After announcing his release from Cloud9, Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy is now a free agent searching for a new squad. The major-winning anchor’s career has gone downhill since he departed from NAVI, and after a series of unimpressive seasons, he is finally out of Cloud9.
Cloud9, having acquired the Gambit Counter-Strike roster in 2022, went on to sign electroNic and Perfecto from NAVI. While on paper, the team was stacked with talent, the roster failed to match the expectations set for them, thus resulting in several CS players leaving at different points since then.
Finally, I can announce that I am a free agent from today! Thanks for the journey, but it's time to move on. I am still motivated, and now even more. So if you are interested in b jumper(mb other roles aswell), dm me or contact on [email protected]
Perfecto joined the organisation having won “Anchor of the Year” in the season before, which makes the downfall even more surprising. Trying his luck with different iterations of Cloud9, the 25-year-old has finally parted ways with the organisation and is actively looking for opportunities.
With the Major approaching, it is hard to imagine any top sides changing their roster with a few months left, which makes it difficult for him to find a new team in the coming months, raising the question of whether leaving the team at this point was a wise decision at all.
The role of an anchor is hard to play, and only a handful of players in the world can do it as well as Perfecto, which makes him an asset for any team he chooses to join. Having not played outside CIS teams, the lack of communication experience may prompt several teams to not opt out of the idea, but only time will tell where he lands.
The International 2025 or TI14 is known to be the largest annual tournament in the Dota 2 esports calendar. It will be staged between September 4 and 14, 2025, at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The event is set to make an important return to Europe, given that it will be the event’s first outing in Germany since 2011.
If you are from Germany or you will visit the country during the Dota 2 Major, read this article till the end to find out how to purchase the TI14 tickets online. Without wasting further time, let’s dig into it.
How to Purchase Tickets for Dota 2 Major 2025?
Tickets for The International 2025 (TI14) are now available for purchase, offering fans a chance to witness Dota 2’s premier tournament live at the Barclays Arena. There are multiple types of tickets in terms of pricing.
If you want to book for 11th or 12th September, it will cost you €85. However, for each of the next two days, it will cost you €165. There are also premium seats available for €199 for the first two days, while it goes up to €299 for the next day. If you are planning a full tour of all four days, you will have to pay €500 for the full package.
The tickets are currently live on the AXS platform. AXS is an online ticketing platform that was founded in 2011 by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). AXS is the official ticketing site for many of the world’s top venues and events, including concerts, sports, theater, and festivals.
If you haven’t purchased the ticket but want to go to the event, purchase it right now before they get sold out. If you still have any other queries, let us know in the comments below.
Since the dawn of competitive multiplayer games, cheating has remained one of the biggest issues in the space that continues to haunt both the devs and the players to this day. While many prominent video game companies have tried to battle cheaters by constantly implementing new and more advanced anti-cheat measures, they often find themselves engaged in an endless game of cat and mouse with cheat devs.
The introduction of Riot Games’ Vanguard in April 2020 marked a paradigm shift in the war against cheaters. The new anti-cheat system, which was developed for Valorant and later adopted by League of Legends as well, leveraged kernel-level access on users’ PCs to detect and prevent cheating much more effectively than traditional anti-cheats.
However, its always-on nature and intrusive design sparked controversy among the gaming community, with users throughout the globe expressing concerns over privacy, security, and system performance.
But was the tradeoff worth it? Does the improved effectiveness of Vanguard in combating cheaters outweigh the privacy concerns and deep system access that the software demands?
The War Against Cheaters
Whether you’re playing first-person shooters like CS2 and Valorant or top-down MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends, the existence of a single cheater in your game is certain to ruin the experience for all the participating players. By giving themselves unfair advantages like aimbot, wallhacks, and map hacks, cheaters ruin the competitive integrity of games in hopes of improving their own rank.
