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Fortnite Top streamers having trouble qualifying for Fortnite World Cup By Olivia Richman Counter-Strike Furia fall short of hometown victory as Avangar win DreamHack Rio By Steven Rondina News OP Gaming Rangers win PUBG Global Summit in dramatic fashion By Steven Rondina

Dota 2

EternalEnVy under fire for Team Team release of two players Steven Rondina Team Team has made some surprise roster moves and Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao is taking some serious heat for it. A day after the North American squad washed out of ESL One Mumbai, Team Team mid laner Nico “Gunnar” Lopez and support player Jason “Newsham” Newsham both posted ominous “LFT” messages on Twitter. Gunnar added “we were kicked” shortly after. This sparked a deluge of criticism towards the team’s newly added …

Dota 2

Keen Gaming win ESL One Mumbai amidst player and team dramas Steven Rondina ESL One Mumbai had a lot of strange things going on in the background, but everything under the spotlight went exactly as expected. Keen Gaming took first place at the tournament, scoring its first live event victory in organization history. It is also the first trophy in the pro Dota 2 careers of Keen players Song “dark”‘ Runxi and Zhai “一” Jingkai. The squad won the top spot with a …

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Sleepy transferred from San Francisco Shock to Washington Justice Steven Rondina Nikola “sleepy” Andrews is no longer a member of the San Francisco Shock. The team announced on its Twitter account that it is parting ways with the support player, with Sleepy being transferred to the Washington Justice. “It’s always tough saying goodbye to a family member, but ultimately we know that Sleepy deserves a spot on the Overwatch League stage,” the team said on Twitter. “Thank you for everything you …

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Former ROX Tigers carry PraY retires from League of Legends Steven Rondina After three LCK trophies and three top-four finishes in World Championships, Kim “PraY” Jong-in is calling it a career. The AD carry player announced his retirement from competitive League of Legends on a live stream on AfreecaTV. The move comes after six months as a free agent. “I have no confidence that I can do well [in professional play]”, PraY said on the stream, per Korizon.net. “But, outright saying I’m …

Counter-Strike Valve boss Gabe Newell becomes unwitting underwear model in China By William Davis News Atlanta Reign shock fans with first regular season defeat of NYXL By William Davis Counter-Strike Astralis parent company responds to BLAST Pro Series controversy By Steven Rondina

League of Legends

KT Rolster avoid relegation with clean win over Jin Air William Davis KT Rolster secured its place in the LCK Summer Split after taking down Jin Air Green Wings in the second round of the LCK promotion tournament. KT is the first team to go from split champion to the relegations tournament the very next split. The team’s situation is not surprising, as during the offseason the team failed to secure an experienced bot laner. Instead, KT settled for rookie Jeon “Zenit” …

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Chengdu Hunter player speaks inappropriately to underaged streamer Olivia Richman Chengdu Hunters player Zhang “YangXiaoLong” Zhihao was fined one month’s salary for making inappropriate comments to an underaged streamer.  “Aspen” is a popular Overwatch streamer who is currently partnered with Cloud9. During a recent match that was streamed on 17-year-old Aspen’s channel, YangXiaoLong told Aspen that fellow Chengdu Hunters player Ding “Ameng” Menghan said Aspen was his second wife.  Aspen groaned in response to the comment. She wrote “LUL” in the channel’s …

Dota 2

TNC Predators defeat local hope Signify at ESL One Mumbai Steven Rondina Signify did its best to represent Indian Dota 2, but wasn’t quite able to find victory against one of the world’s top veteran teams. Following the withdrawal of several teams from ESL One Mumbai, Indian squad Signify had the chance to compete in front of a live crowd as hometown favorites. Instead of forging their way to the finals and winning over the world with an electrifying victory, the little-known …

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PUBG, Fortnite among video games banned by Iraqi government Steven Rondina Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are among a number of video games that have been banned in Iraq. According to CBC, the country’s parliament banned the game “due to the negative effects caused by some electronic games on the health, culture, and security of Iraqi society, including societal and moral threats to children and youth.” Iraq is the second country to ban PUBG this month. The Iraqi government has been devastated in …

Riot Games has a new logo and not everyone is happy about it Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot Games has revealed a newly redesigned logo.  The League of Legends developer announced its logo refresh in a recent blog post.  “As technology changed and we began playing in new environments, it became clear that the logo we used for so long and had grown so fond of needed a rework,” Riot Games said.  Working closely with company founders Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck, designers came up with a …

