FaZe Clan once again turn their heads to Justin “jks” Savage, this time to stand in for Håvard “rain” Nygaard who still needs to stay in isolation following his COVID-19 test coming out positive. rain today on his Twitter handle announced that he would miss the IEM Katowice 2022 Playoffs, to be played out at the Spodek Arena starting today as he still remains in Isolation, testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. Earlier in the group stage, he had joined his team in the officials from his hotel room as he then had to wait on a PCR test confirmation after developing symptoms for the Virus.
FaZe Clan found themselves in a similar fiasco when Robin “ropz” Kool had too tested positive just before the Play-in stage of IEM Katowice 2022 which put them in a position to call jks for backup who indeed successfully helped them to get through to the group stage of the main event with an HLTV rating of 1.03 across the three matches played. With the playoffs being held on LAN in front of a live crowd at the Spodek, players would need to show up in person which would sabotage FaZe’s plans, fielding rain in their Quarter-Final clash against Gambit Esports.
Their match against Gambit would determine their fate in the tournament, should FaZe Clan win over the CIS giants, they would lock horns with Heroic in the Semi-finals.
Brazilian teams who were bootcamping in Warsow, Poland have set themselves on a course back to their homes ahead of the PGL Antwerp Major 2022 qualifiers.
As reported by Globo Esporte, post the Russian attacks on Ukraine, Imperial and MIBR decided to leave their current bootcamps in Warsaw, Poland, and were en route back to Brazil. These two teams were in the Polish Capital, setting up camp and preparing for upcoming PGL Major Antwerp 2022 South American Open Qualifiers in a bid to further book themselves berths at the Regional RMR event of the same tournament.
A total of four days were cut short from their original itinerary in Poland as both the Brazilian sides brought to their concern, the ongoing political tensions pondering upon the CIS region.
Following Imperial and MIBR are GODSENT who have also booked themselves a flight back to their region following the same CIS turmoil and were also setting up shop for the South American Qualifiers in the capital of Poland. The South American Open Qualifiers will start on March 5 with 4 spots up for grabs towards the regional RMR event followed by a second Open qualifier which will round off the list for South America with a total of 8 spots at the RMR.
Initially, MIBR were a part of the IEM Katowice 2022 but were eliminated from the Play-in stage of the same which indeed made them extend their stay in Poland. With their departure from Warsaw, they also pulled out from the Pinnacle Winter Series #2 which is already underway.
The Esports community came together in support of Ukraine after the country was invaded by the Russian army earlier on February 24. Organizations and players alike took to their social media handles, Twitter and Instagram in particular to show that they stand in solidarity with Ukraine in these troubled times.
Ukrainian legend Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has delivered an emotional message to CSGO fans at the opening ceremony of IEM Katowice 2022, and it serves as a much-needed message of peace amid these troubling times as Russia continues their invasion on their western neighbour.
On February 25th, the Spodek Arena witnessed the Natus Vincere star taking the microphone from host Oliver James Borg ‘OJ Borg’ D’Anasta to send a message in front of the live audience present in the venue.
“All our players, all players from different teams, and all of you have nothing to do with government decisions,” the 24-year-old said. “My whole career I played with Ukranian players, I played with Russian players, and I played with American players. And all of them: great guys.”
S1mple also reminded the audience that the esports community wants nothing but peace for the world. “All of us want peace- for Ukraine, and for the whole world. All of us are scared, and all of us need to show an example at this tournament. We need to stay together as a unit, with our fans, with our friends, and with everybody watching. And we all need to stay humans first.”
Previously, we’ve seen s1mple expressing concern for his friends and family in Ukraine through a Tweet posted on February 24th.
“I cry thinking about my family and friends in Kyiv,” he said. “I’m ‘lucky’ that I’m not at home, but you can’t even imagine how much I want to be there.”
I cry thinking about my family and friends in Kyiv I’m "lucky" that I’m not at home, but you can’t even imagine how much I want to be there Tomorrow I want to think about IEM Katowice and only We don't need regrets, We need support, thank you everyone who cares #navination
RRQ, one of the largest esports organizations in Indonesia, is reported to have formed a Mobile Legends team in Brazil and joined MPL to form its Mobile Legends division team in Brazil.
