News

News Big ranked matchmaking changes coming to Valorant in Act 2 By gabhernandez League of Legends TF Blade out of League Partner Program until at least 2021 By William Davis League of Legends How Team Liquid climbed to first place in the LCS Summer Split By William Davis

Counter-Strike

s1mple banned from Twitch again, possibly facing permanent ban Steven Rondina Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has been banned from Twitch yet again. The Natus Vincere star’s name popped up as being hit with a ban from Twitch, with his channel simply reading, “Sorry. Unless you’ve got a time machine, that content is unavailable.” No other details are yet available on the reasoning behind the ban. It is uncertain what prompted the move or how long he might be …

League of Legends

LEC ends NEOM partnership with Saudi Arabia amid backlash William Davis The LEC has canceled its partnership with the Saudi Arabian government amid backlash from both fans and individuals in the company. The European League of Legends league announced a high-profile sponsorship deal with NEOM, a developing tourist destination in Saudi Arabia. The league received heavy criticism from players, team owners, fans, and Riot Games employees, including LEC casters and is now going back on its decisioon. Riot’s EMEA esports director …

Dota 2

Learn how to build carry Snapfire the right way Steven Rondina Snapfire is one of the most enjoyable heroes to play in all of Dota 2. Her unique set of spells and beefy attributes allow her to play as both a bruising frontliner and as a ranged nuker, shifting between those two roles multiple times in each fight. That fun set of spells has made her a favorite of many.  The trouble is that when a hero that is meant to …

Counter-Strike

As nitr0 leaves, Stewie2k may be the top dog at Team Liquid M Alzamora In Jake “Stewie2k” Yip’s teams, if you’re not performing, you’re gone. With Nick “nitr0” Canella out of Team Liquid after a five-year stint on the North American side, a trend is establishing itself surrounding Stewie2k and his leadership role in his teams. The story starts months before Cloud9’s historic run at the ELEAGUE Boston Major, where two long-time Cloud9 members were swiftly ousted from the team. Both Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert …

League of Legends These highlights show how to play new LoL champion Lillia By William Davis News Did PlussyKnight fake his passing? Communities raise questions By Olivia Richman League of Legends LEC brings on NEOM as new partner, talent lash out against move By William Davis

News

Valorant reveals 12th agent Killjoy, confirms release date Olivia Richman Equipped with a bunch of adorable and deadly robots, Killjoy has been officially revealed by Valorant developers.  Riot Games had accidentally leaked Killjoy a few days ago, giving fans insight into the 12th agent’s abilities. It was clear that she would be a defensive agent with abilities focused on deployable machines.  One bot attacks enemies, dealing damage and lowering their defenses to damage from enemy agents. She also has Nanostorm, …

Counter-Strike

nitr0 likely out of Team Liquid, replaced by Triumph’s Grim Steven Rondina After five and a half years, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is looking to no longer be a part of Team Liquid’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. Following reports by dbltap’s Jarek Lewis, Team Liquid president Steve Arhancet took to Twitter to address the matter. While he didn’t explicitly discuss the report or its implications, he functionally confirmed the roster move. “Yes, we will be making changes to the roster…Our commitment to winning …

Counter-Strike

Marking the 10th anniversary of CS star Cyx’s tragic passing Jared Wynne The passing of Antonio “cyx” Daniloski marked a turning point in the professional esports industry. Although the German Counter-Strike scene lost one of its most talented and promising players, it also reminded us of the mortality of the star players fans cheer for. Never has there been such a tragic loss that sent shockwaves throughout the esports world as did the loss of cyx. Professional players, devoted fans, and even …

Counter-Strike

What is the rank distribution in CSGO in 2020? M Alzamora Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s rank distribution is set in stone, and that means it may be harder for some players to rank up. In 2015, Valve recognized there was an issue in the way that players were ranked in CSGO. Their data showed that there were many more players populating the higher ranks than there were the lower ones. In response, Valve instituted one of the most controversial changes to CSGO’s …

Where will SumaiL end up after leaving the OG roster? Steven Rondina Dota 2 Syed “SumaiL” Hassan finds himself in a position he’s become familiar with. After less than six months with OG, the star player is once again without a team. The fearsome mid laner was unceremoniously cut from the organization after just six months. Though OG has one of the most star-studded rosters in Dota 2 history, the team posted generally underwhelming results. The team debuted in impressive fashion by sprinting through …

Fiora, Jax, Yasuo are about to get big buffs in patch 10.16 William Davis League of Legends League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scuffy” Yetter has revealed the first sneak peek for patch 10.16, and there are many different nerfs and buffs planned for the game.  10.16 Patch Preview with changes:Not 100% final, but getting close. We have a good meta, so a lot of small changes is our approach to diversify without destroying it. pic.twitter.com/lVHTXdTu10 — Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) July 28, 2020 The next patch …

