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CSGO caster HenryG announces retirement, teases plans for future

Sonu Banerjee
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CSGO caster HenryG announces retirement, teases plans for future

Iconic CSGO caster and analyst Henry “HenryG” Greer has announced his retirement from professional casting on September 4th. The 32-year-old cemented his place as one of the greatest casters in esports history and won the ‘Esports Broadcaster of the year’ award towards the end of 2019.

“It comes with the heaviest of hearts, that today, I am announcing my retirement from Esports commentary,” HenryG said through a tweet.

Henry has shared more of his thoughts in an interview with  DBLTAP.

“This has been the most difficult decision I have ever had to make and it is one that I don’t take lightly,” he said in the interview. “This has been my entire life for close to a decade and I can assure you that I didn’t want it to go down like this.”

As a caster, HenryG has been a part of more than 150 events over the course of six years, which is certainly a remarkable achievement in itself.

Henry claims that “certain recent events” had a significant impact in his decision to quit professional casting. “I simply cannot face the reality of returning to the mic. Ever.”

“Arenas and stadiums are where I always wanted to be,” Henry stated, claiming that he was never interested in casting CSGO while sitting in a studio or from the comfort of his home. “I am fueled by the thrill of the crowd,” he said.

Luckily, for his fans, HenryG has hinted towards his future plans in the interview with DBLTAP.

“As for clues, all I will say is this – this will be the most ambitious challenge I have ever undertaken in my life. I couldn’t be more excited to show the world what I have been working on behind closed doors.”

The retired caster will reveal his future plans in CSGO through his Twitter handle on 7th September, at 8 pm CEST.

Gaming Startup Mobile Premier League Wins Title Sponsorship of Reality Show BigBoss

Pranav Nalawade
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Gaming Startup Mobile Premier League Wins Title Sponsorship of Reality Show BigBoss

Bigg Boss 2020 will be back on Colors and take viewers on an entertaining ride packed with drama, thrill, and excitement. Hosted by Salman Khan, for the new season, Colors has joined hands with esports and mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) as the presenting sponsor.

Speaking about the partnership, Mahesh Shetty, Head, Network Sales, Viacom18, “Bigg Boss is one of the leading reality shows in the entertainment space and it appeals to demographics across geographies. Given its strong fanbase makes it one of the sought-after marketing playgrounds for sponsors. Over the years, several brands have come forward to explore innovative customizations and partnerships to deliver their business ambitions. Mobile Premier League (MPL) is India’s leading esports and mobile gaming platform that provide unparalleled gaming experience to the users and we are glad to welcome them as the presenting sponsor for the new season of Bigg Boss.”

Talking about the collaboration, Abhishek Madhavan, VP, Growth and Marketing, Mobile Premier League (MPL) said, “Bigg Boss is one of the most watched reality shows in India and easily the most popular and most talked-about reality TV show across the country. With a superstar like Salman Khan hosting it, every season is eagerly awaited by millions and promises something new. With MPL expanding into areas like entertainment via its live-streaming and a bunch of video-first features, Bigg Boss was the most obvious choice for us to associate with. We eagerly look forward to this season and hope to cement MPL’s position as a household name through the partnership.”

Elaborating on the partnership, Naveen Khemka from Mediacom said, “We are delighted with this partnership of MPL and Bigg Boss. This is one show that has shown consistent performance over the years. We are confident that we will be able to leverage a strong association with the loyal Big Boss audience through some innovative associations that we have in store for our exponentially increasing gaming audience. India loves to play and this time it’s going to be inside the Big Boss house with MPL.”

Tencent to engage with Indian authorities to bring back PUBG Mobile

Divyesh Moghe
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Tencent to engage with Indian authorities to bring back PUBG Mobile

Tencent is looking towards conducting a discussion on uplifting the ban imposed on its several apps, including PUBG Mobile. The news was confirmed verbally by many known personalities in PUBG Mobile Esports industry and on the PUBG Mobile official discord as well.

PUBG Mobile was banned alongside 117 other apps that threatened the user privacy and national security. The official press release reads, “The apps are blocked as prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defense of India and security of state and public order.”

The PUBG Mobile official discord channel was spammed by many players who were asking on what the officials will do regarding this imposed ban. Responding to this, an admin confirmed that there are discussions ongoing and the team is trying to find a solution on this. The admin also requested people to remain patient during this process.

Apart from that, many professional players and famous personalities in the industry conveyed the same message that the officials are trying their best to bring the game back and until then, the players should remain calm and wait for an official statement.

Banning PUBG Mobile had many adverse effects on the esports industry in India and most of the people working in this title are presumably becoming unemployed in due time. Lifting ban is necessary for esports and allied fields to thrive as before.

