Here are the top events to watch this weekend in esports

April 15, 2021

by Brian Bencomo

Don’t know what to watch this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Here’s a rundown of some of the most intriguing games and tournaments happening this weekend.

VALORANT

The open qualifier for Stage 2 Challengers 2 takes place this weekend. Immortals, Cloud9 Blue, Andbox and Built by Gamers have already qualified for the closed qualifier, so four spots remain. Sentinels and FaZe Clan will be the teams to watch throughout the weekend. They missed out on the first closed qualifier, so if they miss out this time, it’ll be a huge shock and they would miss out on a chance to go to Iceland next month. TSM and T1 are two other teams that underperformed last time around and will be looking for redemption.

Streams on twitch.tv/nerdstgamers

Thursday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Friday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Saturday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Sunday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET

League of Legends

There might not be any pro NA League of Legends this weekend, but the Academy teams are in the midst of Proving Ground Springs aka Academy playoffs. In the upper bracket, Cloud9 Academy takes on Evil Geniuses Academy, while Evil Geniuses Prodigies face off against No Org. Meanwhile in the lower bracket, TSM Academy will face FlyQuest Academy, and 100 Thieves will take on Golden Guardians Academy.

Streams on https://www.twitch.tv/academy

Thursday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Friday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Saturday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET
Sunday: Starts at 6 p.m. ET

Overwatch

The Overwatch League finally returns this weekend! The OWL returns for its fourth season, with a revamped tournament-based schedule, and teams split into East (Asia) and West (North America) divisions. The season kicks off Friday with the Battle for Texas between the Dallas Fuel and Houston Outlaws, and the Battle for California between the San Francisco Shock and Los Angeles Gladiators.

The action in Asia will include the Philadelphia Fusion taking on the Seoul Dynasty, a match that takes place at 8 a.m. ET Saturday but will be reshown at 12:30 p.m. ET as an “Encore” match for the benefit of North American audiences. The Fusion face the Los Angeles Valiant on Sunday morning in another match that will be reshown later in the day.

Streams on: https://www.youtube.com/overwatchleague

Friday: West division play starts at 3 p.m. ET
Saturday: East division play starts at 5 a.m. ET
Saturday: West division play starts at 3 p.m. ET
Sunday: East division play starts at 5 a.m. ET
Sunday: West division play starts at 3 p.m. ET

Rocket League

The third and final regional event for Europe in RLCS Season X takes place this weekend. Team BDS, which has been so dominant all season, did not win the second regional event. Instead it was Team Queso, who won their biggest tournament to date and will be looking to run it back for Regional 3. Solary also achieved their best results in the RLCS with a second-place finish. It’s the last chance for teams to qualify for the Spring Major and a chance to earn more circuit points toward qualifying for the RLCS World Championship.

Streams on: https://www.twitch.tv/rocketleague