This news spread quickly after the Brazilian esports media, OBuff, introduced the roster from RRQ Brazil on OBuff’s Instagram account on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. From the uploaded poster, it can be seen that there are familiar faces in the pro scene of mobile legends.
Although the RRQ team’s official account still hasn’t announced the acquisition of the team, so we still have to wait for the information to get confirmed. In addition to having an experienced roster, the team brought in two players who are already well-known in the Brazilian MPL scene, Seigen, and Gusta. The following is the roster of the Mobile Legends RRQ Brazil players.
Luiiz – Roamer
King – Jungler
Gusta – Gold Lane
Blink – Reserved
Tekashi – EXP laner
Seigen – Midlaner
It is great news for the Brazilan esports ecosystem, as one of Asia’s largest E-Sports organizations, RRQ has entered the region.
Valorant is becoming an indispensable part of the industry with its gameplay and Esports system every day. We can say that its innovative ideas aiming to bring different communities together by diversifying the Esport ecosystem takes Valorant to the next level.
The more the Valorant professional arena evolves, the more players are attracted to Valorant bets which in turn will grow Valorant esports. That’s why the team continues to work at full speed to satisfy the players in every aspect.
The competitive environment created with the balanced structure and tournament system in the game manages to attract the attention of millions of people to Valorant. In today’s article, we will be taking a look at what might change in Valorant’s competitive environment in 2022.
If there are still those among us who do not know what Valorant is, we would like to say that they missed a lot. Don’t be alarmed though, in today’s article, we’ve compiled everything you want to know about Valorant’s competitive environment in 2022. Let’s take a detailed look at our content without wasting much time.
What Awaits Us at Valorant in 2022
Daniel Ringland spoke about innovative approaches to increase competition in the game. Speaking to NME, Ringland emphasized that in 2022, significant changes will be made in Valorant’s competitive structure that will affect most people.
Part of these upcoming changes is the Valorant Regional Circuit (VRC) and Valorant Regional Leagues (VRL). Ringland continued his ideas on this subject as follows;
“Within those circuits are many different amateur events that cater to many different sorts of people – social people, players that just want to be professional, they can all find something cool to participate in. They exist on a regional level – we have one in France, one in Turkey, one in MENA et cetera. A layer up from that we have the VRLs, the Valorant Regional Leagues. These aim to be in the top tier of national competition. We then have an event toward the end of the year where the top team from each of the eight VRLs will compete to figure out who is the best VRL team in EMEA.”
Listening to what Ringland has to say about the esports aspect of the game gives us positive expectations about what Valorant can become.
Game Changers
After emphasizing the importance of changes in the national leagues, Ringland went on to say that the Game Changers event will turn into “a global event that will happen toward the end of this year”.
According to Ringland, Riot Games has designated Valorant’s ecosystem as “barrier-free”. That means you can find a place for yourself in Valorant no matter what your gaming skill is. Adding to his words, Ringland says:
“What we mean by barrier free is that there’s an entry point for everybody that works for their level – and that’s one of the big advantages we see of being able to design that ecosystem from top to bottom, we can cater to everybody.”
“If you’re a pro player that’s been participating in Counter-Strike and you’re already really good, there’s an entry point. If you’re somebody that dreams of being pro and you’re well and truly on your way, perhaps you’re good enough to get into a VRL team, there’s an entry point for you. Then if you’re at the very beginning of that journey, there’s an entry point for you in the VRCs.”
The world of Valorant Esports is still very new as you know. Valorant was released in 2020 by Riot Games. It has reached millions of players in a short time, especially due to Valorant’s hype from League of Legends. At the same time, due to its competitive nature, Valorant bets came to the fore in this process.
Valorant Development Process and Future Outlook
Additionally, Ringland said the creators of Valorant were inspired by looking at other Esports titles to create their own playstyle. As the head of Valorant EMEA Esports, he talked about the need for many innovations in each region.
