I've died a lot today! A giant with dual chainsaws has buzzed me to bits, I've been sliced up by a wall of lasers, I've died of poison gas, rotating blades, explosions, and I've even been sucked into a miniature black hole. Half Dead is a first-person multiplayer action game in which you're taking part in a violent, futuristic television show, and your chances of surviving until episode two ain't great.

You and a handful of other multiplayer contestants begin in a square room with a door in each wall. Each door opens into another square room. The goal is to escape, but the problem is that nearly all of the rooms are filled with horrible, life-ending, body-splattering traps. If you've ever seen the 1997 sci-fi horror film Cube, you know exactly what this game is all about. If you haven't seen Cube, you should: it's got some enjoyably bad community theater-quality acting and one of the most memorable pre-title sequences in movie history.

Half Dead even borrows Cube's trap test. You're wearing two boots, and after opening a door to a new room, you can throw your boot in ahead of you, as I do in the above gif. This will set off any pressure plates or motion sensors, though there's a chance you may lose your boot some of the traps will destroy it and there's also chance the trap simply isn't activated by pressure plates of motion sensors. So, the boot doesn't always work, and you can quickly run out of boots even when it does work.

Another wrinkle: sometimes traps don't stay in the room they belong to. Sometimes they come running right through the door at you:

Since boots are limited, it's helpful to work together with the other multiplayer contestants. I'm speaking purely theoretically, of course: in the games I played none of my fellow guinea pigs were particularly interested in working together, choosing instead to race off in different directions, opening different doors, and quickly dying in different ways. It's grimly entertaining that, even through Half Dead's thick metal walls, you can hear your wayward partners coming to a grisly end.

I did try to follow someone on a few occasions, figuring at the very least I could work with them even if they didn't want to work with me. It seemed like a good plan, letting some foolhardy dope rush ahead of me and set off any traps, but some traps are more patient than others. Such as the tiny black hole that appeared after we'd already been in its room for a while. We were both drawn into its gravity well despite trying to flee:

This simply isn't a game to tackle solo (though there is a single-player option). You need other players, and their boots, because eventually you'll stumble into a room that is simply escape proof. Such as below, where the laser grid blocked the doors and the room filled with gas. No matter how cautious you are, you're not gonna outwit a lungful of smog. A boot would have set off the lasers, but he'd run out of them.

And, sometimes you just run out of luck. While not every room has a trap in it when you enter a safe room, it's marked on your minimap sometimes you just try to flee from a giant chainsaw monster and run through a door right into a supernatural walking poison skeleton that makes you explode. Hey, no one said being on TV was a picnic.

I've had fun in the few hours I've played Half Dead, though it would definitely be better with friends or at least co-op partners who want to work together, and I'm not sure once you've seen all the traps a few times how much longevity the game really has.

On the other hand, it's under two bucks on Steam, plus it may be the only chance you'll get to play a new game with the word 'Half' in the title for the foreseeable future.

Might and Delight s back catalogue boasts some pretty stunning games, such as Shelter, Pid, and expandalone Paws: A Shelter 2 Story. Its latest project Pan-Pan produced in collaboration with one-man Swedish developer Spelkraft is out this month.

Let s have a wee look at it in motion:

Might and Delight in collaboration with Spelkraft invites you to explore a world lush with colour and punctuated by the tranquil sounds of a melodic soundtrack, explains the game s site. Set against a backdrop of soothing ambient sounds crafted by renowned sound composer Simon Viklund, your task is to fix your downed spaceship and begin the pilgrimage home. In a world littered with world shifting riddles and sprinkled with the memorable characters how you solve this riddles is firmly in your hands.

Similar to both Shelter games, then, a combination of environmental exploration, narrative storytelling, and intuitive problem solving is what makes Pan-Pan tick and it looks darn lovely for it. Although without a price tag for now, it s heading to Steam on August 29.

Here s a smattering of screens to tide you over till then:

Puzzle-meets-heists-meets hacking game Quadrilateral Cowboy released last week and Tom seemed to enjoy his time with it. Creator Blendo Games signature sense of style won him over, however he did feel slightly let down by the fact the studio s latest venture failed to reach its full potential. Could more missions free-of-charge help this matter? In any event, Blendo's head honcho Brendon Chung has revealed more are en route in the coming weeks.

During a Reddit AMA, Chung spoke directly to Quadrilateral Cowboy s scope and explained that he generally tailors his projects around his own skillset. For the most part, he says. I think Quadrilateral Cowboy does a pretty good job at not over-extending its reach.

He was then asked if he had any plans to create more missions at some point down the line, to which he responded: I have some deleted scenes I intend to package up as a mod download. I fully intend to [make games with a similar art style], I grew up playing a ton of first-person games and have a soft spot in my heart for them. I also plan to continue keeping all of my games in the same shared universe, so look forward to more of that.

Speaking to RPS, Chung later confirmed that the extra levels will be free and made available via the game s Steam Workshop. While he doesn t have a set date in mind right now, he suggested that he is loosely aiming for sometime in the next couple weeks.