PUBG Mobile has already upgraded their privacy policy which states that all the user data is stored locally and the ban is stated for datamining hence there is a big possibility of the game getting unbanned after doing some minute changes. If that is not possible, there is another way to bring back this game by launching an entire India operated version which is unique and entirely based in India. A similar counterpart by the name of “Game for Peace” is already active in China and hence achieving the same feat in India can be possible.

Entrepreneur Vishal Gondal announces mobile game FAU-G, Actor Akshay Kumar to mentor

Pranav Nalawade
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Entrepreneur Vishal Gondal announces mobile game FAU-G, Actor Akshay Kumar to mentor

Following the modern culture being promoted by Prime Minister of India, Atmanirbhar (English self-reliant), Bollywood legend Akshay Kumar announced on his social handle about the development of FAU – G, a title which relates with PUB-G. The game is developed by NCore Games, which has India’s reputed tech entrepreneur Mr. Vishal Gondal as Investor.

The players will also learn about the sacrifices made by Indian Soldiers. Furthermore, 20% of the revenue generated in the game will be donated to Bharat Ke Veer Trust (India’s Brave Forces Trust) which is a fund-raising initiative by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Akshay Kumar says, “For youngsters in India, gaming is becoming an important form of entertainment. With FAU-G, I’m hoping that as they play the game they will learn about the sacrifices of our soldiers and also contribute to the families of the martyrs; and with this each one of us has the ability to support PM Modi’s vision of Atma Nirbhar ”

The game is based on real scenarios encountered by the Indian Security Forces to deal with both domestic and foreign threats. The game is expected to launch at the end of October with its first-level set in the Galwan Valley backdrop followed by third-person shooting gameplay in the subsequent releases. The game will be available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Founder and Chairman of the gaming publisher, Vishal Gondal, says “It is a matter of great pride to respond to PM Modi’s call and present the world a world-class game, which will not only help gamers in a virtual setting fight the forces of evil; but also positively contribute to nation-building by supporting our martyrs,”
 
Dayanidhi MG, co-founder and CEO adds, “We have in-depth experience in different genres specially mid-core games. We managed genre-defining MOBA games like Vainglory of SuperEvil Megacorp for the worldwide audience. We have also worked with global studios like Rovio. We have an experienced team and is constantly expanding to bring the best talent together to create games that Indian gamers can relate to while playing”.

The push comes in after India banned the famous mobile game PUBG after bilateral diplomatic turnaround with it’s Asian counterpart China.

PUBG Mobile removed from Google Play Store and App Store in India

Pranav Nalawade
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PUBG Mobile removed from Google Play Store and App Store in India

PUBG Mobile has been removed from the App Store and Google Play Store in India. The app was banned on Wednesday evening on an order by the Ministry of Information and Technology, which also banned 117 other popular apps from China, stating that these apps violated the privacy of users and stored their data outside India.

The government gave notice to Apple and Google to remove all 118 apps, and asked ISPs and telecom companies to help enforce the ban as well. The famous gaming app on the list, PUBG Mobile, has already been removed from the stores and can’t be downloaded, although the app is still working fine for the moment. This means that if you have PUBG Mobile installed on your phone, you can keep using it, for now, but if you remove it for any reason, you will not be able to get it back.

PUBG Mobile was entering into their “New Era” on 8th September and players from India won’t be able to join this big change. Their big update was going to enhance the gaming experience for its entire player base but this time, a big chunk of players who belong to India are bound to miss this event.

PUBG Mobile tried to skip this ban for so long by implementing various changes in their game. The game added an age restriction menu earlier in this year, due to which players who opted a below-18 option got frequent time pauses ranging from few minutes to several hours. For any player that opted for above 18 option, it gave an alert to take a break after every two hours spent ingame.

Along with this small change, the company made a change in the game’s privacy policy and made various changes that highlighted the transparency of game’s data storing and utilisation process. The policy expressed an important change that the player data was saved locally in India and after request, even the user can opt to delete data.

PUBG Mobile was a leading esports title in India. The tournaments kickstarted with Campus Championship back in early 2019 and from that time, multiple tournaments were conducted throughout the last year giving away lakhs of rupees as prize money. The most recent title with big prize pool were PMIS and PMCO India.

With this ban in place, the huge player base in India may be disappointed by the government’s decision. PUBG Mobile also gave birth to prominent streamers from Dynamo to Soul Mortal who became a household name in India due to this game. The entirety of PUBG Mobile ecosystem and hundreds of players competing professionally in the competitive scenario is affected by this ban. Not only its players, but the company itself has a big market in India and they can soon be seen taking actions to get this app unbanned in India.

PUBG Mobile removed from Apple App Store in India

Divyesh Moghe
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PUBG Mobile removed from Apple App Store in India

PUBG Mobile is removed from Apple’s App Store after the game was banned by IT Ministry of India. This is the biggest ban affecting a large number of population of India who enjoys to play this game and Tencent, the game developers, itself.

