News

League of Legends Yassuo joins 100 Thieves as League of Legends content creator By William Davis News Hangzhou Spark defeat Shanghai Dragons at Los Angeles Homestand By Olivia Richman News Shanghai Dragons regret 2-2-2 role lock, pine for meta reversion By Olivia Richman

News

Atlanta Reign take down Dallas Homestand Weekend, next face Boston Olivia Richman The Atlanta Reign defeated  the Dallas Fuel 3-1 at the Los Angeles Valiant’s Homestand Weekend. Now, if the Georgia team can win their Boston Uprising match tomorrow, they’ll secure the 6th-place spot in the playoffs.  Despite a few surprising plays from the Fuel, such as their Pharah-Mei comp, the Atlanta Reign were able to come out on top in almost every team fight. On the first map, Busan, Petja “Massa” …

League of Legends

FC Schalke 04 takes out Team Vitality in 2019 LEC Summer Playoffs William Davis FC Schalke 04 is headed to the second round of the 2019 LEC Summer Playoffs. Schalke took down Team Vitality with a 3-1 series victory. They entered as the favorite to win the match, and lived up to that billing. They still face long odds when it comes to beating the likes of G2 Esports, but this is a team that cannot be underestimated.   Vitality started game one with a …

League of Legends

SK Telecom T1 rolls over Damwon Gaming in LCK playoffs William Davis SK Telecom T1’s victory over Damwon Gaming was a two-for-one deal. The popular organization punched its ticket to the 2019 LCK Summer Finals and the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. What many expected to be a competitive series ended up being a massacre, as SKT ran through Damwon Gaming with little trouble. The squad is looking stronger than ever as it looks to lock up its second consecutive split championship. …

Dota 2

OG wins The International 2019, becomes first repeat TI champion Steven Rondina OG are the champions of The International 2019. The European squad completed its second Cinderella run at the world’s largest Dota 2 tournament, defeating Team Liquid in the event’s grand finals. The victory caps a dominant run at the event and nets the team $15,578,510 from the record-breaking prize pool. OG took the Aegis of Champions with a strong 3-1 victory, overcoming some early adversity before closing out the event in …

News NYXL discuss playoff meta, dealing with 2020 OWL changes By Olivia Richman Dota 2 The International 2020 will take place in Stockholm, Sweden By Steven Rondina Dota 2 OG and Team Liquid set for The International 2019 grand finals By Steven Rondina

News

Team Liquid advances to TI9 grand finals after beating PSG.LGD Steven Rondina The participants for the grand finals of The International 2019 have been decided. In a hardfought three-game series, PSG.LGD was dispatched by Team Liquid. The squad led by Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi will face upper bracket winner OG for the largest prize in esports history. Liquid are now poised to complete one of the most surprising runs in The International history, playing their way to the finals despite starting in the lower bracket. …

League of Legends

CLG reverse sweeps Clutch Gaming in LCS playoffs third-place match William Davis Counter Logic Gaming pulled off an incredible reverse sweep against Clutch Gaming. That locks up a third-place finish for the team in the 2019 LCS Summer Playoffs. Clutch had them against the ropes with two consecutive wins but CLG was able to settle down and win their way out of the tricky spot.   Clutch Gaming took game one in convincing fashion. In pick and bans, CLG took Qiyana in the first round …

League of Legends

TheShy is the only Invictus Gaming player in the LPL All-Pro team William Davis Many believe there is a curse when it comes to the League of Legends World Championship, where the winner is doomed to struggle the following year. That’s likely a superstition, but Invictus Gaming’s season has certainly helped to reinforce this idea. The LPL revealed the 2019 LPL Summer Split All-Pro team and only one player from the defending champions made the cut. Top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok is the lone …

Counter-Strike

Mousesports defeats G2 Esports, advances to Berlin Major Legends Stage William Davis The hyped matchup between G2 Esports and Mousesports turned into one of the best matches of the StarLadder Berlin Major thus far. The match culminated in a fantastic game 3 on Vertigo, which was ultimately won by Mousesports. G2 struck first with a dominant 16-5 victory on Train. Audric “JaCkz” Jug led the way with a total of 24 kills, complemented by Kenny “kennyS” Schrub’s 11 opening kills. While G2 …

CSGO sets new record for average players, breaking 2017 mark William Davis Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has reached its highest number of average players since its release in 2012. August has been a good month for the first-person shooter. The number of average players went over 402,000, a significant increase compared to the 393,000 in the month of July. The previous record was established in February 2017. The number particularly stands out at this time of the year. Historically, CSGO has had a …

