The StarSeries Season 2 finals are happening later today!
What does that mean? Well for one it’s the first major in-person Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament since the mid-summer break, with teams ready to prove their roster changes were the right ones and hopefully gain some steam heading back into the second half of ESL Pro League Season 4.
With Sweden’s Ninjas in Pyjamas knocking out Cloud9’s Americans in dominant fashion during the semi-finals, they’ll now face G2 Esports after a tough fought victory over Team Dignitas. You can watch that match-up above, with the finals set to kick off shortly. (Update: NiPGaming comes out on top after a very close 2-0 series. You can re-watch the finals here.)
And please join me in pouring one out for Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert and our fallen Cloud9 comrades.
Overwatch
If the counter-terrorism grit of CS:GO isn’t your thing, there’s always the Overwatch World Cup group stage, a series of matches to determine which teams will get to represent their country on-stage at BlizzCon 2016. Just like the soccer World Cup, the tournament’s emphasis is on showcasing the diverse styles and national identities of teams the world over. You can find the complete list of rosters here.
Crowd favorite, Brandon “Seagull” Larned, who currently plays for NRG eSports, will be heading up the American squad. Qualifying matches between European countries will be playing out over the rest of the afternoon and you can watch all of them right here.
Vainglory
But maybe you’re more like me, in which case your jam is clicking your mouse incessantly or jabbing your finger into your iPad screen until it falls off. Vainglory, a multiplayer online battle arena game for iOS is currently hosting its Summer Championship 2016 in Cologne, Germany.
The grand finals should wrap up around 3:00PM EST this afternoon, which you can watch above. After that, there’ll be the usual awards stuff followed by a chat with the developers, because let’s be honest: you probably have never heard of Vainglory before. You should remedy that though! If you like the idea of Dota 2 and League of Legends, but find them too obtuse or overwhelming, Vainglory’s touch interface and streamlined mechanics (players battle from left to right instead of across a giant three lane map), might be just the thing.
Dota 2
And of course, what’s a Sunday without Football Dota 2? Am I right?
The 2016 MPGL Southeast Asia Championship played out in the wee hours of the morning, with Execration beating MVP. Phoenix, who finished 5th-6th place in the latest The International, convincingly beating the tournament favorites.
I can say it was thoroughly worth watching pub-stomp heroes like Meepo and Huskar make minced meat out of the flaming birds. You can catch up on all the final matches right here.
What will you be watching this afternoon?