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Riot announces Surrender Option in Latest Valorant Update

Sonu Banerjee
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Riot announces Surrender Option in Latest Valorant Update

Not too long ago, Riot devs had mentioned that they were looking to implement a surrender option for VALORANT to provide means for the players to get away from games which are just not winnable.

For instance, a teammate disconnecting at the start of a game is often enough to decide the outcome of the entire game. That’s why, a surrender button can be essential at times to spare the 9 other players in the server their time which would otherwise be wasted on the already decided game.

In a blog post by Riot where the devs answered several questions from VALORANT fans, Senior Producer Ian Fielding has confirmed that the surrender option will be available in the game from patch 1.02. Further information on this button will be announced through the patch notes which hasn’t been fully revealed yet.

Besides this, the upcoming patch is also set to introduce the much-anticipated ranked competitive mode to VALORANT besides the currently available unrated and spike rush game modes. The rank icons are also set to be revamped and the name of the final rank will also be changed in the patch which is likely to be released in the next few days. 

A data miner had previously found out some details on the surrender button that’s to come. The leaked data showed that players would only be able to surrender a game from round 8 onwards and if a teammate abandoned the match. Although, this mechanic is yet unconfirmed and may change in the actual update.

Valorant gets Ranked Mode in Latest Update

Sonu Banerjee
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Valorant gets Ranked Mode in Latest Update

Few days ago, a Riot dev had claimed that they were giving the finishing touches to an upcoming ranked mode for VALORANT and that it’ll likely be released in the next patch. Accordingly, the devs have finally updated players on a few details of the upcoming patch.

The patch 1.02 is set to finally bring the much-anticipated competitive mode to the game, with further improvements than the ranked mode which was previously seen in the closed beta of the game. 

The icons for the spectrum of ranks in VALORANT have also been revamped for the sake of better distinction between each rank. The name of the highest rank attainable in the game has also been changed.

Previously, the highest rank in VALORANT was called… well, VALORANT. Since the name was causing confusion among the players, many had raised demands to alter the name to something else. A Riot dev had also informed fans earlier that they were thinking to change the name soon, and they finally did. Players of the highest calibre will now attain the Radiant rank instead of VALORANT.

“Additionally, although we still really like having our top rank be something unique to our game and aligned with our IP, we’ve decided to remove VALORANT as the name of our top rank to help reduce potential confusion of the game vs the rank,” Riot mentioned in their official blog. “The new name for our top rank will represent Agents infused with powers, known as Radiant.”

It’s important to remember that all the achievements players had previously obtained in the competitive game mode during the closed beta will be reset, and everyone will have to grind back to where they belonged.

The upcoming update is also set to ease queuing with friends during the placement matches. Players will now be able to matchmake with their friends during their placements even with a significant skill gap. As Riot states in the post, “For example, if you’re an elite player, and your friend is still learning the ropes, our Competitive Matchmaking will still prevent you from being able to queue in order to protect the competitive integrity and experience for the other players in that match.”

This change is certain to be welcome by newbies and veterans alike, since it will enable newer players to be able to queue with their experienced friends during placements without any hassle, providing them with the opportunity to learn complex mechanics of VALORANT from players who have been playing the game for a while.

Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer to shut down operations

Maël Valentin
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Microsoft’s streaming platform Mixer to shut down operations

Microsoft is shutting its Mixer streaming platform on July 22nd and plans to move existing accomplices over to Facebook Gaming. The unexpected declaration implies Mixer accomplices and decorations will be changed to Facebook Gaming beginning today, and Microsoft will no longer work Mixer as an assistance in a month’s time.

Microsoft has battled to arrive at the scale required for Mixer to contend with Twitch, YouTube, and even Facebook Gaming which has prompted the present choice. Evidently, Microsoft’s endeavors to construct a major crowd for Mixer didn’t turn out as arranged.

Also, it will be extreme for decorations like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who surrendered his following of 50 million fans on Twitch for a littler crowd on Mixer. Microsoft said it will help progress decorations and their crowds to Facebook Gaming, however those decorations will have their own decision on the best way to continue. Microsoft will hold the Beam innovation and utilize its low-dormancy video organizing for inside purposes.

Microsoft is collaborating with Facebook Gaming to give a “connect” and direct organization for the entirety of Mixer’s current banded together decorations. Supposedly, it’s just Facebook Gaming offering an immediate road for associations at this moment. Microsoft extended, enumerating how it expects to help relocate the Mixer people group, and offer another home for decorations who decide to hop across to Facebook rather than different stages.

