However, it wasn’t an easy journey by any means. To win the Major, Subliners defeated the Mutineers, got sent down into the Loser’s Bracket by Surge, and then proceeded to beat Legion, Ultra, FaZe, and then finally, Seattle Surge, in a tense best-of-seven final series. It was one of the hardest Call of Duty League Majors to call, and at every turn, something unpredictable seemed to be happening.

Subliners Rising Up While Everybody Else Falls

Image Credit: COD League

It was a rags-to-riches story for the New York Subliners this weekend, as the team stood first and claimed its first CDL trophy ever. There was a similarly impressive performance out of Seattle Surge, with the team defeating LA Thieves (the reigning champions), Subliners themselves, and Atlanta FaZe in the final bracket. Last year, Seattle Surge surprised the entire community by snatching a Major trophy, and like Subliners, it was the first trophy the team had seen in the CDL.

For other organisations, Major I was a miserable affair. For instance, OpTic Texas crashed out of the competition before even making the final bracket. It was Toronto Ultra that pushed OpTic down a peg, before Florida Mutineers handed Texas the final blow, kicking them unscrupulously from the Major. Elsewhere, the London Royal Ravens failed to get close, being removed from the tournament by an impressive LAG Academy.

Before the final bracket arrived, Boston Breach, Los Angeles Guerrillas, and Minnesota Rokkr all fell out of the contest. However, even if a team made it into the final bracket, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. For instance, Atlanta FaZe proved to everyone that it no longer is the dominant, overwhelming squad that it was once. Despite beating Legion and Ultra to push through the bracket, FaZe suffered from back-to-back losses against both Seattle Surge and the New York Subliners.

Now, NYSL sits atop the CDL standings, closely followed by Seattle Surge. At the bottom of the table sits the likes of Boston Breach, Royal Ravens, and the Los Angeles Guerrillas.

An Important Season Ahead

There’s an important season ahead for the Call of Duty League. Firstly, it’s the final season for one of the best COD players in the world, Seth ‘Scump’ Abner. It was just weeks ago that Scump revealed that he would be retiring following this season, and the entire OpTic community expects him to go out on a high. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this breakdown, OpTic Texas sits in ninth place out of twelve in the season standings.

This year, we could also witness the retirement of some more ‘old timer’ players, such as James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks. At thirty years of age, Clayster is the oldest competitor in the League, and before the season kicked off, he had trouble finding a starting role on a team. However, this past weekend, he become the second player ever in Call of Duty to place T6 at a major event in twelve different Call of Duty games.

Will Atlanta FaZe break out of what appears to be a slump and regain? Will OpTic Texas gain any traction and move up the standings? Can the LA Thieves pick up their skills and defend their championship?

What a year of competitive Call of Duty we’ve got ahead.

In this leak, Twitter user @codsploitz_imgs revealed skill division and rank emblems, the competitive ruleset, and fundamental information regarding the inner workings of League Play. It’s nothing that we didn’t really expect, but there are some changes this year compared to the League Play and Ranked Play modes found in the previous Call of Duty releases.

From Call of Duty League to League Play

It’s an unfortunate fact, but even once Modern Warfare II League Play is released, public lobbies will still suffer from the punishing SBMM that has been present since launch. It’s one of the biggest and most uncomfortable issues with Modern Warfare II, forcing players to basically ‘sweat’ every lobby that they find themselves in. As it’s a ‘casual’ and ‘public’ multiplayer, there’s an argument there that SBMM shouldn’t even exist.

But it does, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

However, when League Play is introduced, it’ll bring about an entirely new ball game; a truly competitive platform that’s as rigorous with its ruleset as it is its enforcement of restricted items. As per the leak on Twitter by @codsploitz_imgs (and reported by Insider Gaming), it has been suggested that:

• There are seven Skill Divisions in MWII’s League Play, and players advance up the Divisions by earning ‘SR’, which are points that are acquired following any given match.
• When a new MWII season starts, a player will drop down one Skill Division, with the highest starting Division being ‘Diamond I’.
• In MWII’s League Play, all unrestricted weapons, attachments, and perks are unlocked by default.
• As per previous Ranked Modes, League Play’s ruleset includes friendly fire being on by default, many items, maps, and modes being restricted, and friendly fire, inactivity, and disconnecting incurring suspensions and penalties.
• If a player or team is able to win three matches in a row, they will start a ‘Hot Streak’ that sets their emblem ablaze, indicating that they’re on a burner in League Play.

When Will MWII League Play Arrive?

There was one detail not covered in the leak, and that was the release date for League Play in Modern Warfare II. There are expectations that League Play will launch at the beginning of 2023, a time period that coincides with Season Two of Modern Warfare II.

As the Call of Duty League unravels, the more competitive players are becoming increasingly eager at picking up a more intense challenge in Modern Warfare II. They’ve waited almost two months for League Play thus far, and it seems as though they won’t have to wait much longer.

Tribe Gaming make it through the lower bracket to become the CoD Mobile World Champions

After a tremendous year with back-to-back victories in tournaments, Tribe Gaming were looking to close out the year with a victory at the CoD Mobile World Championship Finals 2022 as well. In the Group Stage, where they even managed to triumph over China’s Q9, they looked set to complete that run for glory.

However, they were stopped in their tracks in the first match of the Playoffs. Up against the Chinese mammoths Wolves Esports, Tribe Gaming lost the intense best-of-five series with a close score of 3-2.

This made them one of the first four teams to fall to the Lower Bracket of the World Championship. However, the North American champions didn’t lose faith and cruised through in the Lower Bracket.

They won their first two matches with a scoreline of 3-0 against STMN and Omega to make it to the lower bracket semifinal. Here, they were again up against Wolves Esports, who had knocked them to the lower bracket earlier in the Playoffs. However, Tribe showed why they are one of the best in the world this time and got their revenge. They took the series 3-0 to knock Wolves out of the competition.

Tribe Gaming vs Luminosity: An intense Final

Tribe completed their run through the lower bracket to face fellow NA representatives Luminosity Gaming in the grand finals of the CoD Mobile World Championship 2022.

This wasn’t the first encounter between the two teams in the past month. In November, they were up against each other in the Mobile Mayhem 2022 Fall North America. At the time, Tribe absolutely dominated to clutch the series 4-1. Hoping for a repeat of that in the Grand Finals, however, Luminosity wasn’t going to make it so easy. Starting the series with a 1-0 deficit for being in the lower bracket, Tribe looked almost set to do a near clean sweep with victories on the Hardpoint, Search and Destroy, and Control modes.

Luminosity weren’t going to go down without a fight, though, and started in the comeback in the next two series in the Hardpoint and Search and Destroy modes. They took convincing victories in both games taking the series to a game seven on the Control mode with Luminosity looking to have the upper hand.

However, Tribe got the final woohoo with a 3-2 victory to become the CoD Mobile world champions. They will walk away with $700,000 of the $1.7 million prize pool while Luminosity will get $280,000.

What’s next for CoD Mobile esports?

After the 2020 and 2021 editions of the CoD Mobile World Championships being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first complete esports season for the game. The grand LAN event in Raleigh was just a cherry on top for CoD Mobile esports fans. Now, the focus will shift to the 2023 season.

Activision hasn’t revealed any details yet but fans can likely expect something similar to this year’s format then as well. Additionally, 2023 will mark the release of Warzone Mobile which Activision will likely push towards esports as well.

It remains to be seen how the tiles co-exist in the ecosystem.

The post G2 Esports triumph over Team Liquid at Blast Premier World Final appeared first on TalkEsport.

Draymond Green has made this pass 5,000 times. This time, no one was there.

Draymond Green’s playmaking touch has long been the glue that holds the Golden State Warriors together. Green’s connective passing in all types of situations has kept the Warriors’ offensive humming for all these years while Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson fly around the perimeter. Green has never been a big-time scorer, but he’s always a positive on the offensive end because he keeps the ball moving and finds open teammates.

The Warriors need Green now more than ever. Curry is out for “a few weeks” with a shoulder injury, and the team entered its Sunday night game with the Toronto Raptors as one game under .500. Just making the play-in tournament is going to be a fight for the Warriors now, and Green’s expert shot creation will be key to staying afloat while Curry recovers.

On Sunday night, the Warriors knocked off the Toronto Raptors, 126-110, in their second game without Curry. It was a huge win for the Warriors to keep pace in the Western Conference play-in race, but more on that in a second. There was one viral clip to come out of the game, and it had nothing to do with Jordan Poole’s 43-point night. Midway through the third quarter, the Warriors got the ball to Green, who turned and threw the ball to the corner. Only one problem: no one was standing there. Watch the clip here:

Green has thrown that pass probably 5,000 times since he arrived in the Bay. Typically it’s been Curry or Thompson or Poole or Andrew Wiggins or Harrison Barnes standing there to knock down the three. This time, no one was home.

While people will laugh at this clip, Green did have an awesome game. His 17 points were the second most he’s scored in a game all season, and he also added nine rebounds and five assists. You know Draymond has it going when he’s knocking down three-pointers, and he made three of them on Sunday against the Raptors.

The Warriors are now 15-16 and would miss the playoffs if the season ended today. They caught a break when Anthony Davis went down with an injury at the same time as Curry. The Lakers aren’t far behind them in the West standings and also want to make the play-in tournament.

Any win is a big win for the Warriors without Curry. Green helped them get there on Sunday, even if he still had a lowlight-worthy moment.

Plus the unconvincing Vikings, the shoddy Chiefs. and more winners and losers from Week 15.

It was a bad week for teams convincing us of their resumes as we hurtle towards the playoffs. In Minnesota the Vikings are expecting an award for mounting the biggest comeback in NFL history against the worst coach in league has ever seen, and the Chiefs are wanting us to ignore that it took overtime to beat the sad-ass Texans — but what Dallas did manages to trump them both, because they lost.

It’s not so much that the Cowboys fell to the Jaguars on Sunday. Hell, Jacksonville is a team on the rise and one to watch in 2023, it’s more that Dallas is a team that deserved faith, and have managed to more or less squander it over the last two weeks. This team showed weakness in Week 14 when it almost lost to the Texans, a team that shoots itself more in the groin repeatedly, and then followed up with this loss to Jacksonville. Second place in the NFC East should have been slammed shut, and now there’s a chance (albeit small) that either the Giants push their way past the struggling Cowboys and into the playoffs.

Dak Prescott may have been trending for much of the afternoon on Twitter, as he’s want to do following Cowboys loss, but it was especially pointed considering he threw the game-ending interception. It’s a rough spot to be in, always has, always will. Prescott will be eternally critiqued for Dallas’ failings, regardless of what happens around him.

The truth is, this is a man whose entire team is crumbled around him and let the Cowboys down at the worst possible time. Sure, Prescott threw two interceptions including the game-ending pick, but where’s the outrage over Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliot combining for 35 touches for 128 yards? What about the defense, who outside of Micah Parsons allowed Trevor Lawrence to operate out of a clean pocket for much of the afternoon? Where are this team’s receivers not named CeeDee Lamb?

Weeks ago when Prescott was set to return from injury we discussed the Cowboys’ path to victory in 2022, and it was relatively simple: Keep playing good defense, control the ground game, and don’t as the QB to play hero ball. Now we’re staring down a reality where Prescott is being asked to do too much, and the weaknesses of this roster are showing as a result.

Dallas simple doesn’t have what it takes to be a Super Bowl team, not this year. The AFC is too good from top to bottom, and outside of demolishing Minnesota, there’s not really a signature win on their record. Even then, the Vikings have shown themselves to be a tremendously flawed team (which we’re going to talk about in a little bit).

This team will find a way into the playoffs. These struggles aside, Dallas is still better than the surrounding competition in the NFC, and that should be enough to coast into the postseason — but they are no longer a team to watch. This is another Cowboys season full of promise and excitement, only to plummet back into mediocrity when the games matter the most. It’s a shame, because the Cowboys are a team that’s good enough to achieve so much more, but the loss to Jacksonville exposed weaknesses other teams can exploit. If you can stop the run and force the Cowboys into 3rd and 5+ situations, the offense doesn’t really have a way to adapt.

Couple this with strong zone blocking and Dallas isn’t equipped in the secondary to stop a halfway decent quarterback from picking them apart. Trevor Lawrence is breaking out, but he’s not quite at the point yet where you can compare him to some of the teams Dallas will need to beat to make a playoff run.

Maybe they’ll find a way to put this back together, but it sure isn’t seeming like it.

Loser: The Vikings

I don’t know the last time two teams punched their playoff tickets in the same week while looking so unconvincing doing it. Minnesota and Kansas City aren’t losers because of one week of football, but what Week 15 showed in terms of these teams’ playoff chances.

Sure, this could have just been a trap game for all concerned — but the issues run a little deeper than that. Take Minnesota, for instance. Their raw record would indicate they’re one of the best teams in the NFL, but every advanced stat points to the Vikings being a textbook one-and-done team when they reach the playoffs.

Minnesota is 5th in the NFC, according to Pro Football Reference’s simple rating system (SRS). Their defensive SRS of -1.7 lingers among non-playoff teams as one of the worst in the conference too. There is a chasm in points differential (PD) between the Vikings (+2) and the top three teams in the NFC in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Dallas — all of whom have PDs of over 100+.

Nearly losing to the Colts on Saturday was indicative of how this team struggles to do things easily. They are primed to be exposed by top competition and these “skin of my teeth” wins might be exciting now, but they show a fragile house of cards that could blow over at any moment.

Loser: The Chiefs

I’m inclined to give a little more leeway to Kansas City this week, only because there are signs this was more of a blip on the radar than a trend. Still, there’s a concerning reality about the the Chiefs this season, and that’s the quality of opponents they’ve faced. The Chiefs have played one of the softest schedules in the NFL this season at -1.0. Meanwhile the Bills, considered to be their biggest competition in the AFC, hold the same record with a +1.3 strength of schedule rating.

That worries me for the postseason and indicates that this team is much weaker than past iterations.

Winner: Zay Jones

It’s easy to overlook receivers in Jacksonville, but Zay Jones is quietly having one of the NFL’s best breakout seasons and on Sunday he kicked the door down. Signing with the Jaguars the same day as Christian Kirk, Jones got lost in the shuffle during the news cycle — but thus far he’s been the fan better return on investment for Jacksonville.

Against Dallas he asserted himself by catching six passes for 106 yards and three touchdowns. Overall he’s been almost on par with Kirk in performance this season among the Jaguars’ receivers, and has been getting just as many targets from Trevor Lawrence.

With two more years left on his contract it’s looking more and more like Jones was the steal of free agency.

Winner: Chaos

The playoff picture is absolute anarchy with the finish line of the regular season in sight. The amount of teams in the hunt right now is absolutely absurd, with only four teams being eliminated from contention so far and five playoff spots stamped.

This means that with three games left there are still 10 playoff spots available, and 23 teams with a path into the postseason. This might be easy for some, and more difficult for others — but look at Carolina, for example. The Panthers STILL have control of their destiny at 5-9. and just need to win their final three games to make the playoffs.

There are stories like this around the entire NFL and it’s going to make for an incredible final few weeks as the dust settles.

Plus: Knicks, Nets, Magic all building win streaks

It seemed impossible just a week or two ago, but *cue announcer voice* the Boston Celtics have been unseated from the “best record in the NBA” throne following back-to-back losses to the Orlando Magic.

The only team hotter than Orlando? The New York Knicks, who have now won seven straight after a 2-6 stretch left some calling for jobs and trades.

The only entity in basketball hotter than New York? The league’s double-defending MVP, Nikola Jokic, who left jaws on the floor once again on Sunday. He’s accomplishing statistical anomalies that haven’t been sniffed since Wilt Chamberlain and setting himself up well to be this century’s first MVP 3-peat.

Orlando upsets Boston, 95-92, for sixth straight win

Even without Jayson Tatum, the Celtics shouldn’t have any trouble with the Magic. They shouldn’t have had any trouble with the Magic on Friday either when Orlando won 117-109. The Magic instead went 2-0 in the mini-series between squads as Boston couldn’t bounce back due to struggling mightily from the field without their MVP candidate, shooting just 34.8% from the field and 25.5% from deep.

Rookie of the Year candidate Paolo Banchero was the biggest threat for Orlando, finishing with nearly a third of his squad’s points at 31, including 6-7 from three. The Magic as a team shot 41.4% from three (although just 6-22 or 27.2% if you only look at players not named Banchero), which was their biggest statistical advantage.

This one had some extra fuel on the fire after Celtics broadcaster and former sharpshooter Eddie House talked a bunch of smack on Orlando after their first win against Boston. The players responded after the win by tweeting a gif of House getting smacked by Magic guard Rafer Alston during a 2009 playoff series.

Knicks extend winning streak to seven with 109-106 win over Pacers

Back and forth to the very end, this one was decided at the free throw line where New York (23-30) outshot Indiana (15-23) by volume and efficiency. Four of the Knicks starters had big games, including double doubles from Julius Randle (25 points and 14 rebounds) and Mitchell Robinson (10 and 13) while Jalen Brunson led them in scoring (30) and RJ Barrett scored 24 for his fifth straight 20+ point night.

Kyrie, Durant too much for Pistons as Nets win, 124-121

Brooklyn gets their sixth straight win, and still, every Nets box score is the same. Kyrie Irving takes a third of the scoring load, Kevin Durant takes a third of the scoring load, and the rest of the team feasts on the final third. In this particular instance, the two stars combined for 81 of Brooklyn’s 124 points:

Poole, Warriors beat Raptors 126-110 in first Steph-less win of season

Golden State came into this game 0-4 in games without the defending Finals MVP, losing each contest by an average of 16.75 points per game. In those games, however, Jordan Poole did not step up to hang 40+ on the opponent like he did in this one. His 43 points on 14-23 shooting in just 35 minutes smashes his previous career-best of 38 points while he also tied for the team-leading six assists in the game.

The Raptors were led – as they seemingly always are – in scoring by Pascal Siakam (27), Fred VanVleet (22), and Scottie Barnes (17), and they have some decisions to be made over the next couple months before the trade deadline. Toronto currently sits just 2.5 games out from the fifth best draft odds, which would mean a 42.1% chance at a top four pick and a 10.5% chance at the top pick, otherwise known as Victor Wembanyama.

Wolves hang a crooked number on Bulls in 150-126 win

In terms of needing to face the man in the mirror, the Bulls are in an even worse spot than the aforementioned Raptors. Chicago is a game and a half behind Toronto in the standings with some bigger assets to manage, like DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. They account for two of the three 20+ point games from the Bulls on Sunday, but scoring isn’t the biggest issue when you’re totaling 126 points in regulation.

Minnesota took advantage of one of the better Anthony Edwards games of his career, finishing with 37 points (13-25 FG), seven rebounds, and 11 assists along with two steals. One of seven Wolves in double figures, Nathan Knight posted a season-high 16 points in his season-high 26 minutes. With the win, the Wolves keep the Warriors out of the play-in picture and maintain their spot at #10 in the West by just half a game.

Jokic does his best Wilt impression as Nuggets top Hornets, 119-115

I’ve given up trying to think of reasons to not give Jokic his third MVP in a row. We’ve all heard that it hasn’t been done since Larry Bird in the 80s, but Jokic’s season has a sense of undeniability so far, and Sunday night was no different.

Over this recent tear that the Joker is on, he’s averaging 34.4 points, 14.8 rebounds, 9.8 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 2.4 steals over his past five games. By NBA Math’s total points added (TPA) formula, Jokic has been the second-most impactful player in the league behind only Luka Doncic.

Lakers win first game of another Davis absence, 119-117, over Wizards

As LA prepares for another “indefinite absence” from Anthony Davis, his replacement in the starting lineup, Thomas Davis, seems up to the challenge, finishing with a double double at 16 points and 10 rebounds. LeBron played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, accounting for 22 of the Lakers’ 32 points (scoring 13, nine coming via assist) in the frame.

In the losing effort that saw the Wizards fall further from the play-in group (2.5 games from #10), Kyle Kuzma tallied 22 points and 16 rebounds against his old (and maybe future?) team. They’re now 1-13 over their last 14 after starting the season 7-6.

Instead of listening to relatives this festive season, why not listen to me talk to some brilliant people from the world of games? Just pop a woolly hat on and they won't even see the earbuds. I know: you're welcome.

I've had a great time recording One-to-one this year. If you don't know, it's an in-depth interview podcast where I spend about an hour learning about the lives and careers of some well known people. The whole point is to take time to get to know people.

One of the conversations that stands out from this year was talking to Ken and Roberta Williams, the creators of the original video game powerhouse Sierra Online. It stuck out because these two, they don't really talk to the gaming press - in fact, they've been completely absent from games for decades.

Read more

Square Enix officially unveiled its Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 over the weekend.

This collection is set to release digitally in the spring, and consists of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 5, and Final Fantasy 6. Each game is said to boast "vivid 2D pixel graphics and the beautifully rearranged soundtrack".

Square Enix states each of these remasters, which can be bought as a one stop bundle with all six games or individually, will offer improved gameplay, a "modernised UI" and other accoutrements such as "a bestiary, illustration gallery and music player".

Read more

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 players have reported several issues since the release of the game's mid-season update: "Season 1 Reloaded".

The update introduced a new version of fan-favourite map Shipment, the game's first ever raid level called Atomgrad, and a limited-time Warzone Cup mode which is effectively a copy of Rocket League but with ATVs.

But it also brought with a whole host of bugs and glitches.

Read more

The World Cup is slightly different to other Overwatch tournaments as it is a nation-based event, with players able to qualify to represent their country throughout a series of qualifiers and then onto the Finals themselves.

Overwatch World Cup History

There have been four previous Overwatch World Cup events, running from 2016 through to 2019, before the tournament fell victim to the pandemic.

The tournament has been contested in Anaheim, California, for each of the previous four events, and this will likely be the venue for the 2023 tournament. However, no official confirmation has been made about that just yet.

South Korea were the World Champions from 2016 to 2018 but had to settle for third place in 2019 when China defeated them in the semi-finals, with the Chinese team going on to lose to the eventual winners United States in the final.

The tournament is especially popular with those that enjoy betting on Overwatch, given how this is a national or regional team event.

Overwatch World Cup 2023 – Key Details

Blizzard has announced that there will be a number of phases to work through before they reach the stage of hosting the Overwatch World Cup later this year.

These phases are outlined below:

• January 2023: Blizzard will announce which 36 countries and/or regions will compete for a spot at the 2023 Overwatch World Cup. Additionally, applications to become part of the Competition Committee in each region or country will open. Each Competition Committee in each region or country will be responsible for the organisation of the tryouts for players to try and earn their way to a spot on their national team.
• February 2023: The Competition Committee for each region/country will be announced. A World Cup Trials tournament will allow players to earn a spot in the Country and Regional Team Tryouts.
• March 2023: Each region or country’s Competition Committee will host their own Team Tryouts featuring players that qualified from February’s World Cup Trials. From these Tryouts, each Competition Committee will then select their country or region’s representatives for the Qualifying campaign. Blizzard will oversee the selection process to ensure that it is fair and equitable.
• June 2023: All 36 Regional and Country teams will compete in six regional qualifiers. The top 16 teams from those qualifiers will then advance to the Overwatch World Cup Group Stage which takes place in the autumn.
• Autumn 2023: The 16 best Overwatch teams compete in a LAN Round Robin tournament group stage. Eight of the 16 teams will then advance to the Finals. The Finals will see the eight teams compete in a single elimination bracket to determine who is the Overwatch World Cup Champion in 2023.

Minimum Ranking Requirement For Tryouts

Blizzard have announced that there will be a minimum competitive ranking requirement of Diamond or better for the Tryouts in March, so it is a good idea for any player wishing to compete in the tournament to ensure their ranking is sufficiently high to compete in the Tryouts.

The tournament’s return is sure to be a big hit with Overwatch players and those that like to follow and bet on the live streams of each game too.

And remember you can enjoy plenty of great Overwatch World Cup betting when the tournament gets underway!

The post Overwatch World Cup Confirmed as Returning in 2023 appeared first on EsportsBets.com.

However, the LCS 2023 spring schedule is live for everyone to see on the official LoLesports website. Here is the current schedule for the LCS Spring Split according to LoL Esports.

Week 1

Thursday, January 26

• 100 Thieves vs Cloud9
• Golden Guardians vs Evil Geniuses
• FlyQuest vs Team Liquid
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Dignitas
• TSM vs Immortals

Friday, January 27

• FlyQuest vs 100 Thieves
• TSM vs Counter Logic Gaming
• Evil Geniuses vs Cloud9
• Dignitas vs Team Liquid
• Immortals vs Golden Guardians

Week 2

Thursday, February 2

• Counter Logic Gaming vs Cloud9
• FlyQuest vs Golden Guardians
• Dignitas vs 100 Thieves
• Immortals vs Team Liquid
• TSM vs Evil Geniuses

Friday, February 3

• FlyQuest vs Cloud9
• Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses
• TSM vs 100 Thieves
• Team Liquid vs Golden Guardians
• Immortals vs Counter Logic Gaming

Week 3

Thursday, February 9

• TSM vs Cloud9
• FlyQuest vs Evil Geniuses
• Team Liquid vs 100 Thieves
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Golden Guardians
• Immortals vs Dignitas

Friday, February 10

• TSM vs Team Liquid
• Golden Guardians vs Cloud9
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Evil Geniuses
• Immortals vs 100 Thieves
• Dignitas vs FlyQuest

Week 4 – Superweek

Wednesday, February 15

• Evil Geniuses vs 100 Thieves
• Immortals vs FlyQuest
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Liquid
• Dignitas vs Cloud9
• TSM vs Golden Guardians

Thursday, February 16

• Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses
• Immortals vs Cloud9
• Counter Logic Gaming vs 100 Thieves
• TSM vs FlyQuest
• Dignitas vs Golden Guardians

Friday, February 17

• Counter Logic Gaming vs FlyQuest
• Immortals vs Evil Geniuses
• Team Liquid vs Cloud9
• TSM vs Dignitas
• Golden Guardians vs 100 Thieves

Week 5

Thursday, February 23

• FlyQuest vs 100 Thieves
• Immortals vs Team Liquid
• Golden Guardians vs Cloud9
• TSM vs Counter Logic Gaming
• Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses

Friday, February 24

• TSM vs Cloud9
• Dignitas vs FlyQuest
• Team Liquid vs 100 Thieves
• Golden Guardians vs Evil Geniuses
• Immortals vs Counter Logic Gaming

Week 6

Thursday, March 2

• Counter Logic Gaming vs FlyQuest
• TSM vs Evil Geniuses
• 100 Thieves vs Cloud9
• Team Liquid vs Golden Guardians
• Immortals vs Dignitas

Friday, March 3

• Counter Logic Gaming vs 100 Thieves
• Dignitas vs Cloud9
• FlyQuest vs Evil Geniuses
• TSM vs Team Liquid
• Immortals vs Golden Guardians

Week 7

Thursday, March 9

• FlyQuest vs Team Liquid
• Golden Guardians vs 100 Thieves
• Evil Geniuses vs Cloud9
• TSM vs Immortals
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Dignitas

Friday, March 10

• Team Liquid vs Cloud9
• Immortals vs FlyQuest
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Evil Geniuses
• Dignitas vs 100 Thieves
• TSM vs Golden Guardians

Week 8 – Superweek

Wednesday, March 15

• FlyQuest vs Cloud9
• Dignitas vs Team Liquid
• TSM vs 100 Thieves
• Immortals vs Evil Geniuses
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Golden Guardians

Thursday, March 16

• Evil Geniuses vs 100 Thieves
• FlyQuest vs Golden Guardians
• Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Liquid
• Immortals vs Cloud9
• TSM vs Dignitas

Friday, March 17

• Counter Logic Gaming vs Cloud9
• TSM vs FlyQuest
• Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses
• Dignitas vs Golden Guardians
• Immortals vs 100 Thieves

Esports.gg will update this LCS 2023 Spring schedule article frequently across the season with live updates and match scores.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and updates.

Old G, comprising Johan “N0tail” Sundstein, Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, Volodymyr “Noone” Minenko, and Arif “MSS” Anwar, was formed rather spontaneously ahead of the 2022/2023 DPC season. Despite fielding semi-active players and a midlaner-turned-carry, the team still managed to advance to the Closed Qualifier through the first OQ. Now they have one final obstacle before they can step into the next season’s DPC. But remember! Keep your expectations low…

Ceb talks about Old G: "You should have zero expectations for this team."

Ceb sums up the formation of Old G and what they are looking forward to in the upcoming season.

• News

Sarah "KZ" Zulkiflee

Dec 10

Closed Qualifiers Overview

The DPC Closed Qualifiers (for all regions) take place across three days from December 19th to 22nd. Eight teams, that qualified through four rounds of Open Qualifier, will clash in a double-elimination bracket format with all matches being best-of-three (BO3).

All participants in the WEU Closed Qualifier are Old G, Monaspa, Ooredoo Thunders, HAVU Gaming, Team Blink, KZ Team, NOSTRVM, and LeClassique 2.0.

Countdown

Bracket

Results

• Old G [W] vs LeClassique 2.0 [FF]

UPDATE: LeClassique 2.0 has forfeited the match. Old G advances to the Upper Bracket Semifinals, meanwhile LeClassique 2.0 drops to the Lower Bracket.

You can check the bracket here.

Where to watch Old G live

The Western European DPC is hosted by PGL, so you might be able to find the live broadcast on PGL’s Twitch channel. Community streamers and casters will definitely hop on the Old G hype and broadcast the games on their channel. Here are some of the most popular Dota 2 streamers and casters on Twitch: Gorgc, ODPixel, Jenkins, and Bkop.

We’ll update this section with more available livestreams once the matchup begins.

Quiz Maker – powered by Riddle

Closed Qualifiers in other regions:

• CN Closed Qualifier
• SEA Closed Qualifier
• EEU Closed Qualifier
• NA Closed Qualifier
• SA Closed Qualifier

Stick around Esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates!

Blitzcrank’s Overdrive (W) ability is barely used by players in League of Legends—but that could be about to change soon.

Blitzcrank mains and support players have been complaining about the 30 percent slow that the champion experiences once Overdrive ends. But one content creator, Hextech Lab, found a new advantage of the ability on Dec. 18, which relies on one of the newest items, Jak’Sho, The Protean.

Since Riot Games introduced the new League of Legends esports schedule on Dec. 15, North American fans have been mystified. Many have expressed their disappointment with this new timetable with the LCS games now being scheduled to be played on weekdays.

League fans are worried about this shift in schedule, believing it will exacerbate the problem of LCS’ declining viewership. According to Sullygnome, the average LCS viewership on Twitch at the start of each season has been declining since 2020. But the silence from the LCS team owners’ on this issue is what has caused concerns in the NA community.

Viego bugs are becoming increasingly common in League of Legends, and players have just found another one.

A content creator named Hextech Lab showcased a bug on their YouTube channel on Dec. 18. Once Viego seizes control of the Lulu’s spirit, his Pix becomes targetable to enemy champions. As well as that, another Lulu from his team can give his Pix a Pix of its own.

The Call of Duty League is where the very best players in the world go head-to-head, fighting it out for their share of the multi-million dollar prize purse as well as the all-important Call of Duty Championship at the end of the season.

Throughout 2022, the pros played Call of Duty: Vanguard, bringing a whole different layer of gameplay to the franchise, and allowing some players to flourish even more than others. This then seeped into the early 2023 CDL season, where players are setting the game alight in MW2.

Assessing players on their raw talent, game IQ, tournament placings, and more, here are Dexerto’s top five Call of Duty players of 2022.

Best CoD players

5. Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro

Shotzzy has been a breakout star of the last few years since his 2020 debut.

Shotzzy has fast become recognized as one of the slickest players in Call of Duty, now known as an S-tier submachine gun player, despite having only switched over from Halo for Modern Warfare 2019.

His shot is as crisp as it can get, and he regularly redefines the movement meta, able to slip and slide his way out of any situation, pick up quick two, three, or four-pieces, and help carry his team over the edge to victory.

4. Kenny ‘Kenny’ Williams

Kenny was the postseason MVP and a world champion in 2022.

Kenny had a rough start to the year, and at points it looked as though his LA Thieves team could be on the verge of splitting, unable to get any wins rolling.

That all changed, though, when Kenny switched from an AR to an SMG, completely turning the team’s fortunes on its head. They went from being walked all over, to the only back-to-back winners of 2022, winning Major 4 in New York and CoD Champs, with Kenny himself winning the MVP award at Champs.

3. Amer ‘Pred’ Zulbeari

Pred was the 2022 Rookie of the Year and the best SMG in the game.

2022 was Pred’s rookie year and he couldn’t have asked for it to go a whole lot better. Not only did he win a Major with Seattle Surge, who had one of the highest average placings in the CDL, but he was also undoubtedly the best SMG player in the game for the majority of the year.

If 2023 goes at all the same for Pred, he’s going to become perhaps the most in-demand player for other franchises, and he may see even more championships in the near future — he even came close at Major 1, the first tournament of the 2023 MW2 season, placing a close second to New York Subliners.

2. Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell

Dashy has been one of the standout ARs of recent years.

Dashy is a player whose individual skill has never and can never be brought into question. His shot is second to none, and he’s consistently been a demon in any gunfight throughout the duration of his career.

It would take a behemoth to have had a better year than Dashy — who many fans would argue might actually deserve to be at the top — and a behemoth it is who beats him for the top spot.

1. McArthur ‘Cellium’ Jovel

Cellium was named the 2022 CDL MVP.

Cellium is undeniably one of the most impressive players in Call of Duty history, for multiple reasons, and 2022 was nothing less than spectacular for the Atlanta FaZe star.

He led the league in KD stats, and FaZe had the highest average placing of any team despite failing to actually win a championship themselves. He doesn’t seem to be slowing down in Modern Warfare 2, either, once again topping KD leaderboards by some margin through Major 1.

With the 2023 CDL season now well underway, all five of these players are looking to live up to their 2022 performances — they’ll just be hoping to win even more championships on the way.

Counter Strike: Go was one of the only titles to bring forward somewhat of an economy that brought in some form of inherent value through their in-game skins. However, many will be aware of how that ended…

Whilst titles on the blockchain are evolving drastically, so is the pro gaming/competitive scene. We have seen EV.io and Axie Infinity review be hosted at tournaments around the world which is amazing, with more tournaments being announced already for 2023.

@ CYBAVO

Web3: The Early Days

Many are quick to judge Crypto gaming and Web3. Much like when the internet was first being developed, traditional investors were quick to shun it, not being able to comprehend what the future had in store for what is now known as “Web2”.

Fast forward to 2022 and the Internet is now a place for more than searching the web. Individuals can start empires, make huge amounts of capital and revolutionize their industries from a computer screen.

Web3 still is showing growing pains, especially the models that govern the games. Early crypto games are incredibly hard to access due to NFT prices, with gameplay being lackluster and quite frankly boring. It’s only the last year we have seen developers really push Web3 gaming into the unknown with the utilization of Unreal Engine 5 technologies.

Web3: Esports Adoption

Esports titles like Call of Duty, Rocket League and Fortnite are action packed, tear jerking games. When played by the top performers from around the world, they have spectators on the edge of their seats wanting more.

Furthermore, these games are played by millions around and are spectated by millions also. The industry is worth a lot by this point with mainstream brands lending a hand to the proceedings.

If games within the Web3 space want to flourish in the future, the current model of “Play-To-Earn” is needing to evolve. The Web2 games mentioned above have distinct characters and an urge for competition and skill. Compared to many Crypto games, that require time and effort rather than skill.

@ The Cryptonomist

Gameplay and skill will be integrated heavily into the more upscale titles we are seeing become more present in the space. In the wake of this advancement, “Win-To-Earn” will become the accepted gaming model for the future of games.

AxieGG spokesman and gamer, Chief, has lent his take to the discussion. He has over 4 years experience in the Web3 gaming space making him somewhat of an elder with plenty of experience. He had this to say:

“Win-To-Earn. Because that’s how you build hype, build social media and create a narrative. You don’t earn just to push a button. You earn because you deserved it by winning.”

This is a great take, because as lucrative as Crypto gaming is for people on all corners of the world, the models currently are not sustainable. Games are heavily reliant on the constant expanding of playerbases, which can cause implications very early on.

And as we have seen this year, gaming tokens have taken a huge plummet in price despite players still engaging with the titles. Which in itself could put people off from continuing playing or even joining on in the first place.

