With the Boston Major less a month away, each Dota 2 LAN event will be a test for the teams making the trip to Massachusetts. Even though there are several opportunities for squads to get their jitters out, this weekends Summit 6 might be the best chance for the eight teams to identify problem areas and feel out other teams strategies.The Summit 6 is the only LAN between now and December that will have solely Boston-bound teams in attendance. The top three of the last International, as well as some of the most promising invites and qualifiers, will compete for a $100,000 prize pool and a strong start headed into the first major of the 2017 season.Direct invites: Wings Gaming Digital Chaos Evil Geniuses OGWings, DC and EG are the three clear titans of The Summit, coming off their respective first, second and third performances at TI6. OG, despite having a less-than-desirable finish in Seattle, have come out swinging from the offseason, and they round out the direct invites as one of the stronger European squads.The Chinese TI champions of Wings have been maintaining their streak, sticking together as five through the offseason and taking two LAN victories at the Nanyang Cruise Cup and last weeks Northern Arena BEAT Invitational. There is no slouching for Wings either; they still hold an impressive 91 percent series win rate. Wings Gaming still looks like a strong favorite for The Summit after excelling at Dota 2.Digital Chaos are the odd ducks, having only competed in the gimmick Elimination Mode 2.0 tournament since taking second in Seattle. Results from there have been mixed, as the team fell 2-0 to Team NP but proceeded to take Complexity and Kaipi out of the tournament. The Summit 6 will be DCs first full-fledged LAN and the first indication of whether or not this North American Cinderella story can stay at the front of the pack.The other NA powerhouse, Evil Geniuses, has been on a LAN streak, taking first at the MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn and taking series over OG, NP and Newbee. Newly christened captain Andreas Cr1t- Franck Nielsen has washed away any concerns about EG 2.0. There have been a few missteps, like a recent fourth-place finish at Northern Arena to Team NP, but considering the entire series, EG looks primed and ready for its first Summit win and maybe its first major.For OG, performance at The Summit 6 could be critical. The start of the 2017 season has seen a changing of the guard in Europe; the long-standing franchises such as Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and Alliance have been slowly falling. OG represents this new power as a fledgling organization entering its second year after a rough finish to the first. All eyes will be on two key players: Anathan ana Pham, the talented but unproven mid laner, and seasoned veteran Gustav s4 Magnusson in his new offlane position. Pham has been struggling to find footing, and Magnusson has looked steady but repetitive in drafts, often being put on comfort picks like Batrider. Explosive plays from these two could mean the difference between the middle of the pack or a top-three finish in Los Angeles.The qualifiers EHOME Team Faceless Virtus.pro Team NPDespite their status as qualifiers, these four teams represent real threats at The Summit. While some teams have abstained from attending competitions and LANs, these four squads have been busy making themselves known in the scene. The talent pool and results show one fact about these qualified outfits: There will be no free wins at The Summit.EHOME surprised many with a direct invite to Boston, but recent results in The Summit qualifiers and NA BEAT showed the teams prowess. The five players of EHOME advanced effortlessly through the upper bracket of the qualifiers, dropping only a single game in the entire tournament, and took a recent third in Montreal at the BEAT Invitational. EHOME did struggle in the most recent DotaPit qualifiers, though, and teams attending The Summit will likely be eyeing those series to find out where EHOMEs regional contenders found holes in the armor.Virtus.pro, meanwhile, has been making a great deal of noise in the European region. The core duo of Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev and Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko are formidable, and the VP squad has toppled almost every squad in Europe, including titans such as Team Secret and Team Liquid, to earn a spot for Boston. OG will be especially aware of VP as a threat, but other teams not familiar with the region could possibly overlook the teams success and fall prey.The truly silent success has been Team Faceless. Coming from the Southeast Asian region, Faceless looks to continue the streak of SEA teams defying expectations and surpassing traditionally dominant regions in Dota 2. The teams captain, Daryl iceiceice Koh Pei Xiang, cannot be dissociated with Faceless success, but core role Dominik Black^ Reitmeier has been exceptional in his return to the safe lane and professional play. Look for Reitmeier to put up impressive numbers in Los Angeles.If Faceless and VP are the under-the-radar teams, Team NP has been broadcasting on all channels. Formed after a falling out from former teams, Jacky EternaLEnVy Mao has been leading this motley crew of North American pros on a crusade of upsets and victories, reminiscent of the heyday of Cloud 9s Dota 2 days. The plays, for the most part, have been more stable and consistent, but theres still an element of surprise to everything NP does, varying between brilliance and confoundment. Still, this is one of the most entertaining teams to watch in Dota 2 right now, and given NPs recent ability to upset top squads such as EHOME and Evil Geniuses, NP looks less like a dark horse and more of a favorite for a top-three finish. Wholesale MLB Jerseys Free Shipping .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Wholesale MLB Jerseys China . The quest begins with what is supposed to be an easy one, although Germany has traditionally been a stubborn opponent to Canadian teams at international tournaments. http://www.cheapmlbjerseysauthenticchina.com/ . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. 