The North-American organization have acquired the trio of Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, Victor “food” Wong and Edgar “MarkE” Jimenez from Swole Patrol, the organization has announced on their twitter
The three will fill in the gaps caused by FNS, their in-game leader and will replace Mike “dapr” Gulino and Will “dazzLe” Loafman, whose contracts will not be renewed for the following year
The General Manager of eUnited, Daniel Clerke wished the players luck on their future endeavors on his statement on the official website of eUnited. He said, “This has been a very difficult year for eUnited Counter-Strike. We are very proud of what we have accomplished and plan to improve upon our successes from 2018. With that being said our organization has identified that the best option for our team is a culture shift. I am deeply saddened to have to move on from Will and Mike. This past year with them has been incredible and I wish them both the best in their futures not only as players but as people who I have become friends with. However, I am very optimistic and excited for the potential with the new team and am excited for a complete reset for 2019.”
Victor “food” Wong and Edgar “MarkE” Jimenez will join the ranks as riflers and Anthony “vanity” Malaspina will take over the reigns of the team and be their IGL. The roster will be completed by Kaleb “moose” Jayne and Austin “Cooper” Abadir
Regarding these changes, Cooper; who is currently the captain of the team said that “Since joining eUnited the culture has been pretty unsteady. With this group of players joining I can be fully confident in the roster. Vanity will bring a new perspective to calling for the team and I am very excited about the potential and the future.”
Entity have announced the signing of Chinmay “PoK1” Mehta, who last played for 2ez gaming.
The announcement comes on the back of Entity benching their core duo of Bhavin “HellrangeR” Kotwani and Simar “Psy” Sethi and acquiring the services of Đorđe “DJOXiC” Niciforović and thus signaling a change in the composition of their roster, with an equal mix of Serbs and Indians.
PoK1 has been part of the 2ez roster since December 2017, with his final game being against Entity in the ESL India Premiership Winter Finals which they lost 2-0 to get 2nd place.
PoK1-Amaterasu-Dav-DJOXIC-Excali
The 21-year-old has a HLTV rating of 1.02 and will look to add firepower as well as a balance between young and experienced players.
The eSports world has been getting huge for a while now, so it is no wonder that the top players in the world are getting paid a whole lot of cash. Some of the players and spectators don’t even realize how much money is involved in the industry and never get to realize how much money is made by the players.
Let me tell you something, the top ten players in the world get paid pretty crazy amounts, every year. So who are these top ten players, where do they come from, what games do they play and how much money do they make?
Well, the answer to those questions is right below. Just consider how much amount of work these people have put into getting where they are at. If you are an aspiring professional player, you might want to get inspired by these people, so that eventually you too can be at the same level.
Highest paid eSports players
KuroKy
$4.1 Million
Everybody has heard of this guy. Well, at least everybody who has ever wanted to learn more about the Dota 2 gaming world. KurokY is a professional gamer who has been in the game for a long while. Just like all of us, he started out with Dota. He has been participating in competitions for many years.
The German player has been able to gather up four million US dollars in his years of playing, all in prize money. That is a staggering amount of money and is the most money anybody has made by playing eSports to date. Currently, he is part of Team Liquid and is enjoying his amazingly successful run.
N0tail
$3.7 Million
The names on this list are of course no surprise to anyone. N0tail is an amazing player who has been part of the eSports scene for a very long time. Since his promising upstart days, this start player has moved onto becoming the second highest paid player in all of the industry, and all of this with prize money.
Though on his road to success there were a lot of bumps and obstacles. At some point, he was part of the team that was coming in as one of the last in the Dota 2 championships. But, after so many years of trying, it looks like N0tail has found a worthy team that he was able to win the 2018 Dota Championship with.
Miracle
$3.7 Million
Once upon a time Miracle- was a pubstar, nothing but a player who achieved incredible feats without ever competing professionally. Dota was his game of choice, just like everyone on this list and he stuck with it so long and so well that he has achieved amazing success. He has been able to become the third highest paid player, in terms of prize money, over the years of his play.
While today he might be taking a break from Dota 2, this player has become a legend over the years of the gaming. Let’s wish him luck as his journey continues.
MinD_ContRoL
$3.5 Million
MinD_ContRol has had a very interesting career over the years, with a significant number of bumps on his road as well. He has been part of winning teams and captain of some amazing rosters for a long time. Over the years he has managed to win a huge number of championships and, conversely, has managed to gather up enough money to be considered one of the top paid players in the world.
This Bulgarian player has faced many issues with his career over the years, with one or two controversies always being not too far off from his games. Yet, he continues to be one of the top players and one of the top earners.
