Spanish esports club G2 Esports, based in Germany, have raised $17.3 million through a fresh round of funding. The money will escalate the team’s footprints at the global front.
The groups which led the funding included Parkwood Corporation, Everblue Management, TopGolf Media, Yext, Seal Rocket Partners, Dan Gilbert, and Al Tylis.
“The backing from this distinguished group of business leaders is a testament to the future growth of this organization,” said G2 Esports CEO Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez.
“After an incredibly successful 2018 where we positioned ourselves as one of the leading entertainment assets in esports, G2 is doubling down on international growth, and continuing our investment in world-class content creation. We have partnered with the right investors, who have a deep understanding of a variety of entertainment industries, and significant experience in scaling successful companies and brands.”
G2 Esports now have active squads for the following games:
League of Legends
CS:GO
HeartStone
Fornite
Clash Royale
Rocket League
PUBG
Rainbow Six Siege
Super Smash Bros
G2 Esports’ League of Legends squad currently holds the position at the top of the ladder in the league with an 11-1 record.
Yesterday a report from VPEsports hit our inboxes which claimed to have information on Natus Vincere & Gambit Esports. The information claimed that both the teams have denied their participation at ESL One Mumbai 2019.
Soon after, Natus Vincere released a statement, echoing the details of the report. The report from VPEsports was then taken at face value and multiple media outlets reported that along with Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports would also skip ESL One Mumbai 2019.
The news soon spread and was noted by ESLDotA2 & Gambit Esports both. In a more or like joint statement, both the organization have rejected the report and have confirmed that Gambit will indeed attend the event.
Popular CS:GO shout-caster, Daniel “DDK” Kapadia will be at the casting desk of COBX Masters, tournament organizer revealed through their official Facebook page. COBX Masters is a $200,000 USD premier event which will have equal splits of prize-pool for CS:GO and Dota 2. The event will be held from 5-7 April 2019 at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai.
The tournament organisers further suggested that another prominent caster could make an appearance at the LAN event. According to us, James Bardolph could be the most accurate guess since lately, both have been casting together from quite sometime.
COBX Masters will comprise of six teams. Two teams would qualify through Indian Qualifier followed by a couple of teams from SEA Qualifier. Remaining two teams would receive direct invite from the organisers.
Riddled with inconsistency and disappointing results, it seemed Faze Clan wanted to go in a new direction, with Karrigan benched from the active roster. Niko had become the de-facto in-game shot-caller even during the final few events with Karrigan in the active roster.
Photo via HLTV
But, the next step was what was the most important one – Which player to bring in to replace Karrigan? With just a little bit of time left before the roster deadline, Faze had very little options to choose from, as the ‘BIG players’ were unlikely to swap teams so close to the Major. Faze took a calculated decision in bringing in Adren, who was earlier placed on the transfer list by Gambit.
Adren wasn’t the only addition though. Faze chose to hand a trial to YnK as well. The analyst-turned-coach had done a more than decent job during his time at mibr and would come in with fresh ideas to incorporate.
The move was under-appreciated and kind of flew under the radar. But, in Adren, Faze brought in a player with former experience of winning the major along with added firepower. But, along with it, Adren brought in with him a flame to prove himself after being placed on the transfer list by Gambit.
Photo via HLTV
YnK came with a similar fire burning under his belly as he wasn’t given enough time by mibr to incorporate his tactics, with the Brazilian team choosing to return to the roots with a full Brazilian lineup.
The tools for success was there. Adren could ably assist Niko in his shot-calling abilities and YnK was there to nurture his compatriot for the role. Like most lineups, this one had a slow start, with a couple of losses to Ghost seeing them bow out early at iBuyPower Masters.
The lineup though, soon recorded their first title, winning the ELeague CSGO Invitational 2019, thus gathering some momentum before the Major.
Photo via HLTV
Faze started the major with a bang as well, routing HellRaisers. But, they were soon brought crashing down to Earth, with consecutive losses, albeit close ones, to Renegades and AVANGAR. Boasting a score of 1-2 and facing the short end of the straw, Faze seemed submissive, losing Cache to complexity without much of a fight.
But, Mirage was where we saw the YnK effect kicking in. Faze picked up 10 rounds on the T side and genuinely looked like they knew what they were doing in most of the rounds, which is a far-off from the final days of the lineup consisting karrigan.
