“What’s on this week?” is ESI’s weekly feature letting you know just what’s going on in the wonderful world of esports in the next seven days. Each week, ESI picks a selection of events and provides a brief overview of what’s going down, where it’s taking place and how you can watch it.
It’s always pretty hard to top a previous week of esports when said week contains a CS:GO Major. We at ESI like a challenge, so we put together three events that you might not know about this week to get you through the CS:GO blues. First up we have Overwatch Contenders, more specifically the European one: whilst the Overwatch League is killing it on Twitch, we felt the need to shed some light on the up-and-coming teams’ and players. Next up is StarCraft: what a week that game had at IEM, StarCraft thrust itself into the hearts and minds of esports fans yet again over the weekend, so why not keep that interest going with some SC2 Global Series action? Finally, we head to the UK to catch up with some regional League of Legends action as Fnatic look to hold its place as the Tower Champion for a third week.
Since the Overwatch League formed there has been a lot of hype about the scene. A lot of people ignore the Contenders series, however, with series played in Australia, China, Europe, Korea, North America, Pacific and South America. The Overwatch Contenders series really does have a global talent reach. We followed the series a number of times in 2018, so we decided to drop in and check on the new Contenders in 2019.
This week we will focus on the European Contenders Series. We drop in during week two matches, two series a day will play out over March 7th & 8th. Taking part this season are the two academy sides the British Hurricane and Eternal Academy, with Team Gigantti, Angry Titans, Samsung Morning Stars and One.PoinT due to previous top 4 placements whilst Shu’s Money Crew EU and Young and Beautiful come through the Trials series. Not much can be taken after just one week of play, but the series is sure to develop in the coming weeks as teams find their footing in 2019 and we’ll be sure to check in from time-to-time.
Stream: Overwatch Contenders – Location: Online – Date: 7/3 – 8/3 – Sponsors: N/A – Organiser: Blizzard – Prize pool: £152,000
Last week at IEM Katowice saw not only another massive month of CS:GO but we also saw StarCraft 2 prove itself yet again as one of the giants of esports. The event, which saw 72 StarCraft players battle it out had its Grand Final this past Sunday, when South Korean, soO, took home the top prize. It also saw StarCraft 2 have its best day on Twitch since the game release in 2010.
We join the action at Group Stage 2, Group A & Group D. Group A action starts on March 8th and features Maru, Impact, Bunny and Patience, with Group D the following day and featuring TY, GuMiho, Rogue and IEM champion soO. All matches are Bo3, with winners and losers bracket matches before the deciding showdown. Group B & C will follow in two weeks. The current meta breakdown has seen 13 Protoss, 9 Terran and 10 Zerg players. Only one non-South Korean took part in the event, with Canadian Scarlett placing third in Group E in the round of 32.
Stream: GSL – Location: Seoul, South Korea – Date: 8/3 – 9/3 – Sponsors: Mount Dew – Organiser: AfreecaTV & Blizzard – Prize pool: £115,000
When the EU League of Legends scene became franchised for 2019, it created a lot of hype for regional leagues’ across Europe. One of the standouts was our very own UK league. 2018 saw LVPtake over from ESL UK as the organiser of the UK LoL scene and 2019 saw the start of LVP UKLC, featuring familiar faces from UK’s past alongside new LEC team Excel and current EU champions Fnatic enter academy rosters in their home regions.
LVP UKLC is made up of MnM Gaming, Barrage Esports, Enclave Gaming, Diabolus, Excel UK, Bulldog, DarkSpawn Esports, Phelan Gaming and EULCS champions Fnatic. The series features a ‘Tower’ system, which sees the previous week or Tower, winner taking the form of an ‘end boss’ of the following week. Last week saw the Fnatic Academy team hold onto its top spot heading into week five of the UKLC.
Stream: LVPUK – Location: Online (UK) – Date: 6/3 – 7/3 – Sponsors: N/A – Organiser: RiotGamess & LVP
That’s a wrap on this week’s picks, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the ESI weekly picks.
We want to feature at least one smaller event each week on the ESI weekly picks. If you want an event included in a future edition, send an email to david@esportsinsider.com.
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