Ringland said that when we came together to design Valorant, they spent a lot of time not only looking at what we did, but also what other Esports was doing.
“I’d like to think that we haven’t just carbon copied what Riot’s done before, and that we have been able to incorporate some elements from other esports, particularly shooters, that are popular there and think will resonate with our audiences…We like to think that we’ve cherry picked and built what’s best for our fans.”
As we enter 2022, Ringland talks about exciting changes. This will be completely beyond a configuration. And he added that “Valorant Esports is a big priority for Riot.”
Finally, Ringland continued his words as follows;
“We feel that we’re at the very beginning of this journey even though this will be our second year. We feel really good about the foundations we’ve laid particularly coming into 2022 with the VRCs and VRLs. Really, now we just need to be focusing on growing all of those, continuing to listen to our fans, understand them, and what they want. Our focus will be on growing the foundations of what we have built together with our fans.”
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice is an event like no other. Almost simultaneous with Counter Strike itself, Katowice is regarded as one of THE biggest events in esports. Dipping its toes into Starcraft 2 and even League of Legends, IEM Katowice’s pedigree is unmatched. The fans, as claimed by a lot of the players themselves, are the best in the world, the atmosphere, the electricity, the crowd are almost second to none.
Katowice has seen greatness first hand. Be it the renowned home team ‘Virtus.pro’s victory stage, featuring the likes of Pashabiceps and NEO, to being the place where Astralis stamped their authority as the best of all time by defending their Major crown in 2019.
In its 10th edition – IEM Katowice 2022, the action returns to LAN. And not just any LAN, at the revered Spodek Arena, filled to the brim with fans – something we had been missing since 2019. Taking place without a crowd in 2020, and then online in 2021, IEM Katowice may be missing some of its glory in the 2 years gone by, but the love for Counter Strike brings back everything we had been missing, and more.
IEM Katowice 2022 Playoff teams –
Natus Vincere
Gambit
G2
FaZe Clan
Virtus.pro
Heroic
NATUS VINCERE
NaVi finished 2021 as their best year ever. Winning everything there was to win – the Major, the Intel Grand Slam, BLAST World Finals you name it. IEM Katowice 2020 though, is where it all began for the world’s best. They kicked off 2020 with a thumping win at Katowice over G2, and perhaps that is where their era began. Cut short by the switch to online, Katowice still contributed to NaVi’s Intel Grand Slam.
Albeit not looking as dominant as the NaVi of 2021 just yet, s1mple is as good as ever and in front of a crowd, we all know what the rest of the CIS powerhouse can bring. They will look to defend their crown as the best team in the world and Katowice is where they need to begin.
G2 ESPORTS
Being memed on for playing second fiddle to NaVi, IEM Katowice 2020 is where the misfortune began for G2. Losing 3-0 at Katowice 2020, then 3-0’d at the first LAN back in the form of IEM Cologne and then 2-0’d in the Grand Final of the First Major in 2 years, NaVi had become G2’s kryptonite. Interestingly, apart from m0NESY, all 4 of G2’s players have played in an IEM Katowice Grand Final.
NiKo was part of FaZe Clan when they lost to fnatic in 2018, Aleksib’s fairytale run with ENCE was cut short in the Grand Final by Astralis and huNter- and JACKZ were the ones that lost to NaVi in 2020. After making changes in 2022, G2 will look to write their own history at the Spodek in 2022.
GAMBIT
The defending champions of IEM Katowice will need to do it on LAN to keep their crown. No strangers to a LAN environment anymore, Gambit have given enough evidence that they can be on par with the best. Semi-Finals at the PGL Major, Grand Finals at BLAST Premier World Finals, and winning V4 Future Sports Festival – Budapest 2021 are testament to their ability.
But playing in front of an electric crowd, there may still be a long way to go for Gambit. Their dismal performance vs NaVi in the Semis of the Major had everyone doubting their capability in an arena, but coach Groove says they have improved over time, despite the inexperience. Will they be able to defend their title? Time will tell.
