Friday, July 24, 2026
Home Blog Page 1198

NaVi Secure Playoffs Spot at IEM Katowice 2022 With Win Over FURIA

NaVi booked themselves a place at the Spodek Arena with a 2-0 win versus FURIA. The NaVi that struggled and almost lost versus ENCE yesterday displayed a completely new face today as they defeated the Brazilians with relative ease. Mirage was an absolute stomp, with just 2 rounds for FURIA. Nuke was closer but FURIA was never really in the game despite coming close. NaVi will face the winner of FaZe vs fnatic, to decide who goes through to the semis, and who drops to the quarters.

MAP VETO

  • FURIA removed Dust2 
  • Natus Vincere removed Vertigo 
  • FURIA picked Mirage 
  • Natus Vincere picked Nuke 
  • FURIA removed Overpass 
  • Natus Vincere removed Ancient 
  • Inferno was left over

MAP 1: Mirage (NaVi 16-2 FURIA)

MAP 2: Nuke (NaVi 16-12 FURIA)

We kicked off on FURIA’s pick of Mirage, not knowing what they had in store for them. Arguably the best duo in CSGO at the moment, s1mple and electronic made mincemeat of FURIA’s T side. Both of them had 15 frags each, combined with 13 from b1t on the catwalk, FURIA could do nothing but see their T side fall flat. At the end of the half, it was 13-2 in NaVi’s favor.

They dotted their i’s and crossed the t’s to see out the remaining 3 and blow FURIA out of the water with a 16-2 stomp.

Nuke, where NaVi were humbled by ENCE and handed their biggest loss, was picked by the reigning Major Champions yet again to show what they were made of. They went on a tear with brilliant executes on the A site again and again to break FURIA every time they had the economy on their side. A 10-2 start was somewhat salvaged by FURIA, courtesy of KSCERATO who outdid everyone on the server. FURIA went into the T side with a 10-5 deficit.

A pistol win saw FURIA cut the lead down to 2 rounds but once we moved to the full buy rounds, all of NaVi started fragging out. A string of 4 meant NaVi sat comfortably at 14-8. KSCERATO proved yet again that he wasn’t done and found entries, again and again, to help FURIA to 3 more on the trot. But NaVi’s CT side wasn’t gonna crumble so easily and they did their due diligence and ended an inspired T side from the Brazilians at 16-12.

KSCERATO outraged everyone on the server with 34 kills in just 28 rounds of play. The next best was s1mple with 22.

SPODEK ARENA FOR NATUS VINCERE

NaVi confirmed their spot at the Spodek and will play FaZe or fnatic for a chance to make it to the semis straightaway.

FURIA will have another chance to make it to the playoffs as they will play G2 in the lower bracket for a chance at survival.

Astralis Take Down ENCE to Stay Alive at IEM Katowice 2022

Astralis beat ENCE 2-1 in the lower bracket to eliminate the international roster from IEM Katowice 2022. ENCE almost beat NaVi yesterday, battering them on Nuke in the process but a second consecutive close loss sees them bow out of IEM Katowice. Astralis started with a loss on Mirage but fought back on Overpass and Ancient with huge impact from blameF and k0nfig respectively, on the 2 maps.

MAP VETO

  • ENCE removed Inferno 
  • Astralis removed Vertigo 
  • ENCE picked Mirage 
  • Astralis picked Overpass
  • ENCE removed Dust2 
  • Astralis removed Nuke 
  • Ancient was left over

MAP 1: Mirage (Astralis  16-19 ENCE)

MAP 2: Overpass (Astralis 16-12 ENCE )

MAP 3: Ancient (Astralis 16-13 ENCE)

We kicked off on ENCE’s pick of Mirage and they were ready to exploit Astralis’ inexperience on the map since it was their original permaban for more than 2 years. The danes won the pistol but ENCE had the spoils when the guns came out, they won 3 consecutive rounds, thrice in the half to end with 9 T rounds. Astralis did manage 2 consecutive rounds twice but they were never in control.

On the T side, Astralis started well and a vintage 1v3 Ace clutch from Xyp9x saw them even the score out.

