News

News Chengdu Hunters produce first Mercy MVP of OWL Season 2 By Olivia Richman League of Legends Teamfight Tactics patch 9.16 to add four new champions, Hextech By William Davis Counter-Strike Major CS:GO patch includes update to Vertigo, two new maps By Steven Rondina

League of Legends

LoL Patch 9.15 brings buffs, PROJECT skins, and a legacy cursor scare William Davis League of Legends Patch 9.15 is now live! While the previous update changed the meta and introduced new mechanics, 9.15 is taking it slow and keeping it simple. Riot Games said that Patch 9.14 would be the last major update before the professional leagues’ playoffs and they seem to be following through on that promise.   A number of champions received tweaks but the changes to Galio, Leblanc, Lee Sin, …

Counter-Strike

CSGO players report matchmaking issues, overnight rank resets Nina Forneloza Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has some serious matchmaking issues. Fans have been reporting brutally long queue times in competitive matchmaking, with some waiting over 20 minutes to get into a standard game. The issue appears to have affected players all over the world, suggesting it’s not specific to any one region. There have also been multiple reports of ranks being reset overnight. Users suggest the problem is exclusive to competitive mode. …

Counter-Strike

Astralis, Origen splitting off from parent company RFRSH Entertainment Syed Mujtaba Naqvi RFRSH Entertainment has sold its competitive branch to a newly formed Danish organization. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Astralis and League of Legends LEC franchise Origen are splitting off from RFRSH starting next week. Their new parent company, known as Astralis Group ApS, is an investor group comprised of individuals from the Danish sports and business worlds. Financial terms were not disclosed but Danish outlet TV 2 Sport reported the deal …

Fortnite

Tfue blames Fortnite World Cup audio for his lack of eliminations Olivia Richman Many were shocked by the poor Fortnite World Cup Solo Finals performance of Turner “Tfue” Tenney. The FaZe Clan player was able to consistently start in his prefered zone, The Block, but placed 67th after only scoring seven points.  But now Tfue is saying that he wasn’t completely at fault for that forgettable showing. Speaking on Twitch, he discussed missing at least one opportunity to kill another player due to …

Dota 2 Midas Mode receives EG bid to eliminate cliffs, Secret chimes in By gabhernandez League of Legends Teamfight Tactics Patch 9.15 brings big nerfs to demons, void rework By William Davis League of Legends Riot Games taking steps to improve LoL’s competitive integrity By William Davis

League of Legends

FlyQuest head coach on missing playoffs, preparing for gauntlet Olivia Richman FlyQuest may not be living up to fan expectations with their current 5-11 record. Their ninth place position seems like a step down from their fourth-place finish in the LCS Spring Split. This time, they won’t even make it to the LCS Summer Split playoffs. But head coach Gabriel “Invert” Zedoltan-Johan isn’t too worried about that. Right now, FlyQuest has their eyes on the gauntlet. WIN.gg sat down with Invert …

Fortnite

Fortnite World Cup winner Bugha talks esports with Jimmy Fallon Olivia Richman Following in the footsteps of famous actors, politicians, and singers, Fortnite World Cup Solo winner Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf went on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to discuss the event and his sudden rise to celebrity. The 16-year-old millionaire represented esports well on camera.  Fallon started out the night by placing the apparently heavy championship trophy on his desk. He asked Bugha what he plans to do with the trophy, and the …

Counter-Strike

CSGO fans call on Valve for crowdfunded majors like TI9 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi The Dota 2 community has turned The International 2019 into the biggest esports event in history. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s community wishes it had the chance to do the same. Valve is the publisher of both Dota 2 and CSGO, but while the pro community of the former title gets to reap the benefits of a $31 million tournament inflated by crowdfunding through a seasonal battle pass, CSGO has never seen …

Counter-Strike

StarLadder Berlin Major team lineup set after third-place play-in Steven Rondina The field for the StarLadder Berlin Major is now set. The Third-Place Play-In for the event has wrapped up with North, HellRaisers, and INTZ Esports rounding out the field of challengers, with MVP.PK falling short of qualifying. The former three join the previous field of qualifier winners, which includes top squads such as Furia Esports, NRG Esports, and Mousesports, as well as regional staples such as TyLoo and ForZe. Though …

Chengdu Hunters announce signing of hot prospect and OWWC star Leave gabhernandez News The Chengdu Hunters are making plans for the future. The team announced the addition of Huang “leave” Xin as a “contracted talent.” He will not be joining as a member of their Overwatch League roster due to age restrictions but the team indicated that it is aiming to remedy that following the season two finals. “To clarify for our fans, Leave is not yet eligible to sign an OWL player …

