Bad news for CSGO fans – Valve has officially called off the upcoming major ESL One: Rio 2020 through an announcement dated September 9th. The November major was something fans of the competitive shooter looked forward to for months.
Valve states on their blog that they couldn’t predict the outcome of the COVID-19 scenario back when they had announced Road to Rio. Now that the virus is still continuing to wreak havoc worldwide, they decided to call off the major for the sake of the health of fans, who could risk contracting the virus by attending the event.
Unfortunately, the bad news is far from over. Valve went a step further and also announced that any further major would be held off until the situation comes to normalcy. It appears like CSGO fans will likely have to wait a long time before seeing another major for the shooter.
“While Valve is currently not able to say when and how Majors will return, as soon as they do we’ll work to bring the Major to Rio,” ESL mentioned in a statement. “New dates will be announced once a return for an in-arena Major is safe for everyone involved.”
ESL: Rio 2020 was originally scheduled for May, but was previously postponed to November following the virus outbreak.
The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games has taken a new turn where Apple has filed counterclaims against Epic Games alleging a “breach of contract”. The legal battle started when Epic Games bypassed the 30% fees charged on every transaction in App Store and introduced their own in-app payment system in Fortnite where they claimed to offer the “V-Bucks” at a discounted price.
After Epic Games tried to bypass this fee, Apple App Store and Google Play Store removed the game from their respective stores and while Fortnite was still available on all the android devices through the game’s official website, there was no way to get this game back on Apple devices.
This started a battle between Apple and Epic Games where the latter company took various steps to get back the game on the Apple App store. Epic Games started with launching a hashtag running by the name “#FreeFortnite” and urged their players and fans to take a stand against apple. This was followed by a mocking video posted on Fortnite’s official channel and a themed community tournament called as “Free Fortnite Championship” as a final event for their iOS device players before updating the game to Chapter Two- Season Four.
Apple has finally retaliated with their own counterclaims filed against Epic Games. According to the claims, “Epic’s lawsuit is nothing more than a basic disagreement over money. Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store. Epic’s demands for special treatment and cries of “retaliation” cannot be reconciled with its flagrant breach of contract and its own business practices, as it rakes in billions by taking commissions on game developers’ sales and charging consumers up to $99.99 for bundles of “V-Bucks.” “
According to The Verge, the Epic Games are supposed to reply by 18th September and the full hearing will be conducted on 28th September. The entire counterclaim report is available here.
Noble Esports have entered the Indian Valorant scene with a bang, picking up former Phoenix Esports duo Tejas ‘Rex’ Kotian and Rahul ‘t1to’ Sridhar. Simar ‘psy’ Sethi is the next high profile name on the roster. The former Entity star had only just announced his shift to Valorant and will now team up with former acquaintances Rex and t1to under the banner of Noble Esports.
Harsh ‘Harsh’ Arora, who has been playing CSGO for Team JHS up until now, is the fourth member of the roster. The lineup is rounded out by Shakir ‘hikkA’ Razak. The Sri Lankan was last seen playing Valorant for ZeGG Esports and was one of the best performing players in the recently concluded The Esports club event.
The lineup certainly packs a punch, with the dynamism of psy; the aggression of Rex along with the sheer brute force of hikkA, t1to and Harsh.
The Indian Valorant scene is heating up with the entry of multiple organisations and it will be intriguing to see who manages to dethrone Velocity Gaming, if at all.
PUBG Mobile got banned few days ago and the fans of this game are having a hard time processing this information. While some took a trendy approach to adress the ban with various memes, a group of PUBG Mobile fans conducted a funeral procession to grief for the loss of this game after the ban.
In a viral clip, some young men are seen donning a traditional white attire and carrying a symbolic body of PUBG Mobile which resembles to the culture of Indian funeral procession. The video was made in a satirical way where the men were shouting “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”, the slogan of PUBG Mobile which is shown after a team or single player wins the match.
Alongside this video, several other memes were also trending where people “worshipped” this game in the comical way. The news of ban trending in meme culture was expected but some people went one step ahead by creating memes in real life, by shooting some satirical sketches that depicted their creativity alongside sorrow for the ban.
PUBG Mobile was banned alongside 117 other chinese apps for being “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defense of India and security of state and public order.”
