The analytical portal Esports Charts has published a new infographic showing how the dynamics of views of The International has changed since 2017. For example, the peak viewership rate for broadcasts have increased by about three times, and the number of hours of viewing have increased by two and a half times. Compared to the previous championship ( TI9 ), the figures have increased by about 40% and 20%, respectively.
The International 10 took place from October 7 to 17 in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. The venue for the final stage of the tournament was the stadium “Arena Naţională”. The total prize pool of the Event was $ 40 018 195. Russia, Russia, RU Team Spirit with the score 3: 2 beat composition China, China, CN PSG.LGD in the grand final of the tournament earned 18.2 million US dollars.
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Riot Games is back with another major update with the release of two new champions in their long lists of Wild Rift champions. This is the first major update under the 2.5 release. The Wild Rift patch notes 2.5A will have some champion changes featuring Akshan, Darius, Galio, and many more. Caitlyn and Jayce will also join the Wild Rift, although the developers are pausing balance updates soon in prep for the Horizon Cup.
NEW
NEW CHAMPIONS
CAITLYN, THE SHERIFF OF PILTOVER
Renowned as its finest peacekeeper, Caitlyn is also Piltover’s best shot at ridding the city of its elusive criminal elements. She is often paired with Vi, acting as a cool counterpoint to her partner’s more impetuous nature. Even though she carries a one-of-a-kind hextech rifle, Caitlyn’s most powerful weapon is her superior intellect, allowing her to lay elaborate traps for any lawbreakers foolish enough to operate in the City of Progress.
Caitlyn will be released on November 9 at 00:01 UTC.
JAYCE, THE DEFENDER OF TOMORROW
Jayce is a brilliant inventor who has pledged his life to the defense of Piltover and its unyielding pursuit of progress. With his transforming hextech hammer in hand, Jayce uses his strength, courage, and considerable intelligence to protect his hometown. While revered throughout the city as a hero, he hasn’t taken well to the attention heroism brings. Still, Jayce’s heart is in the right place, and even those who envy his natural skills are grateful for his protection in the City of Progress.
Jayce will be released on November 9 at 00:01 UTC.
SKINS
Releasing October 28 @ 00:01 UTC:
Bewitching Janna
Underworld Twisted Fate
Underworld Wukong
Releasing Nov 9 @ 00:01 UTC:
Jayce Brighthammer
Headhunter Caitlyn
ACCESSORIES
You can earn or purchase accessories from a bunch of different sources. Please check the relevant page in game for more information on how to get ‘em!
Baubles: Jack-o-Nyantern
Emotes: Your Doom Was Expected!; P-P-P-Poker Face; Hmm… Perplexing; ???; ???
Icons: Unraveling the Mystery; Unstoppable Sleuths; ???
All accessories will be released throughout the patch.
EVENTS
HEXTECH HEIST
Jayce’s pocketwatch has been stolen! Help Caitlyn track down the culprit and solve the case.
The Hextech Heist event begins November 9 at 00:01 UTC. PSA: Due to the impending Horizon Cup, this will be Wild Rift’s last major balance patch for a few weeks to keep the game stable for our first international tournament! New content is still on the way, but expect balance changes throughout November to be for emergencies only.
CHAMPION CHANGES
AKSHAN
As players have gained mastery over Akshan, he has been revealed as a stronger pick than he appeared on previous patches. We like keeping the bulk of Akshan’s power in medium-range combat, so we’re siphoning a small amount of power out of his ultimate to make it a little harder for him to pick enemies off after fights for easy revives.
COMEUPPANCE
Minimum bonus AD ratio: 12.5% → 10% based on missing health
Maximum bonus AD ratio: 50% → 40% based on missing health
DARIUS
Darius has been one of the most dominant picks in Elite level play for some time. To promote champion diversity in the Baron Lane, we’re reducing his ability to heal away damage during trades and skirmishes.
DECIMATE
Heal: 15 – 45% based on enemy champions hit → 12 – 36% based on enemy champions hit
GALIO
While Galio’s support presence was recently nerfed, we’re seeing him get stronger in mid due to the input buffering changes (how his abilities interact with Flash and Protobelt Enchant) in Patch 2.5. This time, we’re further chipping away at his ultimate to address his omnipresence and dominance in pro play.
