“What’s on this week?” is ESI’s weekly feature letting you know just what’s going on in the wonderful world of esports in the next seven days. Each week, ESI picks a selection of events and provides a brief overview of what’s going down, where it’s taking place and how you can watch it.
Esports is starting to ramp up in 2019, with more leagues returning and others heading into the mid-season points, we even have the chance to check in on WoW, with some “speed run” esports action. This week we check in with the LEC, look ahead to the Call of Duty Pro League 2019 week one and take a trip to Azeroth, via London to check in with Method and its attempt to claim another WoW World First or if someone else can come in and grab it.
Method World First Race – Week Two – WoW
Method has been a driving force in the World of Warcraft raiding and PVP/esports scene for as long as most people can remember, the two are practically synonymous with one another. With titles in WoW Arena and the Mythic Dungeon Invitational (MDI), both of which return in 2019, all be it with a slight name change to the MDI. Method’s original claim to fame, before they become a leading esports organisation was World of Warcraft raiding. An aspect of the game Method has brought to the masses by streaming its World First Race. In layman’s terms, a speed race to defeat the end boss of the games most recent raid boss.
As of publishing, the first week of the race is coming to a close, Method has been trailing guilds in North American, though this is largely due to the 16-hour headstart they get due to WoW’s server reset, Method has, for the most part, secured each of the EU first bosses kills on the way to the final boss. Right now, with one day to go until WoW resets for the week (thus resetting all previous bosses, if a guild chooses to do so) over 30 guilds across the world are stuck on the final encounter, with Method the closest confirmed boss kill with its best attempt of 9.9% (This boss is defeated at 5%).
Moving into week two throws up all sorts of possibilities and the chances are Limit, the leading NA guild will claim the first kill by the end of play today in Europe (The NA reset happens around 4 pm CET). Method is, however, the most successful WoW raiding guild currently raiding and with that fact, the team will still be confident. For the Method members and production in London and the Red Bull Gaming Sphere, the adventure could be over by tonight or we could still be here next week, waiting for that elusive kill.
Stream: Method – Location: Red Bull Gaming Sphere, London, UK – Date: 5/2 -N/A – Sponsors: Red Bull, MSI, Fanbyte, Twitch, Vertagear, Kensington, Corsair, Zippo, Discord – Organiser: Method/Red Bull – Prize pool: N/A
CWL Pro League 2019 – Week One – CoD
CoD is back. We drop right into the action in week two of the 2019 Pro League, now, we’re going to slightly break a rule here – as of publishing this article, the first day of the Pro League has wrapped up and with day two beginning on the evening of this article hitting the internet. So we’re perfectly placed to jump right into the action.
Our teams are as followed and all come from Group A. from which all the action from week one & two come from – Red Reserve, OpTic Gaming, Luminosity Gaming, Midnight Esports, Evil Geniuses, UYU, Gen.G, Team Reciprocity. The teams will be split into two groups of eight, each team will face the other teams in its group twice whilst facing the opposite group teams once. All games are Bo5, with the top four sides advancing to Playoffs whilst the bottom four will head to Play-Ins.
Stream: CallofDuty – Location: Columbus, USA – Date: 5/2 -8/2 – Sponsors: ASUS, Scuf Gaming, ASTRO Gaming, Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel – Organiser: MLG/Activision/Treyarch – Prize pool: $710,000 (£550,000)
LEC 2019 Spring – Week Four – LoL
Europe’s premier League of Legends series the newly franchised EU league has been back with a bang over its first few weeks since the return, with G2 and Misfits dominating proceedings with last years double split winners Fnatic struggle to adapt. The LEC will see ten teams battle it out in a double round-robin Bo1 format, with the top six teams advancing to playoffs, with the top two sides receiving a bye to the semifinals.
Excel, FC Schalke 04, G2, Misfits, Origen, Rogue, SK Gaming, Splyce, Vitality and last years’ winners Fnatic make up the LEC going forward. Each week all teams will play two games, with action taking place on Friday and Saturday of each week. A full schedule can be found here.
Stream: Riot Games – Location: Berlin, Germany – Date: 1/2– 2/2 – Sponsors: Kia,Alienware – Organiser: Riot Games – Prize pool: N/A
That’s a wrap on this week’s picks, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the ESI weekly picks.
We want to feature at least one smaller event each week on the ESI weekly picks. If you want an event included in a future edition, send an email to [email protected].