Recently Twitch removed the PogChamp emote after its creator, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, on Twitter tried to incite the Capitol Building insurrectionists to commit more acts of violence. Acting swiftly Twitch and pretty much everyone, quickly booted off anything with his likeness from their platform.
While speaking about the decision to remove the PogChamp Emote, Twitch acknowledged that the emote was something that would deal a blow to its entire subculture and promised to replace Gootecks PogcChamp Emote with a new emote as soon as possible.
“We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself – and it has a big place in Twitch culture. We will work with the community to design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.”
Just like how quickly they acted before, it didn’t take Twitch much time to quickly come up with a solution. Starting today Twitch will have a brand new astonished face aka PogChamp emote each day. Starting with Kenny “UnRoolie” McWild as today’s PogChamp.
You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!
The idea originally came from Hearthstone streamer Sean “Day9” Plott, who suggested Twitch to ask streamers to send their PogChamp faces and maintain a database of streamers with the same astounded expression as Gootecks did to maintain the original meaning of the PogChamp emote and to quickly introduce the new PogChamp emote in future.
With every growing number of streamers joining the platform daily, it doesn’t look too hard for Twitch to come up with a new PogChamp face to fill out the rest of the year.
The highly anticipated Valorant Episode 2 is nearing its arrival, and fans are getting more and more eager to know more about the release date of in Valorant Episode 2.
The Episode 2 in Valorant will bring with it a plethora of new changes to the competitive shooter. These changes include the new stealth agent ‘Yoru’, a new competitive season, an all-new Battle Pass, and a bunch of other changes to the game itself. There’s also a high possibility of agent fixes like buffs or nerfs to specific Valorant agents according to the meta.
In case you’re unaware, the abilities, animation, lore and backstory of this upcoming Agent 14 have already been leaked from several sources more than a week prior to its final release. His skillset consists of a mixture of abilities to deceive his opponents while simultaneously being able to freely roam the battlefield at will.
Valorant Episode 2 Release Date
The release date for the Episode 2 has been confirmed by Riot Games to be January 12, 2021. The new and revamped Battle Pass will also come out at the same date, with a variety of new rewards for the players.
Recently, Omen has been a favourite pick of Valorant players not only in pub games, but also in the competitive scene. The enigmatic agent has seen a 100% pick rate in the North American First Strike event, and rocks a skill set that can be used to easily maneuver across the map while flashing and smoking off crucial areas for his team to take.
However, some recent leaks are suggesting that Omen is about to be nerfed quite heavily in the upcoming Episode 2 update.
According to a tweet by Valorant Leaks, two of Omen’s abilities will receive significant nerfs in the upcoming major update.
Omen Nerf in Valorant Episode 2
Dark Cover: Smoke speed reduced by 30% from 4000>2800
— Mike | Valorant Leaks & News (@ValorLeaks) January 9, 2021
While these changes are certain to reduce the agent’s winrate by a margin, it’s still likely that Omen will continue to remain a favourite pick in the competitive scene as well as pub matchmaking due to his unique ability to teleport across the map at will.
The new Fight Night event has brought a number of new additions to Apex Legends including map changes, skins, and a bunch of new cosmetics.
The new event also provides players with the option of taking down MRVN robots to gain themselves some nice loot. In case you’re unwilling to take down an MRVN, you can also simply accept the loot that they hand over to you.
How to use loot MRVN arm in Apex Legends
You can tell what loot an MRVN is going to give you by looking at its screen. A sad white face on it’s screen indicates common loot, a neutral blue face indicates rare, a pleased purple face will give you epic loot, while a delighted yellow face will grant you legendary loot.
Once an MRVN has given you its loot, you can kill it to get an MRVN arm, an item that can be obtained by no other means than killing an MRVN.
This MRVN arm can be carried to another MRVN to get a prompt of attaching the arm to the newly found MRVN. Once done, the MRVN with the attached arm will get delighted and reward you with a legendary drop.
Bonus: If you kill the MRVN, you can take their arm to another MRVN. This will make them very happy, and give you Gold loot!
The Brazilian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene may have matured into a giant; however, a few players blazed a trail in esports when Brazil had minimal representation in CSGO. Despite having all those veterans once on its payroll, MiBR fell into quicksand.
MiBR currently has zero players on its roster, which marks a historic downfall. The Brazilian organization’s future is ambiguous, but recent revelations on Alexandre “gAuLeS” Chiqueta’s stream unveiled MiBR office’s mismanagement that contributed to the collapse.