HERO’S ENTRANCE
Cooldown: 120/100/80s → 130/115/100s
GRAVES
Graves has spiked in both power and popularity over the last few patches as the metagame has become extremely favorable for him. We’re taking away some of the defenses he gets for free in order to limit how easy it is for Graves to farm up a few items and carry without fear of dying.
BASE STATS
Base health: 610 HP → 570 HP
Armor per level: 4.3 → 3.9
Base mana regen: 15 → 12
KAI’SA
Kai’Sa has been a dominant pick in highly skilled play as well as coordinated play. We’re cutting down on her trading power, burst, and waveclear by lowering the base damage on Icathian Rain, but leaving her scaling intact so she can still perform her role later in the game.
ICATHIAN RAIN
Base damage per missile: 50/70/90/110 → 40/60/80/100
Max single-target damage:: 112.5/157.5/202.5/247.5 → 90/135/180/225
LUCIAN
Lucian is still underperforming in the Dragon Lane despite recent buffs, so we’re increasing the damage of The Culling to bring him in line with other marksmen.
THE CULLING
Bullet damage: 15/35/55 → 20/40/60
NAMI
Nami’s been at the top of the support food chain for quite a while, and we’re looking to bring her down just a touch to let other supports shine. This small nerf to Tidal Wave will make it a bit more punishing to fish for picks and should open Nami up to be a bit more vulnerable to all-ins, which should be her primary weakness as a healing enchanter support.
TIDAL WAVE
Cooldown: 80/70/60 → 90/80/70s
TRYNDAMERE
Since the release of his rework, Tryndamere has been overperforming in the jungle. We’re pulling back on the bonus attack speed gained from his passive to reduce the power of his early ganks and tone down his late-game power spike.
BATTLE FURY
Attack speed from attacking enemy champions: 50/55/65/75% → 45/50/55/60%
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
ITEMS
BLACK CLEAVER
Black Cleaver has been underperforming in comparison to other options like Trinity Force and Death’s Dance in every slot for most fighters. We don’t want to swing too far in the opposite direction, so we’re cautiously giving it a light buff to help it compete.
Attack damage: 35 → 40
LAST WHISPER
Last Whisper and its upgrades offer extremely powerful anti-armor itemization for physical damage carries. While this is their intended output, they are currently so effective at their purpose that tank defenses are being invalidated by penetration even relatively early in the game. We are reducing the efficiency of these items, particularly Mortal Reminder, and adding per-level scaling to the armor penetration to ensure that tanks have a sufficient window of time to use their defenses before carries scale into a place to cut them down.
Armor penetration: 15% → 10%
MORTAL REMINDER
See Last Whisper for context.
Armor penetration: 30% at all levels → 16-30% based on champion level
Attack damage: 45 → 40
Combine cost: 650g → 800g
Total cost: 2950g → 3100g
SERYLDA’S GRUDGE
See Last Whisper for context.
Armor penetration: 30% at all levels → 16-30% based on champion level
Combine cost: 500g → 600g
Total cost: 3000g → 3100g
FORCE OF NATURE
Magic resistance choices for tanks are not quite sufficient when tanks are dealing with significant magic damage threats. We’re buffing up the magic resistance on Spirit Visage and Force of Nature slightly to make them more powerful when dealing with magic damage, particularly enemy compositions with multiple threats.
Magic resist: 45 → 50
SPIRIT VISAGE
See Force of Nature for context.
Magic resist: 45 → 50
FREE-TO-PLAY CHAMPION ROTATION
Oct 28 – Nov 3: Amumu, Brand, Jax, Miss Fortune, Rakan, Soraka, Tryndamere, Varus, Veigar, Xin Zhao
Nov 4 – Nov 10: Akali, Corki, Evelynn, Fizz, Leona, Malphite, Lulu, Rammus, Teemo, Varus
Both the European sides one-upped their Asian and Oceanic counterparts to go 2-1 in the Challengers Stage of the PGL Major. Both Spirit and BIG just need 1 win now to confirm their spots at the Legends Stage of the Major.
