The best pro gaming to watch this weekend

Shanghai Major Logo

It's all kicking off this weekend, with a Dota Major underway and a CS:GO Major undergoing its final qualifiers. There’s also Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Smite to watch and another week of international League of Legends to take in. If the year’s been a little quiet so far, that’s certainly coming to an abrupt end. If your Dota 2 casters seem a little quiet, however, that’s an entirely separate technical problem.

Dota 2: The Shanghai Major group stage

The Major has been off to a strange start, with solid games—and one amazing underdog story—fighting against production problems and the abrupt loss of a panel host. Even so, this is the event in the Dota circuit right now, and the weekend will see the remaining games in the group stage. Tune in on Saturday to see if Frankfurt champs OG can repeat their success in Shanghai. Sunday will see one of the most hotly-contested groups as coL, EG, VP and Liquid duke it out. The stream begins at 09:00 BJT (01:00 GMT/17:00 PST the previous day) and runs for ages. The schedule has been flexible, to say the least, but you can find hypothetical start times here.

Heroes of the Storm: NA Spring Regional

The region's best teams fight for a share of $100,000 and a spot at the Spring Championship in Korea. This is one of the highest-profile events of the HotS calendar so far this year, so makes for a good opportunity to take the scene's temperature—much as Hearthstone's own Americas championship was last week. Games start at 10:00 PST/18:00 GMT each day and you can find the stream here.

Hearthstone: PGL Spring Tavern Tales 2016

$25,000 on the line for some of Europe's best Hearthstone players as 32 of them descend on Bucharest. It'll start with a Swiss group stage followed by single-elimination playoffs for the top 16. The games started today, and will continue throughout the weekend. Play begins at 09:30 GMT/01:30 PST and continues through the evening. Find the stream here.

League of Legends: NA LCS and LPL

Another weekend, another chance to keep tabs on the dominant teams in the US and China ahead of the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational. You can read James Chen's assessment of how each scene is doing here, and find details on schedules—as well as the livestream—on the official LoLesports site.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier

While the top eight for MLG Columbus 2016 is drawn from the world's best-regarded teams, a further eight have a chance to shore up their qualification hopes this weekend. This is the first CS:GO Major to offer the new prize pool of $1,000,000—a massive increase for a scene that was previously capping out at around $250,000. Play starts at around 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT/09:00 PST) each day, and you can find the stream here.

Smite: Spring Split Relegations

Smite is currently going through a multi-phase relegation process to determine which teams advanced to play in the Pro League proper later in the year. This weekend will see phase two play out in Europe and North America, as the winners of the open bracket—players like you or I, but better—face existing Challenger Cup teams for a coveted spot in the big leagues. Games start at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT/10:00 PST) each day on the official Smite Twitch stream.

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PRODUCTS

Joining in 2011, Chris made his start with PC Gamer turning beautiful trees into magazines, first as a writer and later as deputy editor. Once PCG's reluctant MMO champion , his discovery of Dota 2 in 2012 led him to much darker, stranger places. In 2015, Chris became the editor of PC Gamer Pro, overseeing our online coverage of competitive gaming and esports. He left in 2017, and can be now found making games and recording the Crate & Crowbar podcast.