News

League of Legends TSM blow past Echo Fox, look ahead to Cloud9 playoff series By William Davis Counter-Strike Shroud gets second surgery, still recovering from scooter injury By Olivia Richman News Cloud9 releases veteran KioShiMa in yet another roster shakeup By Steven Rondina

League of Legends

FlyQuest sail into LCS semifinals after rugged victory over Guardians William Davis FlyQuest has qualified to the LCS Spring semifinals with a victory against Golden Guardians.The playoffs were off to a good start after an exciting match between FlyQuest and Golden Guardians. The fourth and fifth seeds fought in a best-of-five full of team fights and surprising comebacks.In game one, Golden Guardians went for comfort picks like Karthus for mid laner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen. In the jungle, Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia picked …

Fortnite

Free Carbon Bundle available exclusively to PS4 Fortnite players Fariha Bhatti Fortnite developer Epic Games has released a free Fortnite skin for players to claim, but it’s available exclusively to PlayStation Plus members. The Carbon Bundle pack can be claimed from the PlayStation store by any players with a paid subscription to Sony’s PlayStation 4 online service. The Carbon Bundle includes two items, though unlike the starter bundles available for purchase it does not include any of Fortnite’s V-Bucks currency. PlayStation …

Dota 2

OG qualifies for its first major of season following Ana return Steven Rondina The return of Anathan “ana” Pham has already paid off for OG. After a tumultuous start to the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season, The International 2018 champions have finally qualified for a major. OG successfully worked its way into the MDL Disneyland Paris Major through a crowded European field. OG began its journey in the group stages with a romp over SexyAsF, a Greek team largely comprised of former Ad Finem …

League of Legends

Fnatic continues hot streak with sweep over Vitality in LEC playoff William Davis Fnatic is one step closer to Rotterdam after a quick and decisive victory over Team Vitality. Fnatic has its eyes on the prize and is clearly ready to fight for it. The squad had one of its best performances of the season against a Vitality that looked weak by comparison. Game one and two had similar drafts, with Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen picking Karthus in the Fnatic jungle and Tim “Nemesis” …

Counter-Strike New NRG era highlighted by 16-0 win over North at StarSeries Season 7 By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Vici Gaming upsets Na`Vi even as s1mple dominates the field By Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Veterans Ex6TenZ and ScreaM find new home in Team GamerLegion By Steven Rondina

Dota 2

Valve breaks silence on Artifact’s decline but promises little Steven Rondina Valve has broken its lengthy silence regarding Dota 2 card game Artifact, but it didn’t really say anything at all. Following months without a peep on its website or any of its social media channels, a post titled “Towards A Better Artifact” appeared on the official Artifact blog that was a strange blend of candid and vague. In it, Valve acknowledged the game’s steep decline since launch but offered no …

Dota 2

EHOME adds legendary midlaner Ferrari_430 to Dota 2 roster Steven Rondina EHOME is still struggling to find its place in a crowded Chinese Dota 2 scene, but the organization seems to have a clear strategy on how to improve: Sign more former champions. The storied organization unveiled a new Dota 2 roster that includes another winner of The International. Joining the team is legendary mid laner Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi. The organization revealed the news on social media. This is a long-awaited …

Counter-Strike

NRG Esports at full strength for StarSeries after visa resolution Steven Rondina NRG Esports’ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team will be able to compete at full strength at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7. After two days of worrying, NRG confirmed that AWPer Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov will be able to compete in Shanghai. Visa troubles threatened to scuttle the new NRG’s first big event together, but the team revealed that the Bulgarian was able to make the trek to China. This is great …

Dota 2

Virtus.pro drives DreamLeague Major to 10 million hours watched Steven Rondina The viewership totals are in for Dota 2’s latest big tournament, the DreamLeague Major. According to the Esports Observer, the event totalled over 10 million combined hours watched on Twitch. This includes both the English and Russian language broadcasts of the event, with the two languages enjoying comparable viewership for much of the tournament’s duration. Naturally, viewership peaked for the final days of the event which also saw viewership of …

Vancouver Titans announce Rogers Arena as home stadium for 2020 Olivia Richman News Vancouver Titans have announced a home arena for the 2020 Overwatch League season. The Stage 1 champions named Rogers Arena in Vancouver as their home stadium in a Twitter announcement. The arena seats over 18,000 people and most commonly hosts music and sporting events. Rogers Arena is also the home of the NHL team Vancouver Cancuks. The Canucks are owned by the Aquilini Investment Group, who also own the Titans. …

