News

News Gamers for Freedom organizing BlizzCon protest to support Hong Kong By Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot hints at preseason changes leading up to LoL Season 10 By gabhernandez Fortnite Fortnite seemingly shut down by Epic Games to end Season X By Nina Forneloza

League of Legends

G2 Esports starts LoL Worlds 2019 run by crushing Griffin William Davis G2 Esports looked exceptional in its 2019 League of Legends World Championship debut. The 2019 Mid-Season Invitational champion struck again by completely dominating Griffin to kick things off for Group A. On paper, the match between the up-and-coming talent from the LCK and the experienced European juggernaut should have been a close one. In reality, G2 smashed Griffin in a game that was one-sided.   In the early game, Lee “Tarzan” …

League of Legends

Rookie slays Team Liquid at LoL Worlds 2019, IG starts 2-0 William Davis Invictus Gaming got its revenge on Team Liquid at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship thanks to an outstanding performance by Song “Rookie” Eui-jin.  Invictus Gaming and Team Liquid previously met at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational. At the time, Team Liquid knocked IG out of the competition in the semifinals. That loss kicked off a rocky summer season for Invictus Gaming, but the reigning World Champion seems to be back …

League of Legends

Faker backdoors SKT to victory over RNG at LoL Worlds 2019 William Davis Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok guided SK Telecom T1 to victory against Royal Never Give Up with a surprising backdoor play. The team remains undefeated at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The LCK champion is dominating the competition in its return to the international stage. SKT is making a case for themselves as the favorites to win the tournament. In the group stage, the team continues to dominate the competition with an …

Dota 2

EternaLEnVy banned for toxic behavior, pleasing many Dota 2 fans Olivia Richman The latest victim of Dota 2’s new, more aggressive banning system is pro player Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao.  The controversial Canadian Dota 2 player had one of his accounts banned after months of poor behavior, thanks to “excessive reports, failing to ready-up, and abandoning.” This offense has led to a six-month ban for EternaLEnVy.  He saw the message appear on-screen shortly after exiting a ranked game and seemed inexplicably stunned by the news. “What?” …

News Linguist believes Chinese authors wrote Blizzard HK statement By Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot clarifies stance on political statements ahead of Worlds 2019 By Nina Forneloza League of Legends The most common 2019 LoL Worlds Pick’Em predictions revealed By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

News

Hearthstone caster quits over Blizzard’s ban of pro-Hong Kong player Nina Forneloza Activision Blizzard has lost one of its most well-known American casters. Hearthstone caster Nathan “Admirable” Zamora is leaving the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament behind over the recent controversy surrounding Blizzard. In a statement posted on Twitter, Admirable confirmed that he is not only stepping away from the Grandmasters season, but will also not be attending the Masters Tour in Bucharest or Blizzcon. “This is my passion. This pursuit has been my …

League of Legends

J Team gets huge upset win over FunPlus Phoenix in LoL Worlds 2019 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Surprises were expected in the 2019 League of Legends Worlds Championship but even so, this is a bit of a shock. The LMS’s J Team took a win against Group B favorites and LPL first seed FunPlus Phoenix, and in dominant fashion. JT began pressuring FPX’s lanes early in the game, but FPX knew how to respond. They drew first blood and rotated to take the first Dragon. The early game continued with …

News

Blizzard reduces blitzchung punishment, denies China influence Nina Forneloza Blizzard has officially returned Chung “blitzchung” Ng Wai’s prize money and reduced his professional ban to six months instead of one year. The company also announced a reduced ban for the commentators from the event. Blitzchung was punished for his post-game interview comments in support of the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Since then, Blizzard employees have staged walkouts while members of the gaming and esports communities have released …

League of Legends

Doublelift gets first quadra kill at Worlds 2019, Liquid beats Damwon William Davis Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng got the first quadra kill of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Doublelift and Team Liquid won their first match at Worlds in style, at the expense of Damwon Gaming. Group D is probably the most competitive group at Worlds, as all four teams have a realistic chance of advancing to the next stage. That showed earlier in the day as ahq e-Sports Club proved that they can …

Riot tries to explain hesitance to name Hong Kong Attitude at Worlds William Davis League of Legends Riot Games is attempting to distance themselves from controversy as the company explains their reasoning for seemingly censoring casters from using the phrase “Hong Kong.” Worlds 2019 casters seem to be avoiding referring to the pro team Hong Kong Attitude by their full title and instead are using their abbreviation HKA. Some in the LoL community believe this is because Riot Games is owned by Tencent. Tencent is a Chinese …