Dust2 was a close affair but YnK’s timeouts worked to perfection, with complexity eliminated thanks to some well-calculated fakes. The game against Cloud 9 was no different. Cache went down to the wire but Faze managed to grind it out.
Back to Dust2, Faze dominated the T side and locked in their win and a place in the Playoffs, thus reaffirming their status as Returning Legends for the Starladder Major as well.
One of the main reasons Faze managed to land a spot at the Playoffs was their T side, which would have been impossible without the influence of YnK and the entries provided by Niko himself.
While Niko is the designated IGL, the addition of YnK surely liberated him to perform better individual wise and take up more responsibility of opening up sites, instead of having to play lurk and call the shots.
YnK has a more hands-on approach with his coaching, which did not suit mibr well, according to the man himself, as they were set in their ways. But, Faze are hungry for success and they seem to be willing to adhere to their coach to achieve it.
Photo via HLTV
The camaraderie shown by the players with YnK after their wins show just how much the Serbian has influenced their gameplay. As far as Adren is concerned, the stats show it all. The CIS veteran is the second-highest rated Faze star at IEM Katowice so far, boasting an overall HLTV Rating 2.0 of 1.09, behind only to Niko, who is averaging 1.25.
It would be safe to say the experiment has reached it’s minimum expectation – to retain their Legends Status for the next major. Now, they will shift their focus to one of the big bosses in Natus Vincere, their opponents in the Playoffs.
Regardless, with the minimum expectation achieved, the organization will now be looking forward to the post-Major shuffle and what it brings for the current lineup.
In a report by Jarek “DeKay” Lewis on dexerto.com, North American Esports organization, Team Envy are looking to add Finn “karrigan” Andersen to their CS:GO roster for the long term.
Karrigan played for Team Envy at the Americas Minor on loan from FaZe Clan. During his brief time on the roster in January, Envy failed to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major, after finishing in third place at the Americas Minor and failing to encash on a second opportunity to qualify at the Minor Play-in after getting eliminated by North. If Karrigan joins Envy, he will help the team to qualify for Intel Extreme Masters XIV: Sydney.
In order to acquire Karrigan, FaZe clan will have to be paid a buyout for Karrigan and Team Envy will also have to negotiate with Karrigan about his contract. Dexerto has reported that the buyo2mut for Karrigan is at least $150,000 USD.
Team Envy will be seen in action during Season 9 of ESL Pro League after surviving a relegation scare. This time, ESL Pro League Season 9 will not have any online qualifiers and will be played out completely on LAN. The tournament is set to begin on April 12th. Sixteen teams from Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific regions will qualify for the playoffs.
Yesterday, WESG released the groups and how 32 teams have been split into 8 separate groups. Ninjas in Pyjamas eventually claimed the last invite for WESG 2018 Global Finals. The unjust within the groups have led to a spree of backlash and criticism from the community. There have also been several instances in the past when WESG’s integrity was questioned due to several mishaps.
WESG 2018 Global Finals is a prominent event backed the the prize-pool it carries. The 2018 version boasts of $890,000 USD, although previous WESG tournaments have had whopping prize-pool worth $1,500,000 USD.
If you closely look at various groups, you could easily see that Group A comprises of a couple of actual contenders – Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2 Esports. NiP has surprised everyone by reaching the Championship Stage 3 years later. G2, on the other hand, had several major changes in their roster but nonetheless, they’ve shown their capability.
Group E also comprises of fnatic and ENCE eSports. Fnatic has been quite lackluster at the major although it has had decent outings elsewhere. On the contrary, ENCE has made it to the Champions Stage of IEM Major: Katowice 2019. Not to forget, Movistar Riders has also ended up in Group E. Movistar Riders have quite popular Spanish names such as mixwell and loWel.
While on the contrary, some other groups – D, G & H have no actual contenders of the trophy. The community surely smells something unusual in here. In spite of all this, WESG 2018 Global Finals begins on March 11 and it will last until next six days.
According to a report by VPEsports, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, who is currently a free agent, is set to replace Jacob ‘FugLy’.
Tarik has had a miserable 2018 after winning the major with Cloud9, with a potential game changing move to MIBR not going to plan, with mediocre performances leading him to being relegated to the bench, before being replaced by Taco to form an all Brazilian team.