This is why effective anti-cheat measures are crucial in competitive games to maintain the game’s integrity and provide a fair gaming environment to everyone. However, most prominent competitive games in the past have struggled to keep up with the constantly evolving cheats and the sophisticated methods employed by cheat developers. Despite one ban wave after another, cheaters have always found a way to circumvent anti-cheat measures set by VAC and other popular anti-cheat software.
With the initial release of Valorant in 2020, Riot Games claimed to be “committed to achieving the highest competitive integrity” in their games. By running at the highest level of system access, Riot’s Vanguard can initialise itself at system startup and prevent cheats from launching before the game itself is launched, while also blocking unauthorized drivers and exploits used by cheaters.
Consequently, Vanguard was more successful than most other anti-cheat software at the time in curbing the problem of cheaters. While cheaters appearing in Valorant games is definitely not unheard of, it’s still a rare occurrence when compared to other titles in the genre.
How Vanguard Works
Despite being largely successful in the battle against cheaters, Vanguard was still met with mixed reactions from gamers around the world.
To understand the reasons behind the widespread criticism of Vanguard, we first have to take a look at its technical aspects and how it functions.
While traditional anti-cheat systems like Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and BattleEye typically run at the user level (Ring 3), Riot’s anti-cheat system Vanguard operated at the kernel level (Ring 0), making it much more difficult for cheaters to bypass detection by hiding behind deeper system privileges
By running at kernel level—the highest level of system access—Riot’s Vanguard can:
Prevent cheats from launching before the game starts.
Detect low-level system manipulations that traditional anti-cheat systems can easily miss.
Block most unauthorized drivers and exploits.
Additionally, unlike most anti-cheats that start only when a game is running, Vanguard runs at the same privilege level as operating system drivers and operates continuously in the background of your PC. It starts when the system boots up, and closing it requires a complete system restart before you’re able to play Valorant again.
Privacy Concerns and Controversies
This intrusive nature of Vanguard raised some serious concerns about constant system monitoring and its implications for user privacy.
The biggest concern of the community revolved around the potential vulnerabilities of Vanguard and how an anti-cheat running at kernel level could easily be exploited to not only collect user data, but also to take complete system control.
Riot Games officially addressed the community’s concerns through a blog post in April 2020, reassuring players about Vanguard’s security. “We would never let Riot ship anything if we weren’t confident it treated player privacy and security with the extreme seriousness they deserve,” the company said in a statement.
The devs further claimed that Vanguard “does not collect any information about your computer,” adding that its sole purpose is to detect and prevent cheating in Valorant. To further alleviate the concerns of the Valorant player base, Riot introduced some transparency measures, such as allowing players to disable or uninstall Vanguard—though doing so would prevent them from launching Valorant.
Despite these reassurances, some amount of skepticism surrounding Vanguard still remained, with some players and cybersecurity experts questioning whether a kernel-level anti-cheat system could truly avoid potential security risks.
The Player Perspective
Within the next few months, Riot’s Vanguard became a hot topic of discussion in online forums, with some players voicing their support to the company for developing a robust anti-cheat while others continued to express concerns over user security and privacy.
A portion of the community commended the devs for creating a fair matchmaking environment for players to participate in, with many players on social media noting how rare it is to encounter cheaters in Valorant.
However, these posts were few and far between compared to the overwhelming number of users expressing their discontent with Riot Games’ anti-cheat solution. Alongside the software requiring kernel-level access, the lack of transparency from the devs and Riot’s ties to Tencent also became a cause of concern in the community.
“While they assure players that their privacy is respected, the nature of kernel-level software means that users have no real way of knowing how their data is being used, or whether any potential vulnerabilities exist in the software,” Reddit user Alcsaar said in a post on the platform. “Lets not forget as well that Tencent owns Riot wholly, and Tencent is beholden to Chinese laws, and Chinese laws explicitly state that at any point if China requests data from or access to Vanguard, Riot cannot refuse.”
Ultimately, the debate over game developers requiring kernel-level access to users’ PCs to develop effective anti-cheat solutions centers on the balance between security and privacy. While supporters argue that deep system access is necessary to combat the constantly evolving cheats, critics worry about the potential misuse and security vulnerabilities that can easily lead to users losing control over their own systems.
