News

Counter-Strike CSGO’s player count just passed Dota 2’s all-time peak By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Vertigo changes, M4A1-S buff part of huge CSGO meta shift By M Alzamora Dota 2 Valve wants to shorten Dota 2 game lengths with update 7.26 By Steven Rondina

League of Legends

Cloud9’s Blaber takes home 2020 LCS Spring Split MVP award William Davis Cloud9’s jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang is the 2020 LCS Spring Split MVP. Cloud9 collected its final award of the season. Cloud9 claimed all the spots in the All-Pro Team and the Coach of the Split award. The jungler is receiving the most important award of the split in his first as a starter. This is confirmation that Blaber is, in fact, LCS material. In the offseason, Cloud9 and Blaber received …

News

Dafran refuses to return to Overwatch, bans goading stream viewers Olivia Richman Overwatch fans are already feeling the pressure of Riot’s new FPS, Valorant. Former Overwatch League pro Daniel “Dafran” Francesca recently banned a viewer when they wouldn’t stop bashing Valorant and demanding that he play Overwatch instead. Dafran was playing Sova, an agent similar to Overwatch’s Hanzo. This was a smart pick for the Twitch streamer, who was known for his DPS skills on the Blizzard Arena stage. But instead of …

News

Valorant developers say Split ropes are fine as players complain Olivia Richman Ranked mode is coming to Valorant and closed beta participants are panicking about the game’s potential exploits.  One of the most recent movement tricks in the game is the use of ropes on Split. There are a few ropes throughout the map that players can hook onto in order to reach high ground more rapidly. While attached to the ropes, players found out they could still fire their weapons. Because …

Counter-Strike

Here’s everything you can do in CSGO’s in-game watch tab M Alzamora With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive adding online tournaments to the watch tab today, it’s a good time to go through exactly what players can and can’t do with CSGO’s powerful GOTV browser. CSGO boasts some serious integration between the game and outside tournaments, and today it got a little bit closer to being the complete CSGO viewing package. In a surprise reveal, Counter-Strike developer Valve announced on the game’s official Twitter …

Counter-Strike CSGO teams being sued for “negligence” after former pro passes away By Olivia Richman League of Legends FunPlus Phoenix World Championship skins are getting mixed reviews By William Davis Dota 2 Virtus.pro, Team Secret go undefeated in ESL One LA group stage By Nina Forneloza

Counter-Strike

New CSGO update changes Vertigo, makes it easier to copy crosshairs Steven Rondina Big updates just keep arriving in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Less than a week after Valve delivered a major shakeup of the CSGO arsenal, which included the long-awaited nerf of the Krieg, the publisher has shipped another update that includes various map changes, upgrades to spectating, and a new experimental warmup game mode.  While map changes are usually the centerpiece of big patches like this, the so-called “Change Your Tune” update …

Dota 2

CDEC’s Xm is the first Chinese Dota 2 player to reach 10,000 MMR Nina Forneloza Guo ‘Xm’ Hongcheng has become the first Chinese player to reach the highly coveted 10,000 MMR ranking. Indeed, the 10k MMR club is growing bigger and bigger. China recorded its first Chinese member of the 10k MMR club as Xm joined the elite list of players with five-digit MMR. ???? Congratulations to CDEC.Xm on reaching 10K MMR!#StarLadder #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/hAbc6ZkaMK — StarLadder Dota 2 (@StarLadderDota2) April 14, 2020 Malaysian player Cheng …

Counter-Strike

Valve trolls CSGO players with Office changes and Inferno wall bangs M Alzamora Since the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Shattered Web operation in November, there has been a steady stream of hints that all seemed to point in one direction – the return of the  Office to competitve CSGO. While the map has been available to CSGO players for years, it has never seen competitive play on an esports stage. CSGO’s most recent patch moved the mystery forward slightly when developers included …

League of Legends

Team Liquid reportedly puts Doublelift’s contract up for trade Olivia Richman Multiple sources close to the situation have revealed that Team Liquid has put Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s contract up for trade. While Team Liquid hasn’t announced the big move themselves, League of Legends journalist and content creator Travis Gafford has come forward with the news after hearing about it from multiple sources. According to Gafford, multiple teams have informed him that Doublelift is up for sale and will likely be traded …

TFT patch 10.8 adds new galaxies and gives a massive buff to Soraka William Davis League of Legends Teamfight Tactics deployed patch 10.8 and it brings new units and new galaxies. The highlight of patch 10.8 is the addition of Xerath, the first unit added to the game since the release of TFT: Galaxies. Xerath Tier 5 Dark Star-Sorcerer Abyssal Bombardment: Xerath summons random meteor strikes for 6/8/45 seconds. Meteors deal magic damage, if they kill an enemy, adjacents enemies take damage and get stunned for 1.5 seconds. …