Team Spirit played Overpass for the second time in the Major, and made a statement with that pick, albeit against a weaker side. The start was close with the teams winning 2 rounds each to set the tone at 2-2. But with the economic factor out of the way, Spirit began their tear. They went on an 8 round streak, courtesy of a 1v2 clutch from Abdul ‘degster’ Gasanov. The story was the same as yesterday vs Heroic for Tyloo as they lost all 4 clutches this time around and couldn’t win a single one themselves.
The CIS side only allowed 1 odd round for the Asians as they closed the CT half at 12-3. The streak continued into the T side as Leonid ‘chopper’ Vishnyakov called a flawless T side to end the map 16-3. Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev stood out for them as he notched up 21 kills and died just 8 times on his B site holds to power through to a win.
BIG vs Renegades
BIG overcame the Aussies, but it wasn’t without breaking a sweat although it appeared that way in the first half. The Germans, known for their utility usage and anti-strats made great use of the Grenade dropping meta and with Johanes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz at the helm, they picked into the utility heavy map Inferno. He led from the front as BIG went 12 rounds in a row without a lost round and threatened a 16-0. Renegades finally fought back at the end with 2 rounds to end the half at 13-2 but it was too little, or so it appeared.
Renegades had their own streak of 4 T rounds, in the search for a respectable scoreline at least. They did make the Germans sweat, never allowing them a streak of rounds. But needing just 3 at the end, BIG closed it out with a round here and there to end the map 16-9 in their favor.
Team Spirit and BIG are one win away from a Legends Stage appearance while Tyloo and Renegades go down to the 1-2 bracket and await their opponents.
Entropiq threw a curveball with the veto, gambling on Ancient a map that Heroic played only once in the last 3 months, that too against Endpoint who are Tier 2 at best. Entropic’s second-best map has been Ancient but gambling was their undoing today.
They kept it close on the T side, unexpectedly and won 7 rounds which was more than passable, while Heroic had decent CT setups too.
Once they switched sides and Heroic had control of the money, it was all over in a jiffy. Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller led from the front on the T half to give his side 7 rounds in a row to secure an easy 16-10 win.
MAP 2 : Entropiq 16-14 Heroic
Heroic’s home map started off a little better but the steam dwindled as the half ended and they could only post 8 T rounds, which by their standards wasn’t expected. The CT side was expected to be much better from them but Heroic got off to a slow start too, losing the pistol in a 1v1 clutch via a knife.
Entropiq’s T side continued their tear into the following rounds but Heroic didnt back down easily and went toe-to-toe on the 5 Gun rounds that came next. What turned the tide was a 2v4 with ‘El1an’ and ‘Forrester’ clawing back the 25th round for Entropiq to give their side the 14th. Heroic kept on coming but fell just short at the end, that too to a force buy as lost 16-14 to take us to Mirage.
MAP 3 : Entropiq 16-4 Heroic
The stage was set for a thriller with the last map being so close, but it was far from it. Entropiq showcased incredible grit and got off to a good T side start. After getting 2 rounds in the first 4, Heroic could barely get their head in the game. They got 2 more sporadic rounds on the CT side and 0 on the Terrorist side, losing 9 rounds consecutively to drop the series 16-4.
With an absolute smacking, Entropiq have now secured LEgends status at the PGL Major, alongside VP in 2-1 bracket. Heroic drop to 2-2 and await their opponent for one final shot at the Legends stage tomorrow.
FaZe Clan clashed with Virtus.Pro for a spot at the New Legends Stage at the PGL Major Stockholm.
Both teams came in hot with 2-0 results from day 1, giving them a chance to capitalize and make it to the next stage with a victory here. VP picked Mirage with FaZe opting for Ancient and Dust 2 was left over if a 3rd map was needed.
Mirage(FaZe 16-14 VP):
FaZe got off to a strong start, with VP unable to post a single round, not before FaZe garnered a comfortable lead. Bringing their momentum from day 1, FaZe looked well oiled and prepared for VP on Mirage. The defense for FaZe looked on point until VP put together a comeback that gave them a fighting chance. The half ended 9-6 in favor of FaZe.
