Sports
Struggling Arizona State, Utah wondering when next win will come
Feb 18, 2025; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Bobby Hurley reacts against the Houston Cougars during the second half at Desert Financial Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images Utah recently fired its head coach and Arizona State may consider dismissing its leader.
The common factor is both teams are experiencing mediocre seasons when the Sun Devils face the Utes on Saturday night in Big 12 play at Salt Lake City.
Utah (15-13, 7-10 Big 12) fired fourth-year coach Craig Smith on Monday and delegated Josh Eilert to serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season. The results were familiar in Eilert’s debut Wednesday as the Utes lost 83-66 at No. 22 Arizona.
Arizona State (13-15, 4-13) will have to consider what to do regarding 10th-year coach Bobby Hurley after a season that has spiraled out of control with 12 setbacks in the past 15 games. The Sun Devils lost 91-81 Wednesday at home against BYU.
Arizona State played just seven players against BYU and was severely short-handed after the recent departure of leading scorer BJ Freeman (13.7 points per game) and the absences of Alston Mason (illness) and Jayden Quaintance (knee injury).
Hurley is perplexed over the personnel issues.
“The universe is talking to me about something right now to me and I don’t what it is,” Hurley said. “I’m scared to wake up. I hope I wake up tomorrow. I think I will, I hope I will, but I’m scared to see what tomorrow brings.”
Utah has dropped four of its last six games but sports a 14-3 home mark.
Eilert isn’t new to being an interim coach. He served in that role at West Virginia last season when the Mountaineers went 9-23.
He addressed the situation with the players as he’s aware he’s not the reason any of them decided to become Utes.
“I just told the guys in there that I didn’t recruit these guys,” Eilert said. “They didn’t choose to play for me. They came here to play for somebody else. So the situation they’ve had to deal with the last couple days and how they responded is (they’re) ultimate professionals.
“It just shows that what kind of kids are representing this program, and I’m really proud of the way (they’ve handled it).”
One player who fared well against Arizona was backup Keanu Dawes, who had a season-high 18 points along with 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Gabe Madsen leads Utah with a 15.6 scoring average. With Freeman gone, Mason (12.7 ppg) serves Arizona State’s top scorer.
The Sun Devils have won seven of the past nine meetings — all coming as members of the Pac-12.
–Field Level Media
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
