What to watch this weekend in esports

March 31, 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

Stage 2 of the North American VALORANT Champions Tour kicks off this weekend with the open qualifier for Challengers 1. The top eight teams will qualify for the Challengers 1 closed qualifier taking place next weekend. Will Sentinels continue their dominance of NA VALORANT? Will teams like TSM and T1 bounce back in Stage 2 to make a run at Masters? Which surprising teams will emerge as contenders? These are just some of the questions going into the VCT’s next phase.

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

LCS

The LCS Mid-Season Showdown is down to four teams. Cloud9 face Team Liquid in the upper bracket final Saturday, and TSM take on 100 Thieves in the lower bracket semifinal Sunday. Although C9 had the more high-profile offseason addition -- Europe’s Luka “Perkz” Perkovic -- Team Liquid is 3-0 against C9 this year, including a 3-2 victory in the LCS Lock-In final. TSM is 2-1 against 100T this year, including 2-0 during the spring season. The winner of the Mid-Season Showdown will get to represent NA at the Mid-Season Invitational next month in Iceland.

Streams on twitch.tv/lcs

Saturday: Starts at 4 p.m. ET
Sunday: Starts at 4 p.m. ET

LEC

The LEC spring playoffs continue this weekend, with Schalke facing Fnatic on Friday. The loser gets eliminated, and the winner will play Rogue on Sunday. The marquee matchup of the weekend will be between G2 and MAD Lions on Saturday to determine the first spring playoffs finalist. G2 might still be the kings of Europe, but MAD Lions have been making a run at the title in the past year. Although MAD Lions have lost their last two best-of-fives they have played against G2, they shocked many when they beat G2 3-2 last year in the LEC’s spring playoffs.

Streams on twitch.tv/lec

Friday: Starts at 12 p.m. ET
Saturday: Starts at 11 a.m. ET
Sunday: Starts at 11 a.m. ET

Call of Duty

Stage 2 of the Call of Duty League season wraps up this weekend with teams jockeying for seeding in the upcoming Stage 2 Major. The Dallas Empire and Florida Mutineers face off Thursday. Both teams are 2-1 and looking to take the top spot in Group B, where the surprising Seattle Surge are also 2-1. The Surge face another surprising team, the 2-2 Minnesota ROKKR, who enter the weekend on the heels of a roster change and big wins over the Empire and OpTic Chicago last weekend. The Empire will close out the weekend against OpTic.

Streams on: youtube.com/CODLeague

Thursday: Starts at 3 p.m. ET
Friday: Starts at 3 p.m. ET
Saturday: Starts at 3 p.m. ET
Sunday: Starts at 3 p.m. ET

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The ESL Pro League Season 13 playoffs get underway this weekend. Team Liquid is the only one-loss team to have not emerged atop their group. They don’t have a bye for the first two playoff rounds like the four group winners, so they’ll face G2 on Saturday in the first round. Another interesting first-round matchup is between Natus Vincere and Complexity Gaming. It’s the only other first-round matchup besides TL-G2 to feature two teams with a positive round differential during group play.

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