Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Apex legends

Apex Legends is without a doubt one of the biggest suprises in the gaming industry during recent times. Hitting the industry like a rocket in the last couple of weeks,  the game has topped the Twitch viewership charts, hit 8 figure account creations and has recieved universal positive acclaim. We are going to take a quick look at 10 things you may not know about Apex Legends. Don’t forget to Subscribe and ring that bell to be notified of my upcoming content.

 

10 – Apex Legends is the first game in the history of the industry to release as it was announced. This extremely risky marketing move has been carried out in the tech industry but has never been carried out by a games developer. The stars aligned for Apex and I worry that this success may lead others to try and replicate the games release hype but may not yield similar results.

 

9 – In addition to the previous point, it’s almost impossible to keep a game secret during development. EA and Respawn somehow managed this, not even alluding to a secret project or an unnamed game.

 

8 – The game has seemingly blended two of the most popular genres of FPS into one to create something new and unique. The addition of the battle royale genre alongside the hero class shooter genre has meshed well together for a new experience for many players.

 

7 – Apex Legends is created by Respawn, the developers of TitanFall 2. While it’s not extremely obvious due to the lack of giant robots, wall running and smart pistols. Apex Legends is set in the same world as Titanfall and can be viewed as a spiritual successor to Titanfall 2.

 

6 – Squad based gametypes have generally always been between 4 – 6 in competitive game modes. Very few games have gone below this number as it can be difficult to develop enough team synergy and cohesion with only three players. Shootmania was one of the only games to use the 3 man squad party size… and we all know how that game panned out.

 

5 – TitanFall 3 may still be coming. Respawn CEO Vince Zampella has tweeted out that more Titanfall is coming later in the year. While many are hoping this is another stellar single player Titanfall experience, akin to that delivered in TItanfall 2. This remains to be seen as Respawn are releasing Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order later in 2019 and 3 full fledged games for the studio may be a little ambitious. Let’s just hope it’s not a crappy mobile game.

 

4 – The world is deceptively detailed and content rich. Each character has a backstory and a place within the world around Apex Legends. The Apex Games themselves have a reason for existing and although not revealed yet, i’m sure will feed into Titanfall game lore. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a number of animated shorts to further flesh out the characters and world like Blizzard have done with Overwatch.

 

3 – More maps are coming! It was a great sign when I booted up Apex Legends for the first time and saw that the map had a name. Unlike fortnight it would appear that more maps are coming eventually, which will help to keep the game fresh and interesting as time goes on.

 

2 – Cross Platform support is likely coming to the game. Like fortnight, it is likely that Respawn will follow that route and allow for PS4, Xbox 1 & PC players to compete together for those wins.

 

1 – New Legends are coming! According to the 2019 Apex legends Roadmap, we will see new guns, new loot and most importantly new legends join the game as time goes on. We can expect new legends to appear in Season 2 which starts in June. Perhaps they’ll even introduce one in March’s Season.

I realised there was a few key cities i’d not yet included on my lists so i’m back with episode 6. I’ll be taking a look at 10 of the best creations within Cities Skylines. Keep in mind that these are my thoughts and if you disagree or think something else should have made the list then please do say in the comments down below. Also to note that the list is unranked as the quality on offer is too close to call, so the list is in a random order. 

Why you should check out Splitgate: Arena Warfare

Splitgate Arena Warfare is a game that has been on my radar since the days when it still went by the name Wormhole Wars. It instantly piqued my interest. While as many will say it has halo vibes and it’s hard to deny that it’s clearly inspired by halo and portal. Splitgate feels like its own thing. It feels different enough to the developers influences to stand on its own two feet.

The combat is smooth and relatively easy to grasp. However it’s difficult enough that there’s a noticeable skillgap between players. This gives me hope for the competitive future of Splitgate. The rifling is crisp and feels satisfying when you manage to mow down multiple enemies in a gunfight or build up a killstreak. The Jetpacks and wormholes speed up the gameplay significantly. Using momentum to speed through the map while picking off enemies almost give the game an arena FPS feeling. It makes me wish there was a railgun to be speeding around with.