Unlike standard anti-cheats running at user level, kernel-level software can, in theory, be exploited, potentially compromising data privacy and system integrity. A lot of players fear that this sets a dangerous precedent, where companies prioritize anti-cheat enforcement over their users’ freedom, making invasive security measures the industry norm.
The Future
In a November 2024 blog post, Microsoft stated that they were trying to develop new Windows capabilities that will allow security product developers to build products outside of kernel mode.
“This means security products, like anti-virus solutions, can run in user mode just as apps do,” David Weston, Vice President Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, said. “This change will help security developers provide a high level of security, easier recovery, and there will be less impact to Windows in the event of a crash or mistake.”
Riot Games has also stated that they’re planning to make an anti-cheat solution that won’t require kernel-level access from users, but will rely on leveraging Windows’ security features to maintain fair play instead.
“A future will eventually arrive where we can rely on the security features of Windows to protect its own kernel, instead of protecting it from boot with a driver,” Riot said in a statement. “This will allow us the opportunity to start our anti-cheat services when the game client runs, provided the end-user has opted into all of these features.”
This will not only ease the concerns of players regarding the invasive nature of Vanguard, but may also encourage those who previously avoided games like Valorant and LoL due to privacy concerns to finally give it a try.
Fans can expect to receive further updates on the future of Vanguard from its dev team later this year.
Verdict
Despite its highly intrusive nature, it’s undeniable that Riot’s Vanguard has been a bold step forward in combating cheaters. It has set a new standard for security in competitive gaming, and it has been largely successful in the unending battle against cheaters. By operating at the kernel level, it effectively prevents most forms of cheating that have plagued FPS gamers and game devs for years.
However, concerns about the ring 0 system access and potential vulnerabilities still remain.
As the esports industry continues to evolve, the question lingers: Should players accept intrusive security measures for a fairer game, or should companies find better ways to balance security and privacy?
After a week of showcasing some intense competitive Counter-Strike, PGL Bucharest 2025 has finally come to a conclusion, with Team Falcons being crowned as its winners on April 13, 2025.
PGL Bucharest 2025, which kicked off on April 6th, featured 16 elite CS2 teams competing for the lion’s share of a $625,000 USD prize pool. The tournament culminated in a final showdown between Team Falcons and G2 Esports, where the former reigned supreme as Nikola ‘’NiKo’’ Kovač took down his former team to claim the prestigious trophy.
PGL Bucharest 2025 Draws In 520,000 Peak Concurrent Viewers
As per data from Esports Charts, PGL Bucharest 2025 saw over 500,000 peak viewers tuning into the online livestreams, with the grand final recording nearly 520,000 concurrent viewers.
On average, the event maintained around 200,000 viewers, and accumulated a total of over 14.2 million hours watched over the span of the entire tournament.
While the grand final between Falcon and G2 was the most watched series in the tournament, the FaZe vs Falcons series trailed closely behind with 380,000 peak viewers. Among the group stage games, the elimination series between Falcons and Mongolz drew in the most viewers, recording nearly 340,000 concurrent viewers at one point.
Counter-Strike fans will undoubtedly be suffering from post-tournament blues now that the dust has settled in Bucharest, but there’s something to look forward to as less than a month remains before the highly anticipated PGL Astana 2025kicks off, promising another round of world-class CS2 action.
For the uninitiated, PGL Astana 2025 is set to commence from May 10, 2025, and it will be packed with eight days of intense matchups till the grand final on May 18th.
You can now gift skins to your friends in Marvel Rivals!
With the Marvel Rivals Season 2 update, NetEase has implemented a new feature that lets players gift skins to their friends.
The gifting system has been one of the most heavily requested features in the Marvel Rivals community, and it seems that the devs have listened to the game’s player base.
