Duncan “Thorin” Shields has announced on Twitter that he would be consulting David Beckham owned Guild Esports, in setting up and helping build their CSGO team from scratch and aiming to be one of the best in the world.
The British Esports analysts, famous among the Counter Strike community, said in his statement that he felt that in Esports teams there was too much power with either the players or the business stakeholders. He said that his aim would be to create a structure more like a traditional sports team.
I will help Guild develop their model for building the team and advise on players and staff I think appropriate to aid them in establishing themselves as a significant force in this part of the industry.
Thorin
Founded by popular footballer David Beckham, Guild Esports was founded in 2019 with a lineup in Rocket League, Fifa and Valorant roster. The culture of celebrities and athletes investing in Esports teams has become pretty popular, with just a couple of weeks ago Real Madrid footballer Casemiro forming his own CSGO team as well.
“As we move to a phase more closely resembling a traditional sports structure with proper coaching staff it is only logical that General Managers build teams to their vision with the help and expertise of those who know the scene and the players they will select from,” finished Thorin.
In celebration of the League of Legends: Wild Rift Open Beta, Riot Games launched a short film featuring some of the top gaming creators in Southeast Asia, as an ode to players in the region.
The film, titled ‘Pentaboom,’ is a call for gamers to seize the moment and forge their own legends with crazy outplays. The film draws inspiration from the iconic and hard-earned ‘Pentakill,’ which is achieved when a player defeats all five of their enemy team’s opponents in a short timespan.
Scenes in the film were shot across Southeast Asia, each putting a novel spin on scenes that are familiar for local audiences, with dozens of League of Legends Easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans to spot.
In one instance, Ezreal and Garen cosplayers can be seen dueling it out at Marina Bay, and in others, Pentaboom transcends into Southeast Asian food culture with Penta-Boba Milk Tea, Penta-Banh Mi and Nasi Lemak ‘Pentaboom’, as well as a glimpse of PentaBatik, a playful take on traditional Indonesian batik art.
Southeast Asia was the first region in the world to play Wild Rift, and we wanted to celebrate that. We’re excited to have been able to produce this short film with some incredible gaming creators, in locations that many players will recognize. We hope that the film and Wild Rift will help bring our Southeast Asian community closer together,
Justin Hulog, General Manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, Riot Games.
The film was directed by Roslee Yusof and produced alongside Riot Southeast Asia’s agency partner BBH Singapore.
The League of Legends: Wild Rift Regional Open Beta went live throughout Southeast Asia on 28 October. The League of Legends: Wild Rift K/DA event is also currently ongoing, and players can log in to earn exclusive rewards.
Activision entered into the realms of mobile gaming last year by introducing their first portable version from Call of Duty franchise in the form of COD Mobile. Call of Duty: Mobile brought in a blend of iconic maps, weapons and features from various other COD titles and the developers introduced this game with the multiplayer matches at its core.
While this game may provide perfect MP experience, it still lacks way behind in the battle-royale mode and to compensate for this, Activision Blizzard might launch their iconic game COD: Warzone for mobiles.
COD WARZONE MOBILE DETAILS:
Call of Duty: Warzone is a free-to-play battle royale title which is available on PC and consoles. There were rumours about this title being introduced in mobile gaming due to a job posting which was instantly taken down and since then, the COD lovers are eager to play a battle-royale with more realistic details on a mobile.
COD: Warzone mobile might not be declared right now but recently, the Activision Blizzard President implied that this game might be on its way.
Activision Blizzard President Daniel Alerge expressed their pan to tap in to the potential of mobile market and possibly launch all of their major franchise titles as mobile games.
WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE’RE ENABLING OUR FRANCHISES ON THE BILLIONS OF MOBILE DEVICES THAT ARE AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW. THAT’S BY FAR OUR BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY AND WE’RE INVESTING MEANINGFULLY TO CAPITALIZE ON THIS AND TO TAKE ALL OUR FRANCHISES TO MOBILE OVER TIME.
DANIEL ALERGE, President, Activision
COD WARZONE MOBILE RELEASE DATE
Currently, there is no release date to COD Warzone Mobile but potentially, it can hit the market very soon. This is due to the fact that if major Activision franchises are coming to mobile market, it is only plausible to assume that COD Warzone Mobile might be one of them.
Warzone fans have already formed a community around this rumoured game. The r/WarZoneMobile is the dedicated subreddit for passionate COD players that are waiting to see a on the go COD Warzone version which as over 3000 users.
This is the testament to popularity of COD Warzone and with the affirmative responses from company itself, it is almost certain that Warzone will hit mobile markets very soon.
The announcement comes during his Hades stream on November 5th. When one of his viewers inquired on how they could donate to him, he explained that he wouldn’t be accepting his viewers’ money in the form of donations anymore.
“It was actually when I did my ‘donating to Twitch streamers’ video that made me realize just how weird it is to donate money to people,” Pewds said.