Seven years and counting, CS:GO updates are still dropping. In 2019, CS:GO is going strong with map updates, new events, and balancing changes. Last year brought the biggest update to Counter-Strike in recent history, Danger Zone, a surprise battle royale mode for up to 16 players. The most recent CS:GO update called "Shattered Web" brings actual characters to the game for the first time in the form of equippable skins for each Agent.

Here's a log of the most recent CS:GO patches.

The latest CS:GO update: November 18, 2019

Operation Shattered Web

• Introducing Operation Shattered Web, featuring all-new equippable Agents, weapon collections, missions, and more!
• For more details visit www.counter-strike.net/shatteredweb

Gameplay

• Increased price of SG553 to $3000 to bring its price more in line with its value.
• Reduced the price of FAMAS and Galil by $200 (to $2050 and $1800, respectively)
• Improved full-auto spraying accuracy of FAMAS and Galil.

Danger Zone

• Buymenu price adjustments for ssg08 and radar jammer.
• Minor timing adjustments for locked door and safe interaction.
• Automated sentries now fire M249 bullets.
• Added killfeed icon for automated sentry.
• Added more explosive barrels.
• Tablet crate icons now show an above/below annotation if significantly above or below the player.
• Minor change to zone effect visuals.

Misc

• ‘AWP | Hyper Beast’ and ‘P90 | Nostalgia’ updated to correct wear at Factory New

Workshop

Pearlescent coatings:

We have added support for applying a pearlescent coating to weapon finishes. Pearlescent coatings use ceramic crystals to reflect and refract light, splitting it into different colors as the view angle changes. This effect can be used in a number of ways to subtly enhance your weapon finish or make drastic changes. The new Operation Shattered Web collections have some weapons with pearlescent coatings to illustrate some of the ways this new feature can be used. The Workshop Workbench has been updated to include this feature so you can experiment with adding this coating to a weapon finish. Using higher values will make the color bands tighter and more frequent and using negative values will flip the spectrum to start on the opposite end. It should be noted that this coating will shift the hue of your weapon finish so parts with no saturation, and therefore no hue, will have no pearlescent effect. We look forward to seeing what interesting applications you come up with.

Maps

• Added Studio to Scrimmage and Casual Sigma map groups.
• Added Jungle to the Danger Zone rotation.
• Added Lunacy to Flying Scoutsman
• Zoo and Seaside have been removed.

Cache

• Cache has been moved from Scrimmage to Competitive Matchmaking

Vertigo

• Added ramp to final stage of scaffolding on A ramp, no longer need to jump up
• Connected corridor to back of A with CT elevator room
• Widened top of mid
• Offset doors from CT spawn and to CT elevator room
• Made A site CT death funnel shorter, widened site area
• Removed big block in CT spawn
• Moved A ramp sandbags to allow jump up
• Various bug and clipping fixes

CS:GO update: August 14, 2019

Berlin 2019

• The “Berlin 2019 Viewer Pass” and the “Berlin 2019 Viewer Pass + 3 Souvenir Tokens” are now available for purchase. 50% of the proceeds go to the players and organizations taking part in the StarLadder Berlin Major.
• With a Viewer Pass, you’ll get:
• An upgradable Berlin 2019 Event Coin.
• Access to the Berlin Pick’Em Challenge.
• Unlimited team graffiti for the duration of the event.
• Steam.tv team flair.
• Access to Berlin 2019 Souvenir Packages.
• All-new Viewer Pass Missions.
• Ability to purchase additional Souvenir Tokens.
• Team and player autograph stickers are available for purchase.

Misc

• Improved calculation of client packets processing time to account for dedicated server systems where clock can jump backwards.
• Optimized client-side processing when kills are scored with StatTrak weapons.

Maps

• Breach has been updated to the latest Workshop version

CS: GO update: July 22, 2019

Misc

• Added support for displaying Berlin 2019 Minor play-off matches in-game.
• Fixed the events lister showing two rows for events that were both favorited and featured.
• Adjusted HE grenade collision hull to reduce rolling when dropped.

Maps

Workout:

• Retextured the pool area so its a lot brighter
• Made movement in the pool area smoother
• Pushed the hostage rescue zone further forward
• Added CT sided cover to the basketball court
• Made the entire kids zone area much brighter
• Updated some textures and meshes throughout the map
• Due to customer complaints, homebrew coffee have added some bins
• Stopped players being able to slide up the horse at T side stadium entrance
• Fixed mesh clipping issue at the ice cream stand

Ruby:

• Overall layout tweaks

Dust 2:

• The anniversary celebration has ended

CS:GO update: June 19, 2019

The latest update has some fixed for Dust 2, the retro map Valve added to CS:GO to celebrate 20 years of Counter-Strike. Full patch notes are below. 

[MISC]

• Fixed in-game blog sometimes not showing the most recent content. 
• Fixed missing CSM on some materials in OpenGL. 
• Fixed grass height bug on Linux. 

[MAPS]

Dust 2

• Fixed spawn priorities. 
• Fixed pixelwalk in retro version. 
• Added navmesh names for retro version. 

CS:GO update log

June 18, 2019

[20TH ANNIVERSARY]

• Celebrate 20 years of Counter-Strike with a retro version of Dust 2, currently available in the Casual Dust II map group. 
• The Chicken Capsule is now available for purchase in-game.