Alongside the gifting feature, Marvel Rivals Season 2 has also added a plethora of other changes to the game, including the new Switch Shader Compilation Mode to boost your FPS, a fresh Battle Pass, tons of free cosmetics, and more.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at how to gift skins to your friends in Marvel Rivals.
How To Gift Skins in Marvel Rivals
The gifting system in Marvel Rivals is extremely easy to use, and players can easily gift skins to their friends in a matter of seconds.
To gift skins to your friends in Marvel Rivals, head to the game’s main menu, click on the ‘Store’ tab located at the top of your screen.
Once you’re in the store, find the bundle that you wish to gift and click on it. You’ll be able to see a ‘Gift’ button under the bundle. Simply click on it and finish the checkout process.
And that’s it! You have successfully gifted a skin to your friend in Marvel Rivals. Now all you need to do is wait for them to claim the gift.
Marvel Rivals Gifting Restrictions
Now that you know how you can gift skins to your friends in Marvel Rivals, it’s important to know the restrictions that are associated with gifting.
Not every Marvel Rivals player is eligible to gift skins to their friends, and not every skin in the game can be gifted.
Below, we have listed all the restrictions for gifting skins in Marvel Rivals:
Your account needs to be a minimum of level 10
You can only send a maximum of 5 gifts per day
Skins from the Battle Pass, Ranked Rewards, or Event Rewards cannot be gifted
Gifts cannot be refunded
You can’t use Units to buy gifts (They can only be purchased using Lattices)
Note that you are unable to use Units when buying gifts for your friends, so make sure you have enough Lattice in your account before gifting a bundle in Marvel Rivals.
Every couple of weeks, Riot Games ships out new updates to its flagship FPS title, Valorant, with the aim of delivering new content, Agent changes, and other improvements to the title. The Valorant 10.07 update is the next notable patch that’s set to be introduced to the shooter this week, but unfortunately, it’s unlikely to bring any major changes to the game.
With that being said, there’s still plenty to uncover in the Valorant 10.07 update. In this article, we’ll take a look at everything we know so far about the next Valorant update, including its release date, expected patch notes, and more.
Valorant 10.07 Release Date
If Riot sticks to its biweekly update schedule for Valorant, then the game’s 10.07 patch will hit the live servers on Tuesday, April 15th or Wednesday, April 16th, based on your account region.
American players will receive the new Valorant update at 6 am PT, while EU and SEA players will have to wait until 4 am GMT and 6 am KST, respectively.
Valorant 10.07 Patch Notes
Riot Games has yet to shed light on the official patch notes for the Valorant 10.07 update. However, as mentioned earlier, the next update isn’t expected to bring any major changes to the game.
Fans can anticipate bug fixes, UI improvements, and other quality of life changes alongside minor Agent tweaks.
That’s everything we know so far about the Valorant 10.07 update. We’ll be sure to update our readers once the devs reveal the detailed patch notes for the update.
The wait for the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 is officially on, and excitement is higher than ever before. Rockstar Games is teasing a gargantuan step ahead of GTA 5, pushing the bar on visuals and size. However, there is mounting anxiety among gamers who are still playing on older consoles: will GTA 6 be playable on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One? Keep reading till the end to find out the answer.
To cut to the chase, Grand Theft Auto 6 will not be available on PS4 or Xbox One. Rockstar Games made that perfectly clear with the game’s initial trailer and official statements. The game is scheduled to come out in Fall 2025, and it’s being exclusively developed for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
This isn’t mere speculation. The official GTA 6 website now only includes these current-gen consoles as supported platforms, dashing any hopes of backward compatibility with last-gen hardware.
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet. Coming 2025 to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
GTA 6 Official Website
Why is GTA 6 a Next-Gen Exclusive?
There’s a good reason behind Rockstar’s decision to move away from older consoles. Everything we’ve seen so far, from the photorealistic graphics to the massive open-world setting, suggests that GTA 6 is designed to push the limits of next-gen performance.
