The Best Esports to Watch this Weekend

Knakveey
Games Overwatch
Games Overwatch

It’s been a somewhat quiet month for esport fans… until this weekend, that is. The next few days are shaping up to be your remedy for esports withdrawal. Featuring major esports events for Overwatch, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2 — if you didn’t have any plans this weekend, now you do.

League of Legends

The League of Legends 2016 World Championship began last night in San Francisco and the matches did not disappoint. Perhaps the biggest upset in League of Legends World Championships history occurred last night with wild card team INTZ e-sports from Brazil taking down Chinese juggernauts, Edward Gaming. On the back of Gabriel “Revolta” Henud’s Lee Sin, INTZ e-sports showed the world that they belong in the competition.

Gabriel "Revolta" Henud played a flawless Lee Sin in INTZ esports opening match against EDG.
Gabriel "Revolta" Henud played a flawless Lee Sin in INTZ esports opening match against EDG.

You can enjoy plenty more group stage action this weekend with games starting at 7 p.m. EDT over on Twitch.

Overwatch

The largest Overwatch tournament to date wraps up tonight on national television. TBS will be broadcasting the grand final matchup between Misfits and Team EnVyUs.

Misfits crawled their way to a grand final matchup — narrowly winning a couple payload maps by mere meters. What is even more impressive is that the team is playing with a stand-in at the tank position.

Misfit’s opponent, Team EnVyUs, have been the tournament favorites for many analysts. Their run in the tournament has been much more steady than their counterpart’s and the team looks poised to take the $100k prize pool.

Overwatch Open Team EnVyUs
Can Team EnVyUs live up to their expectations and win the biggest Overwatch tournament to date?

To watch the grand finals tonight, tune into TBS or the overwatchopen Twitch channel.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Eight teams are in New York this weekend for a premier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. Brazilian powerhouse SK Gaming looks to take another trophy to add to their display case. However, this isn’t going to be a gimme, as the competition looks stiff. Virtus Pro has been looking strong as of late. The all Polish squad has already played their first match of the tournament against the prestigious Swedish club, Fnatic and made their win look easy.

SK Gaming - the champions of DreamHack 2016 and the last CS:GO Major, ESL Cologne.

Can SK Gaming win three straight premier international tournaments? You’ll have to tune in to find out on the ESL CS:GO Twitch channel.

Dota 2

The first international Dota 2 LAN of the year is underway in China. Teams underwent a massive roster reshuffle after The International in August and many teams will be debuting their new squads at the MarsTV Dota 2 League. Evil Geniuses will be playing with a new captain and OG will see how their personnel changes stack up against the rest of the Dota 2 world. All the teams participating at the tournament have a new roster, making it difficult for experts and analysts to predict outcomes.

New EG captain Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen.
New EG captain Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen.

The Dota 2 community is also abuzz with mutterings of a new patch on the horizon. This could mean big changes to the meta and professional teams will have to adjust accordingly. I think it’s safe to say that this tournament will serve as the last international LAN before a new patch is introduced.

You can watch the games on the BeyondTheSummit Twitch channel.

Check back here on Fandom next week for match results and analysis.