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Stirling Coates started out as an AFL crowd contributor, and now is in charge of The Roar's esports section.
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Three of this year’s group stages are done, and there’s just one more to go as the Overwatch World Cup looks ahead to the knockout stage. Six teams will play off in Paris, with only two allowed to progress to BlizzCon 2018.
Injured Wallaby Samu Kerevi has quashed rumours of a move to the Brumbies, today announcing one-year contract extensions with both Rugby Australia and the Queensland Rugby Union.
This past weekend, Australia stunned the esports world as they defied pre-tournament expectations to emerge from the Overwatch World Cup’s ‘group of death’ in second place.
It’s hard to see any scenario where Group C isn’t remembered as the most memorable stage event at this year’s Overwatch World Cup and nothing is more memorable, from an Australian perspective, than the green and gold defying all expectations and qualifying for the knockout stage at BlizzCon.
It was a rollercoaster of a day for Australian fans, with a demoralising loss to Denmark heavily assuaged by a famous upset victory over Sweden. That’s just one of five talking points to emerge from the second day of esports action in Bangkok.
Day one of Group C’s matches wrapped up earlier today in Bangkok and, amidst all the gripping and exhilarating esports action, there were plenty of things going on that warrant further discussion.
Four of the eight 2018 quarter-finalists have been confirmed and, over the next three days, another group of six teams – including Australia – will duke it out to claim the two BlizzCon spots on offer.
You may not consider esports athletes ‘real’ athletes – but even the most ardent anti-video game activist would have to be impressed at someone who’s captained their team to a hotly contested national championship on seven occasions.
Multiplayer online battle arena games, or MOBAs, often dominate the esports calendar. With titles such as Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends and DotA 2 enjoying massive competitive followings, it’s clear this type of game resonates super strongly with esports fans.
It’s been barely a week since Heroes of the Storm’s newest character Mephisto hit the proper servers – but it’s never too early to dive in and make soon-to-be discredited assessments of his strengths, weaknesses, ideal builds and metagame impacts.
The 2018 edition of the Overwatch World Cup started late last month in Incheon, South Korea – and now we turn our attention to Los Angeles and Group B.
This Friday, Sydney Boys High will be celebrating 135 years rugby union being played at the school by a picking an all-time ‘dream team’ of ex-students.
Unseeded Australian journeyman John Millman has caused one of the greatest upsets in US Open history after a scarcely believable three-sets-to-one victory over unbackable favourite Roger Federer.
In part two of our interview with Hearthstone senior designer Mike Donais, we discuss some notable legendaries, controversial cards and impacts on the meta The Boomsday Project has brought to the game.
With the latest Hearthstone expansion – The Boomsday Project – launching earlier this month, we had the opportunity to sit down with senior designer Mike Donais.
The Queensland Rugby Union have issued a press release with the news that back rower Caleb Timu has signed on with the Reds for another season.
Australia’s preparations for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup have been given a boost, with the FFA today announcing an international friendly with South Korea has been locked in for November 17 in Brisbane.
The Overwatch League may have captivated esports fans around the world for the first half of 2018, but the action doesn’t stop now, with the World Cup set to kick off this afternoon (Australian time).
With The Boomsday Project live for nearly a week in Hearthstone, we’ve been giving each class a quick once over to see what the early picks are for the best deck inclusions.
Hearthstone’s newest expansion – The Boomsday Project – went live earlier this week and that’s the perfect time for us to dive and give each class a quick rundown on what new tools they’ve got at their disposal.
Too true Onside. The lengths to which our players have to go to just to get practice in is outrageous.
How can we use our Overwatch World Cup success to push esports forward in Australia?
It almost defies belief doesn’t it! I can run rings around AI opponents and… that’s about it.
Find esports confusing? Rocket League could be your ticket in
Hope you’re right Alister!
Who will progress to the semi-finals at the FACEIT CS:GO London Major?
Hi Onside,
If this is something at interests you, I’m more than happy to pen a piece like that.
Just promise me you’ll give that one a read too!
The greatest achievement by an Australian national team this year has been in esports - and it happened yesterday
Hi Wayne,
That’s fair enough. I suppose my angle is more in the sense of performance versus expectations.
The Kookaburras are a consistently dominant force in field hockey (although I’m not suggesting that takes any gloss away from Comm games gold) whereas nobody really gave our guys a chance at this world cup and we played out of our skin.
It’d be like if Brazil’s cricket team beat us in a Test match in the same year as winning the FIFA world cup – the world cup is obviously the more prestigious competition, but the theoretical cricket upset would be something else.
The greatest achievement by an Australian national team this year has been in esports - and it happened yesterday
This is such an underexplored topic. There are so many characters, decks, moves, powers etc in games that need nerfing because they’re not fun to play against.
Glad to see someone else writing about it.
Balancing games for fun and profit
The ‘fourth umpire who doesn’t do anything’ is an emergency field umpire and is almost always a vastly lesser experienced umpire than the ones the field. Most emergency field umpires have actually never ‘started’ a match as an umpire.
