News

News OWL Season 3’s Cheez-It broadcast stumbles become meme material By gabhernandez Counter-Strike This is how to check if people you played with in CSGO have VAC bans By M Alzamora News This Dota 2 fountain hook strategy with Pudge is unexpected By Steven Rondina

Dota 2

New OG dominates LA Major qualifiers while some big names lose Steven Rondina Most of the open qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles Major have wrapped up. A number of notable teams were doomed to be eliminated from the proceedings, but there were still a surprising number of high-end squads that washed out. Among the teams that fell short of the regional qualifiers are Godsent, T1, Winstrike Team. B8, and Cloud9. This cuts them out of both the StarLadder Season 3 Minor …

League of Legends

Smoothie says the key to winning over EG was to stop trolling Olivia Richman Counter Logic Gaming broke their losing streak after beating Evil Geniuses this weekend. In a segment before the match began, Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin admitted that he was having difficulties communicating with his team. Speaking with the jungler after the interview, he told the LCS talent crew that they had won today thanks to “over-communicating.” This was something that Andy “Smoothie” Ta was quick to agree with in a post-match interview …

News

100 Thieves Ssumday explains his new perm after win over TL Olivia Richman When you think of the hair of a winning League of Legends player, it’s the bowl cut. But Chan-ho “Ssumday” Kim wants to change that. It’s time to say goodbye to bowl cuts and hello to perms. The 100 Thieves top laner completely dominated in the team’s match against Team Liquid today, even solo killing Jung “Impact” Eon-Yeong twice at one point. It was safe to say that Ssumday was …

League of Legends

Jensen on Liquid’s loss to 100 Thieves: “We’re all playing poorly” Olivia Richman Team Liquid isn’t playing their best and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen knows it. The four-time LCS champions lost to 100 Thieves today, dropping their record to 2-3. With Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen finally in America, Jensen told WIN.gg that Team Liquid’s performance might turn around soon.  How are you feeling after the loss today?  Jensen: I don’t know. It feels kind of shitty, honestly. I’m not really used to losing this much. …

League of Legends Cody Sun on LCS vs. LEC: “Every [LCS] team is…just really scared” By Olivia Richman League of Legends Zeyzal on EG’s 1-4 start: “We’re trying to work on [selfish habits]” By Olivia Richman League of Legends Team SoloMid extends LCS winning streak with win over Dignitas By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

Counter-Strike

CSGO breaks all-time record for highest concurrent player count M Alzamora Counter-Strike: Global Offensive broke its own concurrent player count record on February 8 with 876,575 players. The previous record was set in April 2016 during the MLG Columbus Major, which hit a peak of 850,485 players. While breaking the record is big news for Valve’s flagship shooter, it’s not unexpected. CSGO has steadily grown since August 2019, in large part thanks to the introduction of Operation Shattered Web. Operation Shattered …

League of Legends

G2 Esports leaves wacky compositions behind for game with Fnatic William Davis G2 Esports remains undefeated in the 2020 LEC Spring Split after a decisive victory over Fnatic. For the longest time, European League of Legends has been all about G2 and Fnatic. In 14 splits, the title has gone to one of those two teams 13 times. In week three of the 2020 LEC Spring, Fnatic had a chance to force its way into first place, while G2 just wanted to keep …

Apex Legends

Apex Legends Valentine’s Day event likely uncovered by dataminers Olivia Richman What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than playing Apex Legends?  Developer and data miner Shrugtal has uncovered that a Valentine’s Day event is coming to the battle royale from February 12 to 19. The game files appear to reveal a “2XP duos with friends” mode, most likely a limited-time event. Apart from that, it seems as though nothing else about the event has been uncovered. It’s not yet clear how …

Counter-Strike

Agent skins will be allowed at ESL One Rio Major, says CSPPA M Alzamora The Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association revealed today that players at the game’s upcoming ESL One Rio Major will be allowed to use CSGO’s new character models. The models were a controversial subject in competitive play in 2019 due to the different models serving as camouflage in some areas.. In an odd exchange, professional player Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer tweeted at the CSPPA asking for clarification on the model situation for the upcoming …

New OG roster debuts by crushing opponents in ESL LA qualifiers Steven Rondina Dota 2 The new version of OG has made its debut in the open qualifiers to the ESL One Los Angeles Major. As is often the case, OG’s journey started with something of a softball matchup against a team known as Back 2 Bulgaria. Back 2 Bulgaria isn’t a professional team, but put in a good effort against OG. The highlight for the team came in the early game, which saw SpOTxY …

