THE ESPORTS ARENA POWERED BY ESL AT THE EB GAMES EXPO IS READY TO SHINE
EB Expo is Australia’s biggest gaming and pop culture weekend, with world-class and emerging publishers in attendance all will unveil the latest and unreleased next-gen content to the public. Now in its fifth year EB Games has transformed EB Expo with a core focus around gaming, Cosplay, Pop Culture, shopping and eSports.
Shine+ is proud to announce that we are a major sponsor of the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL at EB Expo. We at Shine+ are huge fans of competitive gaming, getting involved in covering the local Australian scene since the MWAVE Oceanic ESports Masters in August. Our drink is formulated to enhance focus, mental capacity, and alertness; all of which are traits that can help gamers by contributing to enhanced decision making abilities, as well as giving them the energy they need for long play sessions without the caffeine crash of ordinary energy drinks.
We’re proud to throw our support behind the event and ESL Australia in their endeavour to support and grow competitive gaming at EB Expo. With that in mind, let's take a look at the action that will be going down at the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL at the end of the month.
Another big one for Counter Strike
The Australian Counter-Strike scene hasn’t had a break, with huge tournaments seemingly popping up every week on top of the weekly ESL AU/NZ Championships currently running. This time around, there are lots of familiar faces making up this four-team finale at the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL.
Powerhouses Legacy eSports, AthleticoBH, and Avant Garde all qualified for the top four, with the final spot being rounded out by new organisation ‘oneStop’. These four teams will be competing for the best cut of a $10,000 prize pool.
If that last name doesn’t sound familiar don’t be too surprised because the players are anything but unknown. Team oneStop are made up of the former Exile5 roster, veterans of the Australian Counter-Strike scene.
While all teams played tough rounds to qualify for the hotly contested EB Games Expo finals, there were two particular games in the qualifiers which stood out. Avant Garde, in their qualification pool, took out Chiefs ESC who are widely considered to be one of the most talented rosters in the Oceanic scene.
Another big win in the qualifiers went to Athletico, who took out Team Immunity to make it to the final four at the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL. Team Immunity are currently ranked first in the ESL AU/NZ Championships, so this was a huge victory for Athletico.
With such a contested and competitive field, it raises the question of who might be the favourite for the weekend. One might suggest Avant Garde, who along with this tournament also qualified for the ROGMasters finals which will be in Malaysia later this year. Surviving the gauntlet of single elimination not only once, but twice, in a short span of time is quite impressive, and even more impressive with their victories over top Australian teams Chiefs ESC and Parallax along the way.
It’s definitely not as clear cut as that though. There is a fire lit underneath the other three teams, who all met each other during the ROGMasters tournament earlier this month. Athletico had taken out oneStop earlier in the tournament, but would eventually also be eliminated by Legacy eSports. It goes without saying that both of these teams will have something to prove.
Legacy themselves narrowly missed out on qualifying for ROGMasters, and are also sitting at last place in the ESL AU/NZ Championships. With their latter placing not up to their typical standards of high-level play, they’ll have a lot to prove coming into the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL.
If you want my honest opinion on a favourite, it’s too close to call. It’s anyone’s game.
Smash Bros enters the arena
Alongside CS:GO will be Nintendo’s largest eSports brand, Super Smash Brothers. There will be two tournaments, one for the newer Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (commonly known as Smash 4), alongside the classic Super Smash Bros. Melee. Melee, in particular, is interesting as an eSport, as it has lasted since the early 2000s and has seen a revival in recent years to become one of the most watched competitive titles.
What sets aside the Smash tournaments from the CS:GO one is that it is an open bracket. This means that anyone can sign up, provided they are attending the EB Games Expo, and have a shot at taking home the top prize in front of convention attendees viewers on live-streams at home. Those prize pools are $1,500 for Smash 4 and $1,000 for Smash Melee.
Lots to see at the expo
On top of all the action at the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL, there is plenty to see and do at EB Expo. With a number of highly anticipated titles and products playable before release, most notably Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dishonored 2, South Park The Fractured But Whole and PlayStation VR. The Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, will be making his maiden appearance in Australia at EB Expo. There’s Cosplay, Pokémon battles, laser shows and the cast of ABC’s ‘Good Game’ performing a live 10th Anniversary show, this is one jam-packed weekend of awesomeness you don’t want to miss!
Shine+ will be in attendance at EB Expo! You can come check out our booths at the entrance to the ESPORTS ARENA powered by ESL to try Shine+ for yourself. EB Expo is from September 30 - October 2 at Olympic Park, Sydney. You can check out more details, and grab your tickets, here.
Win tickets for you and a friend
We have two twin-packs of tickets to the EB Expo for you and a friend to win. Tweet at us on Twitter @shinedrink about who your favourite Smash Bros. or CS:GO professional player is and why. We will pick the best two answers and give you, and your friend, a 3 Day Gamer Pass valued at $298 to the EB Expo!