Matumbaman
$3.4 Million
Matumbaman has been in the eSports gaming spotlight ever since 2014 when he won the Assembly Summer 2014. Ever since then the player has been steadily making a name for himself in the international eSports community. While his career has not been as long as some of the other eSports player’s, he has already managed to gather up enough winnings to become the fifth highest paid player in the world. Now, as part of team liquid, he is on his way to becoming even better in the future.
You may have noticed that all of these players are Dota 2 pros. This could either be because Dota 2 is the most popular MOBA game in the world or because of the 2017 tournament, which had the highest winning pool of all time. Whatever it is, you might want to start learning from these guys to see how you could become a better player, and one of the highest earning competitors, in the future.
The IEM Katowice Main Qualifiers are on the horizon. The phase, now called the New Challengers Stage, has eight spots up for grabs at the New Legends Stage or as we can say, the actual beginning of the legacy Major.
ESL has gotten Valve to agree to a seeding for the Main Qualifiers in what is a new idea – a player-driven seeding system. But, regardless of the seedings, there are always surprises in store at this stage.
Some, we already received at the Minors, with teams like North, mousesports, INTZ and eUnited not making it to Poland. The ones that have though, are all contenders for the eight spots, although some come into the event as favourites to advance.
Here we list three underrated teams that can shock other teams and land one of the eight spots.
The lineup has already tread down a similar path at the FACEIT Major 2018, surprising everyone. And while their overall record has been far from perfect, they are always a threat at big events, mostly due to their unbridled form of aggression.
They have a Shark on their logo, which justifies their playing style to an extent. Like Sharks, Vega Squadron’s lineup are always aggressive towards anyone who dare step foot on the same server, sometimes to their own detriment as well.
What they have going for them in Poland is the presence of teams who are not really accustomed to facing such an aggressive style of play. The likes of Vici Gaming, FURIA, Renegades, and Grayhound are all, to an extent, alien to the way Vega Squadron go about their game.
They kick their campaign off against G2, who have not exactly been setting the stage on fire since the changes to their lineup. G2 have been prone to being easily underpowered and Vega Squadron, who rely mostly on aggression and momentum, could be a real test.
With so many new teams getting to this stage, Vega Squadron are one of the favourites from the underdog bracket, if you can understand what we mean to say.
Despite the aggression, Vega play a team game, with no real standout star(s). Everyone chips in, with someone always stepping up when needed.
Their runners-up finish at StarSeries i-League Season 6 will give them the confidence to match up to the ‘BIG’ teams on the server and we fully expect other teams to tread the Polish waters carefully, especially with the Sharks present.
2. Winstrike (IEM Seeding: 15) (HLTV Ranking #27)
One of the resident underdogs at IEM Katowice 2019, Winstrike have no real achievements apart from their Group Stage appearance at FACEIT Major 2018. The team formerly known as Quantum Bellator Fire though, surprised everyone with a run straight from the CIS Minor straight to the Quarter Finals, where they fell to regional powerhouse Natus Vincere.
Kvik and Boombl4 are the only survivors from the lineup. But, Winstrike have been shrewd in going about adding the rest of the missing pieces. One of the great finds of the CIS region in recent time, norber7 has been proving himself individually on the server as part of Winstrike.
The addition of waylander and WorldEdit though, is why we are going for Winstrike to cause a surprise or more in Poland. The former Flipside Tactics duo have experience under their belt and can steer the ship during difficult times.
Also, Boombl4 can really be left to do the crazy on the server, with the experienced head of WorldEdit there to cover him and lend a helping hand. This lineup has had a good amount of success, with two top 3 Lan placings, although one of them was at the CIS Minor.
Winstrike are up against NRG in their opening fixture and while it will be too much for us to expect a win for the CIS lineup, we are sure they will come close to qualifying if not qualify for the New Legends Stage.
3. FURIA (IEM Seeding: 13) (HLTV Ranking #21)
The last name on our list, FURIA are by no means the last on everyone’s thoughts for the IEM Katowice 2019 New Challengers Stage. While they did falter to NRG and ended up qualifying as the second team from the Americas Minor, FURIA are easily recognised as the best Brazilian team among ones that are still based in the country.
FURIA decided to change things up, bringing in the raw firepower of ableJ to replace the experienced spacca. But, the undoubted star of the lineup is kscerato, who was rumoured to be on the radar of mibr. The premier organization attempted to bring the youngster in but were thwarted by the said buyout fee, with mibr choosing to go for Felps instead.
kscerato is regarded as the star with stats genuinely backing the sentiment. The fact that the player recorded only two sub-1.00 rating events over a series of 37 events as part of FURIA is enough to point just how consistently he has been delivering for the lineup.
But, kscerato is not alone. He is ably supported by yuurih and arT, with VINI and ableJ also chipping in. FURIA qualifying for the New Legends Stage could be brilliant for the Brazilian scene in general.