Faker debuts at LoL Worlds 2019 with perfect KDA, SKT beats Fnatic William Davis League of Legends The unkillable demon king is back! Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok debuted at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship with a perfect KDA. SK Telecom T1 started its World Championship run with a dominant victory over Fnatic. During the broadcast, the analysts predicted that Fnatic would take the game considering how little time SKT had to prepare in the European server. They didn’t anticipate the power of the three-time world champion …

cajunb returns to Danish side North as valde is rumored for OG Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Counter-Strike Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team North has signed René “cajunb” Borg to replace Valdemar “valde” Vangså as the latter player is now benched. North has announced that cajunb, who played for the team’s original roster in 2017, is coming back to the team after he split paths with them in February of last year. While away from North, cajunb represented OpTic Gaming and later Cloud9 for a short period of time. …

LoL Worlds 2019 main event groups schedule, highlight matches William Davis League of Legends The 2019 League of Legends World Championship is hours away. The biggest League of Legends competition of the year is set to start on October 12 with the main event group stage. Fnatic and SK Telecom T1 will be responsible for kicking off the tournament, followed by a clash Royal Never Give Up and Clutch Gaming. The group stage is a double round-robin that will run from October 12 through October …

OpTic Gaming CSGO squad announces disbanding, free agency Olivia Richman Counter-Strike While the Immortals Gaming Club buyout was a boon for OpTic Gaming’s League of Legends team, it spelled the end of an era for the organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster.  OpTic Gaming’s former CSGO squad had been released earlier this year to avoid conflict, since Immortals already owned their own CSGO team, MIBR. They had been looking for a new organization since then, but their tournament results held them back …

Kripparrian issues statement on Blizzard’s Hong Kong censorship Nina Forneloza News Octavian “Kripparrian” Morosan, a long-time Twitch streamer with 1.3 million followers, has released a statement regarding Blizzard’s punishment of a professional Hearthstone player for protest related to Hong Kong. Chung Ng Wai, whose in-game name is Blitzchung, vocalized his support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in a recent post-game interview. As a result he was banned, removed from Season 2 of Hearthstone’s Grandmasters series, and forced to forfeit any …

UK opens first clinic for children addicted to video games Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News The United Kingdom’s National Health Service launched a clinic for tackling video game addiction at London’s National Centre for Behavioural Addictions. While not everyone agrees on the nature and validity of it, video game addiction has been acknowledged in some mental health spaces. Once an individual’s passion for gaming starts negatively impacting their day-to-day life and manifesting as a potential psychiatric disorder, potentially triggering depression or compulsive behaviors, playing games …

Kaci Aitchison joins Valve in full-time role, looks forward to TI10 Nina Forneloza Dota 2 Kaci Aitchison, who has been an interviewer and host for Dota 2’s The International, for the past seven years, announced she’s been hired full-time by Valve. Aitchison revealed the news on her Twitter account. “After seven years of working events for one of my favorite companies, this month I officially joined Valve full-time!” Aitchison said. “Maybe that favorite company will work out next time. Just kidding, it’s this one. Lots …

Cache designers hope for a less T-sided map with new open design Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map Cache has been updated to allow for more creative plays, while at the same time not getting changed too much from the map players learned to love over the years. Lots of details, time, and effort went into the redesign process. Cache level designers Sal “Volcano” Garozzo and Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling worked on the redesign of Cache for about one year. The two worked on new …

Are Asian teams dominating practice ahead of LoL Worlds main event? William Davis League of Legends The 2019 League of Legends World Championship main event is right around the corner and the teams are getting ready to represent their regions. Asian teams in particular are shining ahead of the event. According to G2 Esports’ jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, the Asian teams are stronger than they anticipated. Team Liquid’s bottom laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng echoed his sentiment, saying that those teams are in another level. The play-in stage …

Blizzard demands Dallas Fuel coach delete Hong Kong tweet Olivia Richman News Blizzard demanded Dallas Fuel assistant coach Justin “Jayne” Conroy delete a tweet in which he supported Hong Kong’s protest.  The now-deleted tweet noted that Blizzard had the right to enforce its rules, although he didn’t agree with the video game developer’s level of censorship “and severity of consequences.”  Ironically, Jayne was told he must remove the very tweet that called Blizzard out on their censorship. It’s this continued censorship that …

Infamous and NoPing play rare repeat drafts in the same series gabhernandez Dota 2 Infamous and NoPing Esports had a match worthy of memes when both teams picked and banned the same heroes in each game of their best-of-two series. In the MDL Chengdu Major South America Qualifier, Infamous and NoPing Esports showcased an entertaining qualifier series not by picking unique or eccentric heroes, but by drafting the exact same heroes and ending both games with a different result. It just strengthens the notion …

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