A total of 118 apps were banned in a third ban wave against Chinese apps that evaded the public privacy. According to the press release the apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defense of India and security of state and public order” and hence received the banhammer. PUBG Mobile is not the only game banned; Tencent took a heavy toll after their other famous title Arena of Valour faced the same fate along with PUBG Mobile’s lite version.

PUBG Mobile was entering into their “New Era” on 8th September and players from India won’t be able to join this big change. Their big update was going to enhance the gaming experience for its entire player base but this time, a big chunk of players who belong to India are bound to miss this event.

PUBG Mobile tried to skip this ban for so long by implementing various changes in their game. The game added an age restriction menu earlier in this year, due to which players who opted a below-18 option got frequent time pauses ranging from few minutes to several hours. For any player that opted for above 18 option, it gave an alert to take a break after every two hours spent ingame.

Along with this small change, the company made a change in the game’s privacy policy and made various changes that highlighted the transparency of game’s data storing and utilisation process. The policy expressed an important change that the player data was saved locally in India and after request, even the user can opt to delete data.

PUBG Mobile was a leading esports title in India. The tournaments kickstarted with Campus Championship back in early 2019 and from that time, multiple tournaments were conducted throughout the last year giving away lakhs of rupees as prize money. The most recent title with big prize pool were PMIS and PMCO India.

With this ban in place, the huge player base in India may be disappointed by the government’s decision. PUBG Mobile also gave birth to prominent streamers from Dynamo to Soul Mortal who became a household name in India due to this game. The entirety of PUBG Mobile ecosystem and hundreds of players competing professionally in the competitive scenario is affected by this ban. Not only its players, but the company itself has a big market in India and they can soon be seen taking actions to get this app unbanned in India.

On PUBG Ban, China accuses India of ‘aligning with the US’

Md. Naseer Fuad Khan
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On PUBG Ban, China accuses India of ‘aligning with the US’

Indian government’s action to boycott 118 more Chinese mobile apps including the tremendously famous PUBG seems to have shaken China, with the state-run Global Times calling New Delhi’s decision “self-defeating.”

In a news piece, the state-run media portal said the Indian government was trying to satisfy the United States which has of late embraced a hawkish position towards the Xi Jinping system, particularly in the wake of the Covid pandemic which began in the Asian nation.

“India’s latest move to ban 118 Chinese mobile apps is ‘self-defeating’. Such push for economic decoupling with China is a gesture to please and align with the US strategy, but would only end up further sinking its economy,” the Global Times posted on its Twitter account on Thursday, attributing the remarks to analysts.

Photo: Android Authority

The report named ‘India pushes for decoupling with China’ makes reference to that the choice has come in the midst of the uplifted outskirt pressures. It says the transition to boycott applications “will additionally occupy away Chinese financial specialists in the midst of fraying reciprocal relations”.

The rundown of restricted applications incorporate versatile game application PUBG, just as those from Chinese tech organizations like Baidu, Alibaba and Alibaba’s monetary arm Ant Group.

Gao Feng, representative at China’s Ministry of Commerce, today told a press instructions: “India’s activity not just damages the authentic rights and premiums of Chinese speculators and administrations suppliers yet additionally hurts the premiums of Indian shoppers while doing harms to India’s venture atmosphere as an open economy.”

It isn’t the main advanced strike that India has perpetrated on China since the ejection of the fringe struggle since April-May.

In June this year, India had reported a restriction on 59 Chinese applications, including TikTok and UC Browser. Afterward, the administration hindered a few more Chinese applications which were adequately clones of the at first prohibited 59 applications.

India Ban Worry: Call of Duty ends partnership with Tencent

Divyesh Moghe
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India Ban Worry: Call of Duty ends partnership with Tencent

Call of Duty:Mobile makers Activision parted ways with the Chinese conglomerate. The game developers have already severed all of its ties to Tencent before they rolled out the season nine update in previous month. Apparently, this move has saved Call of Duty:Mobile to evade the banhammer in which 119 Chinese apps, including PUBG Mobile were banned.

UPDATE: New information from our editorial team suggests that the reports of TENCENT ending terms with COD:Mobile & India’s ban on Chinese applications is unrelated, we are working with the publisher companies to verify the authenticity of this move. We regret if this may have caused inconvenience.

Confirmed by GamingonPhone, Activision has parted ways with the Chinese conglomerate Tencent and their subsidiary TiMi studios. The rumours started rising when the game changed its loading screen. The screen which earlier boasted the names of Tencent and TiMi studios were removed and was replaced by Activision.

  • Former Screen
  • Latter Screen
The change in loading screen was instantly noticed by the community.

According to an official from TiMi Studios, there were two main reasons due to which the ties were broken.