G2 Esports dominates LEC all-pro results after successful first split Olivia Richman League of Legends Europe is claiming to have the deepest player pool in the world after the inaugural split of the LEC has drawn to a close. As the LEC’s top six teams prepare for the playoffs, teams, casters, and journalists have weighed in on who they believe were the best players to set foot in the right this split. Five players took first place positions. Rasmus “Caps” Winther of G2 Esports had the highest …

Fortnite Duos Luxe Cup info and $100,000 prize pool revealed Olivia Richman Fortnite Epic Games has announced all of the details for its Fortnite Duos Luxe Cup.  Just after last weekend’s Blackheart Cup, Fortnite is hosting another online cup with $100,000 in prize money on the line.  While many details are similar to past online tournaments, this is the first competition to use Fortnite’s new Arena Mode that was introduced in Patch 8.20. Similar to ranked play in most competitive titles, the Fortnite ranking …

As CajunB’s contract with OpTic Gaming ends, team adds Niko and MSL Steven Rondina Counter-Strike OpTic Gaming has begun a heavy restructuring of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. The organization announced the departure of René “cajunb” Borg after 13 months with the side. “Today we wish CajunB well as he makes his departure from our CSGO roster,” OpTic said on Twitter. “We look forward to seeing his continued success in Counter-Strike.” Shortly thereafter, OpTic announced the signing of former Rogue players Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen and …

Drake invests in esports startup despite previous Twitch drama Olivia Richman Fortnite It appears that Drake’s negative interactions with Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins haven’t turned the rapper off from the growing esports industry.  Drake recently announced that he has invested in Player’s Lounge, an esports startup that will allow players to make wagers on matches against their opponents. He is but one of the company’s recent Silicon Valley investors, which also include Comcast, Macro Ventures, and Marissa Mayer.  The startup closed …

Cache removed from tournament map pool, EZ4ENCE music kit arrives Steven Rondina Counter-Strike A small but surprisingly meaty patch has dropped in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and it’s one that will be instantly felt at the pro level. In a surprise move, fresh map Vertigo has been added to the Active Duty group. This puts it back in the tournament rotation, with longtime favorite Cache being bumped out as a result. The update also includes a number of minor bug fixes and other additions. …

PSG.LGD welcomes Dota 2 legend Yao back as a coach Olivia Richman Dota 2 Dota 2 legend Yao “Yao” Zhengzheng is returning to PSG.LGD as a coach. “The rumors are true. Yao is one of the more accomplished veterans in PSG.LGD’s history and we look forward to his return to challenge many champions,” LGD said on Twitter. Yao has been a part of the LGD esports organization for seven years, originally joining in 2011 after competing at The International with Online Kingdom. Yao led …

Atlanta Reign star Dafran announces sudden OWL retirement gabhernandez News Overwatch League team Atlanta Reign has announced through Twitter that Daniel “Dafran” Francesca will be retiring from professional play. This news comes as a shock to many fans, though Dafran’s start to his Overwatch League career was a shaky one. He had tweeted that he was going back to work at McDonalds and that his contract with the Reign had been voided. This later proved to be something of a …

Ninja will soon have his face on Red Bull Energy Drink cans Olivia Richman Fortnite Famous Fortnite personality Tyler “Ninja” Blevins can now add Red Bull Energy Drink cans to the list of products his face is plastered on. Red Bull announced that Ninja will appear on a limited edition can, available nationwide from April 1 to April 4 in four-packs and 12-packs. This comes soon after Wicked Cool Toys revealed a Ninja toy line, complete with plushes, wigs, and collectible figures. There are also …

Latest Auto Chess update features buffs, nerfs, easier combinations gabhernandez Dota 2 Another batch of minor updates has been released for popular Dota 2 custom game Auto Chess. With all of the hype surrounding Auto Chess, developer Drodo Studios is working hard to keep the game interesting by rolling out a series of minor updates. A new option has been added to the game allowing players to automatically combine three identical pieces on their waiting bench. However, this feature doesn’t work for …

Struggling games retailer Gamestop turns to esports for help Steven Rondina News Gamestop now has working relationships with a number of top American esports organizations. The video game retailer announced a series of partnerships with multi-game brands Team Envy, OpTic Gaming, and CompLexity Gaming. The news comes at a critical time for the company and kicks off what could be a larger push into esports for Gamestop. The partnerships extend to the organizations’ branded teams in games including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and …

Sweeping changes to weapons, attachments arrive in PUBG update 27 Steven Rondina News A major balance patch has arrived in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, bringing changes to nearly every firearm in the game. After a week on test servers, Update 27 has arrived to the main client. The update brings sweeping changes to attachments, a slew of balance changes, and a reset to PUBG’s seasonal content. The highlight of the patch is the addition of the MP5K. The new sub-machine gun has been added as …

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