT T1 organization overall, as the Samsung twins of Blue and White overtook them in the domestic circuit, Faker himself was still considered the ace of aces. Often, he was the sole reason for SKT's wins, or at least a factor in why their losses weren't quite so crushing. But that slip in fortune proved temporary—a post -reverie drunken stumble after the acclaim afforded to them after winning the 2013 title and securing an incredible perfect season in the world's most competitive regional circuit.

He and jungler Bengi are back, looking to be the only players in League of Legend's five -year competitive history to win a second world title. They are favored by every metric. This may be the first time that a world champion has taken the title without dropping a single game. Until European team Origen managed to snag an opportunity, SKT T1 have never dropped more than the three outer turrets in any Worlds match. And the KOO Tigers are a known element to them.

But hubris has taken them down before. Wolf is sometimes an  intemperate player, occasionally wandering too far when roaming for support. Bengi's played almost exclusively tanky Sightstone junglers, and hasn't yet met a player that can punish his defense-oriented play. And Faker's been happy to let his team take the spotlight this year, playing scaling champions like Ryze instead of drawing from his flashier pool of early- game assassins.

Granted, Faker's been killing everybody else's flashier early game assassins with Ryze in straight  up one on- one duels. All talks about SKT's weaknesses are only relative. At their weakest, they are still the undisputed strongest team in the world. At his most vulnerable, Faker is still Faker.

The stage is set in Berlin, Germany. On October 31st, All Hallows' Eve, Korea is about to show the world how this game's supposed to be played.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Don t be scared, it s just esports! Ok, no, wait, there is quite a lot of it, maybe you should be mildly concerned. This Halloween weekend is stuffed fuller than a trick or treater s cheap plastic candy basket with professional gaming action. Unlike a Jack O Lantern full of off-brand Mars bars, this week s matches are guaranteed to get you hyped without the associated sugar crash afterwards. It is unknown which of these two options is better for your teeth, though. It s the season finale of League of Legends and Counter-Strike s yearly dramas, as well as some prep work for Blizzard s festival of electronic sport next week. There is literally something for everyone, so get a pail of candied corn in and celebrate death (or whatever Halloween is about) with some fine esportsmanship.

League of Legends Worlds 2015 Finals

Worlds comes to a creepy close this All Hallows Eve, as finalists SK Telecom T1 take on their surprise contenders KOO Tigers in Berlin. Though not the all-Europe final many were hoping for after the elimination of both Fnatic and Origen in last week s semifinal bouts, this still promises to be a thrilling conclusion to the LoL year. KOO, the Korean rejects , will be looking to prove their fellow countrymen wrong to pass over them when putting together this year s rosters. SKT, however, fill the role of the infallible professionals with Faker the final raid boss before KOO can lift the Summoner s Cup. It all ends Saturday at 04:00 PDT / 11:00 GMT and you can catch it on the official Riot Games Twitch or Azubu.

Counter-Strike: DreamHack Cluj-Napoca

Throughout this weekend, the world s best CS:GO teams will be fighting their way through the final Major of the year, and the last chance to bag glory in 2015. Things are already looking a bit shaken up for this one as Luminosity Gaming have gotten out of their group and into the playoffs ahead of the year s reigning champs, Fnatic. The ESL Cologne winners now have one more match on Friday 02:00 PDT/09:00 GMT against the massively improved US Cloud9 side to determine if they continue on with a chance to defend their title. After that, the quarters play out on Saturday, starting 02:00 PDT/09:00 GMT and the last at 11:00 PDT/18:00 GMT. Then Sunday concludes with the semis from 02:00 PST/10:00 GMT and the final at 09:00 PST/17:00 GMT, all streamed via DreamHack s Twitch channel.

Dota 2: Nanyang Championship 2015

The conclusion of this month s Nanyang Championship plays out over Friday and Sunday this weekend, with Team Secret already overcoming a shaky start to the new season and finding themselves in the final. Friday s losers bracket playoffs will decide who faces them in that final (Sunday 01:00 PST/09:00 GMT—watch that daylight savings change, America) and Vici Gaming, Team Liquid and EHOME are all still in the running to do so. You can catch all of those on the BTS twitch.