One of the biggest technical influences is the mere scale of the map. Reports have it that GTA 6’s map can be more than 48 square miles, essentially double the space of GTA 5’s San Andreas. Factor in improved lighting, sophisticated AI systems, and unprecedented levels of detail, and it’s not hard to realize that PS4 and Xbox One just don’t possess the hardware heft necessary to accommodate a game of that scale.
To put it into perspective, even GTA 5 has struggled on older consoles for a long time, especially in GTA Online. That’s the reason why Rockstar isn’t eager to repeat that experience with GTA 6.
Performance on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S
Rockstar has officially confirmed that GTA 6 will be available on both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but there has been some speculation regarding performance targets. Former Rockstar animator Mike York has said that hitting 60 FPS could be a challenge, particularly considering the scale and visual ambition of the game.
Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) is the next installment in Rockstar Games’ legendary open-world action-adventure franchise. Based in the fictional U.S. state of Leonida, which is a representation of Florida, the game has a contemporary Vice City, modeled after Miami. Players will be experiencing the life of Lucia, the first female protagonist in a mainline title since 2000, and her male counterpart, Jason. Their story is purported to be an inspiration from the notorious Bonnie and Clyde couple.
To provide a smooth and intuitive gameplay, the developers had no other choice but to avoid the previous PS4 and Xbox One series. What’s your opinion on this? Let us know in the comments below.
Sony is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and its external disc drives. They have blamed relentless economic pressures and specifically high inflation for that. The adjustment comes into effect instantly in a number of key markets.
If you take a look at Europe, the price of the PS5 Digital Edition has been adjusted to €499.99, and the removable disc drive now carries a price of €79.99. Note that the default PS5 console with the built-in disc drive is excluded from this adjustment. In the UK, the Digital Edition is being sold at £429.99, and the add-on drive is sold at £69.99.
Apart from the above-mentioned regions, the price increase also affects Australian and New Zealand consumers. Australian customers will now have to shell out $829.95 AUD for the base PS5 and $749.95 AUD for the Digital Edition. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the base version goes up to $949.95 NZD, while the Digital Edition is $859.95 NZD. The disc drives that sell separately have also increased in price, now at $124.95 AUD in Australia and $139.95 NZD in New Zealand. One product that has remained immune to the present pricing updates is the PlayStation 5 Pro.
In contrast to previous console generations, where the costs of production generally lowered as time passed, next-gen consoles are confronted with ongoing manufacturing costs. As console sales tend to be priced narrowly, producers increasingly face pressure to realign prices in light of increasing operational pressure.
The PlayStation 5 (PS5), designed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, is the fifth generation of the PlayStation console series. Released in November 2020, it is a huge advancement in gaming technology with high-end hardware, quicker load times, and much more.
PS5 has entrenched itself as the undisputed leader of the European console market. Its sales jumped 369% quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter of 2023 in strategic countries like France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. The dramatic improvement was due to better supply chains and robust demand, which helped Sony beat competitors like Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
By June 2024, the PS5 had recorded lifetime sales of around 19.74 million units in Europe. During that month alone, it sold more than 360,000 units, surpassing both the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S, which both saw significant year-over-year drops.
In Australia, the PS5 has had a strong presence in the market. Consumer demand continues to be strong despite a 10–15% price hike in April 2025 due to high inflation and unstable exchange rates.
In New Zealand, the PS5 has experienced chronic supply shortages since it went on sale in November 2020. The constraints have caused artificially high prices in the secondary market, with consoles being sold at a premium on different websites. Despite these issues, the PS5 is still the leading console in New Zealand due to massive customer demand and brand loyalty towards Sony’s exclusive games. In 2024, the New Zealand game console market is set to accrue revenue of up to US$110.6 million, with the PS5 being at the forefront in terms of market share.
If you play on a PS5, let us know which region you’re from in the comments below.
Falcons have completed their dream run to win PGL Bucharest, beating G2 Esports with a 3-0 scoreline after going 0-2 in the groups. With the roster soon to change, the Falcons’ last dance with degster has yielded the first trophy for the organization.