For the unaware, a few weeks ago, the YouTuber published a video which showed him donating to streamers on Twitch.
Good news for Valorant fans, as it appears like the competitive shooter might be getting a few additional maps in near future.
With the recent addition of Icebox to the competitive map pool, Valorant currently has a total of five maps. Compared to some of the other popular titles in the genre like CSGO, this is certainly a low number of maps. Fans of the game have also been complaining about the lack of maps in Valorant for a while now.
In the interview, Ziegler mentioned that the team is looking to accelerate the rate of map development in Valorant. He also admitted that the current number of maps in the game, while enough for a BO5, is still not “enough”.
We’re trying to accelerate the next few maps because we feel like getting to seven is a good starting point, to now begin to think how many of these would we want to carry into our competitive map pool,” Ziegler said. “And then, once we get past that, we can begin really thinking if we’re going to leave maps out of the competitive map pool if that makes sense. Right now, we’re sort of thinking about how we get to the point of having about seven, just to start that conversation.
While no specific date has been mentioned for the arrival of a new map, Ziegler’s statement is still certainly enough to brighten up the days of Valorant fans who are looking forward to the addition of some more maps in Valorant.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a unique player base that loves to hate the game. In the CSGO realm, comparison of Valve’s shooter with every new FPS game is a norm; facts are mostly irrelevant. Is CSGO dying?
Jabs and comments from the unversed were disregarded, but ex-CSGO professionals also added to the discussion. Most recently, Michael “shroud” Grzesiek jumped on the bandwagon by claiming “CS is undeniably dying” in one of his videos. Various esports maestros including gaming analyst pimp chipped in—the ex-professional player directed at a ceaseless bull session that follows CSGO everywhere.
Counter Strike has been dying for the past 20 years, and will most likely continue to die for the next 20 years.
I’ve been dying the past 25 years and will hopefully continue my path to death the next 25 years as well.
Get a grip kids, go play whatever the fuck makes you happy.
Released in July 2012, with less than 2k active players, CSGO picked up the pace rather quickly. After a dwindling player base, the fps game managed to peak 850,000 concurrent players in 2016, according to steamcharts. This breakthrough took five years, but unlike other fads, this game was here to stay.
CSGO player count in 2016
Since 2016, Valve’s GO has managed to break several records, crossing the one million mark in March of 2020. The iconic shift in player count could be attributed to the COVID-19 situation. Many novice gamers unlocked the true potential of CSGO behind the locked doors during the pandemic. The game experienced a monumental rise in player count from April 2016 to December 2019, gaining 27% more players.
Like any other game, CSGO’s player count isn’t always booming. The count dipped, but it always powered through the downturns.
CSGO VS the new games
CSGO player when new games were released
Valorant is not CSGO’s first adversary. The comparison police were on the rise in 2017 when PUBG was officially released. Despite belonging from a different genre, the game managed to eat up a considerable chunk of CSGO’s player base. There were guns, action, scenery, and all the ingredients that CSGO had, but comparisons failed to diminish CSGO’s loyal fan-base.
The players experimented with PUBG, but the absence of five versus five format, tactical play, and competitive energy sent the CSGO fans back to their home. The minor shift in the player count was re-fixed; the numbers rose to more than 715K concurrent players in January 2018.
Two years later, Apex Legends had to suffer the weight of comparisons. The game was widely different from Counter Strike in terms of graphics and genre, but imminent judgments followed.
Valorant is the new contender, and it has undoubtedly shaken some of what Valve created. It would be irrational to overlook the ramifications caused by Valorant, as numerous CS professionals have packed their bags and left for the animated world of Riot’s tactical shooter. However, the player base of CSGO didn’t take many hits.
Months after the release of Valorant, CSGO gained 2% more players in August 2020. With more than 943K concurrent players in October, CSGO’s player count is on the peak. More players continue to log in for a gaming experience that has created a massive universe of esports.
In terms of player count, 2020 has been the best year for Valve. The professional scene did suffer a bit, but pandemic cranked up the player base to eleven. With LAN’s return, Counter-Strike Global Offensive is expected to make and break new records.
The lively crowd, surroundings decked out in tech, and enemies sitting across from each other, are just a few key ingredients of a LAN tournament; ingredients that you can’t possibly have in an online setting. Fans can’t wait to fill up the Arenas once again, and comeback of LAN might tempt many inactive players to log back in to their steam accounts.
Patch 1.11 of Riot’s tactical shooter Valorant is about to go live in the next few hours, and it’ll bring a number of new additions to the game.
Apart from the introduction of Skye, a bunch of competitive changes, and various fixes, the latest patch also implements a quality of life feature that fans have been requesting for months.
Lefties, it's your lucky day! That Left-handed view model you asked for is now available.
