News

League of Legends Cloud9 annihilates Evil Geniuses, reaches 2020 LCS Spring finals By William Davis League of Legends Fnatic beats MAD Lions, qualifies for 2020 LEC Spring Split finals By William Davis News League of Legends players debate: Is saying “GG” now toxic? By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

New mod Polystrike released, combines Counter-Strike and Dota 2 Steven Rondina Looking for more Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when you play Dota 2? Or maybe you want a bit more of a retro gaming experience when playing Counter-Strike? Polystrike has that covered. The Dota 2 mod is officially in open beta, giving fans to try out the game mode that captured the attention of both esports titles. Polystrike is an interesting take on Dota 2 and Counter-Strike, transforming the game into a …

League of Legends

Valorant bans first cheater just after closed beta begins Steven Rondina Cheaters have already found their way to Valorant, and Riot Games has already started stamping them out. Valorant developers took to Twitter to discuss how they had issued the first ban in the game’s history to an unnamed player. “Well it sucks, but today we had to ban our first cheater, and it looks like more bans are on the horizon,” Riot anti-cheat lead designer Paul Chamberlain said. “I was …

Counter-Strike

Astralis is the big favorite in EPL semi after trouncing mouz M Alzamora After an up and down season, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Astralis finally found their form against mousesports. During the last game before the ESL Pro League’s season 11 playoffs, Astralis delivered a dominant 2-0 win against mouz, who only managed four rounds total over two maps against the number one team in the world.  When all was said and done, it was the less mentioned players on Astralis, such as Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander …

Dota 2

Oceanic Esports launches league for aspiring Dota 2 pros in Australia Nina Forneloza Oceanic Esports is looking to boost its region with a new Dota 2 league. The tournament organizer has announced its first effort in honing the talents from Oceania with the Oceanic Esports League, featuring up and coming teams from Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, the selected teams are not five-man stacks. Oceanic Esports gathered the top captains from the two countries and these captains will choose their teammates from an …

Counter-Strike New CSGO patch nerfs Krieg, buffs Deagle, and changes entire CT meta By M Alzamora League of Legends Cloud9’s Reapered wins 2020 LCS Spring Coach of the Split award By William Davis League of Legends LoL fans raise $6 million for charity through Riot Social Impact Fund By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

This new pop flash blinds almost every angle in Inferno’s B site M Alzamora Every once in a while, a new grenade toss appears for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Whether it’s Astralis’ crouch walk-throw from T spawn to smoke the mid window on Mirage, or Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski’s long range connector smoke on Cobblestone, a good throw lineup is worth its weight in gold. It seems there’s at least one more grenade players can add to their list of god-teir lineups. A reddit user found what …

Dota 2

Ninjas in Pyjamas cuts Universe due to COVID-19 travel restrictions Nina Forneloza Ninjas in Pyjamas has released Saahil “Universe” Arora from its roster. The departure of the former The International champion came after NiP’s decision to restructure the team due to the recent shift to online regional leagues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The reshuffle aims to ensure continued practice and competition for the team. “We’ll keep searching for the right lineup, with the right combination of hunger, skill and winner …

Dota 2

This is how to play Riki just like Arteezy and Miracle- Steven Rondina Dota 2 fans can be forgiven for not noticing, but Riki has quietly become a viable carry at the professional level. Earlier this year, names like Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Du “Monet” Peng broke out the stealthy hero and used him to great effect as a carry. Time is showing that this wasn’t just a gimmicky pick that happened to take opponents by surprise, though. The ESL One Los Angeles …

News

The best streamers to watch while you’re stuck in quarantine Olivia Richman It’s looking like many people will be spending almost the entirety of April stuck inside due to the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of us are already bored with our current collection of games, and some have even time traveled to the end of Animal Crossing. We’ve binged all of the Netflix shows that were on our watch list, and even watching some guy play with tigers and feed them expired …

Valorant breaks viewership records on Twitch with beta key drops gabhernandez League of Legends Valorant is off to a very, very strong start. April 7 saw the launch of the tactical shooter’s closed beta and fans looking for a beta key flooded Twitch streams in hopes of getting one. This saw Valorant shatter Twitch’s single-day viewership record within hours. The first-person shooter is anticipated by fans of a number of major esports titles including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch. Valorant set …

TSM edges past 100 Thieves in lower bracket of LCS Spring playoff William Davis League of Legends Team SoloMid defeated 100 Thieves and is advancing to round two of playoffs in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. TSM knocked 100 Thieves out of playoffs after five games. The action-packed series was so close that it all came down to a single play in game five. 100 Thieves had a rough start in the playoffs against Cloud9 and had a second chance against TSM. TSM started its playoffs run …