But ENCE didn’t back down and with AWPer hades taking over the map, Astralis ran ragged. Both the sides went back and forth and Astralis came back from 15-12 down to take it to overtime. But the comeback ended there as they couldn’t do the same in OT and won only 1 round while ENCE took the 4 needed to close the map 19-16.

Overpass started, this time with Astralis in control and blameF leading the charge. A 4-0 start quickly turned into a 4-6 trail as IGL Snappi started reading his Danish counterpart pretty well. But out of the last 5, the Danes won 4 rounds to secure at least a 1 round lead going into the next half.

CT side Overpass has been blameF’s bread and butter even when he was on Complexity. He was no different today as after the initial flurry of rounds thanks to the pistol, ENCE found only a round here and there. He locked down the A site with ease, racking up 15 kills in each half to win the game for his side 16-12, with a 1.68 rating to boot.

Ancient was the deciding map and it was close yet again. A fine start from ENCE was quickly mopped up by Astralis as the 5-2 lead was followed by an  8-5 scoreline. Lucky and k0nfig  on the A site/donut position and blameF on the B site locked ENCE out of the half after a slow start. 

A 9-6 half was followed by a force buy battle between ENCE and Astralis. spinx and co. finally strung more than 1 together and were back at even keeling at 11-11.  It was now a different Former complexity gaming members turn to step up as k0nfig took ENCE by the horns, entry onto the A site again and again as he went 19-10  on the T side to help find the much-needed 16 rounds for his side. 

Astralis were made to sweat as the game was close throughout but they held on and won out the game, with good calls from gla1ve to end Ancient 16-13.

NO SPODEK ARENA FOR ENCE

ENCE are out of IEM Katowice 2022 in 13-16th alongside OG, Copenhagen Flames, and Team Liquid. Astralis live another day and will play the loser of FaZe vs fnatic tomorrow.

Analysing Why Singapore Based Garena’s Free Fire Was Banned In India 

0

Garena Free Fire, one of the leading mobile battle royale games in India was banned in India on February 14 along with 53 other apps by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The app was already removed a day before (i.e. 13th February) on both iOS App Store and Google Play Store even before the news of the ban was made public.  

Hours after the news of the ban went public, Garena quickly issued a public statement and said:

“We are aware that Free Fire is currently unavailable in the Google Play and iOS app stores in India and that the game is currently not operable for some users in the country. We are working to address this situation, and we apologize to our users for any inconvenience.”

Sea Ltd is from Singapore, What’s the Chinese connect?

Garena is a Singapore-based gaming studio, whose parent company, SEA Ltd. is also a Singapore based e-commerce giant. Now the question arises, “Why was Free Fire banned?”

The reason the Government Of India issued a banned for Free Fire is that it posed a “threat to national security” due to its link to China. But now another question arises, “Free Fire is developed by Singapore based game studio, why did the GOI ban the game?”

For starters, the ban is issued due to Chinese links of Sea Ltd. As per Sea Ltd. shareholding, 18.7% of the company is owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd. aka Tencent. Just a month prior to the ban Tencent held 21.3% of the company which was brought down to 18.7% by Tencent in a move to raise $3 billion by selling 14.5 million shares at $208 each in Sea Ltd. 

Since other apps that had links to Tencent were banned previously, the Ministry Of Home Affairs included the game in its list of banned apps.

Previously, the ministry had alleged in a statement that some apps were engaged in “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” As a result, the apps were banned “in the interest of sovereignty of India, defense of India, and security of the state.”

Questions on Ownership of Free Fire

Another point to note is the current owner and founder of Sea Ltd originates from China. Forrest Li, a Singaporean billionaire businessman and the founder of Garena and Shopee, both parts of Sea Limited was born and brought up in Tianjin, China.

Forrest Li later migrated to Singapore shortly after earning a degree in engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

While it is certain that the cause of the ban wasn’t the Chinese origin of Forrest Li until the ownership of his company, Sea Ltd lies in Tencent’s hand the ban might not be reversed soon.

