Home Blog Page 1925

‘Final Fantasy’ gamers hold online funeral for player who died of Coronavirus

Souhit Dey
-
0
‘Final Fantasy’ gamers hold online funeral for player who died of Coronavirus

Things got emotional when an online community of Final Fantasy XIV gamers decided to pay their tribute to one of their comrades who had passed away due to complications related to the novel coronavirus.

Ferne Le’roy who used to play on the Final Fantasy XIV Zalera server had contracted the coronavirus in early April and passed away. Sadly, her friends from the community couldn’t mourn her death due to the imposed lock-down and thus they did the thing nobody could think of. Together the community of players arranged for a virtual funeral procession in an effort to pay their last tribute to their fallen friend. Hundreds of players from Zalera as well as different servers logged in at the same time with their virtual counterparts dressed in all black and carrying umbrellas. The procession of gamers marched through the world of Final Fantasy XIV for an hour on Saturday afternoon and completed their final send off near a tree.

The emotional and heart touching video has been shared on a multitude of platforms including reddit and has earned worldwide praises. Many gamers expressed their love for the community and praised the organizers for organizing such a noble and moving gesture for their fallen friend.

In an interview with Inverse, one of the facebook organizers of the march going by the name  Leafelda Moonchild online said, “I didn’t expect anyone to actually show up. I made the post so that those that may have known her would be informed. The fact that so many people showed up, not only from Zalera but from other servers, really took me by surprise.” The original facebook post had announced the death of Ferne Le’roy and read, “One of our own was lost to COVID-19.Now’s the time to show up and show out for a fallen Zalera player … Remember the fallen, or no one else will.”

Saudi Govt. Hosts $10mn Charity Gaming Event To Fight COVID-19

Pranav Nalawade
-
0
Saudi Govt. Hosts $10mn Charity Gaming Event To Fight COVID-19

Saudi Arabia has announced a new charity esports event with a $10 million prize pool to raise money to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gamers Without Borders by Saudi was created by the Saudi Arabian Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sports (Safeis) in partnership with Electronic Sports League (ESL), the world’s largest eSports company. The event will be streamed live to watch.

This tournament will take place between April 24 and June 7, and gamers will be able to pick one of the 12 listed charity groups to donate to, while sponsorship revenue generated during the event will also be contributed.

On the last day of the tournament, he $10m prize money will be donated to charities fighting against the global pandemic, including the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

The tournament will be streamed live in eight different languages, including Arabic, English, Spanish, and Mandarin for a global experience reaching worldwide. The broadcast will also include a fundraiser for viewers to directly donate to the charity of their choice from the 12 selected.

It’s important that we welcome everyone to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. The mass participation side of the initiative offers an opportunity for a wider range of people to take part and also directly donate if they wish. Here we are additionally offering over $2m prize pool of value in kind giveaways to the winners and our visitors on the stream,”

Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan.
Register Here

Latest CSGO Update Brings Several Map Changes, 1v1 Added to Overpass, Nuke

Sonu Banerjee
-
0
Latest CSGO Update Brings Several Map Changes, 1v1 Added to Overpass, Nuke

Recently, there have been some complaints about the performance optimization in the map Cache. The latest update addressed that issue along with lots of new changes to the maps.

In the last CSGO update, a new 1-vs-1 mode was introduced for warmup on Vertigo and Train. In the new mode players would be spawned in 1v1 arenas during warmup resulting in better quality pre-match practice overall due to the smaller arenas and constant gunplay. The devs had also mentioned that they might expand the new mode to other maps based on the response from the community. Today’s update saw the new 1v1 modes being added to the wingman modes of Vertigo and Nuke, which can potentially imply the addition of the mode to matchmaking in near future.

Some maps also underwent changes in the update.  Maps like Chlorine, Anubis, Overpass, Vertigo and Nuke didn’t receive any drastic change but only minor fixes. Cache however, gained itself a number of changes affecting visibility improvements and performance optimization. The HDR settings for the map were also optimized.

