News

Counter-Strike BLAST Global Finals part of problematic Middle East esports push By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Astralis once again defeat Team Liquid, win ECS Season 8 Finals By M Alzamora News Trainwrecks reveals why he turned down $1.2 million streaming deal By Olivia Richman

Counter-Strike

Astralis Group planning to go public, aiming for $22 million IPO M Alzamora The Astralis Group has announced its plans to take the company public. The Astralis Group, which owns League of Legends team Origen, FIFA’s Future FC, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Astralis, revealed plans to take the company public just months after its split from RFRSH Entertainment. The move marks the first time that an organization intimately involved in the management and ownership of esports teams has gone public.  Astralis is currently the …

League of Legends

League of Legends voice packs may be coming in the future Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Riot Games might be considering adding a voice pack feature to League of Legends. League of Legends product manager Ken Adams asked players over Twitter what they might envision for voice packs of their favorite champions in League, sparking an uptick in discussion on the topic. Most responders shared they would love to have champion announcer packs that only they can hear, which Ken commented “would be pretty cool”. He did, …

League of Legends

Cloud9 confirms Blaber as team’s starting jungler for 2020 William Davis Cloud9 has completed its roster for 2020 with Robert “Blaber” Huang on the starting roster. After months of speculation, C9 has officially announced Blaber as the starting jungler for the upcoming season. Blaber joined C9 Academy back in 2017 as a substitute jungler. His talent earned him a starting spot with C9 Academy and occasional appearances with the main roster in the LCS. Blaber is considered one of the most …

Fortnite

Benjyfishy exposes DreamHack Winter cheaters, leads to DQ Olivia Richman Fortnite pro Benjy “Benjyfishy” Fish caught two competitors cheating at DreamHack Winter.  While watching VODs of the $250,000 tournament, Benjyfishy came across two players he found to be acting rather sketchy. Shadoxxx and Stele98 appeared to be working together in the Solo tournament, which would be considered collusion.  Benjyfishy decided to expose the alleged cheaters on Twitter, showing a clip of them both working together to eliminate Luminosity Gaming’s Dino …

News Element Mystic to join the LCK in the upcoming 2020 season By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Counter-Strike Liquid beat Fnatic at ECS Final, set finals date with Astralis By M Alzamora League of Legends LoL All-Star Event 2019 participants, schedule announced By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

League of Legends

Former SKT support Wolf retires, discusses mental health issues Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Veteran League of Legends support player Lee “Wolf” Jae-wa has announced his retirement from competitive play after eight years in the scene. Wolf confirmed his retirement on Twitter soon after Inven Global published an exclusive interview. He shared he has been struggling with mental illnesses and doesn’t feel like he can continue to be a pro player. In the interview, Wolf shared that he’s been suffering from a number of …

League of Legends

Everything you need to know about the Diana rework in LoL Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Diana is receiving visual and gameplay reworks in an upcoming League of Legends patch. She’s the next on the list of champions whose ability sets need to be freshened up to be a more viable pick in the larger champion pool. Since her release during Season 2, Diana hasn’t received many changes. She’s played as a combination of an assassin and an AP bruiser. But with the rework Riot Games …

Dota 2

Team Secret, Nigma advance in DreamLeague Season 13 qualifiers Steven Rondina After a stunning upset in the Chinese open qualifiers for the DreamLeague Season 13 major, things went according to plan in Europe. Team Secret and Nigma have navigated their way through the open qualifiers. While this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, it comes a day after The International 2019 third-place team PSG.LGD found its own journey to the major come to a swift end. Team Secret had a …

News

Fissure was fined for leaking confidential OWL information Olivia Richman It has been revealed that Vancouver Titans tank Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung had to pay Blizzard a $3,000 fine for leaking the 2-2-2 role lock rule change in Season 2.  Before Stage 4, Fissure retired from the Overwatch League, leaving Seoul Dynasty for undisclosed reasons. He decided to share some juicy OWL details on his June 26 stream since he was retired anyway.  “Next stage, four, 2-2-2 role lock confirmed,” Fissure …

Fnatic shows off Hello Kitty crossover jerseys at ECS Finals M Alzamora Counter-Strike Fnatic fans got a good look at the new “Fnatic X Hello Kitty” crossover merchandise during the team’s matches at the Counter-Strike:Global Offensive ECS Season 8 Finals. For the first time, Fnatic’s CSGO team showed off their limited edition Hello Kitty-branded jerseys during their match on November 28 against MIBR. Sporting the beloved Hello Kitty character, the Fnatic jerseys drew even more attention to a team that has returned to form in …