Speaking of the wormholes, these are without a doubt the games most intriguing feature. They make Splitgate extremely dynamic as the use of wormholes gives the player a plethora of tricks up their sleeves. You can use a wormhole to sneak behind an enemy and shoot them in the back. You can use a wormhole to escape a pursuing enemy who you can’t quite kill. You can jump from a great height into a wormhole to enable you to use momentum to bridge a large gap, perhaps even snipe someone while gliding through the air… you get my point, it gives the player options.

While I feel that many die hard competitive FPS players will look down on the game for it’s odd gameplay mechanics and for its potential outdated combat style. I hope that people give Splitgate Arena Warfare a chance. It’s a fun game with an endless ceiling. A pro team using pre-planned portals to counter-act an enemy teams portal placement would be absolutely phenomenal to watch… and I hope we reach that point.

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Why Rainbow Six Siege is a Game to Watch!

The biggest surprise of the esports landscape of 2017 or 2018 is not PUBG, it’s not even Fortnite. The biggest surprise is without a doubt Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. Having bought the game in early 2016 and enjoyed playing through the campaign and tried my hand at multiplayer, I put the game to rest and thought nothing more about it. This game didn’t have the merit to make it as an esport as no Rainbow Six had done before in a big way. Boy was I wrong.

Ubisoft attempted to get the esports scene in motion almost imedeately with the first pro league in partnership with ESL taking place 4 months after release. Running on Xbox and PC concurrently each finals saw the top two EU and NA teams fly to cologne to compete for $50,000. This continued for 3 seasons throughout 2016. Viewership was low, the future looked bleak. Ubisoft didn’t give up however. As 2017 rolled around, the game had continued to reviece updates to keep the playerbase active and engaged. The game was becoming more and more balanced, offering many unique strategies and loadouts to become viable in competitive play. Most importantly in the FPS market in which you were either a Battle Royale or CSGO. Rainbow Six was offering something different.

The 2017 season brought with it some big changes. Firstly a more than tripled prize pool at $167,000 per season. The introduction of Latin America, which any esports fan will know is a huge potential playerbase of active gamers, thirdly an increase in the numbers of teams at the finals from 4 to 8 and finally a focus on the PC side instead of the Xbox side. These changes made the scene more competitive, more interesting and more and more viewers continued to flock to the scene. As 2017 was coming to a close global brands like Evil Geniuses began to join the Rainbow Six scene by picking up one of the strongest North American teams.

Concurrently the pro league, Ubisoft ran the Invitational, a yearly super tournament in the spirit of Dota’s International. The 2017 tournament saw $100,000 given to the PC teams and $100,000 to the Xbox teams, a final hoorah for the Xbox gamers. The 2018 season would change the game entirely. Acting as a final stop on pro world tour style tournament, The 2018 invitational saw half a million dollars given in a PC only event that saw teams like Evil Geniuses, Faze Clan, Team Liquid, Rogue and CLG take part.

The 2019 season has continued to ramp things up as the teams begin to qualify for the February event. The inclusion of a Japanese team and additional Asian teams highlights just how global the game has become. Viewership continues to soar, more and more global brands are starting to get involved and Rainbow Six Siege shows now signs of slowing down in the near future. The game is solid to play, thrilling to watch and with a well structured esports landscape, it’s built to last.

12 Esports games I expect to succeed in the future!

12. Artifact

Artifact is the upcoming competitive card game from Valve. Hearthstone has proved that you can take the formula that magic the gathering created, digitise it, make it free to play and unleash it on the masses. Artifact seems to be going for something between Hearthstone and Magic the gathering. More complex than Hearthstone with less depth than Magic. Valve currently own 2 of the top 5 esports titles in CS:GO and Dota2. Valve have a solid track record and will now doubt make all the right steps to secure Artifacts future.

