*By Colin Foley*
The battle royale, "last man standing" phenomenon has all but engulfed the video game industry. Though whether you prefer realistic bullet drop, zombies, or even trampolines, the premise still involves cutting down your competition with conventional weaponry like swords and firearms. Spell Break IS one of these games, but what if you'd prefer to incinerate your enemies with a fireball? Or choke them to death with a cloud of poison?
Spell Break is currently in pre-alpha and with its flashy spell effects and slick animations, is a promising entry into growing world of of battle royale.
Esports commentator and gaming personality LeTigress was able to play the game and share her experiences with Cheddar Sports.
"It's a battle royale but they're also calling it a battle royale rpg because of the system in place. It's mage based combat with 11 different classes," she said.
Details are sparse, given the stringence of the alpha's NDA, but we know that those classes include characters like the Pyromancer and the Toxicologist.
The combat boils down to the use of two gauntlets, one on each of your mage's hands. Those gauntlets, LeTigress explains, allow for the combination of "elements" that many gamers and fantasy fans know all too well.
"For instance if you have a fire gauntlet and a poison gauntlet, you can combine them into a sort of dragon's breath," she said.
With others like wind, stone, lightning and more, it would seem that some interesting and exciting combos can destroy your foes.
The recommended specs aren't too high, and while the developer Proletariat hasn't divulged any sort of monetization plans just yet, you can purchase what they are calling "Founder's Packs" to access the current alpha build.
Brandon Marcello, National College Football Reporter for 247Sports, breaks down each of the two semifinal matchups and explains why the smart money is on the two SEC teams.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Mark Drumheller, betting analyst for Yahoo Sportsbook and The Sharp App, dives into an icy matchup between the Vikings and Packers, as well as other must-watch games including a potential trap in Baltimore.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Trysta Krick, Host of 'BetMGM Tonight' helps clear up a very crowded playoff picture by making selections for Week 17's top games while pointing to to an AFC West matchup for her lock of the week.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Trysta Krick and Mark Drumheller give viewers their winning picks ahead of Week 17 of the NFL season, while Brandon Marcello dissects each of the College Football Playoff semifinal matchups.
Sponsored by BetMGM
The National Women's Soccer League is partnering with Voyager Digital as its first-ever cryptocurrency brokerage in a multi-year deal. Marla Messing, interim CEO of the NWSL, and Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital, joined Cheddar to discuss benefitting the league and educating players and fans as a way of democratizing cryptocurrency. Messing explained that the players themselves will own half the assets as part of how the deal is structured. "My hope is, just in terms of the expectations of crypto over the long term, that I hope a lot of them are able to just let it sit there," she said. "And that one day this will be a nice retirement account for them."
Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to discuss plans for the future even as COVID-19 upended Barstool's sponsorship of the Arizona Bowl featuring the Boise State Broncos and the Central Michigan Chippewas due to the spreading omicron variant. "In our case as a company, coronavirus has been a big boom for us," she noted. "We've been able to create a lot of new programming, launch a lot of different personalities, and frankly take share from traditional media, and that's what we've done the entire pandemic." While she admitted to taking a hit on the canceled Bowl game, live events aren't completely off the table for Barstool in 2022. Nardini also talked about potential sports betting expansion following its partnership with Penn National Gaming.