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ESL and Network Next announce partnership

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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ESL and Network Next announce partnership

The COVID shifted the entire esports landscape to online play and LAN events and it’s been over a year since any major event has seen the face of LAN. Professional players are constantly haunted by the uncertainties surrounding network connectivity.

To remedy the issue to some extent leading tournament organizer ESL has joined forces with network company Network Next. The alliance will look forward to developing a better network around tournaments to help players perform better in the online landscape, specifically in ESL events.

Network Next is a company that offers premium network facilities such a minimal packet loss, reduced jitter, and low latency. Such features are made possible with their aggressive optimization of the network infrastructure, which is extremely beneficial to esports athletes who suffer from delays in their connection.

“Over the last year, the pandemic has caused the esports landscape to dramatically change and we have seen concurrent user numbers soar,” said ESL VP Trevor Schmidt, “We want to ensure that the growing fanbase continues to enjoy the best possible gaming experience, and we believe Network Next can help make that happen,” he added.

Their partnership will debut at the next ESL CSGO event in ESL Pro League Season 13. Little by little organizers will move forward to integrating the network facilities to other games once it passes all tests by ESL.

Also Read | KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

David Dobrik denies sexual assault claims

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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David Dobrik along with his crew member Scotty Sire has scrapped away the claims of sexual assault brought by Seth Francois stating that the former member was made part of the “kissing prank” following his consent.

Dobrik was questioned for his dealing behind the scenes at multiple points this year and sexual assault was added to the list of complaints against him by a former member Seth Francois. According to Seth, Dobrik forced him to take part in the “kissing prank” despite him being unwilling to do so. This allegation came in light of several other claims of harassment against him which puts him in hot water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJVmNg1HM0

“Seth accused David and Jason of sexual assault for a kissing prank that was done in 2017, which is so f**ked up because he was part of the videos, he knows what we do, and then David asked him,” said Scotty Sire. Besides putting both party’s words against each other, Dobrik publicized text messages which go back as far as 2018 where Francois seems to be willing to take part as long as he gets enough clout.

Sire goes ahead to explain the consequences of telling lies and how it might affect the likes of David Dobrick before taking shots at Ethan Klein for providing Seth with a platform where he can share his side of the story without the podcast host checking the facts prior to publishing the episodes.

“You’d take their words, and make it sound worse. I think in the future you should try to at least verify some of the information that is told to you, or maybe you reach out to the people the guests are talking about,” Sire added.

Also Read | KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

Sky Esports partners with Supercell for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021

Aathityaa Swaminathan
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Sky Esports partners with Supercell for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021

For the second year, Indian esports company Sky Esports has partnered with Supercell for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021. As a part of this partnership, Sky Esports will be hosting a Hindi livestream for the Championship. 

The first monthly finals for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021 will kick-off tomorrow for the EECA (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) and the SESA and ANZ (Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, and New Zealand) regions. Eight teams from each region will be competing for a share of the $7,000 prize pool and qualification points to the 2021 World Finals later this year. 

Sky Esports will host the Hindi livestream for the SESA and ANZ region. The stream will begin at 8:30 am IST on the official Sky Esports YouTube channel. 

The eight teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals, and a grand final. The teams competing in the SESA and ANZ region are: 

  • Byro Resonance
  • PSG Esports 1
  • PSG Esports 2
  • Freelancers
  • KIX Team
  • REK
  • FA Tryhards
  • Last Wolf

Two of these teams are from India. Freelancers and FA Tryhards will be representing the country in the competition.

“Astonishing to see 2 Indian teams qualifying for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021 for the first time,”  the CEO of Sky Esports, Shiva Nandy told Talk Esport. “Sky Esports is thrilled to do the Hindi broadcast for the Championship on Sky Esports’ platforms and we will be extra proud this time.”

Last year, Indian teams couldn’t leave a mark in the Brawl Stars Championship. With the addition of more regions and a larger format, 2021 provides new hope for teams in the country. 

There will be eight monthly finals for the Brawl Stars Championship 2021 between March and October. Each of these will grant qualification points to the Brawl Stars World Finals 2021. After all eight monthly finals, the top teams with the most points from each region will compete in the 32-team World Finals. 

For the SESA and ANZ region, only one slot has been reserved in the Brawl Stars World Finals 2021. 