[GAMEPLAY]

• Adjustments to the AUG to bring its utility more in line with other rifles. 
• Slightly reduced rate of fire. 
• Reduced accuracy while unscoped. 

[DANGER ZONE]

• Fixed an exploit involving duplication of items dropped by disarming another player.
• Players in warmup spawn closer to their teammate.  
• Players in warmup now spawn with a random pistol. 

January 24, 2019

[MAPS]

• Added a new version of Vertigo to Wingman official matchmaking.
• Added Zoo and Abbey to Casual and Deathmatch official matchmaking.
• Removed Austria and Subzero from official matchmaking.

Biome:

• Improved performance.
• Removed connector between A short and A long.
• Removed mid lower entry.
• Added ladder to mid upper entry.
• Moved T spawn towards A to give CTs better mid timings.
• Fixed several bomb stuck spots and clipping issues.

[MISC]

• Accounts are now automatically upgraded to Prime by reaching Lieutenant Rank 21.
• Fixed a regression for some Perfect World accounts with completed Identity Verification and restored their Prime Account Status.
• Fixed scoreboard team names truncation in some languages.
• Fixed random map behavior in offline with bots game modes.

[SOUND]

• Adjusted velocity value for when jump ‘step’ sound plays for more consistent behavior.
• Fixed a bug where player fall damage sound wasn’t playing most of the time.
• Fixed a bug where “the bomb has been defused” and “counter-terrorists win” VO lines could overlap each other.

January 14, 2019

• Fixed team names truncation issue in scoreboard in some languages. 
• Fixed snowballs from being purchasable from the console. 
• Fixed snowballs and sensor grenades to not occupy the same grenade slot. 
• Added game server log output for team assignments when game is commencing and after backup reload. 
• Added game server log output for match pause and unpause state changes. 
• Added support for Katowice 2019 in-game streams. 
• Fixed cases where players could get stuck inside each other (or less frequently, world geometry) when jump crouching. 

December 18, 2018

[DANGER ZONE]

• Fixed an exploit resulting in players sometimes getting trapped under the world.
• Fixed security doors sometimes having $0 price tags.
• Fixed automated sentry gun lasers sometimes not disappearing.
• Minor adjustment to the angles of items that come out of crates.

[MISC]

• Movement fix for players getting stuck on each other in competitive modes near ledges.
• Holiday forecast calls for snow on the Menu UI.

December 17, 2018

[WINTER SEASON FUN]

• Chickens are now sporting their festive-wear to celebrate the season.
• Players can now pick up and throw snowballs in all game modes except Danger Zone, Wingman, and Competitive Matchmaking.
• The T’s have gift wrapped their special package for the holiday season.
• Freeze frame holiday borders are back to wish you a happy winter season.
• Take a winter vacation to Militia! Now available in Casual and Deathmatch game modes.

[10 YEAR COIN]

• The Ten Year Veteran Coin will be awarded to players who have been a member of the Counter-Strike community for over 10 years. To be eligible to receive the coin the player must have a Steam account in good standing owning a game from the Counter-Strike series. The player must have owned the game for ten years and played the game at least once. The coin will be awarded next time Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is launched.

 [2019 SERVICE MEDAL]

• When you become a Global General (Rank 40), you’ll be given the opportunity to reset your Profile Rank. After January 1, 2019 you’ll be able to receive a new 2019 Service Medal, an inspectable display item that will be visible wherever your avatar is shown.

December 14, 2018

[DANGER ZONE]

• Adjusted tablet buymenu drone delivery weapon prices.
• Ammo boxes now dispense a quarter of their contents each time they are used, and can still be shared with squadmates.
• Reduced the duration required to arm explosives on the safe, and added alert to warn the arming player when they remain within the blast radius.
• Removed the parachute from blue tool crates. They will still appear loose in the world.
• Reduced spawn point selection timer duration.
• Added armor to blue tool crates that previously only contained a helmet.
• Slightly increased the number of Shotgun, SMG, and Pistol crates in the world.

December 11, 2018

• Fixed precache error when loading Blacksite map on clients with default settings.
• Fixed Danger Zone exploration money progress HUD indicator from jittering when switching tablets or spectator targets.
• Fixed viewmodel animation interpolation error observed on some high-latency clients.
• Adjusted first-person rappel animation to accommodate widescreen aspect ratios.
• Fixed a regression in weapons equipped by certain community training maps logic.
• Fixed an error model appearing when applying a name tag to inventory items.
• Fixed particle materials for rupturing money bags to match the money stack materials.
• Fixed sv_prime_accounts_only setting not having effect on certain community servers.
• Fixed searching tooltip showing incorrect prime status for lobby.

Turtle Rock and 2K have announced the beginning of a month-long Evolve Stage 2 event called Shear Madness, which will bring five new updates to the game over the next five weeks. The new content will include three Character Adaptations, three Map Variants, a new game mode, and a veritable 3-meat feast of community requested features and quality of life improvements. That's right, three meats.

