Martin Beggs

Long-standing G2 Esports mid laner Luka "PerkZ" Perković took the _ League of Legends _ world by storm in 2019. Prior to this year's season, G2 announced their addition of former Fnatic mid laner Rasmus "Caps" Winther. As a result, PerkZ moved to the AD carry position. The risky move left many wondering where the team was headed, though G2 came out the other side even stronger than before. With PerkZ as their carry, G2 won LEC Spring after topping the regular season’s leaderboard. They next attended the Mid-Season Invitational, where they took down Korean powerhouse SK Telecom T1 and destroyed North American side Team Liquid to take the cr While in League the simple objective is to push to the enemy Nexus and destroy it, DOTA2 is much more strategic and cerebral in the sense that it has tons of micro-mechanisms that count towards you winning the ro Though OG didn’t find consistent Dota 2 success throughout 2019, one player among their ranks powered them to victory at the biggest tournament of the year. Then-19-year-old Anathan "ana" Pham returned to OG in March after an extended hiatus. With ana back on the roster, OG began their climb back to peak form. They qualified for the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, and placed 5-6th at the main event. They then competed in ESL One Birmingham and the EPICENTER Major, placing 7-8th at both tournaments. The International 2019 arrived, and OG immediately exerted their dominance over their group stage opponents. To much surprise, ana played Io, traditionally a support hero, in the carry position. With that out-of-the-box pick, OG were able to top the group stage and secure a play-offs upper bracket berth. OG then took down Evil Geniuses, PSG.LGD, and Team Liquid to become the first team to ever win The International tw The monster of the Mid Lane, Akali, was recently nerfed to a point where she's almost unplayable. Despite this, there are still plenty of options for Mid Laners who want to carry the game and show they can be the next Faker. Yasuo, Zed, Fizz, and Kassadin are all at the top of the tier list. Though they are incredibly strong, new players should be hesitant to play them. Right now the mid lane is rewarding high skill level Champions but they can also be useless if not used correctly. It has become a meme that a Yasuo on your team will do nothing but feed while a Yasuo on the other team will be a complete god. All of the best Mid Laners right now fall into the category of being hard to master, but if you have the time and dedication to practice, the payoff can be very h League might require a bit of grinding to unlock all the possible Champions and Runes needed, which can be frustrating. However, the good thing about the hero rotation which forces players to pick from a certain pool of heroes in the beginning is that you won't be overwhelmed right off the _ Tekken _ phenom Arslan "Arslan Ash" Siddique skyrocketed to the top of the fighting game scene in 2019. Though he competed in very few professional events the year prior, Arslan Ash cemented his name in FGC history in 2019. The 24-year-old kicked off the year at Evolution Championship Series Japan, where a lower bracket run ended in a Grand Final victory over Alexandre "AK" Laverez. He next won the TGU x SEA Thailand Major over two-time EVO champion Jae-Min "Knee" Bae. The _ Tekken 7 _ star then doubled up on his EVO Japan title, defeating Knee once again to take home the EVO Las Vegas title. He became the first player to win EVO Japan and Las Vegas in the same y Support has always been the least coveted role in League of Legends, but that doesn't mean that they don't fill an important position. While oftentimes support is occupied by an autofilled player, it is still definitely possible to carry games in solo queue playing Techies Support Build, especially with the introduction of P Pyke is a unique support Champion in that he offers the ability to deal significant amounts of damage and take over as a killing machine. He currently is extremely strong and is a great option for those trying to climb the ladder. Traditional supports are also still viable picks, with the top ones being Thresh, Morgana, Nami, and Sona. These supports thrive on the utility they add to the team, and the pain of being forever trapped by Morgana will tilt the enemy off the face of the ea Top Lane has always had to ride the line between tanks and carries and thankfully in 9.4, both are viable. At the top of the tier list are Riven, Nasus, Yorick, Vladimir, Darius, Sion, and Garen. For those that prefer to play on a carry, Riven is the obvious cho For a Jungler, a global ultimate is very valuable, and Karthus can easily use his to secure kills. The rework of Nunu has put him in an incredibly good spot, especially in the jungle. He can secure objectives, provide tons of utility, has great teamfight abilities, and is a tank. Nunu has become the Jungler's dr It’s more than a semantic concern, however. Unlike traditional sports, it’s nearly impossible to tune in to games that you don’t play personally. For instance, I’ve never been into Overwatch , and although I understand how the gameplay works, Overwatch League is completely unenjoyable to watch. You can’t appreciate the level of difficulty that certain moves take to execute unless you’ve attempted them yourself. This rule is almost universally applied across all of esports. Unlike traditional sports, where pure athleticism can be appreciated void of any tactical or technical knowledge, esports requires a higher degree of familiarity. At best, this means that viewership rarely crosses between games. At worst, this means esports isn't viewer-friendly and may never have what it takes to reach wider audien