News

League of Legends Misfits ruins perfect season for G2 Esports in LEC Spring Split By William Davis League of Legends Team Secret expands, announces new League of Legends team in VCS By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Dota 2 Dota 2 comes to VR in a new Dota RPG created by an ambitious fan By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

Concept art highlights the strong links between Half-Life and CSGO M Alzamora As the release of Half-Life: Alyx nears, old Counter-Strike: Global Offensive files highlight just how closely the two universes are connected and give a fun look at just how the two influential games are tied to one another. Images uploaded in early 2016 show prototype models for two unused Counter-Terrorist factions, the KSK and the Georgian Police force. They’re labeled as early concept art for Valve’s multiplayer shooter, but they …

League of Legends

These are the most popular Challenger champs and roles in Season 10 William Davis The solo queue experience is different in every region, but the high elo ranks might be more similar than previously imagined. A redditor created a spreadsheet comparing the challenger ladders in North America, Europe, and Korea, and the parallels are clear. Start with the most played champions by the Challenger players. It’s not a surprise that the most popular champions are exactly the same that are played on stage. Many …

News

Report: Activision Blizzard partnered with YouTube for $160 million Olivia Richman People close to the situation have reported that YouTube’s media-rights deal with Activision Blizzard is valued at about $160 million.  This three-year deal, a partnership between YouTube owner Google and Overwatch’s developers and publishers at Activision Blizzard, was announced last month before the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League began. The deal involves Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Hearthstone having all of their tournaments live streamed exclusively on YouTube …

Fortnite

Pokimane donates $50,000 to UCI’s esports program, scholarships Olivia Richman Streaming personality Imane “Pokimane” Anys has donated $50,000 to the University of California’s esports program.  According to a recent tweet from Pokimane, she’s created the Pokimane Scholarship and is now sponsoring four scholars. The money will create an endowment that will fund tuition and fees for gamers selected by UCI Esports.  “I remember being 20k+ in debt while juggling streaming and university, and am so lucky to be where I …

League of Legends Origen won their LEC match against MAD Lions in the draft phase By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Dota 2 Connection issues affect SEA qualifiers for ESL Los Angeles By gabhernandez News Wil Wheaton is set to host a new esports reality game show By Steven Rondina

News

xQc reclaims title as top ranked Winston player on NA servers Olivia Richman Overwatch streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel reclaimed his spot as the number one Winston in North America.  “TOOK ME A COUPLE GAMES TO GET THE RUST OFF AND GOT RANK 36 NA, HIGHEST PLAYER WITH WINSTON AS MOST PLAYED ON THE WHOLE SERVER. PICK UP THE THE FUCKING PACE NORTH AMERICA IS NO ONE EVEN TRYING ANYMORE?” xQc declared on Twitter.  He added a photo for proof that he is, indeed, the …

League of Legends

Top lane Soraka and Sona are finally getting nerfed in patch 10.4 William Davis League of Legends patch 10.4 will hit Soraka and Sona, according to a preview shared by gameplay designer Mark Yetter. Patch 10.4 will make sure that Soraka and Sona stay in their lane down bottom. The two supports are getting significant changes in their kits that will make them almost useless outside of the bottom lane. Players have no one to blame for these drastic nerfs but the G2 Esports …

League of Legends

T1 gets early LCK victory over longtime rival KT Rolster William Davis T1 secured a victory over its arch-rival KT Rolster in the first round of the telecom war in the 2020 LCK Spring. The name of the teams and the rosters might change, but the rivalry between T1 and KT Rolster is still alive. Week 1 in the 2020 LCK Spring was different for both teams. While T1 is getting wins, KT Rolster is still struggling with the basics. T1 came …

News

PUBG getting Team Deathmatch game mode in upcoming update Olivia Richman PlayerUnknown’s Battleground’s 6.2 update is bringing Team Deathmatch to PC and console.  On February 19, players will be introduced to team deathmatch, the first arcade-style game mode to be featured in the popular battle royale.  “PUBG is founded on the premise of Battle Royale, but we know that sometimes you just need to change it up a bit,” reads the official blog update. “For those players, we’re happy to introduce …

SMASH upset Complexity, seal ESL Rio closed qualifier spot M Alzamora Counter-Strike In a surprise result, SMASH Esports defeated Complexity Gaming today in the open qualifiers for the upcoming ESL One Rio Minor qualifier. SMASH punched way above their weight class, winning 2-1 against a Complexity team that has been unstoppable in recent weeks. While Complexity shocked the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene earlier this month by crushing Astralis 2-0 at the BLAST Premier Spring Series, they were on the receiving end today. …