The first update will include a new Medic character named Caira Diaz, AKA Quantum Caira, who may or may not have been killed by an energy surge at an EbonStar black site holding a captive Wraith known as The Phantom. Whatever happened, her apparent demise was quickly followed by the appearance of someone who looks an awful lot like her, but with the ability to wield regeneration fields as a healing tool. She can also use amplified Proton energy to set up zones that damage enemies over time, and deploy a Neutron Barrier that applies a short damage resistance buff to any fellow Hunters nearby. Turtle Rock said Quantum Caira is one of our most daring Medic designs yet.

The update also fixes a few bugs and makes some balance changes, introduces a new Advanced Hunter Tutorial designed to help players understand more than just the basic mechanics of being a Hunter, and this is nice unlocks all in-game content in Solo Mode. We ve heard from all over our Community that players wanted some way to try out content before investing the time and Silver Keys towards an unlock, so we introduced the 'Try before you buy' feature, Turtle Rock wrote. With Update 2.04, all content is unlocked in Solo mode so anyone can give anything a test run before unlocking it.

In other happy news, Turtle Rock said the Evolve Stage 2 experiment is going well. From fewer than 200 PC players just days before the re-launch on July 7, Evolve Stage 2 now has more than 2-million players worldwide in less than one month. In that time, we ve released weekly patches and hot fixes and we will continue to tune the Stage 2 experience every week, the studio wrote. It s been an absolutely incredible journey so far one that has surpassed our wildest expectations but we re not done yet. We plan to continue adding new and exciting content to the game, and intend to continue to work on addressing issues with the game that are important to you.

What it didn't explain, at least as far as I can see, is why the update is called Shear Madness. It sounds a bit like a faux-edgy hairdressing shop, doesn't it? I'm sure all will be revealed at some point over the course of the next month, which you can stay on top of at evolveupdates.com.

Let me start this week s column off with a confession I love a good meme. Most of us do, in fact, and that s not quite the problem in and of itself. Esports can be a little weird and a little wonderful, and even as the industry gets more professional and polished, it s still a little absurd. This isn t an insult in fact, it s part of what makes esports so beautiful to watch and be a part of. The players and casters embrace the quirkiness and lean into it hard, and the result is that esports is bursting with personality and fun stories and authentic laugh out loud moments. Of course, things can get... complicated. Let s take a look at what, exactly, memes are doing to the way we look at players and talk about narratives.

An era of memes 

When I say meme, I m referring less to a picture of a frog on a unicycle and more about Dawkins' theory of memetics, the idea that information is transferred through ideas that are hosted and transferred. Ideas that are complex and difficult don t jump from host to host as easily as quick and easily understandable ideas. A picture of Arthur clenching his fist with a clever caption can be understood and shared in seconds, but a longform essay on an idea is dramatically more difficult to understand and share. Of course, it s not quite so binary there s a host of ideas across multiple medias of varying degrees of complexity. Some thrive, others are vanquished.

Consider for a moment that most League fans get their news on Twitter and Reddit. Neither of these mediums really favour a long form approach. Occasionally, a longer piece will thrive on Reddit, but the problem lies in the vote algorithm. If I submit, say, a hypothetical long form piece on ADC mechanics, this could reach the front page (and in fact, many links along these lines do thrive if the content is good enough). However, upvotes are weighted based on frequency and speed, and the longer a piece is up, the less an upvote counts. Early downvotes even from just a handful of people! can also sink a piece, making even a great idea virtually unnoticeable.

If you want to get a lot of upvotes in a very short amount of time, make something easily digestible or very exciting on the surface. Many content creators have caught on, and off we go, leading us into our second problem.

Surface attention 

How many times have you seen a piece posted on Reddit with a really attention-grabbing quote in the title, and then you read the piece only to find that there was a whole lot of necessary context around those inflammatory words. If you check the comment threads on social media, the top comment is often a tl;dr that sums up the piece or expands on the headline quote. It s not uncommon to see people engaging only with that headline quote. A wealth of detail and context and content falls between the cracks, and people move on with a surface impression.

The end result is that there are a few sound bites that end up getting repeated around certain players, with varying degrees of truth. Here are a few of those bites that probably sound really familiar, if you follow League discourse at all: CLG s Huhi is terrible, Huni must be restrained from picking Lucian top by the rest of the Immortals, Doublelift loves to go HAM, Dumbzz (and the succinct counterpart of Smartzz), and Xmithie is underrated. Even the players seem to realize that these phrases have lost all meaning, with the aforementioned Xmithie saying about his underrated reputation: I'm pretty much just a meme now.

It s easy to look at players and sum them up both professionally and personally with the opinions of the hive mind. It s not as though there s a problem, right? It s just a meme. Well...

Out of control 

Consider, for a moment, that Doublelift has been a professional player for the better part of a decade; he s a veteran with a long career and a nuanced history. When he s summed up with some of the worst parts of his career condensed to quick, unflattering phrases, and judged based on that, the result can get a little ugly. On one hand, fans love to urge on trash talk and watch players speak their mind. On the other hand, Doublelift has been honest that it's a frustrating experience for him, because he gets torn apart afterwards. Most of the negative criticism isn t necessarily at Yiliang Peng, but at the Memetic Doublelift who has been solidified from years of tweets and Reddit threads and soundbites. The Memetic version of a person is always simplified to the point of caricature, and much easier to insult and tear down than a full person.