Nip will be the first ones to face FURIA at the New Challengers Stage. The Brazilians will fancy their chances against the legendary organization, with the Swedes not posting consistent results.
Overall, we believe FURIA reserve a very strong chance to upset the ‘favoured’ teams. A genuine shout to join mibr at the New Legends Stage.
Titanfall’s Apex Legends, the latest entrant in the hugely competitive Battle Royale space, has hit 10 million players within 72 hours of its launch, along with having over a million concurrent players.
The free to play game by EA has garnered a lot of excitement since its launch on Monday, and currently is the most streamed game on Twitch with over 200k viewers.
Vince Zampella, CEO of Respawn said:
This has been a truly incredible journey. We tested and tweaked. We argued and agreed. We got to a point where we felt some magic. We knew it would be risky to take the franchise in this direction, to go free to play, and do a surprise launch. But we fell in love with Apex Legends and wanted, needed, other people to play it too.
For those living under a rock, Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game set in the Titanfall universe, and it’s a game that mashes together elements of some of the most popular online shooters. It features Overwatch-style hero characters, along with the core gameplay of Fortnite and PUBG. Notably, it also requires players to squad up in groups of three, though it includes a number of accessibility features so that you can play it without voice chat.
“We hoped you’d love it as much as us, but never in our wildest dreams could we have expected the outpouring of support and positivity we’ve seen. From all of us at Respawn, thank you for giving us and Apex Legends a chance. Thank you for joining us on this journey. This is just the beginning! We have so much more in store for you this year.”
To put things in perspective- The most popular Battle Royale Game Fortnite took 2 weeks to hit the 10 million mark, while overwatch took a month. Although it is way behind the 200 million user base that is holding Fortnite firmly at the number 1 Battle Royale game- the start seems very positive for Apex Legends to displace it in the coming months.
Navi has announced that it would be partnering with esports analytics platform Shadow, by producing content under the Navi banner, which will showcase how Shadow uses data insights and aggregation to improve the performance of teams.
Shadow CS:GO features a match database, automated strategic analysis, and the Shadow Holo-Engine which is unique in its ability to create a 3D replay of a match directly in the Shadow web client. This allows teams to seamlessly review demos in both 2D and 3D on a single platform.
Mykhailo “Kane” Blagin is very excited about the partnership.
“The pro scene is constantly changing, and keeping track of new and unique tactics is very difficult. Especially when you find out who your next opponent is at night, and you need to face them the next morning.”
“In such situations, Shadow comes to rescue — an analytical program that focuses on the details and allows you to track the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent. It shows the purchases of the teams, and also gives information about the preferred positions of the players. We can pinpoint how the enemy plays on force buys or where the snipers usually position themselves.”
“Anyone who works with replays(demos) knows how long it takes the game to rewind. If you need to study a certain round, you have to wait each time while the game rolls it back to the start. In Shadow, you can instantly replay the most important moments of the game, saving minutes of precious time that would have been wasted. Also, CS:GO replay system does not show the Molotov and grenade trajectories. This is fixed in Shadow.”
The main aim of the partnership will be to highlight the changing dynamics of the esports industry in terms of data analytics and the use of technology and AI to improve performance- and show the esports fraternity how Shadow makes full use of it.
Tim “Magic” Sevenhuysen, head of Shadow, said:
“Our goal at Shadow is to be relied on daily by the world’s best esports teams. We’re thrilled to strengthen our partnership with NAVI to not only showcase how effective the right analytics can be when put into action at the highest levels of competition, but also to delve deeper into what a team like NAVI needs so we can continue to improve Shadow with new innovations and lead the charge for the esports analytics industry.”
Meanwhile, Navi has also announced that it would extend its deal with Monster Energy as the main sponsor, which will see it running till 2019. The deal will see Navi producing promotional content and player-driven campaigns while acquiring Monster Energy’s dedicated consumer fanbase along the way. Monster is already known to have a big stake in the Esports industry, with previous partnerships with Team Liquid, Fnatic and Team EnvyUs.
According to several sources and a report from prominent esports journalist, Jarek “DeKay” Lewis, StarLadder could well receive the honour to host next Valve sponsored CS:GO major. The 15th major is expected to be hosted in Germany and it would possibly be the first ever event for Ukraine based tournament organiser in Germany. The prestigious Valve major is expected to take place in September, six months past the on-going major, IEM: Katowice 2019.
If the reports are to be believed, this would be the fourth CS:GO major to be hosted in Germany. On the other hand, ever since 2015, USA is believed to not have a major in 2019. Also, CIS region awaits further to receive a major either. This would be the first ever major awarded to Ukraine based organisers. Apparently, StarLadder has impressed Valve with the Dota 2 major in Chongqing, China.
