News:: Northern Gaming defies the odds to become Rocket League champions

After a grueling three day tournament (and three month season), Northern Gaming stands tall as the champions of Rocket League. The Season 3 RLCS grand finals just concluded as Northern and Mock-It Esports squared off. Northern was victorious, winning in seven games in an absolute barn-burner of a series.

The score of the deciding game was 1-0, a tally that was emblematic of how the entire series went. It was largely a defensive clinic, with Northern's Deevo and Mock-It's Fairy Peak leading the charge in net. (Deevo was named MVP of the entire tournament for his efforts.) Goals were at a premium throughout the entire match, and Northern was just a tiny bit better at keeping balls out of the back of its net.

Northern Gaming came into RLCS as the fourth seed out of Europe due to their relatively disappointing performance in the European regional tournament. However, they finished at the top of the standings during season play. It shouldn't surprise anyone that they ended up taking home the Season 3 hardware.

It was far from smooth sailing, though. Northern lost in the second round to North American champions NRG, meaning that they dropped down to the lower bracket and had to play six consecutive series to fight for their tournament life. (RLCS has a double elimination format.) That included beating NRG in a rematch in the lower bracket finals. 

Read more...

via destructoid http://ift.tt/2rAuOuA

News:: The Nintendo Switch: 3 months later

_{[Promoted from our community blogs, a hardcore fan looks back at the last 90 days]}

Holy Macaroni, these Arms Global Testpunches have been fun, haven't they? Well with that little blast of hype-steam out of my system, lets take a look at how the Switch is doing after 3 months of being available to the general public! It really doesn't seem like it but it's already been three months and while there have been some changes and additions, it still feels like the Switch is somewhat lacking in some areas. In others though, the Switch has been an utter delight. As for whether or not I'm still in the honeymoon period though is kind of a tough question to give a definitive answer to. Let's take a quick look at some good, hard, numbers to see how the Switch is selling: According to VGChartz (Geeze, I wish I knew of a better source) the Nintendo Switch has sold nearly 2.9 million units world wide, with North America being responsible for over a million of those units sold. While I can't find when the Wii U sold its millionth unit, it had sold 3.5 during the first quarter of 2013 and again, not sure if this means the fiscal year of 2013 or the literal year of 2013. It is projected that the Nintendo Switch is likely to outsell the Wii U in that similar timeframe...or rather it was since I'm sure we're quickly nearing the deadline for that particular timeframe. For what it's worth I do clearly remember being able to find Wii U consoles just about anywhere a couple of weeks after launch. The Nintendo Switch however sells out moments after stores open when or if those stores get re-stocks. 

Read more...

via destructoid http://ift.tt/2rzQDuh

News:: There's going to be a new Rocket League champion

A new Rocket League king will be crowned in Los Angeles. Early into the third day of the Season 3 RLCS, the defending champions have been eliminated. The throne is for the taking.

FlipSid3 Tactics has been beaten by fellow European squad The Leftovers. The Leftovers won three games to one in the best of five series. The first two games went to sudden death overtime; FlipSid3 won the first, The Leftovers won the second. After their initial win, The Leftovers dominated the remaining games to oust FlipSid3.

FlipSid3's roster is mostly the same as last season when it won the title. Kuxir97 and Markydooda both returned; their third player, M1k3Rules took a break from competitive play after the last RLCS and was replaced by gReazymeister for this season.

RLCS is a double elimination tournament, and they're working on sorting out the lower bracket of teams that all have one loss. Both Australian teams are already out. So is Rogue (formerly Atelier), who seemed to be the crowd favorite. Of the ten teams that started, only four are left -- one from North America and three from Europe.

The two squads that are in best position right now are North American regional champion NRG and European regional Champion Mock-It Esports. Neither of them have a loss yet, and they'll square off in an hour or so. However, because it's double elimination, one loss doesn't necessarily spell doom for anyone as they can always come back through the lower bracket. It's not unprecedented; that's precisely how FlipSid3 did it last season. If it's to happen again, it's going to be a different team that does it.

RLCS lasts another three hours or so from time of posting. It can be streamed on Twitch.

via destructoid http://ift.tt/2rzjFdK

News:: What do you want to see revealed at E3?

E3 is quickly creeping up on us. In not too long, the hype train for dozens of games will leave the station on a non-stop trip to Salesville. And while one of the best things about E3 is seeing all the new IPs developers and publishers reveal, I can't help but think about the game's I'd love to see new entries in. There are so many great properties out there that are just ripe for a big return, whether it's because of new hardware like the Nintendo Switch, improved performance like what we expect out of Project Scorpio, or a long-in-the-works VR project that will take a beloved franchise into the next dimension.

I'm excited for what we're going to see and the other writers here at Destructoid are excited as well. So I asked them what games they wanted to see this year. There were several games I considered writing about for this feature. Out of left field, I’d love to see Mega Man Maker be a real thing. More grounded in reality, having Luigi’s Next Mansion or Contra 5 announced at E3 would bring a huge smile to my face as those are two of my favorite franchises.

But when I really sat down and pondered about the industry, its past and the games from yesteryear that have been absent for a while, one repeatedly came to mind as the game to write about, to wish into existence: WarioWare Switch.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this series, of all of Nintendo’s great series, has been on hiatus. I guess Game & Wario could count as an entry but it isn’t nearly as good as its predecessors. My first experience with the series was WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii, a game me and my best friend would spend hours playing. From there I found copies of Touched!, Twisted!, and the original. I also bought D.I.Y. day one but never managed to make anything worthwhile in it.

It's been far too long since Wario ambushed players with his eclectic collection of single-serve microgames. At this point, I’d even take a Rhythm Heaven Megamix type release that brought the best (or all) of the microgames from all the WarioWare games into one package. With the Nintendo Switch, that would absolutely be possible.

Read more...

via destructoid http://ift.tt/2qVhqiZ

News:: Nintendope: The secret origins of Switch voice chat

_{[This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The views expressed by Destructoid Community members may not reflect what everyone at our company is inhaling.]}

The last time I saw Shigeru Miyamoto was at a Redmond, Washington gas station; I accidentally left him there after an evening of righteous blazing. Needless to say, we formed a special bond that night. So when he called me up to offer an exclusive peek at the behind-the-scenes secrets of Nintendo’s controversial voice chat plans, I was hardly surprised.

I arrived at Itami Airport at 4AM, but that's not why my eyes were red if ya know what I mean. The Shigsmeister himself greeted me at the exit, straddling a perfect replica of Link's Motorcycle from Mario Kart 8. He tossed a helmet my way. “Love the octorok sidecar, Shigs,” I growled, stroking every last hair on my chin with panache.

Read more...

via destructoid http://ift.tt/2rT1GC2