DreamHack Masters Spring Closed Qualifier: All you need to know

Bharat Kotwani
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DreamHack Masters Spring Closed Qualifier: All you need to know

Earlier today, DreamHack on Twitter revealed their invites for the upcoming DreamHack Masters Spring Closed Qualifier consisting of 4 teams from Europe and two from the North American Region. In total, the former has been allocated 8 spots at the same while the latter will feature 4 teams who will lock horns in a bid to qualify for the main event to be played at the end of April 2021. The DreamHack Masters Spring tournament will accommodate three teams from the EU’s Closed Qualifier event and just one from that of NA. 

Cloud9, Complexity, OG, and Heroic are the four teams confirmed at the EU Closed Qualifier event. These teams will be joined by 4 more teams who at the moment are battling their way through the brutal open qualifier brackets with top teams like Fnatic and MIBR already eliminated in the process. Also reputed sides like ENCE, EXTREMUM and Dignitas were shown the door at the Open qualifier event due to the latter’s horrendous format. 

OG’s probable new fifth

European Mixture OG recently parted its ways with  Nathan “⁠NBK-⁠” Schmitt over a stylistic clash between the latter and the players. Since then, they had been considering players who were either on the bench or free agents. HLTV.org had earlier reported the addition of Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen to OG’s CSGO division which stands unconfirmed by either of the sides.

Heroic’s recent revamp

Towards the end of February, niko and Johannes “⁠b0RUP⁠” Borup were placed on Heroic’s bench, making the way for Rasmus “⁠sjuush⁠” Beck and Ismail “⁠refrezh⁠” Ali on the Danish side’s active lineup. This qualifier will be a debut for these newly added players as they would go against heavy giants like Complexity and Cloud9.

New roles at Cloud9

After an early play-in exit from IEM Katowice 2021, Cloud9 were poised to make some changes within the team which saw Patrick “es3tag” Hansen taking up the Sniper duties while Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, Cloud9’s IGL moved back to the Rifle role.

Whereas in North America, Extra Salt and Bad News Bears headline their region’s Closed qualifier with 2 more spots to be filled in later today.

Teams from Europe (3 teams will progress towards the main event)

  • Cloud9
  • OG
  • Complexity
  • Heroic
  • Open Qualifier
  • Open Qualifier
  • Open Qualifier
  • Open Qualifier

Teams from North America (Only one team from the below list advances to the main event)

  • Extra Salt
  • Bad News Bears
  • Open Qualifier
  • Open Qualifier

The Open Qualifier circuit resumes today at 10:30PM IST, you can track the matches from over here. 

Recommended | KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

“It Takes Two” Director Thinks Cyberpunk 2077 Got Unfair Amount Of Criticism

Prateek Jain
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“It Takes Two” Director Thinks Cyberpunk 2077 Got Unfair Amount Of Criticism

Founder of Hazelight Studios, Film Director, and Game Designer, Josef Fares think consumers went too hard on Cyberpunk 2077’s launch mayhem. Josef is well known for giving hit two-player coop games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013) and A Way Out (2018). 

In absence of E3, Geoff Keighley is going around social media and talking with various developers about their upcoming games and how the year 2020 went for studios. Yesterday while chatting with Josef Fares on Twitter, a fan of his prompted a question for Josef asking about his take on the Cyberpunk 2077 launch fiasco. Answering the fan, Fares said, “Cyberpunk got an unfair amount of sh*t”. 

Fares counted the challenges his team and studio had to face because of Covid-19 induced restrictions and the abrupt chaos it caused. He believes that the developers at CDPR worked under immense pressure to meet the deadline for a game that was already delayed twice and delaying it more was out of the question. Fares says that the developers might have gone with the release to cut their losses and to keep the buzz around the game alive. He supports giving CDPR some leeway because of the Covid-19 circumstances and the scale of the game. 

Josef’s latest game, It Takes Two, is ready for release and is launching on 26th March. The game features Josef’s signature two-player coop gameplay that has earned Hazelight Studios many fans in 2018. 

Also Read | KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

BREAKING: KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

Bharat Kotwani
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BREAKING: KennyS benched, JaCkz to start for G2 Esports

The Multi-talented french side has placed the veteran AWPer on the bench after a string of palling results with the team.

G2 Esports on Twitter have announced the benching of Kenny “KennyS” Schrub from their active CSGO division while they bring back Audric “⁠JaCkz⁠” Jug on the roster.

