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xQc unbanned from NoPixel

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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xQc unbanned from NoPixel

xQc has been unbanned from NoPixel after what everyone thought was a permanent vacation from the popular Grand Theft Auto: Role Play server, only to return as Pierre Paul.

The former Overwatch pro-turned-streamer ran into trouble with the server mods as it seemed hard for him to pass a day without violating the server rules. After countless bans, xQc was permanently banned from the server or that’s what the story was at the time. xQc is one of the biggest names on Twitch which means a ban on the likes of him would affect the server one way or the other.

The permanent ban issued against him back in May sounds meaningless after the variety streamer was whitelisted once again to return to the server that houses all the top content creators on Twitch but looks like xQc has learned his lesson. Contrary to his previous character was goon that often crossed path with others and violated the server regulations, his current RP character is a cop.

“The NoPixel staff allowed me back on whitelist for cop mostly, I guess I could bring back X if I decide to, but I’m not gonna do that, it’ll mostly be like super mellow chill off-stream most of the time stuff,” he said.

xQc confirmed that the server admins have handed him enough of a warning to make him mend his ways. His taking on the role of a cop is as surprising as it sounds but playing the role of an officer of justice will minimize the chance of him casing mayhem in the server which in return will fix his reputation.

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VCT Stage 3 Masters Challengers 1 Open Qualifier set to start in North America

Bharat Kotwani
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VCT Stage 3 Masters Challengers 1 Open Qualifier set to start in North America

The open qualifier event for Valorant Champions Tour Stage 3 Challengers 1: North America is all set, to begin with, a total of 128 teams registered in a bid to qualify for the Challengers 1 event, to be held from July 8. 

Among the participants are the champions of the Stage 2 Masters event, Sentinels who breezed past through Fnatic in the Grand Finals of the former. Cloud9 (Blue & White), Version1, NRG, T1, and Team SoloMid are the other highly-regarded organizations that will show up in the contention for the 8 open spots for the Challengers 1 event. 

Teams to look out for

Cloud9 Blue 

  • Nathan “leaf” Orf
  • Mitch “mitch” Semago
  • Michael “poiz” Possis
  • Son “xeta” Seon-ho
  • Ricky “floppy” Kemery
  • Erick “⁠Xeppaa⁠” Bach
  • Yoon “Autumn” Eu-teum (Head Coach)
  • James “JamezIRL” Macaulay (Assistant Coach)

Just before the start of the Stage 2 Challengers 2 event, Cloud9 added Ricky “floppy” Kemery to their Valorant division who replaced Skyler “Relyks” Weaver. Floppy’s addition indeed proved to be a kickstart for the whole team as they made it past the Challengers 2 event to qualify for the Challengers Finals. 

Erick “Xeppaa” Bach who was also transferred from the CSGO team to Valorant will most likely debut for Cloud9 Blue, in their match against dotExE. The North American Organization is yet to release an official update on whether they would still field Michael “poiz” Possis as the sixth player. 

T1

  • Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham
  • Rahul “curry” Nemani
  • Timothy “autimatic” Ta
  • Braxton “Brax” Pierce
  • Anthony “dawn” Hagopian
  • David Dennis (Head Coach)

T1 recently shuffled their roster with the additions of Anthony “dawn” Hagopian and Braxton “Brax” Pierce which saw them move Ha “Spyder” Jung-woo to the bench and part ways with Sam “DaZeD” Marine.

After spending almost three months with TSM, Brax who was released by T1 in February 2020 has been recalled by the Korean-North American side back to their Valorant division. 

