The Best and Worst of 2015

What a year for the boys in blue. They were victorious at DAC and TI5 before undergoing a roster change then finishing third at The Frankfurt Major and winning The Summit 4. With a new year, and a new patch, EG look like they'll once again be a dominant force.

Hidetaka Miyazaki does it again. After the minor miss-step that was Dark Souls II, From Software are back to their best. As a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, Bloodborne is exactly what fans were hoping for; a game that retains the elements that made the other 'Souls' titles great, whilst offering the player an intriguing new world to explore. Bloodborne is far from a glib facsimile.

Rocket League was simply the most fun thing to come out of 2015. It has cars and football, and you can go incredibly fast. What initially appears to be mindless fun slowly turns into a more tactical battle as you progress up the ranks; it's instantly accessible but has layers of depth making it a practically perfect multiplayer game.

Out of the Dota 2 teams, Evil Geniuses undoubtedly had the best year overall. OG formed post TI5 and have had an incredibly successful couple of months. In the space of a few weeks, OG were crowned champions at The Frankfurt Major, were victorious at Dreamhack, and came second in The Defense. Their 4th place at The Summit meant that they could give the most insightful and entertaining commentary throughout the tournament. You'd be hard pressed to find a fan of Dota 2 who isn't also a fan of OG.

The Steam Controller and Steam Link

Don't be put off by the bad reviews.

Surprisingly, The Steam Controller has received a fair amount of negative criticism and widespread shrugs from the games industry. We can't help but feel that many have missed the point, criticizing that it falls somewhere between a controller and a mouse and keyboard but not being as strong as either; a jack of all trades but master of none situation. It clearly wasn't designed to replace either device. There's no point trying to use it to play an FPS if you have a mouse available, just as it would be ridiculous to try and play StarCraft 2 or Dota 2 with a gamepad. The Steam Controller, in conjunction with the Steam Link, is perfect for playing turn based titles like XCOM, Dungeons of Dreadmor or Civilization whilst comfortably relaxing on the sofa. Valve wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel, they were just trying to make Steam comfortable to use in the living room. As far as we're concerned, they succeeded.

Ritsu

It would be funny if it wasn't so depressing. 2015 looked like it was going to be a great year for Ritsu. He was picked up as the carry for Cloud 9's Dota 2 team, then started receiving praise for his Anti-Mage play from the great Jacky Mao as Cloud 9 began to dominate the North American scene (excluding EG). Then things quickly unraveled just before, and during, The Frankfurt Major.

"Events preceding the attendance of the Frankfurt Major weighed heavily on both Ritsu and Cloud9 as an organization. His out-of-game conduct was consistently unbecoming of a professional player and although he began taking steps to change himself and how he interacted with the DOTA2 competitive community, his past indiscretions combined were too much for Theeban, myself, and the rest of the organization to overlook moving towards the next Major." - Danan Flander, C9's General Manager.

It was revealed that Ritsu was part of a group of players that were leaking the draft information of fellow North American team Digital Chaos. Having heaped praise on the young player, Eternal Envy savagely turned on Ritsu.

Fuck off.