Goodbye to a beat (and hello to an update)

It’s been fun.  I’ve learned plenty about the creation of blogs, I’ve had moments of revelation, and I feel closer than ever to the Gaming world and its intricacies.  But, as with many things, it must come to an end so something new and better can come forwards.  I do not plan on keeping this blog running as it is; instead, I plan to shift to a more universal beat for my blogging, focusing more on Gaming news in general in hopes of furthering my journalistic skills.  The topic of eSports is a broad one, but outside of larger tournaments, I feel that the weekly games just don’t have as much of an impact on readers.  If you care enough, every Overwatch League game can be viewed on the Official Overwatch League youtube channel.  Outside of that, the wins and losses are the most important parts of these games, and are posted all over the internet post-game.  

With my new blog, I plan on focusing my sights on the transition into the new generation of gaming, highlighting all the upcoming releases from game titles to hardware, and comparing them to currently available options. Gaming is such a large part of who I am, and one of the few things that have driven my passion since my youth.  It only feels appropriate that Gaming would be my focus in terms of journalism and news in any facet, and I hope that by refocusing my blog I can better grasp the attention of my readers and leave them feeling educated and entertained by my content. 

I would like to keep eSports as a tab on my blog, as it still feels like a hyper-relevant aspect of the Gaming world, but it just doesn’t have as much hype as other parts of the community.  In particular, the upcoming release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X are what everyone seems to be focused on currently, as a new console generation marks a step forwards in technology and user interface.  Even game developers have slowed down their output in order to test out the capabilities of the new console and to make sure their games are utilizing the new technology as best as they can.  It's an exciting time to be a gamer, regardless of console choice.

Part of why I’m making this move is because I feel my blog has already shifted that direction more naturally, but also I just don’t believe there’s enough constant changes in the eSports world to be noteworthy.  Blogging is a great way to stay relevant on the highlights and big info, but doesn’t feel like the right format for play-by-play notes on a basic game from the competitive season for any game. Perhaps a subsection of a blog could be dedicated to keeping tabs on who beat who and highlights from each game, but overall it simply doesn’t change enough to be continually entertaining. 

 

My new blog will be up in the following weeks, with an updated look and a consistent update schedule.  Thanks for tuning in, and may your games end in victory!

A glimpse of the future: SONY's PlayStation 5 Reveal

Today marks a great day in PlayStation history.  Sony revealed their latest console today, as well as a string of games coming exclusively to the console, generating hype and excitement for the next wave of gaming.  The reveal trailer boasted about the new console’s processing power and refined controller, claiming that it’s going to change the way we see gaming.  I cannot express how excited I am to see this console release, but I must add that it's never a good Idea to buy the first model of any generation console.  While it’s exciting to own the most modern console, the first model is always filled with issues that we cannot foresee until a few months to a year after its launch.  This has been true for every console released since the Nintendo Entertainment System, and is even more relevant with the modern age of gaming.  Nevertheless, it’s truly exciting to see that the next step of gaming will hold, and I can’t wait to see the innovations that this brings to the gaming world.

Making a name: VALORANT's Struggle for Individuality

    With VALORANT’s release a pretty big success in the industry, it now has to prove itself as a worthwhile game in the industry.  Many believe that the close similarities to Counter Strike will actually benefit it, as Counter Strike has dominated its own unique genre for decades with no real competition or comparisons.  Before VALORANT, the closest comparison was Call of Duty, which feels like comparing apples to pineapples.  The slight similarities aren’t enough to really say they’re related.  With an actual competitor entering the scene, It will be fascinating to see how they interact with each other.  Counter Strike hasn’t changed its base formula very much over the years that it’s been out, and most of the customization in it offers skins and aesthetic variations to personalize your player-character.  VALORANT takes this a little further, still offering weapon skins and slight customization, but also bringing in the opportunity for character variations.  Each character in VALORANT has their own set of abilities that actively changes the way they interact with the battlefield, as well as an ultimate ability that can change the outcome of an entire round.  This adjustment might not sound like a huge difference, but when combat can last anywhere from 10 seconds to 3 minutes, these abilities and the way they’re implemented can completely change the battlefield. 

Twitch Rivals VALORANT Launch tournament!

This week in eSports, Twitch Rivals hosted a Launch tournament for Riot Games’ latest title VALORANT.  This free-to-play, First person shooter by the makers of League of Legends has been in development for a while now, and many were anticipating its release towards the end of the summer.  Then, roughly around May, Riot confirmed that it not only would be launching soon, but that to commemorate its launch there would be a global launch tournament to help advertise the game.  The tournament was broken up into several regions, and each region had its own prize pool and held the competition independently.  There were 7 regions, separated as Europe, Korea, Brazil, Latin America N, Latin America S, North America, and Japan. This tournament offered a unique view of the competitive gaming scene because A) it commemorated the launch of a new title for everyone to play and B) it allowed viewers to tune into their favorite streamers associated with any team and have a more personalized experience watching the tournament take place.  From the Viewers standpoint, they could join a community of players and viewers to root for their favorite players and get a feel for the intensity of the tournament.  From the competitors perspective, I imagine it was a much looser feel than your average tournament, but having a personal crowd of support vs an audience of spectators must’ve been a completely different experience.  

In the North American bracket, the  tournament started on June 6th, considered the Group Stage where teams compete with one another to earn their spots for the playoffs.  It concluded on June 7th, with the top teams from the previous day competing in a playoffs event.  The prize pool for this event was different than normal as well, with $42,000 in total prizes broken up between Round Robin and Playoffs.  In the round robin, you earned $750 per win or $250 per loss, totaling at $24,000 available day 1.  The remaining $18,000 was earned in the playoffs, with the #1 team earning an additional $8,000 on top of their Round Robin wins.  2nd place earned $5,000 and 3rd-4th earned $2,500 each.  The winners of the North American bracket were called Team Brax, and ended up taking home a total of $10,250 in prizes (to be split into 5 since it's a team of 5).  Second place went to Team Myth,  earning $7,250 and the 3rd-4th place teams, Team Mendo and Team Sh0ts, earned $4,750 each. 