Vitality face elimination at Berlin Major with DreamEaters upset Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Despite being regarded as a potential candidate to win the StarLadder Berlin Major, Team Vitality now finds itself on the brink of being eliminated from the Challengers Stage. In one of the opening series of day two, the heavily favored French squad once again found themselves struggling against an unheralded Russian squad. They were narrowly edged out by DreamEaters in a game on Inferno. The game started in awkward fashion …

OG defeat PSG.LGD in TI rematch to qualify for grand finals gabhernandez Dota 2 Once again, the TI8 champions have proved that they can break a TI curse and potentially become the first two-time holders of the Aegis. History repeated itself as OG knocked down PSG.LGD to the lower bracket finals. The best-of-three series was a tight one that came down to the wire. The first game brought much hype, especially for the Chinese Dota 2 fans watching in the arena. Their home team …

Full Overwatch League 2020 schedule revealed, features global events Olivia Richman News Blizzard has revealed the entirety of the 2020 Overwatch League schedule.  Next year is set to be a huge one for the OWL as it will be the first season where the league reaches true global status. After years of being almost exclusively hosted at the Burbank Studios in California, the show is going on the road for events held in the home cities of every franchise. The OWL will …

Overwatch update hits PTR, bringing nerfs to Symmetra and others William Davis News A bundle of nerfs has landed on the Overwatch PTR. The 1.40 patch is now being tested, and it looks to bring the first round of balance changes since 1.39’s implementation of role queue. The update aims to soften some of the strongest heroes in the game right now, but does not offer any real buffs to weaker ones. The biggest change is a significant downgrade to Symmetra’s Photon Projector. …

LEC Summer Playoffs kick off with Rogue upsetting Splyce William Davis League of Legends The 2019 LEC Summer playoffs are off to a surprising start. Despite entering with a young squad, Rogue opened the playoffs with an upset win over Splyce. Out of the five players on the team, only Oskar “Vander” Bogdan has LEC playoffs experience. The rest of the squad is angling for a championship for the first time, but showed no nerves under a brighter spotlight. Rogue is one of the up-and-coming teams …

Team Liquid advance to TI9 top three, eliminate Team Secret Steven Rondina Dota 2 Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi seems to have Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s number. In the lower bracket semifinals of The International 2019, Team Liquid eliminated Team Secret 2-0 in quick fashion. It is the third year in a row that Secret has been eliminated from TI by Liquid. Game one was a signature performance from KuroKy. The Liquid captain helped his team win The International 2017 with crafty drafts that were defined by …

Team Secret run over Vici Gaming, move to TI9 lower semifinals Steven Rondina Dota 2 Team Secret have finally hit their stride. Facing Vici Gaming in the lower bracket, the two-time major winners scored one of the most lopsided series wins of The International 2019 to this point. Though Vici Gaming was held up as one of the favorites to win the tournament, Secret steamrolled them for a 2-0 victory. Secret took a page out of OG’s book in game one, putting carry player Michał …

Void Spirit is the new Dota 2 hero at The International 2019 Jared Wynne Dota 2 Another new Dota 2 hero is premiered at the biggest esports tournament of the year. Dota 2 developer Valve showed off the second of two new heroes making their debut at this year’s edition of The International. This latest hero is named Void Spirit, and he brings with him clear links to a few existing heroes already in the game. Three spirit heroes have long been present in Dota 2: …

G2 Esports starts strong at StarLadder Berlin Major, goes 2-0 Steven Rondina Counter-Strike G2 Esports is off to a strong start at the StarLadder Berlin Major. The enduring French squad ended day one of the Challengers Stage with a 2-0 record. The team scored impressive victories over TYLOO and DreamEaters. G2 started its day with a big showing versus TYLOO. The Chinese squad played a solid all-around game but were consistently flustered by heroics from the individual members of G2. After ceding a …

OG vs. PSG.LGD set for The International 2019 upper bracket finals gabhernandez Dota 2 PSG.LGD has a chance for revenge at The International 2019. Shanghai’s favorite team scored a 2-0 victory over Chinese rival Vici Gaming. The win sets PSG.LGD up with a spot in the upper bracket finals. Vici Gaming started the best-of-three series with an early aggression that quickly translated to three kills. PSG.LGD avoided early team fights as best they could from there, looking to make space for Wang “Ame” Chunyu …

North out to 2-0 Berlin Major start after big opening day wins William Davis Counter-Strike We’re only one day into the Starladder Berlin Major 2019, and North have already made a serious statement to the rest of the field.  The Danish North squad managed a slight upset of INTZ on Train by a dominant score of 16-5, then squeaked by Syman 16-14 in another game on Train. The moral of the story may be to ban train against North, though it’s still very early into …

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