In The News
Weekend in review:
Many gamers look at the pro scene as an unreachable realm filled with people who somehow got noticed. There’s not a lot out there in terms of resources — particularly of the free variety. That’s where Wawa’s Boot Camp is hoping to come in. It’s a Discord community that brings together over 100 professional Overwatch players and coaches who offer up their time and help for free to assist aspiring pro players and gamers.
The Daily Walkthrough had the opportunity to chat with co-founder and CEO Won Joon “Wawa” Choi and marketing lead Sol “Waltz” Lee and take a closer look at what Wawa’s Boot Camp is, and hopes to be, for the esports community. Here’s a snippet of the larger article, “Wawa Your Way To The Top With A Boot Camp Bringing Pros And Players Together“:
“Especially with the esports scene growing to the size it is now, I believe that, sort of like a public school system with how education is accessible to everyone, esports should have the same opportunities…”
Congratulations to 19-year-old Nikita “Clawz” Marchinsky on winning Quake’s first World Championship. He “defeating Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager in the final with a 3-0 victory,” Dot Esports’ Jared Wynne reports.
Leak alert! GameSpot’s Aiden Strawhun reported over the weekend that Bethesda “may be working on a proper Game of Thrones video game or project of some sort” thanks to an “unfinished page on Target’s website.”
The page is titled “Bethesda : Game of Thrones” and is under its MMBV section, but that’s pretty much all there is — and there’s no indication it’s a video game. The MMBV section does, however, play host to a selection of video games, among other things.
South Korea’s facing some game drama after “actor Susumu Terajima” cracked a joke that could potentially get Yakuza Kiwami 2 cancelled in the country, Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft reports.
“‘Today, there are…several of the people up on this stage are Koreans, truly… I only hope no missiles come flying from Korea.’”
One of the words he used apparently can be considered a slur, and he made the joke during a time of increased tensions between North Korea, America and the surrounding nations around North Korea.
“Online in South Korea, however, the reaction to Terajima’s remark has been so bad that there’s even concern that the backlash could cause the game to be cancelled in South Korea, where the games have a diehard following. Note that not everyone online in South Korea was attacking the actor, especially those Yakuza fans who didn’t want the game banned.”
Call of Duty: WWII is hoping to make its Headquarters hub “lead to better engagement and closer ties that will keep players in a more fulfilling Call of Duty experience,” Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reports. He interviewed Sledgehammer Games CEO Michael Condrey at Gamescom.
“This has been going for six years, since the beginning of Advanced Warfare, trying to bring your character to life and really personalize yourself and bring you to the war. Now we want to give you place that’s not just the war. It’s a social place you can be rewarded.”
Geralt, meet Geralt! Maul is a German cosplayer who was showing off his incredible Geralt costume at Gamescom in Germany, Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett reports, when Geralt’s voice actor, Doug Cockle, came up to say hello. Don’t forget to check out the video and Maul’s “OMG” face.
Oh look, more PUBG news. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds beat out Dota 2 for Steam concurrents over the weekend. Polygon’s Owen S. Good writes that the excitement didn’t last for long because PUBG’s servers crashed immediately after.
Paul “Redeye” Chaloner hosted his 200th LAN event at ESL One Cologne. Slingshot Esports’ Vince Nairn sat down with him to talk through what it’s like to be “one of the most experienced and well-known personalities in all of esports.” Here’s a portion:
“They came to me and I realized, well, I’m actually free that week. It dawned on me. ‘Oh, crap. Now ESL One is going to be it…’”
The Pirate Bay is suddenly relevant in 2017. Acid Wizard, a game studio, is putting Darkwood on Pirate Bay under two conditions: “Think about buying the game when you can, and don’t buy it through key resellers like G2A,” Jon Fingas at Engadget explains. Acid Wizard didn’t hold back on its opinion of resellers, saying they’re “‘cancer[s]’ that hurt the game industry as a whole and make it ‘impossible’ to give away free copies an a [sic] more controlled way.”
Gimme. These awesome Destiny 2-themed shoes and gloves were worn by New York Yankees baseball player Aaron Judge during the Major League Baseball Players Weekend. Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard reports that “Judge has different cleats and gloves focusing on Destiny’s different classes, a different pair for three different games.”
The crown passes on. Crash Bandicoot is no longer at the top of the United Kingdom sales charts, having finally been beaten out by Uncharted: Lost Legacy, GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring reports. It’s now in 3rd. “The platformer has been beaten by another PS4 exclusive in the form of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (made by the original Crash developers, Naughty Dog).”
Congratulations to Team Liquid’s Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma on taking the win at Shine 2017 with a 3-2 victory over Cloud9’s Joseph “Mang0” Marquez in the grand finals!