Not sure that’s the best person to be handing reporting and send-off duties too.
Andrew Gaff: How many weeks, and where will he be next year?
My argument has nothing to do with being scared of change.
My argument is that, given so many reports and suspensions are issued after the match, by officials other than the match day umpires, bringing in a send-off rule would do little to alleviate the injustice we feel when someone is injured by an opponent and, in fact, would create another set of injustices whereby only players who had their reportable offences picked up by the umpires would be marched off.
Nobody has been able to counter my point that, even if the send-off rule existed, Gaff still wouldn’t have been sent off – because none of the umpires saw it – and we’d be sitting here just as outraged that he was allowed to play on.
The send off rule would fix little and create more problems.
The idea that we’d be making decisions post the results of a concussion test seems exceptionally clunky. How would it work exactly? Would the match just stop abruptly when the concussion test concludes and the score review official combs over the footage?
What if the potentially reported player kicked two goals while the test was being completed? A player’s actions should warrant punishment (be it send off or suspension) based on the action itself – not the resultant impact.
While I agree that striking is an abhorrent act and the game isn’t doing enough to wipe it out, lengthier suspensions are the answer – especially for strikes that don’t hit high or cause injury.
The AFL doesn't need a send-off rule
There absolutely should be more consequences for hitting others in the head – my argument is that longer suspensions are the answer.
You cannot tie send-offs to failed concussion tests, because the power to order off is then no longer solely rests with the match officials. Acts should warrant a send-off based on their illegality alone, not the impact they had.
The AFL doesn't need a send-off rule
The premiership has been won by one non-Victorian side in the last 11 years.
Sydney are falling right out of flag contention
Hopefully not too much. We already have one injury-prone key position swingman in Sam Reid.
Maybe a straight swap?
Sydney are falling right out of flag contention
Oliver Florent is getting better with every game – he could be an absolute gun in the near future.
Sydney are falling right out of flag contention
I didn’t say the Swans needed all that in one player, nor did I say there is a player out there who provides both. They already have bullocking inside mids in Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker – Tom Mitchell doesn’t provide what Sydney’s missing.
They need a player who provides class on the outside. Dan Hannebery has been that man in the past, but he’s having a career-worst season.
Sydney are falling right out of flag contention
Tom Mitchell was a bitterly disappointing departure, but is a bullocking inside mid who wins the hard ball but doesn’t have a great deal of class on the outside the kind of player Sydney are missing at the moment? I’d say not.
What Sydney are really missing is a classy outside mid – the role Dan Hannebery is currently struggling to fill.
You raise some good points about the defenders being overworked, and the side not generating enough score – but let’s not forget the Swans were very close to taking the lead in the last quarter of both losses in the last fortnight.
If they’d pulled it off we’d all be lauding their ability to win when the chips are down.
Sydney are falling right out of flag contention
I do think his Adaptive Shield ability will need a nerf before it goes live. The idea he can go up to 1000 HP at the drop of a hat seems pretty powerful.
Overwatch's newest Hero explained
I think he’ll be an absolute menace on Control maps with smaller points – especially Ilios and Nepal – as well as defending on Assault maps.
His survivability and mobility are pretty insane, but I think his primary fire is definitely on the weaker side.
Overwatch's newest Hero explained
Been a long time since I’ve seen Brisbane appear four times in the tipping table.
I wouldn’t sleep on the Dogs or Giants this weekend, but it otherwise looks pretty straightforward.
The Roar’s AFL expert tips and predictions: Round 16
The last time Carlton contested semi-finals before Judd joined was 2001 – I don’t know where you’re getting your stats from but they hadn’t played finals in forever when Judd made the move.
Carlton are worse than ever, but how did they get there?
Carlton finished in the bottom four the year before Judd joined.
Carlton are worse than ever, but how did they get there?
I can’t play as her to save my life either, but getting outdueled in 1-on-1s by her as Roadhog or Reaper is just silly. They’re supposed to be the close quarters specialists.
How to deal with Brigitte
I don’t think they’ve ever nerfed that many cards in one go. Quite surprising but definitely needed when the card pool isn’t as deep at the moment.
Spiteful Summoner is a sad one to me. They found it was being used in a somewhat unintended way that made it more powerful, but the nerf they implemented now makes other ways of using the card less viable.
Blizzard’s nerfs have injected some fresh life into the game
I think, at launch, just about everything to do with their character, except her movement speed, was too strong in some respect.
Too much damage per strike, too much self-healing, shield has too much health, ultimate lasts too long and gives her friendlies too much armour, shield bash had too short of a cooldown, whip shot has too much range.
I get that Blizzard were trying to change the healer archetype a bit by removing their traditional weakness to flankers, but they didn’t really do enough to compensate that lack of weakness in my opinion.
Good to see her finally getting some nerfs.
How to deal with Brigitte
Don’t worry mate, we’ll have a piece up soon helping you all make sense of this. I appreciate your ongoing interest.
World of Warcraft's Jeramy McIntyre explains how the esport has grown