Trump’s executive orders against Tencent

The spokesperson cited that the first main reason was President Trump’s orders that restricted US companies from conducting transactions with Tencent and its subsidiaries. Activision is a US based company and did not want these orders to affect their mobile title in any way. Later a clarification was released that the orders were imposed on certain sectors and not on the entirety of Tencent but Activision played it safe and parted ways with them.

PUBG Mobile ripping off features from COD Mobile

According to the report, PUBG Mobile was copying various features from Call of Duty Mobile. The famous feature and modes like Gun Game, Aerial platforms and various locations were copied. Above all of this, the game “claimed that the features were unique content for their community.” The report speculates that Activision took a different route to keep up with their original content and bring in unique features to live up to the reputation of other Call of Duty Titles. COD: Mobile is bringing in more and more new features, from Gunsmith to Katana, everything is raising the quality of this game.

With PUBG Mobile banned in India and its humongous player-base finding for a new home, its a big opportunity for games like Call of Duty: Mobile to capitalize on this situation and rise their ever increasing player base. Call of Duty evaded this ban with cutting off their links to any Chinese company and hence presumably will not get banned if the government decides to ban more apps in the future.

Spain’s largest insurance co. MAPFRE is sponsoring LVP CSGO Cup

Maël Valentin
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Spain’s largest insurance co. MAPFRE is sponsoring LVP CSGO Cup

MAPFRE have announced their sponsorship agreement of the CS:GO Cup, the knock-out competition organized by LVP (MEDIAPRO Group) which is scheduled to get underway this coming 7th September with the participation of the top teams in the Iberian Peninsula at both professional and amateur level.

The Cup gets underway this coming 7th September and will bring together the top professional and amateur names from the Iberian Peninsula.

The move by the insurer reinforces its commitment to the eSports sector, which it entered into two years ago together with LVP. MAPFRE and the company is already one of the main sponsors of the League of Legends Super League Orange. The company’s involvement in the Clash Royale Orange Crown League, now completes its commitment to the competitions organized by LVP by joining the Counter-Strike Cup, the famous first-person shooter game developed by Valve almost 20 years ago and millions of fans around the world.

LVP CSGO Cup

“We are delighted to welcome MAPFRE to the CS:GO Cup, a competition that is going to be buzzing and that culminates the restructuring of the ecosystem LVP got underway in January. We have been working together with MAPFRE for more than two years and this latest step reaffirms our ties and continues to revalue the sector globally ”, explains Jordi Soler, CEO of LVP.

“For MAPFRE the growth of initiatives focused on the professional field of eSports is particularly important. As such, our collaboration in this competition is an excellent opportunity to promote these activities and reinforce our commitment to the gaming world”, added Néstor Santana, MAPFRE eSports Project Leader.

LVP CSGO Cup

The Cup, which will be launched in September and will last just over a month, will bring together 16 teams from three different competitions, reaching all strata of the competition ecosystem.

There will be the 10 teams that make up the Orange Unity League, the national CS:GO league;  the 4 best teams from the Assault Division LVLUP, the second division of CS:GO launched a few months ago; and also the finalists of Guardianes GGSeries, the competition that brings together the best amateur teams in the country sponsored by the Guardianes del Gaming de MAPFRE. 

The presentation of this new Cup coincides with the start of the new CS:GO season.

The last edition of the Orange Unity League registered more than 109,000 unique viewers per day, with record-breaking numbers for the Grand Finale, which attracted more than 135,000 viewers and crowned sAw as champion. For reasons of the pandemic, the CS:GO Cup will be played online and can be followed via the LVP Twitch channel and on TV from UBEAT.

ESIC is investigating into dozens of professional CSGO games for match fixing

Sonu Banerjee
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ESIC is investigating into dozens of professional CSGO games for match fixing

The Esports Integrity Commission(ESIC) has confirmed today that they’ve launched an investigation into match-fixing in the MDL tournament series conducted by ESEA, a member of ESIC. The investigation was launched after the organization received “suspicious bet alerts” eighteen months ago through their global integrity monitoring framework and multiple times since then.

“Investigations into match-fixing are complex and require significant cooperation between a variety of international stakeholders comprising of betting operators, government bodies, law enforcement agencies, and industry stakeholders,” ESIC states in their website. “Accordingly, as complexities are often not immediately resolvable, investigations into this sort of fraudulent activity take significant time, effort and resources to complete in an appropriate manner.”

During the time of the update, ESIC had already conducted “an extensive and ongoing investigation” into the match-fixing allegations over the past eighteen months. They have been using various investigative tools to link the suspicious bet placers with the teams and players involved in manipulating games.

ESIC has claimed that the investigation is already in its concluding stages and that they’re expecting to give an update regarding this situation within a span of four weeks since this statement.

“As of the date of this update, ESIC is maintaining 15 ongoing investigations which we consider to be of significant concern to the industry.”

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