The statement on their official blog reads, “Facebook Gaming team and Creators will help expand the vision that Mixer has always held around community and building a platform that is inclusive and supportive of each other. For Mixer’s streamers, this opens up the opportunity to reach the vast audience of one of the world’s fastest growing streaming platforms. Every month, more than 700 million people play a game, watch a gaming video or interact in a gaming Group on Facebook. For Facebook Gaming’s Creators, this brings the ability to partner closely with the Xbox ecosystem, including future opportunities around Xbox Game Pass, Project xCloud and more.”

Microsoft didn’t reveal the number of viewer Mixer had since August 2019, when the number was around 30 million. Spencer declined to give a number or why Microsoft chose the business wasn’t a need any longer.

What happens to the Mixer Streaming Partners? Read the FAQ at the Mixer Blog.

CSGO caster HenryG accused of sexual and emotional abuse by ex-girlfriend

Pranav Nalawade
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CSGO caster HenryG accused of sexual and emotional abuse by ex-girlfriend

Henry “HenryG” Greer is a professional CSGO caster and analyst who’s renowned throughout the CSGO world. He has been a part of the pro CSGO scene for many years now, but with the recent allegations against him which have surfaced on June 21st, it appears like his career might be in some serious trouble.

Kelly Jean, a popular cosplayer and the ex-girlfriend of HenryG was the one who called out the 31-year-old for the mistreatments conducted to her. She gathered the courage to speak up her mind through a Tweet and termed HenryG as ‘verbally, emotionally & mentally abusive.’ She also accused him of trying to have sex with her against her consent, which is considered illegal in several countries.

https://twitter.com/kellyjeaaann/status/1274788704838733824?s=19

“This is absolutely terrifying for me to write and I am sorry to mutual friends I did not warn. It has been mentally taxing. To those that knew, thank you for your support,” Kelly wrote in a follow-up tweet.

https://twitter.com/kellyjeaaann/status/1274789299456745478?s=19

She further clarified that she was not ‘advocating for any consequences’ and that the purpose of her tweet was to ‘let other women know.’

https://twitter.com/kellyjeaaann/status/1274855461448228866?s=19

Kelly elaborated on the situation through a Twitlonger post where she slammed HenryG with multiple other accusations including physical assaults, emotional abuse, mental abuse and even gaslighting or trying to use her insecurities to undermine her sanity.

The accusations also extended to emotional blackmail, psychological abuse, name calling, outright lying and embarrassing her in public. She needed to seek a therapist who then advised her to report the incidents which happened to her.

After wording her accusations through her post, she claimed that even after she gave Henry over two weeks to reflect and apologize, he refrained from doing so.

She concluded by saying, “Thank you to the other women in the industry and connected communities that have told their stories recently. Without your bravery I wouldn’t have been able to tell mine.”

While HenryG hasn’t responded to any of the accusations as of yet, if Kelly’s allegations are true, Henry is certain to find himself amidst a heap of troubles. More information on this incident is likely to unravel in the next few days, and the professional career of HenryG as a CSGO caster may be at stake here.

DotA 2 Battle Pass Extended, Game Coordinator Improvements, and More Officially Announced

Sonu Banerjee
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DotA 2 Battle Pass Extended, Game Coordinator Improvements, and More Officially Announced

Recently, the Dota 2 community has raised an influx of complaints regarding  the problems experienced due to the server outages and problems in the game coordinator. The sudden surge of load in the official servers seemed to be happening “at the same time each day” as mentioned by Valve.

While the devs had promised to look into the issue to find the root cause of the recurring problem, it looks like they’re also indirectly compensating the community for the inconveniences caused by it.

Through another tweet on June 20th, the Dota 2 dev team delivered some good news for the players. 

While they claimed to be investigating “some more clues” causing the “extreme load” on the Dota 2 servers at a particular time each day, they also mentioned that they had improved the game coordinator, which is likely to result in lesser server problems, consequently improving the gameplay experience for players.

But the best news for Dota 2 players was the way Valve decided to compensate for the problems caused by the game coordinator. They announced the extension of the duration of the Battle Pass by a whole week. 

This may not seem like a large duration at first but an extra means players will be able to add a lot more levels to their Battle Pass. The wagers, bounties and tips included in the TI10 Battle Pass refresh after each week. A new added week will thus provide opportunities for the players to utilize an extra set of all these, and not to mention the daily contracts which can be found in the Guild page.