Although it is possible that Garena might take the PUBG route and launch an India only version of Free Fire after forming a subsidiary company with no Chinese link and investment. 

G2 2-0 Team Liquid To Eliminate Them From IEM Katowice 2022

G2 esports defeated Team Liquid in a quick 2-0 series to stay alive at IEM Katowice 2022 after they were handed an upset at the hands of fnatic yesterday. Team Liquid’s run at Katowice ended with this loss, having already lost their opening Bo3 to FaZe Clan. NiKo stole the show once again, and this time there wasn’t any lack of support from m0NESY or huNter-

MAP VETO

  • Liquid removed Nuke
  • G2 removed Overpass
  • Liquid picked Vertigo
  • G2 picked Mirage
  • Liquid removed Inferno
  • G2 removed Ancient
  • Dust2 was left over

MAP 1: Vertigo (Team Liquid 8-16 G2)

MAP 2: Mirage (Team Liquid 5-16 G2)

Team Liquid decided to test G2 on Vertigo, a map IGL Aleksib hasn’t played an official on, ever. G2 started in fiery form winning the pistol and conversion but a Hero AK47 from EliGE in round 3 caught them off guard and they lost the next 2 rounds. With the score at 2-2, G2 turned up the gears, led by NiKo’s heroics on A ramp and m0NESY on the AWP. Both the superstars had a combined 32 kills to find 10 for G2. Liquid had a decent resurgence towards the end after being down 9-2, they fought to bring it to 10-5.

The T side was where Aleksib’s tactics would be tested, and although they lost the pistol they won the force buy and converted the next 2 to sit comfortably at 13-6. Liquid fought back with 2 more rounds but G2 did the needful to get to 16-8.

Mirage started the same way for G2, this time on the T side. They lost the pistol but bounced back with 5 on the trot. Team Liquid could never find 2 consecutive rounds as G2 had total control with their mid takes and NiKo entry on the A-site. This time was supported by his cousin huNter-, who had 21 frags to complement NiKo’s 18 in the first half to give G2 an 11-4 half.

Liquid won the pistol yet again, but they lost all the rounds that followed, giving G2 a comfortable 16-5 win. 

STILL HOPES TO MAKE IT TO THE SPODEK FOR G2

After a dominant victory today, G2 remain in contention for a playoffs spot at the Spodek Arena in Katowice. They will face the loser of the NaVi vs FURIA matchup which starts at 20:30 IST today. 

Team Liquid meanwhile, have to go home in 13-16th position alongside Copenhagen Flames and OG.

14-year-old boy dies by suicide in Mumbai, police suspect gaming addiction

0

A 14-year-old boy died by suicide in Central Mumbai’s Hindmata area on Sunday. The Mumbai police suspected the addiction of online Free Fire which could lead to the boy’s suicide. The game was banned recently by the government of India but the boy was still playing the game.

According to the police, the boy’s father, working in a private construction company as a designer, received a call from his son on Sunday evening at 7.22 pm. Since he was traveling with his wife, he could not receive the call. When the father called back a few minutes later, the boy didn’t respond to his phone calls.

After returning to the house, he found the boy’s room locked from inside. The father unlocked the door to find that the boy died by suicide. The police were informed about the incident and the body was sent to KEM Hospital for post-mortem.

Vijay Patil, the deputy commissioner of police, said, “Preliminary probe has revealed that the boy was addicted to Free Fire online game, but what exactly triggered him to take the extreme step is still a mystery.”

The police are investigating for the reason that could have led the boy to take this step. Although the parents and school denied any game addiction within the boy and that he was a bright student and fond of cricket.

Nodwin Gaming Releases VCC Anthem Produced By Seedhe Maut & Sez On The Beat

0

Nodwin Gaming, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies Ltd. and Soth Asia’s leading esports gaming company has just released an official anthem for the upcoming Valorant Conquerors Championship. 

Nodwin Gaming in association with Riot Games — developers, and producer of popular esports title, Valorant, have come together and roped in contemporary hip-hop artist Seedhe Maut and music producer Sez On The Beat to create an epic, celebratory and inspiring anthem titled “NHK, which stands for Nahi Hora Kya”. 