Mitch Krepo Voorspoels knows this better than anyone. After Twitch personality Ali Gross Gore Larsen made serious allegations against the caster on stream, Krepo was hit with a wall of hatred, spam, insults, and threats. Gross Gore later recanted the statements and was banned from Twitch, but the damage was done it had become a meme. It wasn t really about Krepo anymore, in a lot of ways. It was about the Memetic Krepo, repeating the same joke and putting new spins on it to get the biggest laugh. Krepo has spoken about how it has seriously affected his life and job, but the joke still continues. After all, it s just a meme, it s not serious, right?

Esports is still incredibly young as an industry, and it shows in many ways. One of the things I find most beautiful about esports is the personalities and passion on display. I love a good joke, and I think most of us do but the culture around esports, and the shorthand of memes, can cause things to go too far, too quickly. There s no easy response, and that s troubling when the problem spreads so quickly and evolves rapidly. That being said, it s an issue worth exploring in a sincere, authentic fashion.

Have you ever experienced specialisation anxiety? You're playing an RPG as a single character, and the game gives you lots of ways to develop your hero. So far, so good. But! Only a couple of hours in you're forced to make important choices about your skill path. Will you become a choppy close combat hero, or a shooty hero? Will you choose magic or brute force? Make your choice now, or go away and play something else.

Once you've chosen a route, you're probably committed to it. Even in systems that let you climb skill trees incrementally by spending points, the desire for maximum efficiency incentivises you to rally around your early expenditure and push toward the extremes of your chosen path. If the path isn't to your taste, what then?

It's an interesting problem, because we expect choice from upgrade systems. When Diablo 3 moved to a flat skill system that let you collect and swap in abilities at will, some felt that an important element of the RPG had been removed. Picking skills and spending attribute points let you personalise your avatar, establish a role and shape the game experience to your interests.

The problem with skill trees and class choices is that they force you to make an important decision from an uneducated position. In a new action RPG you don't know if area-of-effect spells will be more useful than individual attacks because you don't know how many horde situations the game will challenge you with. You don't know whether poison effects will do enough damage to make poison skills relevant throughout the game. From a position of intense ignorance, you have to guess in a general direction 'I guess fireballs might be fun?'.

Multi-classing helps by giving players an extra layer of experimentation. After a certain progression point, you gain access to a second skill tree, or a new flavour of abilities that overlap with your original choice. It's a useful course-correction tool 'fireballs are okay, but having actually had a chance to see how the game's systems work, let's go for poison after all'.

Multi-class upgrade systems also disrupt the strength vs. intelligence relationship that RPGs repeat endlessly. If you want to swing a big sword, you're normally encouraged to increase your strength stat at the expense of intelligence and dexterity stats, traditionally associated with spellcasting and rogue skills respectively. This forcibly creates the same fantasy warrior archetypes over and over again: the idiot barbarian with muscles for brains; the wizard that can barely lift their own tomes; the cunning rogue who dies a lot.

Multi-classing means that you have the option to spread your resources around a little, to create contradictory builds that are quirky and fun. Grim Dawn is good at this. It's a dark action RPG from Crate Entertainment. I start out as an occultist. That gives me a couple of nice summons (crackling lightning bird and weak exploding fire dog). He can also suck away enemy life force with a glyph, and throw poisonous eyeballs around. He's a wizard gone bad, but can also swing around a double-handed sword quite ably. At level 10, I realise that I enjoy the big melee weapons more than ranged attacks, so I select 'soldier' as my second class and create a hybrid mage-o-warrior, and then use my occult ability to imbue melee weapons with psychic oomph. Synergy!

Grim Dawn goes further still with an extra layer of 'Devotion' boons that let you compensate for any weaknesses your bizarre combination of classes might throw up. I occasionally fall a little low on health in fights with powerful enemies, so I've invested in a little life-steal.

It's not perfect. I still worry that my decisions have locked off the most fun way to play the game, and I worry that my particular choice won't take me through the game's toughest challenges. There are always re-roll mechanics for drastic circumstances. It's a bad moment, though. Re-rolls make me feel as though I've broken the integrity of the game. I have failed, and now I'm cheating. At least multi-classing presents an extra barrier to that ugly solution, and gives you several chances to find the fun hidden away in RPG's impenetrable skill trees.

The group stages are over and the brackets for the main event are set. The teams you'll find over the following pages represent the best of international Dota, and are testament to the breadth, competitiveness and dynamism of the scene. You ll find many new names on the following pages, from players to the teams themselves. No one region or squad dominates this game, and this year s massive prize pool just shy of $20m at the time of writing could go to almost anyone. There are certainly favourites for the top spot, but it s a sign of a healthy scene when many of those favourites didn t even exist a year ago.

 THE TEAMS

 EHOME

EHOME qualified via the wildcard without dropping a series, which was in line with expectations for a team that wasn t expected to have to fight their way in through the wildcard at all. Even so, their performance wasn t flawless: they dropped a game to Execration and had to work hard for their victory against Escape. If they'd shaken the problems that dogged them since the Shanghai Major, it wasn't necessarily immediately obvious.

