News

Dota 2 WePlay! Esports General Producer talks about upcoming DPC Minor By Steven Rondina News PUBG esports director quits, esports community airs frustrations By Olivia Richman News San Francisco Shock surprise OWL fans with signing of ANS By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

Week 6 Shattered Web live after Valve mixes up operation cards M Alzamora Week six of Operation Shattered Web has arrived in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but Valve made a bit of a mistake.  Don’t worry, the client isn’t broken. The game’s publisher just mistakenly announced that Christmas Eve marked the start of week seven of the event, rather than six. This resulted in someone at the company posting the wrong picture and description for the CSGO operation’s sixth week. Despite the hiccup, Operation …

News

Our tier list for the best Overwatch Arcade game modes Olivia Richman When Overwatch players don’t feel like dealing with role locks or the pressure of climbing up the competitive ranks, they turn to Arcade. This is a play mode in Overwatch that rewards you with loot boxes for each three Arcade games you win, allowing players to get up to three extra loot boxes each week.  Arcade features a rotating list of various game modes, but not all are made equal. …

Dota 2

All of the best and worst in Dota 2 in 2019 Steven Rondina Unless something absurd happens, Dota 2 is done for 2019. This has been an up and down year for the game at both the professional and casual levels. There were some very high highs as new teams posted some memorable performances and old favorites found new heights of success. Unfortunately, there were also some low lows brought about by a player exodus and mismanagement from developer Valve. Let’s take a …

League of Legends

Doublelift and N0tail argue skill in League of Legends vs Dota 2 Steven Rondina Which game is better and more challenging, League of Legends or Dota 2? The debate has raged among fans of these games for almost a decade now. Some prefer League’s more fluid gameplay experience and its relatively straightforward roles, while others enjoy Dota 2’s greater flexibility and diversity. MOBA fans are being treated to some light-hearted jabs on the matter at the professional level just before Christmas, with two-time The …

League of Legends Uzi injuries may force retirement as RNG battles at Demacia Cup By William Davis News Overwatch team disqualified from Breakable Barriers for cheating By Olivia Richman Counter-Strike EG ImAPet says BnTeT’s visa issues would’ve taken “a year” to fix By M Alzamora

League of Legends

KeSPA Cup 2019 gets English broadcast after community backlash Syed Mujtaba Naqvi KeSPA Cup 2019 will have an English broadcast after all, LCK caster Max “Atlus” Anderson announced. Just a few days ago, League of Legends fans were disappointed to hear KeSpa Cup 2019, a Korean tournament where the LCK 2020 rosters perform for the first time ahead of the regular season, wouldn’t have an English broadcast. But with the power of the community and the support from Korean teams T1 and Gen.G, …

League of Legends

Goku, Pikachu, other anime characters share voices with LoL champs Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Japanese League of Legends players get to enjoy their favorite anime voice actors voicing in-game champions, featuring actors from Naruto, Dragon Ball, Pokemon, and more. When Riot Games recently announced Sett as the first upcoming champion in 2020, as well as his voice lines across all supported languages, League fans were quick to realise Sett’s voice actor is Takehito Koyasu, who is famous for his work as main antagonist Dio …

League of Legends

Esports Life Tycoon is a surprisingly accurate esports sim Olivia Richman You’ve accidentally starved animals in Zoo Tycoon and you’ve burned your house down in Sims. Now it’s time to create a low-tier esports team in Esports Life Tycoon.  This new game by U-Play Online transforms players into the CEO of an esports team looking to win the League of Heroes championship. Train against other teams. Deal with distractions and arguments before matches. Just remember, the success belongs to your players, …

News

Top talents revealed for Dota 2’s WePlay! Bukovel Minor Steven Rondina WePlay! has revealed the list of broadcast talent for January’s WePlay! Bukovel Minor, and it’s a strong one. The tournament organizer revealed the list of hosts, casters, and analysts for the event, and there are few surprises for Dota 2 fans as the event is largely comprised of familiar names. The Bukovel Minor will bring together some of the most recognizable broadcast talent in the game, as well as some …

Syrson leaves Sprout, likely to join all-German BIG roster M Alzamora Counter-Strike Florian “syrsoN” Rische is no longer affiliated with the Sprout organization or its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The organization announced the news on December 22.  “Goodbye, syrsoN. He has proven himself as an exceptional talent and it was a pleasure having him,” the organization said on Twitter. “We thank you Rische, for the energy and effort you put in the team. Even though we are sure your journey isn’t over yet, …