Win To Earn is an interesting concept and we hope to see a prosperous future for Web3 gaming as we go into 2023 and beyond.

Happy gaming!

With a panel of 39 judges, the ceremony was a way to earn bragging rights in this evolving economy. The top games you know and loved were voted for by the panel and gamers at home.

Crypto gaming has been on a substantial rise this year as we have seen games move into unknown territory with gameplay and graphics. Millions of “Unique Active Wallets” have been recorded and billions of dollars of funding from both institutional and retail investors have entered the space.

Let’s look more indepth at how the Gam3 game awards paid homage to the blockchain’s gaming efforts this year.

@ Polkastarter

Which games got featured at Gam3?

At this year’s Gam3 Awards, there were 16 categories under the Web3 part of the ceremony. Hosted by Polkastarter Gaming, some of the top games were shortlisted for a chance of gaining a highly coveted award.

This year has spawned a few different Web3 related prizes and awards so we hope the trend continues. Over 200+ crypto games were shortlisted making this a close knit competition for the coveted awards.

The following categories and winners for the Web3 awards were:

• Game of the Year: Big Time
• Most Anticipated Game: Shrapnel
• Best Graphics: Star Atlas
• Best Action Game: Superior
• Best Mobile Game: Thetan Arena
• Best Adventure Game: Big Time
• Best Casual Game: Blankos Block Party
• Best RPG: Illuvium
• Best Shooter Game: MetalCore
• Best Strategy Game: Gods Unchained
• Best Card Game: Gods Unchained
• Best Multiplayer Game: EV.io
• Best Esports Game: EV.io
• Best Content Creator: Brycent
• People’s Choice Awards: League of Kingdom
• Games’ Choice Awards: The Harvest

All of the above awards were voted for by the panel of judges, however awards such as The People’s Choice, Content Creator, and Games’ Choice were voted for externally.

“People’s Choice” & “Best Content Creator” Awards“Games’ Choice Award” was voted for by game teams to promote more of a community feel.

@ Play To Earn

The Gam3 Awards panel featured individuals who were representative of Web3 companies such as:

• Animoca Brands
• Solana Foundation
• BNB Chain
• Fractal
• Polygon
• DappRadar
• Immutable X

The above winners of the Gam3 Awards, were placed into a prize pool that reached up to $1 million! The funding came from sponsors from within the Web3 industry, such as Immutable X, Blockchain Game Alliance, Machinations, Ultra, Naavik, Galxe, Hacken, Venly, HackenProof, Shorooq, Elixir, Arcade and MetaCon.

Games were judged on accessibility, gameplay, replayability, graphics and the playing experience. All of these criterias have developed quite drastically over the past 12 months. It has never been easier to access a Blockchain related game. Players can do so through a number of platforms, integrating their best crypto wallets for gaming, mobile appstores and through signing up to the games’ site.

In October to November alone, DappRadar alone recorded over 800, 000 unique active wallets over a number of different networks. This number may grow going into the New Year months of 2023.

Overall thoughts on the Gam3 Awards

Firstly congratulations to all those who were shortlisted, winner’s of awards and who were a part of the proceedings for the ceremony. Whilst it’s evident many of the titles were deserving of their titles. It must be noted there are some irregularities to the winners.

Whilst Star Atlas is a promising game after the release of their Beta on the Epic Games Store they won an award despite not even having a full release yet. Also the short gameplay that has been presented to us so far, cannot be compared to a game that has had multiple stages of its project released such as Phantom Galaxies.

Furthermore, it may be more beneficial to have more say from voters at home in the next awards. Individuals on the panel are representing companies that had games shortlisted for awards, potentially showing some.

However, the recently-concluded FFWS Bangkok had a peak viewership of just 354,000 – a distant figure from the numbers it was achieving just a year back. While a fall in esports viewers is something that many games have seen in 2022, Free Fire’s story is something different. Losing 90 percent of your total viewers can’t just be blamed on a dip in interest or the pandemic ending.

Esports.net takes a look at the reasons behind this fall from grace for the mobile battle royale title.

Free Fire esports viewership falls in all regions

Comparing the language-wise numbers of the FFWS Singapore and FFWS Bangkok makes one thing clear – the fall in viewership is something that has been witnessed across all regions. The Hindi, Portuguese, and Indonesian language streams all had more than 1 million viewers in the FFWS Singapore. In the FFWS Bangkok, they all had less than 100,000.

For some regions, the fall is more obvious than others. One of them is India which used to be one of the biggest regions for Free Fire. The region contributed a lot to the overall viewership as well. However, the game was banned by the country’s government for alleged data privacy reasons in February 2022. From 1.9 million viewers in the FFWS Singapore, the Hindi stream fell by nearly 98 percent to 22,700 in the FFWS Bangkok.

Trouble at Garena

It’s become obvious now that Free Fire is losing its footing in its established regions like Latin America and Southeast Asia. While this could be due to tough competition from rival games like PUBG Mobile – there’s also been trouble at Garena to blame for it.

In September, Garena’s parent company Sea Ltd. reported a $1 billion loss in its quarterly financials report. As a result, it laid off workers across all its divisions, which includes Garena. According to a report, 15 percent of the game’s staff in the Shanghai office were let go.

These layoffs would certainly have affected the overall functioning of the game and its esports scene. Many of Garena’s staff also switched to other companies. One such glaring problem was observed in Brazil.

Brazil is the most developed region for Free Fire esports with a franchised league called the LBFF. The LBFF has three series – Series A, B, and C with each being for pro, semi-pro, and amateur players. To put into perspective the scope of Free Fire esports in Brazil, the winner of the Esports Team of the Year at the Esports Awards 2022, LOUD, was a Free Fire org in its early days.

Nonetheless, as the layoffs hit Garena – there was a period of strong uncertainty for LBFF teams. The teams have publicly complained of Garena’s lack of information about the 2023 season. Some of the best Free Fire players and teams even refused to confirm their participation.

There is still some uncertainty about Free Fire esports’ plans for next year.

Shutting down of BOOYAH! hits Free Fire Esports Viewership Numbers

As a result of the losses sustained, Sea Ltd. shut down its streaming platform BOOYAH!. The platform contributed hugely to the overall viewership – mainly because it gave Garena a chance to directly control its audience and also reward them with in-game items for watching tournaments.

Behind YouTube, the most-watched streaming platform for the FFWS Singapore was BOOYAH. Because of its shutting down, that number dropped to zero in the FFWS Bangkok. It remains to be seen what lies ahead for Free Fire esports.

Will the viewership continue to fall or will it stabilize in the future?

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To compound the pressure, embattled captain Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen landed in the UAE capital to terrible news — the passing of his father at home in Europe.

It would take the impossible, then, for G2 to emerge from nowhere and claim the World Final title for themselves.

But after a 1092 day wait for a grand final map win — let alone an S-Tier title — G2 emerged victorious over Team Liquid 2-0 (16-7, 16-12) to claim the lion’s share of the million dollars.

17-year-old wonderkid Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov took out the event MVP, but Australian rifler Justin “jks” Savage (40-24, 1.35 rating) topped the server in the grand final in a stellar return to form.

“Started the year strong, ending the year strong — nothing more to say, really,” said jks immediately following G2’s grand final win.

His 1.35 final rating was accompanied by a 1.12 event rating and a +40 kill differential across the tournament — a stark contrast to what has been a rollercoaster of a year for the Aussie.

jks was a late stand-in due to COVID back at IEM Katowice, where he & FaZe Clan halted G2 in the grand final to take out the first S-Tier tournament for the year.

• Read more: jks first Aussie to claim big event win with FaZe Clan

He would join G2 shortly after his Katowice win, with success seemingly within reach early: a top six finish at BLAST Fall Groups and a semi-final result at ESL Pro League S16.

But things turned grim for jks and G2 in October, where the squad fell to 1win and GamerLegion in the European RMR to miss the IEM Rio Major.

Many had been calling for jks’ head, with the Aussie failing to fill Audric “JACKZ” Jug’s shoes over the course of the year.

But he battled back at the BLAST World Finals this past week, posting year-high ratings across the tournament.

G2 fell to FaZe in the group stage opener, but the squad bounced back in elimination to defeat Rio Major champs Outsiders 2-0 — including a 16-1 decimation on Mirage.

jks & co. brushed off Vitality in the round-of-six before narrowly downing FaZe in a semi-final rematch 2-0 (16-14, 16-13) — where “Juzzy” joined Nemanja “huNter” Kovač at the top of the server.

jks would repeat his efforts in the grand final; the Aussie went 21-9 in a 16-7 rout of Team Liquid on Inferno, before a +4 effort on Mirage broke the backs of the North American side — who were also hunting their first big event win of the year.

The conclusion of the BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi spells the end of the Counter-Strike year for 2022, with the IEM Katowice Play-In’s kicking off in January 2023.

The post jks stars as G2 close out year with BLAST Premier World Final title appeared first on Snowball Esports.

It was thought inconceivable that Jayden “foggers” Graham could be the one to secure the Die Hard their rightful crown, but the 22-year-old did just that.

Foggers topped the server in the three-mapper (52-38, 1.37 rating), with tournament MVP Hugh “HUGHMUNGUS” Anderson (56-44, 1.34 rating) and James “chief” Jago (56-37, 1.29 rating) joining Foggers in the 50 Club.

Jy “end[R]” Supple (50-51, 1.08) did his best to keep pace with Die Hard’s trio, but ultimately he and Blingus fell short in the final — their first following back-to-back semi-final appearances at the iconic Brisbane event.

The win is chief’s second in a row following his appearance for The AirBNB Incident at BrisVegas Spring.

Sources close to Snowball Esports indicated that chief was approached by the Die Hard core following their loss to chief’s AirBNB Incident, with the star rifler joining the squad ahead of this past weekend’s Summer tournament.

Die Hard made it look easy on Saturday morning, clearing the group stage without loss, but fell 16-13 to Blingus in the quarter-finals in the evening.

They palmed off The AirBNB Champs 2-0 (16-10, 16-12) in a Spring final rematch in elimination, before swiftly dispatching of Easy Riders in the lower bracket final.

Blingus took a map to get going on Championship Sunday, with the warmed-up Die Hard team blitzing through Inferno 16-4 and threatening an early boilover.

But the Spring semi-finalists bit back on Mirage with an impressive 16-9, forcing Overpass.

It would be Blingus’ ultimate demise, however, coming at the hands of the Foggers/HUGHMUNGUS duo who combined for 47 kills in the decider to take home a $2,500 AUD prize.

In all, BrisVegas Summer proved a major success, and wonderfully capped off a banger four-event year for organiser Daniel “mavrick” Lang and his team at DFrag.

“Our aim was to bring the tier one experience to the grassroots — the suburbs of esports, basically — and I can say without a doubt it was a qualified success,” said Mavrick.

A crew of over twenty staff helped bring BrisVegas to life — the largest in the history of the event.

“It’s the most amount of effort I’ve seen the team put in and the resulting product showed. Expect this to be the bar going forward.”

Mavrick has already confirmed BrisVegas’ return for 2023, including CS:GO and Rocket League, as well as a larger prize pool for both titles.

Probe takes out maiden BrisVegas StarCraft title

He entered as tournament favourite, but Sean “Probe” Kempen was tested on his way to the trophy in the first BrisVegas x AusCraft StarCraft 2 event.

Probe dropped a series in the best-of-three round robin to fellow Protoss Jack “Pezz” Perry, with the two, alongside Zerg player Lachlan “Oreo” Passenger, finishing 4-1 in the group stage.

Oreo would fall in the lower bracket playoffs to Christopher “Chappy” Chapman in a Zerg mirror match, while Probe sent Pezz into elimination in the upper bracket final.

Pezz wouldn’t make a third rematch, however, with the tournament’s sole Terran in Craig “Azure” MacKechnie instead taking on Probe in the best-of-seven grand final.

Probe would prove far too strong for the Terran, with a one-match advantage quickly turned into a 4-0 final sweep.

“It was a weird and wonky series for a final, but very happy to pull it through,” said Probe.

“At these kind of events I tend to drop one in the group stage, but getting back into the upper bracket and getting the rematch over Pezz was important.”

After a successful end to 2022, including titles at ESL ANZ Champs & BrisVegas, as well as an appearance at IEM Katowice, Probe is stepping away from competitive SC2.

“My message to everyone at home — there’s probably going to be more of these community events, and it’s important that everyone signs up and gets involved. Thanks heaps to the organisers for getting this off the ground,” he finished.

The tournament is the first offline StarCraft 2 community event since AusCraft’s inception and maiden competition back in 2020, where Joseph “Future” Stanish took down Miguel “Vindicta” Marmolejo in an all-international final.

It is also the first time BrisVegas has featured StarCraft 2, with producer Harry “Strategiza” Altmann extremely pleased with the outcome of the event.

“There was a great community feel to BrisVegas as a whole,” he said.

“A lot of the players know each other, so it’s a great feeling to get StarCraft back on LAN for the first time in years at such a level.”

“StarCraft proved a great addition to BrisVegas and it was awesome to see those involved with both CS:GO and SC2 mingle and celebrate each others’ successes.”

The post Die Hard deny Blingus in BrisVegas Summer thriller; Probe takes out StarCraft 2 feature in grand final sweep appeared first on Snowball Esports.

The next DLC pack for Civilization 6's Leader Pass, Great Commanders, is now available and includes Tokugawa (Japan), Nader Shah (Persia), and Suleiman the Magnificent (Ottoman Empire).

Tokugawa introduces new ability Bakuhan, whilst Nader Shah has Sword of Persia and Suleiman the Magnificent has a new ability called… well, The Magnificent.

Sword of Persia buffs +5 Combat Strength attacking full Health Units, whilst cities not founded by Nader Shah receive +2 Faith and +3 Gold on Domestic Trade Routes. The Magnificent, on the other hand, gives +15% Science and Culture when in a Golden Age and +4 Combat Strength when not in a Golden Age against Civilisations who are also not in a Golden Age.

Read more

Sable is today's festive freebie at Epic Games Store.

The open-world exploration game - which sees you "embark on a unique and unforgettable journey and guide Sable through her Gliding" - is the latest game to be given away for free at Epic Games Store. You can check it out below:

"I've finished and watched the credits and I still know I've seen only a small fraction of what this world has to offer," Donlan wrote in his Recommended Sable review.

Read more

Lost Ark's festive Wreck the Halls update is now live.

As well as ushering in the Summoner Advanced class - which brings a "powerful variety of water, lightning, earth, and more unique attacks" to the MMORPG - we'll also meet the "cunning and ruthless" Phantom Legion Commander and get a new Guardian raid that takes on Caliligos, "the master of lightning", too.

"Caliligos is the master of lightning, commanding blue lightning to bring his enemies to their knees," Amazon teases, confirming that he will join the gauntlet of Level 6 Guardians and an Item Level on 1490 is required to challenge him.

Read more

Elsewhere, ALGS Championship runners up FURIA missed out on LAN qualification, while Dark Zero snuck into the top 10 with their best performance of the season so far. esports.gg spoke to Dark Zero coach PVPX about their performance today.

Today also decided the final standings of the Pro League, TSM did enough to see off newly signed XSET and take the Pro League title.

Exceptional Esports Arena

Esports Arena made an incredible start to their Regional Finals. They reached the ‘match point’ threshold in just 3 games, which is the fastest that any team has reached the threshold in North America ever. They dominated the first three opening games, taking first, second and then third in that order. Across those 3 games they averaged a whopping 7.66 kills per game.

Esports Arena master Worlds Edge

Amazingly, Esports Arena came into this regional final with a 100% win record from the top 5 on Worlds Edge. They had lost that record before game 5 came around, but their fantastic record in Worlds Edge end games gave them the confidence to make a phenomenal play, crossing the open Lava with Horizon’s Gravity Lift and clearing out the high ground.

This dominant 5 game win is the joint-fastest match point victory in the games history. Esports Arena have defied the odds, with Lewda battling an injury and Caprah making his top level debut just this split. How far can this roster go at LAN? Time will tell.

Credit has to go to Esports Arena as an organisation. They are building a great track record at discovering and supporting emerging talent in the North American scene. The question will be if Esports Arena choose to cash in on this roster, like they did with OpTic before the Sweden LAN.

Dark Zero sneak into LAN

It was a fantastic performance from Dark Zero, who snuck into the final LAN qualification spot with a second placed finish on the day. There was significant pressure on the roster. They relocated from APAC South to North America having won both LAN events in 2021-22. While they dominated APAC South, DarkZero relocated the team to North America to compete in a much bigger third party tournament scene. This roster was essentially guaranteed LAN from APAC South, and relocating to not qualify might have felt like a major mistake.

They needed to perform today. Only an outright win or a top three finish would do. If they couldn’t pull off a match point win, then Dark Zero would rely on other results going their way. With Esports Arena performing well, that only increased the pressure on Genburten and co.

Dark Zero making Dome work

They got off to a slow start in game one. On Worlds Edge, Dark Zero were landing Dome. This is roundly considered the worst spot on the whole of Worlds Edge. In smaller tournaments, Dark Zero had tried to contest TSM at Lava Siphon, but were seen off.

You’d think that when landing at Dome, a very north Skyhook zone would be the worst possible situation imaginable. Think again. Working their way through the entire length of Worlds Edge, Dark Zero deployed Seer and Bangalore to fight their way into zone.

Bangalore is surging in popularity in North America, and her smokes combined with digital threat scopes is a deadly duo. Once Dark Zero get going, it’s hard to stop them. They steam rolled their way North, and closed out an incredibly tight end game. Picking up 13 kills in the process, the all Aussie roster took a much needed victory.

Dark Zero also had to make the best of a bad situation on Storm Point. They split a no name POI nicknamed ‘Bean’ with FaZe as part of an oddly crowded South West quadrant of Storm Point.

Dark Zero PVPX: “It was a go big or go home moment literally”.

esports.gg spoke to Dark Zero’s Coach, PVPX after the games.

How much pressure was on the roster to perform today, considering they relocated away from what was essentially guaranteed LAN qualification?

“After last Sunday being the most unlucky day I’ve seen in ALGS in terms of crashes / bugs we were forced to get Top 2 today and on top of that we had to fill horrible drop spots: Dome and splitting half of Bean with FaZe. It was a go big or go home moment literally.”

What was behind the decision to land at Dome?

“We planned on going Frag West & Thunder/Storm but since we had such a bad score the previous Sunday we had the pressure of not being able to contest any teams off drop. ESA claimed Frag West and they are an edge team so they don’t care if they fight. The only open spot was Dome so we said we’ll play edge, which is not our normal style, just to play out the game”

Dark Zero debated contesting TSM

Did you debate trying to contest TSM after Oversight this week? Do you think they can hold all of Siphon at LAN, when most regions split it?

“Yes we did. North Siphon is a top quality drop spot and we are confident to contest any team off drop but unfortunately even if TSM gets a 20th in ALGS they would still make it to LAN so it wasn’t even an option on the table for us to land there. We tested it on Oversight to see if we could somehow rotate faster than they could push.

“TSM trying to claim Siphon at LAN will be interesting to see. It really depends on how many teams from other regions qualified from there and how open they are to leaving. I imagine a lot of teams would not mind the 50/50 off drop during group stages.”

TSM win Pro League

TSM took their first ALGS Pro League title, doing enough to keep clear of XSET. It was a solid performance from TSM, who knew they did not need anything special to take a victory. Their LAN qualification was already secured before the day’s action.

It has been a very impressive split from TSM. Signing coach Raven has helped TSM develop a clear identity, and the roster has regained the confidence that saw them dominate the game for multiple seasons.

They will be one of the teams to watch at the Playoffs, set to be in London.

Esports Arena secure LAN spot, but who’s joining them?

It was an incredibly tense day of action in North America, with only two teams locked in for LAN before the start of play. Throughout the five games, the top 14 teams swung wildly. At one stage NRG were set to finish 12th overall, but a huge win in game 4 saw them leapfrog several rivals and lock down a top 10 position.

The teams joining Esports Arena at the ALGS Playoffs from North America will be

• TSM
• XSET
• The Guard
• Luminosity
• NRG
• 100 Thieves
• HEC
• Spacestation Gaming
• Dark Zero

Two powerhouses, OpTic and FURIA will be watching the ALGS Playoffs from home. Neither team was able to find the results they needed to secure a top ten finish. FURIA will be particularly frustrated, they had their worst day of the split so far and finished in 18th. Known as one of the most aggressive fighting teams, only found three kills the entire tournament. They will head back to the drawing board ahead of the second split of the Pro League.

For coverage of the ALGS, and all other things Apex Legends, stay tuned to esports.gg.

Building 21 is a clandestine biological laboratory that “will take players outside of Al Mazrah and into a hyper-dangerous new area of DMZ,” according to patch notes. So where exactly is Building 21?

Where is Building 21 in Call of Duty: Warzone 2?

Building 21 will work similarly to The Lab in Escape From Tarkov, the survival game that DMZ mode appears to based on. This means that Call of Duty players will be able to select Building 21 instead of Al Mazrah from a level selector.

In order to access the new level, however, players will need to find the access card in Al Mazrah and successfully extract with it. Since Building 21 has the Chimera assault rifle and other high-tier loot, it’s most definitely worth the effort.

Building 21 is currently not in the game, but players can gain access to it meanwhile by getting an access card. When Building 21 arrives, you’ll be able to select it from the level selector.

How to find the Building 21 key in Al Mazrah

You’ll have a chance to get the access key in a variety of ways. This includes SAM site drops, airplane supply drops, and the Commander Helo supply drop.

SAM sites are marked with a white icon on the map. Head to that area and clear out all of the AI enemies. Activate a console to initiate a countdown. You’ll then have to defend the area against more incoming AI enemies. But once the site is secured, the missile battery will shoot down airplanes passing overhead, releasing a supply drop you can loot.

When the kick off timer hits 10 minutes during a match, you can also check out airplane supply drops. Airplanes drop three supply drops in its path, marked by an orange dollar symbol on the Tac-Map.

One of the most difficult ways to obtain the access key is from taking down the Commander Helo. Journey to the white skull icon on your map.

The last way to get the access key is by taking it off of an enemy team. If you can take it from them and successfully extract with it, you’ll have access to Building 21.

Aurora’s second place in the ALGS Regional Final helped them pip Acend to the Pro League title.

Elsewhere, VZN have secured their place in the ALGS Playoffs with a solid showing in the ALGS Regional Final. They will be the only unsigned team heading to the Playoffs.

The ALGS Regional Final followed the match point format, with the map swapping between Worlds Edge and Storm Point every two games.

Firebeavers win ALGS Regional final

On the day, it was Fire Beavers who won the ALGS Regional final. They took victory in the seventh game. This was a very impressive victory, as they had only reached the 50 point threshold of in the previous game.

Their victory seemed inevitable for the Fire Beavers for the majority of the game. In a zone pulling to an outer edge of Barometer, Fire Beavers took a really powerful position on the other side of the open water.

They knew that this was the best spot in this zone because they played in the exact same spot in game 3, in an almost identical zone. They won that game comfortably, so the pressure was on to repeat that performance.

Repeat it they did. The Fire Beavers found themselves in a really tense finale to the ALGS Regional Final. The Beavers were joined by Alliance and Acend in the final zone, Alliance were on match point but Acend were not.

It might be that winning the same zone earlier gave them the confidence to stay firm and hold their spot. Using a previously acquired Trident as make shift cover was possibly the key factor that helped them close out victory. With no Newcastle or Gibby they lacked any portable protection in a very open zone.

The Fire Beavers will now head to the Playoffs with the added confidence of having won a match point tournament. They came second in the 2021 ALGS Championship narrowly missing out to SCARZ, and struggled to 18th in the Raleigh LAN Championship finals.

Aurora made blistering start to ALGS Regional final

Aurora were the first team to reach match point, making a blistering start to the ALGS Regional final. They came just shy of reaching the threshold in only two games. Dropping into the day’s third map, they had already racked up 48 points, just shy of the all important 50 point mark.

Aurora use ‘off-meta’ picks on both maps. Maggie, Caustic, Wraith on Worlds Edge and Catalyst, Bangalore, Seer on Storm Point. They used Catalyst to full effect on their way to securing match point in game 4. Dominating an open space end zone is effortless when you have Bangalore, Catalyst and a Kraber. The match point format in the ALGS Regional final raised a key question for Aurora. Stick or twist? Would they change legends to protect them from being focused by opposition teams? It’s very easy to work out where Aurora are when they use an off meta composition.

The answer, no change in the immediate game. Aurora had already qualified for LAN before the day’s action. By finishing second, they were guaranteed to win the Pro League unless Acend or Vexed Gaming took top spot. For them, match point was almost irrelevant to their games. Acend did adjust legends later on, but still to off meta picks – which was probably an adjustment to win the games rather than hide from other teams. On Storm Point, they also kept their Bangalore Catalyst combination.

Aurora win Pro League

While they did not manage to close out a win in the ALGS Regional Finals, they took second overall by some margin. For aggressive edge teams, accepting 2nd seems to be the trade off. FURIA adopted the same approach in Raleigh.

Their second place overall helped them to take the top spot in Pro League, which was also up for grabs today. This secures them a very healthy $25,000 in prize money. We’ve seen at previous LAN Playoffs that Aurora won’t bow to any meta, so expect to see their Maggie Caustic combination at LAN.

ALGS Regional Final shakes out LAN qualifiers

With the conclusion of the ALGS Regional Final, the 10 teams heading to LAN from the EMEA region is now settled.

The qualifying teams are as follows:

• Aurora
• Acend
• Vexed Gaming
• Fire Beavers
• Alliance
• iG International
• Pioneers
• E6
• VZN
• GameWard

GameWard and VZN will be particularly delighted. VZN recovered from a really poor start in the Pro League and have completed an incredible comeback with their 9th place finish. Elsewhere, GameWard have qualified thanks to Fire Beavers winning the ALGS Regional Final. Their win earned them the automatic qualification spot, meaning their fourth place spot was pushed down to 10th.

There was no real surprises in the EMEA region, all the most notable teams have qualified, and the EMEA region will hope that VISA issues do not hamper their region’s ability to perform on the world stage.

For coverage of the ALGS, and all other things Apex Legends, stay tuned to esports.gg.

Sparg0 just won his second Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament after coming out of quite a long break, well and truly proving he still has it.

First in line, Sparg0 won the tournament over Tweek without dropping a single set, claiming victory in 3-1 fashion from the winner’s side, which means the set was finished in just four games. This grand final was a runback of Mainstage where Sparg0 also defeated Tweek.

The week couldn’t have started any better for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players. 

The Pokemon Company confirmed they’re adding two new Tera Raid Battle Events in December and January. The first is Cinderace and the second is Delibird, who is a Christmas bonus of sorts. Talk about ending the year and kicking off a new one with a bang. Who needs fireworks when you can terastilize?

The New York Subliners knocked off the Seattle Surge to claim the Call of Duty League’s first major championship of the 2023 season, winning the CDL Major I with a 4-1 victory in the Grand Finals. 

In the series’ first map in the best of seven match, Hotel Hardpoint would be the setting for what turned out to be a wildly entertaining map. Seattle found themselves just two points from the needed 250 to secure a 1-0 lead, but were unable to stay on the point for those elusive final seconds.

The New York Subliners had a spectacular finish to the 2022 season. On the brink of missing CDL Champs, The Subliners climbed from 11th place to eighth after a heroic second-place finish at Major 4 in front of its hometown crowd. It was the bright spot on an otherwise disappointing year.

Things were looking up, but then the roster dramatically imploded in the off-season.

The organization turned a new leaf straight away: Matthew ‘Kismet’ Tinsley and Paco ‘HyDra’ Rusiewiez returned for CDL 2023, reinvigorated by fresh faces around them. Preston ‘priestahh’ Greiner and Cesar ‘Skyz’ Bueno proved to be the missing links, joining from Minnesota ROKKR and Florida Mutineers.

All four players entered 2023 with something to prove, and everything fell perfectly into place at CDL Major 1.

If you told someone before the start of the CDL 2023 season the New York Subliners would win Major 1, you may have received a weird look. But this isn’t the same unstable NYSL team you knew before.

Skyz, HyDra, Kismet, and priestahh aren’t just great players. They form a cohesive unit with good chemistry on and off the battlefield. Whether it be Skyz and Kismet singing on stage during a match, or Skyz showing off his dance moves between matches, the “vibes” are different in 2023.

“If you met me last year, you probably wouldn’t even know me,” HyDra told Dexerto. “Last year, I was not even talking, and the vibes were so off.

“Right now, I can just be myself, be more confident, and have a normal conversation with my teammate without it being weird. Like, no one is going to yell at me if I do something bad in-game. Like someone will say something but with respect.”

NYSL struggled to find consistency in Major 1 qualifiers, placing ninth, but everything changed on the main stage. They were seemingly unstoppable — sweeping the ROKKR and LA Guerrillas on Day 1, then dispatching Florida on Day 2. The Seattle Surge put an end to their blistering start, but they grinded through the lower bracket to prove their worth in their first event since the implosion.

They pushed through Vegas Legion and Atlanta FaZe, before getting their just desserts against Seattle in the grand final.

On day two, New York finally dropped a map but still dispatched Florida 3-1. Seattle sent the Subliners down into the losers side of the bracket, but it would be HyDra and company having the last laugh.

Kismet couldn’t be stopped in the final series, going 93-87 and earning the MVP award.

“I am super confident in what I do. I know I’m one of the best players to do what I do,” he said. “The thing that separates me is I can do that, but I also do the dirty work and anything I can to set my teammates up.”

HyDra showed why he earned the nickname “French Phenom,” putting up a 1.14 KD performance against Seattle. Priestahh had received backlash on social media for his performances over the last two seasons, but Kismet came to his defense after his mega Major 1 performance.

“I keep hearing it and it’s kind of annoying me,” he said. “I was one of the biggest advocates to get Preston on the team.

“I played him in BO4, and I thought he was one of the greatest players. I played him last year, and I thought he was insane, but he didn’t have the right fit.”

Skyz finished with the best KD at Major 1, and fully stepped into his role as a main AR. He played with a confidence level that made him impossible to take down.

“I feel like I was good, but these coaches unlocked me. They are taking me to the next level I need to be at as a main AR.”

It was clear in the second half of 2022 NYSL had the potential to be a top team. New York shook up its coaching staff by promoting Ehsan “DREAL” Javed and brought in Kismet. Both changes were fundamental in the team making its Champs qualification run.

New York kept the momentum heading into 2023. Troy ‘Sender’ Michaels has been in the Call of Duty community since 2008, and spent last season as a coach on OpTic Texas. He was brought on the coaching staff for NYSL, and is hungry for success with his new squad.

“My goal is a ring, I want a ring. I have been doing this way too long playing and coaching and I want to actually win Champs.”

NYSL took the first step in making that championship dream come true, and enter Stage 2 qualifiers with the belief they can take on anyone. After all, they made miracles happen last year, and this new-look Subliners roster are proving to be the full package few expected.

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When you're Nintendo, creator of some of the most beloved games of all time that are just bursting with playful innovation, wonder, and creativity, you might expect that to be reflected in the building where the magic all happens. Sure, maybe it's not Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory or even Google's gimmicky offices that exude a cringey big-kid energy, but you wouldn't think Shigeru Miyamoto, or all the other creative minds of Nintendo EPD, would spend their day-to-day in a giant corporate concrete block, which another developer I spoke to jokingly referred to as, "the place where dreams go to die".

Yet that seemingly oppressive exterior also lends it a curious enigmatic quality, if you think of that concrete block as a giant question block instead, one that dedicated fans want to reach out and bump for the chance to find out a little more about the company they love.

Since my previous visit to Japan in 2019, when I did attempt to make a pilgrimage to see the outside of Nintendo's Kyoto headquarters, there have however been developments for more physical spaces that embody the history and spirit of Nintendo that members of the public can appreciate. These include specialty stores like the Tokyo, and recently opened Osaka, branches of the Nintendo Store (which actually began in the US with Nintendo New York in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center), and theme parks like Super Nintendo World, which first opened in Osaka's Universal Studios Japan in 2021, with more set to be built Stateside. Nintendo is also repurposing its former Uji Ogura Plant to become a museum that will open in 2024, tentatively named the Nintendo Gallery.

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Game of the Week goes out to all of our supporters as part of the Eurogamer Essentials newsletter. There's going to be a slight shake-up of the supporters program in the near future (don't worry - it's all good news) so stay tuned for more details, and thanks as ever for your support - it's much appreciated.

In a rare twist on the Game of the Week formula here's a take on a high profile game that actually did come out this week - and to quite some reception, too. The reaction to High on Life has been mixed, it's fair to say, and it's certainly been vociferous - Edwin's spirited takedown of Squanch Games' noisy shooter has been one of our most popular reviews of the year, which goes to show you all love to see a proper shoeing.

The thing is, I think Edwin was quite kind to a game whose obnoxiousness is its calling card. Kinder than I might have been, anyway, after spending an evening in High on Life's company earlier this week which proved both dreary and draining. I've been a fan of Justin Roiland's frenzied brand of humour since the early days of Rick and Morty, but High on Life does more than prove how what works in a 20-minute episode is ill-suited to a 12 hour adventure - it shows how prescribed humour in games is never as effective as when you're the one powering the gag.

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If you asked me to describe the Gran Turismo series in one word, it would never be 'cool'. Vast? Yes. Detailed? Definitely, but cool? Not really. When I want to play a 'cool' racing game, I head to the latest Forza Horizon or maybe even an old copy of Need for Speed Underground (cheesy cool, OK?). I didn't go into Gran Turismo 7 expecting to be wowed like this.

But then Idris Elba came along.

Starting out in Gran Turismo 7 feels soulless. Waiting for the game to download, tapping a few options on various menus to adjust steering and how the game looks on your TV. All so necessary yet utterly flat. Imagine being a kid tasting Gran Turismo for the first time with...this?

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Arnav “xL” Shukla: An amazing series to watch. How are you feeling after securing the win?

G2 m0NESY: I’m feeling alright, no pressure. My parents are in the Arena, so yeah, they’re watching me, and I’m really hyped to play and win for them.

xL: Starting off on Nuke, you’ve got the better of them the last couple of times you’ve played them. Not the best T side for you guys, but on CT, JKS, especially with those kills and clutches, was going huge. Thoughts on how that map went?

G2 m0NESY: Yeah, we played the T side. To be honest, we played not bad. We played not bad yesterday too. But the thing is, we are losing key rounds. We’re losing with an advantage. 4v2, even 5v2, we just sometimes don’t communicate properly in these rounds. And yeah, these rounds, they just screw us completely with the economy. Sometimes it’s tough, but also we are winning some crucial rounds. We can win full eco. Sometimes, I feel we can be better in eco rounds than buy rounds.

xL: Watching those clutches with JKS having those insane clutches with the jumps. Talk to me about his performance today.

G2 m0NESY: Yeah, he won insane rounds like 1v2. During this game he played really, really well, he won us 2-3 key rounds at like 14-14. And I think they went ramp on 14-15 and he killed three, it was really good. Those rounds helped us to go through and win.

xL: Moving to Inferno, your defence was having a lot of trouble holding FaZe back. They manage to put together 11 rounds on the T side, thanks to Twistzz having a great performance. What went wrong in that first half?

G2 m0NESY: We didn’t show our best CT side. It would have to be far better, again, we were losing bad rounds on Inferno. We lost a 5v2 and a 4v2, and it messed up our economy. We could be leading that half, 9-6 10-5, who knows, maybe even 11-4. But we just lost those rounds, and they went a step ahead and won 11-4.

xL: FaZe is starting to get some really good rounds together towards the end. It feels like this is going to go to a 3rd map again. But HooXi, with that B fake then he also gets some crucial entries in the rounds following that. Really kept the game from getting out of your control. Could you talk a bit about the impact Hooxi’s having?

G2 m0NESY: HooXi is having really great Impact. We trust him, and we’re doing things with full trust. He can just call, like let’s just go through the smoke. We go through the smoke, and we win the round. We just trust him completely. And as you can see, he’s also playing well and shooting well now. He wants to win this tournament, and we’ll do it for him.

xL: Grand Finals to end the year on a high. Facing Liquid tomorrow, how confident are you feeling going into the game?

G2 m0NESY: We’re really confident against any opponent. We played against them last time. They smashed us. But we’ll see. We’ll prepare, and we’ll see in the server. They can win, we can win, but yeah, nothing much to say.

xL: You started the year with finals in Katowice. Really tough loss there. But now you have a chance to lift a trophy at the end of the year. How do you feel?