It is now, however. EHOME are one of the tournament's great success stories so far, following up on that wildcard performance with a stunning turn in the group stage. Winning their group 12-2, only DC and Liquid took games from them. After a humble start, EHOME could be on track to take it all.

Escape Gaming

Stop-start progress through the wildcard nonetheless carried new European team Escape through to the main event. This is a team comprised of a mix of veteran talent in qojqva, SyndereN and Era and talented newcomers in YapzOr and KheZu. KheZu in particular put in a star turn during the wildcard, keeping his team in the game with a run of fantastic initiations.

As expected, the group stage was tough on them. Finishing 2-12, they only managed to wrest wins away from Na'Vi and Alliance: teams that have also logged inconsistent performances so far. They will need to pull out something special to survive their lower bracket best-of-one against Fnatic. If they can pull together as a team and cut down on mistakes then they've got a shot, however: there's talent there, just not the polish to turn that talent into titles.

OG

This has been OG s year. Founded in 2015 as (monkey) Business, OG achieved a stunning surprise victory at the Frankfurt Major. This talented international squad has gone on to place consistently highly, winning the Manila Major a few months ago as well as ESL One Frankfurt and DreamLeague Season 5. Midlaner Miracle- has emerged from relative obscurity a year ago to become well known as one of the best players, if not the best player, in professional Dota. His virtuoso turns on heroes like Invoker and Shadow Fiend has won him and his team fans and titles.

OG are a safe bet to take it all this year, and their group stage performance backs that up: they were expected to do well, and did. In addition to their impressive track record, they re also notable for their attitude and outlook. In a scene often typified by instability, OG have managed to avoid roster drama and stress the importance of positive relationships and teamwork. The fact that they ve also translated this into success suggests that the Dota scene, in some ways, is starting to mature.

 Team Liquid 

Formerly 5Jungz, the new Liquid is a European team with a strong track record leading up to the International. Former Na'Vi and Team Secret support KuroKy is the heart of a versatile and creative squad that has only just lagged behind OG in terms of success over the last year. A win at Epicenter 2015 broke up a run of second and third-place finishes: Liquid have proven that they can do it, it simply remains to be seen whether they are doing it.

The group stages were rough on Liquid, however: rougher than anybody expected going into the event. Their run was unusually inconsistent. Liquid managed to take a game off EHOME but stumbled against DC and Secret, bested Fnatic but fell to Vici Gaming Reborn. They're simply not showing the sort of consistent form that they have done in the past.

Newbee

International 2014 champions Newbee return with an interesting and effective new lineup. They've picked up legendary support player ChuaN as well as kpii from TI5 fan darlings MVP Phoenix. They're joined by carry Hao, returning to Newbee after a stint at Vici Gaming in 2015, former EHOME support kaka, and midlaner Mu: the only Newbee member to have stuck with the organisation since their decisive victory in 2014.

Newbee begin this year's International in a strong position with a good recent track record. They proved in Nanyang last month that they can win against the best Chinese teams and they placed respectably at the Manila Major and Nanyang. Earlier in the year they pulled off a record-breaking 29 game win streak in professional play, an unprecedented tear that was only curtailed by their encounter with OG. Their games are very much worth watching, particularly for ChuaN's mastery of the support role and Hao's incredible aggression.

Newbee encountered some rough patches in the group stage, and odds are that they're not entirely happy with an 8-6 record and third place: but it's enough to keep them in the upper bracket. The dream of a second Newbee TI victory is still alive.

LGD Gaming

This year's LGD blends new and longstanding Dota talent. Stalwarts xiao8, MMY! and Maybe are joined by former CDEC carry Agressif, who achieved second place at last year's International as part of a phenomenal Cinderella run for the young Chinese team. As a squad, LGD have placed consistently highly and have become known for their tendency to encourage (and win) extremely long matches.

There's one major question mark over their prospects this year, however. Support player September was refused a visa to the United States after multiple attempts, so he's been replaced at TI6 by LGD's coach, Banana. Banana's a great player with a vast amount of experience, but a change like this is hardly ideal on the eve of the biggest event of the year. A rough 5-9 run through the group stage suggests that they are indeed struggling, despite a nail-biting series against OG that indicated that this is still a world-class team. Their best-of-one elimination match against Secret is likely to be equally tense.

 Team Secret

At one point considered the scariest western team in Dota 2, Secret were formed as a supergroup of sorts when multiple longstanding squads dissolved in 2014. Puppey, Arteezy and EternaLEnVy are some of the most recognisable personalities in the professional scene.

Secret have had a mixed year, however. Their standout success was a victory at the Shanghai Major, which followed a second place finish in Frankfurt but other than that, they've logged too many mid-table finishes for comfort. Bombing out of the Manila Major early, last-minute roster drama meant that they had to fight their way into the International via the public qualifier. Their instability and inconsistency, combined with their fame, gives Secret dark horse potential: but that potential spluttered out in the group stage. A 5-9 run on par with Liquid is worse than anybody expected, betraying an inconsistency of performance that they need to overcome if they're going to survive the lower bracket.

