Sports
Los Angeles Dodgers Win World Series, Aim For Dynasty Status
After spending more than $1 billion in the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers put together their World Series run only after they were left for dead.
The team with the best record in the regular season was essentially considered the underdog in their opening round of the playoffs against the club just down the freeway in the San Diego Padres.
When the Dodgers fell behind 2-1 in the National League Division Series, their season obit was all but written.
Then the Dodgers showed they were more than star power and high tax brackets when they closed out the postseason with 10 wins in their last 13 games on the back of a deep bullpen, midseason additions, and bench players turned everyday postseason starters like playoff sage Kiké Hernandez.
Now, the question isn’t if the Dodgers can win it again but how many titles are ahead.
The lasting impression after the Dodgers rallied for an improbable 7-6 victory over the New York Yankees to clinch their eighth all-time World Series title Wednesday was that they won the clincher with grit, not flash. They won with contributions from the full roster, not a top-heavy constellation of MVP winners.
Consider that Los Angeles went into the postseason with just three starters they could count on. The list of unavailable pitchers included Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Emmitt Sheehan and standout rookie Gavin Stone.
Mookie Betts (hand) and Max Muncy (oblique) each missed three months. Freddie Freeman had challenges in the second half that included a broken finger, health issues for his young son and a badly sprained ankle just before the postseason began.
Freeman won the World Series MVP anyway with home runs in each of the first four games.
Walker Buehler finally made it back in May from two years away following a second Tommy John surgery. Then he missed two months with a hip injury. He won Game 3 against the Yankees as a starter and earned the save in Game 5 to win the championship.
Buehler could be moving on as a free agent, while right-hander Jack Flaherty, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, utility man Kiké Hernandez and right-handed reliever Blake Treinen are also key free agents. But the MVP lineup core will be back to make the Dodgers as much of a prohibitive favorite as there is in futures wagering.
Maybe a reference to sports wagering is a delicate topic. The Dodgers’ season looked as if it might be derailed when it had barely started. During a schedule-opening series against the San Diego Padres in South Korea, Shohei Ohtani was embroiled in a sports-betting controversy involving his friend and interpreter.
An MLB investigation cleared Ohtani of involvement, and the $700 million man went on to put together one of the best seasons in MLB history with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. And then Ohtani joined the list of the injured when he came away with a partially dislocated shoulder in Game 2 of the World Series.
Ohtani was just 2-for-19 (.105) in the World Series, but the Dodgers got the best of the Yankees anyway thanks to Freeman and a wild five-run rally in the fifth inning of Game 5 when the Yankees made three defensive miscues, or four counting Teoscar Hernandez’s two-run game-tying fly-ball double that landed untouched on the warning track.
“It’s hard to win a championship regardless of what your team is like,” Roberts said. “It’s hard, and there’s a reason why there hasn’t been a repeat champion since the Yankees did it (from 1998-2000). It clearly speaks to the difficulty, the playoff format, all that stuff.
“I’m going to be in the moment, and I’m going to enjoy the heck out of this one. I’m sure there’s no asterisk on this one.”
Roberts was as much a reason for the title as anybody with the best managing work in his nine seasons with the Dodgers. He had some of the best talent in baseball to work with, and yet he still needed to work the margins to bring home the trophy.
In his first career postseason, Ohtani will walk away with a championship ring. In the coming days he will be awarded his third MVP award and first in the National League. And next season he will return to pitching; for yet another reason, the Dodgers will be in prime position to repeat as champions.
“We were able to get through the regular season, I think, because of the strength of this team, this organization,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “And the success of the postseason is very similar to how we were able to pull it off during the regular season. Again, the strength of the organization. Extremely honored to be a part of this.”
Sports
Tundra Esports advances to grand final of DreamLeague Season 28 playoffs
Tundra Esports swept Team Liquid in the upper-bracket final on Saturday to advance to the grand final of the DreamLeague Season 28 playoffs.
The grand final on Sunday will pit Tundra Esports against the winner of the lower-bracket final earlier in the day between Team Liquid and Aurora Gaming in the double-elimination format.
The $1 million Dota 2 event began with 16 teams competing in a round-robin stage split into two groups of eight teams. All series consisted of two games, and the top four teams from each group advanced to Group Stage 2, a single round robin featuring best-of-three matches that ran through Friday.
The playoffs feature best-of-three matches until the grand final, which will be best-of-five.
The championship team will receive $250,000 in prize money and a $40,000 club reward. The runner-up side will get $100,000 and a $30,000 club reward.
Aurora Gaming opened play on Saturday with a 2-1 win over Xtreme Gaming in the lower-bracket semifinal. Xtreme Gaming opened with a win in 40 minutes on red before Aurora Gaming rallied to wins in 47 and 29 minutes, both on red.
Russia’s Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko logged a 21-4-28 kill-death-assist ratio for Aurora Gaming, while teammate Artem “Lorenof” Melnyk of Ukraine post a 23-8-30 K-D-A over three games. Wang “Ame” Chunyu of China had a 23-9-13 K-D-A ratio for Xtreme Gaming, which finished fourth in the tournament.
Tundra Esports dispatched Team Liquid 2-0 in the upper-bracket final, winning in 46 minutes on red and 39 minutes on green.
Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko of Russia posted a 32-2-19 K-D-A ratio for Tundra Esports and teammate Neta “33” Shapira of Israel had a 24-5-30. Michael “MiCKe” Vu of Sweden posted a 13-10-6 ratio for Team Liquid.
