The highlight for most Aussie esports fans this week went down in Sydney, as Team Australia won a place in the Blizzcon finals of the Overwatch World Cup. The Chiefs Esports Club took out the CGPL Winter League Finals in Adelaide, Team New Zealand dropped to Team USA in a nailbiter in the Hearthstone Global Games and League of Legends kicked on for another week as we neared the tail end of the split.
We're still keeping our esports calendar updated, and we still love getting your tips. Remember you can email them to me esportsau@ign.com or you can just click to send me an email. If you want, you can tweet suggestions at me as well, my twitter is down the bottom of this article. Make sure you check out the rest of the esports hub, as well!
Overwatch - World Cup Sydney Qualifiers
Sydney was enthralled this weekend as some of the best Overwatch players in the world descended upon the city to compete for one of just two positions in the Blizzcon World Cup Finals. The event opened with Australia taking on Italy in an outright stomping, as the Aussies won every single map. It set the tone for the weekend, establishing the homegrown heroes as legitimate threats.
Sweden and Portugal went down to the wire on day one, while in the other group Japan and Finland established their dominance early on. Day two saw Australia take it to Portugal with another 4-0 win as they looked nearly unstoppable.
Sweden smashed Italy, and in Group D Spain dominated Finland while Japan scored another win over Vietnam. In Group C it seemed like Sweden and Australia were destined to win, but in Group D it was still almost anyone's game. Day three pit Australia and Sweden against one another. Sweden won 3 - 1, but with the exception of the first round it was much closer than the scoreline appeared. Watch Sweden do everything they could to keep Australia from capping the last point on Volskaya just to kill more time.
That meant both Sweden and Australia had secured a spot in the finals. Finland needed to win 4-0 against Japan to make the finals but only managed a 2-2 — Group D was sending Spain and Japan to the finals. Sweden dismantled Spain quickly, but Japan vs Australia was a knock-down, drag-out slugfest — one that went all the way to the final moments themselves. In a Sudden Death Decider on Oasis, the game went to a last ditch brawl while both teams sat at 99% on the control point. It was some sports movie stuff.
Counter-Strike - CGPL Winter Finals
The CGPL Winter Finals wrapped on the weekend as some of Australia's best CSGO teams went head to head. Tainted Minds and the Chiefs got out to an early start against Dark Sided and Grayhound Gaming respectively, and Grayhound fell to Dark Sided in the loser's bracket to earn fourth place. The Chiefs and TM clashed in the Winner's bracket, and Tainted Minds would find themselves up against Dark Sided in the loser's bracket. In the Grand Finals, the Chiefs and TM fought again, this time in a best of 5, and the Chiefs would again secure the victory — although not before an early loss on Inferno. Watch Chiefs players Alistair and Malta find their groove on Train below.
Hearthstone - Global Games Quarter Finals
New Zealand was knocked out of the Hearthstone Global Games in a nailbiter against the USA. After going 2-2 early on and putting together some great play (with no shortage of luck), it came down to Slayermax playing for New Zealand and Amnesiasc playing for USA in a tiebreaker. The game was decided by a brilliant card pick — an Eater of Secrets that was the perfect card the USA needed to dismantle New Zealand's chances of victory. Watch it below.
League of Legends - OPL Week 5
Week 5 is one of two long weeks in the OPL as teams play for one extra day. Kicking off from 5pm Friday this week, we'll have another long week for those who love League of Legends. The week opened with the Dire Wolves playing Sin Gaming, and Legacy taking out the Chiefs. Abyss Esports secured the upset of the weekend by shutting down Avant, while Team Regicide lost to Sin Gaming before beating TM on the Sunday. Abyss couldn't keep their upset efforts going when they ran into an on-form Legacy Esports — Legacy is out to a big lead this split, and they're shaping up nicely for the end of split series. SIN and DW was a really close match-up, and game three in their series seemed quite even — until the Dire Wolves snagged a kill on Baron Nashor and SIN tried to start a fight they just couldn't win. Watch that below.
Another big congratulations to Blank Esports/Team Australia for their victory on the weekend, and if there are any awesome highlights we've missed be sure to hit me up either on Twitter or in the comments below!
Joab Gilroy is an Australian-based freelancer that specialises in competitive online games and esports. You can tweet at him here.
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