Secret's fans are praying for a miracle right now, and they'll be looking to Puppey to provide one. If one of Dota's most famous strategists is holding anything back, he needs to deploy it soon.

 MVP Phoenix

Dota 2 is unusually internationally competitive relative to other esports, which is demonstrated by the fact that Korea is the underdog that everybody roots for rather than the overdog that wins everything. MVP Phoenix have surfed that wave of public support since their impressive performance at the International 2015.

A number of factors including compulsory military service have forced a roster shuffle since then. New captain DuBu is joined by returning players QO and Febby as well as transfers from sister squad MVP Hot6, FoREV and MP. They've continued to do well over the last year, scoring consistent top 8 finishes including a number of wins: at Dota Pit over EG and PLG 2016 over CDEC. The arrival of high-level Korean Dota hasn't meant the end of the world for everybody else, but they are performing better and better. Their group stage performance, 6-8, was just good enough to clinch them a place in the upper bracket. They will need to work extremely hard to hold on to their lead, however, as they lost more games than any other team to make it this far.

 Natus Vincere

The original fan favourite Dota squad is on resurgent form after a few years of uncertainty in the aftermath of The International 2014. The new squad recently took the title at StarSeries Season 2, defeating Team Secret 3-1. They fell to OG at ESL One Frankfurt but nonetheless took second place. After their time in the wilderness, Na'Vi are (at least mostly) back.

Midlaner Dendi remains one of the most famous faces in the Dota scene, but more and more attention is being paid to his teammates. In particular, support and captain SoNNeikO is emerging as one of the most talented team players around. Meanwhile, offlaner GeneraL has turned niche support hero Sand King into a first-ban worth monster that demonstrates his commanding skill in the role.

This didn't quite translate into the group stage they wanted, however, as a run of poor engagements knocked them out of game after game. Na'Vi like to build up momentum early and end the game fast and seemed to struggle whenever that momentum was denied. They'll begin the tournament with a heartbreaker of an elimination match against Liquid.

 Wings Gaming

A relatively new Chinese team, Wings have rapidly emerged as one of the year's surprise success stories: even taking The Summit 5 finals 3-1 from the year's other surprise success story, OG. These are talented players that you may not be familiar with unless you've followed Chinese Dota closely over the last couple of years, but it's likely that you'll be familiar with them after this year's International.

They're tremendously versatile and aggressive, so expect some creative drafts and surprise hero picks. This dynamism is what allows Wings to threaten the championship hopes of better established teams, but their weakness is consistency. They tend to deliver a high-variance performance, which makes them exciting to watch but casts some doubt over their ability to make it the entire distance. They struggled on the first day of the group stage, ceding an unexpected loss to TNC. From that point they rallied to secure third place in their group, but their losses are enough to cast a shadow over their main event prospects.

Alliance 

Another dark horse, Alliance were the kings of the game three years ago. Their victory at The International 2013 is legendary, but they've never quite found the same form since. After a few experimental roster shifts, however, they've put that original band back together and have performed a little better since. This is still a team that can take matches off the best, but not one that you'd expect to turn out another undefeated run through the group stage.

As indeed they didn't. Known for a 'rat' playstyle that emphasises objectives and map control, Alliance have a habit of creating exciting games to watch whether they win or lose. Luckily, they managed to win more games than they lost in the group stage, securing an 8-6 finish and a place in the upper bracket that many would have expected to go to Secret, Na'Vi or Liquid. Despite dropping sets to OG and Wings, Alliance managed 2-0 victories over both EG and Na'Vi: watch the end of their first game against EG for an example of Alliance's charmed lategame in action.

Evil Geniuses

The defending champions, like their old rivals Secret, are arriving at TI6 following a period of roster drama and instability. In fact, the troubles of the two teams mirror each other closely because they keep firing and hiring each other's players. The new EG retains four out of five of the players who lifted the trophy last year, with the addition of briefly-retired support savant zai. UNiVeRsE also returns following a stint at Secret, meaning the power behind the $6m Echo Slam is back where it belongs.

EG's recent form has been hit and miss. They departed from the Manila Major extraordinarily early for a team of their caliber, and underperformed at Epicenter and StarSeries. Their last podium finish took place at The Shanghai Major. The TI6 group stage marked a return to form, however, with a performance second only to OG in their group. They took advantage of the Huskar metagame to crush a few early victories and showed themselves to be on good form overall, despite a few surprising losses along the way.

 TNC Pro Team

World-roaming American support player DeMoN joins an array of talent from the Philipines including former Mineski midlaner Kuku. This is a roster that has proven itself to be competitive within the SEA region after all, they won the SEA qualifier but whose viability on the world stage is questionable. They've not competed in many events of this scale, although DeMoN has been a fixture at the International as part of many different teams over the last couple of years.

What TNC have going for them is the fact that they're very likely to be underestimated by their opponents, and doing so can be fatal at the International. This proved to be the case in the group stage, as TNC surprised viewers with 2-0 victories over both Wings and LGD. They fell short elsewhere, however, and will begin the main event in the lower bracket: but having begun the event in relative obscurity, there's reason to believe that they could survive to cause further upsets in the lower bracket.