G2 m0NESY: I’m feeling really nice to make the grand finals again and compete for the trophy. I think we have a good chance to lift the trophy here. The last tournament of the year, and we have a good chance. I’m really glad to be here. My parents are in the arena, and that gives me extra confidence and extra hype.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

Esports.gg had a conversation with 23savage to talk about his MMR journey and his pub secrets.

Grinding in the off-season

It is currently breezy in the realm of Dota 2. While some professional players opted for time off the game, the carry player for Talon Esports, 23savage, had his eyes on the pub prize. About two years ago, he became the first Dota 2 player to reach 12K MMR. Now he has secured one thousand more in his hands. He talked about the slow and steady journey to achieve this milestone.

23savage: I got 12,970 MMR since a week ago and I kept losing on the last game and it was always on the edge. The pub games really depend a lot on luck, some days you get good teammates, and some days you get actors (players that are hired to throw games on purpose).

KZ: Are there a lot of actors in the Southeast Asia (SEA) server right now?

23savage: Yes, especially from the Chinese region. They always have someone who buys accounts and just plays for fun.

KZ: Were there always this many actors?

23savage: The actors come and go. They take a break for three months and come again. I remember this one player with the same voice. He always picks carry Pudge and buys Boots (of Speed).

Playing in the comfort of his own home in Thailand, 23savage described his routine prior to achieving 13K MMR.

23savage: When I was grinding, I was playing like a subhuman. Sleeping at 3 PM and waking up at midnight. I just started resting since I finished the grind. Right now I’m trying to adjust my sleep to the normal human being hours.

Now that he has achieved his goal, reaching the next milestone seems impossible. This is due to the massive gap between 23savage’s MMR and the others on the leaderboard.

23savage: It’ll be too hard because Rank #2 in SEA is not even 12K MMR, he has about 11.7K MMR. And because of this, the queue time takes more than 40 minutes per game. While queueing I can even browse Netflix, try and find some good movies to watch, play FIFA, and just forget that I’m queueing.

The secret to winning pubs

There is no doubt that pub games are massively influenced by luck. But when you are Rank #1 at 13K MMR and the person right behind you is still in the 11K bracket, there must be something you are doing right. 23savage shared the ingredients that he felt were important to winning pubs.

23savage: I remember a lot of picks. If I meet this guy and I know he’ll play this hero then I’ll ban that hero. I’ll try to abuse the ban/pick phase. Because sometimes there are Rank 500 players just spamming the same heroes and they’ll get to the top 10.

Also, just play the meta heroes. Lately, I play Faceless Void, Nature’s Prophet, or Monkey King – something that can dominate the lane and win the game alone. Naga Siren too, she’s one of the good heroes. I also prioritize getting the last pick so I can solo carry the game.

KZ: What happens when your midlaner (or any other teammates) insists on getting the last pick? Doesn’t that usually happen in pubs?

23savage: They’ll let me because I’m Rank #1 (laugh). But there are double standards in pubs. When I’m playing my smurf, the players will be like “2 carry” because they don’t know me. If it’s a normal player, I don’t think they would listen. It’s kind of a SEA thing, they don’t really listen unless you’re a pro player or someone famous.

“SEA is the easiest region to climb MMR” – 23savage

KZ: You are the first and only 13K MMR player right now, but it is also exclusively gained from playing in the SEA server. Do you think you can achieve this if you were to play in other regions?

23savage:  I think it’ll be more difficult because, for me, SEA is the easiest pub. In Europe, I don’t think I can achieve 13K MMR because they have a lot of good players. And some of them are Rank #200 but they are so good. SEA is the easiest region to climb MMR, at least for me.

KZ: What about SEA that makes it so easy?

23savage: It’s because it’s easy to solo carry. In SEA, the players just farm and if you pick off someone, the enemy just loses. But communication is important because if you don’t tell your teammates to take objectives, they will also just farm.

A change for Talon Esports

While most teams took their time to finalize their rosters, Talon Esports was one of the earliest to unveil their official roster for the upcoming season. Talon had dropped two players, Damien “kpii” Chok and Brizio “Hyde” Budiana, replacing them with Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong and Chan “Oli” Chon Kien. The Division I player explained how Talon’s shuffle happened.

23savage: So after we lost at TI11, I told our management we need Jabz. As we can see in the result, the team doesn’t have a proper captain and Jabz is the best captain in SEA at the moment. There’s also Tims (Timothy “TIMS” Randrup) but he’s playing Pos 4 and we don’t want to lose Q (Worawit “Q” Mekchai), he’s a really good player and has potential. So we needed an offlaner and a captain, and Jabz is the best player so I talked to him after we got eliminated.

At first, Jabz wanted to continue with Fnatic and we were in a tough spot. Fortunately, Fnatic decided to drop Jabz so we got him for free and it’s the perfect scenario for Talon.

KZ: Why do you think Jabz is the best captain in SEA?

23savage: He can draft, lead the team well, and he can tell people what to do. Because what I thought about our team is that we are all really good players but we just don’t have a direction, we don’t have someone tell us what to do and give us the conclusion of the game. 

Comments on other rosters

Regarding the wild roster shuffle season in general, 23savage commented on the new SEA threat, Blaclist Rivalry, and BetBoom Team’s lineup, which grabbed his attention.

23savage: Blacklist Rivalry looks fine because they have high experience players but they also lack young players. They need someone who can bring something new and give the team a refreshing feel.

While many are curious about how former Team Spirit midlaner, TORONTOTOKYO, will lead the all-star BetBoom roster, 23savage is convinced of his leadership.

23savage: I played with TORONTOTOKYO before in pubs and he’s a really good captain, he communicates a lot.

23savage will reunite with the rest of his teammates in their Phillippines’ bootcamp on January 2nd, 2023. Though he noted that Talon Esports is in the process of constructing another bootcamp in Thailand that will be complete during the 2nd season (Tour 2).

Catch 23savage in action this upcoming 2022/2023 DPC season that will begin on January 9th, 2023.

Stick around Esports.gg for more exclusive Dota 2 interviews!

When Overwatch 2 first launched, players were stunned by the astonishingly long wait times. Some people found themselves waiting behind over 30,000 other players. By now, however, the queue times are a lot better. Here are the average times you’ll wait for each role.

Quick Play queue times

Right now, queue times for Quick Play are relatively fast. You will most likely be able to get into a game in under one minute — a little longer if you select tank. This is due to their only being one tank per team and the addition of Ramattra in Season 2.

Competitive queue times

If you are in the lower ranks — about Gold and below — you should be able to get into a game in about two minutes. It will take longer the higher you climb in rank since there are fewer people. Beyond Diamond, there might be some longer queue times to consider.

What impacts queue time in Overwatch 2?

There are a few things to consider when guessing the average queue time in Overwatch 2. First, you should keep the location and time in mind. For example, if you’re in California and decide to join a game at 5 AM PST, you’ll most likely have a longer queue time because less people are awake.

Another thing to consider is if you’re squadding up. If you’re in a five-stack, you might end up with longer queue times than if you solo queue. That’s because the game is attempting to find other squads to make the match more balanced.

El Asilo Control might be a cursed map and mode combination early in the 2023 Call of Duty League season.

During today’s winners bracket round two match between the Seattle Surge and New York Subliners at Major One, the series’ third map ended in a controversial manner when New York’s HyDra seemingly dealt with a controller issue in the final seconds of the last round. Seattle ended up winning the map 3-2, but a lengthy technical delay followed that was reminiscent of another El Asilo Control controversy earlier this month involving OpTic Texas during the online qualifiers for this event.

Riot Games is making huge adjustments to all major regions’ broadcast schedules ahead of the 2023 Spring Split. The biggest and arguably most controversial adjustment comes in North America, as the LCS is moving to weekdays. With the LCS studio shifting to the Riot Games Arena to accommodate for VCT games taking the North America weekend slot, NA fans are now without home-region League of Legends action on the weekends—or so they thought.

One of the other big changes announced earlier this month from Riot was the all-new North America Challengers League taking over for Academy. The aptly named NACL will combine the ten academy rosters with six amateur rosters from the North American scene to all compete against each other. Fitted with a regular season, playoffs, and relegation system, Riot has gone far to foster even more home-grown NA talent. The cherry on top for NA League fans? This all-new league will be streamed on the weekends. 

FTX’s monumental collapse has brought with it a slew of controversy. From former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried playing League of Legends during meetings (and apparently sucking at it) to TSM suspending FTX’s place as a title sponsor, the bankruptcy of the service has had an effect on both the LCS and League of Legends as a whole.

Now, Riot Games is trying to cut ties with the crypto exchange service and end its deal by filing a motion related to the FTX bankruptcy case.

In this motion, it was revealed that FTX has outstanding payments due to Riot Games as a sponsor of the LCS, and in the filing, it’s claimed that “it is not realistic to assume that FTX will ever be able to provide assurances of future performance.”

Riot wants FTX to reject their $96 million LCS agreement

To clarify, Riot’s filing isn’t a direct lawsuit against FTX. Rather, it’s a motion, meaning that it is something to be viewed and weighed upon by the court before a hearing. In this case, this will be the FTX bankruptcy hearing.

Through these legal proceedings, the amounts attached to the contract have been revealed to the public. While FTX has paid through some of the deal that totals over $96 million USD, it still owes Riot Games a large sum for the time spent as an LCS sponsor.

In the motion to the court, Riot has argued that its image remains “inextricably linked to FTX through its former CEO, Mr. Bankman-Fried” as a result of his affinity for League of Legends and that the court “should compel FTX to reject the Agreement”.

This Twitter thread details some of the most important parts of the motion filed by Riot Games and provides an easier way to digest the 22-page document.

One of the most important things to note about Riot’s motion is its assertion that “there is simply no way for FTX to cure the reputational harm already caused to Riot as a result of the highly public disrepute wrought by the debacle preceding FTX’s bankruptcy filing. FTX cannot turn back the clock and undo the damage inflicted on Riot in the wake of its collapse.”

Riot Games will also take action even if FTX doesn’t reject the deal, requesting that the court “grant Riot relief from the automatic stay to permit Riot to terminate the agreement”.

“Automatic stay” is a term that, when used in relation to bankruptcy, essentially means the creditor cannot take action against the debtor – even if the debtor can’t pay what’s owed. FTX being unable to pay out would be the reason to terminate the agreement, giving Riot a way to sever ties that doesn’t involve further action.

Going by the wording in the motion, Riot Games is determined to terminate its partnership with FTX one way or another. The results of this motion to the court will determine how it is done.

The LEC’s format is getting some big changes going into 2023. Rather than mirroring the LCS format, there will be three splits that each culminate in double-elimination best of 3s and 5s, giving Europe more sets than ever.

However, these changes will result in lower-tier teams getting a bit less time to play on stage than they had in the previous format.

RichsWrath, H2K’s founder and an agent working within the LEC, revealed that there were some orgs that weren’t too keen on the format changes in a podcast appearance.

Players reportedly fought for LEC format changes

The LEC format changes have been met with near-universal praise from players and fans alike (something that can’t be said for recent scheduling changes), but, according to RichsWrath, the players had to fight for this format.

He cited Odoamne in particular as a massive force in the fight for getting these format changes to the finish line, though Rich would later clarify that Odoamne was just a part of that fight rather than the one leading it.

“In this region, the players council actually has quite a lot of power. And they really pushed for this format. What’s interesting is that I know a few of the teams don’t like this format, and you can guess probably the reasons why.”

Rich goes on to explain how lower-tier teams play fewer games per season in this format, implying that lower-tier teams who consistently get knocked out before playoffs didn’t like this new direction.

He’d later clarify that opinions were mixed within the LEC and that some teams welcomed the format changes. However, he maintained that the players were unified in their fight for double-elimination and more best of 3 and best of 5 matches within the region.

With regions like the LPL and LCK constantly playing best of 3s, it’s no surprise that players were in favor of a format that would give them more practice playing the same way they would be at the biggest international events.

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It comes off the back of a dominant display on Thursday evening in Brazil, where he claimed his fourth win of 2022 to put himself on the precipice of the title. Read more on Thursday’s racing here.

Josh Idowu claimed a surprise pole position in Abu Dhabi, his first in the Pro Championship. Off the line, he was challenged by Thomas Ronhaar, whose slim championship hopes spurred him on to a punchy first lap.

Ronhaar emerged with the lead, and Frede Rasmussen followed him through past Idowu on Lap 3. However, Blakeley maintained his sound P4 grid slot, more than enough to seal the deal.

Haas rear gunner Piotr Stachulec almost dealt his team mate Ronhaar back into contention, sitting on the front wing of Blakeley on Lap 20 in Sergio Perez-esque fashion, but to no avail. Blakeley passed down the back straight, and disappeared up the road.

He wasn’t the only Haas being overpowered – Rasmussen overpowered Ronhaar on Lap 24 to seize the lead, with just five laps remaining, and that’s how they crossed the line. Behind Rasmussen and Ronhaar came Idowu, who took his third podium of the season. Blakeley finished a victorious fourth, ahead of fellow champions David Tonizza and Jarno Opmeer. Bari Boroumand rocked up in P7, with the fourth and final champion on the grid – Brendon leigh – taking eighth. Luke Smith and Nicolas Longuet completed the points.

POINTS MEAN PRIZES

Blakeley ends the season as champion on a tally of 181 points, ahead of Rasmussen, who finishes eight points behind the leader for the second year in a row. He takes his fourth consecutive P2 positions in the championship, with Ronhaar taking a superb third in his debut year. Boroumand scores well in fourth, ahead of outgoing champion Opmeer, and one-time winner Longuet.

In the teams’ side of things, McLaren Shadow ran away with the title and took 330 points, eclipsing Oracle Red Bull Racing Esports in P2. Haas F1 Esports take third, fending off the might of Mercedes. The two Alfa/Alpha teams finish strongly and break through the 100-point barrier.

And just like that, F1 Esports is done for another year! We hope you’ve enjoyed the racing action as much as we have – see you in 2023!

This feature contains spoilers for Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

There have been many great games released this year - a quick squint at Eurogamer’s Essential reviews from the last 12 months is a testament to this. We had the monumental Elden Ring, the charm-infused Tunic (complete with its nostalgic instruction manual) and the oh-so-stylish it hurts Rollerdrome. Yes, 2022 has delivered us some truly brilliant games.

But for me, the one that really stands above the rest is Kirby and the Forgotten Land. There’s a specific reason for this. The Forgotten Land was the first game that I played together with my kids from the very start, and right through to the end credits.

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Double Fine boss Tim Schafer has revealed he avoids "a grab bag of stereotypes" to make his games more inclusive and avoid "hurting people".

In an interview with NME, Schafer revealed that when he started making games back in the '80s, there was "a lot less sensitivity" around, but between developing 2005's Psychonauts and its 2021 sequel, he'd "learned a lot" and was "thinking about how [his] art will be interpreted by the viewer".

"I thought I'd learned a lot, and then we tested a game, and people pointed out a word and asked if we knew what this word means to certain people," the Schafer said. "I had no idea – and people will criticise that and say 'woke culture, PC police' and stuff – but for any art, I'm thinking about how my art will be interpreted by the viewer.

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Games are good at moments of reflection - a very specific kind of reflection anyway. You might call it the "Well, That Didn't Work" Moment. In games we get do-overs, so when an approach isn't working, you get to rethink it. Rather than in real life, say, where I just try the same failed approach again but grumpier.

Card games are particularly good at this, and Marvel Snap is a particularly good example of a card game that is particularly good at this. Whenever I lose a game - and I lose all the time - I get to spend a pleasant few moments working out what went wrong, picking over my deck, and swapping cards in and out. There's a reward for being bad at the game. How kind.

The funny thing is, I've always found deck building really overwhelming. In Hearthstone, for example, I never made a deck from scratch. I just slowly transformed old decks that didn't work into new decks that didn't work, a single card at a time, until the sheer amount of poor micro-decisions had riddled the whole thing, the way termites will undermine a house one tiny bite at a time.

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OG vs Team Liquid

• Prediction: Liquid to win
• Odds: 1.55
• Betting Site: GG.bet Esports

When it comes to BLAST Premier World Final betting, we have seen a lot of surprises, especially from team Liquid. In their opener, Liquid pulled off an upset against Outsiders by beating them on Anubis and Mirage. After beating Jame and co., Liquid had a tough task in front of themselves, that being FaZe.

After a real thriller on Mirage, Liquid was able to edge out FaZe to grab a 1-0 lead. That did not help them much as they were badly beaten on both Anubis and yet again, they did not do much on Inferno.

Solid showings from the NA-based roster continued against Natus Vincere as they were able to grab a 2-1 victory. It is important to mention that they looked incredible on both Mirage and Overpass, while their showing on the CT side of Ancient was very bad.

Right now, OG are looking better than ever. Victories against Vitality and Heroic sealed them a spot in the semi-finals and it is going to be interesting to see whether their insane run will continue.

GG.bet Esports provides by far the best odds for this match. We believe that Liquid played against better competition and that the map pool favors them much more. There is a wide range of maps that suit Liquid in this one and they should come out on top.

FaZe Clan vs G2 Esports

• Prediction: FaZe to win
• Odds: 1.60
• Betting Site: GG.bet Esports

We are in for a threat in this one. After their opening match, FaZe got the better of G2 over the course of three maps. CSGO odds for the first match saw FaZe having a small edge, according to betting sites and the betting lines are similar for this match as well.

G2 upped their game against Outsiders and Vitality, but the main question here is, how will they adapt to FaZe, which already proved to be too hard to crack? In all honesty, CSGO betting is really straightforward. If you see that something is not broken and it works, do not try to fix it. The same thing will happen in this match, as FaZe will again grab a comfortable win against G2.

The post BLAST Premier World Final 2022: Semi-Finals Predictions appeared first on EsportsBets.com.

Countdown

All about the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship

This prestigious championship, described as “the icing on the cake” of FIDE’s 2022 calendar gathers 95% of the world’s top Chess players. Over 300 Chess elites hailing from 50 nations would be in Kazakhstan for the event.

The World Blitz and Rapid Championship also provides a massive $1 million USD prize pool with $700K going to the Open category and $300K to the Women’s category.

Participants

The top 40 players (Open and Women categories) for Blitz and Rapid are invited to the championship. Among the list are the most notable Chess stars including world champion, Magnus Carlsen and the Blitz king, Hikaru Nakamura. Reigning champions for the Women’s category, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Bibisara Assaubayeva will also defend their title in this upcoming championship.

But the limelight falls onto Hans Niemann who sits in the Blitz Open category. The 19-year-old American surged in popularity after being accused of cheating by Magnus Carlsen in September 2022.

The pair might play against each other in this tournament and the community anticipates the collision, wondering if their matchup will happen at all. Because the last time they clashed, Carlsen resigned after one move.

There are also some notable players missing from the participant list. Top players like Alireza Firouzja and Wesley So are not taking part in the World Rapid and Blitz 2022.

Date and time

The championship will take place from December 26th to December 30th, occupying the final days of 2022 as per tradition. The opening and closing ceremonies will accompany the event a day before and after.

• Opening ceremony – Dec 25th: 7:30 PM Almaty Timezone (9:30 PM SGT/5:30 AM PT)
• Tournament – Dec 26th to Dec 30th
• Closing ceremony – Dec 31st: 8:00 PM Almaty Timezone (10:00 PM SGT/6:00 AM PT)

You can find more schedule details for World Rapid and Blitz Championship here.

Where to watch

Most mainstream Chess channels will broadcast the games live. You can find them on FIDE Chess YouTube, Chess.com YouTube, and other popular Chess channels.

Arnav “xL” Shukla: Outsiders yesterday, Vitality on Nuke today. You guys are just blowing people out. Can you talk about how that first map went?

huNter-: I mean I think they didn’t expect us to pick Nuke because before, when we played them, they were the team that was almost always picking nuke. So I think they didn’t prepare it. We had really good preparation, especially Hooxi did amazing, honestly, on this T-side calling. I think we just trusted the calling, we did well individually in some clutches as well, and Hooxi was calling amazingly. 

xL: Over on vertigo, it wasn’t quite that dominant, 9-6 half, but then on the T side, you were just smashing through the defence again and again. Right as you were about to close out the game, Vitality started to pop off. That clutch that you had against Zywoo, it felt like you had won, but in the last moment, he got that defuse off. How did it feel after that round?

huNter-: Honestly, I was so sad after this round. He didn’t have a kit, he killed me at the last second, and he defused at the last second too. I know Zywoo is a lucky player, but he deserves that luck because, for me, he’s the best player in the world, and he’s amazing. But he’s too lucky sometimes.

Even his teammates are telling me every day that he’s very lucky. I mean, that’s Vitality. We can’t expect to win 2-0 easily against them. We didn’t play well on the CT side, but on the T side, we played really well, but in the end, we didn’t close it out. Though I’m really happy, we get to play Anubis and win it, that’s really important.

xL: In overtime, it felt like you guys were out of it mentally after that lost clutch. You couldn’t get a single-round win there. What happened there?

huNter-: It was tough, honestly, to bounce back later. It’s not an excuse or anything. We needed to do better and play as a team because that was working for us almost always. We were trying to fake and do those kinds of things on Vertigo against them. They were just playing 3A 2B almost always in Overtime because they were smashing us on mid a couple of times. So they were just leaving mid on Overtime, I think. 

xL: Talking about Anubis then, how did it go? As expected from practice?

huNter-: First of all, we won the knife, and I think we should’ve picked the T side because, for me, so far, this map is T-sided, and we are also better on the T side. But CT side, we needed to do better. We had some rounds that we needed to win. We were giving them entries so easily in the beginning, and that was the main issue, I think.

But after on T side again, Hooxi, I’m really proud of the guy, when we know and understand what he’s going through and we were with him the whole time. I’m really proud of him and thankful that he decided to stay with us. He did an amazing job, honestly, all three days.

xL: This tournament started off with a loss to FaZe, then smashing outsiders and this win over Vitality. Now you’ll be facing off against FaZe on stage. How confident are you feeling going into that game?

huNter-: I think here on this first day, we were leading 1-0, and we had match points on Inferno as well. That 3rd map Ancient went really bad. It wasn’t easy to bounce back. But today, we lost almost the same second map, and we bounced back on Anubis, and we played really well. What to expect from faze? FaZe is FaZe.

They are the best team in the world for sure, and they’d like to close this year with another event win. Nothing to expect. We just need to go on the stage. This was the first team we played on stage with this team. We just need to try and enjoy ourselves. No pressure, FaZe is the best team in the world, nothing to lose. We can just win.

xL: Finally, could you share some thoughts on Ilya’s [m0NESY] performance so far at this event?

huNter-: I mean Ilya, every time I talk good about him in Interviews, then he starts to play worse. So I don’t want to say anything. We talk to him outside of the game, and when we are watching the games and playing the games and practices, we are trying to improve him.

Because our main goal when we brought him into the team was to be our Zywoo or S1mple, that’s what we expected from him. He’s still young, he’s improving, and I’m really happy for him. From month to month, he’s getting better. And I think one more stage for him tomorrow will be a great experience. 

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

The second spate of allegations brings to light a seemingly fundamental rottenness in the OTK organization. The company, founded in 2020, was initially based around content production and as a lifestyle brand. As described by co-founder Zack, better known as Asmongold, “We came up with this idea of making an org, and building the org around our friends – building the org around friendship in general.” 

Now it seems at least two of those friends are linked to some weighty allegations. Naturally, many would assume this would be a crippling blow to the organization. But is OTK really spoiled? Even after the severe allegations in September, the Esports Awards nominated the organization for Content Group of the Year. Will this added edge and drama fuel the group’s ascension or spell its downfall?

Living on the edge

It’s fundamental to the OTK model that the group are seen as outsiders, nerds, and counter-cultural. While each member and content creator is incredibly popular in their own right as streamers, they all garner their own niche audience. In this capacity, the team flirts with darker topics and edgier content and glamorizes a degenerate “not in education, employment, or training” (NEET) lifestyle.

While so much of the entertainment industry, and even the popular streaming groups, are based around traditionally attractive and conventionally talented people, OTK’s focus is almost solely on degeneracy. Asmongold’s stream persona is that of a hardcore World of Warcraft player living in a messy attic. On Asmongold’s stream, there are jokes and allusions to poor hygiene, lack of cleanliness, and over-the-top displays of outrage. 

Or take Jschlatt, whose online persona is one that creates outrage. His persona is rude and abrasive, with overt displays of aggression, occasionally incoherent, and hints at a (presumably) fictional criminal event in 1999. The streamer also constantly flirted with controversy and is nicknamed “uncancellable” due to numerous minor dramas. Jschlatt joined the OTK organization in 2021 and seemed like a perfect fit.

However, in both cases, it’s almost understood that these are only personas. And when the chips are down, both creators have shown their integrity. Asmongold frequently lifts back the veil and shows us “Zack” in serious videos on his second channel. In the wake of the Mizkif allegations, Asmongold was transparent and serious. What’s more, in 2021, Jschlatt publically took a hard stance when fellow Lunch Club member CallMeCarson was accused of sending inappropriate messages to minors.

So while OTK uses controversy for its own content, in many cases, it seems like it’s all an act. Except, how far can the lines of fiction and reality blur before things get out of control? Streaming personas, in many cases, are hyper-exaggerated versions of an authentic self. It’s like pro wrestling or ad-lib. You take something mundane and turn it up to eleven to make it compelling and interesting. So we have a situation where two of the organization’s core members are putting on an act, while two more now have serious allegations against them. So is it fair to judge an organization based on the misdeeds of two of its founders?

Is OTK as a whole bad?

And this is where OTK becomes more sinister. In the wake of two serious sexual assault-related allegations, we must start looking more carefully at what the organization says and does. The easiest litmus test of a person is to listen to what they’re saying. I hate quoting people, but I’ll make an exception for Maya Angelou, who reportedly once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” So let’s start listening to what OTK and its streamers tell us about themselves.

OTK started with jokes about being a “sex cult,” with many joking that they’d chosen the name as a nod to BDSM slang “over the knee.” The organization’s custom PC building company, Starforge Systems, has a logo that the org members insist isn’t phallic, but tech gurus insist otherwise. And while the skirting with controversy and edgy content can fly out of context, after a while, it starts to paint the picture of an organization that runs more like a frat house than a modern media business.

Is this reading too much into a bunch of dumb jokes? Honestly, I don’t believe that a few jokes about sex cults, some innuendo on stream, and a penis-shaped logo make a company inherently bad. Maybe I need to put away the red string and take off my tinfoil hat. 

Regardless, some hard questions need to be asked about OTK in the future. Questions like does frat boy humor really turn an organization into a place where harassment is normalized? Can a co-founder’s individual actions affect an entire company? Who knows! But sometimes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck — it’s a good bet you’re dealing with a duck.

The reign of terror of the superpowered AI bots across Al Mazrah has come to an end in DMZ after the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 midseason update for season one accidentally upped the base difficulty of all AI combatants. But overpowered AI bots in Warzone 2 appear to still be a prevalent issue.

One of the prominent features of both Warzone 2 and DMZ is the inclusion of strongholds, AI-controlled fortresses that promise high-tier rewards for players who defeat the AI combatants inside. But Warzone 2 players were having a bit too much difficulty taking on strongholds, so the AI was supposed to be nerfed in the “Season 01 Reloaded Patch.”

The Florida Mutineers punched their ticket to bracket play today after a thorough beatdown of OpTic Texas at the 2023 Call of Duty League Major I in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

After a close battle in the series’ first map, Hotel Hardpoint, that saw OpTic win a back and forth affair by a count of 250-236, things started to unravel for Texas. In the second map of the series, Mercado Search and Destroy, things were rolling for the OpTic side. Early on in the map, iLLeY and Brack were in a one-vs-one. Brack ran out into the open, giving iLLeY some easy shots to take the round, but the 2020 CDL Champion decided to give Brack some love in the form of shooting his body for around 10 seconds before finally defusing the bomb. 

In a 24-minute video with League of Legends content creator Yassuo, League of Legends Championship Series veterans Doublelift and Bjergsen talked about why they signed with 100T and their expectations for the 2023 season.

Both players were apprehensive about giving away how they predict the team will perform. Bjergsen even mentions how he said before the 2022 season that his Team Liquid squad would win both LCS splits before falling on their face in the summer and placing third in the regular season and fourth in the LCS 2022 Championship.

“I said on TL, ‘If we don’t win both splits it’s a disappointment,'” Bjergsen said with a laugh. “So now I’m going to say if we don’t win both splits it’s a disappointment guys.”

Doublelift speaks on 100T expectations

Both players laughed about expecting to win back-to-back splits as a new team with Doublelift saying that if the team isn’t here to win then what is the point of competing. The new 100 Thieves bot laner did give one prediction, saying he expects the squad to be in a good place by the end of the first split.

“I think we have a lot of work to do, that’s for sure,” Doublelift said. “We are going to be slow starters but I think by the end of spring split we should be really good.”

100 Thieves has a roster consisting of two of the longest-standing players in the LCS in Doublelift and Bjergsen alongside Can ‘Closer’ Çelik and two young promising talents in Milan ‘Tenacity’ Oleksij and Alan ‘Busio’ Cwalina. The season starts for the new-look team on January 26.

There was very little information offered along with the announcement, but it was enough to be a definitive closure on this chapter in the organisation’s lifecycle. Now, it’s assumed that Team Vitality’s Fortnite creators and competitors will relocate as soon as possible, taking their talents to what may be a competing platform.

Farewell Vitality

Image Credit: Epic Games

While Team Vitality is departing the Fortnite esports scene, there are still many top-tier organisations in the space. For instance, Become Legends, the team representing the winners of November’s FNCS Invitational, and Tundra Esports, an organisation that represents some of the best Fortnite players in the world. There’s no doubt that Team Vitality is an impactful organisation, but, without sounding callous, the game goes on.

In the statement posted to Twitter, Team Vitality spoke about its plan going forward:

‘Our strategy to develop the best European teams has pushed us to focus on a smaller selection of high-level ecosystems. We want to thank all the players, the staff, as well as the Fortnite fans, for all the work they have accomplished and for joining us on this journey.’

According to Team Vitality’s website, the organisation currently focuses on:

• League of Legends (both LEC and LFL)
• FIFA
• CSGO
• Rocket League
• VALORANT
• And content creation assets marked up as ‘ambassadors’

In an attempt to focus on a ‘smaller selection’ of ecosystems, it’ll be interesting to see if Team Vitality withdraws from any other esports platforms.

The Future of Fortnite

Recently, Fortnite premiered the Chapter 4 update, which brought an entirely new map, brand-new mechanics, and of course, a whole range of skins and cosmetics. It was a wild event, and it set the tone for the future of Fortnite. Following more than five years in operation, Fortnite remains arguably the best battle royale game on Earth. Now, it has been massively upgraded, with Epic Games introducing a world first in rolling out the Unreal 5.1 update.

There are supposedly more features coming to the platform as time goes on, too. These include the likes of a ‘double jump’ mechanic and potentially even wall-running, making the already quite fluid game even faster and more agile. As Fortnite esports continues to be quite popular, fans are awaiting the next step, and potentially, the next Fortnite World Cup.

Fortnite X My Hero Academia is bringing some skins from the show into the game. However, we’ve also got in-game items in a powerful new Mythic. This crossover event is on a similar scale to this year’s Dragon Ball event. We might only be weeks into the new Chapter, but we’ve got this crossover Winterfest, and more to be playing through.

Fortnite X Mr Hero Academia

The skins for the Fortnite X My Hero Academia crossover are the main event. As with past collaborations, picking up all of them is going to cost a decent amount of V-Bucks, but they’re some of Fortnite’s most creative skins yet. There’s two bundles for Fortnite X My Hero Academia skins.

The first bundle is of UA Students. The main skin is Izuku Midoriya, or Deku. With this skin there’s his normal look and a powered-up version using One for All full cowling. His back bling is an All Might toy which cheers on every kill, and his harvesting tool is made up of his Black Vine quirk. This bundle also includes Bakugo who comes with a pickaxe and back bling styled on his equipment. The last is Uraraka who similarly has themed cosmetics with her.

All Might is the second bundle. He comes with a branded pick axe, and a secondary skin. This second style is his unpowered form, it comes with an emote to switch between them so you’re getting two skins in one.

Quests and The Hero Training Gym

Even if you don’t want to purchase the My Hero Academia skins, there’s new content for you to get through. The Hero Training Gym is a new creative map that players can jump into at any time. This is at island code 6917-7775-5190.

You can hop in there and get through some Fortnite X My Hero Academia quests. These give you some XP to get through the latest Battle Pass. However, they also have exclusive free cosmetics as rewards for the quest.

• Assist in Eliminating Opponents on the hero Training Gym Island – Get a Deku Spray
• Secure Rescue Points on the Hero Training Gym Island – Get Plus Ultra Spray
• Complete Four My Hero Academia Quests – Deku’s Glove Emoticon.
• Complete Eight My Hero Academia Quests – U.A Cape Back Bling

The Hero Training Area is divided into two areas. It’s based on the UA training facility used in multiple arcs of My Hero Academia.

Deku’s Smash Mythic – Fortnite X My Hero Academia

Alongside cosmetics, this crossover has a new feature in-game. In this week’s Fortnite V23.10 Patch, Epic added in a Brand New Mythic. This is Deku’s Smash. Plyers can use the power of the One for All quirk. They charge up with a little animation before unleashing a full power smash. It’s a physical attack that can do crazy damage if you line it up right.

Like with the Kamehameha Mythic, this one is limited to a few uses. Otherwise, it’s a bit much. They’re going to be relatively easy to find. You can get them from My Hero Academia Vending Machines and from All Might supply Drops. Players are probably going to be able to get them in most games if they want them. The All Might Supply Drops are another new feature. These are Supply Drops branded with the No.1 Hero’s face!

That’s everything that’s included in the Fortnite X My Hero Academia crossover! With unique content in-game and some cool skins, this is one of the most fun crossovers Fortnite has had. Even coming so shortly after the game introduced MrBeast. There is loads going on in the game right now.

S8UL’s success has come from understanding what is esports, content, and business ecosystem – and more specifically understanding how to break the rules of that ecosystem. A large chunk of S8UL’s success and growth over the last year or so has come from putting their gaming creators in the spotlight, rather than games and esports itself.

A typical S8UL content piece revolves around their network of more than 50 gaming creators participating in local trends with cultural twists. They’re also not afraid to lean into either Bollywood or India’s very niche meme culture.

This has resulted in them easily tapping into the larger Indian pop culture scene on YouTube, which has a specific user base that they captured – to the tune of 1.03m subscribers at the time of writing. All of this has helped them become the voice of the gaming subculture in India.

@ S8UL

S8UL Beat Some Big Names

The Esports Awards 2022 were hosted in Las Vegas, with many of the biggest names in the industry attending the event. S8UL had to beat some esports heavyweights like 100 Thieves, FaZe Clan, OTK, G4TV, and Tribo Gaules to get their hands on the big prize, which makes this achievement even more impressive. The category that S8UL won involved public voting, so it is fair to say that there was a numerical advantage for a team coming from India. However, to garner as much support in the Indian ecosystem which is very young and has no global recognition at all, is a feat in itself.

PUBG Mobile esports player Animesh Agarwal aka 8bit Thug, Naman Mathur aka Soul Mortal, and Lokesh Jain aka 8bit Goldy have joint ownership of S8UL. S8UL was formed only two years ago and quickly became a sensation after some of the finest esports personalities in the country joined hands to form the organization.

S8UL have a boot camp in Mumbai, with India’s best PUBG mobile team under their ranks. They’ve also had some other popular Indian content creators on their roster, like Scout, Mavi, Mamba, and Regaltos.

They are India’s most popular esports organization and have been at the forefront of promoting the industry through various social media channels like YouTube, Instagram, and Discord. Before they clinched the title, they had already made history by being the first Indian esports organization to get nominated for the Esports Awards.

Mortal is considered one of the most recognizable faces in esports in India and understandably emotional following the big news. He has been nominated for Esports Awards in previous years alongside some of the biggest names in the esports industry like Faker and Goldenboy.

“Words fail me as I see our dream as a dream team come true. Seeing us being celebrated by the global esports community, it’s a real feeling. It’s really time to pause, reflect and feel happy,” he said.