Sentinels 

  • Shahzeeb “ShahZam” Khan
  • Hunter “SicK” Mims
  • Jared “zombs” Gitlin
  • Michael “dapr” Gulino
  • Tyson “TenZ” Ngo

With already two Masters events in their bag and having qualified for the Valorant Champions 2021 (Nov 2021 – December 2021) , Sentinels would be looking to extend their prominence with Tyson “TenZ” Ngo joining the side on a permanent basis, previously on loan from Cloud9. 

https://twitter.com/esportsobserved/status/1399823806672277505

Team SoloMid

  • James “hazed” Cobb
  • Matthew “WARDELL” Yu
  • Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik
  • Taylor “drone” Johnson
  • Sean “bang” Bezerra

After failing to qualify for the Stage 2 Masters in Reykjavik, TSM decided to bench Stephen “reltuC” Cutler and sign Sean “bang” Bezerra to their Valorant roster. This was followed by Braxton “Brax” Pierce joining T1 on a full-term basis after being earlier released by the former. 

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Kjaerbye quits CSGO

Bharat Kotwani
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Kjaerbye quits CSGO

Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye on Twitter has announced his retirement from CSGO.

The 23-year-old Dane left a seven-year illustrious career in CSGO behind, during which he represented several highly-regarded organizations such as Astralis, North, and FaZe Clan. His longest and the most successful stint was under Astralis, whom he played for across 2016-18 and notably won the ELEAGUE Major 2017 held in Atlanta, USA.

Markus rose to prominence in the second half of 2016 in December as one of the main engines in Astralis’ success at the Major in Atlanta (mentioned above) where he went on to become the youngest player to achieve the feat. Soon later, he left Astralis to join North, with whom he won the DreamHack Masters Stockholm in 2018 against his then ex-teammates from Astralis in the Grand Finale alongside two other tournaments hosted by the same organizer in that very year.  

After parting ways with North in early 2020, Kjaerbye was picked up by FaZe Clan for their international squad to replace Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras on the roster, initially vacated by Olof “⁠olofmeister⁠” Kajbjer. With just the IEM XIV: Europe trophy in the bag, FaZe struggled to wield results which saw Kjaerbye move to the bench making way for Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken.

Still, under FaZe, Kjaerbye decided to step in for HYENAS, a Danish roster where he reunited with his former teammates from North, Philip “⁠aizy⁠” Aistrup and Nicklas “⁠gade⁠” Gade only to yet again step down from the roster citing “lack of determination to compete”. During his time at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, HLTV.org consecutively voted him as the best player from across 2016-17 (16th best in 2016 & 15th best in 2017).

In his farewell tweet, Markus added,

The time has come for me to say goodbye to gaming as a professional Counter-Strike player. It is with a heavy heart I am writing this, but as of right now, I have no longer the hunger and determination it requires to compete on top level. This game has been a huge part of my life for the past 10 years, and I feel this is the time for me to look for new horizons and opportunities. Future work can be both inside and outside the game. Time will tell.

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PlayStation acquires Nixxes Software

Mohammed Sadiq
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PlayStation acquires Nixxes Software

PlayStation Studios now has the Netherlands-based developer, Nixxes Software under its wing. The studio specializes in PC ports and has worked with Square Enix in the past, bringing various titles such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Marvel’s Avengers to PC.

It seems like Sony has been eyeing various European studios as they recently acquired Housemarque, the studio behind the survival-horror PS5 game Returnal. 

Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios said,

I highly respect Nixxes and am excited for this very experienced team to become part of the world-class development community at SIE. They have a passion for improving games and for delivering the best possible experience for gamers. Nixxes will be a strong asset for everyone across PlayStation Studios, helping our teams focus on their most important goal, which is to create unique PlayStation content at the best possible quality.

Adding further, Jurjen Katsman, Founder & Sr. Director, Development, Nixxes stated that, “[We] are looking forward to working with some of the most talented teams in the industry to deliver the highest-quality gameplay experiences for PlayStation fans.”

Sony has been focusing on bringing its games to the PC market, which could indicate why they chose to acquire Nixxes. Horizon Zero Dawn, and Bend Studio‘s Days Gone, which released recently on PC – two years after its launch on PS4. Both games were met with positive reception and sales which further strengthened Sony’s efforts to bring more titles to the platform, though Hermen has stated that “PlayStation will remain the best place to play our PlayStation Studios titles at launch. But we do value PC gamers, and we’ll continue to look at the right times to launch each game.” which could indicate that PC ports for various exclusive titles could be released a few years after their launch on consoles down the line.

