The spotlight this weekend belonged to competitive Halo 5 as pros descended on California for sci-fi carnage.
Image credit: ESL.
While OpTic remain the kings of Microsoft’s first-person shooter, their dominance looks as fragile as ever in the face of rising contenders on all sides. Elsewhere in esports, the best Smash players have two long days ahead of them while Hearthstone‘s greatest minds work on their tans and Shaman combos under palm trees in the Caribbean-hosted Winter Championship.
Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us know what you’ll be watching in the comments or if you think there’s something we might have missed.
Halo 5
The Halo 5 World Championship came to a head this weekend with the best teams in the world facing off for $US1,000,000 ($1,311,903) in prize money. While teams like Liquid and Luminosity fought hard, in the end OpTic Gaming was able to defend its title from last year. You can check out the recorded stream from day three embedded below.
League of Legends
Regular play in League of Legends continued with the conclusion of the spring season’s ninth week. Play wrapped up in Europe first with Team Vitality defeated by H2K 1-2, followed by Giants falling to Fnatic 1-2.
Action kicked off in North America with Immortals defeating Counter Logic Gaming 2-0, and Team Liquid besting Team Solo Mid 2-1.
Play in South Korea opened with Afreeca Freecs defeating Longzhu Gaming 2-0. Meanwhile, in China, Royal Never Give Up maintained its position at the top of Group A by defeating Vici Gaming 2-1.
You can find all of the matches streaming on each region’s respective channel (NA, EU, China, Korea).
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The Esport Championship Series 3 returned with a vengeance this weekend. Europe’s VirtusPro took down Space Soldiers 3-1 in their semifinal, while Fnatic won 3-1 over North. Meanwhile in North America, Team SoloMid was scheduled to go up against Bee’s Money Crew, however were unable to field a lineup. Bee’s Money Crew therefore went up against, and completely demolished, Complexity, with a score of 3-0.
The Renegades, who were originally slated to face Complexity, automatically moved on in the competition due to being number one seed from the Development League.
Hearthstone
The moment Hearthstone fans have been waiting finally arrived as the 2017 HTC Winter Championship got underway in the Bahamas. Come to see former reigning champ Pavel stare existentially off into the ocean, stay for the upsets as Blizzard’s collectable card game works through some ongoing growing pains.
In the end, Pavel was unable to hold on to his title, losing it to ShtanUdachi, who remained undefeated throughout the tournament.
You can watch the recorded stream here.
Overwatch
The Carbon Series returned this weekend to close out its finals. A round-robin phase left the semifinals seeded with Immortals vs. Complexity Gaming in the first leg, followed by LG Evil vs. Renegades in the second. Immortals and LG Evil won their respective matches 3-0, going on to face each other in the final. In the end Immortals prevailed 3-1, taking home the title. The Renegades took home third place after winning the consolation bout with Complexity Gaming 3-1.
You can catch up on those matches here.
Smash Bros.
It was a full weekend of Smash with both Full Bloom 3 celebrating the beginning of spring across Melee featuring Hungrybox, Mang0 and Leffen, and 2GG’s Civil War tournament for Smash 4 showcasing ZeRo, Ally and Larry Lurr.
You can catch up on the matches for Civil War here, and Full Bloom here.
Street Fighter 5
The Game Over Tournament was the next stop on the Capcom Pro Tour this weekend as players gather in the Dominican Republic to increase their rank.
You can catch up on the tournament stream here.
Rocket League
North America got started with Genesis falling to Atelier 1-3, and wrapped things up with Denial Esports losing to Selfless Gaming 2-3. In Europe Team Secrecy was defeated by The Leftovers 2-3, then Mock-It Esports triumphed over Cow Nose 3-2.
You can catch up on those games here.
Smite
Things kicked off this weekend in the world of Smite as LGE fell to Obey 0-2, with more matches following. Play resumed on Sunday with Noble losing to Soar 0-2. You can catch up on those matches here.
Vainglory
On the third week of its spring season, the action began with Fnatic falling to G2 Esports 1-2 in Europe, followed by Immortals being defeated by Hammers Esports 0-2 in North America. A full schedule for the entire season is available here.
You can catch up on all of the games right here.
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