News

League of Legends How the Doublelift roster swap improved both Liquid and TSM By William Davis League of Legends Riot Games announces big changes for 2020 World Championship By William Davis News Players are mad, but Valorant devs don’t think Operator is OP By Olivia Richman

Dota 2

Everyone’s angry at Valve after Dota Pro Circuit and TI10 delays Steven Rondina Fans and pundits are officially done with Valve’s handling of the pro Dota 2 scene. A regular voice on important topics in Dota 2, caster Kyle Freedman spoke out on Valve’s poor handling of the Dota Pro Circuit and The International 10. During an Omega League broadcast, he questioned how Dota 2 wasn’t fully operational when all other notable esports, and even traditional sports leagues including the NBA, are back …

League of Legends

VCS teams removed from LoL Worlds 2020 due to visa issues Steven Rondina The 2020 League of Legends World Championship was always going to necessitate a few concessions and unfortunately, one of them is that it’ll have fewer teams than usual. According to ESPN’s Tyler Erzberger, LoL Worlds 2020 is going to feature 22 teams instead of 24. That’s because the VCS will be unable to send any players due the Vietnamese government restricting players’ ability to travel to and from China for …

News

ESL bans MIBR, Heroic coaches for exploiting bugs in tournaments M Alzamora ESL has banned three coaches from playing or participating in ESL and DreamHack events for exploiting a coaching bug that allowed players to gain a tactical advantage in tournament play. The exploit has been possible for months now, with the three bans stemming from the coaches’ actions in a number of ESL tournaments, including ESL’s Road to Rio series. All teams involved have been retroactively disqualified from those tournaments and …

News

Is Sentinels’ Sinatraa the best pro Valorant player in NA? Olivia Richman After the Sentinels beat Team Envy in the Pop Flash Valorant tournament over the weekend, the side was swiftly anoited the best team in North America, and perhaps in the world. The 3-0 victory showed just how dominant Sentinels are becoming in the early days of Valorant’s esports scene. Watching the match a bit closer, it seemed that Sentinels were so tough to beat in large part because of Jay …

Counter-Strike Report says steel is leaving CSGO to join a pro Valorant team By M Alzamora League of Legends Kold retires from professional play, looking to become a coach By William Davis News These are the best Spike planting locations on Haven By Olivia Richman

News

Riot releases trailer for new champion Samira, shows abilities William Davis Riot Games recently released the first official trailer for the newest League of Legends champion, Samira.  Samira, the Desert Rose, will be a new attack damage carry but is very different from what we usually associate with that type of champion. Samira can deal damage from range, but also right up in the enemy’s face by using either her guns or sword.  Samira is a gifted, ruthless marksman who charges …

League of Legends

FlyQuest takes spot in 2020 LCS Summer Split Final by beating Liquid William Davis FlyQuest has locked up a spot in the 2020 LCS Summer Split Final after taking down Team Liquid 3-2 in a hard-fought series. The best-of-five series started out with a 45-minute marathon of a game, where both teams played for late-game win conditions. FlyQuest took the lead early on, but Liquid managed to crawl its way back in the mid game. As the game went on, FlyQuest’s team composition started …

Counter-Strike

Heroic surprises Vitality, wins ESL One Cologne 2020 with 3-0 sweep M Alzamora Team Heroic swept Team Vitality 3-0 in ESL One Cologne’s European grand finals. Heroic won three in a row to take first place in one of Counter-Strike’s most storied events, making quick work of their French opponents. The Danish team walked away from the grand finals with a 16-7 win on Mirage before second map Inferno nearly went the distance, but ultimately ended with another Heroic win to the tune …

Counter-Strike

These are the best pistol round pro players in all of CSGO M Alzamora Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s pistols are powerful weapons in the right hands. With each CSGO match starting with a pistol round, teams with proficient pistol players start at a distinct advantage. The list of the top five pistol players includes some of CSGO’s best, a testament to how much of an impact skills with the pistol make. What’s even more interesting is that while Astralis leads teams in overall pistol round …

Call of Duty cheating is out of control, Activision fighting back Olivia Richman News Earlier this week, Call of Duty streamer Mr. Golds was caught using a cheating program during a live stream.  While streaming on Twitch, Mr. Golds told his nearly 2,000 viewers that he was “good at the game” because of his “recoil control.” This skill ended up being a hacking software, which viewers noticed on his desktop.  Streamer gets caught with cheat menu LIVE on streamEveryone report his stream plsproof: https://t.co/8LVEjcP05ktwitch: …