The left-handed model is something that’s already prevalent in some other competitive shooters like CSGO and helps players switch their viewmodel’s side at will.
Regardless if you’re a left-handed player, you can use this new feature to open up a wide area on the bottom-right of your screen which would otherwise be occupied by your weapon model.
Change Viewmodel In Valorant –
How To Select Left Hand in Valorant?
To use the left-handed mode, players will have to go to the settings after launching Valorant and change the “First Person Handedness” option from there. Once done, all the players you spectate in-game will also appear to be left-handed.
You might not be a big fan of the PP Bizon, but the skin for the submachine gun made by a CSGO fan is certain to win your heart.
Reddit user u/FriendlyBergTroll has managed to recreate a gumball machine as a PP Bizon skin in the competitive shooter.
The skin features the iconic red-and-white finish that makes it look similar to an actual old gumball machine (It even has a price tag of 25¢!)
The magazine of the Bizon is filled with gumballs instead of bullets, which goes in accordance with the fact that the gun doesn’t shoot bullets at all, but gumballs.
Needless to say, fans across the Global Offensive subreddit have fallen in love with this skin. The Workshop submission has received an overwhelming amount of support from players worldwide who’d enjoy seeing this skin in the game.
Whether to implement this skin in the game or not is a decision that’ll be taken entirely by Valve regardless of the positive feedback it gets. If implemented, fans will likely be able to get themselves the skin through case openings or operation rewards.
PUBG Mobile Japan League is the pinnacle of PUBG Mobile esports in the country. Since the rise in the popularity of mobile esports, PUBG Mobile has been leading with glorious events and large amount of prize pools.
This esports scene is very popular in Asian region and the prize pools are rising each year. Recently, PUBG Mobile concluded their first tournament that had a million dollars at stake and soon after, PUBG Mobile World League was announced with $2 Million prize pool but Japan has taken this threshold a step further.
PUBG Mobile Japan League is similar to an organized league structure followed by many other titles around the world. PUBG Mobile has its own League structure with Pro Leagues as the seasonal league playoffs where the winners get a chance to represent their region at the global stages.
While other regions fall under Pro League formats, some tournaments like EMEA League alter the format a little bit. Japan League will also change this format a little bit with their own certain additions but starting in 2021, this tournament will have the highest prize pool than any other PUBG Mobile tournament that falls under this category.
Japan League will take place twice in 2021 with an annual 2-phase system. Phase One will begin from February 2021 and will last till April and Phase Two will begin in July and the entire league will end in September 2021.
According to their website, NTT DoCoMo is organizing this tournament with total seasonal prize as 300 million yen (~$2.8M). This tournament format will be followed for three years, ending in 2023 and the prize pool distribution will be as follows:
From the table, it is clear that a total of 16 teams will be participating in this league and according to the information from PUBG Mobile Japan League website, the organizers are currently looking for corporate team owners to participate in this league. There are certain conditions mentioned by the officials and they are as follows:
Being a corporation.
Be in charge of the representative and the contact point for contact with the league.
At least 5 players belonging to the team must be available.
Participation of one team per corporation.
The detailed information about this tournament and participation details are provided on the official website. Such a massive prize pool makes Japan league the second tournament after PEL Season 3 to offer millions of dollars as competition prize pool. The record remains unbroken of the Chinese tournament Peacekeeper Elite League that offered $3 million for its participants.
128 North American teams were cut short into 16 who made their way into the Valorant First Strike Closed Qualifiers. The 16 teams who came out on the top will be formulated into four groups where the top seed will grace the official First Strike tournament backed by Riot.
Valorant First Strike Closed Qualifiers Groups –
Every team in the final 16 have an equal opportunity to be the final four. TSM on paper has the easiest group with relatively lesser-known teams in Valorant, which is not the case for the three other groups. Group A boasting C9, 100Thieves, and Luminosity Gaming, all juggernauts of the industry. Group B and C share the same story with potent teams all across the board.
Valorant First Strike Closed Qualifiers Schedule –
The qualifier matches will follow a best-of-three for the winners while the losers will continue in the lower brackets to compete in the Qualified Finals. NSG will stream all of these matches on Twitch as well the offcial Valorant channel.
The top seeds will find themselves in the First Strike Main Event taking place in December. Teams reaching the 2nd seeds will get one more chance to qualify for the First Strike Main Event.
Group A Winners
Cloud9 Blue 2-0
100 Thieves 2-0
Luminosity 2-1
Group B Winners
Gen.G 2-1
Complexity 2-0
T1 to Lower Bracket – 2-0
At the time of this writing, both Cloud9 Blue and 100 Thieves have topped XSET and Luminosity respectively with a 2-0 scoreline. Over at the remaining two groups, Gen.G Esports faces Equinox Esports while T1 faces Complexity. With the growing Valorant scene in North America, the First Strike Closed Qualifiers will be action-packed with teams doing their best to edge each other out.
