TALKESPORT

Red Bull Solo Q, the official 1v1 League of Legends tournament, came to an exciting end this weekend as Mads “Viggomopsen” Mikkelsen was crowned the Red Bull Solo Q Champion, besting Arnas “arnax” Stepanauskas in a confident 4-2 victory. 

Set in one of the most visited tourist attractions in Germany, BMW Welt, and with Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere as global face of the initiative, the Red Bull Solo Q World Final closes out an amazing year for League of Legends Esports.

The Red Bull Solo Q World Final kicked off on Saturday, December 4th, with 19 of the world’s best 1v1 League of Legends players entering the group stage to decide who moves on to the elimination rounds. The single lane map Howling Abyss saw players forced to switch up their usual playstyle– along with a sudden death mechanic pushing players to fight in a shrinking Ring of Fire after 7 minutes. The opening day saw the two USA players, DarkWings and bradleyyy eliminated, leaving North American fans with the Canadian Doxa as their only hope. French top-laner Raphaël “Lingwi” Claudé, who looked like a very strong competitor moving into the final, could only put forward a 1 win 3 loss performance which saw him eliminated in the group stage.

Sunday saw the kick-off of the Playoffs and elimination matches. Mads “Viggomopsen” Mikkelsen, one of the strongest players in the group stages, continued his dominating run all the way until the final, besting Hamboly 3-1, Doxa 3-0 and You MERT Bro 3-1 with amazing adaptability, switching up the playstyle based on his opponents’ champion picks. On the other side of the bracket, Lithuanian ​​Arnas “arnax” Stepanauskas made his way to the final with tough 3-2 wins over both Shakara and Potatis, before besting HULKSMASH 3-1, with a thrilling final game where HULKSMASH looked sure to take First Blood.

Although Viggomopsen entered the final as the clear favourite, it was arnax who took an early lead with a win in game one. However, Viggomopsen’s calmness and measured approach allowed him to take back control, winning the following three games in a calm and confident fashion. arnax took the W in a nail-biting game five, surviving with only a sliver of health left. However, staying composed in a closely fought game 6, Viggomopsen remained patient as the Ring of Fire enclosed and took First Blood, and the Red Bull Solo Q World Title.

Following the win, Viggomopsen said: “I think I really screwed up a lot, I should have won the matchup quite easily but I kinda panicked a couple of times. But thankfully the pick was too strong late game, so even though I was really nervous and really stressed out I still got it.”

Speaking on Red Bull Solo Q, runner up arnax said: “The experience overall was great. I just took it one game at a time, I wanted to not come last place so going top two is great for me. I like all the guys, I’m really great friends with them all right now, so it’s been great.”

The show stopping final act of the renowned amateur circuit, Red Bull Solo Q features 1v1 duels where the player must draw “First Blood,” take down the opponent’s tower, or reach a 100-minion score to claim victory. Having run for a number of years, the tournament has seen multiple heartwarming success stories of amateurs competing in the tournament, and then progressing on to greater League of Legends success.

In one of his recent livestreams, YouTube star Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm IV announced cutting all ties with Esports Awards following their decision to completely censor the streamer in order to comply with Twitch’s rules on showing banned streamers during the event.

For the unaware, the Esports Awards is an annual award ceremony where people across the esports industry are honored with awards in various categories.

This year, Dr Disrespect was nominated as one of the finalists for the ‘Streamer of the Year’ Award. However, since the event was live streamed on Twitch, the Esports Awards bowed down to Twitch’s regulations and censored the nomination of the 39-year-old from the stream. Needless to say, the doc wasn’t happy about that.

After Dr Disrespect was asked by a fan whether he had received his award, the doc proceeded to slam Esports Awards for censoring him at the event.

“We had a good run with Esports Awards. After this last one, at this point, don’t even mention the Doc,” he said. “Don’t even throw me up on any social media, don’t do anything. The first year dropping me completely. And then this year…”

The gameplay of Dr Disrespect was censored and his audio was muted during the presentation to comply with Twitch’s regulations. Twitch’s rules don’t allow streamers to feature other streamers who have been banned from the streaming platform in their live streams.

The newly released Pokemon games Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have sent countless Pokemon fans on a trip down the memory lane as they rediscover the Sinnoh region while catching their favourite Pokemon along the way.

It goes without saying that Legendary Pokemon are a great addition to any Pokemon team. Not only are they extremely rare and hard to catch, but most Legendaries are also viable competitively and possess great battling potential.

Here’s how players can get all the Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl:

Dialga / Palkia (Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl)

Once you have defeated Candice in Snowpoint City, you’ll have to go to Mt. Coronet. From Mt. Coronet, head north till you reach Spear Pillar. You’ll have to take out a bunch of Team Galactic members, and after defeating them you’ll encounter Dialga or Palkia based on which version of the game you’re playing.

Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf

Uxie can be found in the cave at Lake Acuity, Azelf at Lake Valor, and Mesprit at Lake Verity. All of these legendaries can only be encountered once you’ve progressed the story through Spear Pillar.

Cresselia

Cresselia can be found in the forest on Fullmoon Island. To go there, you have to talk to the sailor in Canalave City who will then take you there.

Giratina

Once you’ve unlocked the National Dex, head to Sendoff Spring. From there, you have to go to the Turnback Cave which is located in the fourth lake.

In order to encounter Giratina, you have to explore the cave in 30 rooms or less. If you’ve searched more than 30 rooms, you can exit and re-enter the cave.

Heatran

First, head to the battle zone by talking to the sailor in Snowpoint City. From there, make your way to Route 227 and head east till you find NPC Buck, who will then take you to Stark Mountain. Explore the depths of the cave till you trigger a cutscene where Buck takes the Magma Stone.

Once done, go back to the Survival area and talk to his grandpa and then Buck, who will head back to Stark mountain to put the Magma Stone back.

You can then head back to Stark Mountain to find Heatran waiting.

Regirock, Regice, Registeel 

Sock up on some Mystery Shards and head to Ramanas Park. In the lobby, trade your the lobby, trade your Mystery Shards for a Discovery Slate. You’ll need one Discovery Slate to encounter each of Regirock, Regice, and Registeel.

Regigigas

You can only obtain Reigigigas once you’ve caught Regirock, Reice and Registeel. Head to Snowpoint Temple in Snowpoint City and talk to the lady at the front, who will let you in. Make sure to have Regirock, Regice and Registeel in your party while attempting to catch Regigigas, or you won’t be able to battle it.

Entei, Suicune, Raikou / Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos (Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl)

These can be obtained once you’ve encountered Regirock, Regice and Registeel. You can find either Entei, Suicune and Raikou, or Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos in a similar way depending on which version of the game you’re playing. You can find the first trio in the Johto room while the latter can be found in the Kanto room.

Latios, Latias

Latios and Latias can be found in the Soul Room and require a Soul State per encounter.

Ho-Oh / Lugia (Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl)

Once you’re done catching Latios and Latias, you’ll gain access to the Slate room where you can catch Ho-Oh or Lugia depending on your game’s version.

Mewtwo

Mewtwo can be found in the Genome Room which can be opened with a Genome Slate.

Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza

Kyogre and Groudon can be obtained in a similar fashion using the Oceanic Slate and Tectonic Slate respectively. To catch Rayquaza, you’ll need a Stratospheric Slate.