News

League of Legends Uzi is now a free agent after Royal Never Give Up contract expires By Olivia Richman Counter-Strike Top Korean CSGO team MVP PK shuts down to focus on Valorant By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike ESL Road to Rio EU: Fnatic versus Vitality betting analysis By M Alzamora

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 M Alzamora Redd Bull has partnered with FACEIT to host a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition offering $22,000 in prize money. The tournament introduces a new game mode that Counter-Strike players have never seen before, a mix between King of the Hill and CSGO’s Wingman, requiring teams of two players to capture and hold an area on the map for a specific amount of time. The tournament is being held on the …

Counter-Strike

Some ESL Road to Rio teams are choosing to play without agent skins M Alzamora In ESL’s Road to Rio matchup between FURIA and Team Envy, both teams came to an agreement not to use Valve’s recently introduced agent skins, but an admin’s comments might have previewed Valve’s desire to have them used anyway. When FURIA and Team Envy paused their Road to Rio qualification match so members of the teams could turn off their agent skins, an admin was quick to tell them that …

Counter-Strike

CSGO pro gets banned for live stream sniping during ESL event Steven Rondina Stream sniping isn’t just a problem in battle royale titles. It also happens in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, even during live professional tournaments. Tournament organizer ESL and the Esports Integrity Coalition have issued a ban of Team VAC’s Emil “emilshe1n” Mamedov. The decision stems from emilshe1n apparently utilizing the official broadcast of a match between VAC and nerdRage during the ESL Premiership Spring 2020 competition in order to learn information on …

League of Legends Vivo Keyd versus KaBum!: CBLOL 2020 Split 1 semifinal betting analysis By William Davis Fortnite Epic Games cancels Fortnite World Cup, announces new schedule By Olivia Richman League of Legends JD Gaming versus Top Esports: 2020 LPL Spring finals betting analysis By William Davis

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 …

League of Legends

Fnatic drops strategic coach Veigar v2 for sexual comments to minor Olivia Richman 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 …

Counter-Strike

FaZe Clan versus Mousesports: ESL Road to Rio Betting Analysis M Alzamora 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 …

News

Dr Disrespect mocks summit, xQc for caring about Valorant on Twitch Olivia Richman 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 …

Esports is leading a new surge in digital gaming growth Jared Wynne News Gaming and digital streaming have experienced an unprecedented surge thus far in 2020, and esports is at the front of that charge. Stories about record growth are nothing new for esports and gaming audiences. Recent years have seen competitive gaming grow to new levels never seen before, with records being broken every year in live event viewership, prize pool offerings, and more. What’s more, that growth has been seen across …

LoL patch 10.9 buffs Gnar, nerfs Nami, adds FPX Championship skins William Davis League of Legends 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 …

Puppey helping to bring back FACEIT Pro League to Dota 2 Nina Forneloza Dota 2 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 …

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