FAZE CLAN
FaZe Clan are no strangers to the biggest stages of Counter Strike and even they have been in a Grand Final at IEM Katowice. For two years straight, rain, Karrigan and NiKo made it to the final of IEM Katowice only to fall at the final hurdle.
Back with a different look with the return of Karrigan and new blood in the form of broky, Twistzz, and ropz, FaZe look the best they have in a long while. Dominant performances throughout, even with a stand-in, and making NaVi sweat in their last game, FaZe can surprise everyone and go all the way this time.
After the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, things have taken a turn for the worse and everything has been thrown into a frenzy.
Reports of a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by Russia surfaced after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian Army will carry out a ‘military operation’ in Ukraine.
Videos and pictures of bombings, missiles, troops moving in and more have been circulating on the internet since morning and ground reports attest to the same.
Naturally, after such an invasion it is understood that the first priority of the citizens would be to ensure their own safety. Be that as it may, Ukrainian esports organisation – WePlay esports have released a statement regarding their current situation.
WePlay have their offices in Ukraine and will continue working remotely till the time a solution is found. The WePlay office in the United States will continue functioning as it has been.
In the statement WePlay esports stressed on the fact that they will do their best to fulfill the legal and financial obligations of the stakeholders while working remotely.
Oleh Humeniuk, CEO of WePlay esports issued a statement saying
“Russian Federation attacked Ukraine. Even though it’s frightening, the people of WePlay Holding and all of Ukraine know how to maintain common sense and stay calm.
Work in the WePlay Holding Ukrainian office is in full swing. At present, all the company departments, from Legal and Finance to Studio and Esports, as well as infrastructure institutions, are doing their best to keep in touch and provide partners with the information necessary to solve any issue. All WePlay Holding employees are aware of the government instructions they need to follow and continue working from home. The company keeps everyone posted on current updates affecting the workflow.
Thank you for your words of support and sensitivity that all Ukrainians need now.
Together we are strong and unbreakable.
With you always,”
WePlay regularly hosts CSGO tournaments, most notably and recently – the 3 seasons of WePlay Academy League for the academy rosters of CSGO teams. The Finals of the first 2 seasons took place on LAN while the third had to be moved online due to the political situation.
In a weird instance on Turkish television, a Counter Strike map was featured on National TV.
When international relations expert Dr. Muhammet Koçak was on air to talk about the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, he put up a virtual background during his appearance.
The background was an iconic Counter Strike map cs_assault. Cs_assault was a very popular map back in the 1.6 days.
Dr Muhammet Koçak was on tv to talk about the current state of affairs regarding Ukraine and Russia, with the latter invading the former in the wee hours of morning yesterday.
Many users took the appearance of a CS 1.6 map as a background to mean that he was, in fact, calling the ‘military operation’ by Russia, a straight up assault on Ukraine and its people.
Users also reminisced, seeing a counter strike map appear on national TV reminded them of the time they spent playing CS 1.6 on the map
cs_assault. One user said “So many good memories on this map from the lan-houses era…”. This isn’t the first time Counter Strike or it’s version have made it to National TV as an Indian channel used the terrorist model from CSGO when talking about the taliban and Afghanistan.
The r/globaloffensive subreddit also coloured their icon in the colours of Ukraine, to show their solidarity and support for the country. They followed in the footsteps of many esports orgs like Natus Vincere, Astralis and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Siddhant Joshi aka Soul Sid, manager of Team Soul reacted to Team Udog’s suspension in the ongoing Villager Esports Winter Masters. To let you know, Team Udog, one of the teams competing in the winter masters was accused of violating tournament rules.
As a result, the team got suspended from the event. Presently, the semi-finals round is taking place where a total of 23 teams are competing for the grand finals slot. Villager Esports Winter Masters features a prize pool of 15,00,000 INR which will be distributed among the top five teams of the grand finals.