Dream League Season 28 prize pool, with prize money and club reward
1. $250,000, $40,000
2. $125,000, $30,000
3. $80,000, $25,000
4. $60,000, $20,000 — Xtreme Gaming
5. $45,000, $15,000 — Team Falcons
6. $35,000, $15,000 — PARIVISION
7. $30,000, $12,500 — BetBoom Team
8. $25,000, $12,500 — MOUZ
9-10. $20,000, $10,000 — OG, Natus Vincere
11-12. $17,500, $10,000 — Team Yandex, Team Spirit
13-14. $15,000, $10,000 — paiN Gaming, GamerLegion
15-16. $10,000, $10,000 — Yakult Brothers, Execration
–Field Level Media
Sports
LYON, Cloud9 in LCS Lock-In grand final
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
LYON knocked out Sentinels to earn a meeting on Sunday with Cloud9 in the grand final of the League Championship Series 2026 Lock-In at Los Angeles.
LYON won 3-1 on Saturday in the lower-bracket final, taking the first map in 31 minutes as Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol of South Korea posted a 7-0-1 kill-death-assist ratio. LYON won again in 37 minutes as Niship “Dhokla” Doshi, an American/Indian player, had a 7-3-6 K-D-A and Berserker a 5-0-6.
Sentinels stayed alive with a victory in 34 minutes in the third game as Ham “HamBak” Yoo-jin of South Korea recorded a 5-0-8 K-D-A.
But LYON wrapped up the match by winning the fourth game in 39 minutes on red. Berserker contributed a 6-3-7 K-D-A.
Following the eight-team Swiss stage in the League of Legends event, six teams competed in the double-elimination playoffs, with all matches best-of-five. The overall winner qualifies for the First Stand Tournament, while the second- and third-place teams will head to the Americas Cup.
Both of the latter two events will be contested in Sao Paulo.
Cloud9, which finished atop the Swiss stage standings with a 3-0 record, has moved through the playoffs by beating FlyQuest 3-0 in the upper-bracket semifinal and Sentinels 3-0 in the upper-bracket final.
LYON, who finished fifth in the Swiss stage, eliminated FlyQuest with a 3-0 victory in the lower-bracket quarterfinals, then a 3-1 triumph over Team Liquid in the bracket’s semifinal before Saturday’s victory.
2026 League Championship Series Lock-In at Los Angeles prize pool
1. TBD, qualifies for First Stand Tournament
2. TBD, qualifies for America’s Cup
3. Sentinels, qualifies for America’s Cup
4. Team Liquid
5-6. FlyQuest, Disguised
7. Dignitas
8. Shopify Rebellion
–Field Level Media
Sports
OpTic Texas moves into first place in CDL Major 2 qualifying
YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year. OpTic Texas defeated Los Angeles Thieves in a battle of 4-0 teams to move to the top of the standings in qualifying for the Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major on Saturday.
In other second-day action of Week 3 competition, G2 Minnesota edged Riyadh Falcons, Toronto KOI beat Miami Heretics and Carolina Royal Ravens defeated Vancouver Surge.
The 12 Call of Duty League teams are playing a full qualifying round robin to determine seeding for the second major of the season, to be held March 27-29 in Marston Green, England, as part of the DreamHack Birmingham event.
The top six teams in qualifying head straight into the Stage 2 Major playoffs, while the teams in seventh through 10th place will compete in a play-in round.
The Stage 2 Major champion will receive $150,000 and 100 Call of Duty League points, while the runner-up will get $90,000 and 75 CDL points.
After Los Angeles Thieves claimed an opening 250-238 Den Hardpoint victory, OpTic Texas won the next three to claim a 3-1 victory. A 6-2 Exposure Search and Destroy triumph was followed by a 4-2 Den Overload win before the result was clinched with a 250-173 Colossus Hardpoint triumph.
In Saturday’s first match, G2 Minnesota won the final two games to come away with a 3-2 win. Riyadh opened with a 250-229 Scar Hardpoint victory and took a 2-1 lead with a 5-0 Scar Overload win. G2 leveled it at 1 with a 6-1 Raid Search and Destroy win, tied it at 2 with a convincing 250-134 Colossus Hardpoint victory and won the deciding Colossus Search and Destroy game 6-3.
Toronto finished a sweep of Miami with 250-182 Hardpoint, 6-4 Search and Destroy and 4-2 Overload victories, all on the Den map.
Carolina also swept Vancouver for its second victory in as many days after a 1-3 start. After opening with a 250-186 Blackheart Hardpoint win and following with a 6-2 Den Search and Destroy victory, the team closed out the win with an 8-2 Exposure Overload win.
The weekend schedule:
Sunday
–Toronto KOI vs. Paris Gentle Mates
–FaZe Vegas vs. Boston Breach
–Miami Heretics vs. Cloud9 New York
–Vancouver Surge vs. OpTic Texas
Call of Duty League Stage 2 Major qualifiers standings (match record, map differential)
1. OpTic Texas, 5-0, +11
2. Los Angeles Thieves, 4-1, +8
3. Paris Gentle Mates, 3-1, +5
4. G2 Minnesota, 3-2, +1
5. Riyadh Falcons, 3-3, +2
6. Carolina Royal Ravens, 3-3, -1
7. FaZe Vegas, 2-3, 0
8. Toronto KOI, 2-3, -2
9. Miami Heretics, 1-3, -4
10.. Vancouver Surge, 1-3, -6
11. Cloud9 New York, 1-3, -7
12. Boston Breach, 1-4, -7
–Field Level Media
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Tundra Esports advances to grand final of DreamLeague Season 28 playoffs