Hearthstone World Championships group stages

BlizzCon proper isn t until next weekend, but there are quite a few matches to get out of the way before those grand finals. For Hearthstone, the groups have already begun and will continue until Saturday as players bid to secure their spot on stage for the quarterfinals on November 6. Some standout matches include ThijsNL vs Kno (Friday 09:00 PDT/16:00 GMT), the Japanese contender who finds himself second in Group A after edging out JAB 3-2 in his first match. The top two battles continue with Kranich vs Zoro at 10:00 PDT/17:00GMT and Ostkaka and Hotform face off just after at 11:00 PDT/18:00 GMT. Chinese and Taiwanese competitors Zihao and Pinpingho round out the battle for the top of their groups at 12:00 PDT/19:00 GMT. You can catch all matches on Friday and Saturday on Blizzard s official stream.

StarCraft: WCS Global Finals 2015

Also on the BlizzCon prep list is the StarCraft Round of 16. These start on Sunday, with the top-vs-bottom matchup of herO vs FanTaSy (10:00 PST/18:00 GMT) and continue down the WCS rankings, pitting the top players against their inverse rank qualifiers every 90 minutes or so. This leaves Europe s wonderchild, and the last remaining non-Korean competitor in the competition, Lilbow playing against last year s champion Life at 14:30 PST/22:30 GMT. Tune in then to lend him your energy by pasting those same four BibleThump emoticons over and over in Twitch chat on the official stream.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Team Dignitas announced in September that, with both its North American and European League of Legends squads qualifying for the League Championship Series, it would divest itself of one of them as required by LCS rules. Today it revealed that it will retain its North American team, and that the European squad will compete next year under the Follow eSports banner.

"I am happy to have found who I feel is a great buyer for our EU LCS slot," Team Dignitas Managing Director Michael "Odee" O'Dell said in a statement. "Follow eSports have very similar thoughts on eSports to us and we are happy that they will look after our ex-players."

The Team Dignitas EU lineup will remain largely intact in the move to Follow eSports, with Martin "Wunderwear" Hansen, Chres "Sencux" Larsen, Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup, and Nicolai "Nisbeth" Nisbeth all remaining on the roster. A new Jungler will be announced at a later date, and the team will also begin the search for a new head coach and lead analyst in the near future.

"Our move into the European LCS is something that has everyone at Fe totally amped up," Follow eSports co-founder Marty Strenczewilk said. "The professionalism and excitement that the fans, organizers and players bring to the LCS are almost unmatched across any current eSports league. We re really happy to have been able to work so well with Odee and Team Dignitas to make this team a reality for us and cannot wait to get started with the new team."

The terms of the acquisition haven't been revealed but sources told the Daily Dot that the final bid was "upwards of $1 million," well beyond the $500,000 offers that were reported in September.

Thanks, @ReDeYe.

Sat on a Brewster's Millions-style cash pile and no idea how to blow it fast? Maybe it's time to think about buying an esports team—like Team Impulse, for instance, which is now up for sale, along with its spot in the 2016 League of Legends Championship Series.

Team Impulse COO Alex Gu told GameSpot that thoughts of a sale first came up in September, but the decision wasn't made until last week. It follows a rough 2015 LCS season in which Team Impulse failed to qualify for the World Championships, finishing fourth at the LCS Summer Playoffs and falling to Cloud9 in the Regional Qualifier. The asking price isn't public, but the team hopes to get a deal done quickly so the new ownership can get things lined up—including the roster—in advance of the 2016 season.

"We want to shift the ownership from the team to a local investor ideally," a Team Impulse rep said in an email sent to Kotaku confirming the sale. "We are currently performing due diligence and having some conversations. We hope to announce a successful strategic transaction soon."

The rep said that more than 50 people have already "reached out," but if you're feeling deep-pocketed and want to take your own run at the bigs, you can express your interest via the contact link at teamimpulse.gg.

The two semi finals for the League of Legends World Championships took place in Brussels this weekend. One went as expected, the other was... more of an upset. Regardless, we now know who will be taking part in the grand final in Berlin in a few days time.

The two Korean teams dashed the hopes of each of the two remaining European teams, with SK Telecom T1 and KOO Tigers both progressing to the final in 3-0 sweeps against Origen and Fnatic. Let s take a look at some of the best moments from those matches.

Hecarim spots an opportunity: FNC v KOO Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Fnatic tried to make a game of it by taking an early lead, but ultimately KOO were too strong for them. The first big fight in game 1 could ve gone either way, but Fnatic came out slightly ahead thanks to some good team fighting.

A big group of KOO Tigers was too tempting for Huni s Hecarim, so he charged in, taking them all very low. It just needed someone to come in and finish the job…

Febiven and Reignover clean up: FNC v KOO Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Thanks to Huni s big ult, it wasn t too difficult for Febiven s LeBlanc and Reignover s Rek sai to come and take out the low health targets.

