News

News Leaks hint new K/DA songs Gold and GAME/OVER arriving in November By William Davis League of Legends Louis Vuitton producing LoL skins, case for Summoner’s Cup at Worlds By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Epic Games paid over $10 million for Control exclusivity By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

Fortnite

Fortnite celebrates Batman’s 80th birthday with event, new skins Fariha Bhatti In honor of the character’s 80th birthday, Epic Games is treating fans to a massive Batman event in Fortnite. Players looking to visit Tilted Towers between now and October 6 will instead land in Gotham City. A familiar location for fans of the movies, games, and comics alike, those fond of the Caped Crusader will feel a sense of familiarity in the new cityscape. The area has a darker look …

Counter-Strike

Broky joins FaZe for ESL New York after GuardiaN returns to Na’Vi Steven Rondina FaZe Clan continues to rebuild following its disappointing showing at the StarLadder Berlin Major. According to a report by Polish esports outlet Cyber Sport, the organization is adding Helvijs “broky” Saukants to the lineup as a stand-in for ESL One New York. Per various reports, he is likely to serve as the team’s in-game leader following the departure of Filip “NEO” Kubski from the team. This also follows the official …

Counter-Strike

HellRaisers reveal new roster, announce return to CIS region Syed Mujtaba Naqvi HellRaisers has revealed its new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster and announced its plans to transition from the European scene back to the CIS region. The team will retain the services of in-game leader Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow, and the recently added Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas. The rest of its previous team has been deactivated and are now available for transfer. The Ukranian organization shared the news on its official website. CEO Alex …

Dota 2

Toxic Dota 2 players hit with 19-year ban in new update ban wave gabhernandez Valve has brought down the ban hammer in Dota 2. In a recent blog post, Valve detailed a number of matchmaking updates for the next ranked season. These changes range from increased MMR symmetry based on role, to how MMR shifts based on wins and losses. Included in that was a massive wave of bans for bad actors including toxic players, cheaters, and account sellers. Most of the players banned …

League of Legends Alien Invader Heimerdinger is back thanks to Area 51 gathering By Olivia Richman News Bloody Harvest event coming to Borderlands 3 for Halloween By Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot planning LoL 10th anniversary celebration in London By gabhernandez

Counter-Strike

War Owl briefly loses his YouTube verification William Davis Popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive YouTuber and steamer War Owl briefly lost his YouTube verification. He confirmed the news in a statement on Twitter and opened up on what had happened. “I lost channel verification on YouTube. Be careful of people impersonating me asking for skins/money or advertising gambling (which currently happens on Twitter and Steam) not sure why this happened, I get impersonated all the time,” wrote War Owl on …

Fortnite

TSM Fortnite streamer Daequan shares personal struggles on video William Davis Team SoloMid Fortnite streamer Daequan “Daequan” Loco posted a video explaining his absence from Twitch. The content creator has become significantly less active on social media than he previously was, and detailed why in a 20-minute-long video on YouTube. The reasons are unfortunately numerous. He opened up that in the past couple of months, he had lost family members to illness as well as some friends to gun violence. Unfortunately, his real-life …

Counter-Strike

Everything we know about the upcoming Cache update in CSGO Steven Rondina After over a year of waiting, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fans are finally going to get a look at the update to popular map Cache. It has been a long and arduous process, with the update going from a few minor tweaks to something much larger. Fans were initially teased with screen grabs of small changes which eventually gave way to videos of major overhauls. As time went on, the existing …

League of Legends

The LCK is looking for a new broadcaster to replace PapaSmithy William Davis Korea’s prime League of Legends competition, the LCK, is looking for a color commentator for its English broadcast. On August 31, Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith announced that he would be exiting the LCK. The announcement took the community by surprise. PapaSmithy is a respected caster and analyst in the League of Legends community and the face of the LCK’s English broadcast. Now, the league is looking for someone that could fill …

LoL PBE 9.18 changes buff Akali, revert Sylas and Cassiopeia Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends The League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) servers have received an update featuring balance changes, new icons, and visual improvements. Riot Games is preparing for the 2019 World Championship and is testing out balance changes that will shuffle and set the tournament’s meta. With the latest update to the game’s PBE servers come changes to Akali, Cassiopeia, and Sylas, as well as three new summoner icons, improvements to the …

UNiVeRsE, ppd reunite at Ninjas in Pyjamas in new Dota 2 season Steven Rondina Dota 2 Ninjas in Pyjamas is sticking around in Dota 2 for the 2018-2019 season, but they’re performing a reboot of their roster. Peter “ppd” Dager will remain under contract with the organization and will captain the new team comprised of Oliver “Skiter” Lepko, Nico “Gunnar” Lopez, Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora, and Malthe “Biver” Winther. The reveal was made on the organization’s official website. “One year ago, our organization re-entered DotA 2 with …

