‘League of Legends’ tournaments coming to ESPN+ starting in July

By Eric Brackett May 26, 2018

ESPN has announced that League of Legends is coming to ESPN+. The cable sports network made the announcement on Friday, saying that it has signed a multi-year agreement with LoL‘s developer Riot Games. ESPN+ will kick off its coverage on July 16 — just in time for the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split. Following this, the summer finals will be held in September, followed by the world championships later this year,

ESPN’s agreement with Riot is not an exclusive one, so LoL fans will still be able to stream the matches on Twitch at no cost. ESPN is likely hoping this move will entice some people to sign up for its ESPN+ subscription service. The service costs $5 per month and gives users access to thousands of hours of live sporting events, original programming, and ad-free use of the ESPN’s site and mobile app.

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Like many traditional media outlets, ESPN has struggled with adapting to how the internet has changed news and sports coverage. The cable news network has had to contend with dwindling subscription numbers, as many people opt to cut ties with cable altogether. In its prime, ESPN was one of America’s most popular outlets for coverage of sporting events, analysis, and player interviews. Now that virtually every professional athlete has their own Twitter profile, there is less need for traditional sporting coverage.

The decline of cable may play a large part in ESPN’s decision to move into the realm of esports coverage. A decade or so ago, the idea of ESPN covering video games in a major way was a laughable concept, but esports have grown into a multi-million dollar industry, with a fanbase just as devoted as those of any traditional sport. In fact, many esports teams, such as those in the Overwatch League and a handful of LoL teams, are owned by major sports teams.

ESPN’s deal with Riot is not the first time that ESPN has covered MOBA competitions. In 2015 and 2016, ESPN partnered with Blizzard Entertainment for coverage of the Heroes of the Dorm tournament, which focused on Blizzard’s own MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.

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Gaming

Evercore Heroes applies League of Legends’ formula to a cooperative game

Key art for Evercore Heroes.

Vela Games, an Irish game studio founded by former Riot Games developers in 2018, unveiled its first game at a digital prebrief event attended by Digital Trends. Titled Evercore Heroes, this game modifies themultiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) formula that League of Legends helped popularize into a competitive PvE dungeon-crawling experience.
While the basics of gameplay and isometric view of Evercore Heroes are very similar to a game like League of Legends, players aren't directly fighting each other. Instead, four teams of four compete against each other in a cooperative dungeon-crawling experience where players slowly level up their characters, charge the titular Evercore, and eventually win by taking down a large boss. MOBAs, both in terms of gameplay and their community, can be intimidating to get into, so co-founderounder Travis George hopes that the cooperative aspects of Evercore Heroes and other efforts by Vela Games will make this an approachable and friendly game to which platers return.
"We all know that games aren't always known as the friendliest places in the world -- and we're not going to change human behavior on the internet -- but what we can do is be really deliberate about the gameplay, the community, and even the technology choices we make to hopefully orient players to have a more positive experience online," George says. "Hopefully, that keeps them coming back."

So far, Vela Games has revealed eight playable heroes: Shade the assassin, the shield-wielding Fyn, Zari the archer, the creature with a community-voted design named Beko, the melee-focused boxer Blink, fire mage Cynder, tech medic Remy, and short-range healer Lotus. They each have distinct abilities, and most of them look like they could be League of Legends champions or Valorant agents, so Riot Games' influence can really be felt in the design. Definitely keep an eye on this one if you're a fan of Riot Games.
Evercore Heroes is currently in development for PC, and interested players can sign up for a player test that will run from October 13 until October 16.

Gaming

BioShock Netflix film unites Logan and I Am Legend talent

A Big Daddy stands tall in Bioshock.

Bioshock's live-action Netflix film adaptation had attracted some top talent. The streaming giant took to Twitter today to reveal that the director of I Am Legend and the writer behind films like Logan and Blade Runner 2049 would handle the film adaptation.
The director is Francis Lawrence, who is known for directing 2000s cult classics Constantine and I Am Legend. More recently, he directed the last three films based on The Hunger Games and is currently filming the prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes. Hopefully, his experience with making films with horror undertones and adapting popular pieces of media serve the scary aspects of this BioShock film well.
https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1562864632708050945
The BioShock film's writer is Michael Green. He is credited as a writer on such films as Logan, Blade Runner 2049, and Death on the Nile. His track record isn't perfect because of subpar films like Green Lantern and Alien Covenant, but Green clearly knows how to write for famous pop culture properties. Hopefully, he has the chops to adapt Ken Levine's chilling and iconic story into something special.
Although video game movies have a reputation for being bad or very risky projects, more notable directors have slowly attached themselves to video game-related projects recently. John Wick series director Chad Stahelski is currently slated to direct the Ghost of Tsushima film, and now a pretty notable director and an experienced writer will adapt the critically lauded BioShock into a live-action feature film.
Hopefully, this pans out well. The BioShock film does not have a release window.

Gaming

Apex Legends’ newest character is a deadly sniper with an adorable bat pal

Vantage stands with her sniper rifle in Apex Legends.

Ahead of the start of Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted on August 9, EA and Respawn Entertainment went into more detail about the new Legend coming to the game at the start of the season. Her name is Vantage, and she's shaping up to be a deadly sniper with an adorable bat companion.
Vantage's backstory, which we got to see a bit of in July, consists of her growing up alone with her mother on the ice planet of Pagos. Her mother is secretly an escaped prisoner, and when Vantage almost dies exploring an abandoned ship, her mother has to turn herself in so she can get medical help for her daughter. Following this, Vantage enters the Apex Games in order to spread awareness about her mother's capture and eventually free her one day.
Vantage's passive ability is called Spotter's Lens. With that, she can scan an enemy's Legend name, team size, range, and shield rarity from a distance. Her Tactical Ability is called Echo Relocation, and she can use it to send Echo to a spot on the map before jetpacking to it. Thankfully, Respawn developers confirmed that players can't kill Echo, so players don't have to worry about putting this cute companion in danger.Her Ultimate ability is called Sniper's Mark, and it's one of the most unique ones in the game. Vantage summons her custom sniper rifle with Sniper's Mark. It has five bullets, and if she hits an enemy with it, Vantage will highlight their squad for ten seconds. Damage from her sniper rifle and allies scales up with consecutive hits, and all the shots don't need to be made at once, so Vantage can be quite deadly if a player knows how to use her properly. Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Season 14: Hunted begins August 9.