Cal’s DI Overwatch team puts down SFSU Gators in Bay Area tournament Cal Overwatch/Courtesy Bears vs. Gators — which prevail in a fight for survival? In this case, Cal’s Division I Overwatch team gave the SFSU “Gaming Gators” a quick death on April 23 — giving some mercy (not the character). After the Cal Division II team cowered from the Stanford Tree’s newly formed team, ending its portion of the tournament 0-3, Cal DI pulled through with a 3-0 complete domination at a Bay Area collegiate local area network, or LAN tournament. The tournament, organized and streamed on Twitch by SFSU, inclu ..read more

Top 3 competitive esports to watch in 2022 Amy Jiang/Courtesy Gaming is back in! Competitive esports is predicted to make a return in 2022, with multiple large-scale international tournaments and events fueling the ever-growing industry. If you’re searching for a specific game to learn, or just simply some of the most popular and exciting esports, this is the place to look. Valorant Valorant is a first-person, team-based shooter game released by Riot Games. It came out in June 2020 and completely blew up the competitive gaming scene, now boasting a monthly average of 13 million active player ..read more

What’s the vision?: Cal League of Legends makes West Conference playoffs, eyes nationals Amy Jiang/Courtesy In keeping with the instantly iconic line from Wandavision, what is a 5-1 finish if not Cal League of Legends persevering? On Saturday, the Bears played their last set of the 2021 West Conference regular season, going 2-0 against Simon Fraser University and qualifying for the regional playoffs. You could say they took a page out of Wandavision’s book, given that after its hot streak in the 2020 season got cut short by COVID-19, the team now has a chance to fight its way onto the nation ..read more

Former Cal League of Legends jungler Lawrence Xu signs with Cloud9 Amateur Lawrence Xu/Courtesy Lawrence “eXyu” Xu has got his chance. After his free-agency announcement blew up on Twitter, the former Cal League of Legends player was handpicked by Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne to jungle for C9 Amateur. The team is C9’s first incarnation of a tier-two roster, designed to pick out and train the future stars of the League of Legends Championship Series, or LCS. Xu has made the ideal first step, by any aspiring pro’s standards: He has full-time coaches, LCS veterans for mentors and the backing of one ..read more

DAMWON Gaming defeats Suning to win 2020 League of Legends World Championship LoL Esports Photos/Creative Commons In Berkeley, there are a lot of reasons your neighbors might be screaming at 5 a.m. Maybe they’re having a party that’s gotten way out of hand, or maybe they’ve just received an email that their 9 a.m. class is canceled. Or, consider this: They could be nerds who stayed up late to watch the League of Legends World Championship. Around 7 a.m. Oct. 31, DAMWON Gaming took down Suning 3-1 to become the 2020 League of Legends world champions. After beating out 21 other teams in the mo ..read more

When I go, it’s for gold: DAMWON Gaming and Suning face off in League of Legends World Championship Final Riot Games/Courtesy What’s black, white and blue all over? No, not a zebra at the north pole. Not a penguin holding its breath, either. It’s K/DA, of course! The augmented reality K-pop stars shocked the world with their surprise debut at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship, and they’re back for “More” in 2020. The group dropped its first music video in two years on Wednesday, just days before the 2020 World Championship Finals. K/DA is expected to bring down the house in the f ..read more

Cal Overwatch locks in 2020 roster, sets sights on upcoming season Blizzard Entertainment/Courtesy This may be the season of skulls, spiders and ghosts, but don’t let anyone tell you Overwatch is dead! The team-based first-person shooter has been a mainstay for college-level esports since its release in 2016, and although university life looks different for many students this year, collegiate Overwatch will play on this fall. Overwatch teams are made up of six players, who each fill one of three roles in the game: DPS (Damage), Tank and Support. At UC Berkeley, all six spots on the entirely ..read more

Team MAJKL wins 1st all-women Valorant Ignition Series tournament FTW_us/Courtesy If you’ve never heard of Team MAJKL, you better learn the name. MAJKL is a new powerhouse in competitive Valorant, a 5v5 tactical shooter video game released by Riot Games in June. The team became the first all-women squad to win a Riot-sponsored championship title Sunday, taking home first place — and $25,000 — in the FTW Summer Showdown without dropping a single map. The FTW Summer Showdown, co-hosted by FTW: For The Women and Nerd Street Gamers, was part of Riot’s Valorant Ignition Series, a set of tournamen ..read more

Hop online: How gaming tournaments bring students together during quarantine Amy Jiang/Courtesy It’s been almost two months since the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order began, and UC Berkeley is deserted. Students have returned to their homes all over the world, leaving friends, campus and beloved student clubs behind without the chance to say a proper goodbye. Some groups at Cal, however, are continuing online. Video games and esports are seeing an unexpected boom as many people are confined to their homes. Similarly, student organizations that are focused on gaming are finding ways to bring ..read more

Cloud9 breaks LCS Finals curse, 3-0 against FlyQuest Tiffany Kuan/Courtesy Something about sports makes even the most rational people believe in the supernatural. Just like baseball’s Curse of the Bambino, League of Legends has the Eyes On curse, the Team Liquid fourth-place curse, the World Championship first seed curse and more. After all, if curses aren’t real, why do your favorite teams lose? Cloud9 stepped into the North American League of Legends Championship Series, or LCS, in the summer of 2013, stunning fans with a first-place finish in the team’s inaugural competitive season. Since ..read more