News

News Blizzard gives update on Hero Pools, looks to end rotation ‘ping pong’ By gabhernandez News Evo 2020 cancelled as live show, switches to online event By Steven Rondina News Blizzard answers big concerns over the state and future of OWL By gabhernandez

League of Legends

Uzi is now a free agent after Royal Never Give Up contract expires Olivia Richman An update to Riot’s Esports Global Contract Database has revealed that Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao is now a free agent.  The talented veteran’s contract with Royal Never Give Up expired today and there’s been no public announcement regarding an extension. For now, Uzi is a free agent, and he has yet to come forward with any statement on future plans. Uzi has long been one of the best AD Carries in …

Counter-Strike

Top Korean CSGO team MVP PK shuts down to focus on Valorant Steven Rondina Team MVP, the organization behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad MVP PK, is withdrawing from the tactical shooter. The Korean brand announced that it will instead focus its efforts on Riot Games’ new title, Valorant. The news was first reported by Fomos. MVP has been a constant presence in Asia’s competitive CSGO scene since 2015, with the formation of the MVP Project Team. MVP formed a second team, MVP PK, in …

Counter-Strike

ESL Road to Rio EU: Fnatic versus Vitality betting analysis M Alzamora Despite being the number-one ranked team in the world, Fnatic sits just inside the playoff picture for ESL’s Road to Rio. Right below them in the number four spot of group A is Team Vitality, tied in the standings with Fnatic at 4-2 but with a -8 round differential holding them below the Swedes in the standings. This matchup is incredibly important in terms of standings going into CSGO’s Summer …

League of Legends

Doublelift is sticking with TSM, contract extends through 2021 Olivia Richman TSM seems very confident in their decision to purchase Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s contract from Team Liquid. Doublelift’s new team has extended his contract through November 16, 2021, according to the Riot Games Global Contract Database. The database was last updated on April 29, 2020, bringing some changes to the listings, Doublelift’s contract extension included. After Team Liquid failed to make it to the LCS’ Spring Split playoffs, Doublelift’s contract was …

Counter-Strike Red Bull Flick combines competitive Wingman with custom CSGO maps By M Alzamora Counter-Strike Some ESL Road to Rio teams are choosing to play without agent skins By M Alzamora Counter-Strike CSGO pro gets banned for live stream sniping during ESL event By Steven Rondina

League of Legends

Vivo Keyd versus KaBum!: CBLOL 2020 Split 1 semifinal betting analysis William Davis Vivo Keyd and KaBuM! e-Sports are meeting again in semifinals of the CBLOL 2020 Split 1. Vivo Keyd advanced to playoffs as the number one seed after finishing the regular season in the first place. KaBuM! had a slow start in the split and had to fight until the very end for the final spot in semifinals. Considering the final standings in the regular season, one might assume that Vivo …

Fortnite

Epic Games cancels Fortnite World Cup, announces new schedule Olivia Richman The 2019 Fortnite World Cup, Epic’s first major venture in competitive Fortnite, broke all kinds of viewership and prize money records last year. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdork’s $3 million first place finish was even discussed on late-night television. Unfortunately, this year’s World Cup has officially been canceled, according to the Fortnite Competitive Twitter account.  Last month we said we would provide our evolving 2020 competitive roadmap. Today we wanted to provide updates …

League of Legends

JD Gaming versus Top Esports: 2020 LPL Spring finals betting analysis William Davis JD Gaming and Top Esports are disputing the 2020 LPL Spring Split finals on May 2. One of these two teams will collect its first LPL title. In a region where it’s all about Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming, and most recently FunPlus Phoenix, JDG and TES are trying to make a name for themselves. JDG and TES are young organizations that can be highly competitive and have been …

Dota 2

Valve confirms TI10 delay, battle pass coming soon William Davis The International 2020 has been officially postponed by Valve due to the ongoing global situation. The 10th edition of The International won’t be taking place next August in Stockholm, Sweden. According to the developer, the event is most likely being pushed to 2021. “Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don’t expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the …

Fnatic drops strategic coach Veigar v2 for sexual comments to minor Olivia Richman League of Legends Fnatic issued a statement earlier today after their strategic League of Legends coach Marius “Veigar v2” Aunne was exposed for sexual comments made to a minor, in addition to other toxic behavior.  While Veigar v2 has always been known for his toxicity and DDoS’ing teammates, the newly uncovered “extremely concerning messages” were too much for Fnatic to handle. The organization cut all ties with Veigar v2 to wash their hands …