11. Battalion 1944

Battalion 1944 is Square Enix’s first foray into esports by funding British indie studio Bulkhead. B44 is a return to old school FPS titles, drawing heavy influence from Call of Duty 2. The game is a fast paced 5v5 competitive shooter with gameplay similar to CSGO. Having been out for a few months issues have already begun to surface for B44. Dwindling player bases have put a time limit on the games competitive scene and things will have to be turned around if they hope to make B44’s competitive scene work.

10. Battletech

Battletech is a strategy mech title that requires players to outhink their opponent in large scale battles. While a game like this has never had a big Esports following, I do feel there is place for it in the industry.

9. Call of Duty Black Ops 4 Battle Royale

Call of Duty Black Ops 4 Battle Royale. While Call of Duty has had an esports scene for the past decade, things have stagnated and the developers know it. This COD is looking to mix things up and make changes. The Introduction of a Battle Royale mode (something I expect everyone to start doing) could be a game changer for COD and see numbers reinvigorated.

8 – Diabotical

Diabotical was a game I backed on Kickstarter almost 2 years ago. It’s been in development for a long time and was at one point dubbed the saviour of the Arena FPS scene. However since its announcement we have seen Unreal Tournament release and fail, we’ve seen Quake Legends release and fail and Diabotical is still in development. I am keeping the game in this list as I feel it does have potential and would really like it to succeed. However there are so many question marks that it’s impossible to call how this game will do.

7. Dragon Ball Fighterz

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Dragon Ball Fighterz is the first Dragon Ball game that I felt could really work as a competitive fighter. Previous iterations while fun have been too over the top and ridiculous. Dragon Ball Fighterz balances the Dragon Ball aesthetic with competitive fighting elements in a strong manner. The game hasn’t yet grown competitively but I feel post Evo the game could really come into its own.

Paladins Realm Royale

Paladins Realm Royale is the latest attempt at finding an audience for Paladins. I feel sorry for this game in some ways as the base Paladins game is a strong one, sadly it just released alongside the almost identical Overwatch. Paladins has struggled to find an audience but I feel the new Battle Royale game mode will bring new players through the door and introduce them to the base competitive game as well.

5. Gwent

Gwent is developer CD Project Red’s first foray into competitive gaming. They’ve gone the safe route and opted for a competitive card game, building on their Witcher series minigame. The game seems to be somewhere between Artifact and Magic the Gathering, with a great deal of complexity and a steep learning curve. Is there room for 4 digital competitive card games? I’m not sure and if any of them are to fall by the wayside, I think Gwent will be the first to go.

4. PUBG

PUBG is a gaming phenomenon unlike anything we’ve seen in quite some time. PUBG hit the ground running on release and sold upward of 25 million copies. The esports scene got off to a solid start in 2017 and with a $2,000,000 tournament just round the corner, I am expecting big things from the future of PUBG, even though the games popularity is starting to taper off.

3. Icons

Icons is an indie title looking to step on the toes of Super Smash Bro’s. SSB is a franchise that has been a mainstay in the fighting game community for many years and I feel there’s room for a competitor if the game uses a similar set of skills and would allow for players to play both SSB & Icons, considering many fighting games players master a number of different titles. We’ve not seen a successful indie fighting game in a while, so i’ll be excited to see if Icons can stand the test of time.

2. NBA 2K18

NBA 2K18 is probably the least likely game I’d have thought to add to this list. Sports games (outside of Fifa) have never done well in esports. However the NBA seems to be putting it’s money behind the official NBA 2K18 league and trying to get NBA esports off the ground. With investment from NBA teams, the league has enough capital to make a big splash, however whether it can find an audience is another question entirely.

1. Fortnite

Fortnite has a 2018-2019 prize pool of $100,000,000. Enough said. Fortnite will do very well as an esport, even if the game doesn’t spectate all too well right now. It has the players, it has the money and it has the mainstream interest. I’m expecting HUGE things from Fortnite in the near future.

5 Reasons Fortnite will make it as an Esports title!

If you don’t know what Fortnite is then you must having been living under a rock for the past year. Fortnite is a battle royale game developed by Epic games of Unreal Tournament and Gears of War fame. Fortnite has come under flack from PUBG fans due to being a copy of the game, however due to Fortnites monumental growth in popularity the haters have all but disappeared. I’ve put together a list of 5 reasons why I think Fortnite will stand the test of time and make it as an Esports title.

