FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – July 19, 2021 –HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the re-signing of top female variety streamer Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter as a brand ambassador and HyperX Hero.
As part of the sponsorship, Hofstetter will participate in various HyperX marketing initiatives, including social activations and brand campaigns.
“I’m thrilled to re-sign with HyperX and am looking forward to working together and using HyperX gear on my streams,” said Hofstetter.
Hofstetter started her streaming career as an extension of her love of games and has been a full-time streamer since 2016. Hofstetter has continued to grow her audience on Twitch and in 2021 became one of the top female streamers and influencers on YouTube.
A beacon of positive vibes, Hofstetter uplifts and encourages her audience with strong messages around the importance of mental and physical wellness.
Through her dedication and passion for gaming, she has become one of the most notable female streamers and recently co-owner of 100 Thieves. As a HyperX brand ambassador, Hofstetter will continue to deliver the HyperX gaming story to her growing audience.
“HyperX is excited to be working with Valkyrae for another year and supporting the larger gaming community,” said Khoi Nguyen, influencer marketing manager, HyperX. “Valkyrae is constantly pushing the limits of what it means to be a content creator, bringing her positivity-focused message to her fans, and we are thrilled to be part of that narrative for all that is good in gaming.”
As someone who spends a lot of time gaming, Hofstetter knows that a comfortable headset and reliable, responsive equipment are a must.
HyperX headsets, mice, keyboards, and mouse pads give her great sound and accurate inputs as gaming gear that she can count on to produce professional-grade content and streaming activities.
The Free Fire collaboration with McLaren is now live in Free Fire, featuring a thematic takeover of the game.
Players will be welcomed as soon as they open Free Fire with various collaboration elements featuring across the game.
The lobby of Free Fire will feature a car garage, with a couple of McLaren P1™s – the world’s first hybrid hypercar – on display, with several other mechanics and features decked out to the theme of McLaren, spotting the signature papaya orange and blue, including the airplane, airship, and airdrops.
Race to Ace with the exclusive collaboration event feature
From 23 July, players can log in to participate in Race to Ace, which will see players receive rewards for every lap they complete. Complete at least 5 laps to win the grand prize. Continue racing and complete more laps to win the McLaren P1™ – Mantis skin for FREE and more prizes!
4 McLaren P1™s – each with different base speeds – will be available for you to choose from.
Have more than one favorite? Not to worry, players can switch between cars anytime during the race. You can also collect Chequered Flag tokens along the way to receive speed boosts.
Not fast enough? Invite your friends to participate with you so that the group of you will receive speed boosts for the race!
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of Pakistan has officially signed an MoU with Garena and BIGO to host a massive Free Fire tournament in the country. According to their broadcast, this tournament will be backed by E-PAK, an initiative by MOIB to encourage gaming in Pakistan.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduces E-PAK biggest Esports initiative of Pakistan starting with Free Fire Pakistan league.
In this regard, @MoIB_Official has signed an MoU with Garena and Bigo Pakistan.
— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) July 19, 2021
Free Fire is a popular battle royale title for mobile platform. This game enjoys a huge audience from the South Asian region and Pakistan is one of the leading countries in the competitive Free Fire ecosystem. The Pakistani government has launched a new initiative to boost E-Gaming or esports in the country and its first ever event will be Free Fire Pakistan League.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced a new initiative called Pakistan’s Elite Gamer Pack or E-PAK, which aims at promoting esports culture in Pakistan. As per the official announcement by Free Fire Pakistan, the Ministry will work closely with Esports titles in the country to popularize Esports to the general public and inspire youths to pursue esports as a professional career.
Excited to partner Pak first nation wide E-Gaming event with Garena and Bigo, young boys and girls ll have a chance to become a Millionaire if they are crazy enough to make it to finals…… all the best pic.twitter.com/qGY90wCSy6
Free Fire Pakistan League or FFPL II will be a major tournament in the country which will be endorsed by E-PAK and sponsored by BIGO. It is termed as the biggest Free Fire tournament in Pakistan and also has a humongous prize pool of 1 Crore PKR.
The framework of this tournament is not released yet but other information regarding the registration process and dates might be revealed very soon.
This is a massive step by the government of Pakistan to recognize the value of esports and gaming industry. E-PAK might become a pipeline for the future of esports in Pakistan.
Total Gaming has won yet another major tournament in the Free Fire esports circuit to assert its dominance in the community. This team has won the Indian finals of Free Fire Pro League 2021 Summer and secured a slot in FFIC Fall 2021.