What Does This Mean For Indian Esports?

There isn’t as much resistance towards a career in esports in India today. Many great esports players in India have revealed that their families have been highly supportive despite having reservations initially.

The more significant challenge in recent years has been making a name outside India. This is one of the few occasions where an Indian esports organization has been recognized globally. This moment will likely convince many other players that a career within the esports industry is viable.

A 2022 report from FICCI-EY Media stated that the number of esports players doubled in 2021 to 600,000 in 2021, and revenue in the industry grew by 29% from INR 7.5 billion in 2020 to INR 9.7 billion in 2021.

The report added that these numbers will be greater in the coming years. One thing is for certain: S8UL have played a big part in the growth of the esports industry and will continue to do so.

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According to the latest SB Nation Reacts Survey, fans are starting to be optimistic on the Lions’ future.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in fans across the country. Sign up here to participate.

It wasn’t that long ago that the concept of being high on the Detroit Lions was something that should be handled by medical professionals. The Lions were a joke, a laughing stock. But now things may have changed.

While the Lions are still a game under .500 on the season, they have won five of the last six games and sit just a game and a half out of the playoffs. They are winning and getting plenty of attention in the process.

Not only are the Lions finding success, they are interesting. And in a much better way than Lions teams of the past were “interesting.” Head coach Dan Campbell is a caricature of a football guy and it’s working. Jared Goff has gone from a quarterback bust to a reinvented success story.

Of course, the Lions are still a ways away from being a Super Bowl contender. For now, they sit among a group of surprising teams getting attention this year. But according to the latest SB Nation Reacts survey, the Lions stand above the rest of their counterparts as the team most likely to reach a conference championship game.

The Lions more than doubled the total votes of the next team, the New York Jets, who are above .500 and are only a tiebreaker out of the playoffs.

This isn’t to say fans think the Lions will reach this season’s NFC Championship Game. But fans across the country seem to think this team will continue to improve and grow. In the NFC North, that feels extremely possible. The Packers are a growing question mark, the Bears are in the early stage of their own rebuild, and even at 10-3 not even Las Vegas seems to trust the Vikings.

The Lions have a chance to continue their hot run this week against the aforementioned Jets. According to fans, the Lions will get that win. Here are the full slate of Week 15 fan picks.

To participate in NFL Reacts surveys, sign up here and be on the lookout for next week’s questions.

Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.

Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West developer Guerrilla Games has confirmed a new co-op-focused online Horizon project is currently in the works at the studio.

Reports of a co-op component for the Horizon series first emerged in 2020, when VGC claimed the studio had initially been looking to implement the feature as part of 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn before ditching it to focus on other areas. Co-op was then said to have been revived for Horizon Forbidden West, potentially as a separate mode, but again didn't make the final cut.

As confirmed by Guerilla's recruitment-focused Twitter feed, however, the studio's co-op dreams are still very much alive, with the company currently hiring for an internally developed "separate online project" in the Horizon universe. This will feature a "new cast of characters and a unique stylised look", and allow friends to "explore the majestic wilds of Horizon together".

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High On Life creator Justin Roiland has revealed the game features AI-generated art and voice acting.

The topic of AI generation has increasingly become a hot discussion, with arguments arising over its use and the implications it has ethically, artistically, and technologically.

In an interview with Sky News, Roiland talked about the use of AI in the development of High On Life.

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Portal with RTX is an absolute triumph, not just for its masterful use of lighting and cutting-edge technology, but also in how it works - which borders on black magic. This new take on the Valve classic is built on a new framework from Nvidia called RTX Remix, which essentially hijacks older PC games built on a fixed function rendering path, replacing rasterisation with full path tracing. Even motion vectors are added, opening the door to TAA, DLSS and even per-object motion blur support.

'Remix' suggests some level of user tweakability and that's exactly what's possible, showcased beautifully in Portal. With the rendering replaced, lights can be overridden, assets can be swapped out with newly-created alternatives and textures can be made or remade to be physically-based. It is an entire system for replacing a game's visuals with path tracing that lives entirely outside the game's awareness and gameplay code. It is honestly astounding that this works at all - and Portal with RTX shows what Remix can do when time is invested in making new assets and tailoring each and every area and asset in a game to work with the new rendering paradigm.

At the basic level, what sets path tracing apart from RT in most games? Titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered still run on rasterisation but add in RT effects for elements like reflections, shadows, ambient occlusion or global illumination. In Portal with RTX, ray tracing takes over for nearly everything previously rendered with rasterisation. All of the primary rendering is ray traced, so that makes it more expensive to render just to start. However, it does deliver some good advantages for the cost: all glass can be refractive due to the primary rays for visibility bending when they interact with glass, giving them the wavey surface appearance you see in real life. Rays can be traced through the titular portals without the degradation in quality seen in the original version of the game.

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Zouloux pleas for help from the community, hoping to find a way to keep his Yu-Gi-Oh 3D project afloat

Imagine placing your Yu-Gi-Oh card down and seeing the monsters appear in real life. This is the dream that Zouloux had seemingly achieved. With his new augmented-reality-based system, the streamer had developed a way to make each monster appear over its card in a duel.

The French streamer announced over a month ago that he had officially created the 3D system after seven months of hard work. This impressive feat had Yu-Gi-Oh fans everywhere excited for the future.

Sadly, this future might not be as accessible as we hoped.

Zouloux announced today that he has been unable to secure approval from the right stakeholders, preventing him from pursuing this project furthermore. He will also not be allowed to use it on his own.

With months of work being thrown away, the streamer is calling for help from the people that may be able to save this awesome project.

Shroud speaks out, hoping to find the right person to help Zouloux

The fight is not over. Popular streamer, Shroud, spoke out today about how he is looking to find the right person to help make this project continue.

“We are going to try and figure something out”, said Shroud when talking about the situation on his stream.

With so many people already backing this project, it seems ludicrous to just watch it burn down without a fight.

Hopefully, the right people hear everyone’s cries and Zouloux’s infamous project ends up staying afloat. As of now, we can only wait and see what happens.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

Arnav “xL” Shukla: Overpass is a map that you don’t have a great win rate on. But a lot of close games, and it feels like a comfortable map in terms of roles. Did you expect them to pick into it?

Liquid nitr0: No, we actually weren’t expecting it today, but we’ve actually been putting a lot of time into it recently. So even though they picked it, we were still really comfortable. We know they banned it a lot in the last couple of months in the second rotation, usually. So going into it, we knew it was a possibility because it’s one of our weaker maps, but it was a pretty low chance. They went into it and got punished.

xL: Pretty solid T side for you guys. YEKINDAR and EliGE were having a great game. thoughts on that T side.

Liquid nitr0: I think it was nice because we changed our game a little bit, and they didn’t really know how we played. However, we played a scrim against them this tournament on Overpass, so they had an inkling of what we could do and stuff. In the back of our heads, we knew that they knew, but we just stuck with our game since that was what we had practised for however long it’s been since we played Overpass last.

xL: So on Overpass, on the CT side, we saw a lot of 4-man leans from you. Was that something you’d seen in preparation that allowed you to do that?

Liquid nitr0: It wasn’t necessarily something we saw in preparation. It was more just like overall how I felt the game should go and what’s the highest win percentage chance for us. It was kinda based on preparation, but it was more just the feeling I had that that’d be the best decision and that call would work really well for us.

xL: On Ancient, you had another solid T start, great reads coming out from you. But that CT side did not go as planned. Just 1 round picked up, b1t and perfecto firing up. Talk to me about that rough loss.

Liquid nitr0: Im not really sure what exactly happened in the micro part of that game. But we weren’t really stressed at all, even though we choked really hard. I think, most importantly, what we took from it was that either we go down with the ship or we can recover and just focus on the next map. So we went outside, and I said let’s not talk about that map at all, let’s just focus on the next one, and that’s exactly what we did.

xL: oSee had some issues on Ancient, but on mirage, he was really driving that CT side. What are your thoughts on his performance?

Liquid nitr0: Yeah, I mean, he’s obviously been struggling a little bit here and there. I think it’s more of a mentality issue and a confidence issue, but I was super proud to see that he was on the top of the scoreboard again. When he’s having a really good game, it’s really hard to play against him. So I was really proud of that.

xL: npl coming in on Mirage. Did that change anything for you?

Liquid nitr0: Yeah, it changed stuff because we didn’t know where he plays on the map as they hadn’t shown him yet. So once we started the game, we were just like, let’s try to figure out where he’s playing. We saw electronic on A, and immediately we knew electronic’s on A, so npl’s connector. So it wasn’t really a big change for us. They kinda played the same but just changed the roles. They seemed a little uncomfortable.

xL: 10-5 half, you pushed it up to 13-7 with the double entry that you got on B. But electronic with that p250 got the 3k on A. That’s a round where the old-school Liquid could’ve broken down. Talk about that round’s impact a bit.

Liquid nitr0: Yeah, it was a call I made based on the feeling of the game, but not necessarily the correct call when you’re going close against pistols. But that was a call that I felt was right. Obviously, that’s just part of the game. If they weren’t there, it would look really good. If he gets a 2k with the p250, it looks bad. So it’s just a call that was made and didn’t really work out.

xL: Individually, in all the NaVi games, you have performed really well. is there something about that matchup that makes you more comfortable?

Liquid nitr0: Not necessarily. It doesn’t really matter who I’m playing against individually. I just feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how NaVi plays. Whenever we play against them, I know, like if you kill b1t somewhere here, then the next guy is here and stuff like that. So I have a good understanding of how they play their CT side, and it’s a good feeling to play against them. 

xL: You have switched over to the M4A4. What do you feel about the gun? Are you more comfortable with it?

Liquid nitr0: I haven’t used the gun since 2019-2020, basically since I quit. So honestly, it feels really nice. The M4A1-S was really overpowered. The M4A4 feels nostalgic. The fire rate’s really good on it, and it’s really good for anchoring bombsites because of the fire rate and the number of bullets. I actually enjoy it.

xL: Finally, after a performance like that, facing OG in the semis. Are you confident going into that matchup and playing on stage?

Liquid nitr0: OG is there for a reason, right? They haven’t had the best results this year, but they have had really good results at BLAST tournaments specifically. I think OG is a good matchup for us, and it’s gonna be a great game. I’m super excited to play on stage and stuff.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

Jarla enters second Hearthstone World Championship

“I am super excited for this tournament,” Jarla told Esports.gg, adding that it’s his second time competing in this type of event. “I am looking forward to playing against the best players in the game and potentially make big results as I did back in 2020.”

To prepare for this year’s tournament, Jarla practiced with Casper “Hunterace” Notto and HiImJoZo. He also played a lot of ladder, looked into stats and chatted with others to figure out his deck list. 

“Other than that, I will play practice games before submission and spam practice games once we know enemy deck lists. Just usual stuff like I always did,” Jarla added.

Jarla also noted that his Hearthstone World Championship 2022 group has 75% of the same players back in 2020. These include himself, Sato “glory” Kenta and Wu “XiaoT” Juwei.

Fulfilling a dream in Hearthstone esports

“It was always my dream to compete at the Hearthstone World Championship since I started competing in Hearthstone,” Jarla told Esports.gg. He achieved this back in 2020 and with this tournament, so another dream is to win it all. 

“I was actually just one series away from the trophy while being favored in finals,” he said, referring to 2020. “Unfortunately, I ended up not playing optimally in two of the four games in finals, which cost me the entire series, losing 1-3 at the end. So yeah, it means a lot to me to be back at the Worlds and will see how it goes this time.”

Jarla and his Hearthstone journey

Jarla and his friends started playing Hearthstone when the game was still new. Since then, he’s achieved numerous accomplishments in the esports scene. 

“Sadly, none of them plays the game anymore,” Jarla continued. “I am [a] super competitive person in any game I play, so yeah, I just want to be the best or at least at the top if possible and that keeps me going. Also I am misplaying all the time, so I just want to get better at any given moment.”

“Just want to thank everyone who likes to watch my matches and supports me. It means a lot!”

Jaromír “Jarla” Vyskočil

Jarla also shared a few of his favorite moments with us about his Hearthstone journey, noting the Hearthstone Global Games (HGG) and Hearthstone Grandmasters (HSGM).

“Starting with [the] HGG win with team Czech Republic back in 2017, winning Czech nationals in 2018 and 2021, winning GM seasons in 2020 and 2022 after being so close to the top multiple times,” he recalled. “Other than that, all the LAN events in 2017 to 2020 while traveling around the world with all my HS friends were amazing!”

As for parting words, Jarla thanked his friends and supporters. “Just want to thank everyone who likes to watch my matches and supports me,” he said. “It means a lot!”

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more Hearthstone news and updates!

The notorious roster-leaker Jankos is back at it again, this time suggesting yet another addition to the League of Legends roster of his former team for next year.

During a recent stream, Team Heretics’ jungler Jankos—who formerly played for G2 Esports for numerous years, having earned multiple titles with them in the LEC—appeared to leak that Mikyx will be rejoining G2 as the team’s support for the upcoming Winter Split. Jankos has also leaked other changes to G2’s roster, including the addition of Yike to the team’s jungle position, all of which have been publicized by G2 on the organization’s official Twitter but not explicitly confirmed.

Riot Games has finally answered the prayers of League of Legends players everywhere. Yuumi, the game’s most controversial champion, is getting a full-blown rework. 

Ever since her initial release in 2019, Yuumi has been one of the most hated champions on the League of Legends roster. The Magical Cat’s purely defensive, supportive, and passive gameplay style has given way to the popular belief that she’s boring to play as and against, with players often becoming frustrated with how easy it is for Yuumi players to control the flow of a game while doing minimal work in comparison to other champions at the support position. 

Across the globe, there probably isn’t a League of Legends player who doesn’t despise Yuumi for one reason or the other, including untargetability, overwhelmingly strong shielding and healing, or strong poke and engage. Thankfully, Riot devs are reworking Yuumi with the goal of giving the enemy team more counterplay.

In a recent blog post, Riot Games unveiled exactly how the design team is planning to rework Yuumi. Despite the team still being in the early stages of the rework, they are planning on putting “greater emphasis on how Yuumi can aid her allies earlier in the game by trading her damage and crowd control for more early power and defense.”

Sixteen-year-old Ava ‘florescent’ Eugene blew up in the Valorant scene after dropping 105 kills in a five-game series against Shopify Rebellion GC in the lower bracket final of Game Changers Series III in October 2022.

The teenage talent earned 31 of those kills on the first map, Icebox, where she would dash into the enemy bombsite on attack as Jett. In one round, using Jett’s ultimate, florescent sped her way onto the A site and took control of the space with a kill. She danced across the bomb site, weaving in kills while jumping from perch to perch, and ended the round with four eliminations before the team could even plant the spike.

The highlight-reel performance wasn’t enough to propel Misfits through to the next round of the tournament, but it got people talking about a young prospect that could be the future of Valorant. For florescent, the series was just another milestone in her young career as she hit the top tier of the Valorant ranking system, Radiant, at 14 years old after over a year of grinding the ladder.

“As soon as I hit Radiant I made a post about it and then went right back to queueing ranked,” florescent said in a written interview with Dexerto.

Before making it to Misfits Black, however, the young talent competed on amateur and unsigned squads like Moon Raccoons Black and AIMPUNCH. Valorant analyst and caster Max ‘Keg’ Tompkins told Dexerto he remembers fluorescent’s early days in the Sakura Cup tournament series as nothing too remarkable.

“To be honest with you, florescent was kind of like any other player,” Keg said. “I mean, at the time, when I was studying up on those teams, there wasn’t really anything that stood out about her performance. But honestly, ever since joining Misfits in June and in that small period of like six months, she has absolutely blown up mechanically as a player and just really shines above almost everybody else I’ve seen in that scene.”

florescent wants to play on the international stage

Valorant has seen its fair share of young talents fade to obscurity once they make the transition to the professional ranks. But florescent might succeed where those before her could not. The young player dropped out of school at 13 due to “non-gaming reasons” and practices for about 12 hours a day, either in-game or reviewing tape. Before big tournaments, the workload is increased to 16 hours a day.

When asked how she plans to keep up her pace in terms of improvement, and not fall by the wayside like some of her competitors, florescent said she hopes to remain consistent in practice and performance and hopes to “prove my worth over time.”

Consistency, Keg noted, is one of florescent’s biggest strengths.

“I guess the two words that you would want to use to describe her are ‘mechanics’ and ‘consistency’ because it’s very rare that you get to see florescent have a bad series,” Keg said. “You can see a bad map, that’s natural for any player, but she will usually top the charts in most series.”

Across every series she played at Game Changers Series III, florescent either topped the scoreboard or was joint-best on her team, even in losses.

Vernina ‘Vernina’ Gozum, florescent’s teammate on Misfits during their recent GC run, told Dexerto that her teammate’s communication and headshots are her main strengths.

When asked about her career goals, florescent said she wants to play on the international stage in a non-Game Changers tournament — a sentiment that is shared by top Game Changers players in North America like Melanie ‘meL’ Capone.

The future for florescent in Valorant

The young Valorant phenom is moving on from Misfits and joining a retooled VersionX for the 2023 season, according to Dot Esports. She will reportedly join the squad alongside Nicole ‘Noia’ Tierce and Sarah Simpson, two fellow rising stars, and two former Cloud9 White players in Melanie ‘meL’ Campone and Alexis ‘alexis’ Guarrasi.

“She’s young so I think with the right help she can have a bright future in esports and she already does have a promising career,” Vernina said when asked about florescent’s future.

While the move is yet to be announced, Keg said florescent’s next team should have the resources for her to keep improving and to help her overcome any obstacles that might come her way.

“I think her biggest hurdle is going to be herself. And I think she’s more than capable of overcoming everything and being one of the best players we will see in this game,” Keg said.

Marved is the only player of OpTic Gaming’s 2022 squad who has not yet landed a new team. Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker signed with Cloud9 after it was revealed that OpTic did not secure a slot in the VCT Americas league, while the rest of the squad, including head coach Chet Singh, moved to NRG.

Marved leaves OpTic after a ten-month stint

In an October 18 live stream, Marved revealed that, despite receiving offers from “many teams”, he had no plans to join a VCT partner anytime soon. The Canadian player explained that he wanted to take a break from competition after a demanding year in which he had to deal with “feelings of burnout”.

He stressed, however, that it did not mean he was done competing.

Marved vows to make comeback

On Twitter, Marved has now revealed that he is a free agent, thanking OpTic Gaming for the support they gave him during the ten months he spent with the organization.

He also suggested that he plans to compete again, though he did not explicitly say what he plans to do next.

“I will be back and better than ever,” Marved wrote.

Marved was a key part of the Envy/OpTic squad that picked up one international title (VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters Reykjavík) and managed top-three finishes at two other VCT Masters events and at Valorant Champions 2022. He is ranked fourth for prize money collected in Valorant with over $140,000 in career earnings.

Earlier this month, he took part in The Lil Bro Cup, a show match organized by Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik and Ludwig ‘Ludwig’ Ahgren. His team, called Team Subroza, took home the first prize of $7,000 after beating Team BcJ and Team Rossy.

Since Valorant’s release in the summer of 2020, competition has soared to enormous heights. Star-studded teams and a calendar loaded with significant events have paved the way for some remarkable viewership in no time at all.

Riot’s history of supporting a strong competitive scene has drawn many players who had grown disillusioned with other games, and many of them have found in Valorant the success that had come in short supply elsewhere.

OpTic Gaming had the top five earners in Valorant before the team split up

There were millions of dollars on the line in the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour, which culminated in Valorant Champions, the third international LAN competition in the game following the VCT Masters events in Reykjavík and Copenhagen.

Despite their recent struggles, Sentinels are still the top-earning team in the game, closely followed by Acend, the first Valorant world champions, and Gambit. It is worth mentioning, however, that Acend did not secure a slot in the VCT EMEA partner league and Gambit have withdrawn from Valorant.

Despite their recent world championship title in Istanbul, LOUD are only ranked sixth for prize money.

When it comes to individual earnings, North America continues to lead the charge with eight players in the top ten. Matias ‘Saadhak’ Delipetro and Gustavo ‘Sacy’ Rossi, who were part of LOUD’s title-winning campaign at Valorant Champions, make up the rest of the top ten.

Team Vitality’s Santeri ‘BONECOLD’ Sassi recently beat Acend’s Mehmet Yağız ‘cNed’ İpek to the title of the highest-ranked EMEA player. Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, one of Valorant’s biggest names, is ranked only 19th in the world after a disappointing year with Sentinels.

BONECOLD, formerly of Acend, leads the way in EMEA in terms of individual prize money

If you’re curious about the top 20 respective teams and players, check out the rankings below. We will update this list periodically after every major event.

Top 20 highest earning Valorant pros

Last updated: December 16, 2022.

Top 20 highest earning Valorant teams

Last updated: December 16, 2022.

Sources: Esports Earnings and Liquipedia

Check out our other top 20 highest earning pros lists in various esports:

• Top 20 highest earning League of Legends pros
• Top 20 highest earning CS:GO pros
• Top 20 highest earning Call of Duty pros

Everything you need to know about the WCG Rivals – Clash Royale

The WCG Rivals is a Clash Royale invitational tournament with teams from Korea and Japan competing for a share of the $20,000 prize pool. The tournament will begin on Dec. 17 at 9 AM UTC.

The Korean and Japanese teams in the tournament are as follows:

WCG 2023 to feature VALORANT, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Clash Royale and Hearthstone

The 2023 edition of the World Cyber Games has been launched with big changes to its format. A separate website for the tournament has been launched outlining four games for open tournaments and other special events. These open tournaments will happen from January to April 2023 and will lead to the open qualifiers in May 2023. From here, the top team will advance to the Group Stage in June. Lastly, the best of the best will make it to the Grand Final.

The WCG 2023 Grand Final, which will take place in July will be a LAN event. The venue for the finals, however, hasn’t been revealed yet.

In addition to the main roadmap, the 2023 edition of the tournament will also feature the WCG Rivals. These will be invitational tournaments with the top players and teams. The WCG Rivals for Clash Royale is the first tournament in this series.

WCG has a long history

The WCG has an interesting history, and is one of the longest-running esports tournaments with its first edition happening back in 2000. It happens yearly and features multiple esports titles.

The esports event has been happening continuously for 13 years since its inception in 2000 but was shut down in 2014 with partners of the event saying that it was “impossible to work” with the organizers.

The tournament’s shutting down marked the end of an era for esports tournaments, but the WCG wasn’t done for just yet. In March 2017, the WCG trademark was transferred to Korean publisher Smilegate and the tournament returned in 2019 with a prize pool of more than $600,000 and six games, one of which was Clash Royale. It took place in Xi’an, China.

However, plans to re-develop the Olympics of esports were disrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The WCG 2020 was played online, albeit as a smaller event with about $285,000 on the line across four games. Then in 2021 and 2022, no WCG was held with many in the esports fraternity assuming another death for the competition.

It seems that a revival is coming, as WCG 2023 tries to reclaim past glory.

This is an event being organized by the streamer, to make up for the cancellation of the Smash World Tour finals. It’s got a similar roster to the World Tour, and should go some way to filling the gap. Here we’ll get to see a player crowned with the top spot for the year’s competition in Melee and Ultimate.

Golden Guardians chipped in with the venue and location to host this event.

Source: Mogul Moves / @MogulMoves

Scuffed World Tour

Ludwig got his start as a Smash Bros player. While he’s now more known as a huge streamer, topping the charts for most watched and hosting crazy events like an xQc game show, he’s still involved with the fighting game though. After hosting this year’s Ludwig Invitational, the Scuffed World Tour is another event from the organizer.

The tournament isn’t just an ordinary Smash event. It’s being held specifically to raise money for Video Game BootCamp. They were the organizers behind the Smash World Tour that have had their premier event shut down by Nintendo. This tournament is going to try and help them out. It’s a nice move to give something back and try to help the organizer get back up and running.

The event is going to take place across the 18th of December. There’s a prize pool of $25,000 for both Melee and Ultimate. The players are invited based on their performance and placement in the Smash World Tour leader board. On top of 8 invited players, there’s 8 more being invited to fill out the roster. These are the main stories to watch for across Melee and Ultimate at the Scuffed World Tour.

Scuffed World Tour – Melee & Ultimate

The Melee side of things had a bit of a disappointment when a player dropped out. Unfortunately, Zain won’t be able to attend the event due to having some family issues to take care of. Heading in, it was looking like this was the chance for him to grasp the Number 1 spot in the rankings for Melee, cementing his position as the best Smash player of 2022.

That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be entertaining though. There are loads of great players attending, and there’s still plenty of chances for a upset. Mang0 looks strong, aMSa has had an amazing year pushing Yoshi to new heights and a big win at the end of season could really be something. Hungrybox has a lot to play for here too, along with iBDW.

Ultimate is set up for a rematch between two players who have dominated this year of competition. MKLeo has picked up wins all over the year, and has been steamrolling his way to being the top Ultimate player. Sparg0 gave him big competition earlier in the year though. The player stepped away for a little while to take care of his health, but he’s back in action for the Scuffed World Tour.

Fans are also likely hoping for a Tweak / Sparg0 rematch after their tense match up at Mainstage 2022.

Ultimate’s had a dramatic year outside of those two though. There’s Sonix, Onin, acola and more who have all had great years playing with some fun characters like Steve and Sonic. It isn’t quite as wide open as Melee. But it’s still going to be fun to see which players come out on top here.

That’s what’s happened at the Scuffed World Tour. It might not be the finale we’ve been expecting, but Ludwig is putting together something fitting for the end of Smash Bros. Hopefully this event can fill some of the hole left, and potentially upset the rankings for Smash Bros in 2022.

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Plus: The Jazz appear to have the Pelicans’ number.

The NBA designs its Thursdays this way for obvious, viewership-related reasons. But they also compress their schedules on these nights because it would simply be impossible for every night to feature eight to 10 games on its docket. That would leave completely vacant days on the calendar, as teams require rest. So, instead of experiencing a Finals-like TV schedule once or twice a week, we are instead given slim pickings. But only slim in the number of games to watch; there’s more than enough meat on the available bones worth picking off and chewing on for a bit.

Nights like these make you think. They make you ponder what it really means for a team to have an off night — is it a fluke, or a representation of that team’s weaknesses on display? They make you wonder about the long-term impact of load management on a team — can they ever truly gel to the point of becoming a bona fide contender?

I love these kinds of nights in the NBA. Let’s dive into a great one now by recapping Thursday’s action.

Ja nabs another triple-double, Grizzlies trounce Bucks, 142-101

Memphis is terrifying. This was a complete bloodbath from the jump, one in which Ja Morant recorded yet another triple-double (going for 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists this time). Desmond Bane still hasn’t played since mid-November due to a big toe injury that is likely to keep him out for another few weeks, and lately, it hasn’t seemed to matter. The Grizzlies have won seven in a row and sit atop the West at 19-9. The true test, perhaps, comes now: They head on a four-game road trip with stops in Oklahoma City, Denver, Phoenix, and Golden State (on Christmas).

For Milwaukee, I haven’t a clue how to conceptualize this one. An off night? Maybe. Khris Middleton shot just 1-of-12 in 22 minutes on his way to just three points. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis finished with 19 apiece and were benched in the third quarter along with the rest of Mike Budenholzer’s regular rotation in favor of reserves. The Bucks didn’t look to be up to the task tonight, for whatever reason. They trailed by 46 entering the fourth and lost by 41 even after both teams emptied their benches.

A baffling, baffling game. One that I think says more about Memphis’ ability to be a juggernaut than Milwaukee’s faults.

Jazz outlast Pelicans in OT thriller, 132-129

Just the other day, I wrote that because Utah’s remarkably hot start has cooled considerably in recent weeks, they felt to me like a team that can beat you with a combination of streaky shooting and incessant energy, but is even more likely to steal a win by catching a team on an off night. I’m not quite ready to eat those words, but I definitely have my doubts about their staying power.

The Jazz won their second consecutive game over the Pelicans on Thursday, and though this win was tighter than Tuesday’s 121-100 blowout, it still shows that the Jazz can, in fact, hang when the opposition has all its ducks in a row on both ends. Jordan Clarkson led all scorers with his season-high 39 points and drained two clutch shots late in overtime to ultimately seal the game for Utah. Lauri Markannen added 31 as he continues to bolster a very deserving All-Star campaign.

Meanwhile, the Pelicans lost their second straight game — both against the Jazz — after previously winning seven in a row. Zion Williamson scored 31 of his own for New Orleans, but aside from CJ McCollum, who finished with 28 points on 11-of-25 shooting, the help they needed wasn’t there. Regardless, the Pelicans are still more of a contender than most of the wild, chaotic Western Conference. Once they get Brandon Ingram back, no one is going to want to see them.

Suns snap losing streak, beat shorthanded Clippers, 111-95

The Clippers offense struggles enough as it is — they have the NBA’s third-worst offensive rating (108.5) and often find themselves living and dying by their ability to keep things close enough to eke out a win down the stretch. 11 of L.A.’s 17 wins this season have come by fewer than 10 points (living); the same goes for six of its 14 losses (dying).

Take away Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell, and Ivica Zubac and you have Thursday, a borderline pathetic whooping at the hands of the Suns. Phoenix needed the win, as they entered the matchup having lost five straight games. That it came against such a shorthanded version of an otherwise daunting opponent is one thing. But Mikal Bridges (27 points) and Chris Paul (15 points, 13 assists, and seven rebounds) were outstanding on both ends, as the Clippers were held under 100 points for the ninth time this season.

Fueled by career night from Tyler Herro, Heat beat Rockets, 111-108

In case dropping a career-high 41 points wasn’t enough, Tyler Herro went ahead and became the fourth Heat player to hit 10 threes in a game. (It was last done by Duncan Robinson in 2019.) Herro even took it one step further, as he became the first player in NBA history to have nine threes on consecutive days. How does one even track that?!

He scored 35 points, drained nine of 17 triples, and hit the game-winner in Miami’s tight win over the Thunder on Wednesday. On Thursday, he stepped up and then some, shooting the lights out for Miami as they eked out a win against this increasingly-plucky Houston team. Herro continues to solidify himself as an integral starter, not merely a gimmick sixth man who actually plays starter’s minutes. There is a difference; he’s just making sure he puts exactly what that difference is on display for everyone to see on a nightly basis.

The defending champs might be back in the lottery if they don’t rally while Steph is out.

The Golden State Warriors forever minted themselves as the defining dynasty of this generation by rallying to win their fourth NBA championship in improbable fashion last season. Kevin Durant had moved to Brooklyn and Klay Thompson was no longer playing like an All-Star after suffering consecutive ACL and achilles tears, but Golden State ran through the playoffs anyway because of the breathtaking talent and impossible resolve of Stephen Curry, who finally took home his first Finals MVP award by almost single-handedly willing the Dubs to the title.

The Warriors were expected to mount a staunch championship defense this year even after losing some key role players over the offseason, with Otto Porter Jr. signing in Toronto, Gary Payton II signing in Portland, and Nemanja Bjelica choosing to continue his career in EuroLeague. Golden State would be counting on bigger contributions from their three young lottery picks — James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody — but the general consensus was that the Warriors would be a safe bet to be a factor for the title once again when the playoffs rolled around.

After 35 percent of the season, the Warriors are an under .500 team suddenly facing a crisis: Curry is out for “a few weeks” after suffering a shoulder injury in a loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. Golden State’s season very much depends on how if it can stay afloat while he’s out.

Make no mistake: Curry’s brilliance is the only thing carrying the Warriors again this season. He’s a leading MVP candidate once again, putting up ridiculous numbers — 30 points, 6.8 assists, and 6.6 rebounds per night while connecting on 43.4 percent of the 11.6 three-pointers he attempts per game — that compare favorably to his 2016 campaign when he became the first unanimous MVP in league history. So much has gone wrong in Golden State this year from the very start of training camp, but Curry has been keeping his team alive through a rough stretch. As our Joe Viray wrote last month, Curry is the Warriors’ sole timeline.

If the playoffs started today, Golden State, at 14-15 overall, will be the No. 10 seed in the West and own the final spot in the play-in tournament (meaning they’d have to win two games in a row to get the No. 8 and final seed in the 2023 NBA Playoffs). Where will they be when Curry gets back? Looking at both the standings and the schedule, the road ahead for Warriors is treacherous.

Golden State has the biggest home/road split in the league, with a 12-2 record at home and a 2-13 record on the road. Well, their first four games without Curry all come away from the Bay against the 76ers, Raptors, Knicks, and Nets.

After that, Golden State plays eight straight home games. The Warriors have to hope they can beat the Hornets, Pistons, and Magic, but the other teams on the schedule all currently own equal or better records than they do.

There’s not much margin for error even at the end of the Western Conference playoff picture. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers sit right behind the Warriors in the standings, and both desperately want to make the playoffs this season. The Utah Jazz could fall out of the playoff mix, but that’s still 11 teams vying for 10 spots. Of course, the Warriors don’t just want to be playing for their lives in the play-in tournament, they want a top-six seed to have a secured playoff berth. Even if Curry played every game, the Warriors were already staring at an uphill climb to get into the top-six of the West given how the upper half of the conference is performing.

This stretch of games without Curry may very well determine if the Warriors get to defend their championship at all in the postseason. It’s going to require Jordan Poole balling out after a really disappointing Nov. It’s going to require Andrew Wiggins to get healthy from his abductor injury and start playing like he did during the 2022 playoffs. It’s going to require vintage performances from Thompson and Draymond Green, and the young core to finally start living up to the hype.

Curry will turn 35 years old in March and is at a point in his career when he should be slowing down. Instead, he remains the sole reason the Warriors are competitive. Golden State is finally about to see how difficult life without Curry can be. Their season depends on being able to stay afloat without him.

Does Messi achieve his impossible dream or does Mbappe spoil the party?

The Final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup is set.

Regardless of the outcome, some history will be made.

If Argentina finds a way to win, then Lionel Messi will finally achieve his “impossible dream” of winning the World Cup, in a match that he has declared will be his final World Cup match.

If France finds their way to a victory, then Les Bleus will be the third nation in history to win back-to-back World Cup titles. Italy was the first, winning in both 1934 and 1938. Brazil became the second to win back-to-back World Cups, first in 1958 and then in 1962.

How do our writers see this match unfolding? Which version of history will be written?

