Here are the top events to watch this weekend in esports

April 29, 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

North America

This weekend is Challengers Finals, where we’ll find out which two teams will represent NA in Iceland for Masters. Sentinels, the Stage 1 Masters defending champions, might be the favorites to lock in one of the two spots after their impressive lower bracket run last weekend. They’ll face Andbox to kick off the tournament Thursday. If they and 100 Thieves win their opening matchups then we’ll get to see Sentinels vs. 100T in the upper bracket semifinals. Another opening round matchup to watch is the one between Envy and Cloud9 Blue. Envy have been very consistent since Stage 1, but C9 Blue have looked strong as of late.

Streams on twitch.tv/nerdstgamers

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

The rest of the world

Teams in every other region around the world will also be competing this weekend in regional Challengers Finals to determine who will go to Masters. We’ll find out who the qualifiers are from each region by the end of the weekend except Brazil and Latin America. Two teams from the combined EU, CIS and Turkey region will qualify, while Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia will each send one team.

Call of Duty

Stage 3 of the Call of Duty League continues this weekend with an intriguing matchup between the Atlanta FaZe and Los Angeles Thieves. FaZe are on a little losing streak after dominating the league all season, and the LA Thieves are 2-0 in Stage 3 so far. The LA Thieves will also face OpTic Chicago on Sunday in a matchup pitting two COD legends: Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez and Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag.

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

Overwatch

The May Melee concludes this weekend with Week 3 of qualifiers Thursday-Saturday, and then regional knockouts happening Sunday. The San Francisco Shock (1-1) sit in seventh in the West Region, and with only six West teams qualifying for the regional knockouts, their game against the Florida Mayhem (2-0) on Friday is a must-win. So far, only the Houston Outlaws (4-0) have qualified and don’t play this weekend.

In the East Region, the Philadelphia Fusion (4-0) and Chengdu Hunters (1-3) have both qualified for knockouts. The New York Excelsior (1-1) face both Shanghai (1-1) and Seoul (1-1) to determine the other two East teams that will qualify for the knockout stage.

The regional knockouts will determine the four teams (two from the West and two from the East) that will fly to Hawaii next weekend for Tournament Weekend.

Streams on: 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

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The top CS:GO teams in the world are back in action this weekend for DreamHack Masters Spring 2021. Sixteen teams, including Astralis, Gambit, Heroic and Natus Vincere are competing for a share of a prize pool of $250,000 and ESL Pro Tour points. Group play is this weekend and takes the form of a double-elimination bracket, and the top six teams will move on to the playoffs next weekend.

Streams on: twitch.tv/esl_csgo