New Valorant agent Killjoy has abilities leaked by Riot Olivia Richman News Riot Games accidentally leaked information on Valorant’s newest agent, Killjoy.  Valorant fans have been impatiently waiting for Agent 12, even data mining voice lines and animations. But now information about Killjoy has been confirmed by Riot, who accidentally published a reveal page for the agent earlier than intended. The since-deleted page on Riot’s website went live July 27 and was titled “Enter Killjoy.” The page outlined the agent’s abilities, leaving …

The rise and powering up of Karthus in Season 10 Jared Wynne League of Legends Karthus has become one of the premier mid, jungle, and bot lane picks in patch 10.14. Thanks to the steady jungle experience buffs and the reversion of some ill-advised nerfs to the champion, this hyper-scaling mage has risen from the ashes. Karthus was one of the hardest hit champions after the preseason 10 jungle experience nerfs. By reducing jungle experience and decreasing neutral monster spawn timers, Riot effectively nerfed the …

Fnatic adds Raven from Geek Fam, drops 23savage in surprise move Jared Wynne Dota 2 Fnatic has once again shaken up the southeast Asian Dota 2 scene by signing Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto. Only a couple of hours after it was announced that Raven will be leaving Geek Fam, Fnatic announced that the Filipino star will be replacing Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon in their starting lineup. “In our pursuit to build a Southeast Asian super team and continue dominating the region, I welcome for the …

These are the worst champion picks in LoL patch 10.15 William Davis League of Legends A lot is changing in the current meta after patch 10.15, especially with the addition of the game’s newest champion, Lillia.  While the recent patch included many buffs, we also saw Riot give some heavy nerfs to some of solo queue’s hard hitters. We will be taking a look at some champions to avoid in solo queue. All statistics provided in the article are taken from Platinum elo games and …

Are higher tick rates affecting CSGO weapon accuracy? M Alzamora Counter-Strike A post on social media has shown what most players who have played on both 64-tick and 128-tick servers have likely already felt. Tick rates can affect weapon accuracy in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There is a difference between how quickly CSGO’s weapons reset their accuracy values between the two types of servers. This can cause some weapons, especially the M4A4, to be more accurate during burst fire. .@3kliksphilip A video …

Falling off the map on Vertigo creates the wildest rounds in CSGO M Alzamora Counter-Strike Sometimes all it takes is a little luck to win a seemingly impossible round. In a recent ESEA match between Kinship Ghost and GGPR Esports, GGPR member lowrider managed to pull an impressive one versus two clutch using a creative hiding spot. After planting on the A bombsite, lowrider took out Kinship Ghost’s Bezerker before disaster struck. While strafing back into cover, lowrider managed to fall off of Vertigo, plummeting …

CSGO player Sparkles spends $15,000 to get skin of his dreams Olivia Richman Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive YouTuber Sparkles is known for doing a lot of questionable things just to entertain his followers.  This time, Sparkles decided to spend $15,000 to get his hands on the skin of his dreams. That skin is the StatTrak AK47 Fire Serpent in Factory New condition.  “I will be attempting the skin I have dreamed about since I first started playing this game and have tried to get …

A comprehensive guide to CSGO’s Fire and Ice skin patterns M Alzamora Counter-Strike CSGO’s knives are prized by casual players and collectors alike, but the ultra-rare Fire and Ice patterns on Marble Fade knives are particularly popular. Part of what makes the Fire and Ice combination so rare is that it can only appear on four types of knives: the Karambit, Bayonet, Flip Knife, and the Gut Knife. Since neither of the Flip Gut knives are very popular, this means that any Karambit …

Epic Games reveals new Fortnite bug fixes in update v13.40 Olivia Richman Fortnite Epic is using their latest update, v13.40, to address a lot of bugs that have been bothering Fortnite players.  Fortnite developers outlined the upcoming changes in their public Trello board of “community issues.” There are four battle royale-related bugs that are marked as “fixed in future game update” on the board.  One such bug is that a few challenges may not appear to count if a player is in duos …

Fnatic’s 23savage hits 11,000 MMR, joins Abed in 11K MMR Club Steven Rondina Dota 2 The 10K MMR Cclub has long been the pinnacle of success in the Dota 2 public matchmaking scene, but the “11K MMR club” may soon render it obsolete.  Fnatic core player Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon has become just the second player to reach 11,000 MMR. He follows Evil Geniuses mid laner Abed “Abed” Azel L. Yusop in the illustrious grouping, hitting 11,020 MMR. He revealed the achievement on Twitter. 11,020 pic.twitter.com/0M2hQo6NRN …

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