The video will be premiered on NODWIN Gaming’s official YouTube channel today (i.e. February 19, 2022) at 7 PM. The direct link to the premier video is here.

The video features a collaboration of the most prominent Valorant players of the South Asia region namely Ganesh Gangadhar (Skrossi) from the Indian team Global Esports; Shakir Razak (Hikka) from the Indian team Enigma Gaming; Abdul Haseeb (HSB) from the Pakistan team Team Exploit and Sami Ar Rahman (SSSami) from the Bangladeshi team Exceeli Esports. 

Alongside the video, the lyrics and background scores perfectly capture the essence and spirit of the competition.

The video captures the sheer hard work and determination perfectly throughout the journey of players from playing being a small-time talent to playing in big leagues among other professional players for the Championship title.  

“With just two editions, VCC has achieved the cult status it enjoys today, making it evident that it has struck the right chord with both the players and audience alike. The idea behind this anthem is to create a distinct identity for VCC and to celebrate the fandom and cult status around Valorant. Through this anthem, we hope to instill courage and passion in the minds of all current and future gamers, bringing them together for the love of the game. What makes this anthem very unique is that the viewers get to witness the spirit of the tournament through the players’ journey as they try to win the coveted VCC trophy. We are delighted to collaborate with Seedhe Maut and Sez who understand the pulse of the youth,” said Akshat Rathee, Managing Director, NODWIN Gaming.

“Being big fans of the game, it was great to be able to work on the official track for Valorant with our guy Sez on the Beat. Music and gaming are converging nowadays like never before, shoutout to NODWIN VCC for supporting gaming and the culture like they do!” said Seedhe Maut.

“Having played the game myself, this song is a dream project for me. I have been following the pro-scene for a while now (since the first Masters) and it’s great to see similar support for South Asian players. Big thump ups to Riot Games for their vision and to NODWIN Gaming for bringing all of us together. The fact that VCC winners will be able to go head-to-head with the best teams from the world is really so dope,” said the Producer Sez on the Beat.

“I think we have a banger ready to roll out. Seedhe Maut and Sez On The Beat, as we know, are Valorant fans and they’re killing it in DHH lately. We wanted this collaboration to be an authentic South Asian Valorant esport experience that truly embodies the spirit of VCC. It’ll be a track that every Valorant player in the region can relate and vibe to”, said Sukamal Pegu, Head of Publishing, India & South Asia, Riot Games.

Visit the official Nodwin Gaming channels below and stay tuned for the premiere at 7 PM today i.e. 19th February 2022. 

ESL announces ESL Impact, an all-women CSGO circuit

0

ESL Gaming GmbH, the leading esports organizer has officially announced all the details of the upcoming all-woman CSGO circuit named ESL Impact. The all-woman CSGO tournament was announced in December as a part of the ESL’s #GGFORALL initiative.

According to ESL’s press release, the consolidated prize pool of ESL Impact will be $500,000. The tournament will begin on 8th March and will come to an end on 1st May.

ESL Impact will have two seasons with live finals, a standalone event along online cash cups for all-woman teams. Every region will have eight teams and they will be divided into two groups.

Let’s take a look at the format of ESL Impact:

Qualifiers

  • Open Qualifier #1: March 8-9 (3 teams qualify for the league season)
  • Open Qualifier #2: March 11-12 (3 teams qualify for the league season)
  • Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
  • Semi-final and 3rd place matches will be best-of-three
  • Each qualifier determines three teams

Wildcard Qualifiers

  • Open Qualifier ZA: April 23-24 (winner qualifies for Global Finals)
  • Open Qualifier OCE: April 23-24 (winner qualifies for Global Finals)
  • Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
  • Semi-final and 3rd place matches will be best-of-three

A total of 24 teams from Europe, North America, and South America will be featuring in ESL Impact while two teams from every region will receive direct invitations. The best two teams of every region will compete directly at DreamHack Dallas and it will take place in June 2022.

