News

News The best streamers to watch while you’re stuck in quarantine By Olivia Richman League of Legends Valorant breaks viewership records on Twitch with beta key drops By gabhernandez League of Legends TSM edges past 100 Thieves in lower bracket of LCS Spring playoff By William Davis

Counter-Strike

CSGO players want Krieg nerfs, but it’s only getting stronger M Alzamora 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, …

League of Legends

LoL and Valorant are now the most watched games on Twitch William Davis 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 …

League of Legends

The LCS playoffs are coming to television on ESPN William Davis 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 …

News

RiceGum banned from Twitch for showing female nudity Olivia Richman 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 …

Dota 2 Evil Geniuses, TNC, Cloud9, and more to compete in BTS Pro Series By Nina Forneloza News Facebook announces new esports service, Facebook Tournaments By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike JW’s knife kills vs FaZe prove that knives aren’t always worth it By M Alzamora

News

Tfue calls Valorant “boring,” says it’s a game for “old people” Olivia Richman 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 …

Dota 2

TNC and Fnatic announce charity showmatch for COVID-19 relief Nina Forneloza 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 …

League of Legends

Riot dispels myths about Valorant key drops, cracks down on sellers gabhernandez 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 …

League of Legends

WildTurtle on TL missing LCS Spring playoffs: “That’s inexcusable” Olivia Richman FlyQuest had quite the convincing win over Golden Guardians in the 2020 LCS Spring Split playoffs. The 3-0 victory knocked GG out in the quarterfinals, ending their season. Now, FlyQuest are waiting to see who they will face in the semifinals this weekend.  WIN.gg spoke with Jason “WildTurtle” Tran over Discord after the match to find out what has made them such a strong team and how they think they …

What is Valorant? Everything you need to know about Riot’s shooter Steven Rondina League of Legends Valve and Riot Games have had a rivalry for almost a decade now, but while that rivalry has largely played out between their respective MOBA titles, things are starting to heat up even more. That’s because Riot Games is set to release its own tactical shooter, Valorant. Valorant is Riot’s answer to the longtime king of the genre, Counter-Strike, and it’s a game that already has huge momentum behind it. …

Dr. Disrespect disses Valorant, calls new FPS “hard to watch” Olivia Richman League of Legends Per usual, Dr. Disrespect has something to say.  On a recent stream, Twitch personality Herschel “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm IV gave his early opinion on Riot’s new FPS, Valorant. To no one’s surprise, he had some harsh words. Apparently, he wasn’t too fond of the new game from what he’s seen.  “Even as a brand new game, it only took me a couple rounds to go, ‘Okay, this is it. And …

shroud says Valorant is easier than CSGO, and here’s why Olivia Richman Counter-Strike More and more streamers are weighing in on Valorant days before the closed beta becomes available to the gaming public.  Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Mike “Shroud” Grzesiek is the latest content creator to voice his opinion on Riot’s new FPS title. He said that the game is easier to play than CSGO, and it’s mostly due to the simplified map.  “The time to kill is one-to-one with CS. It just …

Taimou announces retirement from Overwatch, teases move to Valorant gabhernandez News Timo “Taimou” Kettunen, one of the most accomplished players in Overwatch, is officially calling it quits. Known as “Mr. Good Aim”, Taimou made a name for himself with his impeccable aim on hitscan heroes such as Widowmaker and McCree.  His claim to fame in the Overwatch scene came while playing for IDDQD, an international team that would later get picked up by Team EnVyUs. While playing for Team EnVyUs, Taimou …

Breaking down the comparison between Dota 2 and League of Legends Steven Rondina Dota 2 Many MOBA games have come and gone over the years both as mods and as standalone titles. The only two that have stuck around as popular esports are Dota 2 and League of Legends. At face value, both games are quite similar. They have the same format, objectives, and general controls. But because both games are so deep and have so much nuance to them, there still remain many differences. …

LGD adds Black^ and Ahjit to new LGD International Dota 2 roster Nina Forneloza Dota 2 LGD International has announced some new additions to its team. Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier is returning to the organization he played for seven years ago, and will be joined by Malaysian journeyman Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son. This move coomes after LGD International underperformed in its debut in the ESL SEA Championship Open Qualifier. It was followed by another disappointing result at Hainan Master Spring Invitational SEA Qualifier. The LGD International roster now …

LCK set to enter new franchise team model in 2021 William Davis League of Legends The LCK is officially franchising in 2021. Riot Games Korea has announced its plan to adopt a franchise model in 2021. The LCK is the fourth and final major region to transition into a long-term partnership with competing teams and organizations. Organizations interested in taking part in the new league will have to submit a business plan, a team operation plan, and a fundraising plan. Teams must detail things like …

Here’s how Riot keeps the LCS running with everyone at home Olivia Richman League of Legends The LCS and LEC were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they quickly came back in an online format. It’s easy to forget that Riot is now broadcasting some of the biggest esports tournaments in the world from home, now that employees are working remotely.  Not to mention the broadcasters, players, and production crew.  Riot first started planning a remote production workflow around March 12. Riot had changed their …

ImAPet cites tarik, stanislaw, “hypocrisy” as reasons to leave EG M Alzamora Counter-Strike Evil Geniuses has released head coach Chet “ImAPet” Singh after almost seven months with the team. The famous North American organization returned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in September 2019 when they purchased NRG’s CSGO roster outright following its success at the StarLadder Berlin Major. From the beginning of his tenure with NRG to his release on April 3, Singh spent nearly two years with the roster. During his time with EG, Singh …

Dota 2 star ana featured in Asia’s Forbes 30 under 30 list Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Anathan “ana” Pham has graced the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list. Forbes recognized ana for his huge success at The International 2018 and The International 2019. OG won more than $26 million by winning the two events. Forbes 30 under 30 is an annual list for top young entrepreneurs and leaders in industry change. The list includes different industries such as arts, finance, sports, healthcare, media, and many more. …

Twitch just surpassed 3 billion hours watched for the first time Olivia Richman News People have been turning to Twitch in record numbers amidst lockdown orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Twitch shared their Q1 numbers from 2020 and they show that people are turning to streamers while under strict orders to stay inside. The Amazon-owned streaming platform surprassed 3 billion hours watched for the first time in its history. It also reached all-time highs for average concurrent viewership, up 15.5% compared to the …

Fortnite pro says competitive CSGO is better because players enjoy it M Alzamora Counter-Strike During an episode of the Fortnite podcast Hotline FN, pro Fortnite player Bumpaah gave a frustrated take on the current Fortnite competitive scene while claiming that the passion fans of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ have for their game is what competitive Fortnite is missing. During a discussion surrounding Fortnite, its viewer base, and pro players dropping out of the game’s competitive scene, Bumpaah blamed the slowing of Epic Game’s battle royale …

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