These are best heroes in Dota 2 after ESL LA, according to pro players Steven Rondina Dota 2 It’s been a long few months for the Dota 2 pro scene. After grinding to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pro calendar has started returning to life with a number of online leagues.  Among those events is ESL One Los Angeles, which featured action across all six Dota 2 regions.  There have been numerous patches over recent weeks, but few international events around that can be used …

summit thinks CSGO’s tournaments are a problem, warns Valorant Olivia Richman Counter-Strike Valorant’s closed beta key drop system has helped Riot’s new FPS set new records on Twitch.  The highly anticipated title already has 34 million hours watched, with a peak viewership hitting over 1.7 million viewers, beating Twitch’s previous single-day viewership record. Fans from all over have been watching their favorite streamers play the new game, both to find out more about the included agents’ abilities and to get access to …

League of Legends fans discuss Garena Vietnam’s shady practices Olivia Richman League of Legends It’s no surprise that League of Legends fans don’t like Garena, the Singapore-based company that received the license from Riot Games to run LoL in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Some players from that region have even admitted to playing on North American servers, willing to deal with 200 ping just to avoid dealing with Garena. So what has Garena done to be so often called “shady” and “scummy” by the …

Fans honor TF2’s Soldier voice actor after death from COVID-19 M Alzamora News As word spread of famed voice actor Rick May death, many fans went in-game to make sure that his memory lives on. Team Fortress 2 players came together to celebrate and remember the voice actor after news circulated that he had died due to complications from COVID-19. May was 79 years old.  Using TF2’s built-in emotes, a whole host of Soldiers performed the character’s 21 Gun Salute taunt in unison …

Riot is discussing future of Valorant esports with teams, organizers Steven Rondina News Valorant’s closed beta has generated an overwhelming amount of hype through the Twitch drop system. But what happens after that? Riot Games gave some early details of its plans for Valorant esports. Though Riot has set the standard for intense publisher control of competition with League of Legends, the publisher seems to be looking more at the systems used in games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2 when it comes to …

CSGO pros are already in love with the SG 556 Krieg nerf M Alzamora Counter-Strike CSGO’s most powerful weapon was finally nerfed in the latest Counter-Strike patch, and pros around the world have their take on the changes. Most reacted with happiness at the news that the SG 556 had been bumped down a notch by Valve. Professional players and fans of Counter-Strike might be able to rest a little easier on CT side since the SG 556 has finally been nerfed. With the new …

Team Liquid, B8 first eliminations from ESL One Los Angeles Europe Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Team Liquid and B8 are out of the ESL One Los Angeles Europe and CIS online league. Fans of Team Liquid are undoubtedly disappointed in the team’s performance, as Liquid was one of the strongest teams in the event and one of the few that wasn’t forced to compete with substitutes or players that had only recently been added to its roster. Unfortunately, the team was mathematically eliminated from the …

Valorant developers announce new Ranked Mode coming to closed beta Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot Games has announced that Valorant will have a new Ranked Mode in the near future. Just a few days after the closed beta was released, developers are already looking into making some big changes. One of those changes is the addition of a Ranked Mode after closed beta participants have continuously complained about the matchmaking system. One player took to Twitter to ask Riot if they were going to …

LoL patch 10.8 brings big changes to the jungle, buffs solo kills William Davis League of Legends League of Legends patch 10.8 has arrived! The most recent patch brings massive changes to the experience granted by kills and targets champions with the most presence in pro play. On the cosmetic side of the game, patch 10.8 adds Coven Morgana, Coven LeBlanc, Coven Zyra, and Coven Zyra Prestige Edition. All of the new skins will be available on April 16. Patch 10.8 has something for everyone, starting with …

Epulze reveals Epulze Global Dota 2 League for teams in 7 regions Steven Rondina Dota 2 Online leagues are making a huge comeback in Dota 2 right now. Part of that can be chalked up to the ongoing pandemic forcing events offline, but part of it is just a natural return to Dota 2’s early years as a major esports title. Dota 2 has seen a number of tournament organizers, both old and new, step up to keep the professional, regional, and amateur scenes going. Among …

NiP beats Na’Vi in 93-minute game with 10 Divine Rapiers purchased Nina Forneloza Dota 2 After an hour and a half, Ninjas in Pyjamas managed to put away Natus Vincere in a group stage showdown in ESL One Los Angeles’ European and CIS league. Na’Vi kicked off the series with a win thanks to Idan “MagicaL” Vardanian’s dominating performance as Queen of Pain. That victory wound up being a hollow one, as the second game lasted for 93 minutes, the longest game of the tournament. …

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