News

League of Legends Riot Games announces new Mid-Season Streamathon event By William Davis News Who is FerociouslySteph, and why is the Twitch community so upset? By Olivia Richman League of Legends Shernfire explains why he left Team Liquid, the LCS, and NA By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

Europe’s CSGO Regional Major Rankings after ESL Road to Rio M Alzamora Europe’s top teams came out of the gate ready to roll in the region’s ESL Road to Rio event. While some teams majorly underperformed, Europe generally showed fans how consistent the region actually is. Here are the current rankings for Valve’s first-ever Regional Major CSGO tournament. We’ve included any points teams gained from their placing at StarLadder Berlin Major just shy of a year ago, so these standings are an …

Dota 2

VP.Prodigy bested Virtus Pro at Epic Prime League Grand Finals Nina Forneloza Despite the team being just two months old, VP.Prodigy has claimed four tournament titles. Virtus.pro’s academy team is dominating the CIS region. VP.Prodigy stomped its sister squad in the grand finals series of the Epic Prime League. The team of prodigies finished the tournament with an impressive 3-0 score. Virtus.pro was pitted against its academy team in the upper bracket finals. The first game swung back and forth with neither …

League of Legends

IWillDominate and Tyler1 feud escalates with harsh insults Olivia Richman One of the most popular streaming beefs is between Fortnite superstars Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Turner “Tfue” Tenney. The two can never seem to agree on anything related to Epic’s battle royale, with Ninja always saying Tfue is too negative while Tfue labels Ninja as a suckup.  That beef is downright wholesome compared to the ongoing feud between League of Legends streamers Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera and Tyler” Tyler1″ Steinkamp.  IWillDominate …

Counter-Strike

In Road to Rio, Astralis beats G2 in one of CSGO’s shortest Bo5s ever Steven Rondina Getting second place in one of the ESL Road to Rio events is pretty good no matter how it’s sliced, right? What about if you lose in one of the quickest best-of-five grand finals ever in Counter-Strike’s history? Second-place finisher G2 earned 1,500 RMR points, moving them forward towards a spot in the ESL One Rio Major. They also got 350 points for the ESL Pro Tour, keeping them in …

News dafran given lifetime ban by Valorant organizer after Twitter meltdown By Steven Rondina News Asmongold has a hot take on Twitch Safety Advisory Council drama By Olivia Richman League of Legends YamatoCannon signs with SANDBOX Gaming, what does it mean for the LCK? By William Davis

Counter-Strike

Intel Grand Slam on hold until at least ESL One Cologne, possibly longer M Alzamora ESL has announced the postponement of the INTEL Grand Slam meta-tournament. This comes as the organizer stated that online events and Road to Rio’s multiple winners prevents the organizer from determining who the best team in the world actually is. The move comes on the heels of the postponement of several major LAN tournaments and their move to regional online formats. The decision makes sense, given the fact that the …

Counter-Strike

Astralis vs. G2 Esports ESL Road to Rio EU betting analysis M Alzamora After a spicy three-map series against FaZe Clan, G2 Esports has made the finals of ESL’s Road to Rio. This makes the European contest the only Road to Rio to go as expected. While there was a time where it looked like Astralis might actually drop more than a single game on their way to the final, the Danish superstars took down FaZe earlier in the week to lock up …

News

A collection of the most spicy and dank Valorant memes we could find Olivia Richman When a new game comes out, everyone is dying to try it out. But new games also mean new memes, and that’s almost as important as the game itself. Valorant is still in closed beta, but there’s already a pretty good number of memes about Riot’s new first-person shooter. Even if the game goes through changes before its official release this summer, the memes will live on in our hearts, …

News

Twitch Safety Advisory Council member FerociouslySteph in controversy Olivia Richman Twitch’s latest community initiative is already generating more controversy than buzz. Twitch recently announced the creation of a Safety Advisory Council that will “inform and guide” the streaming platform’s decisions going forward. This includes making the experience more positive and welcoming for users, drafting new policies, improving moderation, and “protecting marginalized groups’ interests.”  But just days after the eight council members were announced, the streaming community had already lashed out …

Team Spirit vs. Winstrike, Road to Rio CIS Final Betting Analysis M Alzamora Counter-Strike In a surprise grand finals, Team Spirit and Winstrike will face off for first place in the ESL Road to Rio CIS event tomorrow. The tournament itself was full of surprises, with favorites Natus Vincere dropping out early in 7-8th place and Virtus.pro left fighting over a 3-4th place finish. Both Spirit and Winstrike are decidedly tier-two teams, with most international appearances stemming from bigger organizations underperforming or a hot …

