News

Dota 2 EternaLEnVy shows just how crazy Dota 2’s zoo meta has become By Steven Rondina League of Legends These are the big changes coming to the LoL item shop By William Davis Counter-Strike This Vertigo grenade combo makes taking A so much easier By M Alzamora

League of Legends

C9 Jack calls out LCS for bad Player of the Week awards William Davis Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne is not happy with the Player of the Week awards in the 2020 LCS Summer Split. At the end of the weekend’s LCS broadcast, FlyQuest jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen received the Player of the Week award. FlyQuest finished the weekend with two victories and is now tied in second place with Evil Geniuses, Counter Logic Gaming, and Team Liquid. In week one, the award went to …

Counter-Strike

Evil Geniuses beats MIBR for BLAST Premier NA title M Alzamora Evil Geniuses defeated MIBR in two maps and took the North American BLAST Premier Spring title. While they had to fend off a resurgent MIBR to do it, the win marks the team’s first tournament win since StarSeries iLeague Season 8 in October 2019. Both maps were hotly contested, with Dust 2 ending 16-14 in Evil Geniuses favor while Inferno actually went to overtime after MIBR managed to tie the …

Fortnite

Mixer shutting down soon, shroud and Ninja can stream on Twitch Steven Rondina Microsoft-owned streaming platform Mixer is officially done. The Verge interviewed Microsoft gaming head Phil Spencer, who stated that the platform will be folded on July 22. The company is now looking to pin its hopes on a partnership with Facebook Gaming, which injected new life into its own efforts in the realm of video game content. The news was then confirmed on Twitter by Mixer. Mixer Partners, streamers, and community …

League of Legends

Invictus Gaming becomes first LoL team to score 10,000 kills William Davis Invictus Gaming is the first team ever to reach 10,000 kills in official matches, with over 20% of those kills coming from one player. In 2018, Invictus Gaming became the first LPL team to win a World Championship title. This year, IG became the first team to ever get 10,000 kills. Mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin is responsible for over 2,000 of those kills. Rookie is the second player to …

Dota 2 Evil Geniuses vs. beastcoast BTS Pro Series Americas betting analysis By Nina Forneloza Counter-Strike Complexity Gaming stuns Vitality, wins BLAST Premier Spring By M Alzamora League of Legends Team Liquid coach Jatt has “a love-hate relationship with pressure” By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

HenryG’s ex accuses him of verbal, mental, and sexual abuse Olivia Richman Counter-Strike: Global Offensive caster and analyst Henry “HenryG” Greer has been accused of abusing and raping his ex-girlfriend.  Kelly Jean posted a lengthy TwitLonger outlining the abuse she endured while dating HenryG, explaining that she is hoping it will help vulnerable women avoid dating someone with a history of abuse.  My ex Henry “HenryG” Greer, was verbally, emotionally & mentally abusive and had sex with me when I did not …

News

With f0rest gone, Ninjas in Pyjamas is ready to break out again M Alzamora After the slow dismantling of the old Ninjas in Pyjamas roster, an impressive new group of young stars has taken its place. And they might be on the precipice of greatness. Over two years’ time, CSGO’s legendary Ninjas in Pyjamas team fell apart. It was slow at first, with the release of Adam “friberg” Friberg coming in July 2017, but friberg’s departure started a landslide that would see all of …

Dota 2

Somnus takes home MVP award and Mercedes-Benz car Nina Forneloza ESL has given Lu “Somnus” Yao the Mercedes-Benz MVP for ESL One Birmingham Online 2020. Somnus became the first Chinese player to earn the ESL One MVP award, a prize that stands out from the crowd by coming alongside a brand new Mercedes-Benz car. Somnus earned the prize for his efforts helping PSG.LGD claim the championship title in the Chinese portion of the event. This event’s MVP award is a …

Counter-Strike

CSGO tournaments want MR12 to come back, but would it work? M Alzamora Some Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament organizers have recently espoused the virtues of the game returning to its MR12 roots. But even if such a change would help some events to stay on schedule, would it really be good for the game? If fans have ever tuned into competitive CSGO and heard the terms MR15 or MR12, they might not know what it stands for. It’s a simple concept that is …

Valve announces the final end date for the TI10 Battle Pass Steven Rondina Dota 2 The TI10 Battle Pass will be going away long before The International 10 arrives. Valve has announced the shipment of a new update to Dota 2 designed to begin fixing issues related to the game’s struggling game coordinator, which has seen Dota 2 matchmaking slowed or even paused for players across the world in recent days. Alongside that news, Valve let the ending date for the TI10 Battle Pass slip. …