Free Fire Pro League is a top-tier tournament for Free Fire in its esports roadmap. This event is important for teams trying to qualify for the ultimate showdown in Free Fire India Championship and subsequently making their way to the international stage.
Total Gaming is one of the oldest rosters in India who are famous for their dominant play style in the community. They have been representing India in global tournaments as well and have proved their prowess by winning one more major title.
The grand finals of FFPL Summer 2021 brought together the twelve best teams in India who fought for six consecutive matches. The winner at the end of this brawl won ₹15L and bragging rights.
TSM FTX and its new roster put up an impressive performance in this series by trying to almost snatch the victory from the hands of Total Gaming. They ranked second with only a few points shy of the top position. It was their first-ever major event under TSM and they managed to live up to the name of their organization.
The top six teams from this tournament got a seeding slot in Free Fire India Championship Fall 2021. This is a huge event in India with a massive prize pool. It is also one of the ways to qualify for international events and hence, teams usually look forward to securing their slot in FFIC.
The teams which qualified for Free Fire India Championship 2021 Fall Season are as follows:
Ubisoft’s big E3 reveal sent waves across the Rainbow Six community, even with a delayed release date, it is up for pre-order. Here’s everything we know so far about Rainbow Six Extraction.
Like the name suggests, R6 Extraction is a spin-off of the original 2015 Rainbow Six Siege, except the tactical shooter, will have alien parasites as the enemy. The much-anticipated game will have few game elements borrowed over from the original game including weapons and operators. Even with Aliens as the opposition the game is less likely to feel alien.
R6 Extraction Release Date
The released date has been pushed to January 2022 which originally was supposed to drop on September 16th. The game has been delayed for unconfirmed reasons but it isn’t hard to speculate that the pandemic played a role in it.
Operators
The game will reportedly bring 18 new operators into the picture but this shouldn’t be surprise at this point.
Finka
Pulse
Doc
Sledge
Alibi
Vigil
Hibana
Ela
Lion
Editions Offered
Standard Edition
The Rainbow Six Extraction Standard Edition does not offer anything outside the ordinary unless you pre-order it. A pre-order will give you the Orbital Decay Bundle, which includes the following bits and pieces:
Exclusive Orion uniform and headgear for Finka and Lion
Vaporized weapon skin
Crashlander charm
Deluxe Edition
Unlike the SE, Deluxe Edition will offer quite a few things for the extra $20 they charge.
The Noxious Touch Pack
Noxious Touch uniform and headgear for Alibi
Noxious Touch and Redeemer weapon skins
Jawbreaker and Guardian Angel Charm.
The Obscura Pack
Cephal Black and Cerulean weapon skins
Redacted and Anagram charms
The React Strike Pack
Frontline Cosmetic Pack
XP Boosters for postlaunch events
10% discount on the in-game store
Where to preorder Rainbow Six Extraction?
In typical Ubisoft fashion, the game has been delayed but is available to pre-order from a selected few distribution sites. The price of the games varies from store to store and of course from edition to edition.
Rainbow Six Extraction digital pre-orders & prices
The heavily anticipated Genshin Impact 2.0 Inazuma update has nearly arrived, and it brings with it a plethora of new content to the gacha-based RPG title by miHoYo. These new additions include new characters, weapons, events, and much more for the players to experience.
Something that the majority of Genshin Impact players are looking forward to is the introduction of Inazuma. The 2.0 update will enable players to go to Inazuma for the Act II questline. However, there are certain requirements that the players have to meet to be able to unlock Inazuma.
How to Unlock Inazuma in Genshin Impact?
To unlock Inazuma, Genshin Impact players have to meet the following requirements:
Once players meet the above-mentioned criteria, they can open their quest menu and complete the quest ‘Act I – The Immovable God and the Eternal Euthymia’ to go to Inazuma.
In case you have missed out on the update schedule, the Genshin Impact 2.0 update will hit the live servers at 06:00:00 (UTC+8) on July 21, 2021. The maintenance time is expected to be around five hours and will conclude at about 11:00:00 (UTC +8) on the same date.
It is recommended for players to pre-install the update’s contents to spare themselves the hassle of updating their game once the 2.0 update lands. The pre-installation will start from July 19th, 11:00 AM (UTC+8).
To pre-install the update, players can check out our guide here.
Last week, a Bloomberg report claimed that the upcoming Nintendo Switch OLED will earn Nintendo an extra profit margin of 40$ a piece over the base Switch Model. As per Bloomberg, the new Nintendo Switch OLED manufacturing cost was only 10$ higher than the base model, while the MSRP of the OLED model is 50$ higher than that of the base.
