FaZe Clan on its twitter has announced about the addition of JasonR to the team’s Professional Valorant division who will also take the role of anchoring for the same.
After retiring from CS:GO in 2017, Jason “jasonR” Ruchelski had been streaming the same on his Twitch along with a plethora of games before he decided to participate in Riot Games’ first-person tactical shooter title, VALORANT. The 25yo Canadian has played CS:GO competitively since 2015 making his debut for affinity Esports and is now the one among those Ex-CSGO Professionals who have eventually made the switch to VALORANT and been signed by some prestigious organizations.
The last time we had witnessed Jason playing competitively was when he played under the banner of OpTic gaming as a stand-in and an in game leader as well where he did help the latter to secure a third spot at Beyond the Summit’s inaugural cs_summit 1 tournament after being denied a spot in the finals by Gambit gaming led by Mihail ‘Dosia’ Stolyarov and his troops. This was followed by the event where he eventually stepped down from the roster thus making way for James “hazed” Cobb into the team after he felt his streaming presence might hit a barrier due to his travel schedules with the team.
With the signing of jasonR, FaZe Clan has finally laid its roots into the professional scene of Valorant following the steps of many prestigious organizations like Cloud9, 100 Thieves and G2 Esports.
Fans of Counter-Strike can rejoice as BLAST and watchmaker TW Steel have teamed up to launch the world’s first limited edition CS:GO themed watches. BLAST made an official announcement on Twitter with a release video that featured 2 models- The Volante and The Maverick Chronograph, both of which looked extremely appealing.
The Volante.
With a Counter-Strike-inspired map design etched directly into the watch-face.
The Volante is priced at €149. The Volante features a raised light titanium watch face that represents a CS:GO mini-map and the center is engraved with the iconic CS:GO crosshair in white Super Luminova.
While The Maverick Chronograph cost €299 and comes with an all matte black design that features a BLAST logo at the bottom and a Super Luminova CS:GO inspired crosshair on the right.
The pre-orders for both the watches went live on Sunday and since then both the models are sold out.
Leo Matlock, the commercial director for BLAST, in a press release said:
“We’re hugely excited to be able to join forces with TW Steel to offer the first-ever esports watch. Counter-Strike and esports lovers will be proud to own and show off a piece of gaming history while owning a highly functional and reliable watch that pays tribute to their favorite game.”
“BLAST has activated and teamed with a diverse range of commercial partners recently, which is testament to our ambition to become a multifaceted esports company – this innovative and industry-leading collaboration with TW Steel is further proof we’re on the right track to achieving that aim.”
TW Steel and BLAST also announced that the winners of the BLAST Global Finals 2020 will be awarded a limited edition one-off TW Steel esports watch and $1,000,000 in prize money.
On Tuesday, Microsoft officially announced the shutting down of its streaming service Mixer which was launched in 2016. Since its launch Mixer had a hard time penetrating the streaming. Just last year, Microsft had dished out millions to sign many big Twitch streamers like former Counter-Strike pro, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek and Fortnite star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to exclusively stream on Mixer. Even after spending millions to acquire streamers and running expensive campaigns the popularity of Mixer never picked up and numbers remained all-time low.
In a last-ditch effort, Microsoft also announced its collaboration with Facebook’s streaming platform, Facebook Gaming. As soon as the news of Mixer shutting down broke out, many people were confused about the fate of exclusive streamers that Microsft had signed for multiple years. Soon sources at Mixer clarified that all streamers will soon receive their payment and were free to go anywhere.
Later another news broke out from some sources that Facebook tried to negotiate a multi-year deal with Ninja and Shroud, but both denied and opted to remain free agents.
According to rumours, Ninja was offered a staggering $60-90 Million if he remained exclusive to Facebook Gaming. The Metro UK reported that Ninja was $60 million while Shroud was offered $20 million to join Facebook Gaming. Although Ninja reportedly said no and opted-out of an offer that would have made him one of the wealthiest gamers of all time.
Sources familiar with the deal have informed me that while Facebook did try and negotiate to keep their big partners both Shroud and Ninja opted out. They have received their full payments and as of midnight yesterday were free to engage in talks with other platforms. Game on.
To this day, Ninja remains number 1 on Twitch with more than 14.7 million followers, while his rival Turner “Tfue” Tenney is second with just over 8.5 million. Even after a year of no presence of Twitch Ninja had remained number 1.
Guild Esports (Guild), a new global esports business headquartered in London and co-owned by David Beckham, today announced its global launch amid a booming global esports market which is seeing unprecedented growth in popularity and cultural relevance as a leading form of competitive sport and entertainment.
The global esports market, which has enjoyed tremendous support in Asia and is now fast establishing itself as a mainstream entertainment globally, is currently valued at US$1.1bn and is projected to grow by 42% to US$1.56bn by 2023. The number of esports fans is estimated to be around 495m and is largely comprised of millennials – this number is projected to hit 646m by 2023.