Every fiber of my being wants to see Lionel Messi win a World Cup to wrap up what is possibly the greatest career we’ve ever seen in sports. While this is certainly the best Argentina have ever looked at the World Cup in the Messi era, there’s one problem. France is really freaking good. Despite missing several key contributors to their 2018 tournament-winning side due to injury, Les Bleus’ juggernaut keeps moving forward. With Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud a constant threat to score and Antoine Griezmann at the top of his game as a playmaker behind them, France’s talent will be too much. Messi winning a World Cup and putting an end to any debate about who is the greatest ever would be too clean and too simple. France prevails in one of the most exciting finals in recent memory and plays spoiler to the hopes and dreams of many hoping to see the culmination of greatness. France wins. - Rob Usry

I want to believe in the perfect storyline. In the fairytale ending. The idea of Messi winning a World Cup, finally, in his last World Cup match is a movie script waiting to happen. But every great story has conflict, and away from the pages of a script, sometimes in the real world the obstacles are simply too much to overcome. That is the case with this matchup. France is too clinical right now on the attack, and beyond what Mbappe does on the scoresheet, the gravity of his presence is a threat. Look back at France’s first goal against Morocco, a team that had yet to concede to an opposing player. But on France’s first goal there was Mbappe, in the box, with the ball at his feet and seven red jerseys around him. It was a moment from a U7 practice, not a World Cup semi-final. That gravity created space for Theo Hernández to deliver, and that gravity will be too much for Argentina on Sunday. France wins. - Mark Schofield

I’m going to take a departure from my coworkers here and say that I don’t want to see Lionel Messi win a World Cup. No, it’s not because I’m some frothing Messi hater, and more that winning it all would put an end to the greatest sports argument of the modern era: “Messi or Ronaldo?” I live for pointless bickering like this, and if Messi wins it all and Ronaldo never does, it will effectively kill the argument moving forward. Of course, it helps that honestly I really think France will hoist the trophy when it’s all said and done. Mbappe is heir apparent to the throne, Olivier Giroud is perennially underrated and deserves a cup himself — and as a Tottenham fan I’d love to see Hugo Lloris get one. Argentina’s most recent win over Croatia might be more convincing than any single game France has had in the cup (outside of obliterating Australia), but overall Les Bleus have had a harder road to get here and I think that experience carries then through. France wins. - James Dator

I’m going to break the mold here and say that I want Lionel Messi to win the World Cup and I think he’s going to. Yes, France’s star-studded squad probably beats Argentina in terms of head-to-head quality, but Argentina has Messi. Sometimes, that’s all you need. We all know that is the last trophy he has to lift to “cement” his GOAT status, and you can bet that he’s going to do everything in his power to will Argentina past France. Messi’s teammates know what it would mean to help arguably the best player of all time win the World Cup, and that will help spur them on even more. But you can't ignore the threats that France carries all over the field with the most well-known of those threats being Messi’s club teammate Kylian Mbappe. Grab your popcorn. Argentina wins. - Kyle Soto

To be completely honest, I don’t think I really care who wins. If it’s Messi, it cements his legacy is the best way possible. If it’s Mbappe, it signals a passing of the torch that’s quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Given those stakes, I think I can speak with a free mind and say that Argentina is going to figure out how to pull this off. There’s no denying that France has the talent and they’ve proven they can win the big games — including that epic 4-3 win over Argentina in the 2018 Round of 16 — but Argentina have a very slight edge in terms of mentality. Despite this being a possibly career-defining moment for Messi, they are seen almost as underdogs. I think that’s going to let them play a bit more freely. Also, don’t forget that this team rode a 36-game unbeaten run into this tournament. All they’ve done since the loss to Saudi Arabia snapped that streak is go five more unbeaten. Messi completes his Golden Ball-worthy performance and leads Argentina to victory. - Jeremiah Oshan

Qatar will be happy that the Paris Saint-Germain stars are facing off, and that sports washing narrative should not be forgotten in all this. As for the game itself, France are obvious favorites for the way they’ve pulled through again despite not looking like a team trying particularly hard to live up to the hype. They simply have too much talent and Didier Deschamps knows how to set it up. Argentina however are a team that have really caught fire, playing to their very best in a 3-0 thrashing of Croatia after an emotional penalty shootout win against the Netherlands. Lionel Messi will have his say, but for once Argentina are not totally dependent on him. Even still, at 35 years old he remains a nuclear option, and a perfect compliment to a truly talented team who have a clear sense of purpose and identity. That makes the difference in the final, and Argentina win 2-1. - Colin Damms

Valve is unlikely to soup up the graphical prowess of its Steam Deck in time for the PC gaming handheld's second generation, the company has indicated.

Instead, the next version of Steam Deck is far more likely to see hardware improvements centered around its screen and battery capacity.

Speaking to The Verge, Steam Deck engineers suggested Valve was keen to stick with one singal performance point for the handheld for the time being - it's simple to understand Steam Deck verified status - to avoid muddying the waters.

Read more

The patch notes for the next-gen update for The Witcher 3 promised "a few" new secrets for fans to find, and the community has already sussed out a couple.

Trusty steed Roach can now be petted, and former Geralt actor Henry Cavill's pet dog has a short cameo.

But another Easter egg discovered by players isn't as easy to solve as those.

Read more

Henry Cavill will not return to Netflix's The Witcher show, Variety has confirmed.

Some had speculated (hoped?) Cavill would reprise his much-loved role as Geralt after Warner Bros. ditched him as Superman.

In October, Netflix announced The Witcher Season 4 and Cavill's exit from the show.

Read more

From Software’s Dark Souls is a challenging game that is not for the faint of heart. For those of you who are looking for a more intense and difficult experience, you may want to try out the PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC. It is as exciting as judi slot online.

The PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC is a great way to make the game even more challenging. The added weight and size of the controller will make it more difficult to control your character, and the buttons are much more sensitive. This means that you will need to be more precise with your button presses, and you will need to be more careful about not over-pressing the buttons.

If you are up for the challenge, the PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC is a great way to make the game even more difficult. Just be prepared for a more intense and challenging experience.

PS4 Controller for Dark Souls on PC

From Software’s Dark Souls is a challenging game that is not for the faint of heart. For those of you who are looking for a more intense and difficult experience, you may want to try out the PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC.

The PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC is a great way to make the game even more challenging. The added weight and size of the controller will make it more difficult to control your character, and the buttons are much more sensitive. This means that you will need to be more precise with your button presses, and you will need to be more careful about not over-pressing the buttons.

If you are up for the challenge, the PS4 controller for Dark Souls on PC is a great way to make the game even more difficult. It is as fun as slot online gacor. Just be prepared for a more intense and challenging experience.

Does Dark Souls PC support controller?

From Software’s Souls series has always been a bit of a PC gaming outlier. The first game, Demon’s Souls, was a PS3 exclusive and Dark Souls debuted on consoles before making its way to PC a year later. Even Dark Souls 2 launched first on PS3 and Xbox 360 before eventually hitting PCs. That’s why it’s unsurprising that some PC gamers are wondering if the newly announced Dark Souls 3 will support controllers out of the box.

The answer, unfortunately, is no. Dark Souls 3 does not have built-in controller support on PC. From Software says that it’s something that they considered, but ultimately decided against.

“We did consider [controller support] for Dark Souls 3,” director Hidetaka Miyazaki told GamingBolt. “But because we wanted players to feel the sense of achievement and accomplishment in overcoming difficult situations, we decided not to include it.”

So there you have it. If you want to play Dark Souls 3 on PC, you’re going to need a keyboard and mouse. That said, there are a number of third-party programs that will allow you to use a controller with the game, such as x360ce.

How do I use a controller on Dark Souls PC?

Using a controller on Dark Souls PC can be a little bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun! Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1. Plug in your controller to your PC.

2. Launch the game.

3. Go to the in-game options menu and make sure that the “use controller” option is enabled.

4. Use the control stick on your controller to move your character around.

5. To attack, press the “a” button on your controller.

6. To block, press the “b” button on your controller.

7. To use your magic, press the “x” button on your controller.

8. To use your item, press the “y” button on your controller.

9. To open the menu, press the “start” button on your controller.

10. Have fun!

Bonus tip: If you want to use a controller on Dark Souls PC but don’t have one, you can always use an emulator like X360ce.

League of Legends

Using LoL betting tips can be a fun way to stay up-to-date on the competitive scene and bridge the gap between teams from different regions. But it’s important to treat these tips with caution. Often, they’re given by self-appointed experts without any accountability. So be sure to check with a bookmaker before placing a bet.

If you’re new to League of Legends betting, your first step should be to find a website that offers a good variety of markets and great odds. Most sites offer welcome bonuses for new players. Some also have enhanced odds for extra money. You can choose a bet that will pay out at the first blood, first kill, or even the first tower.

Whether you’re looking to bet on a future event or a specific team, you’ll want to be able to access a lot of historical data. This can give you a much better idea of what to expect.

Fortnite

Despite the hype, Fortnite eSports betting is still in its infancy. This makes it a bit harder for the average bettor to find a good bet. But with a little bit of practice, you can pick up some useful tips and tricks to make your bets even more exciting.

Fortnite is a popular video game that was released in 2017. It is a battle royale game with a lot of variables. It is also a very popular game with thousands of streamers and players. It is a great spectator sport that will keep you on your toes. In addition, it can be a great way to earn some money.

When looking for a Fortnite betting site, it’s important to choose a site that offers competitive odds, a variety of Fortnite betting options, and 24/7 customer support. Some sites offer in-play betting, a feature that allows you to bet while you’re watching a match.

CS:GO

CS GO betting tips are useful for anyone who wants to increase their chances of winning when wagering on a CS GO match. These predictions are based on a combination of a variety of factors, including team ratings, gameplay, and player history. They can also speed up the process of researching and placing a CS GO bet.

Several online esports sites allow bettors to place bets on CS GO matches. However, it is important to find bookmakers that offer a wide range of bet types. For instance, bets on underdogs can bring in tidy profits. Likewise, bets on established rivals can leave buckets of shells lying around.

Among the most popular CS:GO betting tips are the money line bet and match winner bet. The money line bet is a type of wager that requires you to predict which team will win the game. The winner is determined by multiplying the odds by the amount of money that you have bet.

Place bets that range between $1 and $2

Here are some things you need to know before placing bets.

You must register with a gambling site and create an account. Your personal information and payment method must be verified before you can make an opening deposit. It may take a few minutes to set up your account. During that time, you can also take advantage of a welcome bonus that most sites offer. If you’re not sure how to create an account, you can ask the customer service team for help. They can be contacted by live chat or email.

Most esports betting sites offer a wide range of different payment options. This includes bank transfers, debit and credit cards, electronic pre-paid cards, and Paysafecard. If you’re looking for a more secure method, you can even use Neteller.

Study the game

Unlike traditional sports, the esports game is a complex beast to master. There are a few steps that you should take to ensure you are in the winning circle. The first is to understand the types of bets on offer. The next is to be familiar with the games’ statistics and the rules of play. Finally, you need to understand the odds of winning. The more familiar you are with these aspects of the game, the more likely you are to pick the winning team.

The best way to do this is to study the game itself. The esports games themselves have a number of different strategies, and the key to betting success is to understand what those strategies are.

Here are some of the most notable Dota 2 players that retired in 2022.

1. MATUMBAMAN

It’s hard to miss the overwhelming support for Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen at TI11 as Dota 2 fans worldwide cheered for his last ride. The Finn had planned his retirement last year, signing a one-year contract with Team Liquid. After a mind-blowing run, from barely qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifiers to finishing third at TI11, MATUMBAMAN ended his career on a glorious note. So what’s next for the TI winner?

“I played Dota all my adult life, I don’t even know what’s real life. [laughs] I’ll go out there and figure out something fun to do,” MATUMBAMAN said in an interview with Esports.gg. “I have plans but every time people ask me I tell them different things. Some people I tell them I’ll become a professional sailor, other people I tell them I’ll make my own video game.“

2. Faith_bian

In September 2022, Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida announced his plan to retire after one final battle at TI11. He took it to Weibo and stated, “I will retire after TI11, leave the arena forever, and start a new chapter. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I think it’s the right thing to do, though inevitably with a little bit of regret.“

He is one of the world’s most decorated Dota 2 players, with consistent performance throughout the years. Despite only being 24 years old and still very much one of the top-performing players, Faith_bian will embark on a new chapter in life.

3. Somnus

Lu “Somnus” Yao has set the bar high for midlane plays – even amongst his peers. But his time under the limelight ends this year as he joins the retired circle. He shared a bittersweet post:

“My youth (referring to his career) is destined to have regrets and difficulties. Thank you all for your concern and encouragement. My youth is over. Somnus out.​​​” (translation by EsportsGO)

With Royal Never Give Up (RNG), Somnus qualified for his 7th TI. But his run was cut short as RNG lost in an unfortunate BO1 elimination match, in which they were forced to play under bad conditions. A day before the match, four members of the team, including Somnus, had caught COVID and played in isolation.

4. Nikobaby

Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov, known for his time in Alliance, casually announced his retirement on his Twitch stream. He revealed that he feels burned out from competing and wants to focus on real-life conversations and even plans to host podcasts.

“I spent the last 6-7 years inside virtual reality for 14-15 hours a day. But now I want to enter a new page in my life. I have invested all of the money that I earned so I can secure life for myself outside of it. Now I just read a lot, try to learn about life, and connect with people. We’ll see, I haven’t planned a future too far ahead.”

The carry player has been at the center of countless roster rebuilds with Alliance but the team did not manage to find its footing. After eight years in the pro scene, Nikobaby decided that it’s time for something new.

5. Ori

Ori is one of the household names in the Chinese scene and he has been on top of his game for the past season. But a sudden announcement by Team Aster that informed Ori’s retirement caught fans by surprise. There were no hints or rumors that hinted at Ori’s plans to retire. On top of that, Aster was fresh off their best TI run, finishing fourth behind Team Liquid.

There were no specific reason as to why he chose to retire. However, some part of the community alleged that Ori was forced to retire by his parents who had found him a new job.

Players taking a break from Dota 2

There are also players who will be absent from the pro scene for a while, though they are not exactly retired. Stepping into 2023, a couple of legendary names have decided to take a break.

Players on a break for the upcoming DPC:

• Miracle-
• Ame
• Yazp0r

Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat has been away from the pro scene for half a year. His absence, which was due to health issues, led to Team Secret bringing in Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov on board. Despite being away from the pro scene, the Dota 2 community was able to hear from the position 4 player again when he appeared at Gorgc’s TI streams.

Throughout early 2022, fans noticed that Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi was often absent from official matches due to health issues. During the post-TI roster shuffle, Nigma Galaxy confirmed the ongoing rumors and announced Miracle-‘s long break. The Jordanian will continue supporting the team from the sidelines.

The uncrowned king also decided that its time he takes a break. Wang “Ame” Chunyu, the most consistent carry player in the world, has opted to go below the radar of Dota 2 pro scene. He remains under the PSG.LGD banner and will sit on the inactive bench.

The DPC season in 2023 will be starkly different from what we witnessed this year. The community will dearly miss these legendary players and their legacies will be forever ingrained in the game. All eyes are locked ahead as we march into a new era.

With the new partnership, the Xbox Game pass will offer unique benefits across all five titles.

Valorant

The benefits coming to Valorant from the Xbox Game Pass are great. Previously, players would have to level up Agent contracts to level five in order to unlock that desired agent. This took a considerable amount of time considering you could only have on active Agent contract at a time. The 20% XP Boost should see more players encouraged to buy the Battle Pass as they can unlock the loot quicker.

• Unlock all current Agents
• Players will have access to every new Agent immediately upon release.
• 20% Match XP Boost given to Battle Pass, Event Pass, and active Agent Contract progress.
• Pocket Sage Gun Buddy if you link your accounts before January 1.

League of Legends

Across all five titles, the access to all League of Legends Champions is the best benefit in terms of free content. In order to get close to the 160+ Champions, players would have to grind the game for hundreds of hours to acquire enough Blue Essence. Of course, the substitute to that is to purchase the Champions via Riot Points but that ends up being extremely expensive.

• Access to all 160+ League of Legends Champions
• Access to every new League of Legends Champion once it is released.
• 20% XP boost
• Masterwork Chest and Key if you link your account before January 1.

Teamfight Tactics

If you are looking to upgrade to a new Little Legend then the Xbox Game Pass benefit is a great opportunity for new players. Players will also get multiple Arena Skins to add to the TFT customization!

• 1-Star Rare Little Legend Tacticians.
• 4 Arena Skins that are available until April 2023, and 1 Arena Skin on a monthly rotation thereafter.
• Little Legend Rare Egg if you link your account before January 1.

Legends of Runeterra

New players to Legends of Runeterra will benefit from the Xbox Game Pass. The Foundations Set, which is every card released when the game was first released will be available in the Game Pass benefits.

• All cards in Foundations Set.
• More in-game benefits will be released in January.
• Random Emote Chest if you link your account before January 1.

League of Legends: Wild Rift

Similarly to League of Legends, there is far too many Champions on the Wild Rift roster for players to grind for. The Game Pass benefits will see every Champion unlocked immediately, meaning you can start queing up with your desired Champion from the word go.

• Access to all 80+ Wild Rift Champions.
• Access to every new Champion once they are released.
• 20% XP boost.
• Prismatic Chest if you link your account before January 1.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest Gaming news and updates.

As of 7 a.m. ET this morning, the collaboration is currently live in-game. Here’s everything Epic Games has for Fortnite players and My Hero Academia fans.

My Hero Academia invades the Fortnite item shop

First and foremost, the Fortnite x My Hero Academia crossover has taken over the item shop. Players can purchase various cosmetic items, including four characters from the show; Izuku Midoriya, All Might, Katsuki Bakugo, and Ochaco Uraraka. 

That allows potential buyers to choose between three heroes and one villain. Each Fortnite skin captures the character’s appearance from the My Hero Academia universe. The selection is vast, as you’d expect, and you have until December 29 at 7 p.m. ET to grab them. 

You can see a complete list and a look at the items below:

Izuku Midoriya

• Full Cowl Alternate Style
• All Might Collectible Back Bling
• Blackwhip Axe Pickaxe

All Might

• Pro-Hero Alternate Style
• Principal Nezu Back Bling
• All Smite Pickaxe

Katsuki Bakugo

• Hero Alternate Style
• Grenade Backpack Back Bling
• The Cluster Buster Pickaxe

Ochaco Uraraka

• Uravity Booster Back Bling
• The Uravity Smasher Pickaxe

You can also grab the Symbol of Peace and Hero Analysis Emote in the Fortnite item shop.

Hero Training Gym creative island, quests, & rewards

Fortnite x My Hero Academia also features a creative island players can explore to immerse themselves further. The Zen Creative team constructed this Hero Training Gym experience, offering three classes and team vs. team combat. 

Those who enter the arena will earn “Rescue Points” by compiling eliminations or capturing Rescue Zones. The scoring works as follows; you gain one point for an elimination and five points for holding a Rescue Zone. The first team to reach 100 points will claim victory. 

Additionally, various Hero Training Gym quests are available for players until December 29 at 7 p.m. ET. Completing these challenges will unlock two Sprays, an Emoticon, and Back Bling, themed with Fortnite x My Hero Academia. 

Here is a complete list of the quests and rewards:

• Assist in Eliminating Opponents on the Hero Training Gym island Quest — unlocks the Deku Spray
• Secure Rescue Points Quest — unlocks the PLUS ULTRA Spray
• Complete a total of four My Hero Academia Quests to earn the Deku’s Glove Emoticon
• Complete a total of eight My Hero Academia Quests to earn the UA Cape Back Bling

You can access the Hero Training Gym by inputting island code 6917-7775-5190. 

New in-game Fortnite x My Hero Academia gameplay items

You can now find My Hero Academia items in traditional Fortnite Battle Royale and Zero Build. Firstly, we have Deku’s Smash—a special weapon that delivers a powerful punch. You can find these in specific Supply Drops and My Hero Academia vending machines. 

Speaking of Supply Drops, be on the lookout for All Might versions of the iconic Fortnite crates. These will drop intermittently throughout each match, and it’s your best chance to find Deku’s Smash. 

Fortnite x My Hero Academia will stick around until December 29 at 7 p.m. ET. You won’t want to miss out on this limited-time collaboration or the Winterfest 2022 event that’s currently happening!

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Fortnite news and updates! 

After eight series in the BLAST Premier World Final group stage, two maps still await their debut at the CS:GO tournament.

Overpass and Vertigo weren’t played at all in the first two days of the event, according to HLTV. The former was picked once as a decider in the OG versus Vitality matchup, but the series finished before it could reach that stage.

KennyS made a return to competing in CS:GO on Nov. 15, and he recently detailed the reasons behind his surprise comeback.

In an episode of HLTV Confirmed on Dec 13, the legendary sniper said his desire to compete professionally again came back after he visited the PGL Antwerp Major as a spectator in May this year.

As expected, the Nov. 18 update to CS:GO changed the weapon meta significantly.

The patch introduced a major nerf to AWP and M4A1-S. In terms of the latter weapon, the developers weakened its long-range accuracy, which immediately sparked discussion about M4A4’s potential return to pro play. Looking at the stats from BLAST Premier World Final’s group stage, it looks like the weapon is making a comeback. It was used more than the M4A1-S, according to HLTV.

Apex Legends esports had a resurgence in 2022 with LAN events back on the calendar, but as 2023 approaches, many teams are reconsidering their place in the battle royale’s esports ecosystem.

Cloud9 were the first major player to pull the plug, dropping their team mid-way through the ALGS Year 3 Split 1 season. Now with competition coming to a close, Team Liquid has also announced their intention to leave Apex Legends esports.

There was no mincing of words in Liquid’s announcement. A lack of support from EA, plus a tightening of the budget, was the direct reason for pulling out of ALGS.

“Though the writing has been on the wall, and on social media, we understand this is probably confusing given how well the team has performed, even after they lost Gildersons,” the organization said on December 15.

“As with our experience in competitive PUBG, Team Liquid is an organization governed by the realities of this industry, both financial and social. On the financial side of things, the ALGS and how it is moving forward with monetization for teams simply doesn’t fit with our operations, and so we need to take our leave, though we take no pleasure in doing so.”

Team Liquid had one of North America’s more successful ALGS line-ups. They finished second behind Reignite (now DarkZero) at the Stockholm 2022 Split 2 Playoffs, and also qualified for the ALGS Championship in Raleigh.

The team had also qualified for the first LAN event of 2023, finishing in second behind TSM in the latest domestic ALGS regular season. They are due to compete in December 19’s NA finals, although it’s unclear if they’ll play under the Liquid banner.

Liquid will still be committed to Apex Legends through content creators though, recently signing Tanner ‘Rogue’ Trebb as a streamer in November 2022 after his two year stint on NRG.

They haven’t said goodbye forever either, with Liquid CEO Steve ‘LiQuiD112’ Arhancet stating the door is open for a return if more support is offered down the line.

“We are always going to be big fans of Apex Legends, of ALGS, and of our former players too,” he said. “I can tell there’s a real love of Apex in the entire Team Liquid family, and so I wish that we could stay in the ALGS and make a long-term investment in our roster and the competitive scene.

“But we strive to only participate in games where the developers support the teams, so the teams can support their players in turn. I’m hopeful that, one day, competitive Apex could follow that model and that we could return to the competition then.”

The OpTic Texas CDL roster has had quite a turbulent last few months, stemming all the way back to the midpoint of the Call of Duty: Vanguard season. A hand injury to Indervir ‘iLLeY’ Dhaliwal meant that they weren’t at full strength for quite some time, with Byron ‘Prolute’ Vera subbing in for a bit. 

That turbulence only continued into the off-season, with OpTic planning, at one point, to drop iLLeY and Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell as a part of their rebuild. Though, that changed at the last minute, with the powerful squad deciding to stick together for another season.  

There will be a need to rebuild next season, however, as Scump is finally calling time on his storied CoD career. The Modern Warfare 2 season will be his last, but Vanguard was almost that, and it would have seen OpTic lose Shotzzy as well.

Scump reveals Shotzzy was leaving OpTic if he retired from CDL

It was something Scump revealed during an update video on the early part of OpTic’s season, as he once again discussed his ‘last dance’ with Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez. 

“He said he was potentially leaving, he had offers from other teams and he was like ‘if you retire, I leave,’” Scump said, lifting the lid on the off-season.  

“I was like pleading with him because personally, I wasn’t very happy with my season last year and that’s one of the big reasons I wanted to retire, because I didn’t like Vanguard. I didn’t have a good season on Vanguard up to my standards. I didn’t have a horrible season but I didn’t have a good season, in my eyes, so I was really contemplating because of that and he was like ‘if you leave, I leave’ and I was like, well, s*it.” 

Having Scump and Shotzzy’s spots free in the off-sesson would have likely triggered an even bigger rostermania period than we already saw, but that craziness will have to wait at least a year until Scump’s spot finally opens up. 

The OpTic boys haven’t yet set the world alight in Modern Warfare 2, coming into the first Major event of the season with a 2-2 record. Though, they’ve plenty of time to turn things around.

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The Speedy Scot started from pole position at Interlagos, after an intense qualifying session which saw him and nearest title rival Thomas Ronhaar post identical lap times, both setting a 1:06.674. However, a three-place penalty for Ronhaar meant it was an all-Papaya front row.

A perfect launch from Blakeley and team mate Bari Boroumand set the standard for the first half of the race, with nobody risking too much in wet conditions. Halfway through the changeover came, with the leaders swapping their Intermediate tyres for slicks between Laps 16-18.

Luke Smith had his moment in the sun, staying out later than anyone on the Inters to lead a couple of laps. This provided an opportunity for Frede Rasmussen to pull a ‘Zonta’ on him and Boroumand, getting past both at Turn 1.

It was short-lived, as Boroumand re-took the position on Lap 26. They switched one final time on Lap 33, with Rasmussen denying a McLaren Shadow 1-2.

Ronhaar had closed the gap to Blakeley on Wednesday to just five points, but a frustrating evening saw him stuck behind Suzuka winner Nicolas Longuet, and Fabrizio Donoso, unable to get past.

While his competitors fought amongst themselves, Blakeley was in total control out in front, crossing the line three seconds clear of Rasmussen in second. Boroumand made it a McLaren 1-3, with Longuet and Donoso not budging ahead of Ronhaar. Ex-Mercedes-now-Alfa Romeo driver Dani Bereznay claimed seventh, with current Mercedes racers Jarno Opmeer and Jake Benham P8 and P9. Sebastian Job rounded out the points.

STATE OF PLAY

Blakeley now sits on a throne of four wins, and 169 points. Rasmussen moves up into second place, with 148, and Ronhaar is one point further back on 147. These three are mathematically the only drivers now capable of scooping the title in Abu Dhabi, but with a 21-point gap to Rasmussen, it’s looking more like a case of when, not if.

One this is for absolutely certain – we will have a brand-new champion come Friday evening! Join us to find out who it is, with qualifying live from 1530 UTC on Twitch and YouTube, and the race from 1930 UTC!

Six years after announcing his departure from Blizzard Entertainment, and his retirement from the games industry at large, long-serving Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen is returning to the company as creative advisor on the Warcraft franchise.

Metzen's retirement from Blizzard in 2016 came as a shock to many a fan. He'd been with the company for 23 years at that point, serving as head writer and lore guru (or, more officially, senior vice president of story and franchise development) and had become one of its most recognisable faces across countless BlizzCons.

"The reason I use the word 'retire'", Metzen explained in a statement at the time of his departure, "is because I'm not going to some other company or starting up new projects or anything remotely like that. It's been a long, amazing stretch of years. Now it's time to slow it down. Rest. Lay around on the couch and get fat."

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Hideo Kojima's idiosyncratic post-apocalyptic courier adventure Death Stranding is the latest in an increasingly long line of video games to get the movie treatment, courtesy of a newly announced collaboration between Kojima Productions and Barbarian executive producer Alex Lebovici's Hammerstone Studios.

Death Stranding, for those unfamiliar, stars The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, a courier trying to make ends meet in an aggressively wet corner of rural Wales. One day, his clothes unexpectedly fall off, a baby turns into goo, ...fish?! Then, walking!!!!

Okay, so that's not exactly how it goes (although it's not not, either) but it's fair to say Death Stranding's atmospheric tale of a post-apocalyptic United States - which, yes, does look at awful lot like Wales - is not short of wonderfully outlandish ideas. There are eerily invisible creatures, rain capable of ageing anything it touches, bottled babies able to bridge the gap between life and death, a mysterious plane of existence known as the Beach, and much, much more.

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Spare a thought for poor old Henry Cavill: once wearer of the gangly locks as Geralt of Rivia, once bearer of the bulgy bits as Superman, now no longer either. But on the bright side, his lovely dog's now in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, courtesy of its new-gen update.

Henry Cavill's dog, an American Akita named Kal, is a bit of a star in his own right, frequently snapped alongside the actor and apparently a bit of a fixture on-set of Cavill's projects. During filming of The Witcher, for instance, Kal was said to have been on location the "entire time".

And now Kal has been immortalised in digital form, appearing at the Devil's Pit for players that get the "good" ending in The Witcher 3's new quest In The Eternal Fire's Shadow, introduced as part of CD Projekt's long-in-the-works new-gen update.

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The day’s action was won by TSM, who were in lethal form. They have secured their place at LAN, and seem to be back at their very best.

The ALGS Pro League will now move towards the Regional Finals on Sunday. Following a match point format means that anyone inside the top 20 who will play the Regional Finals could qualify for LAN.

Sentinels relegated

In a dramatic fall from grace, Sentinels have gone from winning the ALGS Pro League in December 2021 to being relegated to the Challenger Circuit in December 2022. The question will be on if Sentinels choose to stay together and fight to reclaim their place in the Pro League, or call it a day and look for new opportunities.

Sentinels made one of the worst starts to any Pro League in history, and rallied in recent weeks to give themselves every chance at sneaking out of the relegation spaces. However, that momentum ran out in the final two weeks. Sentinels struggled to 18th on Sunday, and 15th today.

What went wrong for Sentinels?

To establish what happened to Sentinels, you have to go all the way back to split 2 of the 2021-22 Pro League season. Coming off the back of a dominant split 1, Sentinels were derailed by the introduction of Storm Point to the ALGS.

Sentinels never managed to establish their own drop spot on Storm Point. They contested ESA, now OpTic at the Mill. This led to them missing out on Sweden Playoff qualification by just one place. They put in some strong performances, but the two weeks where they shared a lobby with OpTic let them down.

Sentinels never fully recovered from missing out on Sweden playoffs, and then the subsequent ALGS Championship.

They had a clear identity in their winning Pro League split. Sentinels were the best edge team in the region, playing aggressive Apex.

Lack of identity for Sentinels

This split however Sentinels have just never found a winning formula. Various legend compositions, including Revenant have been tried. The roster was changed, with coach TeQ replacing Lou mid way through the season. But, nothing has delivered results.

The question is, do Sentinels stick or twist? Will the organisation stand by Crust, Senoxe and Teq? Will Crust, Senoxe and Teq stand by eachother? You would have Sentinels as firm favourites to qualify for the Pro League, but they will want to push towards LAN qualification rather than fight another relegation battle.

TSM dominate to send group stage

Elsewhere, it was Vintage TSM as they dominated the final group stage day of the ALGS Pro League. TSM started as they finished, winning the first and last regular game days. Their three total wins is the most of any team in the Pro League.

This means that TSM have mathematically qualified for LAN no matter what happens in the regional finals.

TSM won two of the days six games. One at their home POI of Wall on Storm Point, and then a game at Climatizer.

The Climatizer win in particular showed exactly how dialed in TSM have become. They chose to Valkyrie Skyward Dive just after Luminosity Gaming. This call was pure brilliance, while everyone was focusing or reloading LG, TSM flew towards the height of Climatizer. This spot had minimal sightlines, and TSM were able to fully reset and heal up.

Taking this position just as they did allowed them to dominate the end game. Verhulst in particular was in fine form. He dropped 20 kills on the day. This saw him finish first in the day’s overall kill leaderboard.

Are we entering another era of TSM dominance?

TSM have legendary status in Apex Legends. They dominated the games early tournaments, and their reputation has never waned. Some people have doubted TSM at times, especially in the early days of teaming with Verhulst. Whatever problems TSM had then, they certainly do not have now.

What has been a real secret to TSM’s success has been Lava Siphon. Arguably the best drop spot on Worlds Edge, it has strong loot and favourable rotations. Other regions like EMEA actually split Lava Siphon. Will TSM be able to hold down the entire POI at LAN?

Regardless of what happens in the Regional Finals, TSM will be feeling confident heading into LAN. They have a 66% win ratio when they find themselves in the top 5 on Storm Point. Plus, ImperialHal and Reps are two of the most experienced LAN players in the game. Now that Verhulst is more established, can TSM reclaim LAN glory?

For coverage of ALGS and all other things Apex Legends, stay tuned to esports.gg

In the announcement, Psyonix revealed a limited-edition Bugatti Centodieci Bundle that will be available from December 19 to January 3.

Bugatti Centodieci Bundle

The exclusive bundle will be available in Rocket League for 1100 Credits. The items included in the bundle can only be equipped by the Bugatti Centodieci.

• Bugatti Centodieci Body (Plank hitbox)
• Noire Decal 

• Bugatti Centodieci Wheels

• Bugatti Centodieci Engine Audio 
• Bugatti Centodieci Player Banner

Comparison with the real Bugatti Centodieci

The Rocket League Bugatti Centodieci is inspired by the real Bugatti vehicle of the same name. The car is a homage to the iconic Bugatti EB 110 which was famous in the early 1990s and was without a doubt the fastest and most extraordinary supercar of its time. The newly inspired Centodieci – which is Italian for 110, is also a celebration of Bugatti’s 110th birthday

The Rocket League Centodieci features a modern interpretation of the classic wedge shape. It equips the iconic W16 engine and a power output of 1177 kW/1600 horsepower. It is hand-built in Bugatti’s Molsheim factory and then delivered to customers by 2022. The real kick? Only ten Bugatti Centodieci exist in the real world. This includes names like the famous footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo. Reports indicate the luxurious car is worth around 8 million euros.

You don’t want to miss your chance in owning the most exclusive real car in Rocket League so get yours while it is still available!

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for more Rocket League content.

How to get the Fortnite Guff Gringle skin

To obtain the Guff Gringle outfit in Fortnite, simply log in to the game on PC via the Epic Games launcher. Next, head to the “Item Shop” section to get the outfit for free. Make sure to claim it before January 3, 2023 at 6 a.m. PST.

Once you get the outfit, it goes into your locker. You can then equip it in the game on PC or whichever platform you play Fortnite on, according to Epic Games. Here’s a time zone converter if you want to know the claim period in your local time. Enter 6 a.m. PST and convert that to your time zone.

How to unlock free Fortnite Guff Gringle outfit on console

Don’t worry if you play Fortnite on a console. You can still get the Guff Gringle outfit for free. Here’s how:

• Visit the GeForce Now website if you have an iPhone.
• Press the “Share” icon on your phone.
• Click “Add to Home Screen” from the menu and press “Add.”
• Launch “GeForce Now” from your home screen.
• Create a free GeForce account.
• Connect your account to Epic Games.
• Sign in to your Epic Games account.
• Search “Fortnite” in the app and click on it.
• Press the “Select Membership” button.
• Scroll down to join for free.
• Launch Fortnite and claim the Guff Gringle outfit.

If you have an Andriod, then you can get the app via Google Play and follow the above instructions for connecting your Epic Games account to GeForce Now.

According to Epic Games, there aren’t any plans to make this Fortnite Winterfest 2022 outfit available for purchase in the in-game shop, so make sure to claim it on time.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more Fortnite news and updates.

Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi asked for the support of the fans in his post. He also said that he is happy to be playing with Jake “Boaster” Howlett again.

Who is nicoodoz?

Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi is a 22 old former-Counter-Strike now-VALORANT player. He started his career with Ground Zero in 2016. After that, he played for WE HAWT, 9INE, Tikitakan, Team Singularity, and Copenhagen Flames. He started to walk on the same path as fnatic in June.

He placed second in his first tournament with fnatic, REPUBLEAGUE Season 3, after losing to the MAD Lions. 5 months later, they became champions on Elisa Masters Espoo 2022.

He won Malta Vibes Knockout Series #4 and BLAST Rising 2021 trophies With his previous team Copenhagen Flames. During his Counter Strike: Global Offensive career, he has won more than $92,984 in prizes. The young star has 1.09 KDA Points.

fnatic

After nicoodoz’s switch to the VALORANT roster, fnatic’s Counter-Strike roster will remain with only 4 players. A few names are spoken among the fans but there isn’t any official statement about that last seat yet.

fnatic’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad after Nico’s decision:

• Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
• Dion “FASHR” Derksen
• Fredrik “roeJ” Jorgensen
• William “mezii” Merriman
• Jamie ‘keita‘ Hall (Coach)

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Recently Papara SuperMassive Blaze announced that they parted ways with Atahan “Mr_Kane” Dikmen. Atahan was one of the founding partners of Papara SuperMassive Blaze and also he was the team’s VALORANT manager and general manager.

After Mr_Kane and Papara SuperMassive Blaze parted ways, there were rumors about Mr_Kane joining BBL Esports. But it didn’t happen and FUT Esports announced that Atahan “Mr_Kane” Dikmen start his new path in FUT Esports. Atahan “Mr_Kane” Dikmen will be Head of Esports in FUT Esports.

After Mr_Kane’s transfer, The Executive staff of FUT Esports is:

• Sinan Dursunoğlu -> CEO
• Cesur Sünnetçioğlu -> CEO
• Baki Can Kadıoğlu -> General Manager
• Atahan Dikmen -> Head of Esports
• Berke Mol -> Manager

Who is Mr_Kane?

Atahan “Mr_Kane” Dikmen, is a 30-year-old esports manager. He started his career with the PUBG Esports manager position in Galatasaray Esports. After his transfer to Papara SuperMassive Blaze, he stayed there for 3 and a half years.

He is still an official member of Galatasaray SK.