Fortnite star Ninja announces launch date for Time In Adidas shoes Olivia Richman Fortnite Looking for some kicks to match your Ninja headband? You’re in luck. On December 31, Adidas is launching a line of sneakers in collaboration with Fortnite phenomenon Tyler “Ninja” Blevins.  The old school design sports Ninja’s signature blue and gold color scheme, although in a far more understated way this time around. Ninja’s logo is on the inside of the left shoe, while the right side shoe says “Time In” …

Study tracks differences between pro and casual FPS players Olivia Richman News A recent study of sorts shows how differently a professional FPS player takes in a map when compared to a casual player.  Nikkei recently posted an article that showed how Japan’s best Call of Duty: Modern Warfare player looked at a map versus an amateur player. Equipped with glasses with infrared sensors and cameras, both players’ eye movements were tracked with a red dot. When one of the gamers focused …

Vitality win EPICENTER 2019, defeat Mousesports in finals M Alzamora Counter-Strike The EPICENTER 2019 grand final between Team Vitality and mousesports was close as can be but in the end, the French side came out on top to win their first tournament since June. The veto went predictably, with Inferno, Mirage, and Nuke ending up as the series’ maps. Vitality chose Inferno, a smart counterpick considering mousesports has a mediocre 63% win percentage on the map. In turn, mousesports played to their own …

Sprout eyes AWPer Oskar as syrsoN replacement, report says M Alzamora Counter-Strike German esports organization Sprout is reportedly in talks with ex-mousesports AWPer Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný to join their CSGO roster. The AWPer most recently competed for HellRaisers before being benched in September. He officially split from the organization and became a free agent in October. Per DBLTAP’s Jarek Lewis, oskar is being looked at to potentially fill the AWP role that might be opened up by the departure of Florian “syrsoN” Rische. SyrsoN …

T1 and Gen.G push for 2019 KeSPA Cup English broadcast to return William Davis League of Legends Gen.G and T1 have offered to cover the expenses of the 2019 KeSPA Cup English broadcast. LCK on-air talent, Max “Atlus” Anderson shared on Twitter that the Korea Esports Association decided to cut off the English broadcast and had barred them from restreaming the event. League of Legends fans were quick to react to the news, venting frustration over being denied access to the last competitive event of the year. …

Riot reveals first batch of PCS teams for inaugural season William Davis News Riot Games has revealed nine of the teams that will take part in the inaugural season of the Pacific Championship Series. Earlier this year, Riot Games shared its plans to merge the LMS and the LST to create a new league known as the PCS. The LMS was home to eight teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. The LST brought together teams from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and other …

Vici Gaming win ONE Esports, look like early TI10 favorites Steven Rondina Dota 2 Vici Gaming are the champions of ONE Esports’ inaugural event. The Chinese squad took first place at the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, defeating Evil Geniuses 3-0 in the grand finals. The victory gives Vici Gaming the $200,000 top prize and their fourth prominent live tournament victory of 2019. Game one revolved around Vici Gaming carry Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun. Playing safelane Magnus, he reared back and farmed …

EPICENTER to host fourth major of 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season Steven Rondina Dota 2 Dota 2 fans finally know where each of the five majors will take place during the 2019-2020 season. EPICENTER has announced it will be hosting the second EPICENTER Major in May 2020. The event will be the fourth major of the season and will be held in Moscow, with the finals taking place live at the CSKA Arena from May 8 to 10. The news was revealed by EPICENTER during …

Vitality, mousesports favorites for EPICENTER grand finals M Alzamora Counter-Strike Tomorrow in Moscow, Team Vitality and Heroic will go head to head. This is followed by mousesports taking on Evil Geniuses. Both matches will determine the contestants in the EPICENTER 2019 grand finals. The matchups are intriguing on their own merits. Team Vitality hasn’t played in a tournament since November’s IEM Beijing, placing fourth. In theory, that sounds like a decent result. In reality, beating out TYLOO, ViCi Gaming, and ENCE …

Germany to introduce new esports visa in spring 2020 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Germany is taking big steps to make itself an even greater esports destination. The country is introducing a new esports-focused visa that will allow players and tournament organizers to streamline the process of arranging competitions in the country. Esport-Bund Deutschland shared that the German Federal Government and the States approved the decision of bringing the esports visa to the country on December 21st. The new visa comes after the approval of …

Brehze’s visa issues at EPICENTER shows CSGO schedule problems M Alzamora Counter-Strike Visa issues are nothing new for professional esports, standing as a constant irritation for tournament organizers and organizations alike as they try and keep up with the hectic, global competitive schedule.  But in the span of just two weeks, irritation has given way to absurdity as CSGO has seen major competitors forced to use stand-ins for large tournaments. Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte of Evil Geniuses was forced to miss two matches …

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