These mobile apps were accused of stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have location outside of India. The compilation of this data is hostile to national security and defence of India, according to the press release.
Formula One Esports announced their entry into the booming market of mobile esports with a new mobile championship. Since their debut in 2017, F1 Esports is set to hold their first exclusive smartphone-based championship on F1 Mobile Racing, the official F1 mobile game.
F1 Esports announced their entire league of esports tournaments named as F1 Esports Series 2020. The F1 Mobile Esports Tournament is entirely different than the series but the finale will be held during the same timeline.
Formula One entered into esports back in 2017 by announcing a programme called as F1 Esports Series. The programme was announced to involve official F1 Racing game and its community to provide a new avenue for greater engagement with the sport of Formula 1.
Later in 2018, the official teams participating in Formula 1 set up their own esports teams to compete for this title. This year, F1 takes another big step to venture into mobile gaming market with an opportunity for anyone around the world to win the first ever mobile champion title.
credits: F1 Esports
The tournament will be held in monthly league format from September to November. The tournament is open-for-all type and anyone with a mobile phone and F1 Mobile Racing app can participate in it.
The players who are able to qualify for the finals will compete in a nine day long tournament to determine the first ever “F1 Mobile Racing Esports Champion.” The official game for Android and Apple Stores are available on their official website.
Celebrated Cricket commentator and analyst Harsha Bhogle has put his bet into Fantasy Akhada, a cricket-and football-focused gaming & sports platform.
According to the official company statement (via VCCircle), Harsha has also entered into an agreement with the company to serve as its brand ambassador. Fantasy Akhada says it has raised over $175,000 (roughly Rs 1.28 crore at current trade rates) since its inaugural in January this year.
The startup, worked by Super Six Sports Gaming Pvt Ltd and set up by Amit Purohit, says it will utilize the resources to quicken its development. It will zero in on measurements including every day dream sports and client commitment and maintenance.
GAMING OR FANTASY SPORTS?
“We are also very sure that his understanding of fan behavior/preferences and strong business background will help us in planning the next phase of growth for our startup,” Purohit said.
Fantasy Akhada says it has been acknowledging growth of over 100% month-on-month following the pandemic influenced lockdown. The stage offers both easygoing and genuine cash based games and says it will before long grow its range to incorporate b-ball.
The capital raise in India has seen a moderate surge lately. The government ban of Chinese-origin apps, including the time spent on mobile phone has created zest in the ongoing startup industry.
According to our sources, Global Esports have finally decided to venture into the same world of competitive Valorant. The fabled Indian organisation is set to build a Valorant roster around their current csgo duo Bhavin ‘HellRanger’ Kotwani and Sagnik ‘hellf’ Roy. The two players have already migrated to Valorant to an extent, competing under the name ‘GodSquad’. The lineup can comfortably be called India’s second best currently, closely behind team VLT, who have been dominant in the Indian region thus far.
Akshay ‘KappA’ Sinkar is another member of GodSquad that will join the ranks at Global Esports. The roster will reportedly be rounded out by Ganesh ‘SkRossi’ Gangadhar and Jayanth ‘skillZ’ Ramesh, both of whom played together in CSGO for Team w1ngs.
The core of GodSquad have already sent ripples through the scene with their performances without completely switching to Valorant and it will be interesting just how far they can push themselves now that Valorant will be their primary and perhaps, only focus in the esports scene.
This lineup is due to create some inadvertent uncertainties in the csgo scene as well, with BL4ZE likely to search for a replacement for SkRossi as the fate of Global Esports’ own csgo roster hangs in the balance.
India Today, India’s premier media group has announced India Today League Valorant Cup for the Indian community. The prize pool of this event is set to INR 200,000 where the lion’s share of INR 100,000 will be won awarded to the winner, followed by INR 40,000, INR 25,000, INR, 15,000, INR 10,000 & INR 10,000 for second, third, fourth and group stage winners, respectively.
The game format is welcoming 256 teams, split into Group A & B. The tournament begins on 12th September and runs until 27th September 2020.
Valorant is the newest trend in the world of online video games. The free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Riot Games was released on June 2, 2020, following a long closed-beta phase as an amazing surprise for the community and to help people stay home and enjoy their quarantine.
Since its release, Valorant has continued to rise both as an esport title and in terms of player counts, with the tactical shooter amassing a daily average of a whopping 3 million players towards the end of its beta, as confirmed by Riot. Needless to say, this number certainly escalated further with the official release of the game.