5

Right now Fortnite has an average of 3.5 million players per month, 2 million more than PUBG. Fortnite currently has the playerbase engaged and if they make their jump into Esports quickly they can convert some of those players into the hardcore competitive players that an Esports scene requires. They must act quick though before the casual players move onto the next fad.

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One of the things I hear frequently regarding Fortnite are that the graphics are cartoony and more appropriate for younger ages. Twitch streamer Ninja has recently removed curse words from his broadcasts after feedback from parents about his stream with their children. When you have the young crowds, you have the viewership numbers in the bag.

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PUBG was a revelation to the gaming landscape. Selling unholy amounts of copies and dominating the Twitch viewership figures. However those numbers stagnated and are now dropping. Players are unhappy with the current state of PUBG, the lack of tangible updates and many have flocked to Fortnite. PUBG will certainly have a scene as a 2 million dollar tournament is already on the way this summer but Fortnite looks to be doing it bigger and perhaps better.

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Games like CSGO and PUBG are popular enough but very risque to put onto television. Games like League and Dota2 are popular enough but too complex to put onto television. Fortnite has the unique balance of being popular enough and easy enough to understand that television stations will want it but at the same time the violence is cartoony and downplayed. I can see a Fortnite league being live on a major US network by the end of 2019.

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100 million dollars! Epic Games have pledged 100 million dollars in prize pools for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Should all else fail, the money is sure to bring in plenty of money hungry gamers.

Volunteering in esports: A Case Study

I was recently in a discussion regarding volunteering in esports and as one of the people that managed to use the volunteer route to make a career within esports a reality, I wanted to talk about my experiences and my thoughts on the importance of voluntary work.

I’ll start by outlining my journey. I started volunteering for a small organisation called Adversity in 2010 after going off to University and not having time to play competitively anymore. I received absolutely nothing from the org and I was involved in managing all teams on the PC side of things. During the 6 months I was with the team I signed a sponsorship deal with Thermaltake. I was eventually offered a position to come over and manage the Starcraft 2 and Team Fortress 2 teams for Team Thermaltake. Now this org was run by Thermaltakes European marketing director, so did have some money behind it, however I was unpaid. The org didn’t really work out for me and I was quickly moved to Team Infused, the UK flagship team of Thermaltake. Again unpaid. I managed the PC teams for Team Infused and began to travel to international events, mostly with the SC2 team. Due to a financial issue which left me out of pocket I took the SC2 team to the new global level organisation Western Wolves, an offshoot of LowLandLions. Some of the players I brought with me received a small salary but I was still unpaid. I worked with the team for a couple of years until I decided that esports was going nowhere for me and it was time for me to say goodbye. I will also graduating University. Around 6 months later I was approached by Mousesports to work on their SC2 team which was struggling at the time. I was tired of being unpaid so I requested a small salary, which they agreed upon. I worked for Mousesports for a year and eventually thanks to a combination of references from members of my esports past I was hired by FACEIT to produce their online broadcasts, which I have been doing since 2014. I’ve traveled the world, worked on some of the biggest esports events to ever take part and I feel if I hadn’t spent my time volunteering and grinding, that i’d never have made it here.

An Alternative argument that I also feel bares some weight is that smaller orgs simply cannot afford to salary staff members. Every org I worked for in my career (bar Mouz) worked to a shoe-string budget. Even the teams that had sponsors spent all they had on players, by paying staff it would only slow the orgs progress and reduce results needed to secure more sponsors. Many small to medium orgs exist in a very specific place. They fill a space in the market needed to develop talent and grow playerbases. A young player from London who’s decided he is a decent Counter-Strike player will never become a pro without being a member of the smaller orgs and attending local LAN tournaments. These teams can only exist on the backs of the passionate people willing to spend their time and in lots of cases their own cash to fund them. A sliver of these teams will ever grow to household names and most will fail, but they are important stepping stones for everyone involved, the players and the staff… none of which will have been paid.