Apart from that, ESL also announced that the existing Cash Cups will be rebranded as ESL Impact Cash Cups. Moreover, there will be exclusive tournaments for South Africa and Oceania regions.

CSGO Unblocked: What is it and How to Play?

CSGO is the world’s most prominent and well-known First Person Shooter (FPS) game. It is most widely played on PC but it has Console versions as well. With Steam Deck on the horizon of release, Valve has also been working on optimization so that the game runs well on its own console.

With such popularity and demand, it is natural that a lot of new players would like to get on the hype train and try the game out. Unblocked Games WTF is a website hosted on Google Sites. The site basically develops HTML5 based flash games that can be played on browsers like Miniclip games. Surprisingly, an HTML5 version of the popular FPS, Counter-Strike, or CSGO is also available on Unblocked Games WTF. Other games such as Fortnite and COD are also available on Unblocked games WTF.

Here is how to play CSGO on Unblocked Games WTF:

HOW TO PLAY FORTNITE ON UNBLOCKED GAMES WTF?

  • Click here to open the website.
  • You will see a box with “Click to play now”.
  • After the Anrgy Gamez logo loads, click on Play.
  • After clicking play, the game will ask you to create your profile.
  • Once the player creates a profile, they can do various things in game.
  • They can visit workshop for weapon upgrades and visit angrygamezz’s twitch channel.
  • To play CSGO unblocked, players can either join an existing room or create their own room. The rooms can be public or private.

CSGO unblocked allows for different game modes such as FFA, TDM, or the Normal game mode. It also features a Battle Royale mode, just like Danger Zone in CSGO. CSGO Unblocked also features all the Classic CSGO maps such as DUST2, Italy, Aztec, Inferno, Train, and Nuke.

Much like CSGO, CSGO Unblocked also has a case opening feature that allows players to open cases and get flashy skins. A $1.00 key is required to open a case. When a player creates a new user profile, they will get $1.00 in their account by default, allowing for one free case opening.

NaVi Survive vs ENCE in IEM Katowice 2022 Opener

Natus Vincere defeated ENCE 2-1 in their opening game of IEM Katowice 2022 to advance to the upper bracket semis of the Group Stage. They started off on the right foot on ENCE’s map pick, Mirage, but on their own pick of Nuke, a map that they had lost just thrice with this roster, NaVi were handed their biggest loss ever with a 16-4 score. Overpass went the full distance as NaVi were able to survive a 1-9 start to win 16-14.

MAP VETO

  • ENCE removed Inferno
  • Natus Vincere removed Vertigo
  • ENCE picked Mirage
  • Natus Vincere picked Nuke
  • ENCE removed Dust2
  • Natus Vincere removed Ancient
  • Overpass was left over

MAP 1: Mirage (NaVi 16-8 ENCE)

It was a belter of a start for NaVi on Mirage CT side to kick things off. Almost a given at this point, s1mple popped off supported well in-toe by IGL boombl4. The duo got 32 kills combined to give NaVi a massive 12-3 lead at the half. 

On the T side, NaVi looked all set to take the map as they had 12 match points at 15-3. But spinx and company didnt bow down so easily and they did defend 5 rounds straight.

NaVi needed only won and they did so, courtesy of a s1mple clutch to win 16-8.

MAP 2: Nuke (NaVi 4-16 ENCE)

Nuke has been NaVi’s go-to map for almost a year now after the added b1t for flamie and they have been the best Nuke team by far. But nothing had prepared us for what we were about to see as NaVi’s T side felt absolutely flat in front of ENCE. The whole ENCE side fragged out, led by AWPer hades as he went 14-3 on the CT side. NaVi got a taste of their own medicine as ENCE ended the half 12-3, reminding us of the Nuke of old.

After switching sides, NaVi lost the pistol and won the force buy to see the score at 13-4. But the CIS squad couldn’t do anything more after it as ENCE closed it right back down with a 16-4 win, handing NaVi their biggest Nuke loss.

