After the brief annual respite in the wake of The International, established veterans and rising stars alike have locked in to tournament rosters and set their sights on the battle for the next Dota 2 Major Championship.
The Boston Major, presented by PGL, will take place December 7 - 10, 2016 at Wang Theatre in Boston, USA.
Sixteen teams will battle through a single-elimination playoff bracket in best-of-three matches, with a best-of-five Grand Finals to determine the winner of the $3,000,000 prize pool. Seeding for the Main Event bracket will be determined by the results of Group Stage play on December 3 - 4.
Tickets for attending the Main Event will be available starting Friday, October 14. Open Qualifiers will run October 23 - 26, and the Regional Qualifiers will follow on October 27 - 30.
After the brief annual respite in the wake of The International, established veterans and rising stars alike have locked in to tournament rosters and set their sights on the battle for the next Dota 2 Major Championship.
The Boston Major, presented by PGL, will take place December 7 - 10, 2016 at Wang Theatre in Boston, USA.
Sixteen teams will battle through a single-elimination playoff bracket in best-of-three matches, with a best-of-five Grand Finals to determine the winner of the $3,000,000 prize pool. Seeding for the Main Event bracket will be determined by the results of Group Stage play on December 3 - 4.
Tickets for attending the Main Event will be available starting Friday, October 14. Open Qualifiers will run October 23 - 26, and the Regional Qualifiers will follow on October 27 - 30.
A non-major but still interesting Dota 2 [official site] patch has dropped. 6.88e is all about tweaks, as you’d expect from a patch with a letter on the end of it, rather than one which heralds a whole jump forward in numbering. The reason it’s interesting is more that it gives me a chance to talk about a thought related to patches and living games like Dota 2.
6.88e: --- * Dragon Lance strength reduced from 14 to 13 * Infused Raindrop cooldown increased from 4 to 6 * Illusions attack damage reduction against buildings increased from 25% to 30% * Diffusal Blade cooldown increased from 2 to 4 * Outworld Devourer base armor reduced by 1.5 * Shadow Poison initial damage reduced from 50 to 26/34/42/50 * Flamebreak cooldown increased from 14 to 17 * Drow base damage reduced by 4 * Torrent damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300 * Echo Stomp channel time increased from 1.2 to 1.3 * Oracle base damage reduced by 6 * Morphling intelligence gain reduced from 1.5 to 1.1 * Starstorm Scepter cooldown increased from 8 to 9 * Time Dilation now only freezes abilities that are on cooldown, rather than also affecting abilities cast afterwards * Time Dilation slow per frozen ability increased from 8% to 10% * Tempest Double gold and XP bounty increased from 140 to 160 * Juggernaut base damage reduced by 2 * Counter Helix damage reduced from 90/120/150/180 to 75/110/145/180 * Repel cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.35 * Repel duration reduced from 6/8/10/12 to 4/6/8/10 * Relocate delay increased from 2.5/2.25/2 to 2.7/2.35/2 * Inner Vitality bonus regeneration threshhold reduced from 40% to 35% * Stifling Dagger cast range reduced from 1200 to 825/950/1075/1200 * Smokescreen slow reduced from 25% to 19/21/23/25% * Track manacost increased from 50 to 65 * Mana Leak manacost increased from 75 to 150 * Illuminate radius increased from 350 to 375 * Blinding Light knockback distance increased from 400 to 525 * Sand King movement speed reduced by 5 * Timbersaw base strength reduced by 1
After a slow couple of weeks, it all kicks off this weekend. The best League of Legends players in the world have arrived in the US for Worlds, a reshuffled Dota 2 scene is going to war in China, and there's top-flight CS:GO, StarCraft II, and Overwatch too: not to mention Rocket League, Hearthstone, or the Capcom Pro Tour.
League of Legends: World Championship 2016 Group Stage
The biggest event in the League of Legends calendar is underway. The Worlds group stage began yesterday in Chicago and continues through the weekend, starting at 16:00 PDT/01:00 PDT each day. Be sure to catch the first game on Saturday, when champs SK Telecom T1 take on Cloud9. Find more information and the livestream on LoLesports.