This post may seem a little rambly, but I hope it offers an argument on why I feel voluntary work is important to esports and can work, it doesn’t always have to go nowhere. However I am a strong supporter of always paying people what their worth (if you can afford to do so!)

Top 12 Most Interesting Facts About Starcraft!

Starcraft is a game that will forever have a place in my heart. A punishingly difficult but overwhelmingly rewards strategy game that has on multiple occasions taken the gaming landscape by storm. In this list I collated 12 of the facts that I’ve found most unique or interesting.

After Hours Gaming League

The After Hours Gaming League is a league setup to pitch major companies against one another within Starcraft 2. Companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Twitter took part for the chance to give Day9’s $5,000 donation to a charity of their choice.

Korean Airforce Team

In Korea all males must serve National service at some point in their lives before the age of 30. This caused many issues for the blossoming Starcraft scene in the mid 2000’s as some legends like H.O.T Forever and Boxer were forced to enlist. The Military provided a solution to this creating Airforce Ace. This professional team would function like every other major pro team and conduct a training regiment and compete in major tournaments. This team would allow those many pro’s to continue competing into their 30’s.

Player Match Fixing

Starcraft BW and SC2 have both suffered from major match fixing scandals featuring top level pro’s. The players in both cases were approached by betting organisations and offered cash in order to purposefully lose specific games. Within the BW betting scandal many high level pro’s were indited such as Savior. Players were permanently banned from competing, finned millions of WON and some sentenced to probation, community service and gambling addiction programs. Similarly SC2 pro’s Life, Bboongboong, Yoda, Gerrard and Bbyond were arrested and sentenced to jail time and fines for their involvement in match fixing.

Starcraft was sent to Space – STS96

Astronaut Daniel Barry flew a copy of Starcraft into space on board the space shuttle discovery during STS-96 which was the first mission to dock with the International Space Station. Starcraft was the first and only video game to be taken to space.

Sarah Kerrigan is named after Nancy Kerrigan

Starcraft character Sarah Kerrigan, also known as the Queen of Blades is named after Olympic ice skater Nancy Kerrigan, who was also known as the Queen of Blades.

Starcraft Ghost

Starcraft Ghost was the project that never come. Shown off at an E3 event in the early 2000’s, many were excited for this change in the Starcraft landscape by allowing players to move to the ground level and control Nova a Terran ghost that is able to use stealth abilities to overcome her enemies. However this project would never see the light of day. After several delays and redesigns Starcraft Ghost was put on the shelf indeffinetely and instead a novel was released.

viOLet and sports visas

On December 11, 2013, viOLet was recognized by the United States government as a professional athlete and was granted a P-1A visa. He was the first StarCraft player ever to receive such a recognition.

120,000 2005 Starcraft arena finals in Korea

120,000 spectators came to an outdoor stadium in Busan, South Korea, to watch StarCraft at the 2005 SKY Pro League final — roughly 40,000 more than attended the Super Bowl that year.

Blizzard Scrapped their initial idea for Starcraft and remade it (Orcs in Space)

Blizzard created and then scrapped their original concept for Starcraft which was little more than a space port of Warcraft 2, it became known as Orcs in Space. After attending a trade show with Diablo and Starcraft it became clear that the fans were not interested in Orcs and Space and the project was not going in the direction that the fans wanted. Blizzard would scrap the project and rebuild Starcraft from the ground up. This would lead to Starcraft being the masterpiece that it’d become.

4.5m of 9.8m SC copies sold where in Korea

South Korea was a cultural phenomenom when it comes to video games and specifically Starcraft. With the nations early investment in high speed internet, multiplayer gaming was incredibly popular in the country during the late 90’s / early 2000’s. Starcraft became a game for families to watch (on 24 hour Starcraft channels) and play together. 4.5 million of the 9.8 million copies sold were sold in South Korea.

Optimus Prime in SC2

There is an Easter Egg in SC2 which features a truck in the colours of Optimus Prime hidden on the map.