Faker appointed as Shanghai-Seoul Esports Ambassador Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has been titled as the Shanghai-Seoul esports ambassador by Shanghai Esports Association on November 29, his League of Legends team T1 announced on Twitter. This is only one of many achievements Faker has reached during his career as a professional League of Legends player. He has been a part of SK Telecom T1, now rebranded as T1, since the start of his competitive career, and has won …

Splyce rebrand to MAD Lions, introduce new roster for LEC Spring Olivia Richman League of Legends There’s a new team coming to the LEC in 2020.  Splyce has officially rebranded to MAD Lions, making the announcement earlier today. This comes with a brand new logo and an entirely new roster. Despite making it through the LEC gauntlet and qualifying for Worlds, Splyce’s squad disbanded. The organization is now coming back with a roster full of rookies.  Mid laner Marek “Humanoid” Brazda will be joined by 18-year-old jungler …

Doublelift praises TL Broxah, plans to attend All-Stars as guest William Davis League of Legends Team Liquid’s bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng is warming up to the idea of having Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pederse as a teammate. The player recently posted a vlog on his personal YouTube channel where he praised Broxah’s maturity, competitive spirit, and mechanical skills. “I’m really excited to play with this guy. He is so mature for 22, I will tell you I’m still a little bit dumb, but this guy is …

T1 comes up short in DreamLeague Season 13 Open qualifiers Steven Rondina Dota 2 T1 looked a lot better in the DreamLeague Season 13 open qualifiers than it had in prior events. But it still wasn’t good enough to make it to the major. The Dota 2 division of the fabled esports organization debuted its new roster in a bid to qualify for the second major of the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season. Though it was a marked improvement from the team’s disastrous first …

OG is not competing at DreamLeague Season 13 Dota 2 major gabhernandez Dota 2 The back-to-back Dota 2 International Champions will remain on hiatus. Earlier this week, OG announced its plans to launch a separate sister team, OG Seed. The reveal was initially teased in  a short video featuring captain Johan “N0tail” Sundstein and coach Titouan “Sockshka” Merloz.  The short skit brought laughs to fans when Sockshka slammed a stack of paper with an “Ana + IO = Aegis” drawing. When OG Seed was …

PSG.LGD wipe out in DreamLeague Season 13 open qualifiers gabhernandez Dota 2 The Dota 2 world was stunned on Thursday as Chinese juggernaut PSG.LGD was swiftly eliminated from the open qualifiers of the DreamLeague Season 13 major by For the Dream sister team FTD.Apollo.  The huge upset happened in a best-of-one game and completely kills off the organization’s chances of competing in the second major of the season.  The game began with FTD.Apollo opting for a tri lane bottom to babysit its …

Goldenglue might be only North American mid laner in the LCS Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Golden Guardians’ new mid laner Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer might be the only North American-born mid laner competing in the 2020 League of Legends Championship Series. With most teams slowly finalizing their rosters for the upcoming season, mid laners getting signed to the North American league are coming from Europe, South Korea, and even Australia. Some teams, including Evil Geniuses and Dignitas, still haven’t announced their mid laners, so it’s possible …

s1mple banned from Twitch for homophobic language, again Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has been banned from Twitch again. The Natus Vincere star is being forced to take a break from streaming on Twitch due to his use of homophobic slurs. It is unknown how long the ban is for, but his previous ban for the same infraction was for one week. As is protocol on Twitch, s1mple’s channel has been removed, which makes it impossible to clip the moment …

Winstrike Team reveals new logo and promising new Dota 2 roster Olivia Richman Dota 2 Winstrike Team announced a new logo and a new Dota 2 roster earlier today.  The Russian Dota 2 team’s reveal was met with overwhelming support. Standing for exploration and bravery, the team embraced a rocket as their new logo. Their roster reveal video showcased old footage of Russian space travel between images of the new squad with fresh merch, which made for quite the entrance.  “We fly to win! Launch …

Astralis almost devoured by Sharks Esports on ECS S8 Day One M Alzamora Counter-Strike Astralis almost dropped their opening match against Sharks Esports at the ECS Season 8 Finals, with the Brazillian team taking the fight to Astralis better than anyone had thought possible. Despite taking the first pistol round, the number one team in the world gave up seven rounds on the favored side of Nuke to a team barely anyone had heard of just a year ago. Casters and fans alike were …

Dota 2 patch 7.23a shakes up Outlanders Update gabhernandez Dota 2 A day after its release, The Outlanders Update received another set of significant buffs and nerfs. In 7.23a, Valve has heavily shaken up the Neutral Item drop system. Neutrals now only drop three items per tier. The odds were also rescaled to 10% to 5% to 2.5%, to 9% to 6% to 3%.  Item drops will also have no end period and higher tier items will always roll first after …

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