Also, the new game mode which will be added to Dota in the next few weeks will also provide new means for the players to earn battle points. An extra added week will further elevate the earnings from that event.

Counter Strike turns 21 today

Sonu Banerjee
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Counter Strike turns 21 today

Throughout the years, many first-person shooters have come and gone, but one title has shined eternally in the gaming world. Ever since its beta release in the summer of 1999, Counter-Strike has won the hearts of millions of fans worldwide. Not only has it outlived every single one of its competitors, but it has also managed to stay relevant in the esports scene even after 21 years of its release.

Counter-Strike 1.6 - Download

The renowned video game Half-Life was developed by Valve in 1998. Counter-Strike was first released as a mod to Half-Life on June 19th, 1999. Since then, the game has experienced countless updates being added to it with the flow of time, and the player counts of the game also kept rising simultaneously. Soon, a huge esports scene developed around the game and the prize pool surrounding the tournaments of CS 1.6 skyrocketed consequently.

It can’t be denied that Counter-Strike acted as a pioneer among video games to push esports to the mainstream world. More and more started looking at gaming as a viable career opportunity which helped shape the esports world to what it is today.

After the groundbreaking success of CS 1.6, Valve released its successor – Counter-Strike: Source. Source was also a remarkable success, but was short-lived as it was later overshadowed by the next version, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. 

Although CSGO wasn’t a huge hit at the time of its release, it was quick to gain traction after a few updates to the game. From then onwards, it was all an uphill climb for CSGO. The numbers revolving around the competitive shooter by Valve – be it the player count or the prize pool – experienced a steady increase with each passing month.

Currently, CSGO is one of the most played games of the world and the most played video game on Steam, with the average concurrent player count peaks breaking the mark of one million on a regular basis. These past months also have been excellent for CSGO. With Valve implementing constant updates to the game and adding a plethora of new stuff to it, the players of the game are currently more satisfied than ever.

While it’s true that the player counts of CSGO took a hit after the release of VALORANT, it regained its pace quickly and continued to rule the Steam charts to this day.

Last year, Valve had re-implemented the old version of Dust 2 to the game as a tribute to CS 1.6 and to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the game. They also added a new CS20 case to the game for the same purpose.

This year too, fans are excited to see if Valve has anything in the bag for them. While Valve has already tweeted out the fact that the legendary shooter has turned 21 today, as of now they’ve made no promises regarding if they’ll organize anything for the players of CSGO.

DotA 2 devs respond to coordinator issues happening “at the same time each day”

Sonu Banerjee
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DotA 2 devs respond to coordinator issues happening “at the same time each day”

For the past few days, Dota 2 fans have been afraid of queuing into a game due to the sudden surge of problems in the game coordinator. The extreme load into the Dota 2 servers has been rendering issues in the game coordinator causing troubles for the players.

Many players have also recently reported to have been assessed with an abandon and consequently being moved to the low-priority punishment pool due to the game servers suddenly shutting down. These problems in the Dota 2 game coordinator first started about two days ago, with the devs trying to fix the issue since then.

Soon after the first tweet from Dota 2 the game coordinator started working as usual without any further concerns. However, on the very next day the problem surfaced again. More and more people started complaining about the Dota 2 game servers and an apology from the devs soon followed.

The next instance of the game coordinator causing troubles happened only a few hours ago. The devs confirmed that the issue has been reoccurring at “the same time each day” and that they’re “working on finding the root cause” for it.

As the devs mentioned, an extreme load has been flooding the Dota 2 servers at a particular time every single day for the last three days. One reason for this load may be the recent introduction of the TI10 Battle Pass. The plethora of new features that the Battle Pass boasts have attracted a lot of people to the game, and depending on the time zones of all the countries there’s a possibility that a good portion of the players have resonated into the servers around the same time everyday.

Regardless, the Dota 2 dev team addressing the issue upfront and reassuring the players that the problem will be fixed soon certainly means that the players of the game can let out a sigh of relief now. It’s very likely that it’s only a matter of hours before the game coordinator gets fixed and players can return to their usual routine of grinding for the Battle Pass.