It was only some smart play from KOO that prevented the ace. Usually the support protects his AD carry, but here PraY s Kalista was the sacrificial lamb, going back towards Fnatic to allow Gorilla s Alistar to escape.

Is he dead? No! Wait… yes!: FNC v KOO Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Alistar is a bull of a champion, literally, and he can be tough to kill sometimes. KOO Tigers support Gorilla was probably surprised to come out of this fight alive. It looked like he was ready to be turned into roast beef under his tower, but he survived on just a sliver of health.

Febiven wasn t too happy about this, so he decided to chase him down. Completely ignoring the tower, Febiven s LeBlanc zeroed in on the horned beast, and finally managed to take him down, blowing her passive in the process. Worth.

Kuro ends the game: FNC v KOO Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Fnatic s early pressure wasn t rewarded in game 1. KOO slowly came back into the game thanks to some big fights that went their way, and by the 42 minute mark they were in a position to win the game.

Kuro s Kassadin was already fed, and this fight in the dragon pit where he got four more kills only put the icing on the cake. KOO were able to finish the game shortly after.

Smeb s smooth moves: FNC v KOO Game 2

Watch the full game here.

KOO Tigers top laner Smeb has undoubtedly been one of the best players of the tournament so far. His masterful Fiora play has turned even the most scary of opponents into mincemeat in the top half of the map.

In this dive by Fnatic, he proved his skill once again with some quick feet and timely use of his abilities. If it weren t for Reignover and Huni knowing they were beaten and getting out while they still could, this could ve turned into a double kill for Smeb.

Could you come with us please, sir?: FNC v KOO Game 2

Watch the full game here.

Sometimes League of Legends just isn t fair. When you re by your tower, you re supposed to feel safe thanks to the large structure looming over you threatening to fire down upon enemies who come close.

KOO s mid laner Kuro will never feel safe under a tower again. After a Headbutt from Alistar, an Impale from Skarner, and an Emperor s Divide from Azir, he ended up being displaced from his tower to halfway across the mid lane.

Smeb takes on all comers: FNC v KOO Game 3

Watch the full game here.

If the earlier play wasn t enough for you, Smeb came back in game 3 against Fnatic on Hecarim. Clearly unhappy with his dominance, Fnatic decided to gank him again. Two didn t work before, so this time they brought three.

Smeb wasn t having any of it, though. He boldly charged into the lot of them, taking out Huni s Riven with a few swings of his scythe, and chasing the other two out of his lane with backup arriving late from the river.

Kennen s Great Escape: SKT v Origen Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Kennen has always been a slippery customer, but no one thought Soaz would be able to escape from this gank in game 1 of Origen s match against SKT.

After dodging a couple of skill shots and getting the stun off on Marin, Soaz made for the bushes, but he was going the wrong way. After running out of greenery to escape through, Soaz quickly began to channel his teleport. The two chasing SKT members waited a bit too long to check the bush, and Kennen made it out to safety.

The cleanest dragon steal you ll ever see: SKT v Origen Game 1

Watch the full game here.

Dragon is always hotly contested thanks to the permanent buffs it grants your entire team when you kill it. Stealing the kill away from a team that s already attacking it is quite rare, but we see it once in awhile.

Usually, the player that steals the dragon gives up his life to do so. Or, a huge fight ensues that can swing the game one way or another. However in this play, SKT simply walk up to dragon, take it, say thank you very much, and walk off back to mid lane.

Disrespect on three… one… two... : SKT v Origen Game 2

Watch the full game here.

SK Telecom T1 are the best team in the tournament. I don t think anyone would disagree with that, apart from maybe the KOO Tigers, but even they know they re going to have it tough in Berlin at the weekend.

SKT are known for their precise teamplay, and excellent play calls. They took game 2 of their series against Origen pretty easily, so they decided to test out their togetherness. As Origen s nexus fell, every member of SKT simultaneously displayed their logo proudly above their heads. The final awaits them, where they have a good chance of being the only team to ever win the Summoner s Cup twice.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Back-to-back 3-0s was not how the semifinals were supposed to go. Origen's loss to SKT T1 was expected, sure, as Korea's undisputed kings of League have long since proved to be untouchable. Where China's EDG and LGD turned in disappointing performances, and where the North American teams that dazzled so brilliantly in week one were already lost causes before the playoff brackets even started, SKT T1 defied the script of this year's Worlds narrative by playing like gods. Undefeated in the group stage, untouched by Taiwan's AHQ in the quarterfinals—it was considered an accomplishment for Origen to force games close enough that SKT would lose an inner turret, much less come within visual range of the enemy base.