Riot Games looking to fix high-level LoL matchmaking troubles William Davis League of Legends The woes of top League of Legends players might be coming to an end. After months of complaints, Riot Games is finally giving some answers regarding the matchmaking problems at high ranks. Jonathan “RiotIAmWalrus” Moormann, designer at Riot Games, shared the news on his personal Twitter account. “We’ve heard concerns about matchmaking at high ranks, and we’re testing out some changes that would get closer matches with longer queue times,” …

Fortnite World Cup attracts over 2 million viewers for solo finals Nina Forneloza Fortnite The viewership figures for the Fortnite World Cup have been calculated and they are impressive. While the first-place performance of Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf earned a record-breaking $3 million payout, that wasn’t the only record that got broken at the event. According to a tweet by Rod “Slasher” Breslau, viewership for the event reached over 2 million. That makes it the largest ever concurrent audience for a single esports event. The …

$500,000 Apex Legends tournament revealed by Respawn Entertainment Olivia Richman Apex Legends Respawn Entertainment has announced a $500,000 preseason invitational tournament for Apex Legends.  Taking place in Krakow, Poland on September 13, the event will take place ahead of the battle royale’s Season 3 launch.  The 80 best Apex Legends teams will play in a double-elimination bracket. Each round will see teams continue on in the winners bracket, drop to the losers bracket, or get eliminated. The elimination process will continue until …

PUBG Mobile Club Spring Finals sees China take top three spots Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Top Esports has won the PUBG Mobile Club Open Spring Split Global Finals. The international PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile event was held in Berlin and saw the Chinese squad take home the $180,000 top prize. They took that spot with a 344-point effort across 16 games. It was a strong showing from Top Esports, who stood tall atop a field that included teams from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The PUBG …

Pantheon rework detailed by Riot, but no release date given M Alzamora League of Legends League of Legends champion Pantheon is getting a significant rework. Riot Games teased fans of the character with a new behind-the-scenes look at their work on his transformation. Almost all of Pantheon’s abilities are getting alterations in a planned update and while the champion should feel familiar to longtime players, Riot is tweaking his kit to balance out his power. The most notable change is the ultimate ability. Grand Skyfall …

Clutch Gaming’s Cody Sun: We knew we were the better team Olivia Richman League of Legends Clutch Gaming is feeling pretty good after this past weekend. With only one more week of the LCS Summer Split, the team needs to win their last two games against 100 Thieves and Golden Guardians to clinch the last spot in the playoffs. And Sun “Cody Sun” Li-Yu told WIN.gg that they’re planning to do just that.  How do you feel about your recent win against FlyQuest? It feels pretty good. …

Dusty Depot, Visitor, and more could return in Fortnite Season 10 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Fortnite Fortnite’s Season 10 was teased during the final day of the Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York. Along with the announcement of the Fortnite Championship Series, Epic Games has teased the upcoming season of Fortnite with an image that suggests the return of the Dusty Depot. A day later another image was published, and it seems to show the return of The Visitor. The first image teaser shows what …

Signs point to Buddy as a new character in Apex Legends Season 2 M Alzamora Apex Legends References to another unknown Apex Legends character are hiding in the game’s files. All evidence points toward “Buddy” being the name of the battle royale game’s newest legend. The information comes courtesy of data miners who found audio clips related to movement sounds. File names like “buddy_land_slim_3p” and “buddy_crouch_brush” are present throughout the game’s files. It’s hard to guess what we’re getting with this so-called Buddy, as there was no …

Alan Walker and A$AP Rocky produce new single for PUBG Mobile Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Alan Walker has once again collaborated with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, this time to release an exclusive single for PUBG Mobile, “Live Fast”. The single also features A$AP Rocky. Internationally popular Norweigan DJ Alan Walker and American rapper Rakim Mayers, known by his alias A$AP Rocky, have produced a new theme song for PUBG Mobile. The song was debuted with the start of PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 Spring Split Global Finals …

Apex Legends streamer ottr has aimbot scare with strange bug M Alzamora Apex Legends A budding Apex Legends streamer panicked when it appeared he might have used an aimbot to rack up easy kills during an online tournament. The fight was moving along ordinarily for Otto “ottr” Boström, but things quickly turned sketchy. His crosshairs immediately snapped directly to the head of an opponent’s teammate for an instant kill. Not helping relieve himself of guilt, ottr appeared flustered as the thought of forever being …

Twitch Rivals Overwatch Workshop features LEGO charity donations Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Twitch has hosted its second Twitch Rivals Overwatch Workshop. The workshop featured a collaboration between Twitch, Blizzard Entertainment, and LEGO, and was set as a charity tournament. The Twitch Rivals: Lego Overwatch Showdown was played over the weekend of July 25. It featured 24 players and streamers in teams of six competing for Lego sets, which were then donated to a charity of their choice. The winner got 100 Lego …

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