MiBR after losing its core players
SK Gaming
Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and Marcelo “coldzera” David are the four names that brought Brazil’s first major title home with Lincoln “fnx” Lau on their side. MiBR had the world’s best, two-time Major winning roster on its payroll, which ultimately became a tier-2 roster in 2021. What went wrong?
MiBR’s 2020 lineup had the three core players alongside Alencar “trk” Rossato, Vito “kNgV- ” Giuseppe and Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia as the head coach. As long as you have a squad of five and a coach, anything is fixable. However, the coaching bug controversy was what initiated an exodus in MiBR. It was a moment of truth for the organization, and a quick evaluation of their performance saw fer and TACO move to the bench. The inseparable core of MiBR refused the organization’s ruling as FalleN demanded to join the duo on the bench.
I communicate my insatisfaction with MIBR in front of the decision to completely overhaul the line-up I chose to play for. We enter as a team and as a team we will leave, as we follow day after day side by side, motivated by the real passion for playing.”
This was the first time MiBR had tournaments lined up with two players on its roster. The damage control was quick as the organization lent Vinicius “v$m” Moreira, Leonardo “leo_drk” Oliveira, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles, with Raphael “cogu” Camargo as new head coach. Finally, things started to look up for the organization. Fans were convinced that this would be the new MiBR that they’d cheer for. But in a surprising turn of events, the Brazilian organization didn’t renew their contracts, beginning the new year with trk and kNgV yet again.
Recent admissions by MiBR’s manager and Gamer’s Club CEO Yuri “Fly” Uchiyama on Gaules’s stream revealed that the organization’s back office is flooded with a whole lot of drama.
On Gaules’ stream, Fly revealed that loaning three players from other teams had triggered money issues at MiBR’s office. The organization had to cut down on the salaries and other expenses, leading to discontent among the players. During this challenging time, cogu’s wish to add more players was an operational risk.
The manager clarified that being a Brazilian team is a struggle in itself when it comes to sponsors. The income for organization is in Brazilian real, whereas the players are paid in dollars. Money conversion damaged MiBR’s finances to a huge extent. The discussion, however, freed Fly from all financial blunders, as he said he was just a manager. His decisions don’t materialize unless they’re approved by Ari Segal and Tomi Lurppis, who handle the bank at MiBR.
Failed negotiations with the new players
kNgV with new players
Despite excellent performance in Flashpoint 2, the Brazilian organization has let the loaned players go. No one revealed the reasons behind the negotiations’ failure until LUCAS1’s cryptic tweet hinting at low remittance. The player further noted that the management wouldn’t even pay for their hotel rooms and meals. His claims were backed by Cogu who said that the organization offered them $30 for the meal. Earlier, the players got $70 per day. In an esports ecosystem where players’ worth has become more transparent, the numbers seem extremely low for mere meals.
LUCAS1 was the only player to speak about monetary issues publicly. Fly further added to the player’s claims by confirming that the organization couldn’t sign the players due to the high buyout fee. The manager said that leo_drk was the most expensive player and was out of MiBR’s budget.
Despite being the most prominent organization in Brazil, the bank issues stood in the way of the players permanently joining MiBR.
The trio was lent; what shocked the MiBR enthusiasts was cogu’s exit. The coach was in the vanguard of a group that shaped MiBR when it was in its embryonic stages. His comeback had breathed some life into this mammoth of a brand that was clinging for life. His departure, however, has ruffled many feathers.
cogu has revealed that he wanted to save the sinking ship of MiBR. During his stint in the organization, the coach was paid half the amount he was offered as a Facebook streamer. For the sake of his labour of love, he kept the post.
As evident from the fresh quintet’s performance in Flashpoint 2, cogu brought his best to the table. However, his work didn’t help him secure a job in MiBR as the negotiations ended in a disaster.
The coach said that he “felt like shit” during the discussions as the CEO had offered him less than $10,000 as a remittance. In a market where good coaches are rare as a comet, this proposal was below the lowest pay scale.
This poor communication had forced cogu to stop making any more settlements and move on. At this point, MiBR had lost its coach, and loaned players, remaining with trk and kNgV.
The final evacuation spell
When MiBR was at its weakest, it was kNgV that kept the Brazilian boat afloat. With his leadership, the fresh recruits glued up and posted an excellent performance in Flashpoint 2. It almost seemed that kNgV might revive MiBR to its earlier glory days. However, the lack of communication from the organization’s end saw kNgV follow in the footsteps of others.
“When i was hired for MIBR i believed it was in a team that was close to be sucess and i was there to help. But i found a team with internal and external issues and a hard way to go through, we tryed really hard as individual and collectively but unfortunately we could not make it. The damage was done.” kNgV said.