INDIA TODAY VALORANT CUP
It wasn’t before long that tournaments began to be organized across the world for the competitive shooter, and that too with hefty prize pools. The announcement of the Ignition Series by Riot Games showed hopes for a promising future of the esports scene surrounding Valorant and inspired tournament organizers across the world to be a part of it.
India Today Gaming Valorant Cup – Prize Pool Details
It seems like Valorant has also started to lay an impact on the Indian esports scene, as India Today League has announced Valorant Cup powered by WD Gaming with a prize pool of Rs 200,000 up for grabs.
1st prize: Rs 1 lakh
2nd prize: Rs 40,000
3rd prize: Rs 25,000
4th place: Rs 15,000
Group-stage finish: Rs 10,000 per team.
India Today Gaming Valorant Cup – Tournament Format Details
The tournament will feature 256 teams in the group stages, with the top 8 from each group advancing to the next round. From there on, the top 4 will progress to the semi finals and the finals will see two of India’s best teams battling it out for the first prize of Rs 100,000.
Preliminary Group Round
Round 1 – 256 teams battle for 128 spots
Round 2 – 128 teams battle for 64 spots
Round 3 – 64 teams battle for 32 spots
Round 4 – 32 teams battle for 16 spots
Round 5 – 16 teams battle for 8 spots
Group Round Top 8
In this stage, the top 8 teams will be split into two groups of 4 each. The winners and runners-up from each group will progress to the semi-finals.
Group A – Team A, B, C, D
Group B – Team E, F, G, H
Semi-finals
SF 1: Winners of Group A vs Runners of Group B
SF 2: Winners of Group B vs Runners up for Group A
Final – Winners of SF 1 vs Runners Up for SF 2
The Valorant Cup will run for 15 days from 12-27 September, with the registrations closing on September 10th.
Think you have what it takes to become the next Valorant pro? Interested players can sign up for the tournament here.
Virtus.pro esports club supported the charity campaign fighting against COVID-19 organized by first roster Dota 2 player Bakyt Emilzhanov. The club donated $5,000 through the fundraising platform GoFundme, which makes half of the goal set by Bakyt.
COVID-19 has troubled the globe at an unprecedented range and rate, organizations and companies coming around to assist the ones in need is a step which we completely endorse and call for.
Sergey Glamazda, Virtus.pro general manager:
“We couldn’t stay away from the problem and made a decision to support the Bakyt initiative. It is rewarding to see that our players from other rosters also decided to join. The players will host a series of charity streams.”
The funds raised through the Bakyt campaign will pay for the personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, medicine, and oxygen concentrations for hospitals in remote villages in Kyrgyzstan.
The use of bots to cheat in video games has seen a substantial 97.3% average increase across Canada between February and June, new research reveals. The Cheating Countries study uses search volume data to analyze the incidence of cheat codes, bots, and hacks used in popular video game titles, and compares this to the number of downloads in each country, to reveal which locations have the highest density of cheaters.
The research found that Canadian gamers favor using hacks in Overwatch, have a high likelihood of using cheat codes while playing Minecraft, and are the fifth most likely country to use bots while playing any video games. Searches for hacks and cheat codes have also risen by 41.9% and 57.9% respectively, with Apex Legends seeing the biggest surge of cheat code use across the country.
And this cheating isn’t limited to Canada – global gamers are most likely to cheat while playing Minecraft, although League of Legends and Fortnite also experience a higher incidence of cheating compared to other titles. An analysis of which bots are most popular in each country reveals that Canada gamers use bots to boost finances far more than any other category, while they favor cheat codes to alter game terrain and improve invincibility.
Meanwhile. gamers in the Philippines are most likely to use cheat codes to gain combat skills, while Swedish and Norway players use bots for power-ups.
Top ten countries with the highest density of cheaters overall
Brazil
Georgia
Iraq
Pakistan
Portugal
Greece
Bulgaria
Algeria
Romania
Azerbaijan
The study also found that Iceland, Panama and Costa Rica claim the lowest density of cheaters, making gamers from these locations more likely to be honest about their abilities when playing against others online. The study has also compiled a list of countries where gamers find solace in using cheats and unfair advantages to gain edge in the game.