The second half had VP almost making a comeback before FaZe pulled their socks up right in the nick of time. Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis and Evgeny ‘FL1T’ Lebedev helped VP cut it close, VP took the lead for the first time at 14-13 scoreline, where FaZe turned up the heat to turn things around before closing the map with a 16-14 scoreline.
Anceint(FaZe 16- VP):
Despite having a decent first map, Anceint is where Finn “karrigan” Anderson found his stride. With a strong start on the T side, FaZe managed to pick up 9 rounds on a map that is considered heavily CT sided. Thanks to karrigan finding unreal timings on the flank that kept VP watching their back all game long, and Russel ‘twistzz’ Van Dulken hitting nothing but headshots with multikills on several occasion that kept VP on their toes.
Moving onto the CT side, FaZe looked even better, as all the stars aligned that resulted in an absoulte flawless defense. A disappointing display from Jame and co. but given their roster change in mind, a 2-1 at the major is quite commendable.
FaZe secured a spot at the new legends stage with VP falling off and in need of another win to make it there.
The first day of the first Major in 2 years in CSGO kicked off yesterday, and what a roller coaster it was. From close games to shocking upsets, new blood taking over the old guard, it had it all. With Day 1 done and dusted, the Challengers Stage still has 3 more days of games to go but the hype for the Major was unreal.
According to escharts.com, there were 667k viewers concurrently watching the Major, across various platforms and in different languages. The main stream from PGL’s twitch had a peak of 487k viewers. The Brazilian viewers on Gaules’ channel, and Russians from WePlay’s CSGO stream also contributed to the numbers.
This is the highest viewing peak the game has hit on the opening day of a Major in the last 3 years. According to escharts.com, the peak overall Challenger stage viewership for the past majors was:
Eleague Boston 2018 Major: 526K
Face It 2018 Major: 499k
Katowice 2019 Major: 440k
Starladder Berlin 2019 Major: 429K
The peak for PGL Major Stockholm was higher than any of them, and with the Legends Stage still to go the numbers will only go higher.
It’s also important to note that the teams that bring in the Biggest numbers – Natus Vincere, Team Liquid and FURIA are yet to play a game. This is a sign of good things to come for CSGO.
KRAFTON, the developers of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, released the new patch notes update featuring two new weapons, Mortar, and M79. Besides this, a new feature: DBMO Swimming is also been introduced along with improvements that have been made to Team Deathmatch Taego areas.
NEW WEAPON: MORTAR
Once the weapon is acquired, it takes up a primary slot. It can only be deployed on flat surfaces but cannot be deployed on cement, iron, concrete, water, or wooden floors, or inside buildings. The players can deploy the Mortar by Left-click and cancel the deployment by pressing the “F” key. It needs a total of three seconds for deployment.
The character crouches automatically once the firing mode gets activated. The character cannot move until the firing mode gets released. The player must have ammo in the inventory to fire. There is a one-second delay between fires. The weapon can be used in Normal, Custom matches along with Custom Match Sandbox Mode. Mortar and ammo both spawn inside buildings and do not spawn in Supply Crates or Secret Rooms. It can shoot between 121m to 700m in distance.
NEW WEAPON: M79
The new M79 is a smoke grenade launcher that was created to provide quick smoke cover on longer ranges. Blind your enemies, cover your downed teammate or make a grand escape from a losing battle. Once the weapon is acquired, it takes up the pistol slot. It cannot be used in a vehicle’s driver’s seat.
Once it hits an object that’s more than 10m far away, the projectile will release the first smoke effect followed by a second one a few seconds later. Once it hits an object that’s less than 10m far away but fails to explode on impact, only the second smoke effect will be released after 3 seconds. It weighs 14 and can stack a max of 5 ammo.