CSGO legends TaZ and NEO are coming back to form new Polish team Olivia Richman Counter-Strike Filip “NEO” Kubski and Wiktor “TaZ” Wojitas are forming a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Very few details about the new team have been revealed thus far, but NEO and TaZ are reportedly already recruiting in hopes of filling their roster with the “most talented and promising players in the Polish CSGO scene.” In a statement, TaZ discussed how his long history with NEO was paramount to the new team’s …

The biggest challenges in betting on esports and how to beat them Olivia Richman News Esports betting is exciting, there’s no doubt about that. It keeps you at the edge of your seat during your favorite games and even rewards you for knowing your stuff.  But since esports betting is equal parts new and exciting in the betting industry, there are some challenges that newcomers may not be aware of. Once you know what to look out for, esports betting becomes a more rewarding experience. …

Teamfight Tactics Mobile closed beta, release plans revealed gabhernandez League of Legends Teamfight Tactics Mobile is set to come out in March, but a closed beta was abruptly launched less than 24 hours ago. TFT Mobile will be cross-compatible with other devices, carrying over all forms of progress including rank and inventory in most regions. The only exception are players on the Chinese and southeast Asian servers. Garena will still support PC TFT players, but mobile will not have the same benefits. …

Akali has been banned in every LCS and LEC game of 2020 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Akali has a 100% presence rate across Riot Games’ largest League of Legends tournaments, including the 2020 Spring Splits of LEC, LCS, LCK, and LPL. While casual League of Legends players wonder why Akali keeps getting balance updates, pro players are well aware of her overpowered potential. Since the start of the 2020 season, there hasn’t been a single game in which Akali wasn’t either picked or banned in North …

Riot is giving one more League of Legends refund token for free Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends With the new season starting, Riot Games prepared a free refund token for every League of Legends player. Though League of Legends is essentially a free-to-play game, many players spend a decent sum of money purchasing items that are available for Riot Points. RP is Riot’s own currency that, when bought with real money, gives players the option to buy a number of different items available in the League of …

TNC top DPC standings before ESL One Los Angeles Major qualifiers gabhernandez Dota 2 Despite an early exit at the DreamLeague Leipzig Major, TNC Predator remains at the top of the Dota Pro Circuit rankings heading into the ESL One Los Angeles Major. The 12 teams with the most DPC points at the end of the season will receive a direct invite to The International 2020. While there is still a lot of Dota 2 left to play, these 12 teams are currently positioned …

G2 Esports overcomes Rogue in tough game in LEC Spring Split Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends G2 Esports faced Rogue in the third week of the 2020 LEC Spring Split. Rogue was looking for an upset against the dominant team, but G2’s undefeated streak continued on. All eyes were on the mid lane matchup during the draft phase. Luka “Perkz” Perković picked Sett to fight against Emil “Larssen” Larsson’s LeBlanc. Top lane went for a matchup highly focused on health regeneration, with G2 picking Soraka and …

Ex6TenZ retires after 15-year CSGO career, eyes coaching role M Alzamora Counter-Strike Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans announced his retirement from professional Counter-Strike yesterday through a Twitlonger. His retirement makes him the second professional Frech player to retire in less than a week. On February 3, Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux decided to hang up his hat. Players should be intimately familiar with Ex6TenZ from his long time in the scene and the well-known organizations that he captained over the years. These include some of the biggest …

PSG.LGD trades longtime carry Ame before Los Angeles Major Steven Rondina Dota 2 The qualifiers to the ESL One Los Angeles Major are just a few days away, but that isn’t stopping PSG.LGD from making some late roster changes. The organization has announced a trade with CDEC Gaming, sending away longtime carry player Wang “Ame” Chunyu in favor of Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son. The news was revealed on social media, explaining that the decision came “following the players’ personal wishes and for team …

Three Overwatch heroes nerfed, one buffed in latest PTR update Olivia Richman News Several Overwatch heroes saw changes to their kit in the PTR patch released on Thursday.  Blizzard just released PTR Patch Notes two days ago for version 1.45, which also introduced hero pools and workshop updates. As promised, developers have already revealed more patch notes for the PTR, staying true to their goal of delivering more frequent patches in 2020.  The most the balance update delivered buffs or nerfs to Wrecking Ball, …

Valve will ban reported players from chat after new CSGO patch M Alzamora Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players sometimes run into cheaters, hackers, griefers, and even plain jerks while playing online. For new players learning how to play Counter-Strike, the toxicity is an immediate reason to walk away. It’s common to join a casual server and be blasted with generally poor behavior. Today, Valve finally announced that they’re going to work to correct the problem. A blog post on the official Counter-Strike: Global Offensive …

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