Here’s a detailed list of changes in today’s update as mentioned in the blog post by Valve.

[ MAPS ]

Chlorine:

—Changed default CT faction to FBI.

Anubis:

—Latest version of radar.

Cache:

—Improved visibility map-wide.

—Brightened hiding spot near sandbags.

—Brightened A Main.

—Brightened B Main.

—Brightened target placed in corner under B Heaven.

—Reduced visual noise.

—Reduced foliage clutter.

—Speculative fix to ragdolls floating on the A Bombsite.

—Optimizations.

—Adjusted HDR settings.

Overpass:

—Added 1v1 mode to warmup when playing Wingman.

—Fixed clipping on dumpster at A site.

Wingman Nuke:

—Added 1v1 mode to warmup when playing Wingman.

—Radar now uses new graphical style.

Vertigo:

—Fixed gap under box on B site.

—Added ramp-clipping to side of box.

—Fixed some minor graphical bugs.

While fans were hoping for a Source 2 release in the game due to the Source code leak that happened recently, it seems like Valve doesn’t want to push it out just yet. However, chances are high that we’d see the new engine in the next few weeks, if not days.

Coronavirus: Riot cancels LoL Mid-Season Invitational tournament

Sonu Banerjee
-
0
Coronavirus: Riot cancels LoL Mid-Season Invitational tournament

The COVID-19 pandemic that’s currently causing a worldwide lockdown has forced Riot Games to cancel the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends. 

Through a blog post released on April 23, John Needham – global head of League of Legends esports – has announced the news of them canceling the annual League tournament. While the decision is indeed unfortunate, it was inevitable due to the pandemic that is posing “extraordinary challenges around the globe.” The decision to not hold MSI 2020 was due to the fact that “International travel restrictions and local/regional/national mandates change daily, and nearly all assessments have the pandemic dramatically impacting large social gatherings throughout the summer.”

Based on the modelling of their external risk advisors, they felt that the COVID-19 impact wouldn’t be under control by the start of MSI 2020 which was scheduled to be on July 3rd. So instead of taking any unwanted risks they decided to cancel the tournament entirely, “We believe this decision was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the players, teams, crew, partners, media, and fans.”

Needham stated that their 12 regional leagues had “continued to operate using innovative production resources” and assured the players that League “has served as an important source of entertainment on an almost daily basis to millions of players and fans—and will continue to do so.” Riot has also said that they’ll keep players informed on the evaluation of alternative events and activities in the upcoming weeks.

On a more positive note they mentioned that the decision to cancel MSI will help them in creating an even better Worlds 2020 for their fans to enjoy by dedicating their global esports team and more resources to it, “We are totally committed to delivering the biggest spectacle we’ve ever produced in China to celebrate our sport’s 10-year anniversary.”

This change was followed by another announcement stating some changes in the quantity of teams alloted to each region for the upcoming 2020 World Championship.

As mentioned in the blog post, the 2020 World Championship for League will have the following regional seed distribution:

  • LPL (China), LEC (Europe): 4 Teams each
  • LCK (Korea), LCS (North America): 3 Teams each
  • PCS (Southeast Asia), VCS (Vietnam): 2 Teams each
  • CBLOL (Brazil), TCL (Turkey), LJL (Japan), LLA (Latin America), OPL (Oceania), LCL (Commonwealth of Independent States): 1 Team each

More details on the event, including pool placements for all seeds, will be updated by Riot in their website in the near future. We too will be sure to keep our readers posted on what’s to come.

GUNNAR Optiks, ESL to launch Gaming Glasses in a global partnership announcement

The Crew
-
0
GUNNAR Optiks, ESL to launch Gaming Glasses in a global partnership announcement

GUNNAR Optiks, the preeminent force and No. 1 in gaming glasses, announced a three-year licensing agreement with ESL, the world’s largest esports company. The two companies have joined forces to bring esports players and fans alike a new range of ESL-branded gaming glasses.