Starting strong, the Falcons went 7-0 up before G2 posted their first round on the board. A bit of back-and-forth by the end of the first half saw the Falcons push it over the line with an 8-4 scoreline. Falcons got back on the board in the second round, having lost the pistol, and continued to put together a streak of rounds before closing it out with a 2v4 conversion. G2 kicked off the series with a 13-5 win, with degster running the show with 1.79 IR at 21 kills.
Map 2: Nuke; Pick: Falcons; Winner: Falcons
Going 3-0 down, the Falcons started mounting, and despite G2 playing solid on their defense, NiKo and company edged out a narrow lead before switching sides. Losing the second pistol of the series, G2 managed to level the scoreline at 7-7, but it was all Falcons thereafter. Winning all of the remaining rounds, the Falcons’ impenetrable defense saw them post a series point as early as the second map of the best-of-5 series. With all the players stepping up, TeSeS stood out in Nuke, posting 17 kills at a 1.70 rating.
Map 3: Ancient; Pick: G2; Winner: Falcons
A close first half kicked off with a narrow lead for the Falcons to edge out the defense. Falcons did manage to extend the lead on their offence, and with NiKo leading from the front, Falcons displayed an excellent T-side. While G2 posed a serious threat in some of the rounds, the Falcons were just too sharp. Not only did they manage to outaim G2, but the Falcons were also tactically superior, which enabled them to close out the map with little effort. 13-8 to close out the final map, the Falcons brought home their first tournament.
With the G2 roster set to lose m0NESY, it is hard to imagine them replacing him with someone just as good. While m0NESY’s arrival in the Falcons will amp up their firepower, degster losing his spot is a true tragedy, given he was one of the team’s best performers. Things are looking good as the Falcons set their sights on the Major, and now they have something to show for it.
The Falcons‘ farewell miracle run continued as they took down FaZe Clan to reach the finals of PGL Bucharest. In what will certainly be their last match together, the Falcons roster as a whole has stepped up, having opened their tournament with two defeats in a row.
Starting the pistol round with a win, FaZe dropped the ball in the following round, leading the Falcons to take charge of the game. Smoke pushes, wide swings, and every form of disruptive play enabled them to stop FaZe from making it competitive at all. While they did manage to win a few rounds, the Falcons were dominant across the board, with the players stepping up when it mattered. Switching sides with an 8-4 scoreline, a fast A rush kicked off the Falcons’ offence, and they kept farming rounds as FaZe failed to get a hold of the game. Winning all the rounds on the T side, Falcons took away FaZe Clan’s map pick with a dominant 13-4 scoreline.
Map 2: Ancient; Pick: Falcons; Winner: FaZe
Falcons’ offence took them 5-0 up before FaZe could post their first round on the board. While FaZe did win a round in between, it was the final few when they managed to put together a streak of rounds, thus closing in on the lead that Falcons garnered. Switching sides with an 8-4 scoreline, Faclons won a force buy right after losing, putting FaZe under an insurmountable situation. FaZe managed to put a few rounds together there to take it away in overtime, winning the final round on the offence. FaZe converted the deficit into overtime and took away the Falcons’ map pick.
Map 3: Mirage; Pick: Decider; Winner: Falcons
Another conversion after losing the pistol round put the Falcons on the path to victory. degster and NiKo powered through a hot FaZe side, as they kept getting dominated, making their round wins few and far between. The Falcons, having closed the CT side with a convincing lead, gave it away by losing the pistol round on the offence. FaZe pushed Falcons to their extreme, but degster and NiKo powered an impressive T side to bring home the map for Falcons.
Falcons, having shown an impressive comeback in form since going 0-2 in the group stage, have made their dream run into the grand finals, where they will face the winners of the match between G2 and CoL. As for FaZe, changes are on the way, and with the major on the horizon, we are yet to see what kind of superteam they build. Even with an outgoing roster, FaZe were nothing but impressive, but it is hard to imagine them becoming tournament contenders unless changes are made.