Since both the base and OLED models of Switch share almost identical hardware configurations and only differ in terms of Screens, the 50$ higher price tag on the OLED model angered many people. Bloomberg’s report of 40$ profit margin added fuel to this fire and people started questioning Nintendo’s intent of launching the OLED model.
A news report on July 15, 2021(JST) claimed that the profit margin of the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) would increase compared to the Nintendo Switch. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to make clear that the claim is incorrect. (1/2)
Today (19th July), Nintendo released a statement denying the reports claiming that it will be earning higher profits from sales of the Switch OLED. The company via Twitter said:
“A news report on July 15, 2021(JST) claimed that the profit margin of the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model) would increase compared to the Nintendo Switch. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to make clear that the claim is incorrect.”
Bloomberg’s report triggered an industry-wide discussion on whether Nintendo’s pricing policy could influence other companies to follow suit. A report by the Japan Times claimed that an inside source from Sony’s PlayStation department has said that the company is “closely monitoring” the market response to Nintendo’s new policy. They also quoted Ace Research Institute analyst, Hideki Yasuda, who said that a precedent for charging more will be set across the industry should Nintendo’s policy result in a sales boost for the Switch.
While Nintendo has issued an official statement on the matter, many still don’t believe the statement and believe Nintendo is just trying to manage the bad press around the release of the OLED model and the positive press that an upcoming handheld competition, The Steam Deck, is getting.
Nintendo also clarified in the statement that the upcoming Nintendo Switch(OLED Model) will launch in October 2021, and they have no plans for launching any other model anytime soon.
KRATON, the developers of Battlegrounds Mobile India has opened the registrations for the most-awaited BGMI tournament since the ban of PUBG Mobile last year. The registration for the tournament commenced on 19th July 2021 whereas the event will start from 2nd August 2021. Recently, they revealed the official logo of India’s first-ever esports tournament. During one of the events, Krafton had teased that they will reveal the esports Roadmap for Battlegrounds Mobile India on 15th July. Today, they opened the registrations for the Battlegrounds Mobile India Series 2021. India Series will feature a huge prize pool of Rs 1 crore.
Where to register for India Series 2021
The players could register through the official esports website of Battlegrounds Mobile India. The link to the website is here. The players need to enter Team, Captain, and Player details to successfully register for the event.
How to register for India Series 2021
The players need to fill the form in three parts – Team, Captain, and Player details.
PART 1: TEAM DETAILS
Team Name
Team Owner Name
Email Address and Mobile Number (Please mention an active phone number and email address)
City
Click on the checkbox, if captain is the team owner
PART 2: CAPTAIN DETAILS
Name
Email address and phone number
Date of Birth (Should be above 18 years to play the tournament)
Gender
Character ID (Provided in the game in profiles section)
In-Game Name
ID Proof issued by the Government of India
Current city and state of residence
PART 2: PLAYER DETAILS
Name
Email address and phone number
Age (To participate in the tournament, you must be at least 16 years old)
Gender
Character ID (Provided in the game in profiles section)
In-Game Name
ID Proof issued by the Government of India
Current city and state of residence
After successfully completing the registration. The team captain will receive and confirmation on their mentioned email id. The player could also edit the registration details through the link provided in the email id.
The former Cloud9 CSGO professional is set to compete in the upcoming Valorant Champions Tour: Stage 3 Challengers 2 Open Qualifier.
Reports have surfaced on Twitter that Michael “shroud” Grzesiek has assembled a Valorant squad, majoritively comprising Twitch Streamers and content creators. Leonardo “Laski” Arroyo, Skyler “Relyks” Weaver, ShawnBM, and iiTzTimmy are the names among his team and will compete in the forthcoming Open Qualifier event of VCTs Stage 3 Challengers 2.
There's a sick stream team for the upcoming #VCT Stage 3 Challengers 2 Open Qualifier.
Shroud is back. He's playing with: • iiTzTimmy (Apex/VAL player) • Relkys (Former C9) • Laski (Former CS player, turned VAL) • ShawnBM (VAL content creator)
The open qualifier event would be Shroud’s first-ever competitive outing after he stepped down from the Cloud9 CSGO division in a bid to transition to full-time streaming on Twitch.tv under the Organization itself.
Shroud undoubtedly has been known in the community for his mechanical aim and his presence of mind for any PvP game out there in the scene. During his time at Cloud9, he gave North America their first ESL Pro League championship at Sao Paulo in Brazil and helped the team finish under top 3 at a plethora of events.