NRG, on the other hand, had an impressive showing in the Challengers stage by qualifying comfortably, but since then they were beaten in all 3 games to be the first team to crash out of the Legends stage. Although not the weakest at least in terms of stats, FugLy seemed like the only player they could replace, with awper ceRq and IGL daps being an essential part of the core.
With tarik, NRG will have at their disposal an explosive rifler who has also had some experience in leading the team, and his loose style of calling can be something the team can look at when they are struggling to put rounds on the board.
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds and a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game Tera are coming together in the first week of March 2019. Both the games are developed by Bluehole and the crossover will last until 5 April 2019. However, both the games merely have anything is common and it’s alleged to be quite an unconventional collaboration.
Both these games indeed share their history together. When PUBG began testing, several devs from Tera team were the first ones to run alpha tests and halped with PAX support.
Tera being a 7 year-old game from Bluehole will surely attract fraction of playerbase from PUBG and the game being free-to-play could also be pitched as another aspect for users to try out the MMO.
On the other hand, PUBG Mobile has collaborated with Resident Evil in the previous week. PUBG PC had also collaborated with DC Comics for new skins in late 2018.
Tera players will level 60 or higher can participate in the event for two hours each day. Although, even if you log in for an hour during the event, you’re eligible for keys, crates and battle points.
The new release on Natus Vincere’s website has confirmed that the team would not attend ESL One Mumbai 2019. The reason for skipping the ESL One’s first event in Mumbai is because of ‘busy tournament schedule.’
Natus Vincere not attending the event would surely leave fans disappointed as people have urge to meet the players. Na`Vi other than DotA2, has strong fanbase for their CS:GO team as well.
PUBG-Mobile, the world’s most played competitive game is battling with the skies. The viewership, tournaments & interactive events kicking in is attracting more players than ever for the Mobile gaming industry.
What CS:GO, DotA 2, FIFA & other generic games couldn’t do for decades, PUBG-Mobile did it in less than a year.
Professional sports has always fallen victim to fads and passing trends, functional or otherwise. Whether it’s Suction cup therapy, Kinesio Tape or GyroStim, athletes and teams are always looking out for new ways to gain an advantage over the competition. And if it’s legal, then even better.
Therefore, with esports becoming a higher-stakes industry year by year, and its popularity growing to the point where it will inevitably rival traditional sports, the question is more when we will see trends develop, than if we will. Maybe we even already have.
IRL
In terms of cultural esports trends, rather than technological, we’ve already looked at the major move teams are making towards training facilities, independent from where players live. Dedicated esports arenas are becoming increasingly common, where tournaments can be held, along with training sessions for fans of any skill level to come together. Good examples of this are the locations created by the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty World League. It’s a real boon to allow fans to have event spaces to visit even outside of tournament season, and will let companies become creative with the space all year round for the supporters. HyperX have even gone so far as to put together a 35-ton esports truck in time for CES 2019.
Into the Fold
Mobile esports itself can perhaps be seen as a trend, but with the rapid increase in what technology can be contained within a smartphone, it has been inevitable for some time that modern phones would reach the point where they would be able to run games that (almost) perform as well as a gaming PC. With handheld devices catching up to computers, and fully fledged 5v5 MOBAs appearing on app stores, mobile esports are carving a huge foothold in the industry.
This week Samsung, quite literally, opened up the possibility for a new way to play mobile esports, with the announcement of the Galaxy Fold, with pretty impressive specs that will appeal to mobile gamers, professional and otherwise. The Fold will feature a 7nm 64-bit Octa-core processor and 12GB of RAM, with 512GB built in storage for good measure and has a total battery capacity of 4,380mAh, via two batteries which are split on either side of the hinge. It’s worth noting that the trend is already well underway, with rival foldables already appearing from Chinese giant Huawei and California-based tech company Royole.
Samsung are of course already heavily invested in mobile esports, being the main sponsor and hardware provider for the PUBG Mobile Star Challenge (PMSC) World Tournament in Dubai late last year via the Galaxy Note 9. With this in mind, it’s not at all unfeasible to imagine their folding screen technology taking center stage at major mobile events. Either way, it looks a lot more comfortable to use than a suction cup.