This news comes after a series of passive placements in 2021 across three tournaments including two of the Blast Premier series along with an early playoff exit from the IEM Katowice 2021. According to HLTV.org, KennyS had averaged a 0.98 rating across four tournaments since the addition of Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač‘s to their roster. The latter’s addition first saw G2 Esports circulating a six-man roster with François “⁠AmaNEk⁠” Delaunay and Audric “⁠JaCkz⁠” Jug swapping places on the team in a bid to grab the permanent spot on the team. But then it was eventually AmaNEk who was chosen to be a part of the roster which saw JaCkz moving to the bench. 

But since the addition of the 24-year-old Bosnian, G2 Esports were yet unable to find a break-through in their placings which saw them crash in the 7-9th position at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021 followed by an upset against Gambit Esports in the Group A lower bracket final at the recently concluded IEM Katowice 2021. This marks the end of the journey for KennyS after a 4-year stint with the French side, in fact, the last player standing from the original lineup. Under the former, the team went on to win its first-ever ESL Pro League title at its fifth iteration followed by a championship at the DreamHack Masters Malmo in 2017.

JaCkz who was earlier benched in December 2020 by G2 will return on the latter’s active line-up. During his inactivity at the same, he was spotted playing alongside his former teammates Lucas “⁠Lucky⁠” Chastang and Alexandre “⁠bodyy⁠” Pianaro under the banner of DBL PONEY, a mixed team.

With this roster update, the community would get to witness NiKo taking up the sniper role on the team now that their star awper has been allowed to explore his options for the future.

G2 Esports have been seeded in the Group B of ESL Pro League S13 where they will lock horns with the Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opener. 

G2’s lineup now:

  • François “⁠AmaNEk⁠” Delaunay
  • Nemanja “⁠nexa⁠” Isaković
  • Nemanja “⁠huNter-⁠” Kovač
  • Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač
  • Audric “⁠JaCkz⁠” Jug
  • Damien “⁠maLeK⁠” Marcel (Head coach)
  • Kenny “⁠kennyS⁠” Schrub (benched)

Also Read | CSGO Refutes G2 Esports’ Claims on RMR Capsules

Krafton to focus on PUBG Mobile India release

Divyesh Moghe
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Krafton to focus on PUBG Mobile India release

PUBG Mobile is in the limelight again as several leads are indicating that Krafton Inc. is working actively to unban PUBG Mobile in India. The game has been a phenomenon in India and the developers are trying to bring it back as soon as possible. A new report has revealed some new information regarding the company’s plans for the future of the PUBG franchise in India.

Krafton Inc. recently announced a new mobile game called PUBG New State. This game is a technologically advanced and futuristic version of PUBG Mobile with the same core but different advanced elements. The pre-registration process for this new title began globally except for three regions namely China, Vietnam, and India.

PUBG Corp. did not issue any official statement which clarified their decision to not include India in the registration process but a new report has revealed that the company does not plan to start the process anytime soon. A report by Sportskeeda has revealed that Krafton is focusing on the comeback of PUBG Mobile rather than the pre-registration process of PUBG New State.

The official statement is as follows:

With KRAFTON doing everything it can to prepare for the launch of a new PUBG app specifically developed and serviced for India, it has decided not to include pre-registration for PUBG: New State in India. We are waiting for the Indian government’s consideration and decision on our next plan with PUBG in the region.

This confirms the fact that Krafton is still trying to bring back PUBG Mobile in India and also that they do not plan to release PUBG New State before the arrival of PUBG Mobile India. They still need to wait for a nod of approval from the authorities after which, PUBG Mobile will be back in India.

Also Read | Krafton Representative states that company cares greatly about Indian Market

Game-Breaking Valorant Bug Makes Astra Get Stuck in Astral Form

Sonu Banerjee
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Game-Breaking Valorant Bug Makes Astra Get Stuck in Astral Form

It has only been two days since the official release of Valorant’s newest agent, Astra, and it seems like players have already discovered some game-breaking bugs involving the controller.

While it’s unclear how the bug is replicated, it can be pretty disastrous for your team in case you experience it first-hand.

This bug makes Astra get stuck in her astral form while being unable to perform any actions whatsoever for the entirety of the round., which means that your team will essentially be playing 4v5 for the rest of the round.

This game-breaking Astra bug was encountered by popular Twitch streamer ‘lexeratv’, and you can take a look at his POV here.

