B/R Weekly Rushdown: Evo 2017 Game Lineup, ELEAGUE Major Results

How about this, esports fans? A week without any major business news. Without any big scandal or controversy. Without any huge roster shakeups. 

Just seven days of solid esports action and exciting announcements. So here it is! Your Weekly Rushdown of esports news!

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ELEAGUE Major is Underway!

Winter's biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event is here, folks, with the ELEAGUE Major officially underway. The action kicked off on Sunday and, as of this writing, the group stages are underway.

HellRaisers and FlipSid3 Tactics were the first teams eliminated, taking home just $8,750 after an ugly 0-3 run. OpTic Gaming, North, mousesports, GODSENT, G2 Esports and Team Liquid, meanwhile, all find themselves on the brink of elimination with 1-2 records. Na'Vi and Virtus.pro, meanwhile, have secured places in the playoffs with 3-0 records.

If you've missed out on the action so far, fear not! The tournament keeps running until the grand finals on Sunday, which will be aired on TBS and Twitch.TV. 

Smash Bros. Controversy at Genesis 4

Genesis 4 provided fans with a great deal of quality Super Smash Bros. action, but unfortunately, there was a double whammy of controversy during the Smash Bros. 4 for Wii U tournament.

First, and most notably, Samuel "Dabuz" Bubzy and Furukawa "komorikiri" Rei were both eliminated from the competition under dubious circumstances. Facing Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios and Zach "CaptainZack" Lauth, respectively, both players unknowingly played top-eight matches with 0.9 knockback instead of the default 1.0. 

The change, which functionally made characters heavier (more difficult to knock off the stage, but also easier to combo), affected both players in either match, but it also fundamentally changed how the games progressed. While the change was pointed out by komorikiri immediately after his loss and was quickly remedied, tournament officials opted to let the results stand, rather than running things back.

Organizer Sheridan Zalewski acknowledged that this was an oversight on Genesis' part and offered the following to the players:

"

I later tweeted that Genesis will be taking full responsibility for the mistake. This means compensating the affected players for their travel expenses to Genesis 4. I began speaking to Dabuz shortly after the incident and to Vayseth who was talking to Komo about how to do so fairly. No amount of money or favors can undo the players' frustration, but I hope this demonstrates that we understand they feel we wasted their trip to our event and want to make it up to them as much as we can.

"

He also proposed an addition to the tournament's rulebook in a "settings check," which would put the burden of checking these things on the players in the same way they need to check their own button mapping before competing.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only issue, as there was an issue with the brackets in the early stages of the tournament. Per Bassem “Bear” Dahdouh:

"

In reimporting the updated brackets, the paper versions used by pool captains were incorrect...Though it only occurred in Wii U Singles brackets I203, I205, and I207, this issue is important, and caused multiple matches to be disrupted.... I halted all pools during that time to ensure we had the most accurate information, though some players had played well into their next rounds and felt slighted by the changes. We did our best, but sometimes that’s not enough. For the hand-full of players this affected, I am truly sorry.

"

Despite those kerfuffles, Genesis 4 was a solid event for fans that saw its other tournaments go smoothly.

Evo 2017 Lineup Announced

The slow build to the world's biggest fighting game tournament began on Tuesday with the announcement of the titles that will be a part of Evo 2017. The list, per Shoryuken.com, is as follows:

• Street Fighter V
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
• Tekken 7
• BlazBlue: Central Fiction
• Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2
• The King of Fighters XIV
• Injustice 2

Additionally, Evo is hosting an online "Players' Choice" charity drive to determine a ninth game that will be featured on the main stage. People can make donations to Make-a-Wish International through Generosity.com toward a game's inclusion. The game that receives the greatest donation amount wins, with the lineup of possible titles being:

• Pokken Tournament
• Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
• Killer Instinct
• Mortal Kombat XL
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore
• Super Street Fighter II Turbo
• Nidhogg
• ARMS
• Windjammers

Interestingly, two of 2016's biggest titles (Pokken Tournament and MvC3) may miss out on an official appearance at Evo in favor of a Nintendo Switch newcomer in ARMS or even a non-fighting game like Windjammers or Nidhogg.

Donations can be made until February 10, so watch for confirmation on the next title then.