But Fnatic was supposed to do better. Even Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles, of Korea's OGN English broadcast, was expecting them to take at least one game off of the KOO Tigers—and the rest of the analyst's desk was expecting the European hopefuls to win outright. After all, a near-perfect season and brilliant displays of daring had made the current Fnatic squad world-famous for a reason, and they seemed intent on cementing a reputation as the best squad to ever come out of the western hemisphere.

Things looked promising in game one. A fast start and early lead, particularly Huni's explosive rushdowns against a helpless PraY, set a favorable tempo for the team. At one point, they were packing a solid 7,000 gold lead over the Koreans, with Febiven punishing them at every turn. The rookie European midlaner was ripping through health bars like a raptor through a nestful of kittens, chewing up their front line in a matter of seconds. Though rival Kuro was able to mitigate Fnatic's growing lead with a few assassinations himself, the steady progression of lost turrets forced the Tigers farther and farther back into their caves.

Then Smeb woke up and everything dropped off a cliff—almost literally. Riot's LoLesports site helpfully provides a stats page for all the games played, and the point where Fnatic lost is made self-evident by the gold graph. At 30 minutes an abortive fight turned into a triple kill for the Tigers' top lane ace. At 41 minutes, Kuro's late-game Kassadin lobbed off four heads and, with them, all hopes for a Western finals.

The rest of the set was controversial. Questionable picks and a visibly rattled Fnatic made easy prey for the Tigers. Head coach Deilor is now under fire for the decisions that were made, an anguished European community is threatening to boycott a "boring" all-Korean finals (as if any game with Faker, MaRin and Smeb in it can be boring), there's teeth gnashing, hair-pulling, self-pitying wailing... the usual circus when fandom meets disappointment. Which is ridiculous, because even these disastrous results speak of great promise in the next season.

Reality check

First, yes: as it turns out, there's still a gargantuan chasm between what the Korean circuit is capable of and what the rest of the world can do. It was expected that China would be the better region in the first half of 2015—as evidenced by Edward Gaming's victory over SKT T1 back at Tallahassee, Florida during the Mid-Season Invitational. It was also expected that Korea would make up that difference and exceed it by October—as evidenced by, well, the current status quo. Despite losing over 80 top and mid-level players to teams and regions across the globe, along with coaches and analysts, the underlying infrastructure that made those talents possible in the first place was still chugging along just fine. KeSPA was still an organized officiating body, former Brood War players were still in coaching and consultative positions, and their formal recruitment system still made for heavily incentivized solo queue play. They had none of the fundamental communicative and cultural issues found in the Chinese circuit, and the west had no comparable infrastructure.

In fact, this was the first year that any serious effort was taken by the western scene at all to have a similarly authoritative and integrated coaching and analysis structure to support their players. Lost in the devastation following Europe's 0-6 semifinals week is a sense of just how successful it's already been in such a short amount of time. In Origen s case, they underwent a hard career reset through the EU Challenger Series and defied their own expectations by managing to make it to Worlds. Finishing among the top four is a huge bonus. In Fnatic's case, Deilor's guidance had them stomp through the entirety of the European scene undefeated and trounce China's top team Edward Gaming in a breathtakingly clean 3-0.

European fans are quick to forget that their best teams and players didn't even make it out of group stages last year. That, last year, Alliance was responsible for the "Kabum!" meme, losing to a wildcard team with their standings still on the line. It doesn't matter in the slightest that they got collectively 0-6'd by Korea in the semifinals. For them to go from a bottom-two region to inarguably second-strongest in just one year means that they're on the right course.

Catching up

There are still lessons to be learned from that embarrassing region-wide 0-6. Both European teams clearly had a tilt problem after losing game one—neither of their support crews seemed to have developed contingency plans for them, whereas KOO Tigers infamously play better from behind. Their pick-ban phases also weaken as time goes by—an artifact, in my estimate, of the LCS's best-of-one system compared to Korea and China's regular season multi-game sets. Due to the LCS's structure, western coaches simply don't have the opportunity to practice on-the-fly draft tactics and adjustments outside of playoffs, presenting a clear and exploitable weakness during international events. They also don't play nearly as many games as their Eastern counterparts, so western players lack the mental stamina and sustained focus of eastern players.

None of these are insurmountable obstacles—but they do require cooperative willingness from the drama-prone western teams. It should be remembered that the KOO Tigers are not like SKT or KT Rolster. Though they're affiliated with KeSPA now, they started as a wholly indie team comprised of former NaJin rejects. They re even without actual sponsorship, as KOO TV announced fiscal issues just last month, making this top two placement fortunate for all five players. Yet here they are trailing just behind God's Own Team, reaping a glory only known to plucky underdogs made good.

