News

Dota 2 EternalEnvy, Sneyking stand in for Business associates after C9 folds By Nina Forneloza Counter-Strike Hunden retires, moves to new coaching role at Heroic By M Alzamora Counter-Strike ESL and DreamHack sign massive streaming deal with Twitch By M Alzamora

Dota 2

Virtus.pro vs. Na’Vi WePlay! Pushka League betting analysis Steven Rondina 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 …

Dota 2

WePlay! suspends team from Pushka League over alleged match fixing Steven Rondina 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 …

League of Legends

Griffin relegated from LCK after poor performance in Spring Split Olivia Richman 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 …

League of Legends

Faker ice cream is now available, comes in three godly flavors Olivia Richman 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 …

League of Legends The real reason why JackeyLove almost missed the LPL Spring Split By William Davis Counter-Strike Figuring out when CSGO’s next operation is coming By M Alzamora News Esports is leading a new surge in digital gaming growth By Jared Wynne

League of Legends

LoL patch 10.9 buffs Gnar, nerfs Nami, adds FPX Championship skins William Davis Patch 10.9 is here, bringing more power to the top lane and the anticipated FunPlus Phoenix Championship skins. Earlier this month, Riot Games revealed the FPX Championship skins receiving mixed reactions from the community. The set will be available on April 30 in two versions: the regular red version and a special black chroma. Patch 10.9 is the shortest patch of the year thus far, as the list of champions …

Dota 2

Puppey helping to bring back FACEIT Pro League to Dota 2 Nina Forneloza Clement “Puppey” Ivanov is spearheading a revival of the FACEIT Pro League for Dota 2. FACEIT Pro League is officially returning to the game after two years of being decomissioned. FPL is an in-house league that features not just top-tier pro players, but also up-and-coming hopefuls. The league is exclusively for players who are invited to take part. Puppey himself seems to have a hand in picking out eligible players …

Counter-Strike

Orgless disbands, yay blames CSGO leagues and Valorant M Alzamora North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Orgless has announced that they will cease competing in Valve’s first-person shooter. The team was currently involved in ESL’s Road to Rio competition to determine the new attendees at November’s CSGO Major. ESL made the announcement in a tweet from their official Twitter account. Team “Orgless” have decided to not compete in the rest of the #ESLOne Road to Rio and have disbanded.As #ESLOne …

League of Legends

TL coach Dodo says Doublelift spread false information about team Olivia Richman After quite the dramatic and disappointing Spring Split, Team Liquid parted ways with star player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng due to his poor performance and bad attitude. After his move to TSM became public, Doublelift decided to clear the air about his reasons for leaving TL and why he appeared to have such a negative outlook throughout the entire split.  In a candid video, Doublelift accused the Team Liquid coaching staff …

Towers are stronger than ever, denies changed in Dota 2 update 7.26b Steven Rondina Dota 2 Dota 2 update 7.26b has dropped and it shows just how impactful the original 7.26 update was for the game. The list of patch notes is fairly short, but it carries huge ramifications for players at all levels and in all roles as Valve seems to be committed to changing how games progress, rather than making granular changes to individual heroes. The lost of core gameplay changes reads as follows:  …

The new TI10 Battle Pass Collector’s Cache entries are amazing Steven Rondina Dota 2 The International 2020 Battle Pass is coming soon, in one form or another. Fans of Dota 2 are excited over this fact for a multitude of reasons, but one of the most excited groups is Dota 2 artists. Though the fate of the event itself is currently unknown, a tidal wave of new cosmetics has arrived on the Steam Workshop with creators hoping to be included in the battle pass. …

Ninjas in Pyjamas runs over f0rest, Dignitas in ESL One Road to Rio Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Dignitas made waves earlier this year by returning to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and reuniting the Ninjas in Pyjamas roster that won the 2014 ESL One Cologne Major. The squad led by the legendary duo of Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg faced their old team for the first time in the Road to Rio: Europe group stage. It did not go well for them. Dignitas received a swift 2-0 …

