Welcome to the Weekly Recap, where we gather the top stories that happened in the past week to help you catch up with the busy world of eSports!
Dota 2
Valve open Spring Shuffle
Valve officially opened the Spring Shuffle period this week, allowing teams to tinker and prepare for the upcoming Kiev Major, which will be held in March 2017.
Like with the Fall Shuffle, the Spring Shuffle has two phases; a drop period that will end in December 27, and an invite period that will open when the first phase closes, and will last until January 9th next year.
Any team that fails to lock their rosters by the date will not be invited to the Kiev Major.
XctN beat Faceless in ASUS ROG SEA Cup
Execration won $7,500 after the Filipino squad outlasted Team Faceless 3-2 in the ASUS ROG SEA Cup final.
XctN, who had a virtual thrice-to-beat advantage in the final after a blazing performance in the knockouts, needed to 86 minutes in the last game to dispatch Faceless, who defended pretty well despite losing badly in the kill count 35-62.
In the end, XctN’s hero combo of Rubick, Slardar, Gyrocopter, Outworld Devourer and Dark Seer were too much to handle for Faceless’ Mirana, Slark, Crystal Maiden, Timbersaw and Ogre Magi.
iG Vitality win WCA 2016
Invictus Gaming Vitality took home more than $340,000 in prize money after beating Vici Gaming in a five-game thrilling final in the World Cyber Arena in Yinchuan, China.
Runner-up Vici Gaming will pocket around $140,000, while third-placer We Are Young will bag $71,000.
LoL
Riot Games sign streaming deal with Bamtech
League of Legends creator Riot Games has signed a seven-year streaming deal with BAMTech, Major League Baseball’s advanced media subsidiary.
Esports journalist Richard Lewis was the first to report the deal, and stated that the deal will start next year and will guarantee a minimum of $50 million per year for Riot games.
“As an innovator in digital sponsorship and media sales, BAMTech will help us unlock long-lasting and meaningful value for our digital sport as it matures. In BAMTech, we have found a partner equally committed to building professional League of Legends towards the lasting future we believe in for teams, players and fans,” said Riot in an announcement.
IEM Katowice announcement
ESL have finalized the details for the 2017 Intel Extreme Masters Season 11 Finals.
The tournaments will be held at the Spodek Arena and International Conference Center in Poland and will have in excess of $600,000 in prize pool in three tournaments.
The League of Legends tournament will take place on February 25-26, while the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Starcraft 2 competitions will be on March 3-5.
“This event is growing every year. We will have the highest prize money in IEM history and will host more gamers than ever before,” said ESL Pro Gaming VP Michal Blicharz.
CS:GO
NRG sign daps, Brehze, MarkE
To shake up its stagnant CS:GO roster, NRG eSports have reportedly signed Damian “daps” Steele and Omar “MarkE” Jimenez.
The team also acquired Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte from Selfless Gaming and resigned Peter “ptr” Gurney.
Only Jacob “FugLy” Medina has been retained from the old roster, after NRG decided to create a North American roster and let go of Fatih “gob b” Dayik, Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninic and Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz.
jkaem leaves FaZe clan
Joakim “jakem” Myrbostad has left FaZe Clan and is currently out of a team.
In an Instagram post, the Norwegian rifler said: “I left the active roster in FaZe, it was a pleasure the time I spent there”.
FaZe recently benched the 22-year-old in favor of Fabien “kioShima” Fiey, who rejoined the team
Team Dignitas part ways with CS:GO roster
Team Dignitas has mutually agreed to part ways with its’ CS:GO roster, according to a recent team statement.
Both parties agreed not to renew contracts, making Rene “cajunb’ Borg, Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke, Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen, Ruben “rubino” Villaroel, Emil “Magsik” Reif and Casper “Ruggah” Due free agents after the current deal expires later this month.
Dignitas recently signed a sponsorship deal with NBA team Philadelphia 76ers, who reportedly wanted North American reporters to represent the team in the coming months.
CoD
Rise Nation beat C9 at MLG Vegas final
Rise Nation beat Cloud 9 in the final of the MLG Vegas 2016 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare tourney and won $40,000 as champions.
The 2016 winners were in trouble in the group stages but got into their rhythm once the competition rolled on, sweeping big teams like Luminosity, FaZe and Cloud9 in the winners’ bracket to reach the final.
C9 will take home $24,000 as first runner-up, while FaZe will get $16,000 as third placer.
MLG Atlanta to have $200K in prize pool
MLG Atlanta got more exciting after officials announced that the prize pool will be doubled and CoD World League Pro Points will be at stake in the tournament that will be held next February at Georgia World Congress Center.
More than 176 teams from three regions – North America, Europe and APAC – are currently trying to compile enough CWL Pro Points to become one of the 16 teams to make it to the pool play in Atlanta and fight for a prize pool of $200,000 and thousands of CWL Pro Points.
The Pro Points will help teams get seeded to the CoD LAN League that will start next year in April.
Overwatch
Team EnVyUs dominate MLG Vegas 2016
Team EnVyUs trampled on their opponents in the MLG Vegas 2016 Overwatch competition, ultimately trouncing FaZe Clan 4-0 in the Grand Finals to put their hands on the $40,000 grand prize.
nV lost only one map the whole competition, when they lost a game to compLexity Gaming in the group stages, but then turned dominant in the knockouts, where they swept Cloud9 3-0 in the semis and stomped on FaZe in the finale.
FaZe Clan will take home $20,000, while Cloud9 and Fnatic will take home $12,000 apiece.