FaZe Clan loses to Astralis after this hilarious anti-eco fail Steven Rondina Counter-Strike FaZe Clan is really good right now. The squad of stars has been surging in the ESL Road to Rio European division and is guaranteed a finish in the top three of the tournament. Despite struggling to live up to the hype throughout most of its existence in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, FaZe might be ready to finally start living up to its potential. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, though. They’re …

North’s Kjaerbye takes indefinite break due to illness M Alzamora Counter-Strike Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye has announced that he will take a step back from competitive Counter-Strike in a tweet from his official Twitter account. Kjaerbye cited health problems as the reason why he was taking the break, including abdominal pain and difficulty breathing. Kjaerbye had recently missed the final matches of ESL One’s Road to Rio, forcing North’s coach, Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson, to play in his stead. The responses to Kjærbye’s …

Is Valorant coming to mobile or consoles? Here’s what we know Steven Rondina News Valorant is one of the hottest topics in all of video games right now.  Riot Games’ fusion of tactical and hero shooters has dominated social media for weeks and caught mainstream attention in a big way. The game is currently available in closed beta exclusively for PC, and that has many gamers wondering when, or if, it might come to their own favorite platforms.  So does Riot Games have anything …

Explaining all the controversy around TSM, Doublelift, and Dardoch William Davis League of Legends It’s been four days since Team SoloMid president Aleena “Leena” Xu leaked confidential information on Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s Twitch stream. The incident reignited the accusations of conflict of interest against TSM, but like every other drama in the community, people stopped talking about it and moved on. But this leak was more than an isolated incident. It will have permanent effects on the career of jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett, and …

Invictus Gaming vs. Vici Gaming DPL-CDA Pro League betting analysis Nina Forneloza Dota 2 DPL-CDA Professional League is a merger of two prominent online leagues in China. The Dota 2 Professional League and Chinese Dota 2 Professional Association have decided to join forces after the sudden rise of online leagues in the region. The eight members of CDA were directly invited to the event while two other squads completed the lineup of participating teams. DPL-CDA Professional League is now in its third week of …

Former TI champion Newbee receives lifetime match fixing ban in China Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Newbee and its five players have received a lifetime ban from all Chinese Dota 2 Professional Association (CDA) and IMBA TV events. The esports organization was removed from the CDA alliance. Newbee is one of the founding members of CDA along with top Chinese Dota 2 teams. Newbee’s team leader Feng “Feng” Yiqing was also included in the punishment. All CDA members are prohibited to collaborate with Feng in any …

Kyle vs. AdmiralBulldog: A fight over Dota 2 streaming rights Steven Rondina Dota 2 When a Dota 2 tournament is happening, it isn’t just the actual tournament organizers that are airing the event. A slew of streamers, pro players, and other personalities also air the same games, at the same time. While this might sound ludicrous to traditional sports fans, and even some esports fans, many within Dota 2 enjoy the competitiveness this breeds between streams and the ample options for viewing that it …

Brazillian LoL team Redemption allegedly refuses to pay Korean players Olivia Richman League of Legends Two former Redemption eSports Porto Alegre players from Korea have accused their contracted organization in Brazil of not paying them.  Choi “BalKhan” Hyun-jin and Im “Patrick” Jin-heyok both tweeted yesterday that they’ve been waiting for payments from Redemption for over two months. Instead of working out a solution, the organization is allegedly ignoring the players’ attempts at reaching out. Due to this unfortunate situation, which mirrors what happened to BalKhan …

Valorant developers reveal the truth behind peeker’s advantage Olivia Richman News Developer Riot Games has informed Valorant players that peeker’s advantage is never going away. In a recent press release, executive producer Anna Donlon and game director Joe Ziegler discussed peeker’s advantage after the Valorant community became vocal about the number of deep corners and angles on the three maps in the closed beta. When an emeny comes around the corner and appears to be running and gunning while still accurate, …

Watch CSGO pro RpK go AFK in bombsite and stay alive for 20 seconds M Alzamora Counter-Strike In one of ESL’s Road to Rio Europe’s final games, a matchup between Vitality and NiP took a hilarious turn as the series first map on Mirage came to a close. At 12-14, NiP went for the old school Tech-9 Rush B strategy, running into what surely would have been a slaughter. Both Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Cédric “RpK” Guipouy awaited them, seemingly ready for NiP’s rush and in …

Twitch introduces a Safety Advisory Council, community skeptical Olivia Richman News Streaming giant Twitch has announced its newly formed Twitch Safety Advisory Council. The streaming platform stated that keeping its community “safe and healthy” is its top priority, which led to the creation of this council. According to a press release, the Twitch Safety Advisory Council will “inform and guide” Twitch’s decisions based on the members’ “experience and expertise,” as well as aligning with Twitch’s mission of “empowering communities to create …

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