PENTA announce CSGO return

Kanishka Thakur
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PENTA announce CSGO return

The German organisation returns back to Counter strike after three years by signing a domestic lineup. This organisation had produced brilliant players throughout the years including Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz, Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi and Kevin ‘kRystal’ Amend. 

https://twitter.com/PENTA_Sports/status/1273601369338007553?s=20

Penta sold their two main players ‘sunNy’ and Kevin ‘HS’ Tarn and had cut ties with the remaining roster back in 2017. After being absent from the scene for so long, they have announced the signing of the former EURONICS core. The team consists of young players who have limited international experience but have a lot to prove in the scene. The team recently finished 5-6th in the ESL Meisterschaft: Spring 2020 and fourth in 99Liga Season #14 – Division1. 

.They will now be focusing on upcoming German competitions as well as ESEA Main, after starting in the Open division last season. The managing director of the team Andreas Schaetzke stated that the team was the first German one to reach top 8 at a Major, before BIG and mousesports and added that he is looking forward to the return of this squad. 

The current lineup of Penta will be :

  • Christoph “⁠red⁠” Hinrichs
  • Patrick “⁠pdy⁠” Merken
  • Yannik “⁠neviZ⁠” Baumhöfner
  • Sebastian “⁠xenn⁠” Hoch
  • Andreas “⁠synx⁠” Trapp

CSGO pro Jamppi’s lawsuit against Valve goes horribly wrong

Sonu Banerjee
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CSGO pro Jamppi’s lawsuit against Valve goes horribly wrong

Four years ago, CSGO pro Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen had filed a lawsuit against Valve Corporations for a ban which he had received back then. The banlater went on to cause further troubles in his professional career. Recently, it has been brought to light through a statement that the case was filed against the wrong Valve Corporations.

The CSGO pro who’s currently 18-year-old had filed the case against Valve GmbH for mistreatments conducted to him. However, it appears that Valve GmbH is just a small subsidiary of Valve Corporations and has no relevance to CSGO or the actions taken against its players whatsoever. As they have mentioned in their official statement, the case was filed against the wrong company on the wrong grounds.

Considering Jamppi was only a 14-year-old at the time of his ban, the outcome of this incident is indeed tragic from his perspective. However, the time, effort and money that went into this lawsuit are also no small matter.

The company has also refused to compensate Jamppi for his losses which he had demanded. Olkkonen’s claim for damages caused to him was over 250,000 euros, which Valve GmbH has denied since they claimed that the company can’t be held responsible when a third party tram refuses to enter into a contract with him.

While instances of players filing lawsuits against an organization isn’t rare, a player doing so when he’s only in his early teens certainly is. Many known faces of the CSGO community have also spoken up regarding this, and considering how young Jamppi was at the time of the incident, the frustration is reasonable.

It’s still unclear about what will unravel next in this situation, as more statements from either side are certain to come. Although, at the current state it’s undeniable that things are not looking good for Jamppi.

We, as we’re sure that thousands of other players, will be rooting for Jamppi in this context. The future of such a young talent is at stake here, and a mistake done by his young self shouldn’t be an obstacle in his career.

Valorant ranked mode is coming next week, Riot dev says

Sonu Banerjee
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Valorant ranked mode is coming next week, Riot dev says

The closed beta stage of Riot Games’ VALORANT was undeniably a groundbreaking success with the competitive shooter reaching an average daily player count as high as 3 million players. Though the initial period of the closed beta saw the game having only an unrated mode for the players to enjoy, an experimental ranked mode was implemented towards the end of it.

However, this ranked mode was short-lived. As soon as the closed beta ended on May 28th, so did the ranked mode for VALORANT. While the game was officially launched worldwide on June 2nd, Riot refrained from launching the ranked mode just yet. They also hadn’t set a specific date on the release of the mode.

Currently, players can enjoy VALORANT on Unrated and Spike Rush modes. Although the unrated mode is barely any different from the ranked mode in terms of gameplay, the competitive atmosphere isn’t quite present.

It appears that the prayers of VALORANT players have finally been answered, as a Riot dev has finally hinted towards the release of the much-anticipated rated mode for VALORANT through a recent tweet.

Zielger has confirmed that the team is actively working on fine-tuning the rated mode before its release and putting the finishing touches to it.” “We’re spending this week putting together that release and making sure it is good,” he mentioned in his tweet.

Chances are that this time, the ranked mode will be a whole lot better than the last time. Eliminating the shortcomings of the previous ranked system is likely the prime aim of VALORANT devs right now. For instance, we had no precise way of determining how close we were to the next (or previous) rank at the time of the closed beta. So, refining it in a way that players can see their progress in between the ranks would be a great start to the new rated mode for VALORANT.

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