According to HLTV, StarLadder is also planning to establish a studio in the German capital, Berlin. Alongside this, StarLadder esports manager, Alex Trushliako tweeted that the company was ‘about to host the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major’. However, he further tried to clarify that he was referring to StarLadder StarSeries i-League, China, trying to clear the ‘misunderstanding’ in a follow-up tweet and blamed his lack of knowledge regards to Counter-Strike.
Like the other Valve majors, StarLadder Major: Berlin is expected to have prize pool worth $1 Million USD and it will feature in-game players and teams stickers. Apart from this, in-game GOTV and souvenir drops are quite obvious.
Igen Gaming, a Pakistan based tournament organiser has partnered up with FACEIT to bring dedicated leagues exclusively for the nation. The organization is the first and the only one to team up with the matchmaking platform to establish 4 hubs for the local community. Pakistan scene has been facing several issues with respect of latency and connectivity. Although FACEIT doesn’t have dedicated servers for Pakistan, all the servers will be hosted through Dubai.
IGen & FACEIT have established 4 Hubs:
IGen Silver League
Silver League is open to all players with FACEIT level 1-6 and the league will have a prize pool worth 15,000 FACEIT points to be distributed at the end of every month.
IGen Gold League
Gold League is confined to players falling between FACEIT level 7-10. The league will comprise of prize pool worth 21,000 FACEIT points for each month. Top two players at the end of every month will advance to IGen Pro League on a trial basis to compete with the best across the country.
IGen Pro League
Pro League is an invite-only hub which will feature 50 top players from within the country. Each month, two from Gold League will advance to Pro League while the bottom two will be relegated to Gold League due to substandard performance. The league will have prize pool worth $250/35,000 PKR.
IGen Scrim League
Scrim League is a team only hub. It is restricted to regional teams which will help to deepen the competition amongst the best and it could eventually upscale Pakistani pro circuit in general.
For the first time, ‘Players Council’ will be introduced in Pakistan. The council will comprise of 3 ‘reputed’ and ‘senior pro players’. It will eventually hold the decision to promote or demote players within the IGen Pro League.
Subscription worth $3.99/mo or $2.99/mo if paid annually is required to join IGen Hub. Alongside the leagues, subscription will also grant access to future tournaments organised by IGen Gaming.
Entity gaming have announced the signing of Đorđe ‘DJOXiC’ Niciforović, who is currently a free agent, taking their active roster size to 4.
The news comes on the backdrop of the press release by Entity to bench Simar “Psy” Sethi and Bhavin “HellRangeR” Kotwani with the recently concluded ESL India Premiership Winter Finals being their last event, which they won comfortably against 2ez.
The move to acquire ex Valiance player DJOXiC signals the direction in which the management want to steer this team, with an equal mix of Indians and Serbs, as well as a good balance between young blood and experienced players in the international scene being added.
This means that DJOXiC is set to reunite with coach Darko “soLo” Mitić, who he had played with in Valiance, a team which nearly qualified for the upcoming IEM Katowice Major. The future of psy and hellranger at this point is unknown, although it is expected to be resolved very soon.
Former BIG player Owen “smooya” Butterfield has had yet another setback this month, after having been banned in the FACEIT Pro League for being toxic against another player.
In an FPL Game last night, the 19-year-old was seen calling Ismail “refrezh” Ali of OpTic a “fucking bitch” and told him to “kill himself” after appearing to have not tried all match that led it to go to overtime.
BREAKING NEWS: PLAYER BANNED FROM FPL
I’ve been suspended for the foreseeable future for my comments towards @refrezhCS. I don’t agree with what I said nor do I think it’s right in anyway. I will take the week to relax! This isn’t any way reflective on @BIGCLANgg, it’s on me.
“After recent events and many clips that resurfaced, we decided to bench smooya in FPL to give him some time to clear his thoughts and adjust his behavior, which recently was out of control in the FPL,” FACEIT partnerships manager Milos Nedeljkovic said.
“He will reflect on everything and calm down without potentially saying any career-ruining words in FPL, so we are giving him some time off to clear his head. Just wanted you guys to know why you won’t see him around.”
The toxicity did not stop there, as the Brit called refrezh out on Twitter after the match, by saying: “don’t queue FPL if you’re in a bad mood or something [and] don’t waste my time, thanks!”
The tweet has since been deleted.
Butterfield has been no stranger to such incidents, with a particularly striking one being that against Mousesports in StarSeries Season 6, when he was seen incessantly yelling after every round and “accidentally” buying the auto sniper in the CT side.
He has since tweeted and confirmed that the ban will be set for the “foreseeable future,” and also agreed that what he said was right in anyway, without offering any apology.