He tasted championships in:

• GLL Wingman Series VIII ’19 (PUBG)
• PGS Berlin MEA Finals’20 (PUBG)
• Fastpay Turkish Championships’20 (PUBG)
• Red Bull M.E.O S3 Turkey ’20 (PUBGM)
• VESTEL CUP ’20 #1 (Rocket League)
• TESFED Turkish Cup’20 (TEKKEN)
• TESFED Turkish Cup’20 (Rocket League)
• YEE CUP ’21 (Rocket League)
• ESA ’21 (PUBGM)
• Red Bull M.E.O West World Finals ’21 (PUBGM)
• BPL’21 (NBA)
• VCT 2021 TR Challengers (Valorant)
• TESFED Turkish Cup’21 (NBA)
• TESFED Turkish Cup ’21 (Rocket League)
• PCS5 MEA Finals ’21 (PUBG)
• KFCxAlgida Finals ’21 (Rocket League)
• Origin Series August ’21 (WildRift)
• Intel Monsters Reloaded ’21 (Rocket League)
• PMPL Turkey S2 ’21 (PUBGM)
• Red Bull M.E.O Turkey S4 ’21 (WildRift)
• TEBL Season 2 ’21 (NBA 2K)
• VCT Challengers1 Turkey ’22 (Valorant)
• ESA Rebels 4 ’22 (Valorant FE)

Bigpicture Announces WCG RIVALS #1 Korea vs Japan To Be Held in WCG 2022-23

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In the immortal words of Robert Smith from The Cure, “It’s Friday. I’m in love.” Yeah, the fact the week is ending is pretty neat, but it’s more so because a lot happened today in the Pokémon scene.

Three new Pokémon—Scatterbug, Spewpa, and Vivillon—debuted in Pokémon Go, along with a new mechanic. The Winter Holiday Part One also took off, and it’s cool as ice. In other news, Charizard the Unrivaled has returned to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for another hectic stint. And if you’ve already caught one, fear not. Plenty of amazing rewards up for grabs.

The CS:GO tournament scene was very different in 2017. Though the esport is still unique today in its reliance on third-party tournament organizers, there was no franchising to speak of whatsoever back then. There was no Louvre Agreement for ESL and no Flashpoint for FACEIT in sight. Orgs like StarLadder and ELEAGUE were still involved with the game and the circuit had much greater variety in terms of formats.

It was this environment that RFRSH entered with the inaugural BLAST Pro Series event in Sep. 2017. The Danish media organization had goals of in-house franchised leagues and weekend escapades of low competitive value, courting controversies along the way.

After Riot Games announced they would be shifting LCS games to be played on Thursdays and Fridays instead of the previous weekend slate, LCS caster Azael took to Twitter to share his fears about the move.

“It’s a change I raised a ton of concerns about internally,” Azael tweeted.

The year included many great storylines, like the dominance of OpTic Gaming, the underdog run of ZETA DIVISION, and the rise of FunPlus Phoenix.

Some players rose out of those storylines to put on performances that cemented them in Valorant history and propelled them into top player status.

Here are our top five Valorant players of the year.

Best Valorant players – 2022

5 — Jing Jie ‘Jinggg’ Wang

Jinggg joined Paper Rex in September 2021.

Paper Rex finished top four at Valorant Champions Tour Stage 1 Masters and Stage 2 Masters largely off the back of Jinggg’s performance. The teenager did have some help thanks to his player-in-crime Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susanto always complimenting his aggressive plays and the team’s head coach Alexandre ‘alecks’ Sallé drawing up set plays to let both players shine.

But, the young Singaporean player had to execute those plays and he almost always did while finishing events in the top bracket statistically. He was in the top three statistically of players in average damage per round, average combat score, and kills per round at Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen, according to VRL.gg. He was in the top five of players across those same statistics at Stage 1 Masters and even broke into the top 10 at Valorant Champions 2022 despite his team not making it past the group stage.

Paper Rex became a team to watch out for internationally in 2022 and based on the ages of Jinggg and f0rsaken, potentially many years to come.

4 — Kim ‘MaKo’ Myeong-kwan

MaKo was one of DRX’s consistent performers on LAN.

DRX are a consistent threat internationally and continued their dynasty regionally in 2022 by breezing their way to every international event. MaKo, the team’s smokes player, was a consistent competitor for DRX and made his way to the top of many statistical categories throughout the year.

Arguably his best tournament of the year was Masters Copenhagen where he had the highest number of assists per round at 0.5 and the second-highest kill, assist, survive, or trade percentage, according to VLR. While not always showing up on the stats sheet, or making flashy plays, MaKo was the rock DRX needed to make it out of tough games.

He was rarely the team’s bottom fragger and was one of the biggest reasons DRX broke into the top three at Valorant Champions, the team’s first top-three showings internationally, by top fragging in a 2-0 win over FPX.

3 — Gustavo ‘Sacy’ Rossi

Sacy helped lead LOUD to a Valorant Champions title.

No top-five list of the year in Valorant would be complete with a representative from the Valorant Champions winners LOUD. The Brazilian squad was one of the best teams of the year in the esport and also dominated their home region as no domestic team was able to take a series off of them in 2022. One of the leaders of the squad, Sacy, was an integral part of the team as he helped captain LOUD and caused problems for enemy teams with his utility usage.

LOUD was billed as a top team in Brazil and internationally because of their understanding of the meta, utility usage, and raw mechanics. While having players on the team that are great at shooting heads, having players like Sacy that can read the game and mentor younger teammates is also important.

While not one of the top statistical players of the year, Sacy could always hold his own as a site anchor and was never a liability for his team unlike other team captains and IGLs at the top level.

2 — Dmitry ‘SUYGETSU’ Ilyushin

The youngest player on the top Valorant players of 2022 list.

The rise of FPX was a fun ride for fans as the team qualified for every international event in 2022, won Masters Copenhagen, and finished top four at Valorant Champions. All five team members from the squad could round out a top-five Valorant players of the year list, but the youngest of the team made Dexerto’s list for his consistent fragging power.

SUYGETSU was named MVP of the grand final series between FPX and PRX at Masters Copenhagen after the team lifted the trophy. The 20-year-old player secured the final kills for his team to win the series and also dominated the third map of the series, Fracture, with 22 kills on Viper.

While not a flashy playmaker, or the crafty IGL of the squad, SUYGETSU showcased his talent in a more supportive role and still had breakout games throughout the year to show fans he is more than a Cypher main.

1 — Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker

yay was by far the top player of the year and demanded attention from multiple teams this offseason.

OpTic Gaming were the best Valorant team of 2022 by a mile as the squad placed top three across all three international VCT events and won Masters 1. While the team had one of the better IGL and coaching duos in the world, and some of the best players from North America on the squad, it’s hard to overlook yay’s importance to OpTic’s year competitively.

yay was in the top three across all three VCT major 2022 events in average combat score, average damage per round, and kills per round, according to VLR. With the rise of Chamber and his abilities that give the Agent a sniper rifle and a one-shot headshot kill sidearm, yay became almost unstoppable. He also averaged 0.18 first kills per round across the year at international events.

Don’t just take Dexerto’s word for it as the player also won the best esports athlete of the year from The Game Awards on Dec 8.

A self-confessed gamer, Musk has often joked about playing big video game titles in cars, and that’s now possible because of the Steam integration. Atari games and other video game titles like Cuphead and Fallout Shelter were already playable on some of the Tesla cars.

Steam, however, provides a whole new range of titles for video game and automobile enthusiasts to play around with. With Steam integrated into the car, popular video game titles like CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 can now be played in a car. In essence, any of the best esports games that can be played on a Steam Deck can be played inside a Tesla.

@ Tesla

The Future Of Cars

Video games in cars are a little hard to comprehend if readers aren’t up to date with Tesla’s long-term vision. Tesla and other automobile giants like BMW and Mercedes are preparing for a future where most cars will be run by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This technological advancement is well underway. Trucks are most likely to be the first vehicles to undergo the AI treatment, with other vehicles set to go through the same process over time.

If all this feels like something from a sci-fi novel or movie, it’s because many popular sci-fi novels are set in this period or a future not too far from this period. There are, of course, many ethical dilemmas that the masses will have to deal with whenever such advancements in technology come about – employment being the foremost.

Most expert opinion on this subject suggests that human labor will still be significant with specific tasks, but less than before. One of the examples used by many who advocate for such advancements is the ATM, which replaced some of the functions taken up by a bank teller, but didn’t prevent a bank teller from providing other banking services.

Why Play Video Games In Cars?

It isn’t hard to envision why occupying oneself with a source of entertainment is better than driving through traffic. In Tesla’s grand scheme, cars will be able to drive themselves, and so an entertainment system that goes beyond just music and streaming does seem a no-brainer. In the world as it is, however, the extent of video game usage will probably be limited to recharging stops and long-drive weekend getaways. The possibility that these devices will be powered by Starlink is also a distinct possibility.

Of course, taking up this position in the discussion ignores the pleasure of driving a vehicle. There’s always been that age-old claim of science snatching something away from humanity, and that will continue to linger with such technological advancements.

Another thing to remember is the sociological concept called ‘the third place’ by Ray Oldenberg, which proposed that cars will become the third significant zone outside home and work. Oldenberg, of course, could not have anticipated something like the COVID-19 pandemic, which questioned just how essential workplaces are.

For now, work remains one of the essential zones, but it’s hard to confirm that cars will become as crucial in the future. There could be a bizarre future where cars – not dissimilar to caravans – will take up the role of homes because of a lack of space or rising housing costs, but that also doesn’t look likely for the time being.

For now, playing some of the best crossplay games in cars seems like a luxury. The Steam integration might be one of the first steps towards making this activity a norm.

Whilst the event itself has not been announced, “The Creator Championship” is currently being teased on Twitter by W3E. The event is set to happen on 23rd February so we are not too far away from the day the action kicks off as we draw a close to an action packed 2022.

Image Credit | Web3 Esports

The Creator Championship is an accumulation of some of the top creators and gamers within the space currently. Some of the announced names for the next W3E event include:

• BoredElon
• CryptoStache
• BullDog1205
• Spikereacts

These names have so far made a mark on the Crypto games space for their creativity and skill. Offering more content for their fan bases that has proven to be evergreen despite the overall market trends and notions surrounding the Crypto industry. Their follower counts and engagement on their content will also be beneficial to the growth of W3E no doubt.

Now this is some exciting stuff! Thousands around the world tuned in to witness the W3E Matches in Istanbul and we expect the same again for the February event! Are you excited for the upcoming W3E event?

A quick recap on W3E

Since their first event, W3E have really managed to make a positive name for themselves amongst streamers, gamers and influencers. Winners of the event won huge prize pools and gained great notoriety through participating.

The final matches were close calls as it was a tense battle from all the teams that made it that far in the competition. However, there could only be one winner who earned bragging rights. That team happened to be Xborg who took it to the last second to seal the deal and become the first W3E Championship Champions.

“Overall W3E put on a great experience for all. The team worked really hard to make sure this event was one of a kind. W3E gave new opportunities to web3 enthusiasts to play competitively or showcase their game that they all work so hard on to push the space forward. Players, teams, game developers and attendees were all pleased with the whole event and we received wonderful feedback. W3E welcomes everybody and can’t wait to see you at the next one!” – Thang Phan

Those who participated earnt exclusive NFT trading trophies and skins from the organisers of W3E, a quirky feature we hope to see return to the Creator Championships in February.

Image Credit | Web3 Esports

W3E haven’t slowed down

Whilst announcing a second event, W3E have also gone onto Twitter to announce a regular Championship that players all around the world can take part in.

This is still under development. However this gives more eager players the chance to show off their skills and teamwork, climbing the leaderboards on a regular, weekly basis. Those who prosper will then be featured in exclusive LAN tournaments which will be then streamed to wider audiences again worldwide.

The current event in question is for duos only, location is not limited!

At the time of writing Solana token has seen a huge correction in price due to the FTX ordeal. Prices are at all time lows for the token, for many in the gaming community this is a blessing! NFTs such as the ones for EV.io have never been cheaper, making it more accessible to play this game.

If you are/were a fan of Halo online then EV.io may be the blockchain shooter for you. Simply search EV.io into your browser and you are thrown straight into the action. If this is your first time hearing about the title, check out our comprehensive EV.io review.

Be on the lookout for more updates from W3E via their Twitter and website on the Creator Championship and EV.IO League.

Happy gaming!

They also wanted to make something unique, which is why it is going to feature blockchain technology:

“Our team consists of many hardcore MMORPG gamers, having been fans of games like Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. We also found that combining MMOs and blockchain tech just made sense… The developer team behind Oath of Peak is especially skilled at creating MMORPGs. Their previous title, A Chinese Ghost Story, boasted more than 18 million downloads globally, and it also happens to be one of our favorite games of all time.”

Oath of Peak is going to be free-to-play

The game will be free-to-play, which is slowly becoming an incredibly popular format for games after League of Legends, Fortnite, Apex Legends and others adopted the business model. The developers wanted to make this particular game free-to-play because community is such a strong aspect.

Zhang told me that a crucial component of the game is players working together, socializing and trading. That is made more difficult if everyone doesn’t have the game. A zero dollar price tag eliminates that issue.

On the other hand, that makes profit a bit harder. Bogging down players down with endless in-game purchases isn’t a desirable outcome for a game. As a result, they’re utilizing the NFT aspect of the game:

“We created a minor portion of the game’s assets—the Primordial Spirit Beasts—as NFTs, to give owners complete freedom in using them. Players can choose to trade, breed, level up, and use their Primordial Spirit Beasts to assist them throughout the game. The rest of the game assets behave very similarly to how they would work in a traditional MMO, including how they’re purchased and used.”

That block-chain technology, which grows more prominent every day, is a big part of the game. It’s a driving force behind the development and the desire to differentiate from other MMORPGs:

“We found Oath of Peak to be a great representation of our vision, one that was perfectly aligned with our goals. The ability for blockchain technology to give players a stronger sense of ownership and provide them with the freedom to interact with others whichever way they want to are both game changers to the MMORPG genre.”

That ownership is a key component of the game. It’s something the world’s most popular MMORPGs don’t have, which could spell a successful debut and run for Oath of Peak.

Oath of Peak comes to PC and Mobile in January release

The game is set to be released for mobile gamers and PC players. This was done largely to reduce the complexity of the game and get it out sooner with a smoother release, as Zhang said to me.

“The addition of new platforms adds a significant number of new variables. We wanted to keep the complexity to a minimum with the initial release, so that we could focus on providing the best gameplay experience possible.”

However, that doesn’t rule out the future for Xbox, PlayStation or other gamers. In fact, should the game do well on mobile and PC, there’s a real chance more consoles get the game down the road.

Oath of Peak arrives in January

Much like consoles, the game will be limited geographically at first. Players in Europe and North America will have access in January. The team plan to release the game one step at a time and that includes where it’s released. Once things are going well in those areas, they can begin to consider other areas.

Vision for the game and its players

A game this predicated on community should know that a community is often made up of diverse people with different views on things. Zhang and Yeeha Games understand this and were largely not concerned with creating something universal:

“It isn’t uncommon for players to interpret a game differently from how the developers intended. For Oath of Peak, we just wanted to provide an MMORPG experience that we would enjoy ourselves.”

They simply want the community to enjoy the game and the genre the developers have appreciated for so long. The biggest part of their vision and the plan behind the game is community. They have implemented a huge focus on that interaction, which took four years and $20 million to develop. As a result, Zhang has a message for gamers out there:

“We’ve got an MMORPG with a ton of focus on community, interaction, exploration, leveling up, and customization… If these are elements that you yourself as a gamer are after, then I highly recommend that you check out Oath of Peak!”

As for the future of Yeeha Games, everything is on the table. Zhang mentioned they have 11 games in the pipeline and have even more being discussed. Very quickly, a fledgling game developer could become a major player in the industry. Many of these games are slated for the next year, which could be massive for Yeeha Games.

With Oath of Peak set to kickstart that, the game industry, and MMORPGs specifically, are in good shape.

Read next: Best MMORPG Games to Play in 2022

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Here are our picks for the week, and the cruelest last place punishment of the year.

Okay, we’re getting chippy in our weekly picks. The amount of trash talking we’re hitting each other with has really ramped up as we approach the end of the season and it’s manifesting itself in incredible ways.

For the second straight week we’ve seen a “first to worst” trend with RJ Ochoa being this week’s victim. When it came time for David Fucillo to think up a punishment tweet for RJ, Fooch went RIGHT for the jugular.

Just click though and get your popcorn ready because Cowboys fans were BIG MAD at this suggestion, as you’d expect. I absolutely approve of RJ trying his best to make people understand that this was a tweet punishment and not his actual belief, but it was too late. There are literally hundreds of angry replies, memes, GIFs and all of the above.

Full credit to RJ for taking his punishment like a champ, and shame on Fooch for being this mean.

Now, onto our picks for Week 15.

Merry Griftsmas!

Major announcement?! Who doesn’t love a major announcement? This week the world was promised huge, earth-shattering news from former President Donald Trump and on Thursday he delivered with ... a shitty set of $99 digital trading cards. MERRY GRIFTSMAS AMERICA!

You better act fast, because you absolutely don’t want to miss out on these bad boys to set as your phone background, adorn a school folder, or print them on fabric to run up the flagpole to replace your American flag.

These are such iconic images as “Trump the cowboy,” “Trump as an astronaut,” “Football Trump,” or “Texas NASCAR Donald Trump.”

For $99 you get a randomly generated and minted Trump NFT trading card. The creators are saying there are only 45,000 being created — but know that if you try and sell these on the secondary market they’ll immediately lose 10% off the top with every single sale, according to the cards’ site.

“On each secondary sale of a Trump Digital Trading Card, there will be a 10% royalty on the sale price that will be paid back to the creator.”

It’s the holiday season and everyone is spending money on each other, but that doesn’t mean you should just flush $99 down the toilet on a pointless NFT in a tanking market that has absolutely no appreciable value. Here are much better uses of $99 in the trading card space that exist right now, and you’re free to do with them as you please.

A sealed box of 1989 Topps baseball cards

Enjoy the nostalgia!

A sealed box of PBR 2005 cards

Who knew there were bullriding cards?! I didn’t. Enjoy these real cowboys at their craft.

This collection of Richard Petty trading cards

Who wouldn’t want to say they’re the owner of a complete collection of Richard Petty trading cards?

A graded Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card

This is legitimately cool to put in an office, on a bookshelf, or wherever.

An autographed Franco Harris card with certificate of authenticity

Any Steelers fan would love this.

A complete set of 1991 Nolan Ryan cards

You get 10 cards for less than one Trump NFT.

A graded 1992-93 Shaquille O’Neal rookie card

Look at that art! Shaq is an Animorph!

A sealed pack of Space Jam stickers

Okay, these aren’t cards, I know — but neither are NFTs. At least you can stick these on your walls.

An Emmitt Smith rookie card

Another actual Cowboy, and this one is graded!

A 1961 Hank Aaron rookie card

Here’s another card that’s at a discount, and would be super cool mounted in a frame in your office or rec room with other memorabilia.

Insomniac has confirmed Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the eagerly awaited sequel to 2018's acclaimed open-world swing-em-up - will arrive on PS5 next "fall".

That's not, admittedly, anywhere close to being an actual launch date, but at least fans can now update their diaries and keep their anticipation in check. And the not particularly specific announcement may have something to do with the fact the "fall 2023" release was leaked earlier this week after a writer on the project added the date (since removed) to their online CV.

Official confirmation, however, has now arrived courtesy of a new post to the PlayStation Blog. "What a year it's been for PlayStation Studios," Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar wrote as part of the news, "here at Insomniac Games we’ve been in absolute awe of the work of our peers. Congrats to everyone on a successful 2022...and here’s to next year being just as exciting as we continue to get Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 ready for release next fall.”

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If you're in the mood for some entertainment that's both fun and free, you might like to point your browser in the direction of No Man's Sky studio Hello Games, which has just made the two mobile instalments of its very excellent arcade stunt racer series Joe Danger playable on the web for the grand total of zero pee.

More specifically, those with a hankering for some stuntery and a browser within arms reach can test their racing mettle in Joe Danger Touch and its follow-up Joe Danger Infinity, which were initially released on iOS in 2013 and 2014.

Both games, you might recall, unceremoniously vanished from the App Store in 2017, following Apple's decision to end support for 32-bit apps with iOS11. But in a lovely moment at the start of this year, they each received a surprise re-release. "It's always been a secret shame of ours that the success of No Man's Sky left Joe Danger unloved," Hello Games' Sean Murray explained at the time. "For the last two years we've had a hobby project of bringing Joe Danger back to life. Slowly rebuilding it piece by piece through eight years of Unity changes."

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Forspoken was one of the most intriguing early demos for the PlayStation 5. Based on a brand-new IP and developed by Luminous Productions - the Square Enix development group that produced Final Fantasy 15 - expectations were high and the early footage definitely impressed. Now, after multiple delays and two and a half years of additional development, Forspoken is finally here, or a demo version of it at least. Ahead of the game's January 2023 release, Square Enix has released a lengthy playable sample on PS5, allowing players to complete a variety of content in an open-world space. We were interested to see whether the demo lived up to the promise of initial media and also how the six visual modes compare.

First of all, I think it's worth noting that the Forspoken demo isn't like most other game demos. This is a pretty substantial taste of the full game, with several hours of content spread across a vast space. Narrative is kept to a minimum, but you get a good sense of how the game actually plays - and I generally liked what I saw. Combat is fast, fluid, and reminiscent of battle sequences in prerendered Final Fantasy media. It's relatively simple to control, combining basic attacks, a dodge, and a mix of special abilities, but the fighting feels fantastic in motion. It feels a bit like the combat from Final Fantasy 15, but with a greater focus on real-time battle and with a lot more polish.

The action is definitely the visual highlight of this demo as well. There are a lot of great-looking combat animations that flow smoothly into one another with plenty of bespoke animations for common actions like dodges depending on player positioning. Each move is punctuated with an explosion of particles, which feels satisfying, particularly for the screen-filling special attacks. Square Enix has made valiant attempts to emulate the acrobatic combat from their CG movies in other games, but this is the closest effort yet.

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Arnav “xL” Shukla: I’d like to get your thoughts on npl’s performance in these two matches. How do you think he’s been playing?

B1ad3: I actually don’t rely on him a lot. I am just giving him time. I don’t expect him to be like a crazy fragger already. It’s normal for inexperienced guys to be like this in the beginning. I’m not analysing him because I know I must analyse him when he’s in his comfort zone.

xL: Adding him on inferno has shifted the positions around a bit. for b1t in particular, it has brought a positive effect. what do you think about his new role and his performance?

B1ad3: This is the role he played in Navi Junior, so we want to move him to such positions more. Like, for example, ramp on nuke, and maybe the same on mirage. He’s doing much better. I think he must transition to better roles. 

xL: Over on ancient, Heroic was getting perfect reads on you, again and again, getting 10 rounds in a row. What are your thoughts on how that map went?

B1ad3: I think we just didn’t play officials on this map for a long time. We practiced it a little bit, and this match was very important for us. Now we can see where we are behind the meta, what we forget and little details like that. So next Ancient, we’ll be much better.

xL: You’re facing liquid up next. They got the better of you last time. What are your thoughts on that matchup?

B1ad3: It will be hard. Considering how we play, I think we must not expect too much from ourselves. We as a team must not think about the win. We must think about the game, just play, and not think about winning. We used to win a lot, and now that we’re losing, we are really frustrated. I think now we just need to play because we’re doing some experiments, testing a new player. It’s much better for us to just focus on the game, and I think that we can win and we can lose both. It can go both ways. it will also depend on the map pool and the veto.

xL: Relative to his standard, s1mple’s had a few bad events recently. Why do you think S1mple hasn’t been up to the level we have come to expect from him?

B1ad3: I don’t know, actually. Maybe when we play well, he also starts to play better. Maybe he’s frustrated with how badly we play. And overall, we must also understand that I don’t think S1mple can be like Prime S1mple all the time, and that is normal.

xL: You’ve been around for a very long time in counter-strike. What would you say was the best weapon balance meta in Counter-Strike?

B1ad3: Maybe before the AUG buff, it was good. I think now it’s also pretty normal. With the A4 and the A1-S, it is balanced. We need to play a bit more to understand more, but it’s hard to say it now. Because there were a lot of updates, like with smokes and grenade drops, that we couldn’t do before. We must sit and analyse more to say that this meta was clearly better.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

Here is everything you need to know about the game’s new “Cabined” accounts. 

Date of birth screen – why is Fortnite asking for my birthday?

According to a recent blog post, Epic began rolling out “cabined” accounts on December 7, aiming to provide a “tailored experience that is safe and inclusive for younger players while maintaining access to the gameplay you love in Fortnite.”

As a result, Fortnite players should have stumbled across a one-time screen asking them to input their date of birth, including the month, day, and year. If you are 13 and older, no further consideration is required, considering you an appropriate age to play Fortnite. However, those under 13 have a few more steps to follow with Fortnite’s cabined account system.

What do cabined accounts mean for younger players?

Players under 13 must provide a parent or guardian’s email to begin a “parental consent process.” Cabined accounts allow full access to Fortnite but with parental controls enabled. A parent or guardian can customize the settings in your account. After parent controls are in place, your account will respect those settings and will no longer be a cabined account. 

Below, you will find a list of features disabled with cabined accounts:

• Communicating with other players using voice chat or free text chat
• Purchasing items with money
• Downloading games that are not owned by Epic
• Recommendations based on past activity
• Email marketing or push notifications
• Trades in Rocket League
• Sign in with Epic, including linking accounts to certain external services, such as social media websites or video streaming applications
• Custom display names
• SMS-based two-factor authentication 

Here are some settings that will automatically change if you are under the age of 18 and have not disclosed your age beforehand:

• Chat defaults to “Nobody”
• Your profile details default to hidden
• Parties default to “Invite Only”
• Personalized recommendations will be turned off

For more information on why Fortnite is asking for your birthday, you can check out Epic’s blog post and cabined accounts FAQ.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Fortnite news and updates!

The news came not long after Karmine Corp tweeted a ‘thank you Rekkles’ tweet on their English Twitter page, thanking the ADC for his service. After failing to land a spot in the LEC for the 2022 season, Rekkles found himself playing on the ERL side Karmine Corp. This would pave the way for Fnatic to announce that Rekkles would rejoin.

A rocky two years leads Rekkles back home to Fnatic

It has been a bumpy road for the veteran AD Carry after departing from Fnatic. Rekkles became the second Fnatic player to make the controversial jump to bitter rivals G2 Esports in 2021 after Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther made the switch in 2019. This would see mixed results and ultimately crashing out of the LEC playoffs and missing the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.

Fast forward to 2023 and Rekkles is reunited with the organization that brought him unprecedented success not only domestically but internationally. In 2018, Rekkles helped Fnatic become the first Western side to compete in a Worlds final since season 1. During his first and second stints with Fnatic, Rekkles won four titles and multiple league MVP awards.

Rekkles now rejoins the roster with some new faces, but also some familiar ones. Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen played alongside Rekkles on the G2 superteam that underperformed.

Our new bot laner needs no introduction. After 2 years apart, we’re proud to welcome Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larsson back to where it all started. Martin previously served with us as early as 2012, and has played amongst many of the highest performing and successful rosters we’ve ever fielded in the Rift. An absolute powerhouse on the bot-lane, he enters the team with a renewed drive and hunger for the game; his personal goals align with what we are looking to achieve in 2023 and we’re confident on what comes next.

Fnatic’s official press release following the announcement of Rekkles.

Here is the official Fnatic roster for the 2023 season:

• Top lane: Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen
• Jungle: Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz
• Mid lane: Marek “Humanoid” Brázda
• AD Carry: Carl Martin Erik “Rekkles” Larsson
• Support: Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest League of Legends news and updates.

With some domestic leagues seeing less viewership in 2022, Riot Games is set to shift the competitive League of Legends gameday schedule across multiple regions.

Riot also revealed findings regarding the viewing habits of League esports fans in its esports broadcast update posted today. Most fans, according to the post, stick to watching their favorite game regardless of which region is playing. Fans of the LCS are more likely to watch LEC games if they’re on compared to VALORANT matches, Riot claims.

The first Major of the 2023 Call of Duty League season has officially arrived, with all 12 CDL franchises and four qualified Challengers teams getting the opportunity to earn the first batch of CDL Points toward Championship qualification.

Major One for 2023 will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina at the Raleigh Convention Center from Dec. 15 to 18. The 16 teams will be separated into four GSL groups with their own four-team double-elimination bracket, with the top seed from each group getting to play a Challengers team in the opening match. The two teams from each group will advance to the double-elimination playoff bracket.

If you’ve played any Apex Legends since season three, you’re familiar with World’s Edge. And if you’re familiar with World’s Edge, you know all about it’s infamous centralized POI: Fragment East and West, formerly Capitol City before a lava fissure in season four broke the POI into two.

That was the last time either Fragment East or West got a noticeable change, and players have been getting eliminated there ever since. Fragment is the classic hot-drop POI in Apex. A match on World’s Edge will frequently see no fewer than six or seven teams landing there, all anxious to eliminate their enemies and be eliminated just as quickly. 

Following some rumors that the LCS could be shifting to weekdays, Riot has confirmed that there will be some major scheduling changes going into 2023.

Rather than having all the LCS and LEC games for the week packed into a three-day period from Friday to Sunday, things are more spread out with their new schedule.

And though the LPL and LCK won’t be seeing sweeping changes like the major Western leagues, they’ve got a few changes worth noting as well.

League of Legends esports schedule changes for 2023 revealed

Riot has released a full statement about the changes they’re going to make, as well as the reasons for making them. But the big ones to pay attention to are the LEC and LCS.

It’s been confirmed that the LCS will take place on Thursday and Friday starting at 12pm PT/3pm EST, while the LEC will take place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with a start time of 6pm CET/12pm EST.

The LEC will shed its two-day-a-week schedule in exchange for a new, three-day format in 2023, resulting in Western leagues having a five-day spread through the week.

The LCS could certainly use a change after getting panned for 2022’s low viewership. The new schedule gives European fans a much more feasible time window to watch North American games, but the timeslot could also make it harder for North American fans to watch games within their own region.

Meanwhile, the LPL will be moving its start time to 5pm CST (China Standard Time), 45 minutes earlier than last year. This equates to 4am EST and 10am CET. The LPL will still be played seven days a week.

The LCK isn’t changing its broadcast dates at all, but they’re reducing the duration of pauses between sets and moving the weekend start times ahead by two hours from 5pm KST to 3pm, meaning that weekend LCK matches will start at 10pm PST/1am EST.

With only five NA organizations making the VCT Americas league, there remains an ample amount of talent for other teams to work with. The NA Challengers League, Valorant’s tier-two competition, is shaping up to be an exciting tournament as a host of talented players and big organizations look to secure promotion to the international league.

The NA Valorant Challengers League will begin with two series of open qualifiers in January. Up to six teams will receive direct invitations to the league, so fans will have to wait until late January or even February before they can watch some of these tier-two Valorant sides in attendance.

The top teams from the NA Challengers League will attend the Americas Ascension Tournament, where they will be joined by representatives from Brazil and LATAM. In the end, the winner will secure a two-year stay in the VCT Americas league.

Big-name organizations like G2 Esports, TSM, and The Guard have already confirmed their rosters for the Challengers League. More announcements are expected in the coming weeks as we approach the open qualifiers, scheduled for January 9-13 and January 17-22.

Below is a rundown of all the big teams announced for the VCT NA Challengers League. The article will be updated as more teams are announced or reported on.

VCT NA Challengers League 2023 teams:

G2 Esports

• Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan
• Michael ‘dapr’ Gulino
• Erik ‘penny’ Penny
• Maxim ‘wippie’ Shepelev
• ‘OXY’

G2 Esports didn’t give up on North American Valorant after being snubbed for a slot in the VCT Americas league and built a strong-looking roster for the Challengers League headlined by former Sentinels duo Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan and Michael ‘dapr’ Gulino.

They are joined by the former Version1 pair of Erik ‘penny’ Penny and Maxim ‘wippie’ Shepelev. The former was part of the Version1 team that finished 5th-6th at VCT 2021 Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík. (wippie missed the event due to visa issues.)

The final member of the team is ‘ONYX’, a rising star that was praised by head coach Ian ‘Immi’ Harding. “OXY seemed like the guy that was ready, he had a lot of good comms and he had a good agent pool,” Immi said. “It made sense to go with him.”

TSM

• James ‘hazed’ Cobb
• Johann ‘seven’ Hernandez
• Anthony ‘gMd’ Guimond
• Corey ‘corey’ Nigra
• Nicholas ‘NaturE’ Garrison

Shortly after Riot Games revealed the names of the ten partner teams for the VCT Americas league, Dominic Kallas, TSM’s VP of Esports, stated that, while “disappointed” at not making the cut, the organization remained committed to Valorant and would build a competitive roster for 2023 and beyond.

There are several familiar faces on TSM’s roster as the organization retained the services of Johann ‘seven’ Hernandez, Anthony ‘gMd’ Guimond, and Corey ‘corey’ Nigra. Veteran James ‘hazed’ Cobb returned to TSM after a spell with NRG to lead the team in the Challengers League. Former Immortals and Gen.G player Nicholas ‘NaturE’ Garrison is the final piece of the puzzle.

The Guard

• Trent ‘trent’ Cairns
• Jonah ‘JonahP’ Pulice
• Michael ‘neT’ Bernet
• Jacob ‘valyn’ Batio
• Ian ‘tex’ Botsch *

The Guard were one of the biggest surprises of 2022 in North American Valorant. At the start of the year, they came out of relative obscurity with a young roster and won the VCT Stage 1 Challengers to qualify for the Masters event in Reykjavík, where they finished 7th-8th.

Despite failing to make the partner league, The Guard managed to keep the majority of their roster, only losing duelist Ha ‘Sayaplayer’ Jung-woo (T1) and head coach Matthew ‘mCe’ Elmore (Cloud9). The former is reportedly being replaced by Ian ‘tex’ Botsch, who is out of NRG’s roster after almost two years with the organization.

M80 Esports

• Alexander ‘Zander’ Dituri
• Daniel ‘eeiu’ Vucenovic
• Mohamed ‘johnqt’ Amine Ouarid
• Gianfranco ‘koalanoob’ Potestio
• Marc-Andre ‘NiSMO’ Tayar

M80 Esports is a brand new esports organization launched by XSET co-founder Marco Mereu, who has assembled an interesting cast that includes former players of NRG (Daniel ‘eeiu’ Vucenovic), Version1 (Alexander ‘Zander’ Dituri), and Ghost Gaming (Mohamed ‘johnqt’ Amine Ouarid, Gianfranco ‘koalanoob’ Potestio, and Marc-Andre ‘NiSMO’ Tayar). The team will be coached by Gunter, who was an analyst for Ghost Gaming.

This may be a new face in Valorant esports, but the organization is confident that it can vie for promotion, as evidenced by their slogan, ‘All roads lead to Ascension’, in a reference to the tournament run by Riot Games.

Oxygen Esports

• Mitch ‘mitch’ Semago
• Josh ‘pwny’ VanGorder
• Logan ‘skuba’ Jenkins
• Devon ‘randyySAVAGE’ Bréard
• Andrew ‘Verno’ Maust
• Yassin ‘Reduxx’ Aboulalazm (substitute)

After fielding a Turkish team and a North American academy lineup, Oxygen Esports have put together their most ambitious roster yet, headlined by former Cloud9 player Mitch ‘mitch’ Semago and ex-T1 player Josh ‘pwny’ VanGorder.

Logan ‘skuba’ Jenkins (Pioneers and Knights) and Devon ‘randyySAVAGE’ Bréard (Renegades) were also signed by Oxygen Esports, who promoted two players from the academy team to finalize the squad: Andrew ‘Verno’ Maust and 15-year-old Yassin ‘Reduxx’ Aboulalazm.

Note: The asterisk next to a player indicates a potential transfer that has been reported on but has not been officially confirmed.

Keep up to date with all the transfer activity in the Valorant scene with our free agency live tracker.

Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larsson has a reputation as one of the greatest European players in League of Legends’ long and storied competitive history within the region.

He’s been playing competitively since 2012, making him one of the longest-tenured players who are still actively playing. And now he’s coming back to Fnatic, the team that helped him make a name for himself.

Alongside Rúben ‘Rhuckz’ Barbosa, the player who had a strong showing at Worlds 2022 as a sub for Fnatic, the all-time great will be rounding out Fnatic’s 2023 roster.

Rekkles and Rhuckz round out Fnatic’s 2023 LEC roster

It was hard to believe that anything was set in stone until the final announcement, given how Rekkles’ initial exit from the LEC had gone.

He claimed that contract issues with G2 kept him from getting signed to an LEC team in 2022, joining French side Karmine Corp in the LFL.