For the unaware, the Astral form is used to place stars around the map which can be later triggered through Astra’s abilities. However, this kind of interaction where the players get stuck in Astral form is certainly unintended.

While Riot Games hasn’t addressed this issue as of yet, players are expecting the Valorant devs to fix this problem at the earliest.

Also Read | Bugha’s Valorant Settings, Crosshair, and Config

Krafton Representative states that company cares greatly about Indian Market

Divyesh Moghe
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0
Krafton Representative states that company cares greatly about Indian Market

PUBG Mobile and its story in India has been stuck on the same spot for a long time. Several smaller leads and developments have taken place but essentially there has not been any news about the unban or relaunch of PUBG Mobile in the country. Recently, Head of Corporate Development at Krafton commented on the imposed ban and stated that Indian region is important for them.

Akshat Rathee, Co-founder of Nodwin Gaming and Sean Hyunil Sohn, Head of Corporate Development at KRAFTON Inc. were invited at India Gaming Conference 2021 as guest speakers. Rathee asked Sohn about the comeback of PUBG Mobile in India and the latter stated that a definite timing cannot be specified but the company cares greatly about Indian market and is working hard to bringing back the game in India.

The entire statement by Sohn is as follows, “I cannot really tell a timing, because we don’t know it yet but what I can tell you is that we care about the Indian market greatly and that’s why I get to know you[Rathee] and I get to know a lot of friends in the Indian gaming industry. So definitely we will work hard to make it happen.”

This statement confirms that Krafton still eyes India as a potential market for PUBG Mobile and is working very hard to bring back the game. Even though any confirmed release date or positive feedback is not conveyed by the company yet, it is safe to assume that a lot of efforts are being made to unban the game in India.

PUBG Mobile enthusiasts still await patiently for PUBG Mobile India, a localized version specially developed to cater the needs of Indian fanbase and we might see the return of PUBG Mobile in India in the near future.

Also Read | INDIAN TEAM “WE SUPPORT FARMERS” QUALIFIES FOR PMPL NA: SPRING SPLIT

Bugha’s Valorant Settings, Crosshair, and Config

Bharat Kotwani
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0
Bugha’s Valorant Settings, Crosshair, and Config

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf is an 18-year-old streamer who hails from Pennsylvania, United States. He is one of the most distinguished Fortnite streamers who currently plays for The Sentinels, an esports organization based in Los Angeles that has teams across games like Fortnite and Valorant. On July 28, 2019, Bugha made history by winning the inaugural Fortnite World Cup where he outperformed the final 100 contestants in the Grand Finale, live on stage at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Today we will discuss Bugha’s In-game Valorant settings along with the details of his peripherals. 

  • Mouse: Finalmouse Air58 Ninja
  • Mousepad: Zowie G-SR-SE Deep Blue
  • Keyboard: SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL
  • Headphones: JBL CLUB 950NC
  • Microphone: Shure SM7B
  • Webcam: Logitech C922x Pro
  • Monitor: ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN

PC Settings

  • CPU: Intel i9-10900K.
  • GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090 Founders Edition.
  • Motherboard: ASRock Z490M Pro4
  • Memory Stick: Patriot Viper Steel 32GB
  • Power Supply: Seasonic Prime Platinum 850W

Mouse Settings

DPI400
Sensitivity: Aim0.47
Scoped Sensitivity Multiplier1
eDPI188
Windows Sensitivity6
Polling Rate (Hz)500

Video Settings

Resolution1920×1080
Refresh Rate240Hz
Display ModeFullscreen
Aspect Ratio16:9
Aspect Ratio MethodFill
Frame Rate LimitUnlocked
Material QualityMed
Texture QualityMed
Detail QualityMed
UI QualityMed
VignetteOff
VSyncOff
Display FPSOn
Anti-AliasingMSAA 4x
Anisotropic Filtering4x
Improve ClarityOn
Enhanced Gun Skin Visuals (First Person)Off
DistortionOff

Crosshair Settings

Crosshair ColorGreen
OutlinesOn
Center DotOff
Inner Line Opacity1
Inner Line Length5
Inner Line Thickness2
Inner Line Offset2
Outer Line Opacity0
Outer Line Length0
Outer Line Thickness0
Outer Line Offset0
Movement ErrorOn
Firing ErrorOn

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