The weapon can be used in Normal, Custom matches along with Custom Match Sandbox Mode. It will not be available in Training Mode to prevent other players from getting interfered with by the smoke effect. However, we will consider adding it in later updates.Spawn Location
Four Time Major winners, Defending Champions – Astralis have just been sent tumbling down to the 0-2 loser’s matchup on Day 1 of the Challenger’s Stage of PGL Major Stockholm. After Losing to Danish rivals Copenhagen Flames earlier on, Astralis lost in a similar fashion with a 16-6 scoreline, to become the first team to go down 0-2. They will now play a Best of 3 elimination match and need to win, or they are out of the Major.
MAP VETO
1. Entropiq removed Inferno
2. Entropiq removed Nuke
3. Astralis removed Mirage
4. Astralis removed Vertigo
5. Astralis removed Ancient
6. Entropiq removed Overpass
7. Dust2 was leftover
The ‘puggiest’ of all the maps in the pool, Dust2 was chosen – one that has always been a playground of CIS AWPers from s1mple to degster.
Astralis never got things going and it was evident from the start as they won just 1 of the first 8 rounds. Viktor ‘Lack1‘ Boldyrev was on point with his entries as he helped his team rocket to an 8-3 scoreline. Astralis’ CT setups were all over the place, evidently still trying to gel together well with new signing Phillip ‘Lucky’ Ewald as they posted 5 CT rounds to end the half 10-5.
Returning IGL Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander had all the fans’ hopes high for his return, and although he fragged out really well, the strats just werent there. Astralis won just 1 T round, one where they split the B site from mid, but apart from that single hiccup it was a complete lockdown from the Russians as they powered through to a 16-6 win.
Entropiq are now 1-1 after their 2 games today and will play an opponent with a similar record. Astralis are down 0-2 and will play an elimination game, a Bo3 to remain in the Major and defend their crown.
Asia’s best team, Tyloo beat Brazilian team Sharks in a closely contested game of Mirage to avoid going 0-2 on Day 1 of the Major. Both of these teams were picked by the majority of players as the team that would go out without a win, and with them facing each other a lot of them may have messed Pick em’s by a huge margin. But that has little repercussions on Tyloo as they join Entropiq, Team Spirit and Renegades in the 1-1 club after they lost to Heroic earlier.
MAP VETO
1. TYLOO removed Nuke
2. TYLOO removed Dust2
3. Sharks removed Overpass
4. Sharks removed Inferno
5. Sharks removed Ancient
6. TYLOO removed Vertigo
7. Mirage was leftover
For the first time, Mirage was played at the PGL Major and it couldn’t have been any better. Both the teams brought their A game and it was difficult to choose a winner. Tyloo started off with a stomp, taking a lead of 6-1 before the Brazilians could get a hold of things. After a good start, they cooled off and could only manage 2 more rounds, spread sporadically to end the half 8-7.
After the switch, it was the Brazilian’s turn to pump up the gears as they went on a streak of their own to take the lead, 12-9.
But it was a great individual effort by YuanZhang ‘Attacker’ Sheng to power the Chinese to 14 rounds to Sharks’ 12. They traded rounds back and forth at the end to make it as close as possible, but the Asians reigned supreme as they ended the map 16-14.
Tyloo are now 1-1 in Challengers Stage while Sharks join the other 2 Brazilian teams – paiN and GODSENT and also defending champions Astralis at 0-2. All of them will play Bo3 Elimination Games to remain in contention for the Legends Stage.
After a long wait for the last two years, finally, the CSGO Major is back. Players are very excited as the PGL Stockholm Major has started. Do you know what makes any CSGO Major more intriguing? The Pick’Em Challenge.
The PGL Stockholm Major also comes with the Pick’Em Challenge, in which you can participate after buying the Viewer Pass. Once you buy the pass, you are now able to get the PGL Stockholm Major Souvenir packages.
Souvenir packages are limited-edition weapon skin containers. Inside a container, you will receive a souvenir skin. These packages can only be acquired during the Majors sponsored by Valve.
How to get PGL Stockholm Major Souvenir Packages?
First of all, you need to purchase the Souvenir Tokens. You can earn those tokens by leveling up the event coin or you need to buy each token for $3. However, you can save $1 just by purchasing the pass + 3 tokens bundle combo.
Then you need to choose a match between two teams. Based on the maps they played, you will receive skin from one of the map-based skin collections.