Even if Riot makes the lamentable error of maintaining best-of-one regular season sets, there's no reason why European and North American teams should handicap themselves accordingly. They know how many games China and Korea plays, and what their structures are like. There's nothing stopping them from playing the same number of games, under a similar system, on top of their LCS games. There's nothing stopping them from using their Challenger teams as in-house talent farms, relentlessly practicing specific team compositions and strategies until they've worked out every kink and mapped out every contingency.

There's nothing, in fact, stopping them from courting NoFe and KeSPA representatives in the off-season for consultation services, cheating their way around the experience gap among their managers and coaches. It's just a matter of whether or not they have the will to do so. Given how magnificently Europe recovered from their total defeat in 2014, I don't think the story ends here.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

A brief lull descends over the esports scene this weekend in the calm before next week s storm. The LoL Worlds finals, Dota 2 Frankfurt Major, BlizzCon and CS:GO s last Major of the year at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca all loom close on the horizon, so it seems only right to get some respite before then. Despite there being no trophies to hand out this weekend, there are still plenty of top flight games to tune into as both the CS:GO ESL ESEA Pro League and Dota DreamLeague seasons continue their early group round robin stages. And let s not forget the penultimate stage of Worlds as the European road trip to the Summoner s Cup draws to a close.

Here are the biggest esports fixtures of the weekend.

League of Legends Worlds 2015 Semifinals

Having shed all but four teams from their tour around Europe, the Riot banterbus rolls into Brussels this weekend for the semifinals. It s a very EU affair, too, as Origen and Fnatic have made it through the gauntlet on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning a home continent derby finals is still on the cards. For that to happen, however, Origen would have to best SKT Telecom T1 who have been on striking form this season. And Fnatic will need to send home KOO Tigers, who staged a surprise coup against their Korean rivals KT Rolster who swiped the second seed spot from them in the playoffs. The quarters at Wembley were a bit of a whitewash, with three of four matches resulting in one-sided sweeps, but the talent seems closer in these matchups. Find out when Origen face SKT on Saturday at 07:30 PDT/15:30 BST, and KOO take on Fnatic Sunday at the earlier time of 05:30 PDT/12:30 GMT (watch out for that British daylight savings change, folks). You can catch it all on the official Riot Games Twitch or Azubu.

Counter-Strike: ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2

In the interim before Cluj-Napoca, you can catch HellRaisers, Titan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, TSM, Virtus.pro and EnVyUs in some regular season matches. This weekend s specific matchups in the round robin pit all of the North American teams against one another over the course of two days. Starting from 15:00 PDT/23:00 BST until 20:00 PDT/03:00 GMT on Saturday night Cloud9, CLG, Team Liquid, EnemyGG and Coastless will face off against one another before repeating the matchups again on the Sunday. The rest of the European action takes course earlier each day, from 08:00 PDT/16:00 BST on the Saturday and 08:00 PDT/15:00 GMT on the Sunday. You can catch those on ESL s Twitch channel. 

Dota 2: DreamLeague Season 4

Another run-of-the-mill round robin bracket continues this weekend to determine who will get a crack at the $150,000 prize pool at November s DreamHack Winter finals. Though the Frankfurt Major is around the same time, many of the invited and qualified teams are competing which has led to some clenchworthy finishes in recent games. Don t be surprised to see scenes reminiscent of Alliance battling back against megacreeps to defeat NiP during the Major qualifiers. Matches begin at 04:30 PDT/12:30 BST on Saturday with 4CL versus Monkey Freedom Fighters and finish at 12:00 PDT/20:00 BST with MFF facing off against NiP. Catch the action on the DreamLeague Twitch channel.

Dota 2: The Summit 4 American Qualifiers

Sunday s Dota fix comes in the form of The Summit 4 s American qualifiers, also Saturday s, if you want to catch the winner s bracket final of ROOT Gaming play Digital Chaos at 14:00 PDT/22:00 BST (which, of course, you do). Sunday s matches represent the final chances in the loser s bracket (14:00 PDT/21:00 BST) for Cloud9 and whoever survives today s game between paiN Gaming and Elite Wolves. And after that, at 17:00 PDT/midnight GMT, Wizards & Priests will take on the victor s of today s compLexity versus Team Archon showdown. You can catch all of those games on Beyond The Summit.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!