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When Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the NBA in 1979, the NBA Finals, which would become their annual stage, was still televised on tape delay.On Thursday, esports, and more specifically League of Legends, might have ushered in a turning point for an emerging league looking for the same credibility and stability as traditional sports.Riot Games, which is the developer and publisher of League of Legends, announced a series of initiatives aimed at growing the game and moving it closer to a traditional sports model. While the jury is still out whether players and team owners take to the new model, Riot hopes these moves will inject more revenue into the entire ecosystem.To help us get there, the organization said in a news release, well share [League of Legends] esports revenue streams and collaborate with our partners to develop new business models and actively shape the league. We want these partners to have permanent stakes, to be invested in a stable future and profit from the continued success of the sport.The announcement came after a series of high-profile events - from two North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) teams, Renegades and Team Impulse, being kicked out of the league to a public dispute between Riot co-founder Marc Merrill and Team Solomid owner Andy Dinh - called into question the structure and practices of the company.There are obviously many differences between esports and traditional sports, but talk to the owners of the 10 teams competing in the NA LCS and theyll tell you it starts at the top. Unlike traditional sports where individual teams make up the ownership group of leagues like the NFL and the NBA, owners of LCS teams in the leagues in North America, Europe, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and many more, have no ownership stake in the league.Riot Games owns the game and there is currently no significant sharing of revenue streams as there is in other professional sports league where member clubs profit from broadcast rights, league merchandise and sponsorship sales. Teams make most of their money off of their own individual sponsorship deals and streaming revenue. And even those deals are hard to come by for many teams since the NA LCS forces the bottom three teams in a 10-team league to play in a relegation tournament, where two teams could not only be sent down to the Challenger Series but be forced to fold with the loss of revenue following such a move. Its a chance many sponsors dont want to take and serves as the biggest reason why sponsorship and player deals are largely year-to-year arrangements instead of long-term contracts.Its an outdated model that has come under heavy criticism lately from team owners looking to grow along with the sport before being forced out due to shrinking revenues, increasing player salaries and the instability caused by a relegation system thats common abroad but foreign to North American professional sports leagues.Weve had the privilege of talking to a number of different sports leagues across a variety of topics and one of the things that we learned is there is there is no singular path or singular outcome that works for everybody, Whalen Rozelle, co-director of esports at Riot Games, told ESPN. What we were inspired by was the idea of a collective group that has shared interest in achieving victory together. We believe League of Legends as a sport can get to that point.When Riot Games kicked out Renegades and Team Impulse, as well as Team Dragon Knights of the Challenger Series in May, tellling owners they had 10 days to sell the team, many within the community were outraged by the drastic action that came without much in the way of publicly divulged proof of wrongdoing.dddddddddddd The swift rulings without the opportunity for an appeals process also gave many prospective investors pause. After having their teams receive investments from athletes such as Shaquille ONeal, Alex Rodriguez, Jimmy Rollins and Rick Fox as well as inquiries from teams such as the Miami Dolphins, the death penalties served as a black eye for a company in need of makeover.We learned theres a desire within the community for more transparency, Jarred Kennedy, director of esports and merchandise at Riot Games, told ESPN. Theres a concern with whos keeping Riot accountable. We acknowledge the need to build mechanisms so there can be more shared governance of what we do together. We think there are some things we can do with third-party arbitration in cases that are death-penalty situations. We want to reinforce the comfort level of the community that were doing things in the best interest of the sports and the fans and the players.Five years ago, Brandon Beck, co-founder of Riot Games, envisioned a future where events and production value matched that of traditional sports, and where major tournaments would be held at sold-out arenas in front of thousands of screaming fans. It seemed like a pipe dream at the time, but the truth was he didnt need five years. When the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship was held at Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2013, it sold out within an hour and had 32 million unique viewers online. That figure is higher than the number of people who tuned in to watch the BCS National Championship Game or Game 7 of the NBA Finals that year.This years world championships will once again be held at Staples Center next month, and after again selling out in a matter of minutes it became the most searched for event on StubHub, surpassing NFL and college football games.Beck also envisioned a future where there would be rivalries among storied teams with strong fan bases and legendary players known for long careers with a team, just like in traditional sports. While weve seen that in some cases, the current economic model has made it impossible for teams to think past one year as they try to not get regulated or worse, fold. The majority of contracts in the NA LCS are year-to-year, as is the shelf life for some of the lower-tier teams. Thats something that Riot Games plans to address following Thursdays announcement.The idea of a long-term partnership is a major step, Rozelle said. That allows teams to think on a longer time frame, and as we build the future that will be highly unlikely without the teams thinking on the same time frame that were thinking. You make different decisions when youre thinking in the short term and the long term. And the increased economic activity in the scene will ensure both security long term and give teams the confidence to sign players to longer term contracts.Esports and League of Legends specifically isnt where it wants to be yet. Where that is exactly is even a mystery to Riot Games executives still amazed at how far theyve come with a game they introduced to the public only seven years ago and now has over 100 million monthly players. The idea of selling out arenas and being watched by more people than the NBA Finals or Final Four was too far-fetched to even be a dream five years ago. 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