MAP 3: Overpass (NaVi 16-14 ENCE)

NaVi started off Overpass the same way Nuke had ended. They looked deflated and the T side of Overpass was a menace. s1mple went 0-6 while maden was 14-1 and ENCE took a 9-1 lead on the CT side. But an inspired performance from Perfecto helped NaVi bounce back and take a respectable 5-10 half time score.

In their element on the CT side, NaVi showed no signs of lacking. s1mple started fragging out, and so did the rest of NaVi while Perfecto was still popping heads. They let ENCE get only 2 consecutive T rounds, but that couldve been costly as it was towards the end. But a flawless last round helped NaVi close the map 16-14.

NO LOWER BRACKET SCARE FOR NAVI

Far from being at their best, NaVi still avoided the lower bracket and advanced to the UB Semis. They will face FURIA for a spot at the UB finals, wherein they will vie for a semis or a quarterfinals playoff spot. 

ENCE dropped down to the lower bracket and will play Astralis who had lost to FURIA yesterday.

fnatic Upset G2 To Kick Off IEM Katowice 2022

The Star studded G2 CSGO roster failed to pass their first test on LAN. They started their IEM Katowice 2022 campaign with a loss to fnatic as smooya and co. marched forward to the upper bracket semi final to meet FaZe Clan. fnatic were blown out of the water to start the series on Nuke but bounced back with a menacing Mirage and a dominant inferno to take the win 2-1 over G2.

MAP VETO

  • fnatic removed Dust2
  • G2 removed Overpass
  • fnatic picked Nuke
  • G2 picked Mirage
  • fnatic removed Ancient
  • G2 removed Vertigo
  • Inferno was left over

MAP 1: Nuke (G2 16-2 fnatic)

Nuke started with all guns blazing for G2 as they won the pistol and the following rounds. It wasnt until round 8 that fnatic would break the ice. G2 then replied with another 3 as NiKo locked down yard and huNter- on the A site wreaked havoc on ALEX’s men. They lost a single round after it as the Kovac’s continued pummeling the fnatic squad, supported well by Aleksib. The half ended with a 13-2 score, and the lead was insurmountable. 

Switching to the T side, G2 ended it as quickly as it started as they got the 3 rounds needed in the first 3 and absolutely annihilated fnatic 16-2 on their own map pick.

MAP 2: Mirage (G2 7-16 fnatic)

Switching to their own map pick of Mirage, it was expected that G2 would take it away with ease as NiKo and m0NESY are known to be absolute stalwarts on the map. But the start wasn’t all bells and whistles  as fnatic put up a good defense. They took 5 rounds unanswered as G2 had to wait until the 6th to find their first. After a few back and forths, the score sat at 6-3 and it looked to be an even half, but veteran KRIMZ rolled back the years as he started popping heads left, right and center from the connector position. He finished the half with 20 frags as fnatic took a 10-5 lead.

The T side looked even better for the British-Swedish combo as G2 were left helpless. They couldn’t do anything until they gave up match point at 15-5 and even after winning a couple of rounds, they never had the money to keep it going and lost 16-7. huNter- and NiKo both went missing as we moved to Inferno for the decider.

MAP 3: Inferno (G2 11-16  fnatic)

Inferno started with a pistol win for G2 but that wouldnt be a sign of things to come. fnatic bounced right back as they won the force buy and the 3 following rounds. Throughout the half, ALEX called circles around Aleksib’s men as G2 were never able to string together more than 1 CT round. They found an odd round here and eventually thanks to a NiKo 1v2, they ended the half with a 10-5 score, on which a comeback could be mounted.

A strong T side start was needed for G2 and they delivered with 4 back to back. After trading rounds, fnatic took control of the map yet again as mezii locked down the B site while smooya and KRIMZ went ham on A. G2 were allowed a single round after the initial burst as the T side looked toothless and fnatic completed the monumental comeback after a 16-2 blowout to take Inferno 16-11.

LOWER BRACKET RUN FOR G2

G2 will play Team Liquid to remain in contention at IEM Katowice. Liquid lost their first game to FaZe Clan yesterday who were with a stand-in still. Only 1 of Liquid and G2 will remain in the competition as they meet at 17:00 IST tomorrow in a best of 3.