Monthly Archives: April 2015
eSports Weekend Calendar: May 1 – 3, 2015
I don’t know about you but I was glued to Heroes of the Dorm last weekend. While I’m a fan of the shorter (15 to 25 minute) matches, it would seem that they work for TV even better. Unless broadcasters and publishers would compromise on split-screen ads or live reads or big ad banners during matches, HOTS may dominate the TV eSports scene in North America just through sheer sponsor-friendliness. That and because the matches were awesome.
I think I’ve mentioned it before but I had a provisional offer to be a League of Legends caster for a friend of a friend but that fell through when the organizers weren’t actually willing to put any money into their league (no money for prize pool, graphics, music or casters made it a failed venture before it launched). I think it worked out for the best because I’d much rather get in on the ground floor with HOTS eSports than League even if it’s at its peak. How does one become a MOBA caster anyway?
Anyway, there isn’t much HOTS this weekend. League has the LCK Spring Grand Final. Elsewhere, CS:GO and Hearthstone have some big championships being decided this weekend. More Dota 2 leagues work through the group stages. And Gfinity has some big names competing for a $10,000 prize pool and 1,800 WCS points at their Spring Masters II.
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Comic Book Pull List for April 29, 2015
Just in time for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres, Marvel has a $1.00 intro to the comic version of Age of Ultron. It might not be quite the same as it’ll be on the silver screen but you can get a bit of a spoiler in True Believers: Age of Ultron #1. Meanwhile, DC has their own Convergence event ongoing with Convergence miniseries launching for Detective Comics, Action Comics, Crime Syndicate, Shazam, World’s Finest, Infinity Inc, Justice Society of America, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Plastic Man & the Freedom Fighters.
And I never talk about Judge Dredd despite it being in my file but I’m going to take this opportunity to do so. A lot of comics will do four or five issue story arcs. Sure, there are some long plot points played out over the course of a series but the different arcs don’t seem to flow together seamlessly. I know that Dredd seems to change its focus every four issues but one arc seems to flow right into the next. The ending of one story starts the next so that it all seems properly serialized storytelling.
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Game of Thrones: High Sparrow Review
I think people are starting to come around on this season of Game of Thrones. It might be because we got some killing and dragon action last week. However, it might be because people have come to realize that non-stop action like we had last season just isn’t sustainable. You can have action without blood being spilled. While it looks like we are quickly approaching the bigger budget and bigger action portion of the season, it didn’t start this week. However, the pieces keep moving into their places but they move in such unpredictable and entertaining ways, you can’t help but feel enthralled.
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Game Trailers Roundup for April 27, 2015
Trailers… Trailers, everywhere. Today, we have nine trailers for you to check out. There are some launch trailers for Killing Floor 2 and Project CARS among other games. Call of Duty had an announcement trailer for the next game that dropped yesterday. And there was a features trailer for Rory McIlroy PGA Tour? I’ll keep waiting for an Elin Nordegren game.
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The Internet as Superheroes (Infographic)
I think I’ve seen the internet and various mammoth sites around compared to just about everything possible. Well, that was until today when someone on Reddit posted a little infographic that compared to superheroes. Not only are they being compared to superheroes but DC Comics superheroes. That sounds like my sort of infographic.
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eSports Weekend Calendar: April 24 – 26, 2015
It’s a really busy weekend in the world of eSports. There are tournaments and leagues that are taking place and wrapping up all over the world. You name it and there’s a tournament this weekend. I think this might actually be the biggest weekend calendar that we’ve ever done.
Let’s go through the Cole’s Notes version of the calendar. DreamHack Bucharest has the Dota 2 StarSeries XII playoffs, PGL’s CS:GO Championship Series final four and tournaments for Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. We have the LPL spring finals this weekend. Round 2 of the 2015 SC2 Proleague sees CJ Entus and Jin Air Green Wings do battle in the final. And Heroes of the Dorm wraps up Sunday night on ESPN3 and ESPN2. Yes, Blizzard got their first major Heroes of the Storm tournament on US cable television which is actually a massive deal.
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Game of Thrones: The House of Black and White Review
I was a little surprised last week when most of the people I know weren’t so high on the season premiere. I don’t know what there was to not like last week but not much changed this week. Sure, death got a big return this week after a week off in The Wars to Come but sex and violence isn’t the be all and end all of TV.
Much like last week, we got a look at many of the characters around Westeros. Unlike last week which saw some loose threads tied up, a whole host of new stories were kicked off this week.
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Game Trailers Roundup for April 21, 2015
A day late but certainly not a trailer short, it’s time for this week’s roundup of the noteworthy video game trailers for the week.
This week, I’ve rounded up ten trailers for you to watch. There are your little indie releases. Blizzard has a couple of release trailers for Hearthstone on phones and Heroes of the Storm’s open beta and full release. Oh, and there’s a trailer for a little game called Star Wars: Battlefront.
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The New Batman v Superman Trailer Looks Like Anything but a Lawsuit
While I can question the thinking at Warner Bros over not doing a Man of Steel sequel before doing a Justice League movie, naming this movie in the same style as a legal proceeding and seemingly borrowing from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, the fact of the matter is that this is the hand that DC Comics and Superman fans are being dealt.
In the neverending quest to beat Marvel at the box office, DC Comics had their new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice leaked early, just like Avengers: Age of Ultron. We have the officially released trailer and analysis after the jump.
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Star Wars Marks Eight Months to The Force Awakens with a New Trailer
I’ve never heard of Star Wars Celebration but it’s a semi-regular convention and fan event held by LucasFilm with the first three Celebrations coinciding with the release of the prequel movies. Naturally, they held one ahead of this December’s release of Episode VII – The Force Awakens.
The highlight of this year’s Star Wars Celebration was the release of the second trailer for The Force Awakens.
et geekera 