The former in-game leader packed his bags and took trk along with him. Amid the drama surrounding MiBR’s destitute bank, kNgV confirmed that money had nothing to do with exit. Instead, it’s the brewing internal and external problems that have stacked up to the point of hopelessness. The veteran said that his efforts went in vain; the issues seemed to exacerbate.
Finally, the Brazilian powerhouse MiBR lost its spark with the exit of its entire roster. It’s evident from the organization’s tragic account that legendary team died a slow death after many figureheads tried to keep it alive. kNgV and cogu have confirmed that the organizational issues led to this eminent downfall of a team that the world once feared.
Fly, the manager, has ensured that he won’t let MiBR die as the organization will revive the CSGO division in two weeks. Fly’s promise is the last hope that MiBR fans can cling to. For now, The organization starts off the year with no CSGO players on its payroll while the former players are busy building a new home for Brazilian CS. The fans count on cogu’s project that houses kNgV, trk, HEN1, LUCAS1 to bring Brazilian CS back to the forefront.
Esports has been around for two decades. However, in recent years, the genre has transformed from a niche industry to a major entertainment industry in mainstream culture. It is now a booming trade with billions being spent on the platforms, the players, and the technology. Recent events in the world have also seen lots of people join eSports, with ESPN even broadcasting live events where celebrity athletes play each other in video games.
However, the gaming and streaming industry has always been associated with the use of VPNs, especially in the last few years. Most streamers have started using some of the best free VPN services to protect themselves and improve the experience, but do you really need one?
What concerns do streamers have?
There are many different streaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, DLive, etc. Each of these platforms operate uniquely, but streamers generally face the same issues which they try to solve with VPN.
IP Leaks
IP stands for Internet Protocol, and it is the unique identifier associated with all your internet activities. Your IP address carries information such as your exact location and your ISP. In other terms, it is the online equivalent of your home address.
IP leaks happen when your IP address is made publicly visible, for example through a vulnerability or even a targeted attack such as clicking a simple link. If this happens, attackers could use this information to potentially hack your network, steal your identity, and more.
VPNs help protect your IP address by spoofing it and giving you a new one. This new IP address belongs to the VPN provider, and it can’t be used by hackers to get to you. Further, some VPNs have IPv6 and DNS leak protection enabled to prevents IP leaks.
DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks are quite common in the eSports industry and are used as a means of stifling competition or even for other malicious reasons. These attacks are simple to carry out and can be used to take you offline by “swarming” your IP address with thousands of requests. To make the traffic huge enough to slow your connection, these attacks are often carried out using a botnet network.
VPNs protect against such attacks since an attacker can’t access your network. Even if they get your IP address, they’ll only DoS/DDoS the VPN provider’s servers. Most VPNs are equipped to prevent such attacks.
Geo-Restrictions
Some countries have banned various video streaming platforms and games. For example, Roblox is banned in Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and North Korea while Twitch is blocked in Russia and China.
If you are a streamer in a country where something you’d like to stream is blocked, you can simply use a VPN. A VPN will change your Virtual location, bypassing ISP and government bans.
If a free VPN sufficient for streaming?
A free VPN allows users to enjoy some benefits of using a VPN without spending a penny. This can be great if you are just starting out or you want to do some tests and see how a VPN affects your overall experience.
However, if you want to stream seamlessly, you will need to upgrade to a premium VPN. These VPNs offer far much better speeds which are important in eSports, and they do not impose other restrictions such as bandwidth limits.
If you’re a hardcore Tomb Raider enthusiast, today is your lucky day. The canceled version of the Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Remake has been leaked online and is available to download for free across the globe.
Having sold over 81 million copies worldwide, Tomb Raider is undoubtedly one of the most popular video game series in history. The series was created by British gaming company Core Design and focuses on protagonist Lara Croft who embarks on a journey searching for lost treasures in dangerous areas. The action-adventure video game series has later received film adaptations, novels, and more.
The version of the Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Remake that was recently leaked online was in the development process till 2006 but was never finished for a final release.
While this version was originally supposed to be released on the PSP, it can still be enjoyed on PCs using certain emulators.
Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Remake was leaked and uploaded to the internet by a Tomb Raider fan. As mentioned earlier, it is currently freely available to download for anyone across the world.
However, due to the game not being finished, the enemies in the maps are missing. But you can still choose to explore the vast regions of Peru, Greece, or Croft Mano in this game.
Seven-time Tetris World Champion Jonas Neubauer passes away at the age of 38 following a medical emergency that claimed his life.