FaZe Clan versus Mousesports: ESL Road to Rio Betting Analysis M Alzamora Counter-Strike Only a year ago, this would have been an easy game to call. Mousesports would have been coming off an April where they started off as the 45th best team in the world. Finn “Karrigan” Andersen had just joined, and a showdown between FaZe and mouz would’ve been an easy slaughter for FaZe. Today, however, is a much different story. Mousesports has turned into a contender and a dangerous team …

Dr Disrespect mocks summit, xQc for caring about Valorant on Twitch Olivia Richman News Big names in the streaming community have been getting fed up with the Valorant category on Twitch.  In partnership with Twitch, Riot Games has been offering closed beta access to Valorant via drops, earned by watching streamers with “drops enabled” on their channel. This was seen as an innovative way to provide access to a closed beta at first, but many content creators now seem tired of the concept.  One …

EternalEnvy, Sneyking stand in for Business associates after C9 folds Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu aren’t sitting on the sidelines for long. Cloud9 recently announced that it is dropping out of Dota 2 after three months of underwhelming results. This marked the fifth time a Dota 2 roster attached to Cloud9 dissolved. Around the same time, Joel Mori “MoOz” Ozambela departed Business associates, while Leon “Nine” Kirilin decided to take a break from the competitive scene. Nine remains …

Hunden retires, moves to new coaching role at Heroic M Alzamora Counter-Strike Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen has announced that he has retired from professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as a player, and will transition into a coaching role with Heroic. The vetrab player spent the his last months of active playing with the newly-formed MAD Lions squad before being replaced as the team’s in-game leader by Asger “AcilioN” Larsen. HUNDEN took his removal from the team he had helped lead to FLASHPOINT 1, asking …

ESL and DreamHack sign massive streaming deal with Twitch M Alzamora Counter-Strike In a departure from its typical stance on multi-year deals, streaming platform Twitch has entered into a three-year partnership with ESL and sister company DreamHack to become the sole provider of the companies’ English-language esports broadcasts. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed at the time of the announcement. This marks the second time ESL has sold the english streaming rights to its events since 2018, first doing …

Virtus.pro vs. Na’Vi WePlay! Pushka League betting analysis Steven Rondina Dota 2 The WePlay! Pushka League is set to host a showdown between the CIS region’s two biggest names as Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere are set to face off in the group stage. This is an old and storied rivalry that has played out across multiple games, but is particularly bitter right now in Dota 2 given the roster poaching that has occurred between the two teams. One side is coming into …

WePlay! suspends team from Pushka League over alleged match fixing Steven Rondina Dota 2 According to the tournament organizer, WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 was home to a fixed match between two of its competing teams.  On April 26, a group stage match between Cyber Legacy and CyberTRAKTOR saw members of the latter team fixing the match in concert with betting interests. Cyber Legacy won the series 2-0. WePlay! issued a statement on the matter on its official website. “Our esports department and the …

Griffin relegated from LCK after poor performance in Spring Split Olivia Richman League of Legends After a harsh loss to Sandbox Gaming in the lower brackets of LCK’s summer promotion series, Griffin has been eliminated from the LCK. The team was relegated after losing back-to-back matches, first to Korea Challenger team Seorabeol and then to Sandbox Gaming, in the summer promotion tournament. This means that they won’t be competing in the Summer Split. This is a harsh wake up call for Griffin, who also finished …

Faker ice cream is now available, comes in three godly flavors Olivia Richman League of Legends T1’s popular mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok now has his face on ice cream treats in Korea.  It’s been a good year for Faker. His team won its 9th LCK championship after beating Gen.G in the Spring Split finals. And now the Esports Hall of Famer with multiple World Championship titles to his name has been selected as Lotte Confectionery’s World Con Model. The Unkillable Demon King has his face …

The real reason why JackeyLove almost missed the LPL Spring Split William Davis League of Legends New information about Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo and why he missed the first half of the LPL Spring Split has surfaced through Weibo. Former World Champion JackeyLove was one of the biggest names coming to the free agency by the end of 2019. Every team in China had its eye on a player who’s considered one of the best ADC players in the region, if not the world. The community was …

Figuring out when CSGO’s next operation is coming M Alzamora Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s ninth event, Operation Shattered Web, landed with a bang last November and was a major factor that helped catapult CSGO to its first million-player day. Shattered Web was Counter-Strike’s first battle pass, and where there’s one season pass, more tend to follow. CSGO’s internal configurations refer to a seasonal pass, and Shattered Web’s mission files are structured to make it easy for Valve to create one over …

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