Stealing the esports spotlight this weekend is Dota 2’s Manila Major, the biggest tournament for the mega-moba before Valve hosts The International. (Have you bought your compendium yet?) Otherwise, things are fairly quiet Heroes of the Storm, LoL, and Smite teams battle it out in their season qualifiers before the big money events kick off later this summer.
Dota 2: The Manila Major 2016
It started today and the group stages continue on Saturday at 10:00 local time (02:00 BST/18:00 PDT). The games run all day, so wherever you are you should be able to catch a match or two: and you'll want to, as this is the biggest event in the calendar until The International. After the production problems that plagued the Shanghai Major, Valve have stepped in to ensure Manila is a smoother show. You can find out for yourself on Twitch or by spectating from the client.
Heroes of the Storm: Summer Regional 2
The Summer Regional 2, the last major event before the Summer Global Championship, starts on June 4th at the ESL Studios in Burbank. With a prize pool of $100,000 and high temperatures forecasted throughout the weekend, the competition is sure to be thirsty in more ways than one. Watch Cloud9, Tempo Storm, Astral Authority, and more duke it out on the official stream.
League of Legends: Summer Split
The North American league’s Summer Split is LoL’s most important set of matches this weekend, with Cloud9 vs Immortals, Team Envy vs Liquid, and Apex vs NRG Esports on Saturday. Sunday mixes the bunch up, with Apex taking on Counter Logic Gaming, TSM vs Liquid, Echo Fox vs Cloud9, and Immortals vs Phoenix1. Watch them on Riot’s official Twitch channel or imagine your preferred outcomes in your head.
Smite: Spring Split
It’s week 10 of the Season 3 Smite Pro League, and the Spring Split is on. There’s a handful of matches spread out through the weekend, throwing a few of the top teams against one another to sort things out before Dreamhack later on in summer. On Saturday, it’s Hungry for More vs Team Leftovers and Cringe Crew vs Torpedo. Sunday pits Randozos vs Denial and Luminosity vs Team EnVyUs. Beat the heat, hide inside, and catch the games live on HiRezTV.
Hearthstone: Hearthstone Invitational
The Hearthstone Invitational will run from June 4-5 and sees a stellar group of players split into Horde (mostly European) and Alliance (mostly American) factions to fight over a $15,000 prizepool. Frodan, Lifecoach and our own Sottle will be on hand to cast the tournament, which can be watched via Faceit's Twitch channel. The lineup involved really is strong, so though there won't be HCT points on the line, it should make for a good watch.
CD Projekt rolls out a new Cyberpunk 2077 beta branch so people can keep playing while modders catch up to the 2.2 update
OG Fallout lead Tim Cain explains just how much thought went into the timeline, and why canned beans were key: 'Post-apocalypse, but not so far post- that everything's collapsed and everyone's dead'