Looking further into this newly formed team, we have Relyks who previously played under the banner of Cloud9 Blue Valorant, took up Streaming and content creation after he decided to take a step back from competitive play. With this opportunity, we are about to witness him put on a blockbuster show at the Open qualifier.
Alongside Skyler, there are Laski, iiTzTimmy, and ShawnBM in the team. Laski too is a retired CSGO professional. Having played previously for Mythic, he has played a multitude of different roles but never really found his place at the top end of the scene despite his willingness to succeed. iiTzTimmy and ShawnBM both stream Valorant while the former ventures into Apex Legends too.
Shroud’s team hasn’t been named yet but we are about to witness a banger at the upcoming VCT Stage 3 Challengers 2 Open qualifier event. The latter is scheduled to start from July 29.
London, July 19th: Red Bull Campus Clutch, the largest global student VALORANT tournament came to an unforgettable head last night as Egyptian squad Team Anubis emerged victorious at La Estación Gran Teatro CaixaBank Príncipe Pío in Madrid.
The show-stopping final saw an incredible performance from the team of computer science, commerce, engineering and mechatronics students from universities across Egypt as they bested Portugal’s Project S 3-2 in a thrilling grand final.
Red Bull Campus Clutch has seen over 25,000 participants and 400 events around the world all leading to the weekend’s two-day event, where the top 12 teams fought for the crown.
Team Anubis not only proved themselves the best student VALORANT team in the world but took home €20,000 and VIP tickets to the VALORANT Champions Tour. Concluding the World Final, commentator Loviel “Velly” Cardwell confirmed Red Bull Campus Clutch would return in 2022.
One of the first LAN competitions since April 2020, and the first-ever VALORANT event open to the public, the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final did not disappoint, with an exciting weekend of upsets that left fans on the edge of their seats.
Venue of Redbull Campus Clutch World Finals at Madrid, Spain. // Jacobo Medrano / Red Bull Content Pool
The group stage began on Saturday, July 17th where the world’s best student teams representing South Korea, Turkey, Egypt, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Spain, Belarus, Portugal, Pakistan, Belgium, and Peru, went head-to-head, and for some, this was their first time travelling to Europe.
Fan favourite teams such as Turkey’s Bedel Ödeyenler and Belarus’ Platoon were eliminated early on in the group stage, with Team Anubis, Project S, and South Korea’s Vac Kimchi quickly becoming the favourites as they headed into the Semi-Final alongside Canada’s BTR.
Representing MENA, Team Anubis took fans and broadcast talent by surprise with their almost flawless performance, spearheaded by team captain Mohamed ‘Shalaby’ Abdelaziz who awed fans throughout the competition.
The Egyptians began the semi-final with an incredibly strong B03, taking down BTR 2-0 and securing their spot in the main event. The Grand Final was a battle for the ages which saw Project S narrowly take the first two maps before Team Anubis came back fighting with a dominant reverse sweep finishing 13-3 on Split.
When reflecting on what Team Anubis has learnt during Red Bull Campus Clutch, Ziyad “zizox” ElSawaaf said “We should never give up. We are competing as a team. Even if someone is down, the other will bring him up. It’s not just us five, but we’ve got the support of our managers, our coaches, our sub players, we are here like a family. We should continue focusing on this.” On what’s next for the Egyptian team, he continued “Our next focus will be First Strike Arabia. Our focus has been on {Red Bull Campus Clutch} so we will put in more time, more practice. We will prepare ourselves very well for this. This is our main target from now on.”
As well as €20,000 and being crowned the inaugural Red Bull Campus Clutch Champions, Team Anubis have also won VIP tickets to the VALORANT Champions Tour where they’ll experience the event from the perspective of a player.
Additionally, the Egyptian champions will receive recognition on broadcast during the prestigious event, with highlights from their momentous win played for viewers across the globe.
BAY AREA VANDALS, from the USA, are seen during Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final in Madrid, Spain on July 17th, 2021. // Jacobo Medrano / Red Bull Content Pool.
The Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final brought to close an event that ran for seven months and saw qualifiers take place in over 50 countries. Last month, the 50 National Final Winning teams entered the Red Bull Campus Clutch World Final Knockout Round, which culminated in an epic, 24-hour, non-stop livestream.
The first-of-its-kind competition has given university students around the world the opportunity to showcase their skills and perform in front of a live audience at a pro-level LAN event.
A fantastic display of individual skill, the competition has given players the chance to shine on the world stage, and in some cases the chance to get noticed by a professional team.