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Coin Master free spins and Coins links for July 1

Aritra Patra
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Coin Master free spins and Coins links for July 1

In Coin Master, you have to build your own village just by spinning the slot machine. In addition, you have to collect coins to buy the upgrades. You can also attack other players’ villages to loot their coins like Clash of Clans. However, after using your daily free spins, you need to buy coins with real money. If you don’t want to spend real money, keep reading this article to know how to get free coins using daily links.

Note: The links normally expire after two days. Use them as fast as you can.

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CSGO Pro Xantares banned on Twitch

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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CSGO Pro Xantares banned on Twitch

BIG Clan’s professional CSGO player İsmailсan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş has been banned on Twitch on 27th June, the player confirmed via Twitter.

XANTARES can be often found streaming FPL Pugs on Twitch and is widely regarded as one of the best aimers in the game. His mechanical prowess is evident from his streams and it’s safe to say that his fans dig it, though his streams aren’t the most family-friendly ones out there, we all know CSGO’s reputation when it comes to toxicity.

On 27th June, XANTARES was surprisingly banned from the platform without any apparent reason in sight unless the player discloses. The ban will keep him away from streaming for 7 days and an email explain the ban from Twitch is due too.

It is unlikely that Twitch will disclose anything remotely close to the reason but a second ban puts him in hot water as one more could result in him getting permanently banned from the platform. XANTARES confessed about his enthusiasm towards regularly streaming on the platform but felt dejected once Twitch decided to ban him.

The 7 days ban might be a blessing in disguise as BIG Clan is preparing for IEM Cologne, which is scheduled for the coming week and the German-Turkish line-up must take up some much-needed practice as they failed to impress since their initial uprise in the early online era.

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Akuma back to controversy after players apparently leave roster amidst CS:GO RMR event

Martin Harutyunyan
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Akuma back to controversy after players apparently leave roster amidst CS:GO RMR event

It doesn’t get better for the StarLadder CIS RMR event as Akuma, the team earlier accused of cheating, sees its players leaving before the event is concluded. After losing to Natus Vincere in a rather one sided fashion, DotEsports reports, two of its players ‘J3kie’ and ‘Sensei’ are now free agents.

Evgeniyy ‘j3kie’ Sergachev took to VK.com, the popular regional social networking site to announce that he is looking for a new team, whereas Dmitriy ‘SENSEi’ Shvorak removed Akuma’s from his about sections on multiple sites.

Akuma alleged cheating & match fixing

Not a very long time ago, Natus Vincere accused Akuma of not being a fair sport after they pulled an underdog win earlier this month. This opened up pandora boxes, as multiple CIS teams followed suit and wrote open letters to Valve. This lead to multiple researchers and investigators in the community finding the Akuma players indeed suspicious.

On the allegations of match-fixing, the Esports Integrity commission found ‘substantial evidence that the CEO of Akuma (earlier referred to as Project X), Oleksandr Shyshko, had active highly suspicious bets involved with Project X vs Virtus.pro games, confirming his role on potential match-fixing.

“While ESIC has not undertaken a full investigation into the detail, extent, and validity of any particular instances of match-fixing behavior and the perpetrators of such behavior – information on hand would indicate that this is a matter worth investigating further; certainly, if ESIC did have jurisdiction, we would have opened a full investigation based on what we already know”, said Ian Smith.

The move to quit the event even before it went to playoffs appears to be highly controversial as Akuma faces team Nemiga from Belarus later today. We are yet to hear from StarLadder and Akuma on the departure of their players midway.

Picture credits: HLTV.org / StarLadder

How to play Xbox cloud games on your Windows & iOS device?

Mohammed Sadiq
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How to play Xbox cloud games on your Windows & iOS device?

Microsoft has been pushing its cloud-gaming services in an effort to make gaming accessible across all platforms, however, Apple had revised its app store guidelines which required users to log in using their Apple ID and individual games to be published as standalone apps in the store. This prevented both Stadia and Xbox from launching their service on iOS devices, however, these services are available on Android through the Google Play Store.