The rest of Fnatic’s roster remains unchanged. Wunder, Humanoid, and Razork will be holding down the topside and looking to replicate their strong performance in 2022, now with the addition of a new and (possibly) improved bot lane.

And while Rhuckz is a bit of a wildcard, he’s no rookie. This player has been competing since 2015 and could have a lot of fresh knowledge to bring to the table. It’s difficult to predict how well he’ll perform until he takes the stage, but his Worlds 2022 performances set a high standard.

Regardless of how this roster does, fans are happy to see Rekkles flying the Fnatic banner once again in 2023.

Jack “Xtinct” talks about his own personal experiences with starting out on the esports BTEC and being involved in the Student Champs as a person with cerebral palsy.

The esports BTEC is filled with content that is accessible:

Starting out on the esports BTEC I knew that it was going to be a challenge, but the content I have completed so far has been really interesting! When an assignment is set, we have two weeks to complete it and hand it in, which is plenty of time to get your head around things. I absolutely love the fact that all of the course is completed online because this means I can type exactly what I want without having to worry about my hands getting fatigued due to long periods of writing.

The fact that assignments have a two week completion period helps calm my nerves and allows me to feel relaxed, unlike in examinations. Having the opportunity to resit assignments allows me to achieve the best results possible and this also reduces my nerves of getting things wrong as then the lecturers can guide me into correcting the areas and concepts of the assignment that I may have gotten wrong.

The esports BTEC gives out and inspires opportunities:

So far during my time studying the esports BTEC I have been given many different opportunities, such as meeting some amazing and talented individuals that work within the esports industry. The course is what inspired me to create my own unique branding and content organisation that promotes inclusivity within the esports industry –  known as Demi Esports. Throughout my entire life I have had to fight for the opportunities that I have been given, but I find it really amazing that within the BTEC I can create my own opportunities and have the full support of my fellow peers and lecturers.

BESC- The embraced opportunities:

The British Esports Student Champs are amazing for introducing students to the competitive play aspect of gaming. I personally am not a player but I really enjoy seeing all of the new up and coming talent on the British Esports weekly Twitch streams. The Student Champs is another amazing way to participate in the collegiate esports scene, whether you’re a spectator or a player there’s always a way that you can get involved with the Champs!

Awareness:

The overall awareness of disability in esports is honestly incredibly small, and this should not be the case. The disabled community in gaming is massive although most people might not be aware of it. Most commonly people use gaming as a way to escape from their own disability, forget about life, become someone else. There was a time in my life where I wanted to do the exact same thing – and now gaming is and will continue to be my own personal form of escapism. When I ask some of the people that I’ve met that are disabled in the scene they all say the same thing, which I fully stand by and agree with. “I would like a platform where I can compete equally with others.

Esports is a massive industry and the wider community should be supportive of everybody. However, this isn’t the case, as I personally receive a lot of hate just because I’m disabled. I always say the same thing to myself if I get a hate message and I personally advise anyone who gets hate in the gaming or esports community to say this to themselves -, “look you are you, nobody can change that, be yourself”. This is actually one of the quotes I kept telling myself when I first started creating content on YouTube at a very young age.

The overall awareness of Disability in esports needs to change and be expanded upon massively, and too often do I see people with disabilities be immediately called “special” or “handicapped” or “weird” regardless of their branding within gaming or esports or overall personality as a person! This needs to change.”

Looking to the future:

Currently there are loads of amazing initiatives that you can get involved with in esports such as Women in Esports, which is an amazing initiative that will bring change to the way that Women are perceived within the scene.. However as a disabled person I’m honestly shocked at the lack of initiatives that support accessibility in esports.

Yes, there are adaptive controllers and ways that disabled people can get involved with gaming and esports but, people with disabilities still can’t compete equally at the moment.. Within the next year I would love to see an esports initiative set up in some way that supports people within esports that have any kind of disability like myself.

The way I see it is that you’ve got a massive community of disabled people that want to get involved  with esports (like getting involved in things like the British Esports Student Champs) but are worried that they can’t due to any limitations they have due to a disability Change needs to happen, and I would like to see specific inclusive teams giving everybody the opportunity to compete in the collegiate scene – no matter who they are.

You can find out more about Demi Esports, and the work that Jack is doing for inclusivity in the grassroots scene on Twitter – as well as other content around accessibility in esports here.

For further information around the esports BTEC, and where you can study it, check out this interactive map of the institutions running the course. 

Student Champs registrations for the Spring season are now open until the 11th January 2023. Register your team now!

© Epic Games

Fortnite iOS return pending

The European Union will be addressing digital gatekeeping from Apple and Google in 2023. This is what’s opening things up for a potential Fortnite iOS return in 2023. It will force Apple to allow users grater freedoms on their devices, being able to use third part marketplaces on devices, and allow players to install different apps.

Apple typically has strict controls over what players can install. This is what lets them enforce policies like taking a cut of purchases, since developers and publishers don’t have another option if they want access to the sizeable install base for Fortnite on iOS.

The Digital Markets Act will apply to EU countries. This will mean that Epic could publish Fortnite on iOS without engaging with the official app store, giving them a way to get on the devices without giving Apple their cut. It won’t exactly end the ongoing dispute between Epic and Apple, but it could allow a Fortnite iOS return though.

Apple and Epic Games originally clashed over a specific rule from Apple taking a big cut of in-app purchases on their device. This is why some services like Twitter have to charge more for purchases on iOS. Players on Android got around this restriction by using a third-party installation of Fortnite, something specifically banned by Apple. This lead to Fortnite being taken down, and a lengthy legal battle ensued.

Is Fortnite Mobile Coming Back?

Apple might be facing a change of rules, but it isn’t a guarantee that Fortnite is coming back. Apple has previously been forced to change similar predatory practises. Recently, the EU has forced them to use generic USB connections on phones rather than their proprietary cables.

There’s also the possibility that Apple stubbornly clings to its control outside of Europe. It doesn’t look like they’ll be standardizing the iPhone with a USB C cable outside of Europe. It’s also possible they only allow third party apps and marketplaces in Europe and Fortnite. So Fortnite would only be playable in Europe from 2023.

A Fortnite iOS return would be a nice bonus for mobile players. It would be great to get one of the most popular Battle Royales back on all mobile devices to join Apex Mobile and others. We’re still a while off though.

Read next: MrBest x Fortnite $1 Million Extreme Survival Challenge

From a Santa-themed Operator to a map adorned with twinkling lights and tinsel, there’s some kind of celebratory event coming to Call of Duty this year. Fortunately, the developers already promised that players ‘won’t have to fret over any mythological creatures during this holiday season,’ which everyone is more than happy to deal with. It was on the 14th of December that Season One Reloaded dropped, and now, players are counting down the days until the festive content arrives.

Or are they? Who really knows?

Festivities Are Coming to Call of Duty

Image Credit: Activision

At the heart of the Season One Reloaded update sits an all-new map (kind of), Shipment. This fan-favourite, staple map has made a reappearance for Modern Warfare II, but it’ll undergo a change to celebrate the arrival of the holiday season. Between the 21st of December and the 4th of January, fans will be able to enjoy the chaos of Shipment fused with charming, adorable Christmas-themed decor.

It’s a small touch that is easily much more appreciated than the introduction of a hard-to-kill mythological creature, that’s for sure. There will be a small update on the 21st that’ll change Shipment’s aesthetic for around a two-week period, and that’s all players will need to do to take advantage of it. If they want to, of course – Shipment definitely isn’t for everyone.

Ho-Ho-Ho-How Did Santa Get a Nuke?

Image Credit: Activision

It doesn’t end there, as Infinity Ward is taking things one step further with the provision of a Santa-themed Operator named Klaus Fisker. He’s an all-around badass who represents the Danish Special Forces in Modern Warfare II, and his backstory is nothing short of monumental – and perhaps a little bizarre:

‘… he carried a wounded comrade 18 miles to the nearest base using the lessons taught by his father and with the help of an unusual amount of chocolate that wounded soldier carried with him’.

Klaus can be unlocked via the purchase of the Klaus Operator Bundle through the in-game store. He’s likely going to make an epic pairing with the brand-new weapon introduced in Season One Reloaded, the Chimera. It’s essentially the Honey Badger that we’ve seen before in the history of Call of Duty.

In the full patch notes published by Raven Software and Infinity Ward, we saw hundreds of bug fixes, adjustments, and changes landing with the Season One Reloaded update. There wasn’t much in the way of new content, but where stability improvements and glitch patching were concerned, the update was delivered in droves.

Happy Holidays!

For more news on Modern Warfare II, check out our story uncovering how it’s the most successful game in franchise history.

This year, Moonton planned to take the M4 World Championship to Jakarta’s legendary MPL Arena. Indonesia is by the far the most popular region for MLBB – and the event is a sort of homecoming. However, the MLBB Esports Twitter account announced yesterday that the venue is being changed.

Are you ready for greatness in a new venue?

MPL Arena catches fire ahead of the M4 World Championship Press Conference

The MPL Arena, known as the XO Hall, had caught fire earlier this week before the press conference and group draw for the M4 World Championship, according to a report by Liga Game. The incident happened on the afternoon of Dec. 12.

According to the report, one of the persons near the venue saw sparks in the hall which later turned into a small explosion. This caused a fire which spread. Luckily, no one was hurt and everyone got out of the venue safely.

The cause of the fire is said to be an electrical short circuit. As a result, Moonton has announced yesterday that it is changing the venue of the M4 World Championship due to the “recent unfortunate incident.”

New Venues for the MLBB World Championship

The group stage of the M4 World Championship will now be held at the Bali United Studio from Jan. 1 to 14. The Knockout Stage, on the other hand, will happen at the Tennis Indoor Stadium Senayan from Jan. 7 to 15.

“This is done to ensure that we can provide a safe and conducive experience for our teams, fans, and gaming community,” Moonton said in its statement.

Fans would be happy to know that the tournament is still happening in Jakarta. However, there is an unfortunate catch. As a result of the venue change, the seating capacity of the Knockout Stage will be lesser than before. Thus, Mootnon will be refunding some tickets to adjust for this decrease in capacity. The fans whose tickets are refunded will also receive 250 Diamonds in MLBB as compensation.

The M4 team seeks your kind consideration and understanding of this matter – Moonton

Besides the title of World Champions, a humongous prize pool of $800,000 is on the line. Defending world champions Blacklist International are looking to make a comeback after a tough 2022 season, Indonesia’s representatives in Onic Esports and RRQ Hoshi will be vying for the trophy on their home ground.

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The Frenchman started on the front row alongside ever-present qualifying expert Thomas Ronhaar, but using the superior grip of the medium tyres he got the jump, and won the race down to Turn 1.

Ronhaar was a threat for the closing stages and may have even taken a third win of 2022, if not for some defensive driving from Jake Benham, which allowed Longuet to build more of a lead.

Longuet and team mate Dani Bereznay were two of just three drivers to start on the mediums – the other being Alpine’s Patrik Sipos – and before long Bereznay made it an Alfa 1-2, surpassing Ronhaar for second on Lap 4.

After building a huge lead, Longuet ditched his mediums in favour of the hards on Lap 12. A few laps later, Ronhaar did the opposite, and emerged with the gap to P1 halved.

Ronhaar however was held up massively by the Mercedes of Jake Benham, who toured the circuit on his old tyres, refusing to the title contender through. The chaos reached its pinnacle on Lap 19, first with Bereznay spinning out of the points. Simon Weigang, Daniele Haddad and Joni Tormala then got tangled up, dropping all three of them from the fringes of the Top 10.

Out in front, Ronhaar finally got past the wall of Jake Benham, but it was too late, and the Dutchman ran out of laps to catch his rival. Behind the top two, Frede Rasmussen had a quiet ascent to P3, putting himself back in title contention.

McLaren Shadow pairing Lucas Blakeley and Bari Boroumand took top-five finishes, earning the squad their first Teams’ Championship. Brendon Leigh, Sebastian Job, Matthijs van Erven, Fabrizio Donoso and Marcel Kiefer completed the points.

Outside championship contender Jarno Opmeer failed to finish the race. Already compromised by getting knocked out in Q1, his race through the pack was halted when he spun racing Donoso. Devastated, he retired from the session, and now sits 34 points of the title lead – improbably, but not impossible.

In the driver standings, Ronhaar is just five points behind Blakeley, with Rasmussen a further 14 points off the lead.

The action resumes on Thursday evening, when we’re off to Interlagos, Brazil! Join us from 1530 UTC for the qualifying show, with the race beginning at 1900 UTC.

Capcom's Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection now has a release date, and will be launching for Switch, PlayStation, and PC on 14th April next year.

As was the case for previous Mega Man Legacy Collections, Capcom's Battle Network compilation - which gathers together 10 games in the real-time tactical RPG spin-off series - will be split across two volumes for its digital release.

Volume 1 features Mega Man Battle Network, Mega Man Battle Network 2, Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue, and Mega Man Battle Network 3 White - all of which originally launched for Nintendo GBA between 2001 and 2003.

Read more

Following reports earlier this year that Amazon was eyeing up a live-action TV adaptation of Sony Santa Monica's God of War series, the project is now officially go for Prime Video.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has been in development since March and will, notably, focus on Kratos' dad years in Midgard as per 2018's God of War reboot, rather than the ultra-violent Greek-mythology-inspired adventures of Kratos' earlier games.

Here's how the show's official description teases its plot: "When his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak - his wife's final wish. Kratos soon realises the journey is an epic quest in disguise, one which will test the bonds between father and son, and force Kratos to battle new gods and monsters for the fate of the world."

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The paladin class is coming to the early access version of Baldur's Gate 3. It's the headline addition in Patch 9 which, I'm afraid, sounds like it will be the last major content update to the early access build before the game's full release in August 2023.

Larian leader Swen Vinke said this during a patch pre-briefing a week ago, telling press - myself included - they'd now like to concentrate on finishing the game, which is fair enough.

No release date for Patch 9 has been communicated.

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Incredible 5-0 sweeps at Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final

The global Valorant tournament for students kicked off with teams fighting for a place in the top 16, a chance at the €20,000 prize pool, and an exclusive experience at a 2023 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) event.

Team Northwood from Northwood University in the United States and Narodni Garda from the Czech Republic started off strong by obtaining 5-0 sweeps across their groups.

“Today, we won our group stage with a comfortable 5-0,” Narodni Garda’s Michael Glancer said. “I think we did really well and adapted well on LAN. The staff around us was really helpful, which definitely boosted our focus level. I hope [we’re] gonna transform those performances into the playoffs and win the whole thing.”

As the day continued, Viva Hollandia from the Netherlands and OBK from Macedonia also went 5-0 in the group stage. Viva Hollandia players earned a flawless record by claiming victory over their opponents.

These wins mean that on Dec. 15, the teams will duke it out against eight other rosters in the next round of the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final group stage. The grand final will happen on Dec. 16.

FURIA versus G2 Gozen showmatch

There will also be a showmatch happening on Dec. 16 between FURIA streamers and G2 Gozen. Just last month, G2 Gozen players won the VCT 2022: Game Changers Championship tournament as a team comprised of all women.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more Valorant news and updates.

Warzone 2 Combat Records delay

Activision recently announced that Combat Records will be here as a part of the Season 1: Reloaded update. However, this update did not arrive ahead of the patch.

“Although previously announced, Warzone 2.0 Combat Records will not be launching with Season 01 Reloaded due to the accuracy of the data population,” Activision stated in a Tweet. “However, we continue to work on this feature and the implementation of Leaderboards and will provide an update when available.”

A release date was not given, but the Call of Duty team assured players that they will continue to work on the feature. This frustrated some players on social media, with one of them being Call of Duty content creator James “JGOD” Godoy.

Meanwhile, Timothy “TimTheTatman” John Betar replied humorously by declaring himself as the best Call of Duty player in the world.

As for FaZe Clan’s Jason “Jev” Eugene, he acknowledged the amount of work required for such an update. Another reply on Twitter shared similar thoughts, noting that it’s currently the holiday season.

What are Warzone 2 Combat Records?

First revealed on Dec. 9, the feature was set to arrive alongside Season 1: Reloaded. This feature boasted the ability to check gameplay statistics such as the number of wins and kill-death (KD) ratios in Warzone 2.

“The statistics present in the Warzone 2.0 Combat Record will only be from the activation date forward, and will not include statistics from Season 01 launch through Season 01 Reloaded (November 16 to December 14),” according to the announcement.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more Warzone 2 news and updates.

Valorant wins Esports Game of the Year

“A big shoutout to all the games on that list, especially our beautiful friends in League of Legends,” Leo Faria, the Global Head of Valorant Esports, said. “We’ve got the benefit of Riot Games of coming second and learning from the biggest esport in the world. So shoutout to them.”

Faria noted that Valorant launched back in 2020 and said how humble his team is about the scene’s accomplishments.

“We got to have our very first live event with a crowd in Copenhagen,” Faria added. “We had our beautiful Valorant champions in Istanbul where we got to bring together the entire community from all around the world.”

2022 Esports Game of the Year nominees

The nominees list for the Esports Game of the Year award included:

• Valorant
• League of Legends
• CS: GO
• Rocket League
• Dota 2
• Free Fire
• Apex Legends
• Rainbow Six: Siege
• Fortnite
• PUBG Mobile

Valorant esports in 2022

LOUD won the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) in 2022. The tournament took place in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Brazilian team knocked out OpTic Gaming in the grand final. As a team, LOUD achieved a score of 3-1 and earned its first-ever victory on the world stage.

After mentioning Brazil’s victory, Faria went on to talk about the co-streamers and how VCT 2022 broke viewership records. He thanked the players and community for rallying behind Valorant. Of course, the folks at Riot Games who helped make the Esports Awards 2022 moment happen also got a well-deserved shoutout.

VCT 2022 wasn’t the only big Valorant esports event of the year. Recently, 100Thieves took home the gold in the Red Bull Home Ground tournament that happened in Manchester, England. Meanwhile, the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final are currently underway.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned on Esports.gg for more news and updates.

WCG Rivals, the first event presented by the new WCG, is an invitational event featuring competition between rival nations or organizations and will be held periodically throughout WCG’s duration. In WCG Rivals #1 Korea vs Japan held this week, pro teams and influencers from Korea and Japan will participate and compete with national pride at stake. The event will be streamed live for 3 days, from the 16^th to the 18^th, through Youtube, Twitch, and AfreecaTV, and Korean, Japanese, and English commentary will be provided.

WCG Rivals#1 Korea vs Japan will feature 3 game titles; Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and VALORANT. The Hearthstone match will be held on the 16^th at 6 PM (GMT+9), between the Korean team comprising Portia, Looksam, rimgosu, and Pusa, and the Japanese team comprising of SeseiSei, Yanase, MATSURI, and Satellite, with a total prize pool of 20,000 USD at stake. The match is the first event in WCG history to feature Battlegrounds mode, and the checkmate rule will be applied.

For WCG Rivals#1 Korea vs Japan Clash Royale match on the 17^th at 6 PM (GMT+9), players who have made their names through tournaments and live streaming will play up to 7 rounds with a total prize pool of 20,000 USD at stake. In the first round, Korea’s Team X bow (SandBox, Line, X-bow master) will go against Japan’s Team Samurai Blue (TenGod, KK, yakitori). Korea’s Team juacco (JupiterKing, Coco, Aaron) will compete in the second round with Japan’s Hinomaru Red (Pandora, GRIKO, RAD).

WCG Rivals#1 Korea vs Japan VALORANT match, which will culminate the event finale, will be broadcasted live at 6 PM (GMT+9) on the 18^th, and will also feature pro teams representing their countries. In the first match, influencer teams will play and the pro teams will be playing in the second match. Many of the influencers are ex-professional players and are expected to show an interesting match.

Korean influencers, FiveK, EscA, ryujehong, ANS, and LEETAEJUN, will go against Japan’s influencers, ade, mittiii, MOTHER3, SurugaMonkey, and Clutch_Fi. The following match will have Korea’s pro team, DWG KIA, and Japan’s pro team, SCARZ, and the teams will show off their skills honed through VCK and VCT. SCARZ is a team that is gaining a lot of attention in Japan’s VALORANT esports scene, with all members of former BLUE BEES from VCT 2022: Japan Stage 2 Challengers, on the roster.

To celebrate WCG Rivals #1 Korea vs Japan, Bigpicture Interactive will also hold diverse events for the viewers. First, a real-time winner prediction poll, the ‘I Choose You’ event, and the cheer comment event ‘Cheer Up!’ will be available during the live broadcast days. In addition, the ‘Land Pixel Art Challenge’ in which participants draw goods images for each game title at WCG LAND, will be held from the 14^th. Bigpicture Interactive will select the winners of each event through a raffle, and present them with diverse goods related to Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and VALORANT.

More details concerning WCG Rivals#1 Korea vs Japan can be found through the official WCG platform, WCG newsfeed, and WCG social media. 

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The Online Live Showcase has declared the return of WCG after its two-year hiatus since ‘2020 WCG CONNECTED’ with a completely new look, freeing itself from limited time and space.

First, ‘WCG 2022-23’ offers various contents angled toward gamers around the globe.

‘WCG Platform’ which will be launched on the 12^th includes ‘WCG Tournament’, tournament held on a regular basis and open for everyone, from casual to world-class gamers, ‘WCG Challenge’ where gamers can achieve missions and compete for records with their gameplay data, and ‘WCG LAND’ where participants can draw pixel arts and compete for ranking, with tickets collected through in-platform activities. 

Furthermore, ‘WCG Rivals’ which features matchups of various nations, teams and influencers in rivalry will be introduced. WCG Rivals will be held on a regular basis, beginning with the classic matchup of Korea vs. Japan on Dec. 16^th (Fri.) The inaugural series, ‘WCG Rivals #1’, will invite influencers and professional teams from Korea and Japan, and all matches will be broadcasted live through various streaming platforms including YouTube, Twitch and AfreecaTV.

The Grand Finals event which will mark the finale of WCG 2022-23 takes place in July 2023. Held as an offline event, WCG 2022-23 Grand Finals will provide diversified enjoyment through combination of both traditional and whole new WCG elements.

“Bigpicture Interactive aims to propose a new direction for WCG as a global platform that transcends the bounds of gaming where gamers around the world can discover new joy,” exclaimed Song Kwangjun, CEO of Bigpicture Interactive Co., “and with the company motto of ‘Happiness for Gamers’, the entire organization will make the best effort to make WCG the best global esports festival in the world.”

WCG, which has been together with the development of the esports industry for the past 20 years, will continue to offer new events and content to bring joy to all gamers online and offline through Bigpicture Interactive’s esports platform and know-hows.

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Overwatch 2 players have been frustrated with matchmaking in the game’s competitive mode so far. Some have reported issues with placements, while others think the algorithm is busted.

British streamer Charlie “Chazm” Jones experienced it first-hand after noticing the Sojourn on his team seemed off the pace and out of their depth in terms of skill in an intense Top 500 lobby.

Riot Games wasn’t about to let the year end without addressing some glaring balancing issues plaguing League of Legends in its current preseason.

Patch 12.23b is finally live in League after a brief tease through the patch preview earlier this week and a handful of adjustments making their way to the PBE. This mid-patch will be the final large set of balance changes hitting the game this year before Patch 13.1 launches at the beginning of next year—bar the implementation of any hotfixes.

The League of Legends World Championship will reportedly be returning to South Korea in 2023, according to a report from independent League journalist Brieuc Seeger. 

South Korea last hosted Worlds in 2018, when Invictus Gaming and Fnatic met in the finals at the Incheon Munhak Stadium. Since then, the tournament has been hosted twice in Europe, once in China, and most recently in North America. 

In a Twitlonger post, the Russian player reveals that Bifrost did not pay his salary during the time he spent competing for the organization.

As one of the longest-tenured players in League of Legends, with four Worlds appearances between 2012 and 2018, Diamondprox joined Bifrost in May amid much fanfare. He was one of the headline players of the Summer split of the NLC, the UK and Nordic league that was part of the ERL circuit.

The Russian jungler says that he agreed to join Bifrost for the salary that he “clearly stated was the bare minimum needed to support my family.”

The move happened a few months into the war in Ukraine, which made international wire transfers difficult for Russian citizens. Despite this, he says Bifrost made “zero effort” during the first two months of his contract to figure out how to pay him.

Diamondprox says that he initially provided details of a bank account that was “fully connected” to the SWIFT global payments system. According to him, Bifrost said that they could not wire the money to that account, even though fellow Russian players who played for Vanir, another Norwegian organization, were “receiving their salaries” by using the same bank.

The Russian player provided Bifrost with payment alternatives, including receiving his salary in cryptocurrency, but his suggestions kept being turned down.

“The organization did not provide assistance to me in any way, even though [by then] I had been working for them for four months without pay and I had some very important bills stacked,” he writes.

Diamondprox left Bifrost after the Summer split, in which the team placed sixth. On October 3, Bifrost announced three changes to their roster for NLC Aurora Open, the pro-amateur tournament organized by the NLC at the end of each year.

Diamondprox at MSI 2018, one of many international events he has attended

Diamondprox adds that on November 30 he received a message from the Bifrost CEO, who said that he was leaving the company and that the new management’s point of contact would be provided shortly. A week later, he received another message, this time from one of Bifrost’s owners and board members, about the company’s financial problems, which might lead to bankruptcy.

“They basically f***ed with me for months, wasting my time, making me go into debt with bills stacking instead of looking for some other income, to just scam me like that in the end, while knowing that they didn’t have the money to pay,” Diamondprox writers.

Roman ‘D2K’ Lanskoy, who coached Bifrost for a year, says the organization owes €45,000 to players and staff members and that repeated promises that the overdue fees would be paid have been unfulfilled.

A struggling league

The news of Bifrost’s financial issues further raises questions about the future of the NLC, the highest tier of competitive League of Legends in the UK and the Nordic countries. In November, the NLC announced that it had no option but to downscale and become a non-accredited ERL after failing to hit its partnership goals, blaming the “current market situation”.

On December 14, British organization X7 Esports, who also have a team in the NLC, announced that it would be closing its doors due to the current economic climate and NLC’s downgrade to a non-accredited ERL.

Diamondprox says that he is afraid to commit to a team, especially after watching his former Gambit teammate Edward ‘Edward’ Abgaryan deal with the same issues while playing for Greek side Olympiacos Alimou. On December 13, the team was banned from competing in the GLL for failure to meet contractual obligations following an investigation by the league and Riot Games.

“I truly hope that karma exists in this world and it will hurt badly when it strikes,” Diamondprox writes.

“As for myself, I still love to work on LoL and I don’t want to let the knowledge I have accumulated over ten years of pro play go to waste, but I will not join another org without taking many precautions now. And if organizations do not want to respect those, I will probably keep streaming or find another job.”

In a statement posted on X7’s website, Kingett explained why he “no longer sees a viable route forward” for the company, which in June 2021, six months after launch, notably secured sponsorship from the Isle of Man Government.

One of the reasons, he explained, was the current shaky economic climate, which “derailed” two seed investment raise attempts, in January and April of this year.

“Investors whom I can say we were very close to finalizing a deal with, instead chose to wait until the dust had settled amidst the new economic crisis,” he explained. “Given the circumstances, this was perfectly reasonable on their part despite the frustration with capital now unforthcoming.”

The other major reason is tied to NLC’s decision to scale down operations and become a non-accredited ERL. Sponsors are reportedly hesitant to support the league, where there has been a significant reduction in prize money and financial subsidies for teams, from €200,000 in 2022 to just €45,000.

The changes to NLC’s status “devalue the assets” X7 hold, according to Kingett, who adds that the organization’s business model, which was based on importing talent from East Asia and giving them a platform to play in Europe, is no longer viable.

“As a result, our remaining investment conversations have run dry and our runway cannot extend further,” he said. “Those who had previously made us an offer to consider, have justifiably decided not to proceed to sign a deal.

“Our players and staff who have been, or were, with X7 throughout this rollercoaster journey will know how appreciative I am of their unwavering support, cooperation and understanding. All remaining funds which the company holds will be proportionally distributed between its non-shareholding creditors in the coming weeks, and for all our current staff we will assist however we can in a transition to their next endeavours, be that provision of recommendations, company work portfolio, or other means.”

A history of success

X7 Esports obtained a spot in NLC’s first division following their acquisition of Absolved, another esports organization, in November 2021.

The Isle of Man-based organization made a number of high-profile moves in the offseason, including signing former world champion Kim ‘Haru’ Min-seung, and won the NLC Spring Split.

Haru was then transferred to Team Vitality in a move that validated Kingett’s vision for the organization.

Haru signed with Vitality after shining for X7 Esports

The Summer Split team, which featured veteran support Raymond ‘KaSing’ Tsang, former DAMWON Gaming top laner Kim ‘Chasy’ Dong-hyeon, and ex-Vitality bot laner Amadeu ‘Attila’ Carvalho, finished in second place.

Following the conclusion of the European Masters Summer, where X7 placed 5th-8th, Chasy was transferred to MAD Lions.

“If you have ever tweeted about X7, supported our posts, cheered us on in Twitch chat, or participated in the X7 community in any way, please know that you are the reason we fought for so long,” Kingett said.

“You are the reason that made this journey worth it. Thank you.”

The 13K MMR Club is established

There are barely enough pro players who has made it past the 12K MMR. Yet, 23savage broke the record beyond the already impressive accomplishment. According to 23savage’s personal tweet, he spent three weeks of MMR grinding, where he played every hour, it seems. In fact, this might not be too surprising after all, considering he also holds the title as the first 12K MMR player in March 2021.

After 3 weeks of playing 24/7 I reached 13k mmr ???? pic.twitter.com/FFdx9mcU1B

— 23savage (@23savageDotA) December 14, 2022

While 23savage’s proficiency in Dota 2 is phenomenal, that does not always translate to good team performance. Sure, Talon Esports is a relatively new team in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and have stomped the SEA scene. However, after Talon’s premature elimination in the International 11, it’s evident that 23savage and his team are lacklustre.

Congrats, 23savage!

Nevertheless, it’s an impressive accomplishment on 23savage’s part, which is commendable for such a young player. And it would be undermining 23savage’s talent as a carry player if we can’t overlook Talon’s mediocre performance.

Perhaps we might just see Talon Esports live up to the hype and expectations of housing the world’s first 13K MMR player when they compete in DPC 2023 Division 1 bracket. The Division 1 SEA of DPC 2023 is packed with formidable opponents, such as BOOM Esports, Fnatic, and Team SMG. Additionally, not to exclude the newcomers, Blacklist International, Bleed Esports, and Geek Fam, which all feature seasoned players.

Well, at least Talon Esports has the bragging rights to having a 13K MMR player, which will be months before we see a potential candidate. On the Dota 2 leaderboards of SEA region, 23savage is followed closely by Yuri “Yowe” Pacaña from Army Geniuses, Teng “Kordan” from Bleed Esports, and Armel “Armel” Tabios from Fnatic.

There’s been a lot of frustration from the Xbox side, and Spencer seems to have had enough of it. When speaking on the Second Request podcast, Spencer had this to say about Sony’s efforts to derail Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision:

“There’s really only been one major opposer to the deal and it’s Sony, and Sony’s trying to protect their dominance on console, and the way they grow is by making Xbox smaller.”

Spencer added that the two companies have different views of the industry. He mentioned that Sony differs in how they ship their games on PC and launch them on their subscription service.

He also accused Sony of spinning the acquisition into an anti-competitive practice as a method to protect their dominant position in the video games market.

Spencer’s Tone Regarding Sony Seems To Have Changed

When Microsoft announced this deal earlier in the year, they said their focus was the evolution of gaming, particularly mobile gaming. They wanted to direct all the attention towards how this deal would be great for mobile gaming, cloud gaming, and Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service – and how this deal would supposedly help gamers move on from consoles.

Microsoft also mentioned that they’d be making Activision games available to other video game platforms. They recently agreed to a 10-year deal with Nintendo regarding the latter’s rights to release Call of Duty titles as well.

@ Phil Spencer

Spencer had previously spoken to The Verge about how Microsoft offered this same deal to Sony, in an interview that seemed to focus on creating a friendly presence as the battle played out in the media. As it turned out, Sony rejected this deal, sticking by their conviction that even the possibility of Microsoft having exclusive rights to Call of Duty’s future was too much of a risk.

The deal is being investigated in multiple jurisdictions, with the most recent – and perhaps most substantial – hurdle for Microsoft being the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has had its fair share of arduous run-ins with tech giants in the country before. With the legal fight now on in 16 countries, of which only two have okayed the deal, Spencer’s bold statement could be a big move away from the previous PR position he might have been attempting.

No Closer To A Resolution

Spencer’s latest comments won’t go down well with Sony. Sony have been quiet recently and offered no comment on Microsoft’s 10-year Call of Duty offer.

This week, Microsoft claimed that they’d offered the FTC a consent decree which promised that Microsoft would make the Call of Duty esports titles available to rival companies like Sony. The FTC rejected this decree but such a proposal will still have substantial bearing on the future of this case.

The Call of Duty segment of this takeover seems to have cannibalized all the other news stories related to this deal. Of course, Microsoft should have seen this coming. If the deal goes through, they’ll be one of the biggest players in the video game industry.

Microsoft will also become the third-largest video game company in revenue if this deal goes through. They have been in Sony’s shadow for a while now and this is the marquee deal that would change that status quo if it went through – Sony seems all too aware.

Microsoft seem like – so far – they are willing to make a lot of compromises to ensure this deal goes through. They’ve even downplayed the quality of the best Call of Duty games in a statement to convince interested parties that the franchise isn’t as big a deal as Sony are making them out to be. However, it seems like with the developments involving the FTC, Microsoft may not play the nice guy for much longer.

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Who deserves to have trophies named after them when it comes to NFL greats?

This week the NBA announced that it’s renaming its end of season awards to honor some of the greatest to ever play the game. The league MVP will now win the “Michael Jordan Trophy,” Defensive Player of the Year will win the “Hakeem Olajuwon trophy, and a newly minted “Clutch Player of the Year” is styled after Jerry West. It’s an incredible way to honor those who shaped the game, and might prompt younger basketball fans to look up videos of how amazing these players were, when they otherwise might not.

When it comes to the NFL the end of season awards are, well, bad. Don’t get me wrong, they’re functionally fine — but utterly forgettable. We all know who the MVP was from the prior season, but can you honestly tell me that you know what the trophy looks like? Think for a second. Here it is, because I absolutely couldn’t remember what the thing looked like until I googled it this morning.

Compare to the NBA, who get GOLD MICHAEL JORDAN DUNKING A CRYSTAL BASKETBALL!

There’s already precedent for the NFL to name awards after players with the Walter Payton Man of the Year, which should obviously remain unchanged — but it’s time to honor the past greats and revamp these trophies.

AP Most Valuable Player: The Joe Montana Trophy

If we had this discussion a decade from now this would be the Tom Brady Trophy, but for now Montana is the personification of excellence. Montana may have not ranked in the Top 3 in pass yards in each of his seasons, but nobody in the league matched his ruthless efficiency.

Take 1989, for instance. Montana ranked 8th in passing yards, but he blew the rest of the league out of the water with his 70.2 percent completion percentage. This was an era where only four other starting quarterbacks managed to complete over 60 percent of their passes, let alone 70 percent. The West Coast Offense was a big part of that, but Montana also threw 26 touchdowns to only 8 interceptions at a time where running was king, and went on to embarrass the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV when he threw five touchdowns en route to a 55-10 blowout win over John Elway.

There is no doubt in my mind Montana is the right man to be honored on the MVP award.

AP Coach of the Year: The John Madden Trophy

There are so many incredibly worthwhile coaches who deserve to be on a Coach of the Year award, and honestly, I feel a little weird not naming this after Tom Landry, Chuck Noll or Bill Walsh. That said, nobody is more synonymous with football coaching outside of Vince Lombardi than John Madden.

With Madden’s passing in 2021 there’s no better time to acknowledge one of the all-time legends of football Xs and Os, and a man who legitimately could have broken every NFL coaching record in existence if he chose to stay with the Raiders instead of stepping away from the sideline in 1978, when he was only 42.

Nobody needs to be reminded of John Madden, we get it every single year with the video game release — but I think tying his name to something with a little more prestige would be a wonderful way to honor his memory.

