As 2019 comes to a close, esports fans are left to reflect on the best competitive moments of the past year. Jaw-dropping plays, unbelievable tournament runs, and shocking levels of consistency from the world’s best players. Five of the biggest esports titles saw their biggest talents rise to the top, taking their rightful places as some of the best players in the wo

Those who think esports occupy a small, forgettable faction of the entertainment industry are unequivocally and undeniably wrong. Esports may seem small due to a lack of mainstream coverage, but the budding industry is a global phenomenon with a fanbase in the hundreds of millions. Still, esports continues to be difficult to wa

_ Counter-Strike _ ’s Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut made a splash in 2019, lighting up scoreboards with a consistent form that rivals the game’s best historic talents. The 19-year-old star debuted with Vitality in late 2018, and immediately turned heads as the newest French star. Following in the footsteps of legendary AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, ZywOo took over every server he played on . In 2019 alone, ZywOo lifted trophies at cs_summit 4, the ECS Season 7 Finals, and EPICENTER 2019, earning the MVP accolade at each event. Vitality also reached the Grand Finals of ESL One Cologne and DreamHack Masters Malmö, and, despite losses, the teenager was named MVP of both tournaments. ZywOo boasts staggering statistics, having maintained a 1.31 rating for big LAN events in 2019. His consistent performances this year place him among _ Counter-Strike _ ’s very best, and this is only the beginning of his car

_ 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

DOTA2 's hero pool is full of counters and somewhat well-balanced heroes. Each patch usually introduces pretty major changes to the game, but players are never tied to a certain meta. Because the game isn't just decided on meta heroes but micro-level plays, items, builds and such, you can successfully run almost any composit

For instance, coverage of a battle royale is going to be drastically more complex than a game like Mortal Kombat and completely different than moba Hero guide coverage. Asking one entity to develop the infrastructure to cover all games is quite a reach. This leaves developers in charge of covering their own events and lets them dictate how they set up tournaments, pay athletes, and cover the events. Could there ever really be a unified esports community under this system? Probably not. This means a lack of regulation, consistency, and viewership will always be an industry-wide conc

Final Fantasy 14 kicked off its All Saints' Wake just a couple of days ago on October 17. To access All Saints' Wake, players must be at least level 15 and complete the "It's Probably Pirates" quest. From there, they can head to Old Gridania and speak to the Adventurers' Guild Investigator for more information. The event gives players a chance to earn plenty of in-game items, including the new Circus Ahriman mount and a few favorites from previous ye

Borderlands 3 may be a recent release, but Gearbox already has plenty of plans for the role-playing shooter . The Bloody Harvest is free for all Borderlands 3 players, and while the event hasn't begun yet, its start date will be revealed later this month. Nevertheless, a few details on the spooky event are already available: a new vendor named Maurice will appear onboard players' ships who accepts a Halloween-specific currency called Hectoplasm. New enemies will also start cropping up all over the galaxy equipped with terror debuffs to knock players off their game. Later on, players will gain access to the Bloody Harvest map; a location full of haunts and led by Captain Haunt -- and any player that beats him will score some choice Halloween-themed g

But it’s mostly a farce. Those who play the most popular games at the highest level get all the limelight and all the cash. For everyone else, streaming—where personality trumps skill—is the only way to make money from gaming. If the community stays as segmented and hastily constructed as it is, it’s tough to imagine esports becoming anything better than what it already is. If you’re happy with the current state of esports, good for you. But for someone who wants a more entertaining and structured esports community, something has to cha