GUNNAR and ESL will work hand-in-hand to launch two collaborations later this year, with more to come in 2021 and beyond. Beanstalk, ESL’s global brand extension licensing agency, secured the partnership with GUNNAR.

“As we continue to lead exponential growth in esports, we also strive to professionalize the athlete experience in esports. With our goal of providing unique and innovative functional esports products, it made perfect sense to partner with the leaders in gaming glasses, GUNNAR Optiks,” said David Hiltscher, VP Shop, Merchandise, Licensing at ESL Gaming.

“We look forward to equipping players across the globe with ESL gaming glasses designed specifically for esports players and their fans.”

David Hiltscher, VP Shop, Merchandize, Licensing, ESL Gaming

Clinically proven and doctor recommended, GUNNAR’s patented lens technology not only enhances visual focus at close range, but also blocks blue light and reduces dry eyes. Their wide range of gaming and computer glasses help combat the adverse effects of digital eye strain experienced by gamers who play for long periods of time.

This includes frames specifically designed for use with headsets to reduce temple pressure and headaches. GUNNAR also offers a wide range of reading glasses and fulfills prescription orders.

“From humble beginnings in 2006, GUNNAR quickly recognized the need to support gamers by creating eyewear that would heighten their gaming experience in addition to protecting their eyes,” said GUNNAR Optiks, Director of Marketing – Gaming, Georgina Petrie.

“With gamers being core to our brand, the partnership with ESL is part of a strategic alignment we’ve been pursuing in order to deliver new and innovative glasses directly into the hands of the people that need them most.” 

Iron to Immortal: How Valorant Ranks Will Work

David Wojnicki
-
0
Iron to Immortal: How Valorant Ranks Will Work

The competitive game of the year 2020, Valorant is gearing up for a lot of new stuff. It has established itself in the community as one of the greatest games and developer community. Ranks from previous leaks have also made it to the internet, but these new ranks reveal just makes it a whole lot of exciting!

One of the famous Valorant leakers who goes by the nick, FloxaY, revealed in a new post how the ranks would be ascended.

VALORANT RANKS

Valorant ranks

The ranks apart from their classifications, also appear to have tiers within itself. For instance, the Iron rank has three levels and so does the highest rank as Immortal.

The Valorant ranks ascends in this form:

  • Iron
  • Bronze
  • Silver
  • Gold
  • Platinum
  • Diamond
  • Immortal

Although the current games offer unranked for Closed Beta users. Riot Games, on multiple occasions have confirmed the arrival of ranked-match making in a few weeks.

How well the game manages its ranking system is an exciting challenge for now, considering ELO points, multi-queue lobby, solo queues, create a lot of problems for the algorithms.

Revised Dates revealed for PMCO Europe Regional Finals

Abhishek Bajaj
-
0
Revised Dates revealed for PMCO Europe Regional Finals

Tencent have announced the revised dates for PMCO Europe Regional Finals, with the event now set to be held on April 25 and 26, 2020.

Interestingly, the tournament, which was previously scheduled to be played on April 12 and 13, 2020, already saw eight matches being played before network overloads and connection issues made it near impossible for the event to be continued. Hence, Tencent took an unprecedented decision of canceling all the eight matches played, which means the 16 teams that qualified for PMCO Europe Regional Finals will have to start from scratch.

Indian American DotA 2 pro Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora announces retirement

Subhashish Nanda
-
0
Indian American DotA 2 pro Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora announces retirement

In an unprecedented out of the blue move, Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora, NiP’s star DotA 2 pro has decided to retire from competitive gaming. The 30-year-old Indian-American announced on Twitter a couple of minutes ago.

In a statement, Arora said:

I have decided to retire as a player from competitive dota 2. Whenever I do anything in life I tend to be an all or nothing type of person and dota was no different. For the past 10 years I have given everything I have to this game/competition and it was an incredible experience. Now the time has come to pursue other interests and figure out what comes next. Thank you to my fans and past teammates for the amazing memories I will never forget.

