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WIN.gg gathers news and guides from around the world covering every point of the modern gaming industry in all of its many forms.
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Gamers for Freedom organizing BlizzCon protest to support Hong Kong
Olivia Richman
When you enter the GamersForFreedom website, the first thing you see are masked protesters holding up American flags in solidarity with the Hong Kong protesters. Scroll down a little, and you’ll see a paragraph that ends with the statement “support free speech for gamers in America, Hong Kong, China, and everywhere else we play.” While the protests in Hong Kong have been going on for months now, the gaming community …
League of Legends
Riot hints at preseason changes leading up to LoL Season 10
gabhernandez
With the ninth season of League of Legends coming to a close, developer Riot Games is teasing the upcoming gameplay changes for the preseason period prior to Season 10. Included is a focus on creating more environmental variety and an increase in detailed gameplay interactions with and around the map. Riot explained that League of Legends’ greatest strengths are variety and mastery. Variety being the expansive selection of champions and …
Fortnite
Fortnite seemingly shut down by Epic Games to end Season X
Nina Forneloza
Fortnite, the battle royale game that has become a worldwide phenomenon, is gone. At least for a little while. For the past few days, many Fortnite content creators have been sharing their thoughts on what the season 11 kickoff event would be. Though previous season-ending events were built up for weeks to a somewhat predictable conclusion, the only hint fans received on Fortnite Season X’s end was an ominous tweet …
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” …
News
Linguist believes Chinese authors wrote Blizzard HK statement
Olivia Richman
Blizzard’s president J. Allen Brack released a statement regarding the company’s decision to ban Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung from their Heartstone tournaments and take back his winnings after the player made a political statement in favor of Hong Kong’s liberation. But not everyone appreciated the sentiment. In fact, some are even saying it’s not written by Brack at all, but is instead written by Chinese authors. A linguist and esports graphic designer …
League of Legends
Riot clarifies stance on political statements ahead of Worlds 2019
Nina Forneloza
John Needham, the global head of League of Legends esports, has released an announcement about political statements made during League of Legends broadcasts. The biggest League of Legends tournament of the year has just gotten underway. The 2019 League of Legends World Championship kicked off with two former world champions facing off as Fnatic fell to SK Telecom T1. Needham’s statement addressed the start of Worlds, saying he wanted to …
League of Legends
The most common 2019 LoL Worlds Pick’Em predictions revealed
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
With the LoL Worlds 2019 Main Event underway, the group stage Pick’em predictions are now locked. Reddit user u/LoLNamesGG shared some interesting statistics regarding this, revealing the most common setups players have for each of the four groups. Over 420,000 Pick’em predictions were analyzed, which showed that fans are favoring G2 Esports, FunPlus Phoenix, SK Telecom T1, and Invictus Gaming to come out on top of their respective groups. Group A has a strong favorite in G2, …
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 …
J Team gets huge upset win over FunPlus Phoenix in LoL Worlds 2019
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
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 …
Blizzard reduces blitzchung punishment, denies China influence
Nina Forneloza
News
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 …
Doublelift gets first quadra kill at Worlds 2019, Liquid beats Damwon
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
WIN.gg gathers news and guides from around the world covering every point of the modern gaming industry in all of its many forms.