Did you miss anything from the last week in esports? Did you, by some unfortunate circumstance, could not watch the explosive championship Sunday matches? VPEsports’ Stories from the Week brings you all the biggest headlines you might have missed.
Virtus.pro win ESL One LA EU & CIS
Virtus.pro put on their best tournament performance in a long while this weekend, as they won the EU & CIS league of ESL One Los Angeles. Even with a position 1 stand-in in Igor “iLTW” Filatov, Virtus.pro destroyed the playoffs, dropping only two games to OG in the grand finals.
Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko showed big for the “bears”, bringing a 22/0 Templar Assassin to tie the series 2-2 in game four and then an elusive Storm Spirit to close the grand final 3-2.
OG come back from 40K deficit in ESL One LA’s most hyped match
Yet none of the grand final games measured up to OG’s impossible comeback a few matches earlier against Team Secret. In a game that lasted almost an hour, Team Secret at one point held a 40K networth lead, well on their way to tie the series. As a Hail Mary play, Syed “SumaiL” Hassan purchased Divine Rapier as his third item, exclusively relying on his supports to keep him alive.
OG then stalled the game long enough for SumaiL to get his Satanic and find a Paladin Sword, making OG’s insane defense and subsequent comeback possible. A must-watch game!
ESL One LA breaks 506K peak viewers
With so many great matches leading up to the grand final, the clash between Virtus.pro and OG peaked upwards of 500K concurrent viewers — the highest of all DPC Majors in history, including the ones before the lock-down.
While 500K is nothing compared to the numbers The International pulls in, the number still shows there are still fans who will flock to watch good Dota 2.
All VALORANT streams can now drop beta keys
Last week, Riot Games took an additional step towards popularizing its FPS VALORANT. While before only a select number of streamers could drop beta keys to their viewers, now every single VALORANT stream will do so.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the drop chance of beta keys has increased, simply that you don’t have to watch somebody in particular to get one. On the plus side, VALORANT closed beta is soon to expand to Latin America, Brazil, and South Korea.
CS:GO passes 1.3M peak players
And while Riot are pushing VALORANT hard, CS:GO continues its steady and impressive climb on Steam. On April-18, the seven-year-old game broke 1.3M concurrent players, overtaking the previous Steam record of 1.29M, held by Dota 2.
This is a growth of almost 700K per week for Valve’s shooter and it shows no signs of slowing down. By the end of the month, CS:GO could easily be looking at 1.4M peak players.
Team Liquid looking to sell Doublelift
Four-time LCS champions Team Liquid might part ways with bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, according to reports. Liquid have reportedly put up Doublelift’s contract up for same, looking to transfer him away ahead of the Summer Split.
The decision comes in the wake of a disappointing season for Liquid, who failed to make the playoffs, despite minimal roster changes in the off-season. If Doublelift really ends up leaving, this will be an interesting off-season for the blue jerseys.
Cloud9 sweep FlyQuest to win LCS, break win-rate records
Cloud9 completed their dominant Spring Split run by trampling FlyQuest in the grand finals on Sunday evening. By winning the finals 3-0, Cloud9 ended the split with a record of 26-2 — the highest of any champion in any single LCS split.
The new LCS champions now look forward to 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, hoping to do better than Counter Logic Gaming and Team Liquid — the only two other LCS teams that made the grand final, only to lose it 0-3.
G2 outclass Fnatic in blitzkrieg LEC final
In a similarly one-sided grand final, G2 Esports took their seventh LEC title by best rivals Fnatic 3-0, tying their record for most LEC championships in just nine splits (compared to Fnatic’s 15).
For the “samurai” this is now a chance to re-attempt the ultimate achievement in League of Legends: win MSI, Worlds, and both domestic splits, something not even SKT has done in their history.
Source: Read Full Article