 Vici Gaming Reborn

Formerly Vici Gaming's second team Potential, Reborn have performed solidly lately although they're like to be seen as a weaker team than Chinese counterparts LGD and Wings. There's a lot of storied talent in their roster, however, including legendary support players fy and DDC. Midlaner Nono is newer to the scene, having only played professionally for a year.

Like LGD, Vici Gaming Reborn have been hit with visa problems. Offlaner Yang failed to secure his in time to compete in the tournament, so he'll be replaced by coach Mikasa for the duration of the tournament. Mikasa has a lot of history with the team, having filled in effectively for Nono earlier in the year at the StarLadder i-League Invitational, which VGR won. The last minute substitution does appear to have hurt VGR, however, as they came last in their group with a 4-10 record.

Digital Chaos 

DC is a team with a tremendously diverse roster, a grab bag of talent from different teams and regions. Support misery is one of the longest-serving and most versatile players in Europe, while Ukrainian carry Resolut1on joins after a long stint with Empire. w33 is a high level midlaner who became part of DC after falling victim to another Team Secret reshuffle, while Moo and pubstar Saksa are relatively new to the scene.

In that sense, Digital Chaos are a happy byproduct of the Dota 2 scene's instability: an unlikely alliance that is nonetheless capable of placing respectably at top-tier events. And they have emerged as this year's surprising underdog success story, going on a 11-3 tear that is only surpassed by the equally-surprising performance of EHOME. Almost everybody underestimated DC, but they won't any more: they're a rogue's gallery of talent and now they've provided that they've got the coordination and the ideas to translate it into consistent success. Beginning the main event in the upper bracket, they stand to go far.

Fnatic

South East Asian team Fnatic have had a consistent run of mid-table finishes at premier events over the last year, with their disappointing early exit from the Frankfurt Major eventually giving way to better results in Shanghai and Manila. This is a talented but inconsistent team that lives perennially on the fringe of the top tier.

Carry Mushi is one of the legends of the game, an extremely versatile presence with a deep hero pool. He's joined by former pubstar MidOne and veterans Ohaiyo, DJ and 343. Expect diverse picks and impressive role flexibility. If we're very lucky, we'll get to see Mushi play all five positions before the end of the tournament: although a disappointing 5-9 performance in the group stage means that they face elimination on the first day.

Keep reading PC Gamer Pro for news and highlights from the International as it happens.

The International 2016 began yesterday: it s the biggest event in the Dota 2 calendar and, with a prize pool creeping ever closer to $20m, the most lucrative esports event in history. Now that the wildcard bracket is behind us we ve got three days of group stages to look forward to. This massive round-robin will set the brackets for next week s main event.

The group stage has traditionally been a good place to get a sense of each team s condition: if we re in for an underdog success story this year, chances are that it ll become apparent over the next couple of days. Furthermore, the group stage is when the International metagame tends to emerge. While most teams share a sense of how this version of the game is best played at this point, it s not unprecedented for these assumptions to be turned on their head as new ideas are deployed during groups.

If you want to follow the full story of this year s tournament, then, the group stages are worth your attention. Below, you ll find the practical details you need to tune in. If you re looking for more information on a particular squad, check out our International teams guide.

 The format

The group stage divides the teams into two groups of eight group A and group B. Teams will play every other team in their group in a best-of-two match. These games will take place over three days. At the end of that period, the top four teams in each group will advance to the main event upper bracket while the remaining teams will face elimination in the lower bracket.

How to watch 

Matches are played on US west coast time starting at 09:00 PDT (18.00 CEST). Four games will be played concurrently, and as such there are four Twitch streams to follow: one, two, three and four. You can find the official schedule here, and missed matches can be found on the replay section of the official site.

Besides Twitch, you can also watch on DotaTV. There s also a full set of spectator tools within the game client, which allows you to choose your own commentary team and control the camera yourself. This year, Valve have also launched the Dota VR Hub a spectacular way to follow the action on the ground using the HTC Vive.

Keep reading PC Gamer Pro for news and highlights from the International as it happens.

Perhaps the biggest challenge of Ghost Town Games and Team 17 s Overcooked is reaching the end of any given level without having set the kitchen on fire. I speak from experience, having watched pretty much every in-game kitchenscape I ve graced go up in flames a problem which others appear to have struggled with too. The best thing about it is this is part of the fun.

If you think you might fare better, you can now test your own culinary clout as Overcooked has launched on Steam, and celebrates with the following release trailer.

Across 28 standard campaign levels, as well as an end boss, players can whip up a storm either on their lonesome or via local co-op the latter of which Tom suggests best portrays what the chaotic kitchen em up has to offer. Best served with friends are Overcooked s nine local versus levels. Depending on how much you value your friendship, you can even split gamepad controls and share the same controller with a pal.

There s no online co-op for now, which is a shame, however there is the choice of 14 different chefs to play as, as well as a range of kitchen settings such as aboard spaceships and moving vehicles to flounder within. And inevitably set on fire.

Overcooked is out now via Steam for 12.99/$16.99/ 15.99.