AP Comeback Player of the Year Award: The Randy Moss Trophy

Here me out on this one. Everyone remembers Randy Moss’ dominance in Minnesota, but it’s pretty easy to forget that everyone had more or less written him off in the mid-2000s, and by 2006 people thought he was done.

From 2004-06 Moss missed the Pro Bowl three straight times, after being a fixture throughout his early career. Unhappy in Oakland, he turned in his worst NFL season, finishing with a paltry 553 yards and three touchdowns.

Then, ahead of the 2007 draft, Moss was dealt to New England for a fourth round pick. The expectation was that he’d round out the receiving corps and little more. Then Randy absolutely exploded in one of the most dominant receiving seasons in NFL history.

Moss finished 2007 with 1,493 receiving yards, and more importantly a mind-blowing 23 TDs. He cruised to win comeback player of the year and went on to have three more 1,000 yard seasons in his 30s. Nobody had a comeback from such a low, to such an astonishing high — which is why Moss is perfect for this award.

AP Offensive Player of the Year: The Barry Sanders Trophy

It’s Barry-freaking-Sanders, ‘nuff said. Seriously though, nobody personifies NFL offensive excellence at a non-QB position better than No. 20. Sanders dominated the league from the second he set foot in the Pontiac Silverdome in 1989, all the way to his early retirement in 1998 when he walked out on top.

A lack of longevity might push Sanders down the stats list of greatest RBs, but make no mistake: We have never seen anyone better, and more dominant than him. We often talk about how a passing game can open up lanes for a running back, but Sanders was so good he made Lions’ QB Scott Mitchell look like a damn superstar.

Teams had to stack the box to try and stop Sanders, and he’d still run all over them. Every single season of his career Sanders ran for over 1,000 yards. He went over 1,500 yards on four occasions, and over 2,000 once. The man AVERAGED 10.9 touchdowns a season as well. This is a no-brainer for me when it comes to who to pick to represent the offense’s best.

AP Defensive Player of the Year: The Reggie White Trophy

Reggie White was to defense what Barry Sanders was on offense: An unstoppable force from the season he began his career. In 15 seasons White failed to record double-digit sacks only three times. His 21.0 sack season in 1987 with the Eagles remains one of the greatest individual performances in league history, and it came at a time where nobody else in the league had over 12.5.

Set Number: X38943 TK2 R10 F31

When the dust settled White was named Defensive Player of the Year a total of five times. A power rushing wrecking ball whose “Hump Move” is still remembered and taught to this day.White is the perfect man to personify excellence by a defensive player.

Special Teams Player of the Year: The Ray Guy Trophy

This is a new award, because I think it’s wild we simply have no way to honor such a big phase of the game in the NFL.

Yes, there’s a Ray Guy trophy to honor the best punter in college football, but Guy left such an indelible mark on special teams that he deserves to be recognized at every level of football. Guy was such a dominant player out of college than the Raiders selected him with their first round pick of the 1973 NFL Draft — a first round pick ... on a punter.

Guy’s skill at flipping the field was mind blowing. He averaged 42.4 yards-per-punt during his career, being a Top 5 staple every season he played the game. To compare, even with modern cleats, punting technology and refinement of the football punters only manage to get 5-10 more yards per punt than Guy did almost 50 years ago.

AP Offensive Rookie of the Year: The Gale Sayers Trophy

Knee injuries may have shortened Gale Sayers’ career, but my goodness did his star shine bright in a short period of time. Perhaps no season was more impactful than his rookie campaign in 1965, which was so dominant Sayers not only won rookie of the year, but was in the running for NFL MVP.

Sayers literally did everything for the Bears. He recorded 1,374 all-purpose yards, scored a combined 20 rushing and receiving touchdowns, he returned a kick for a touchdown — hell, he even returned a punt for a touchdown.

The most dangerous weapon in the NFL at the time, teams simply had no answer for Sayers’ versatility all over the field.

AP Defensive Rookie of the Year: The Night Train Lane Trophy

There have been some stunning NFL defensive rookie seasons over the years with Lawrence Taylor in 1981 and Javon Kearse in 1999 springing to mind, but what Night Train Lane did in 1952 for the Los Angeles Rams defies belief.

Photo by Bob D’Olivo/The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images/Getty Images

Lane was a mammoth defensive back for the era, and used every bit of his 6’1 frame to record a mind-blowing 14 interceptions in his rookie season, running one back for a touchdown in the process. Not only did Night Train lead the league in interceptions, but he made turnovers a positional weapon — returning his picks for a total of 298 yards.

These numbers are astonishing, even during a high-interception era. That figure of 14 picks still stands today as the all-time NFL record, and it may never be eclipsed.

NFL Iron Man Award: The Jim Brown Trophy

Finally we’re throwing another new award in the mix to honor toughness and fortitude during a grueling NFL season.

I know this is conceptually subjective, but when it comes to grit and determination nobody matches Jim Brown. From 1957-65 he recorded an absurd 2,359 carries during a time where helmets and shoulder pads offered little protection.

Brown didn’t just play for nine seasons without ever missing a game, but his use rate was so absurdly high — and he did all this while leading the NFL in rushing in all but one of his pro seasons.

Sure, we’ve seen quarterbacks make more consecutive starts, but nobody at a high contact position who endured this much punishment has come close. Brown is the perfect man to be immortalized as a trophy and given to a player who was able to keep competing when everything in their body and mind told them to shut down.

The fourth-year forward is thriving in the league’s top-ranked offense.

At this stage, most know the story. As a rookie, Grant Williams misfired on his first 25 3-point attempts. The calendar reached the second week of December before one fell through the net. His Boston Celtics teammates sarcastically nicknamed him Ben Simmons to parallel their frigid jumpers. Williams ended 2019-20 drilling 25 percent of his looks beyond the arc. His true shooting percentage was a paltry 50.5.

A season later, he continued progressing and converted 37.2 percent of his long balls. Yet he couldn’t figure out how to score inside the arc, sporting a 50.8 percent clip (2.2 points below league average) and registering a 54.6 true shooting percentage. The past two seasons, Williams has merged exterior and interior prowess.

He’s buried 42.4 percent of his threes, including 46.5 percent this year. His jumper invokes fear in defenses, which springs free room to explore downhill. He’s shooting 69.2 percent inside the arc, up from 56.9 percent in 2021-22 and 52.8 percent across his first two seasons. His 71.7 true shooting percentage leads the NBA.

While some may have wondered or worried whether Williams’ long-range marksmanship was a fluke, he’s decided to empathically convey the opposite. His release is quicker in the face of punctual closeouts. He’s added the nifty and practical sidestep triple to his arsenal. He’s attempting more off-the-dribble ventures — his pull-up three frequency has spiked from 4.2 percent last year to 13.3 percent (12 of 22 thus far).

The footwork that helped propel him to stardom as the two-time SEC Player of the Year at the University of Tennessee accentuates his budding jumper. The 6-foot-6 wing is by no means confined to stationary spot-ups. There’s genuine diversity in how he’s generating volume from deep. Last season wasn’t a fluke, it was a launching pad.

Between the 2021-22 regular season and playoffs, Williams hoisted 347 threes and made 40.6 percent of them. Considering he ranks 10th in usage rate on the league’s most efficient offense, opponents still prioritize other options before limiting his volume. But he’s a legitimate threat and more routinely viewed as such than prior years. This evolving dynamic has enabled Williams to expand his repertoire when exiled off the three-point line.

He’s also garnering a bit of newfound autonomy to showcase these strides; compared to last year, his time of possession and average dribbles per touch have perked up. After producing points on just 53.7 percent of his drives a season ago, he’s doing so on 74.6 percent of his drives this season.

He’s zippier off the bounce, looks more comfortable navigating tight windows and seems to holster improved flexibility. According to Cleaning The Glass, his rate of assisted makes has declined from 86 percent to 79 percent. Inklings of the creation chops evident in college are surfacing.

The dribble-pass-shoot ethos of the Celtics’ offense has made its way to Williams’ portfolio. He’s shooting 79 percent at the rim (87th percentile among bigs) and 59 percent from short midrange (88th percentile). Intermediate touch was a hallmark of his pre-draft allure and he’s actualizing it in Year Four.

Defenses can’t successfully stash their weakest link on him. Whether it’s with the jumper or as a driver, he’ll exploit it. He’s also willing to flow into an action with one of Boston’s various ball-handlers, become a screener and let somebody else exploit the mismatch presented to him.

The Celtics’ offense flourishes in part because of off-ball screens, be it flares, pindowns or veers. Williams is a tremendous screener who recognizes when to hold for contact or slip inside early because the defense is overplaying against shooters. He’s comfortable drifting out of screens for threes and is a snappy passer whose decision-making helps amplify advantages. His mastery of the sly, cheeky Gortat Seal is growing and simplifying driving lanes for teammates.

The first two years of Williams’ career portrayed a very good defender whose undersized frame and offensive rigidity complicated how much he could play to augment that defensive talent. He remains a high-level defender, equipped to thrive in Boston’s switch-heavy scheme and deploys his dexterity to disrupt opponents’ rhythm.

This year, he’s anything but a rigid offensive cog and leverages his ridiculous strength to mitigate the hurdles of his frame and limited vertical pop. In last season’s playoffs, he shot a meager 49.2 percent on two-pointers. His intermediate touch escaped him. In the Finals, the Celtics’ offense crumbled; they couldn’t score inside the arc or protect the ball.

Both will be aiming to avoid these pitfalls come springtime. Williams’ development and further emergence may help them accomplish those objectives together.

With experience in both the LEC and a variety of regional leagues, we’re proud to announce Finlay “Quaye” Stewart as our head coach for G2 Hel. We’re confident that with Quaye’s expertise in drafting and making the team gel, Hel will be set up for success in all future tournaments. 

With their first trophy under their belt, we’re excited to see Quaye support the team and build Hel’s dynasty one step at a time.

YOUR RISING STAR CHAMPIONS ???? pic.twitter.com/qfPmw2izUi

— G2 Esports (@G2esports) November 27, 2022

TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

It looks to be a case of when, not if, McLaren Shadow clinch their first crown in F1 Esports. The digital Papaya gang sit well out in front in the standings, with 250 points, dwarfing the tally of second-placed Oracle Red Bull Racing Esports.

It would be a bottle of Melchizedek proportions – that’s the largest, 30L container if you know your champers – if McLaren were to miss out on the crown. With 44 points available in each race, they mathematically still have a job to do. So long as Red Bull doing outscore them by 14 points or more, or Mercedes by 19+, they will lift the trophy at the first opportunity – Japan.

Further back, the aforementioned Red Bull and Mercedes are split by just five points for second. And there’s little room to breathe – Haas line up next in a heroic fourth, with 129 points on the board.

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

It’s even closer in driver-land. Lucas Blakeley has led the championship from the first race, in a Jenson Button 2009-esque fashion. He assembled a throne of silverware early on, and now the contenders hunt down his 132-point target. A lean third event means that Blakeley is now just 11 points ahead of his nearest rival – Thomas Ronhaar.

Blakeley has more wins than anyone else with three – but Ronhaar’s collection of five podiums finishes, and qualifying in the top four at every opportunity, means he has incredible momentum, and 121 points. An 11-point swing in three races is not hard to imagine at all.

Completing the McLaren Shadow sandwich is Iran’s Bari Boroumand (118 points), who took an emotional breakthrough win this year, cementing himself as a true contender. He’s scored more points than anyone else over the last two events, stringing together a win and three P2 finishes to plonk himself on the frontlines.

One veteran who has more experience than anyone else in this arena is Frede Rasmussen, and he lines up fourth on 115 points. The Dane experienced his first non-score of the season in Mexico, and like Blakeley, lost ground to the others in the third event. But a searing run of five consecutive podiums means he has a solid platform from which to attack the last three races.

Last, and by no means least, is Jarno Opmeer. Our reigning, two-time Dutch champion. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, he’s already equal with Max Verstappen in that respect, but if he’s to go one better, he needs to dig deep. 110 points, and the most ground to make up make him a slight outsider – but that gap is still only 22 points. Two wins in Event 3 could’ve be the breakthrough he needed to return to his vintage best.

TRACK LIST

Our menu for the final event has a few surprises.

Japan was absent from the calendar in 2021, and when it last played host during the COVID-affected 2020 season, it was Rasmussen who prevailed. In fact, he’s the only driver to have won at Suzuka in F1 Esports, with the sole other outing for the legendary venue being in 2019. That race also saw Lucas Blakeley take his very first podium, so watch out for those two.

You can’t have a title showdown without Interlagos, and so the second race of course takes us to the mythic Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace. Showing up as the finale for the last three seasons, Interlagos has heralded victory for Dani Bereznay, Nicolas Longuet, and Frede Rasmussen. It’s always a pure sprint to the flag, so don’t miss this one.

Art imitates life, as the final race of the season takes us to Abu Dhabi. Scene of many a title decider through the years in F1, this year it could do the same for the virtual world. It played host to the bombastic 2017 live final, where Brendon Leigh prevailed over Fabrizio Donoso. Flash forward five years, and those two are team mates at Ferrari – and the track has completely changed!

STREAM TIME

The Grand Final will commence on Wednesday, December 14, at a slightly earlier time, accounting for a certain sports fixture that day. Qualifying is live on Twitch and YouTube from 1400, with Facebook joining the list of streaming providers for the race, which begins at 1730.

Thursday 15 and Friday 16 sees the return of the usual slots of 1530 UTC and 1900 UTC, again on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook (race only). You can also tune in on TV, with Sky Sports F1, Viaplay, and ESPN picking up the action. See you there, as we crown our champions!

Bloober Team - the developer whose psychedelic horror ouvre includes Layers of Fear, Observer, The Medium, and Blair Witch - has announced a new partnership with Take-Two publishing label Private Division that'll see it creating a new survival horror IP.

Announced as part of Private Division's fifth anniversary celebrations, the new project is said to be in "early development" for unnamed platforms. Further details are scant to the point of non-existent, but Bloober has confirmed we won't be seeing the fruits of its efforts for quite some time, with a launch not expected before 2025.

In a statement accompany today's announcement, Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno referred to the unnamed project only as an "exciting new survival horror game", saying it "will help us become a leader in the horror industry at large".

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The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has released a statement acknowledging the technical issues being faced by many PC players today following the installation of the game's long-awaited "next-gen update".

Throughout the day, users have been taking to social media and to Steam's review section to make their feelings clear about the game's performance on their PC setups. Overall, the suggestion is the game is punishing on CPUs - even high-end ones - if you have ray-tracing switched on.

Some users have said they've since used Steam's roll-back functionality to remove the update entirely.

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Last week, we got the news that none other than Idris Elba would be part of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion. This news was, for many of us, a very welcome surprise.

However, Hungarian digital artist Zsolt Kosa actually envisioned this collaboration much, much, earlier. Perhaps, even before developer CD Projekt Red did.

Two years ago, Kosa shared two mocked up posters of Elba in Cyberpunk 2077 to his ArtStation page. The first of these shows Elba with ice blue cyber-eyes and an impressively collared coat (as shown in this article's header image). The second shows him with some rather fancy looking sunglasses, and that same very fetching coat.

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Arnav “xL” Shukla: Let’s start off with Nuke. The last time G2 played the map was another win against FaZe back at EPL. The game started off back and forth, ending in a close 8-7 half. But on the T side, FaZe kinda fell flat. What would you attribute the loss to?

RobbaN: It was still a close game. We lost both pistols and didn’t get any momentum. We lost a cheap round at the end of the CT side. They won like a Deagle half-buy. They got 8 rounds on the T side of Nuke, and it’s not good enough on the CT side, I will say.

Still, we gave everything to Nuke. I think they won the last time too. Honestly, we were pretty surprised by the pick. We didn’t have that much preparation on Nuke coz we didn’t expect the pick.

xL: m0NESY, NiKo, and JKS were all fragging out, did that cause you guys any issues on Nuke?

RobbaN: No, not really, it doesn’t really matter like that for us. In the end, we made too many mistakes in the important rounds, and that cost us Nuke. 

xL: So over on Inferno, again, a super close map. You guys were neck and neck. FaZe won that eco round that took you all the way to 14. But G2 locked in matchpoint first, and you went into OT. Thoughts on Inferno?

RobbaN: Inferno was our pick. We were very much prepared for Inferno. We know how we want to play. I think they had a pretty good start. I think NiKo had a couple of tough rounds in banana. He closed us down, I think they had a 6-1 lead or something.

So it was a slow start for us, but then we got some momentum, and we grinded a lot of T rounds. We got 7 or 8 T rounds, which is more than enough on Inferno. They played well. I’d say could’ve gone either way, obviously. In overtime, we’re normally very strong, and yeah important to close it out.

xL: Ancient was an easy win, with a dominant CT side. Overall are you satisfied with the team;’s performance in the match?

RobbaN: I’m very satisfied. I think mid-Inferno, something happened to us. It was a really slow start in terms of comms and energy. But mid-Inferno, we started playing like the FaZe that we should be. And that’s what I want to keep doing for the rest of the tournament.

xL: Playing Liquid next. Thoughts on that matchup?

RobbaN: Very interesting matchup, Liquid is a good team. We’ve practised against them a lot. I think they are very skilled players. Twistzz’ ex-team, of course, we’re gonna do everything to win. It’s a tough team, but it should be a good matchup for us.

xL: For the BLAST Premier World Finals overall, you’re feeling confident?

RobbaN: Yeah, I think we have stepped up. The last BLAST we came to the finals, we could’ve won it. A close final. I think we’re playing much better now than we did for a few tournaments, so we’re gonna do our best.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CS: GO news and updates.

Group Stage Results

Group A

Group B

Playoffs

Where to watch BLAST Premier World Finals?

The BLAST Premier World Finals will be broadcast live on Twitch and YouTube. You can find the stream everyday here.

Which teams are participating in the BLAST Premier World Finals?

Group A

• Team Liquid
• FaZe Clan
• G2 esports
• Outsiders

Group B

• NAVI
• Heroic
• Team Vitality
• OG

BLAST Premier Finals Standings and Prize Pool

What is the tournament format?

The tournament employs a double elimination GSL-Style format. Each group has four teams with all matches being best-of-three.

The top three teams from each group advance to the playoffs. 

• Group stage winners advance to the Semifinals
• The Group stage runners-up advance to the Quarterfinals as the High Seeds
• Group stage 3rd place teams advance to the Quarterfinals as the Low Seeds

The playoffs themselves are single elimination and feature best-of-three matches.

Stay tuned to esports for the latest CSGO news and updates.

From Soul Esports to S8UL – a look at the winner’s history

S8UL Esports, which currently operates in India, is one of the biggest esports orgs in the region. Most of the top creators in the country are signed under the organization. Thus, it’s unsurprising to see it win the award.

S8UL Esports’ history is a bit complicated. The org is essentially a combination of two different entities – Soul Esports and 8Bit Esports. Both of these were PUBG Mobile teams which were formed in 2018 and 2019.

8Bit, led by Thug, had competed in the first world championship for PUBG Mobile, the Star Challenge (PMSC). They competed in the Asia region and finished in 12th, failing to move on to the Grand Finals.

Nonetheless, this established their name in the region. Soul Esports, on the other hand, has been a household name in Indian esports, particularly because of Mortal, the former PUBG Mobile pro turned content creator.

Soul were the most dominant Indian team in PUBG Mobile having won the India Series 2019 and also the PMCO Spring Split.

While the two orgs functioned independently, they were brought together in 2020 when Mortal and Thug shook hands to bring the S8UL Esports Gaming House.

The collaboration turned out to be extremely fruitful with S8UL moving into a much bigger gaming house just a year later in 2021. The reveal video for the house is the org’s most-watched with more than 8 million streams.

Now, S8UL Esports is the esports org while 8Bit functions as a talent management agency called 8Bit Creatives. S8UL Esports’ content creators are usually managed by 8Bit Creatives itself.

A well-deserved recognition at the Esports Award 2022

Unlike many esports orgs in the region, S8UL Esports has been one to realize very early the power of content. With this, they have been very active on the main YouTube channel, which has over 1 million subscribers.

Top creators from the org such as Snax, Mortal, Scout, Payal, Kaashvi, Mamba, Viper, and more regularly feature in their videos which mostly include challenges and also other fun content pieces. Their YouTube channel currently has more than 128 million views.

Some of their most famous content pieces include the I AM SOUL which follows the story of its BGMI roster competing in tournaments. The org also recently released the anticipated Squid Gaming in Real Life video, which has been viewed more than 1.1 million times.

While S8UL has been more focused on content creation these past few months, they are also an esports org. Currently, they field teams in Pokemon UNITE and New State Mobile.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned to Esports for more news and updates!

Jankos accidentally leaked a League of Legends roster move on Jan. 13, and now he’s defending his blunder.

The Team Heretics player leaked Martin “Yike” Sundelin will be G2’s new jungler for the 2023 season. In a recent stream, Jankos pinned the blame on League’s announcement culture. He explained that most roster moves in League are widely known months before they’re made official thanks to journalists.

Be careful, Andrew Tate could lead to you getting banned from Apex Legends.

On Apex’s subreddit today, a player complained they were banned for writing Andrew Tate in the chat. They explained their teammates were discussing the controversial figure and being misogynistic to which they responded “andrew tate cringe.” As a result, they received a week-long suspension from the game thanks to “hateful conduct.”

Happy holidays, Call of Duty gamers. Modern Warfare 2’s midseason update has arrived ahead of the holiday break, and the patch notes are also here to be read next to some chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

While the update’s flashiest additions include the fan-favorite Shipment map, a new weapon, the first-ever CoD raid, and the return of Gaz as an operator, the patch notes are focused on a staggering amount of quality of life changes for the multiplayer shooter.

In a statement posted on X7’s website, Kingett explained why he “no longer sees a viable route forward” for the company, which in June 2021, six months after launching, notably secured sponsorship from the Isle of Man Government.

One of the reasons, he explained, was the current shaky economic climate, which “derailed” two seed investment raise attempts, in January and April of this year.

“Investors whom I can say we were very close to finalizing a deal with, instead chose to wait until the dust had settled amidst the new economic crisis,” he explained. “Given the circumstances, this was perfectly reasonable on their part despite the frustration with capital now unforthcoming.”

The other major reason is tied to NLC’s decision to scale down operations and become a non-accredited ERL. Sponsors are reportedly hesitant to support the league, where there has been a significant reduction in prize money and financial subsidies for teams, from €200,000 in 2022 to just €45,000.

The changes to NLC’s status “devalue the assets” X7 hold, according to Kingett, who adds that the organization’s business model, which was based on importing talent from East Asia and giving them a platform to play in Europe, is no longer viable.

“As a result, our remaining investment conversations have run dry and our runway cannot extend further,” he said. “Those who had previously made us an offer to consider, have justifiably decided not to proceed to sign a deal.

“Our players and staff who have been, or were, with X7 throughout this rollercoaster journey will know how appreciative I am of their unwavering support, cooperation and understanding. All remaining funds which the company holds will be proportionally distributed between its non-shareholding creditors in the coming weeks, and for all our current staff we will assist however we can in a transition to their next endeavours, be that provision of recommendations, company work portfolio, or other means.”

A history of success

X7 Esports obtained a spot in NLC’s first division following their acquisition of Absolved, another esports organization, in November 2021.

The Isle of Man-based organization made a number of high-profile moves in the offseason, including signing former world champion Kim ‘Haru’ Min-seung, and won the NLC Spring Split.

Haru was then transferred to Team Vitality in a move that validated Kingett’s vision for the organization.

Haru signed with Vitality after shining for X7 Esports

The Summer Split team, which featured veteran support Raymond ‘KaSing’ Tsang, former DAMWON Gaming top laner Kim ‘Chasy’ Dong-hyeon, and ex-Vitality bot laner Amadeu ‘Attila’ Carvalho, finished in second place.

Following the conclusion of the European Masters Summer, where X7 placed 5th-8th, Chasy was transferred to MAD Lions.

“If you have ever tweeted about X7, supported our posts, cheered us on in Twitch chat, or participated in the X7 community in any way, please know that you are the reason we fought for so long,” Kingett said.

“You are the reason that made this journey worth it. Thank you.”

Now the Wintertide Collection Event has passed in Apex Legends, the community has its eyes firmly set on Season 16.

The major update is scheduled to arrive in early to mid-February and players have already begun speculating on what Respawn has planned.

While the devs have hinted at major balance changes and leaks have indicated a class overhaul could be on the cards, nothing has been confirmed.

However, after playtesting the Season 16 content, ImperialHal has revealed that he “can’t wait” for the update, and for someone whose usually very skeptical about the dev’s decisions, this was a reaction his fans didn’t expect.

Season 16 of Apex Legends is scheduled to arrive in February.

ImperialHal is excited for Apex Legends Season 16

During a recent stream, ImperialHal revealed to his viewers that he’d been given the chance to play test Season 16 early.

After getting his hands on the new content, Hal said he “can’t wait” for the major update, with the pro even having to stop and remark “oh my god” at the thought of it.

For someone who is rarely excited about new content or the direction of the game, this was a reaction none of his viewers were expecting.

Season 16 must have really impressed Hal, which suggests Respawn has something massive planned for February.

Unfortunately, Hal didn’t hint at any of the features or content coming with Season 16 in the stream and only briefly touched on the topic.

However, as always, the devs are likely to tease some of their changes on Twitter and dataminers are always hard at work trawling through the files.

The former Sentinels player officially joined G2 Esports on December 12 as the in-game leader of the organization’s new, NA-based Valorant team.

He reunites with his former Sentinels teammate Michael ‘dapr’ Gulino on this newly-assembled roster, which also includes the former Version1 duo of Erik ‘penny’ Penny and Maxim ‘wippie’ Shepelev.

Rounding out the team is young star ‘OXY’, who was hailed by team coach Ian ‘Immi’ Harding as a player with “good comms” and “a good agent pool”.

G2 Esports are looking like one of the strongest teams heading into the NA Valorant Challengers League. And in a recent live stream, ShahZaM revealed that he picked G2 over a handful of other teams, though he did not specify whether any of those teams are VCT partners.

“If I had other offers besides G2? Let me count,” he told viewers.

After a brief pause, he added: “I had six teams offers.”

ShahZaM’s Valorant resume

A former CS:GO professional, ShahZaM played for Sentinels between 2020 and 2022, helping the team to win several domestic tournaments and VCT 2021 Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík.

He ended up leaving Sentinels at the end of the 2022 season as the team underwent a rebuild after a disappointing year. Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo is the only player remaining in Sentinels’ starting lineup from the 2022 roster as the organization signed Gustavo ‘Sacy’ Rossi and Bryan ‘pANcada’ Luna from LOUD and Rory ‘dephh’ Jackson and Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone from XSET.

ShahZaM and dapr (right) reunite on G2 after playing together on Sentinels

G2 Esports will have to go through the Challengers league after being snubbed for a spot in the VCT partner league in the wake of the Andrew Tate controversy. The top teams from the Challengers leagues held across the Americas will square off in that region’s Ascension tournament, with the winner securing a two-year promotion into the international league.

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These are the main changes for the Fortnite V23.10 patch, and what the biggest ones are going to mean for competitive.

New Mythics in Fortnite V23.10

One big part of Fortnite V23.10 is the new Mythics added into the game. These aren’t going to be active right away, but they’ll be a part of the game from a few days from now. The first is Deku’s Smash.

This is an item to tie-in with the My Hero Academia crossover. It’s going to be a mythic that recreates the One for All perk and Smash attacks used by Deku and All Might in the series. Hopefully, the weapon doesn’t recreate the debilitating injuries Deku endures using the move.

The second Mythic is probably a bit more permanent with Fortnite V23.10, it’s the Ageless Champion’s Shockwave. It’s hard to know how the Shockwave Hammer could be improved really, short of taking out the minor drawbacks it currently has like the cooldowns. It’s already pretty powerful in the Fortnite Chapter 4 competitive meta. You can get the Ageless Champion’s Shockwave Hammerby defeating the Ageless Champion at the The Citadel.

We don’t know how they’ll deal with these Mythics in the Fortnite competitive side. Unlike the Winterfest content, we’ll likely see this eventually make a pop up in the game itself. A Mythic shockwave hammer could really be disruptive at competitive events.

Winterfest and Mr Beast make entry

Winterfest is the big part of this update. Every December, Epic throws this big holiday party. There are new items, returning items, little touches around the map, and even free cosmetics usually if you stick around to the end of the event.

The Winterfest Update isn’t the most substantial for the competitive side of the game. Just like in Chapter 3’s early days, it is a little weird to be getting a mix-up to the normal map and pool without really getting the chance to get to know it first. It’s fun to have some unique content for a few weeks though.

Free Skins are always a huge feature of Winterfest and they’re returning this year. Two skins are going to be on offer. There’s a fairly standard skin in a tracksuit. Along with a winter-colored version of the fluffy Guff skin from one of the Chapter 2 Battle Pass.

Along with the other changes, Mr Beast’s skin is hitting the game! This is something that’s been teased since December FNCS event, and then shown off in full in the Chapter 4 reveal trailer. He’ll be coming to the game in full though, starting very soon with Fortnite X Mr Beast.

Along with the Fortnite V23.10 patch, there’s been a hotfix that made some decent changes to the balance. They nerfed the Shockwave Hammer a bit, but not quite enough to make a huge change. The cooldowns are up, but the weapon still provides essentially free unlimited Shockwaves compared to past seasons.

We’ve got the rest of the Winterfest event to play through now. Once the new year hits though, we’ll start seeing more Fortnite competitive events kick off. Then we can really see how the game’s balance fares, when the top Fortnite players are competing on the new map with the new weapons.

Right now, G2 are in a very bad state. One victory to Fluxo out of the last six played raises a lot of red flags for a possible underdog surprise, right? Bear in mind that most of the lost matches were actually quite competitive and they could have easily gone the other way around.

FaZe, on the other hand, had a solid run at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022. In the last four matches there, they defeated OG, Heroic, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. However, Heroic got the better of them in the grand final, in a very narrow match that FaZe lost in the overtime of a deciding map.

FaZe and G2 always play competitive games

The head-to-head ratio between these two giants is actually very competitive. Out of the eight maps played, both teams won four. On top of that, we have even seen two maps going to overtime.

It is also important to mention that G2 won the last four matches they played against each other, and they looked good while doing so. Two of four victories came on Dust 2, one on Ancient, and the last one on Nuke.

It’s a very interesting match to predict. Currently, betting sites are heavily favoring FaZe in this match, and we completely agree with this. The current G2 form is abysmal, and that plays a key role when determining the odds. However, the last four maps G2 played against FaZe proved that they can handle them with ease. There is a high possibility that G2 will actually take one map away from FaZe in this match and the odds that we are going to see a decider played in this match are solid.

Those that want to play it safe should go for FaZe Clan, definitely the safer choice in this one. However, if there are some of you who are interested in higher odds, do not be afraid to place a wager on the total maps played suggestion.

So, without further ado, here are our highlights from the award winners at the ceremony.

So Many Winners, So Little Time

OpTic Gaming won Organisation of the Year (Image Credit: OpTic Gaming)

There were dozens of categories put forward at the 2022 Esports Awards – more than we can sensibly list here! With that being said, there were some standout results that really made the show worth watching; examples of the representation and gratitude that the Esports Awards is designed to exude. So, while the spotlight was cast across many recipients of these Esports Awards, we’ve highlighted our pick of the bunch below.

Esports Organisation of the Year: OpTic Gaming

OpTic has had a phenomenal year – and a phenomenal lifecycle, in general. From winning the HCS World Championship to performing remarkably well in the VALORANT Champions Tour, and from Dallas Fuel winning the Overwatch League to countless content creators being signed, it has been an incredible year for OpTic Gaming.

Esports PC Player of the Year: S1mple

S1mple is one of the most iconic CSGO competitors of all time, and after a lengthy career studded with huge wins, he understandably refuses to stop being nothing short of incredible. As an accomplished competitor in every sense of the word, he absolutely deserves this award.

Streamer of the Year: Ibai

This is the third year back-to-back that ibai has won the Streamer of the Year award. As the number-one Spanish streamer on Twitch, ibai has enjoyed more rapid growth than the likes of xQc and Ludwig, and his high production value content never ceases to amaze viewers. In 2022, Asmongold referred to ibai as ‘one of the most influential streamers’.

Esports Personality of the Year: Nadeshot

Nadeshot truly deserves the Personality of the Year award.

There were few personalities more deserving of his award than Nadeshot. It could have been a lifetime achievement award, given how influential and impactful Nadeshot has been within the esports industry in the last few years. From founding 100 Thieves to winning the Call of Duty League, and from pioneering a near household name brand to being a consistent streamer himself, he really is doing it all.

Esports Game of the Year: VALORANT

Since debuting in 2020, VALORANT has really gone from strength to strength. It’s one of the fastest-rising esports titles in the world, and in just two years, it has pulled in a fanbase that numbers in the tens of millions. Given how successful the VALORANT Champions Tour was in 2022, it comes as no surprise that VALORANT wins this award.

Esports Mobile Game of the Year: PUBG Mobile

When PUBG went free-to-play at the start of the year, the ecosystem blew up, with millions more players flooding into the game. For years, PUBG Mobile has been a consistent player in the mobile gaming space, and as an esports ecosystem, it’s second to none – definitely a well-deserved award.

And Many More to Come

These are just a few of all the awards handed out during the ceremony. For the recipients, there are no awards in the esports scene more prestigious than these, so we firmly tip our hats to them. Fortunately, that’s not all she wrote, as the Esports Awards will return in 2023.

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Developer Unknown Worlds' superb underwater survival adventure Subnautica has just received its first major update in two years, bringing with it new building bits, performance enhancements, accessibility features, quality of life improvements, and over 800 bug fixes.

Unknown Worlds' latest update - officially titled Living Large, or 2.0 to its friends - is described as a "labour of love for the entire Subnautica team", and aims to address "a tonne of tech debt and [bring] across some improved code from Below Zero."

To that end, Living Large moves Subnautica and its follow-up Below Zero onto unified versions of Unity, enabling the developer to implement quality of life features, fix bugs, and performance improvements in Subnautica that were already available in the more recent game.

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As Ubisoft's preferential treatment for the Epic Games Store continues to evaporate, yet another of the publisher's titles is making its way to Steam, with the reasonably well-recieved Watch Dogs Legion now pencilled in for a 23rd January release on Valve's platform.

This latest listings follows Ubisoft's announcement back in November that, having skipped Steam in favour of Epic and its own Ubisoft Connect since 2019, it would soon be bringing a select number of its games to Valve's storefront, starting with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800, and the free-to-play Roller Champions.

That initial line-up expanded by one last week with Immortals Fenyx Rising, and now Watch Dogs Legion's official January release brings Ubisoft's post-2019 Steam selection up to five.

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Arnav “xL” Shukla: Let’s first talk about the year as a whole. The first didn’t quite work out with the Shox lineup. But with YEKINDAR coming in, the team has looked great despite the major result. Are you excited about 2023 and sticking to this roster going forward?

EliGE: Yeah, 100%. I’m really excited for 2023. I think that, especially in the last couple of months, there has been a really good focus on exactly what to work on. Especially for me individually, I know exactly what I need to work on to like get back to the next level.

I know exactly what needs to be done. It’s just that there needs to be some time now to be able to get to it. A lot of work needs to happen to get to the level that most people expect. And I think that it’s a pretty straightforward line of what to do, it’s just about getting it done, and I’m really excited for that.

xL: So, you’ll obviously have more time in the player break now. Do you think this team can be at a Championship level?

EliGE: I think so, yeah. I think we’re already close to it. We were top 5-10 for the second half of the year, so we can beat any team for sure. There’s no team we’re really scared of playing, like where we get them in a matchup, and we’re like, oh god, what are we gonna do?

Obviously, some teams are gonna match up better map pool-wise, but we don’t feel like we’re incapable of winning. So it’s a pretty high level of confidence going into these games, but we know there’s a lot of work to be done to be a championship team.

xL: There have been a bunch of moves this year where a single player change has made a big impact on the team. Do you think it’s just because of firepower upgrades or other factors like role balance?

EliGE: I think, in general, there are so many reasons why adding a single player can have such a big difference. One of them is team chemistry. Just being able to elevate that and put everyone into comfortable positions. Even like the social aspect, if that guy is very charismatic and is able to lead things in the team in a way that can benefit everyone and can make people more comfortable.

The most obvious is roles. If you pick up someone that fits your role and is a good player, then you’re gonna see a huge difference from that one addition.