Fnatic is once again ranked as the world number one CSGO team M Alzamora Counter-Strike For the first time in over four years, Fnatic is ranked as the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team in the world. In the recent HLTV world rankings, Fnatic moved from number two to number one, dethroning Natus Vincere for the top spot. The honor comes after almost nine months of increasingly strong play that saw Fnatic evolve their style and add new members to it roster while retaining veterens. Still …

Cloud9 drops Dota 2 roster, pulling out of game for a fifth time Steven Rondina Dota 2 Cloud9 is tapping out of Dota 2. Again. The popular esports organization has released its Dota 2 team and has withdrawn from all scheduled events. This follows consistently poor results from its roster. “It was great working with these players and I want to thank them for being professional throughout and buying into our vision and company values. We’re confident that success will follow them as their careers progress,” Cloud9 …

With McCree and Widowmaker banned again, is Overwatch over hero pools? Olivia Richman News While Echo is back in hero pools, four popular heroes are currently banned in competitive Overwatch this week: McCree, Widowmaker, Wrecking Ball, and Mercy.  Those four heroes won’t be available in competitive Overwatch until May 4, bringing in an onslaught of criticism over Overwatch’s previously praised implementation of hero pools. Hero pools were first introduced by game director Jeff Kaplan to shake up the stale Overwatch meta and force one-trick …

Start dates for 2020 LEC, LCS Summer Splits announced by Riot William Davis News The 2020 LEC Summer Split will begin on June 12, the league announced on Twitter. Following the cancellation of the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, regional League of Legends leagues are finalizing new plans for their summer seasons. The LEC will return on June 12 with a superweek that will run from Friday through Sunday. Each day will feature five matches. The season is starting with a clash between Spring champions G2 …

Fnatic, Evil Geniuses win BTS Pro Series Dota 2 leagues Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Fnatic and Evil Geniuses were crowned as BTS Pro Series champions for the southeast Asia region and Americas regions, respectively. The bloodbath is over. BTS Pro Series has concluded for the two regions, and the event was jam-packed with high-quality Dota 2 action. It logged a total of 152,000 peak viewers on Twitch alone and boasted a $100,000 prize pool divided equally between the two regions. Fnatic is on a …

OGA Dota Pit Minor reportedly shifted to an online event Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Fans might see another Dota Pro Circuit major event transition into an online league. ESL One Los Angeles 2020 was forced to break new ground. The tournament was initially announced as the third major tournament of the DPC season before Valve was forced to make changes. The event shifted to an online regional league. ESL’s attempt at salvaging the tournament was relatively successful, and One Game Agency will most likely …

Explaining tick rates in FPS games: Difference between 64 and 128 tick M Alzamora Counter-Strike With Valorant’s announcement that the new first-person shooter would feature 128 tick servers, now is the best time to refresh players on exactly what exactly tick rate has to do with their favorite games. While its not essential knownledge, every single multiplayer game has what is called a tick rate. That alone makes the concept important for players to understand. The more a player knows about the mechanics and technical …

Doublelift explains his move from Team Liquid to TSM Olivia Richman League of Legends Now that Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s move to TSM is official, the outspoken League of Legends pro decided to upload a video detailing his experience at Team Liquid and what exactly led to his dramatic antics and poor performance throughout the Spring Split. The talented AD Carry also wanted to clear up some rumors about his move back to TSM.  The video started out with Doublelift discussing last year’s disappointing performance …

No[o]ne wins his second ESL MVP, gets another Mercedes-Benz car Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko has earned another Mercedes-Benz car, thanks to winning another ESL One MVP Award. ESL’s Most Valuable Player award is highly coveted, as it comes alongside a brand new luxury vehicle. The winner is determined by both a fan vote and by “Dota 2 experts.” The MVP selection process was slightly different this time, as ESL One Los Angeles was comprised of five regional leagues. Each region had …

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