The tournament finished off with the Japan playoffs on June 7th, and overall was a huge success.  Many streamers have begun playing the game now that it’s available, and if you’re interested at trying your hand at it, you can download it from the official webpage for free!  The game feels like a fascinating mixture of Overwatch and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, so it will be interesting to see how the game develops and improves as it grows with the community.  Personally I feel the game simply doesn’t bring enough of its own personality to the competitive scene, and some of its animation and particle effects could use some updating and adjusting, but it has potential to be a great game. 

MTGArena Open Tournament UPDATE 2- Winning deck archetypes

There were quite a number of winning deck archetypes in the Open tournament, and many had very similar themes.  People often like to emulate a particular build to better suit their personal play styles, but many look to the professionals for ideas on how best to make their next deck.  Here is a list of the decks that won, and the most popular of the archetypes ended up utilizing both of the freshly banned cards before they were officially banned (the ban took effect June 1st).  It was incredible to see the types of combos and strategies people managed to home brew for the purpose of the tournament, but at the end of the day, the “Jeskai Lukka” stormed the competition, boasting a 7-0 win rate on multiple occasions.  I honestly can’t wait to see when the next tournament will be and what changes it’ll bring to the current meta. For more information on how to build an effective deck in standard competition, check out this article posted by a member of the Wizards of the Coast team about successful deck building strategies.

MTG Arena Open UPDATE 1- the Meta changes

The popularity of the MTGArena open tournament showed how ready and willing people are to try an online format for the game.  It also provided a lot of important statistical information that the creators of the game, Wizards of the Coast, use to determine banned and restricted cards in the current meta of the game.  Wizards of the Coast don’t often ban cards because of the belief that creativity and diversity in decks and strategies keeps the game fun and entertaining, but there are some exceptions.  Specifically, when cards and deck archetypes come out that make it 1: too easy to win with and 2: too oppressive to have fun with, the cards that make those deck archetypes too strong are looked at and, in some cases, banned from use.  

    This tournament highlighted 2 specific cards that were all over the tournament scene; Fires of Invention and Agent of Treachery. Due to their high amount of play and the difficulty to respond to them in game, the developers ruled that those cards were simply too strong for the game as it is, and were banned from competitive use.  Hopefully, this ban will ensure that more diversity and originality will flourish once again in the competitive scene, and help balance decks that utilized these cards far beyond their intended potential. 

MTG Arena Open Tournament (May 30th-31st)

Magic; The Gathering Arena (aka MTGArena) hosted a digital open tournament last weekend, May 30-31st. This tournament marked the first large-scale tournament for the MTGArena platform, and boasted a prize pool of $2,000 to anyone able to win 14 matches over the course of the 2-day event.   

For those unaware, Magic: The Gathering Arena is an online card-based strategy game, and essentially functions as a digital platform to play the game.  The premise is that two players with 60-card decks compete with one another for coins and prizes, most of which are simply in-game benefits.  The format follows the same rule set as the paperback card game would, but only contains the most recent 2 years worth of cards (with some exceptions).  Magic: The Gathering has been around for decades now, with the first set of cards being released in 1993.  Since its release, the game has seen many diverse and unique changes, and many different formats for play have been made.  Each new set of cards tells an overarching story of whatever the newest set of cards is based on.  For instance, the most recent set is based on a fictional plane of existence called Ikoria, where creatures shift and evolve without any warning, creating a constantly evolving and changing food chain.  This ecosystem is represented in the cards that were released, where some cards alter or add to already in-play creatures, and make them stronger or different in one way or another.   Like this, every set that gets released has a story attached that can be found on the Wizards of the coast story page (though the full stories can be purchased from Amazon).

The tournament held last weekend was a grand display of how accessible and flexible the Magic community can be.  Traditionally, these types of tournaments are held in person, using cards already owned, and typically require the contenders to enter a pre qualifying tournament and win to get a chance at winning actual cash.  However, due to the threat of Corona virus and the state of the world, they elected to host this tournament online and give everyone a chance at competing.  Day 1 of the tournament allowed players to enter for 4,000 gems (roughly $25 in real currency) or 20,000 coins, which can be earned through playing casual or competitive matches in the game.  A person can enter as many times as they wish, but can only qualify for day 2 once, and must win 7 matches without losing more than 2 in order to earn qualification to day 2.  There were small prizes listed for anyone that got more than 2 wins, but the only way to break even in terms of value would be to make it to day 2.

The Day 2 tournament was played in traditional best-of-three matches, where players only had one chance to enter, and one round consisted of 2-3 matches against the same person.  This format offered a small window of time for people to swap out cards from their main deck with cards from their sideboards, offering responses to certain deck archetypes or minuscule adjustments that can (and sometimes are) crucial to success.  Players competed until they won 7 matches or lost 2 matches, and the prize pool for day 2 was much more generous.  A single win meant you broke even in terms of the gems spent to enter the tournament, and it grew in value up to 5 wins, which netted players 20,000 gems (a $100 value in game).  After that, 6 wins meant winning $1,000 USD paid out via i-Payout Accounts, and 7 wins earned the $2,000 grand prize.  

Unlike other traditional Magic tournaments, this one made it possible that multiple people across the world could win the $2,000 prize pool, provided they adhere to the rules and are more than proficient with the game mechanics.   This tournament set a precedent of how effective online tournaments can be in the Magic community, and might change the way Magic The Gathering does tournaments as a whole.