Guild is developing a talent pipeline in the UK based on the traditional academy model, which will see the ablest players coached and nurtured by industry leaders in order to attain the skill set required to compete professionally. A roster of scouts will continually find and sign the best young talent.
Guild is well placed to enter this market having established a management team of esports veterans with experience as professional players, coaches and in the esports media. Guild Executive Chairman, Carleton Curtis, is an industry heavyweight and architect of the Overwatch League and Call Of Duty Leagues. Prior to joining Guild he held senior esports roles at Activision Blizzard and Red Bull. His expertise dovetails with David Beckham’s leading position in the world of mainstream sports to create a unique esports proposition.
Guild will scale into various esports disciplines over the course of the 2020/21 season, its inaugural team will make its debut in autumn this year and its professional athletes can expect to compete in the most popular titles including Rocket League, EA Sports FIFA, and Fortnite. The Guild Esports brand will celebrate and harness the diverse and tribal loyalty of esports enthusiasts on a global scale. The Company’s ambition is to build a culture of excellence around its brand and digital presence.
David Beckham’s move into esports is a natural progression given his experience developing sports businesses, most recently through his co-ownership of Inter Miami CF in the MLS; and his passion for guiding youth talent to achieve excellence. His involvement in the launch of Guild offers a powerful opportunity to introduce his level of professional sports acumen to the world of esports and further strengthen this evolving sport.
Guild has secured the talent of London-based artist Fergus Purcell, creator of the iconic identity for skate wear label Palace, to design its brand and develop a unique lifestyle apparel line with an aesthetic that is authentic to the esports community and infused with his streetwear-inspired design philosophy.
Fergus has a recognizable and distinctive design style influenced by pop culture, streetwear and skate culture and collaborated with a diverse roster of fashion designers and music artists from Marc Jacobs, Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen to 2manydjs.
Fnatic has partnered with high-fashion Italian brand Gucci for a limited merchandise collection. The high fashion label is collaborating with British-headquartered Fnatic for an apparel drop today. You can check out upcoming drops, and likely the links to their collections as they go live, here.
Fnatic’s social media has been putting up teaser videos shoots with GUCCI limited edition watches.
You’ll be able to purchase the collection from Fnatic’s official website. As for the esports organization itself, Fnatic’s Dota 2 squad is set to make its debut at the ONE Esports Dota 2 SEA League tomorrow. Their first match will be against Team Adroit.
This comes as a teaser of this unique association on their Twitter account – the formalization and the presentation of the collection will occur on the 25th of June next.
California man and Twitch viewer Erik Estavillo has filed a legal complaint against popular streaming platform Twitch on June 15th, for exposing him and other viewers, some of whom are unferage, to “suggestive” female streamers showing “sexual content” on-stream which is otherwise against the Twitch ToS.
In his complaint, Erik claims to be suffering from “depression, OCD, panic disorder, Agoraphobia and Crohn’s disease.” He also claims to suffer from Sex Addiction which, according to him is a result of his OCD. These medical issues make him rely solely on the internet for his entertainment and according to the complaint, and Twitch has “extremely exacerbated” his medical conditions “by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers through Twitch’s twisted programming and net code,” the statement says.
He also mentions how many children under legal age, and even under the tender age of thirteen use Twitch for entertainment purposes and that they may become the victim of such “sexual content” Twitch promotes.
“In addition, Twitch also takes advantage of the plaintiff and other sexually addicted viewers by allowing them to ‘subscribe, donate or pay bits’ to such women streamers,” which, according to the complaint, is no different than how a casino operates. He further slams Twitch by stating that Twitch “simply doesn’t care” of all these things happening on their platform.
The complaint then lists out some female streamers while attaching some “sexual” images of those streamers. The list of female streamers include:
Amouranth
Quqco
ST Peach
JadeTheJaguar
Pink_Sparkles
Valeria7K
DanielaAzuage_
lilchipmunk
iaaras2
theRaychul
KrystiPryde
SonjaShio
Gavrilka
MizzyRose
KayPikeFashion
Alinity
QTCinderella
Pokimane
Velvet_7
Loserfruit
The complaint raises demands of all these listed streamers being permanently banned for violating the Twitch ToS along with a compensation of $25 million from Twitch which is to be distributed between him and other Twitch Prime subscribers with the leftovers going to COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter charities.
It’s still unclear how far will this case proceed, but the fact that the Superior Court of California has served Twitch with a summons implies that Twitch has to respond to the allegations.
HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas, located at Luxor Hotel & Casino, will reopen to the public on Thursday, June 25 with a modified schedule for daily play and weekly tournaments.
“The health of our communities will always come first and foremost, and we’ve taken the necessary steps to create an environment where gamers can come together again,” said Jud Hannigan, CEO of Allied Esports. “We’re confident that with our safety protocols in place players and fans will still be able to enjoy the thrill of the on-site experience that HyperX Esports Arena is known for.”
HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas will offer guests two ways to experience the venue:
Front Lobby (Daily: Monday-Friday 4-11 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday 12-11 p.m.) Walk-up video game playon PCs and consoles will be available Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. The merchandise area will be open during business hours but limited to online kiosk or personal mobile purchases only.