Overwatch Contenders announce three live events coming in May Olivia Richman News Overwatch Contenders has announced three brand-new live events coming in May.  According to the official announcement, the eight Contenders regions will be divided into two divisions, each consisting of four regions, for the new Showdown live events. The Pacific Showdown will take place in Shanghai, China, while the Atlantic Showdown is heading to Krefeld, Germany.  These events will be live during the Overwatch League’s mid-year break beginning May 24, not …

Fortnite pro Dubs fn accused of cheating, more allegations promised Olivia Richman Fortnite Pro Fortnite player Dubs fn was ranked second in the North America East qualifiers when he was accused of cheating.  Fortnite cheat provider AspectDolphin revealed a Discord conversation with a user who called themselves RDubs saying “this cheat is lethal, everything looks legit.” This message was sent a month before the World Cup Qualifiers. The cheat provider can be seen asking RDubs to “keep it on the low” while using …

Anti-doping official talks esports and what players are using Steven Rondina Counter-Strike Anti-doping officials don’t view adderall as much of a problem these days, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a drug problem in esports. Michele Verroken of Sporting Integrity spoke with Reuters about some of her recent work with the Esports Integrity Coalition. According to Verroken, there has been a cultural shift in esports away from adderall, but towards other substances. “The trend is to say ‘yes, we thought that Adderall …

Jeff Kaplan confirms Havana as payload map, hints at new heroes Olivia Richman News Jeff Kaplan has confirmed that Havana will be Overwatch’s next map.  In a live stream from Blizzard Entertainment headquarters hosted on Facbook, Overwatch’s lead director Jeff Kaplan stated that Havana will be on the Public Test Realm “very soon.” Before it goes to the PTR, developers are working on alterations to the map’s time of day and weather.  “We were so excited to make Havana. It was one of the …

Gen.G raises $46M through investors including Will Smith Olivia Richman League of Legends Esports organization Gen.G has raised $46 million through various celebrity investors and Silicon Valley funds.  Actor Will Smith and Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda provided capital through Dreamers Fund. They have joined retired NBA player Chris Bosh in advising Gen.G’s creative and commercial efforts. Los Angeles Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong and Alibaba Group’s former chair of US investments Michael Zeisser were also among the latest investors.  Stanford University invested …

Shroud quitting Apex Legends due to constant server issues Steven Rondina Apex Legends Michael “shroud” Grzesiek is fed up with Apex Legends. The world’s most popular streamer suggested that he is going to call it quits on the battle royale game during a recent broadcast. The frustration stems from the game’s frequently laggy servers, which makes the game run at a slower speed. Shortly after making the bold statement, Shroud once again found himself playing in slow motion. Though Shroud may or may …

League of Legends receives patch 9.8 before Mid-Season Invitational Steven Rondina League of Legends The last set of changes before League of Legends’ 2019 Mid-Season Invitational has arrived. Patch 9.8 has launched, bringing adjustments to 16 different heroes and a number of items. It also adds a number of new skins, including a set commemorating Invictus Gaming’s victory at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship. While version 9.8 has a long list of heroes that have been changed, none have received an extensive …

Statistics show growing shift in Overwatch League meta after patch Fariha Bhatti News Stage 2 of the Overwatch League has now completed its second week, but the introduction of a new balance patch to the game has already shown a strong change to which heroes are most often picked. The 1.31 Patch was intended by developers at Blizzard to help shift the game’s competitive meta and to reduce the strength of the popular three tank and three support composition known informally as GOATS. …

Twitch streamer banned for using blackface in Apex Legends cosplay Olivia Richman Apex Legends In the gaming community, where things like this happen, maybe it’s not the best to use blackface in cosplay. Even so, it happens with surprising frequency. One of the most recent examples of this was Karina “Karupups” Martsinkevich’s Lifeline cosplay. Twitch has issued a 30-day ban for the streamer, shutting down the channel before the live stream had even ended.  For the Apex Legends-themed cosplay, Karupups had put on a …

Clutch Gaming owners sell majority stake, set for Dignitas rebrand William Davis League of Legends Clutch Gaming’s ownership at the Houston Rockets has agreed to sell a majority stake in their League of Legends esports team to Dignitas parent company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. HBSE will own 68.2% of Clutch Gaming, while the Houston Rockets will retain the remaining 31.8% stake. Ownership of the team will be shared between the two companies through a newly created entity named Mal País. Clutch Gaming will also …

Virtus.pro finds replacement for TOAO in new player Vegi Steven Rondina News Virtus.pro has found a new fifth man for its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. The organization announced that it has officially signed Arek “Vegi” Nawojski to the team. He replaces Mateusz “TOAO” Zawistowski, who was deactivated in March after just three months. Vegi is a fresh face on a veteran Virtus.pro team. The player first popped up in professional CS:GO in 2017 competing in various European regional events. He found a …

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