Neubauer won the Classic Tetris World Championship 7 times, making him an unrivaled legend at the game. His death comes as shocking news for fans across the world who are in disbelief of his passing. The community since then has come together to mourn him across social media. The Tetris subreddit is filled with posts commemorating the legendary wins of his unmatched career.
His family shared the tragic news through his Twitter account, stating “It’s with a heavy heart that we deliver the terrible news that Jonas Neubauer has passed away from a sudden medical emergency. He was the absolute best. We are devastated, overwhelmed with grief, and we already miss him dearly. Information to follow when it becomes available”.
They promised to release further information surrounding his death but as of now we only know that it was some form of “sudden medical emergency” that claimed his life. This mishap has left his family “devastated and overwhelmed in grief”. “loyal son, great husband, staunch friend.” is how Chris Higgins, director of the documentary ‘Best of Five: The Tetris Champions described him.
Jonas’s achievements will be etched into the hearts of all his fans and family. He was a once in a generation talent who can’t ever be overshadowed.
The Minecraft world is not only filled with mobs that intend to kill you, but also with a variety of animals that the players can choose to befriend and breed. Over the years since its initial release, more and more animals have been added to the game like sheep, pigs, cows, or parrots that spice up the gameplay for the players.
If players are looking for a more interesting animal to pet, pandas might just be a great option. Pandas are one of the rarer animals in the Minecraft world, but can still be found pretty easily if you’re looking for them at the right places.
Let’s take a look at the places where you can find pandas in Minecraft.
Where to Find Pandas in Minecraft
Pandas are primarily located in jungles and bamboo jungles in-game. Even if a player manages to find one of these biomes, they have to get quite lucky for a panda (or two) to spawn there.
Pandas generally spawn alone and occasionally in pairs. They are neutral towards the player at first, which means that the animal won’t attack you till you mess with it.
Look for the pandas in the grass tiles of the above-mentioned biomes, and you’ll eventually find yourself a panda. On rare occasions, you’ll find yourself a brown and white panda, which are a lot harder to find that the black snd white pandas.
The Brazilian CSGO Pro Filipe “pancc” Martins got suspended by Sharks Esports for sexually harassing a 16 years old Twitch Streamer on social media platforms.
During this 4 to 6 months suspension period, Pancc will be undergoing therapy. According to Sharks Esports, Pancc will only be allowed to join the team in the future if the organization receives proper medical clearance from healthcare professionals. Moreover, Pancc will be fined 25% of his salary and this percentage will be donated to an NGO supporting sexually harassed women victims.
Sexual Harassment Allegations against the CSGO Pro PANCC
On 4th January, a 16 years old female Twitch streamer posted a lot of WhatsApp and Twitter messages online. From those messages, it was pretty clear that Pancc wanted to have sex with her. Not only that but Pancc also asked for intimate photos.
e perdão @gi__esquina, eu lamento pelo que aconteceu e me arrependo muito por isso, foi totalmente errado e eu quero melhorar e agir como uma pessoa certa
Hi guys, I’m coming here to write about a very bad thing that happened and an ugly mistake I made, yes I made a mistake and it was terrible, I feel like a terrible person, for talking to a girl who was underage, we met on social media and we talked only that I said the wrong things and that you shouldn’t tell anyone, I greatly accelerated the level of the conversation and I am fully aware that this is something wrong, despite having come out to the public now, that happened a long time ago, and I paid consequences in my life and many people talked to me and warned me, I lost contact with people who are very important to me, and I’m trying to be better and act in the right way. Yes, I made a bad mistake, this kind of thing is not done, I REALLY wanted to apologize to you, to the people I like and will be upset with me, I am trying to improve and be a better person, be more consistent, know how to behave like someone mature. Unfortunately, I was wrong and I’m being 100% sincere coming to speak here, and I want to evolve and not make any more mistakes, I wanted to apologize for being invasive, for having acted in a bad way with anyone, I’m in a process of evolution and wanting to be a better person. I just wanted to clarify a point here (which does not diminish the facts, but it is important to clarify) that it was nothing more than a conversation on social networks, we never saw each other and ended up for that very reason. Again people, sorry for disappointing you, I hate to know that this happened and that I made this mistake, I really regret it.”
Sharks Esports’ action against Pancc
Just after five days of the incident, the Portuguese esports organization Sharks Esports suspended Pancc and benched him. Although Sharks Esports has provided another chance to get back to the team’s active roster, if the doctor’s report doesn’t show progress or improvement within the next six months, his contract with the team will be terminated and other legal actions will be taken against him.
Here is the full notice provided by Sharks Esports:
Dia 5 de janeiro abriu-se o processo interno de averiguações 01/2021 – Alegado assédio por parte do jogador Filipe…