CSGO players want Krieg nerfs, but it’s only getting stronger M Alzamora Counter-Strike The SG 556 has become the dominant force in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s meta, and with Valve seemingly otherwise occupied, it may stay that way for a while longer.  Ahead of Riot Game’s closed beta launch of their Counter-Strike and Overwatch hybrid Valorant, streamer Jared “summit1g” Lazar hopped onto CSGO to hone his FPS skills. He wasn’t impressed with what he found. summit was consistantly dominated by users of the Krieg, …

LoL and Valorant are now the most watched games on Twitch William Davis League of Legends Valorant is breaking viewership records after only one day in its closed beta. Hours into its debut, the newest title by Riot Games broke Twitch’s single-day hours watched record for a single game. Valorant registered a 1.7 million concurrent viewer peak, dethroning Fortnite’s World Cup for second place in the streaming platform’s history. The number one spot is occupied by the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, which had 1.74 …

The LCS playoffs are coming to television on ESPN William Davis League of Legends The remainder of the 2020 LCS Spring Split playoffs will be broadcast on ESPN television networks, the LCS revealed through Twitter. Starting on April 11, the LCS games are coming to ESPN2. The deal will run through April 19 when the LCS will crown a new spring champion. The full schedule goes as follow: April 11, Evil Geniuses vs. Cloud9, 3pm CT April 12, FlyQuest vs. Team SoloMid, 3pm CT …

RiceGum banned from Twitch for showing female nudity Olivia Richman News Controversial YouTube personality Bryan “RiceGum” Quang Le was banned from Twitch today.  RiceGum was “interviewing” two Instagram models on a recent live stream when he decided to pull up one of their Instagram photos, which showed her bottom.  “Is that allowed?” RiceGum asked his followers. He then told someone to save the clip, which also featured the two Instagram models kissing.  RiceGum apologized for showing the lewd photograph, but continued to …

Evil Geniuses, TNC, Cloud9, and more to compete in BTS Pro Series Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Beyond the Summit has announced the BTS Pro Series, an online league featuring top Dota 2 teams from the southeast Asia and Americas regions. With the COVID-19 pandemic wiping out the Dota 2 tournament calendar, event organizers are finding “new” ways to bring the action to fans. Beyond the Summit is among that lot, revealing the BTS Pro Series. The online leagues have a total prize pool of $100,000, divided …

Facebook announces new esports service, Facebook Tournaments Steven Rondina News Facebook continues to probe esports and streaming in search of a pathway into the industries. Its latest experiment is simply called “Tournaments.” Facebook Tournaments is a new service that will allow gamers to organize tournaments in a variety of different formats. It’s designed to be a tool for both casual players and those at the professional level. Tournaments is integrated into the Facebook Gaming platform, the live streaming service that …

JW’s knife kills vs FaZe prove that knives aren’t always worth it M Alzamora Counter-Strike There are few things that are as satisfying as a knife kill in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In a game filled with gunplay, it’s rare to get close enough to use CSGO’s decorative knives, so players rarely pass up the opportunity to literally stick it to their enemies. Professional players are no different. During Fnatic’s showdown against FaZe Clan on April 5, Jesper “JW” Wecksell managed to slip past the lone …

Tfue calls Valorant “boring,” says it’s a game for “old people” Olivia Richman News More negative reviews are coming in for Valorant, Riot’s new FPS title. The closed beta for Valorant has begun, allowing more pro gamers and streamers to get their hands on the game and make their opinions known to their followers. The latest content creator to have a strong opinion on Valorant is Turner “Tfue” Tenney. The Fortnite star wasn’t too excited about the gameplay. In fact, he said that he …

TNC and Fnatic announce charity showmatch for COVID-19 relief Nina Forneloza Dota 2 TNC Predator and Fnatic will face off in a charity showmatch to help in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Southeast Asia’s top teams will compete in a best-of-five series. Interestingly, the series will take place in a reverse captain’s mode format. This means the captain of each team will draft their opponents’ heroes. The beef between TNC and Fnatic all started when Fnatic mocked TNC Predator for missing out on …

Riot dispels myths about Valorant key drops, cracks down on sellers gabhernandez League of Legends Today, Riot Games released a blog post discussing the launch of Valorant’s closed beta, and what the company has learned from day one. The closed beta period has begun for Riot’s new shooter, and everyone is itching to get their hands on the game. To get into the beta, players need to follow three simple steps: Sign up for a Riot account Link that account with a Twitch account Watch …

WIN.gg gathers news and guides from around the world covering every point of the modern gaming industry in all of its many forms.