Clutch, Splyce among teams in LoL Worlds 2019 play-in stage William Davis News The 2019 LoL World Championship is right around the corner. The best teams in the world are ready to fight for the most important title in competitive League of Legends. It all starts with the play-in stage, where 12 teams will compete for one of the four spots available in the main event. The teams come from emerging and major regions alike. For the first time, the LCK’s third seed …

Is the Overwatch player count going down in 2019? Olivia Richman News Despite players wanting to know more, Blizzard has yet to release the stats behind the number of people still playing Overwatch.  The most recent figure was “over 40 million monthly players,” which was solely based on the number of copies sold. This number didn’t satisfy curious Overwatch fans, who pointed out that this statement doesn’t take many factors into account.  Many Overwatch followers and critics alike often say the game …

CSGO update adds new options for practicing grenade throws Steven Rondina Counter-Strike An incredibly helpful new practice feature has been added in the latest update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Three new console commands have been added to the game, designed to help players practice some of CSGO’s trickier grenade throws. The commands cannot be used in casual or competitive matchmaking, but should greatly speed up the process of experimenting with smoke, flash, and molotov placements. The first command is cl_grenadepreview, which gives …

Midas Mode 2.0 reunites classic Na’Vi, Alliance rosters, brings in OG Steven Rondina Dota 2 Midas Mode 2.0 has an incredibly interesting lineup of teams to go alongside its unique ruleset. Moonduck has released the full list of teams competing at the event through Hotspawn.com and it has a surprising mix of established teams alongside novelty stacks put together for the event. There is a lot to look forward to from both, however. The most noteworthy team competing is OG. The two-time The International champions …

Intel World Open brings esports to Tokyo before 2020 Olympics Olivia Richman News There will be an esports tournament in Tokyo leading up to the 2020 Olympics.  Tech giant Intel has announced that it will be hosting competitions, one for Street Fighter V and another for Rocket League. Both will have a $250,000 prize pools.  In the spirit of the Olympics, 12 nations will be represented in the events. The tournament’s open qualifiers will kick off early next year, followed by national qualifiers …

xQc has no pity for artists banned from Twitch for NSFW drawings Olivia Richman News Not everyone is sympathetic to the artists who were recently banned from Twitch for their suggestive drawings.  Twitch personality and former Overwatch pro player Felix “xQc” didn’t have kind words for the artists facing suspensions from the streaming platform. In a Just Chatting stream on September 18, xQc seemed annoyed at the artists’ confusion over the bans.  “No shit, dude! They say, ‘Oh, I only drew 2D titties. There’s 3D …

Dota Summit 11 minor to kick off new Dota 2 2019-20 DPC season Steven Rondina Dota 2 Dota 2 fans now know where the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season will begin. Dota Summit 11 will serve as the first minor of the new season. The event is scheduled for November 7-10 in Los Angeles, California and will have $300,000 and 660 Dota Pro Circuit points up for grabs. “The new DPC season will begin at Dota Summit 11,” Beyond the Summit announced on Twitter. “This Minor marks …

Amouranth becomes fastest growing Twitch channel after NSFW slip Olivia Richman News What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That’s at least true for Twitch streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa. The controversial streamer became the fastest growing channel on Twitch after she received a three-day ban for accidentally exposing herself on a live stream.  Upon her return, Amouranth experienced a 50% increase in followers, gaining 410,568 followers in just seven days. This puts the streamer at 1,489,177 followers, and that’s a follower count that makes …

Greekgodx banned from Twitch for transphobic rant, gives apology Olivia Richman News UK Twitch streamer Dimitri “Greekgodx” Antonatos has a lot of followers and a lot of opinions. And Twitch doesn’t seem to like all of them.  Greekgodx has amassed more than 900,000 followers by streaming Grand Theft Auto V, Fortnite, and League of Legends. But it was an IRL stream that got Greekgodx banned from the platform.  The streamer made a joke about SoundCloud’s gender options that appeared to go against …

How to earn Overwatch League Grand Finals exclusive rewards Olivia Richman News The Overwatch League Grand Finals will see the San Francisco Shock face the Vancouver Titans for the Season 2 championship title.  While the intense action between the two equally skilled teams will be satisfying enough for Overwatch League viewers, Blizzard has announced that fans will also get Grand Finals exclusive rewards for watching the action on Twitch.  Viewers who tune in for an hour will receive the in-game “Tailgate” spray, …

WIN.gg gathers news and guides from around the world covering every point of the modern gaming industry in all of its many forms.