Saahil in his 9 years long DotA 2 pro career had played for teams like Fnatic, EG, Secret and Ninjas in Pyjamas before dropping the mic.

Team Ninjas in Pyjamas just a few weeks ago removed UniVerse from its active roster. Saahil has over $5mn earnings to his name playing professionally for several teams, partnerships, endorsements, and twitter donations.

G2 expanding to Valorant soon, says owner

Sonu Banerjee
-
0
G2 expanding to Valorant soon, says owner

After T1, C9 and NiP, TSM had announced that they’d sign professional players for their VALORANT roster. And now, G2 is also moving down the same road.

Valorant Vanguard
Picture from: DotEsports

G2 Esports is one of the biggest esports clubs in the world and a leading entertainment brand in esports. The multi-gaming organisation was founded by former League of Legends player Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez and Jens Hilger – Veteran esports entrepreneur and investor.

Ocelote has recently announced in a Sky Sports interview about their plans to move into VALORANT, the first-person shooter by Riot Games. He mentioned how impressed he was by VALORANT and that they’ll make a team which will be the future “VALORANT world champion”. While describing his views on VALORANT, he mentioned that it was “well designed”, “smooth” and a “perfect game” overall. He also stated that VALORANT is going to become one of the “main games” for them.

Ocelote also announced his plans to create regular content for the competitive shooter.

Accordingly, they have already started to create a playlist for their YouTube consisting of several videos of their players’ highlights on Riot’s new title. The playlist also features popular personalities from CSGO like KennyS trying their hands out on VALORANT.

G2 has also already booked a slot for a competitive VALORANT tournament – the European Brawl – scheduled to take place on Monday, April 27 at 2:00 AM Pacific Time.

The tournament will see eight teams across Europe fight it out to determine the winner. The tournament will be cast by Lauren “pansy” Scott and Jason “moses” O’Toole and will be live-streamed on G2’s official Twitch channel.

Troll Spectators By Disguising Your CSGO Crosshair

Lauren Rasmussen
-
0
Troll Spectators By Disguising Your CSGO Crosshair

CSGO vented a new update in which you can now copy crosshairs of players by just spectating their game. This new feature brought some assistance to the newbies and humors for the most. Memes with bizarre crosshair complexity is floating all around CSGO communities.

How the game processes your data is pretty simple, it simply saves your crosshair sizes in the form of commands as soon as your join the server. It continues to display the same until the end of the session, even if you change it mid-game.

If you use crosshair size 1 when you join the server and change it to crosshair size 2 mid-game, the spectators will continue to see crosshair size 1.

Reddit user btk150 has a pretty simple trick which allows you to troll your friends or anyone who’s spectating your game.

alias "crosshairjoke" "badcrosshair"
alias "badcrosshair" "cl_crosshairgap 100; cl_crosshairsize 100; cl_crosshairthickness 100; cl_crosshairalpha 50; alias crosshairjoke normalcrosshair"
alias "normalcrosshair" "cl_crosshairgap -1.8; cl_crosshairsize 2; cl_crosshairthickness 0.1; cl_crosshairalpha 200; alias crosshairjoke badcrosshair"
bind j crosshairjoke

You can paste the above code in user.cfg which is available at this location:

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\STEAMID\730\local\cfg

Don’t forget to change your crosshair codes to the alias ‘normalcrosshair’ before you execute this in your console.

When you join a server you’ll have a troll crosshair which you can easily change back to your normal by pressing the keystroke ‘J.’

Furthermore, gamers are already requesting, creating petitions to make ESL reveal the crosshair sizes of the pros in game. Valve will definitely be patching this, since this trick defies the purpose of transpiring the functionality in the game. So troll till you can and share your reactions on your Facebook page to get featured!

1...1,9241,9251,926...2,195Page 1,925 of 2,195