Starcraft was the first Esport title to be featured at the Olympics

In 2018 Starcraft became the first esports title to be featured at the Winter Olympics in Pyongchang. While not part of the main tournament it does show an impressive step in the growing industries acceptance in the general sports world. While it may just be esports on a side stage in 2018 by 2020 or 2022 we might see esports hitting the main stage.

5 things Battalion 1944 needs to do to succeed as an Esport

Battalion 1944 hopes to become the next big thing in esports and offer something that has been somewhat missing in the last almost decade. After the demise of the competitive PC COD2 and COD4 Promod scenes, there’s been a hole in the market for a face paced teambased twitch shooter. Most players were forced into other titles and tried their hand at CS:GO or eventually Overwatch, but there’s something special about COD2 and COD4 Promod that just haven’t been replicated since. Battalion 1944 hopes to replicate that and has already made great strides during it’s creation process to offer twitch shooter fans something unique and something that’s been sought after for many years.

5. Differentiate itself from CODWW2

In the midst of its competitors blasting around in space with mech suits and robots, Battalion 1944 decided to bring things back to where it all started with a title set in WW2. However in 2018 the landscape looks very different with both Call of duty and Battlefield having returned to WW2 and WW1 respectively. Coming from a smaller publisher in Square Enix and a smaller Development team, Battalion 1944 doesn’t have the graphical polish, celebrity voice actors or the sheer marketing power that it’s AAA competitors possess. Battallion needs to be building on it’s unique selling points. The fact that the game is built with high level competition in mind and the fact that the game has a higher skill cap in comparison to its rivals are two areas in which Battallion needs to focus its marketing and show that it isn’t another COD clone.

4. Capture market interest early

Another game with an esports focus and a tonne of hype going into 2017 was Lawbreakers, a game that bares many similarities to Batallion 1944. Lawbreakers was sadly declared dead on arrival by most of the community due to low player numbers that sadly have never recovered. A similar fate was suffered by Titanfall 2. Battalion 1944 needs to cultivate a dedicated community before the game hits beta, something that it seems they are attempting and hopefully succeeding to do.

3. Offer something for the casual audience

While it’s important to focus on the very top tier and deliver a polished and streamlined product that does what it says on the tin, this is not always enough for the casual audience. Additionally gameplay elements like Call of Dutys Zombie mode, Overwatches holiday themed horde modes and Counter Strikes endless supply of unique gamemodes are proof that the casual audience often stick around for something other than the base gameplay and by providing more for players to do, you drastically extend the games lifespan. Currently Battalion 1944 is focusing heavily on it’s base gametypes during producton, but I hope additional content will work its way into the game before release.

2. Work with Tournament Organisers to create something tangible early in the games life

Within esports there are three models currently used by developers or tournament organisers. The Overwatch or League of Legend model in which the developer has all control over the esport product, but also front all costs. The Clash Royale or Halo model in which the develop has most of the control over the esport and fronts most of the costs but hires a well known and trustred esports production team to control this for them, or the CSGO, Dota2 method in which the developer does not interfere very often and leaves the scenes to grow (or die) organically. While LCS and OWL have proved that perhaps that method is the most effective in terms of generating income, I don’t believe that Bulkhead have the funds to create something of this magnitude, at least not anytime soon. I believe that it’s important for Bulkhead to be working with tournament organisers like FACEIT, ESL or PGL to create grass roots competition for Battallion 1944 as early as possible to create a small dedicated playerbase of hardcore players.

1. Pretty Collectible items

One critisicm that can be pointed at Battallion 1944 is that it’s a very grey and drab looking game, keeping consistent with the location and time period the game is set. However, if anything can be learned from it’s competitors in the competitive space, it’s that players like pretty trinkets. Whether that be TF2’s hats, CS:GO’s weapon skins or League of Legends character skins. Players have proved to prefer collectibles that they have to pay for than for keeping historical accuracy, and I really think Battallion 1944 would benefit greatly from introducing this feature… as long as the upgrades are purely cosmetic.

