As the year comes to a close, we round up the site’s most popular articles.
Here are our most-read stories from 2016 about UK esports and beyond, in order of page impressions.
10. Gross Gore finally reveals custom League of Legends-inspired Twisted Fate car
After months of build-up, British League of Legends streamer Ali “Gross Gore” Larsen showed off his own custom car for the first time in December.
It’s an untuned automatic 1994 twin JZ 3-litre 280-330bhp Toyota Supra imported from Japan, with gloss black bodywork and just 25,000 miles on the clock.
9. Richard Lewis says UK esports scene needs to be ‘nuked from space’
Well-known esports journalist Richard Lewis laid into the UK esports scene in a scathing video log back in August.
He compared the UK scene to this moment in Aliens, where Ripley suggests “nuking the entire site from orbit – it’s the only way to be sure”.
His comments spawned a two-part video interview with Esports News UK.
8. MnM player XDSmiley receives death threats following Twitter exchange with K1ck Esports
League of Legends ADC Ludvig “XDSmiley” Granquist from MnM Gaming said he received death threats on Twitter after criticising Portuguese side K1ck Esports.
7. No more Mr Nice Guy: Gross Gore generates 1m+ views after catching attention of Drama Alert, Scarce and Zoie Burgher
League streamer Ali “Gross Gore” Larsen was involved in some drama with one of his former girlfriends, and it was picked up by huge YouTuber news channels Drama Alert and Scarce.
6. New British Esports Association aims to open national training centre
An eports governing body has formed to help grow and promote the UK scene – and it plans to open a National Training Centre.
The association hired ENUK’s own Dom Sacco in September – read this post for more info.
5. Manchester United enter bidding war with Fnatic
Back in the summer, we received word from several sources that Man United were close to signing an Overwatch team, who had also caught the attention of Fnatic.
To be frank, in the end the story turned out to be a load of rubbish. But hey, that’s rumours for you – we can’t always get them right!
4. Gross Gore hit by Twitch ban
Popular UK League of Legends streamer Ali “Gross Gore” Larsen (pictured) has been permanently banned by streaming service Twitch.
This is the third Gross Gore story in our top ten stories of the year. Maybe we should rename ourselves to Gross Gore News?
3. ‘Esports almost killed me’ – Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner talks burnout and the importance of downtime
Esports News UK had the opportunity to interview veteran caster and host Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner in a frank and open chat about all things eSports.
We discussed everything from football clubs getting into the industry, to the challenges of going freelance, the new Unreal Tournament, the future of League of Legends and – perhaps most importantly – looking after your health.
2. Toaster leaves Origen (for now)
Origen ADC Augustas “Toaster” Ruplys left the organisation back in September in order to play in national leagues during off-season.
The Lithuanian-born player is a regular in the UK League of Legends scene, having participated in the ESL UK Premiership in recent years.
1. ‘I don’t think League of Legends will be here in 20 years time’ – Deilor
Fnatic’s former League of Legends head coach, Luis “Deilor” Sevilla, made some bold predictions in Fnatic’s book.
He believes League of Legends will not be around in 20 years’ time and compared League to other popular esports games that have risen and fallen in popularity in the past.
Why these stories? About ENUK’s editorial focus
We have always focused on the UK esports scene, and that includes writing about orgs that are technically based here, or have operations here, such as Fnatic and Team Dignitas.
As well as players, we will also cover streamers, casters and other areas that are of interest to the UK esports community. If you’d like to see us publish other types of articles in the future, please let us know what you’d like to see us do by leaving a comment below or reaching out to ENUK on Twitter.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