Main Arena (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday – Tournaments Only: 4-11 p.m.) The arena’s weekly tournament schedule will restart on a limited basis featuring Wednesday Whiffs (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate only), Friday Frags (Fortnite) and Saturday Night Speedway (Mario Kart 8). Tournaments will be capped at the maximum number of players allowed by physical distancing guidelines. VIP rooms and other large gathering spaces will remain closed. Non-participant guests will be required to follow social distancing rules while in the arena.
Started in March as a response to the closure of the arena, Allied Esports will continue its online tournaments as planned in June and introduce a new online format beginning in July. Additional details will be announced at a later date. For real-time updates, join the Allied Esports Discord.
HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas is the most recognized esports arena in the world and the flagship venue of Allied Esports’ global property network. The venue celebrated its second anniversary in March 2020 as the center of esports entertainment on The Las Vegas Strip.
The cutting-edge, multi-level, 30,000-square-foot arena is home to all things gaming and streaming and is complete with a 50-foot LED video wall and main stage, network TV-quality production studio and classic gaming exhibition. In 2019, HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas hosted over 320 events, 11,000 competitors and more than 300,000 guests overall.
The introduction of Valorant has witnessed a lot of experienced Indian CSGO pros to contemplate and even take the step of switching to Valorant, despite the game being in it’s initiation stage. Sabyasachi ‘antidote’ Bose has followed in the footsteps of his current Valorant teammates at Team Vertigo by announcing his exit from the competitive csgo scene.
Statement:
CSGO has given me recognition, trophies, success, friends, brothers and memories for life.
“It’s tough to say goodbye to your first love; even tougher when you have been with them for over 10 years. CSGO has given me recognition, trophies, success, friends, brothers and memories for life. The journey was magnanimous, coarse but filled with anecdotes and lessons. It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from the competitive CSGO scene. I want to thank a lot of people without whom I would not be where I am today. I thank everyone that helped me in my journey from scouring for 20 INR for practice to winning consecutive ESL INDIA Premiership titles. Although I am leaving csgo for Valorant, rest assured Counter Strike shall remain my first and foremost love. Nothing can take its place and nothing ever will. You will still see your brother in the competitive scene, albeit in Valorant now. I plan to embrace Valorant with as much of a vigour as I did when I touched csgo. All I want is for my fans to be with me as I embark on a fresh journey. New milestones await!“
From being part of the first csgo team from Kolkata to grab a sponsor and reaching the LAN Finals of ESL INDIA Premiership to representing India with Signify, Orgless Five, Optic India and Global Esports, antidote is an example of sheer hard work, which eased his transition into a Primary AWPer.
Now in Valorant, Antidote is already showing signs of dominance with Team Vertigo, who have recently bagged the Global Esports Valorant Cup.
Those fancy 360 movements to avert firing shots at you? You might as well want to upgrade your skills as Valve has addressed it. In the latest update shipped last night, players who were able to tweak ‘high sensi’ movements to their advantage while defusing the bomb will no longer successful.
The sensitivity trick, which allowed users to get hold of the C4 and still be able to dodge bullets, is now hopefully patched. Alongside this, a music kit named “All for Dust” have also been added for in-game purchase.
[ GAMEPLAY ] – Bomb defusal progress will now reset if the defusing player turns too rapidly while defusing. – Translucent surfaces are now ineligible for applying graffiti.
[ MUSIC ] – A new music kit “All for Dust” by Amon Tobin is now available for purchase in-game.
[ MISC ] – When players open containers or receive items during the match, text filtering will no longer apply to names of received items in chat messages.
Catching millions of Pokémon fans across the world by surprise, on 24th June The Pokémon Company officially announced their upcoming MOBA title similar to the likes of DOTA and League of Legends, but set it in the vast world of Pokémon.
The news was revealed through the official Twitter handle of Pokémon which included an attached gameplay trailer with the first looks on the upcoming video game.
The concept of a MOBA based on Pokémon was circulating for years now, with fans raising repeated demands of a game like this. Similar to most MOBAs, each Pokémon has their own set of skills, which made this concept rather relevant.
Like the most popular MOBAs out there like DOTA and League of Legends, Pokémon Unite, the upcoming Pokémon MOBA will be completely free-to-play for all the players. However, the game will initially only be available for Mobile devices and Nintendo Switch as announced by The Pokémon Company.
Pokémon Unite will feature intense 5v5 action centered in an arena. Players will be able to pick one Pokémon for every game, all with a unique set of skills which can be used to get advantage in combat.
Here are the first looks at Pokémon Unite along with a full gameplay presentation and some words from Tsunekazu Ishihara – the president and CEO of The Pokémon Company.
From the initial looks at the gameplay, it’s pretty clear that the basic structure of the game along with the game mechanics have already been well-developed. However no release date for Pokémon Unite has been scheduled as of yet. But fans across the world will be hoping for the final release date of the game not being too far away.
