This Weekend in Esports: What to Watch from 2/23-2/25

Welcome to This Weekend in Esports, a brief overview of what to watch in the world of competitive gaming for the coming weekend.

This weekend, it's the beginning of IEM Katowice, as the festivities open up with Dota 2, the Overwatch League continues the first weekend of Stage 2 action, and Winter Brawl once again descends on Pennsylvania.

ESL One Katowice 2018

Game: Dota 2
When: February 24-25
Where to watch: ESL TV

Welcome to Poland's first ever Dota 2 Major. It's Valve's MOBA that's set to headline the first weekend of action from Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2018, where 1500 Pro Circuit points are at stake. The group stages are set to conclude on Friday, with the final eight teams set to duke it out on Saturday and Sunday. Group play has already proven intense, especially for those who tuned in on Thursday to watch Fnatic pull off an incredible upset over Team Secret.

HOLY SHIT!!!
THAT DID NOT JUST HAPPEN!!@FNATIC manage to Dark Rift themselves to a stunning 2-1 victory over @teamsecret!
A simply incredible ending to an amazing series! #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/IQUHRSwjz4

— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) February 22, 2018

Meanwhile, defending International champions Team Liquid are behind the eight ball, having lost a 2-1 series to Vici Gaming. They'll be fighting for their tournament lives against Virtus.pro for a chance at the runback against Vici.

Elsewhere at IEM Katowice, the CS:GO group stages will take place over the weekend to prepare for next weekend's playoff. Plus, the event is hosting a $50,000 PUBG Invitational, with 16 teams of four duking it out for the grand prize.

Overwatch League - Stage 2, Week 1

Game: Overwatch
When: February 23-24
Where to watch: Twitch.tv/OverwatchLeague

The Overwatch League is back after a week off and the action has already proven intense. On Thursday, the Houston Outlaws exacted a measure of revenge against the London Spitfire, defeating them 3-2 to avenge their Stage 1 Playoff loss. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Fusion turned the tables on the Boston Uprising. Losing to the Boston squad 4-0 in the last week of Stage 1, the Fusion returned the favor and swept Boston 4-0 on Thursday, dousing the fire of one of the hottest teams in the League going into Stage 2.

Watch Full Match | Boston Uprising vs. Philadelphia Fusion | Stage 2 Week 1 Day 2 from OverwatchLeague on www.twitch.tv

Friday's action kicks off with the New York Excelsior once again facing off against the London Spitfire. Yes, it's the rematch of two of the top teams in the League and the two teams that last faced off in the Stage 1 Finals.

Winter Brawl 12

Game: Street Fighter V, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and More
When: February 23-25
Where to watch: http://BigEGaming.com/live-stream

Now that the Capcom Pro Tour schedule is out, Street Fighter V's best players can start getting ready for the big tournaments that count. The road to Final Round 20 continues at Winter Brawl 12, where Victor "Punk" Woodley and Du "NuckleDu" Dang look to get themselves into form for the upcoming season.

But a more intriguing tournament is Dragon Ball FighterZ, which only has four less entrants than Street Fighter V. This scene is in its infancy, so it'll be interesting to see who stands as the best of the best. There are pros from across numerous games participating, including pros from Street Fighter V (Victor "Punk" Woodley, Joshua "Wolfkrone" Philpot, Kevin "Dieminion" Landon), the Marvel games (Cole "Flux" Tocci, Daniel "Clockw0rk" Maniago, Steven "Coach Steve" Delgado), the NetherRealm games (Dominique "SonicFox" McLean, Bryant "Kitana Prime" Benzing), Smash 4 (Wesley "6WX" Alexander), Killer Instinct (Kenneth "Bass" Armas, Christina "Pink Diamond" Freeland), and more. It's a melting pot of the FGC's best, so it'll be fun to see who stands tall when this tournament is over.

That's it for this weekend, but is there anything we missed? Let us know what you'll be watching this weekend. Join the conversation and let us know in the comments.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?