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Top 12 Heroes in Overwatch

Overwatch was always destined to be a smash success. It had everything going for it before it even released. An experienced game developer with a storied history in esports, a unique blend of many different FPS styles and a rich world full of character history and beautiful scenery. I’ve put together a list of what I feel are the top 12 heroes within Overwatch judged on a variety of criteria including ‘Popularity among players’ ‘Character look’ ‘Character Lore’ and ‘How the Character handles’ so without further ado here is ‘The top 12 Heroes in Overwatch’

12

Soldier-76 is the entry level choice for most players as he holds the most familiarity in terms of playstyle for most people. With an relatively low skillcap and the ability to have large impact on a fight Soldier will always be among one of the most popular heroes within Overwatch

11

Reinhardt is the key to such a great number of metas that he will forever be valuable among OW players. Dropping out of fashion somewhat after the introduction of Orissa, Reinhardt has continued to be one of the go to defence heroes due to his ability to absorb damage as well as being a fierce fighting in his own right. Reinhardt has a unique look with a gigantic hulking body holding a mammoth hammer which is juxtaposed against his advanced age of 61, the oldest of any hero within Overwatch.

10

The first healer to hit enter the countdown is the omnic Zenyatta. Featuring the unique blend of both a healing orb as well as a corruption org, players must learn to be able to pay attention to teammate location and health as well as focusing down the most valuable targets with your discord orb on top of firing your basic attacks to damage down the enemy leading to a high skill ceiling for a good Zenyatta to work towards. In regards to design, the Nepalese hippy robot is one of the coolest and most unique characters within the game by a long margin.

9

Lucio is without a doubt one of the most fun characters to play due to his wallrun mechanics enabling players to flank the opponents and get into valuable locations. On top of this Lucios right click pushes enemies backwards making him one of the scariest foes on a map featuring a cliff edge or a sharp drop. Lucio posses the easiest heal mechanic, despite being a worse healer in terms heals per second in comparison to his rival healers, being able to heal multiple teammates purely by proximity can be a game changer during a big team fight and on top of this his speed boost can make all the difference when racing back to defend the point.

8

DVA is a retired 19 year old ex-progamer who uses her skills to pilot a giant tank mech suit with two shotguns, a missle launcher and a bullet matrix. Need I say more?

7

Winston is one of the main mascots for Overwatch having featured in much of the games marketing material. A giant terrifying scientist monkey who uses both his might as well as his mind to win fights, featuring a lightning gun that can spread to multiple opponents at once and does not require aiming, a popup temporary shield and blind monkey rage. Winston is a formidable foe that is well used in a variety of metas to deal with poke champions like Genji and Tracer.

6

Mcree is the character that most fits the Counter-Strike playstyle. Possessing a revolver that does massive damage with a low rate of fire, Mcree require fantastic aim and quick reflexes to master. Despite being a very generic cowboy character with some cheesey catch phrases *add high noon catch phrase* he remains one of the most used characters in both public and pro play, potentially due to his extremely high skill ceiling that is nigh on impossible to master.

5

Road Hog is potentially the most visually displeasing hero in the pool wearing next to no clothes with a gas mask and giant exposed gut. However he is one of the most fun to play thanks to his hook mechanic. Road Hog is designed around singling out specific enemies and pulling them away from their teammates. If the Road Hog can pick a healer or a DPS just before a team fight then it can equal a loss for the team before the fight has even begun.

4

Pharrah is the winged bomber from Egypt. Equipped with a jetpack and a rocket launcher she is able to rain death from above and can be exceptionally difficult to deal with for the enemy team forcing a specific set of champions to shoot her down. Featuring twitch shooter mechanics from games like Quake or Unreal tournament, Pharrah requires quick flicks and positioning predictions to master. Secretly flanking the enemy and unleashing a torrent of rockets on the unsuspecting enemy is one of the greatest feelings in Overwatch.