Soul Sid took his Instagram account to react, he wrote “Every time a POV is asked from any of their players about fishy plays, it is either directly rejected or delayed until other teams give up. There is enough evidence about players of this team using unfair means to play”. He further wrote, “We will be avoiding events where Udog or their players get an invite or qualify”.
The statement came after one of the officials from the organizing team announced the suspension of the team. He wrote, “Team Udog has been penalized with a suspension until further notice for the violation of tournament rules. Further decision on the situation is yet to be made as it is under investigation.”
Every Indian remotely familiar with video games has heard the name of PUBG Mobile in the past few years. PUBG Mobile became the face of gaming and esports in India after it was launched in 2019.
When the game was first launched, its mechanism and play style attracted the youth in India. Soon, this mobile game achieved a status that no other game could ever achieve and became a majorly sustainable and competitive esports title in India.
As PUBG Mobile esports was becoming a thing in India, players that were phenomenal at the game started to form their own rosters and compete in grassroots level tournaments. Many esports personalities that have millions of fan following in India started their journey from here and Harpreet Singh “Ronak” Janjuha was one of them.
Ronak entered into competitive PUBG Mobile with the world-famous roster of Team Soul. This team would go on to become one of the most beloved esports organisations in India. Ronak has seen the rise and downfall of PUBG Mobile and a comeback in the form of BGMI as well.
We have a short chat with Ronak and discussed his journey so far, his current journey with Skylightz Gaming, and his future plans.
Here are the excerpts:
According to you, how has the competitive BGMI trend shifted with the game’s comeback?
The standard of gameplay has increased significantly. Every team has worked well on their tactics, which is reflected in every match. The intensity level in each game has been at the highest level consistently. Some great underdog teams have also come up.
How do you fit into the assaulting meta while being a proactive sniper?
Well the game has changed quite a bit and it is now becoming common nowadays for snipers playing aggressively and everyone is now focusing on assaulting as well.
How are you planning to cope with the rising stars in terms of playstyle?
It is essential to work on your game and focus on consistency. My goal is always to improve my game, and I believe everything else will work out. However, it’s great to see so many rising stars in IGN.
What is your dream team/roster?
The current Skylightz roster is my favorite roster. We have a great set of players who share the same goals. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What is your plan? Will you be seen more often on the active roster after the departure of Destro?
The plan is to work hard, learn new things, and improve my skills. We will do what’s best for the team.
What does your daily practice routine look like? Do you do any special drills specifically for sniping?
I do not follow any practice routine. I prefer to take it day by day. Generally, I practice for about 7-8 hours a day, where I try out different things while also working on improving my game.
In what areas do you think you have room for improvement?
There’s always room for improvement in every area. To be at the highest level, you need to look for learning opportunities at every chance.
As Asian Games are approaching, have you set up any special training regimen or goals for it?
As a team, we will work hard and try to get the opportunity to represent India at the Asian Games. If we do get the opportunity to do so, our goal will be to get the gold medal. We are ready to give our 100% on this.
If you were not into the esports industry, what would you be doing right now?
That is really difficult for me to even think about. Esports has given me the opportunity of a lifetime. I am incredibly grateful I get the chance to make a career out of something I love.
Skylightz Gaming is the best BGMI team in India after winning BGIS. What do you think was the x-factor that helped you to dominate in this tournament?
I think the team found their rhythm well. The roster had been playing with each other for a while, so the team chemistry was incredible. Everything clicked for the team, and Skylightz won the tournament.
Where do you see yourself after retiring from the competition? Will it be streaming games or coaching rosters, or something else?
I do not think about those things. I am an Esports player, and my focus is entirely on that. When the time comes, I will make the necessary decision.
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This conversation certainly reflects that Ronak has always been passionate about PUBG Mobile and BGMI and will continue to do so in the future. He has an amazing charisma and incredible dedication towards gaming that inspires his fans around the world.
Ronak is completely dedicated to shining as an esports athlete and not moving towards any other routes in gaming. This dedication has helped him to stay on the top for the last three years with some ups and downs on the way.
His achievements have left a mark on the Indian gaming community and will continue to do so in the future as well.
