There’s a lot to watch on Twitch this weekend. There’s the Battle of the Five Gods, an epic Smash Brothers tournament at South by Southwest, the final week of League of Legends LCS and the Ultra music Festival streaming its main stage live. I’ve been sick for the last few days, so I’ve been glued to the computer absorbing as much Twitch as I can possibly handle. I am one with Twitch chat; my editor had a hard time trying to remove all the “Feelsbadman” and “KappaSpam” from this article.
2016 LCS Spring
After eight weeks of excruciating League of Legends , the 2016 LCS Spring is finally coming to a close. The European LCS ended on Friday, and North America is next up to bat. Nearly every team- sorry Renegades- has a chance to reach playoffs or at the very least avoid relegations. TSM and Cloud 9 have to prove that they deserve a playoff spot, while Immortals laugh at their guaranteed first place spot. I predict some epic games of League, alongside some major throws and upsets.
Just keep in mind, if Dignitas looks like they have a lead and might actually take the win, don’t get your hopes up . I expect some grade-A level throws out of Dig, the sort of stuff you only see in Silver ELO or while playing with Dotot . You can catch all the action on the Riot Games channel starting at 3 p.m. EST Saturday and Sunday.
Battle of the Five Gods
The Battle of the Five Gods is a Super Smash Brothers tournament with $25,000 on the line, taking place at South by Southwest in Austin. The tournament started Thursday with 20 players, and today the final eight will play. The five gods refer to the five best players invited to play at the tournament: Mango, Armada, Mew2king, Hungrybox and PPMD.
Four out of five of these players-sorry PPMD- have made it to the final eight, which starts at 1 p.m. EST on the SXSW eSports channel . I’m cheering for Panda Global’s Wobbles, an Ice Climbers player who has cheesed the competition with his niche and unique style. It’s hard for players to adapt to the duo character that can lock you down in grabs until you die.
If this is your first time watching a Smash tournament, know that they aren’t playing on that small television for hipster appeal. Those fat televisions with tubes inside have zero lag, while LCD flat screens have a miniscule amount us normal folks wouldn’t notice. That’s why those guys are smash gods and we aren’t.
Ultra
I have to make it clear; I don’t understand the appeal of the Ultra music festival. These neon handkerchief wearing kids bopping up and down like a toddler at a Wiggles concert must know something I don’t. To me, EDM sounds like a bunch of auto tuned farts with a heaping helping of bass.
If I recognize a song I can’t tell if the DJs created it, or if it was just their version of a cover of a song I know called a “remix.” Names like Blaster Jaxx, Snails and DJ Snake sound like 90s’ comic book super villains.
Even if I don’t get it, there are a lot of people do. Ultra’s stream has been consistently at the top of Twitch’s watched list, reaching 125,000 viewers last night. Today Afro Jack, Hardwell, and maybe the rest of the Wrecking Crew will be streaming from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST on the Ultra Twitch channel.