Iconic CSGO map Dust 2 gets a new remake in Fortnite Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Counter-Strike Iconic CSGO map Dust 2 is coming to Fortnite. Fans of first-person shooter games were excited to find out one of the most popular maps from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is coming to Fortnite’s creative mode. Digital marketing brand Team Evolve, which focuses on designing custom content for the battle royale, has a Dust 2 game mode soon to be available for fans to try out in Fortnite. Dust 2 was …

Overwatch update nerfs 3 heroes, makes console-exclusive changes Olivia Richman News Overwatch’s most recent patch hit live servers today, bringing some small changes to four heroes.  Last week, Blizzard released the changes on PTR and it seems they have carried over to live servers with barely any changes. Here’s all the February 12 updates for PC. The former GOATS meta staple had her Repair Pack ability changed once again. This time, the armor over-heal was reduced from 75 to 50 armor. …

The top heroes of OWL’s opening weekend weren’t who you were expecting Olivia Richman News The opening weekend of Overwatch League Season 3 gave fans an early taste of the game’s new meta.  According to Overwatch’s Stats Lab, Lucio, Reinhardt, and Mei were the three most-played heroes of the week by far. Lucio was picked 91.9% of the time, followed by Reinhardt at 88.7%. Probably the most surprising is Mei at third with 84.1%. Mei had niche uses in Season 2, but she has yet …

NiP stuns fans, Na’Vi stays strong in ESL One LA Major qualifiers Steven Rondina Dota 2 In every region except for China, the qualifiers to the ESL One LA Major have officially wrapped up. While some regions went largely according to plan, there were more than a few surprises during the proceedings. Here’s the full list of teams qualified for the ESL One LA Major: Natus Vincere Virtus.pro Team Secret OG Ninjas in Pyjamas Evil Geniuses Chaos Esports Club Thunder Predator beastcoast Fnatic Geek Fam Team …

Former Fnatic coach Jumpy finds new home, joins North Nina Forneloza Counter-Strike Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive organization North has brought in Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson as its new head coach. Jumpy will replace outgoing coach Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg, who has coached North for the past year. In a statement on the North website, Jumpy stated he is excited by the potential within the team: “I’m super excited about the opportunity to come and coach a team like North. With the amount of inherent …

FLASHPOINT restarts EU qualifier, had banned tech pauses M Alzamora Counter-Strike FACEIT has issued a statement regarding the restarting of the second FLASHPOINT European open qualifier and its lack of technical pauses, amending its rules to ensure that teams have a fair chance to compete. Trouble started when Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli and Turkey5 played seven rounds without one of their players in FLASHPOINT’s European qualifiers due to a technical issue. Unfortunately for Turkey5, FACEIT had disabled the ability to use technical pauses for the event. …

Valve issues another massive wave of bans in Dota 2 Steven Rondina Dota 2 Valve is continuing its efforts to improve the overall Dota 2 experience by banning out offending accounts from the game. The company announced on the official Dota 2 Twitter account that more than 40,000 accounts have been banned for “abusing matchmaking.” This was followed by a policy change where these bans are being handled as a game ban on the Steam accounts of the users, rather than a matchmaking ban …

We finally know what Juggernaut’s face looks like under his mask Steven Rondina Dota 2 At one point or another, every Dota 2 player has asked themselves, “What does Juggernaut look like under the mask?” Many Dota 2 heroes that wear masks or face-covering helmets have had their faces revealed through in-game cosmetic items at some point. Skins like Bounty Hunter’s “Hunter with No Name” hat revealed his feline face years ago, while Dragon Knight’s Uldorak’s Hide quickly removed any mystery over what Davion looked …

Leaks reveal last 3 weeks of Operation Shattered Web missions M Alzamora Counter-Strike There are some interesting tidbits buried deep inside the code for Counter-Strike Global Offensive. Some are small, like how CSGO’s volume settings reset after equipping a Music Kit. Some are bigger, like the names and objectives for the next two weeks of Operation Shattered Web. Barring sudden changes from Valve, CSGO players can plot out how they want to tackle the final three weeks of Operation Shattered Web. Starting with …

Doublelift now has the worst KDA of any ADC in the LCS Olivia Richman News Team Liquid’s start in the Spring Split hasn’t gone as planned. On February 10, last year’s North American champions lost to Golden Guardians, currently considered one of the bottom tier teams in the LCS. Now, they’re tied for seventh place with a poor 2-4 record. While the Team Liquid pros and their fans are blaming their poor performance on veteran jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pederson’s visa issues, there’s another issue becoming …

Shattered Web Week 13 brings big explosions and shields to CSGO M Alzamora Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Week 13 may be best used as a distraction from work, cleaning the kitchen, or finishing up some errands. It’s a laundry list of tasks to be crossed off. Instead of breaking away from the past weeks’ “kill things” challenges by making increasing the chance for clever tactics, Valve has opted for the “grind it out” route. WTB Earplugs: Get 5 kills with the Negev In Casual: …

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