New CSGO Steam Community features leak, include animated stickers Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Valve seems to be planning a big update to the Steam Community functionality, and it’s likely to delight Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans. Data miner Pavel Djundik unearthed some files added to Steam that suggest some new features will be added soon. The first is new animated stickers for Steam Chat, while the second is a new avatar framing system. Animated chat stickers are exactly what they sound like. Steam chat …

Riot is building a “good behavior island” to deal with toxicity Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot Games appears to be attempting to patent a “good behavior island” for League of Legends players based on activity at the US Patent and Trademark Office.  According to the patent submitted by Riot, the game developer is looking to reward positive players with improved matchmaking. This is a different take on Dota 2’s “low priorty queue,” often called Prison Island, which essentially quarantines toxic players together away from the …

Riot to make LoL Eternals more accessible as free drops, rewards Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot has made Eternals more accessible by making them free drops in event missions and while climbing the ranked ladder.  Eternals are defined as champion-specific stat-trackers that “capture, celebrate, and flex your moments of glory in and out of game.” With Eternals, players can track their per-game personal bests, rack up lifetime milestones for certain achievements, and show off their favorite champions’ accomplishments.  Eternals were previously only available by purchasing …

Dota 2 servers down three days in a row, Valve has no answers Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Dota 2 fans have been complaining about server issues for three days now, and this may not be the end of their problems. Dota 2 servers were down again today, marking the third consecutive day in which the Dota 2 client’s game coordinator experienced significant issues. Fans were queuing for matches normally, but they couldn’t find any games. The “finding match” button also seems to vanish after a few minutes. …

As LCS and LEC get underway, DraftBuff gives new motivation to fans with fantasy offering Jared Wynne News The 2020 Summer Splits are underway across League of Legends, and as fans look for new ways to engage with the world’s top level of competition, DraftBuff is looking to provide an answer. This year’s summer competitions across League of Legends feel particularly weighty. After the cancellation of the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, fans and pro players alike were left with just one major international event to look forward to: the …

TSM vs. FlyQuest: 2020 LCS Summer Split betting analysis William Davis League of Legends On Saturday, Team SoloMid and FlyQuest meet for the first time in the 2020 LCS Summer Split. TSM and FlyQuest are tied in fourth place alongside Counter Logic Gaming and Golden Guardians with one victory and one loss. Top lane, Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik Jungle, Mingyi “Spica” Lu Mid lane, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg ADC, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng Support, Vincent “Biofrost” Wang In the offseason, TSM secured the pieces to go …

Dota 2 rocked by game coordinator issues during TI10 Battle Pass Steven Rondina Dota 2 Playing Dota 2 is seeming harder than it ever has been these days. This isn’t because of any sort of shift to the meta or increase in toxicity in what is already the most toxic player base in online gaming. No, it’s harder than ever because Valve just can’t seem to keep the game coordinator steadily operational. For the third time this week, players reported mass issues with the Dota …

Nigma and Vikin.gg just used double jungling to hide lanes Steven Rondina Dota 2 Team Nigma and Vikin.gg are playing Dota 2 on a whole new level, and not necessarily in a good way. While one might think that playing at a new level refers to crafty counters, well-executed rotations, or creative use of trees, the two European squads went in a very different direction. Fishing for a favorable matchup for their cores in the side lanes, both teams opted to run a double-jungle …

FaZe Clan win after Bymas hits smoothest floor bang of 2020 M Alzamora Counter-Strike In today’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, players and fans see wall bang kills all the time. But a wall bang kill on Nuke from FaZe Clan’s Aurimas “⁠Bymas⁠” Pipiras during BLAST Premier’s upper-bracket semifinal should have FaZe fans feeling very excited. In FaZe’s first map against Team Vitality for a BLAST Premier grand final spot, Bymas made a huge play that showcased both his aim and his game sense. Up 6-3 …

Riot addresses criticism of LCS broadcasts, promises improvements Olivia Richman League of Legends The League of Legends community has been noticing a lot of issues with LCS broadcasts this year, and Riot has finally responded to growing criticism.  Working, broadcasting, and streaming remotely has been a challenge in 2020, but Riot seems to understand that they can definitely be doing better after complaints began to add up during the 2020 LCS Spring Split. In a recent press release, Riot explained that they were …

OG team comms hint at struggles after loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas Steven Rondina Counter-Strike There might be a few issues within the lineup of OG’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division. BLAST released a short clip of the team’s in-game comms during their lower bracket showdown with Ninjas in Pyjamas. OG coach Casper “ruggah” Due can be heard during the clip trying to rally his team while imploring them to tighten up their sloppy teamwork. “It’s really important for me to stress now, we need to …

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