Riot combating AFKs in LoL with LP mitigation, earlier surrender William Davis League of Legends Riot Games’ changes to the League of Legends behavioral system seem to be working.  The publisher discussed some of the planned changes to the behavioral system set for September and also presented a few things it wants to add to the game before the season ends. This includes an earlier surrender system and LP mitigation.  Just a light update this month on our behavioral changes and what’s coming next.https://t.co/Q95m1Gt6As — …

Evil Geniuses outlasts Team Liquid, wins ESL One Cologne 2020 M Alzamora Counter-Strike North America’s ESL One Cologne grand final went all five maps but Evil Geniuses took first place at the expense of Team Liquid. The series went back and forth, with EG needing all five maps before it could secure victory with a 16-12 win on Dust 2. The matchup went back and forth with each team taking their own map picks, starting with an overtime win by EG on Nuke …

Everything you need to know about China’s top seed, Top Esports Jared Wynne League of Legends Top Esports was the first LPL team to qualify for the 2020 World Championships after winning the 2020 LPL Summer Split Playoffs. Professional League of Legends fans know that the LPL is the strongest region in the world today, but they might not be as familiar with Top Esports as they are with the more popular teams such as Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, or Funplus Phoenix. Top Esports has dominated …

G2 vs Fnatic in LEC playoffs peaks at almost 900,000 viewers William Davis League of Legends The upper bracket final LEC playoffs match between G2 Esports and Fnatic ended in a five-game nailbiter that drew almost 900,000 concurrent viewers at its peak.  According to Echarts, the series the all-time LEC & EU LCS viewership record, which shows how popular the league has become among League of Legends fans. The peak viewership reached 898,643 unique viewers. The average viewers throughout the 2020 LEC Summer Split sat at …

Virtus.pro beats Evil Geniuses to make Omega League playoffs Steven Rondina Dota 2 Virtus.pro sneaked into the Omega League Europe Immortal division playoffs with a critical win over Evil Geniuses. The Russian squad had an even record heading into its final match of the round robin group stage, and needed to defeat North America’s best in order to earn a guaranteed spot in the playoffs. They did so with a hard-fought 2-1 series victory. The series kicked off with a brutal throw by …

These are the best Spike planting locations on Split Olivia Richman News Planting the Spike in Valorant requires a deceptive amount of thought.  As the attacking team, where you place the Spike can be the difference between victory and defeat. It’s important to place the Spike in a location that not only takes into account your team’s strengths, weapons, and numbers, but the opposing team’s position, agents, and potential for a retake.  Available since the first day of Valorant’s closed beta, Split …

Team SoloMid takes out Cloud9, secures spot in LoL Worlds 2020 William Davis League of Legends It was all or nothing for two of the biggest organizations in the LCS, but Team SoloMid ended up securing itself the last North American spot in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship.  TSM vs. Cloud9 has been a matchup that historically delivers for fans, and this one was no exception. Both teams were recently knocked down to the lower bracket of the 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs, which …

Subroza fail leads to TSM elimination from Pop Flash Valorant event Olivia Richman News The match was Team SoloMid’s to win. Well, until it wasn’t.  TSM was dealt a devastating loss that eliminated the team from Flashpoint’s Pop Flash Valorant tournament after a surprise loss to Dignitas. TSM had victory within its grasp until Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik threw the match.  In the final moments of the series, Subroza could be seen watching the Spike closely. He was the last remaining player on the team …

Puppey has Team Secret looking like the best team at Omega League Steven Rondina Dota 2 Team Secret has remained perfect in the Omega League Europe Immortal division group stage. That’s not much of a surprise, but what did come as a surprise was how easily the team pulled that perfection off. After advancing to 4-0, Secret closed out its round robin with a match against OG. While the expectation was a competitive affair between two of Europe’s best teams, it was instead an absolute stomp …

Valve cancels TI10 Battle Pass Trove Carafe 2020 Steven Rondina Dota 2 With just a few weeks left in its lifespan, Valve is now pruning down on the benefits of The International 10 Battle Pass. A Dota 2 developer took to Reddit and delivered the bad news that the Trove Carafe 2020 will likely not be arriving as a part of the TI10 Battle Pass. Alongside that, he stated that other parts of the battle pass may not actually arrive as previously …

Omega League EU Divine sees HellRaisers, Cyber Legacy dominate Steven Rondina Dota 2 The Omega League Europe Immortal division has been getting the majority of the attention at the Dota 2 event, but the Europe Divine division features some great teams has also been interesting. The most interesting of those teams competing has been Cyber Legacy lineup. The squad of CIS veterans made its debut at the event and demolished the competition in the group stage with a 5-0 run. After taking 2-1 …

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