3

The Japanese assasin Genji has in my opinion the most unique playstyle of any hero in OW and therefore I believe he is the hardest to master due to his playstyle being unlike any other FPS games playstyle. Zipping around the map with his sword and shuriken, Genji is designed to poke and prod until his ult is ready and he can unleash hell. With one of the coolest looks in Overwatch if you use one of his covered skins Genji is often a go to pick for many new players who quickly learn that to succeed with Genji you have a great number of skills to master.

2

I’d considered Tracer for my number one spot but decided against it at the last moment. Tracer is as iconic as it gets in Overwatch. Featuring on virtually all promotional material before release and even now being used as the Overwatch Leagues logo has cemented her places as the face of Overwatch. Causing a bit of a stir upon release due to her derriere Tracer was destined to one of the most picked hero’s by players. She also has one of the most unique gameplay mechanics of being able to reverse her own timeline by several seconds enabling fantastic poke playstyles to zip behind the enemy, rain down some damage and then teleport away.

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And in at number 1 is Hanzo the Japanese archer of death… *record scratch* no my real number one is the angel herself Mercy. Arguably the most useful hero in OW and someone that has been present during every single meta since the games release. As a pure support who does very little damage, Mercy is designed to glide around the map healing and providing damage boosts where possible as well as reviving downed foes which can make all the difference in the heat of battle. A good mercy can be the difference in a win or a loss and is perhaps the most noticeable hero to notice when one of your teammates is letting the side down. With great character design not focusing too much on sex appeal and being very relevant to the characters mechanics mercy is my pick for the greatest hero in Overwatch.

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5 Things I feel PUBG needs to do to make it as an Esport!

There’s no doubt that PUBG has taken the gaming world by storm in the last 12 months, becoming the most popular game on Steam and developing a huge following in the largest three markets, Europe, North America and Asia. With that success comes the expectation of a competitive esports scene, something which has begun but seems to have faultered and already hit some stumbling blocks. I will touch upon 5 areas I feel PUBG needs to improve or develop if it hopes to survive as a big esports.

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One of the main areas of complaint for many viewers is how difficult the game is to watch in comparison to playing it. PUBG is still very glitchy and the spectator tools are very much still in their infancy. When compared to the main two FPS competitors that it’ll be competing with for viewership, CSGO and Overwatch, PUBG’s spectator tools falls short.

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Another complaint is that a majority of competitive games follow the same pattern. An exciting opening 5-10 minutes, an action packed closing 5-10 minutes and then 20 minutes inbetween that are relatively dull and uneventful. This is in my opinion due to the sheer size of the map being played. Creating an esport specific map that forces more cooperative teamwork and more use of the environment to succeed as well as being considerably smaller than the two maps currently on offer in PUBG would reduce the dull moments in each game drastically.

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Following on from my previous point I believe that an esport specific ruleset could aid the game in succeeding as an esport. Games like COD4 Promod have shown that competitive play and casual play don’t necessarily play the same way and there is space for both in the market. Perhaps reducing health within competitive, increasing player speed or tweaking the speed of the killzone would improve the style of PUBG that pro’s are playing.

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One of the most difficult things while watching competitive PUBG is that 80 people are fighting at a single time and often several fights are happening concurrently. This means that action is bound to be missed. To combat this PUBG should have an automatic highlight system to capture kills that occur offscreen and can be easily played at the click of a button when action has died down. This is doable with expensive production equipment and a large production team currently, but would be much simpler as a game feature available to everyone spectating a game.

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Regular grass roots projects are missing from the PUBG scene. While PUBG is having a few large international tournaments semi-regularly, there is a huge lack of grass roots smaller tournaments or leagues for players to grow and develop with. I feel this lack of a ground level to competitive PUBG is harmful and will stem the flow of new talent into the competitive scene. Games like CS:GO and DOTA2 flourished by allowing small $1,000 tournaments to flood the scene and enable smaller teams to survive and grow underneath the ‘big dogs’

While I feel PUBG is stumbling right now, I do think there is potential for a fantastic esports scene to develop alongside an incredibly popular game. The developers just need to make sure they are addressing the communities issues and make sure they act quickly incase a rival developer beats them to it.

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