Dota 2: Mars TV 2016 Autumn Playoffs
A great tournament so far, this Mars TV league has been an opportunity to see the freshly-reshuffled Dota 2 scene in action. EG, Newbee, OG and Secret have emerged as the hottest picks coming out of the group stage and will continue to fight for a share of the $250,000 grand prize over the weekend. Play takes place on China Standard Time, so prepare for a few late nights. Saturday's games begin at 19:00 Friday night Pacific time/04:00 CEST. Sunday's games begin at 21:00 Saturday Pacific time/06:00 CEST. Here's the English language stream.
It's finally time for some high-stakes, top-tier CS:GO as the best teams in the world compete for a share of $250,000 in New York. Games start at 10:00 EDT/07:00 PDT/16:00 CEST on both Saturday and Sunday with the semi-finals beginning on the latter. Find the livestream here.
Hearthstone: Asia Pacific Summer Championship
There's another coveted ticket to the 2016 Hearthstone World Championships on the line, with play running today and tomorrow. Games begin at 05:00 CEST each day, which is 20:00 PDT the evening before. HearthPwn has a rundown of the decklists here: surprise surprise, there's a lot of Shaman. Here's the official stream.
StarCraft II: 2016 KeSPA Cup
This week long ontest of world-class StarCraft II concludes with the bracket stage this weekend. Games should start around 17:00 local time on both Sunday and Monday, which is 09:00 CEST/01:00 PDT. The English steam is available via this YouTube channel.
Overwatch: Overwatch Open Grand Final
The biggest prize pot in Overwatch to date $300,000 is on the line tonight as the Overwatch Open reaches its final stages in Atlanta. Play begins at 19.00 PDT this evening, which is 04:00 Saturday morning in Europe. Expect a close-fought match as EnVyUs take on Misfits for the top spot. Here's the livestream.
Rocket League: League Play
There's another weekend of Rocket League ahead as teams in Europe and North America compete at a shot at the prizes on offer in the game's second competitive season, including the $10,000 Mid-Season Classic next weekend. Games run all day in NA on Saturday, followed by Europe on Sunday. The official Rocket League Twitch channel has the livestream.
Capcom Pro Tour: Events in Poland, Indonesia, Brazil
Loads more fighting games this weekend, from Fighting Games Challenge in Poland on Saturday to Abuget Cup in Jakarta and TRETA 2016 in Curitiba both running until Sunday. These are all Ranking events no Premier action this weekend but expect fierce competition as competitors scramble to claim the scant remaining points. Given the geographically dispersed nature of the events you're best off keeping an eye on the Street Fighter V section on Twitch for specific livestreams.
- Fixed a crash when leaving hero showcase view. - Fixed the interaction of Rubick's Spell Steal with Aghanim's Scepter, Vengeful Spirit's Swap and Arc Warden's Tempest Double.
- Fixed a few remaining low-end performance issues. - Fixed performance degrading over multiple games in the same session. - Fixed flying heroes being able to leave the intended play area by using directional move orders. - Fixed a recently introduced crash on exit from some custom games.
- Reworked tree selection hitboxes. - Phantom Assassin's Stifling Dagger no longer counts against Phantom Strike. - Added Wings Gaming to the Shopkeeper's Aegis of Champions.
Post Game screen changes: - Post Game screen now shows after Local Bot Matches. - Added a column for Permanent Buffs. This currently tracks Pudge’s Flesh Heap, Legion Commander’s Duel Damage, Silencer’s Intelligence Stolen, Consumed Moon Shard and Consumed Aghanim’s Scepter. - Fixed changing heroes with the comparison slider mid-way not showing the correct values. - Comparison slider now changes KDA and Hero Level. - Fixed level up graph for Arc Warden. - Fixed hero level graph for time before the horn. - Improved hero model loading. - Fixed “leave match” button not showing up. - Open the hero comparison mode by default in 1v1 mode. - Improved display of team logos.