After a long testing phase, Microsoft has finally opened up Xbox Cloud also known as Project xCloud to the general public. The streaming service was previously only available on Android devices but is now accessible on Windows 10, iPhone, and iPad through web browsers.

But that’s not all, Xbox Cloud games will now run on Xbox Series X hardware which means that all games will be streaming at 1080p 60 fps with faster load times, better graphics, and network latency.

How to sign up for Xbox Cloud Gaming?

  • To start playing on Windows or iOS, simply sign in here using your Microsoft account and sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, or you can download the Xbox Game Pass app from the Google Play Store if you’re on an Android device.
  • Make sure you have a compatible Xbox Controller paired with your iOS (14.4) device or Desktop with the latest firmware.
  • You’ll be greeted by a list of over 100 games, simply select any title and begin playing.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate starts at $1/£1 for 3 months for first-time subscribers and £10.99/$14.99 / for recurring subscribers. To ensure a smooth gaming experience, Microsoft recommends using a 5Ghz router as well as the latest version of iOS and Windows, along with at least a 10Mbps internet connection.

If you’re looking to buy a new controller for your PC or iOS device, check out our list of best controllers of 2021.

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CSGO star NBK to pursue Valorant

Bharat Kotwani
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CSGO star NBK to pursue Valorant

The 27-year-old leaves a nine-year illustrious career in CSGO behind, during which he represented several highly-regarded organizations such as EnVyUs, G2 Esports, and Vitality. His longest and the most successful stint was under the EnVyUs banner, whom he played for in 2015-2017 and with whom he most notably won a DreamHack powered tournament under Valve’s “Major Championships Tier” along with ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals in 2015 and 2017 respectively 

NBK rose to prominence in the second half of November in 2014 whereas one of the main engines in Team LDLC’s success in Sweden where they secured their first Major title, going past Ninjas In Pyjamas in the Grand finale of DreamHack Winter 2014. He further mined for his charismatic showing after getting picked up by Team EnVyUs with whom he went on to bag yet another Major title at the DH Open Cluj-Napoca in 2015. At the end of 2019, he was acquired by OG Esports, a Dota2 team that decided to venture into CSGO from Team Vitality. 

During his time at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, HLTV.org consecutively voted him as the best player from across 2013-15 (5th in 2013, 17th in 2014, and 9th best in 2015). Nathan’s departure comes after a slew of middling results on the European soil for OG, who spent a trophy-less year since their formation in 2019. He later decided to assist DBL PONEY at the FLASHPOINT Season 3, a European RMR event before making the switch to Riot’s brand new FPS feature. 

In his announcement video he added,

I have done it all, from local LANs to winning Majors, grinded through the ranks, and sat on top of the world. I lived the biggest disappointments and the best tournament wins. Counter-Strike gave me everything and I dedicated my life to it. But memories are made to stay in the past. It’s time for a change and I am coming to dominate (in Valorant)

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Indiefoxx banned for the 6th time

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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Indiefoxx banned for the 6th time

Twitch took down a channel on a permanent basis after 3 strikes but often makes an exception in cases like that of Indiefoxx. The hot tub turned ASMR streamer has been banned for the 6th time with a permanent ban nowhere near in sight.

With nine days between her last ban and her and recent offense, Indiefoxx has registered a total of 6 bans on her Twitch channel, which may very well be a new record. She was previously banned alongside Amouranth for sexualizing her ASMR streams after Twitch started cracking down on “hot tub” streamers but one chance is too many for her to be cautious.

Given the frequency of her offenses, Twitch may very well revoke their partnership but as of now, a permanent ban seems too far-fetched. The nature of the ban is yet unknown as neither the streamer nor the platform has addressed the issue permanently.

Twitch showing leniency towards the likes of Indiefoxx has put them in hot waters as a significant part of the Twitch community expect them to drop a harsh penalty to demotivate anyone from saturating Twitch with suggestive content.

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