DOTA 2
The prize pool for The International 2020 has surpassed $14.5 million, and we are still far away from TI10. Although the growth has slowed down for the past couple of days, it’ll pick up once again as Valve comes up with treasure releases, etc. https://www.dota2.com/international/battlepass
The Queen of Pain Arcana has finally been released and it is a sweet painful treat to our eyes. The captivating Arcana -- Eminence of Ristul -- completely changes the outlook of the Goddess of Hell. Have you bought yours yet? https://www.dota2.com/eminenceofristul
The Blast Bounty Hunt Dota 2 is a refreshing treat to the eyes of the community. An online tournament featuring six teams across Europe and the world with a prize pool of $145,000 USD, also featuring exciting mini-bounties such as “Drop the Dead Donkey”, “Something Something Feeder”, etc has received good response. What else? Well, Team Secret has once again won yet another tournament thereby continuing their hot streak. Another cat in the bag! https://liquipedia.net/dota2/BLAST/Bounty_Hunt
Just a clip that’ll bring smile to your faces from our back-to-back TI Champions https://twitter.com/BLASTDota/status/1271548144308891653?s=20
League of Legends
The week starts out a bit rough, as a Riot Games executive was fired for making insensitive comments about the death of George Floyd, first reported by Vice. The ridiculous social media posts from the executive sparked heated conversations and even almost resulted in Riot Games losing a deal with Verizon Wireless. The fallout would have been massive if this had occurred, but Riot Games reacted quickly to deal with the problem.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7kp89e/riot-games-investigating-exec-who-blamed-george-floyds-murder-on-his-lifestyle
https://www.protocol.com/league-of-legends-verizon-5g-deal
In other news, famous former pro player Hai “Hai” Du Lam was chat restricted for saying very mild mannered words in a single solo queue game. Riot then removed his League Partner Program rights, walked it back with a probation, and then overall went with just a warning. It kind of makes you wonder if this were the average joe, or if Reddit made a stink about it along with other personalities, Riot might not have done anything.
https://clips.twitch.tv/ManlyCuriousGoshawkOptimizePrime
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/h7vlqt/hais_probation_now_just_a_warning/
TSM have decided to make General Manager Parth their head coach. As the statement reads, “both Doublelift and Bjergsen have requested Parth’s return and his coaching system”. Of course this heavily alludes to the idea that Doublelift and Bjergsen are influencers on who can mantle the position of coach in the team. Additionally, GM Parth essentially hired himself for the job, which goes to show that there are some very deep seeded problems within the TSM organization.
https://tsm.gg/news/tsm-2020-summer-split-coaching-structure
Overwatch
Former New York Excelsior player, Yeon-oh "Fl0w3R" Hwang, announced that he has left his current team, RunAway. With a vague tweet citing a “new game challenge,” many in the community have jumped to speculation about whether or not he will be making the move to Riot Game’s newest title, VALORANT. (https://twitter.com/Runaway_OW/status/1271734836986695680)
While the Seoul Dynasty shocked the Overwatch world with their second-place finish at the May Melee, their return during this past weekend was anything but inspiring. Facing down the barrel of a New York Excelsior roster that has made some roster moves, the Dynasty failed to continue the momentum and was swept in their most recent match 0-3. What stung even more, was the fact that Seoul failed to score any points on the three maps that were played. On the flip side, the Shanghai Dragons continue to look consistent as the leaders in Asia with their Summer Showdown debut against the London Spitfire.
Meanwhile, in the west, the Boston Uprising continue their upward trajectory with a 5-game-series with the Paris Eternal, a team that also saw a new debut this week as long-awaited DPS rookie Yeong-han "SP9RK1E" Kim finally is eligible to play. This mimics their match record from their most recent match together during the first round of the May Melee which saw the Uprising loss in a similar fashion; improving, but not quite there. Paris has a rough schedule ahead of them as their next opponent is May Melee champion and defending 2019 world champion, the San Francisco Shock whom they’ll battle on June 20th.
A team that occupies the opposite side of that same coin are the Atlanta Reign. With their recent loss to the Los Angeles Gladiators. With a rare sighting of DPS ace Joon "Erster" Jeong, the Reign still have yet flip the script on their season wide narrative. Whether it is Hero Pools or just the normal peaks and valleys of a team, the 2019 playoff dark horse doesn’t look all that menacing when putting next to either of the Los Angeles teams or a team that has massively improved, the Florida Mayhem. Atlanta’s next match lands on June 20th where they’ll face off against the Toronto Defiant.
Valorant:
There haven't been a lot of activities in the Valorant community over the past week. Nonetheless, the first Valorant Twitch Rivals took place over the weekend. A huge $200,000 prize pool was spread through six regions: Europe, North America, Latin America, Brazil, Korea, and Japan. The champions of the 3rd tournament were as follows:
- Europe #1: Team Mixwell
- Europe #2: Team Duno
- North America: Team Brax
- LATAM #1: Team blue_mx
- LATAM #2: Team frankkaster
- Korea: Team juankorea
- Japan: BAKEMON
- Brazil: Team pannshi
Closing Thoughts from the editor:
There's a
whole lot I'd love to say but a whole lot I cannot say. This month marks my 7 year tenure as Editor-in-Chief at Esports Heaven, and I'm proud of us for maintaining one of the longest standing independent esports organizations around, especially during a tumultuous period.
Let's just say some exciting times are in store, and you all will be missing out if you're not there to witness it alongside us.
KarY
2020-06-15 05:07:40