Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses across all the sectors have been greatly impacted by the changes in lifestyle and also because of the new laws that were enforced during all this period.
There are many growing implications with COVID-19 on the global economy and it is affecting everyone from all walks of life. We see the best way for us to do our part is to support our business partners starting with our ecosystem.”
Razer’s CEO Min-Liang Tang
Razer Fintech, Razer Gold and zVentures, the three major arms of the company will receive a split of the funds and Razer will provide businesses access to its hardware, software and services as a part of their initiative that they have decided to take during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Razer Fintech which is a digital payment network in SEA (Southeast Asia) region will work with the Singapore FinTech Association to lower business costs, save Fintech jobs, stimulate funding for Fintech companies and facilitate sales. Razer Gold will support the Razer content partners through cashflow relief measure and marketing contribution, and will also look for potential investment opportunities among the content partners.
Coming to zVentures, Razer’s corporate ventures arm will focus its investment on companies that are developing technology to fight COVID-19 and to support people who are in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scamming in esports isn’t only limited to in-game currencies and cosmetics. Scam artists are resorting to live streaming platforms like Twitch to fraudulently make an income off unsuspecting viewers by hijacking their accounts.
Incidents like this are not rare anymore. Popular games like CSGO and Dota 2 have always been primary targets for scammers who make fake accounts impersonating professional players to stream on Twitch in an attempt to scam people. Once again, such an incident was brought to light through a Reddit post capturing an alarming number of three of such fake streams in a single screenshot.
The streams generally ask viewers to enter something in the chat which appears like a simple chat command at first glance like “!arcana”. Once a viewer does that, a bot automatically contacts the unsuspecting target and claims that he or she won a giveaway. The viewer is then required to enter their credentials on a third party website to obtain their reward. Needless to say, that website would be a phishing site designed to rip off the user input data.
The worst part is that these kinds of frauds are working. While Twitch are generally quick to ban impersonating streamers, it’s only a matter of minutes before another similar stream pops up as another Redditor mentions in his comment.
These sort of frauds have been happening in Twitch for years, and will keep on happening until Twitch finds a way to permanently solve this issue. Till they step up, innocent viewers will keep falling victim to scammers like these.
As some of the comments in the thread suggested, verifying professional Dota 2 players on Twitch would certainly solve this problem to an extent.
Valorant is scoring tons of views after it introduced the close beta drop system exclusively on twtich. A lot of streamers got exclusive access to Valorant so they could stream and experience the game before its official release.
One of the foremost Valorant streamers on twitch currently is Summit1g. The 32 year-old streamer rose to fame predominantly by playing CS:GO. Having streamed on the platform for quite a while makes Summit1g a very experienced individual when it comes to the field of streaming.
Recently, Summit1g spoke out about how tournaments have ruined the viewership of games like CS:GO and issued a word of warning for the same to Riot via his tweets. Summit requested Riot not to let tournaments ruin the category of Valorant in light of the ongoing 100Thieves Invitational. He explained that tournaments have saturated the viewership of CS:GO to the extent that every day the top 5 CS:GO channels are tournaments. He further elaborated that CS:GO is now a ruined category on twitch and is overrun by tournaments and lacks the essential balance of content creators and tournaments in its category.
Valorant. Don’t let tournaments ruin our game category like Counterstrike did. Thanks.
I’m not burned out on CS lol. Tourneys ruined that category. Wanna know when a game is getting unhealthy on twitch? When the top 5 channels every single day is a tourney.
CS:GO has been on a steady decline of viewership despite the increase in number of hours streamed. Many CS pros like Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz and Óscar ‘Mixwell’ Cañellas came forward and agreed to Summit’s points twitter. They validated Summit by implying CS:GO isn’t a good game for content creators as it is currently over-saturated by tournaments.
I agree with both, I literally said the same thing in an interview a week ago. CS might be the worst game to start streaming or doing content on, I feel like it’s gonna become what Dota is to league of legends, the only relevant thing are tournaments, I still love the game tho.
Riot definitely knows a thing or two about maintaining balance of content creators and tournaments thanks to their most famous MOBA League of Legends which holds records for its insane watch-times and play-times. What remains to be seen is what approach they take for their newest title on the line, Valorant.
As the world tries to control the spread of Novel Coronavirus many people are left stuck in their homes with too much free time and nothing to do. Here we have compiled a list of top 10 free mobile games that anyone can start easily and get hooked on the gameplay for days. So without further a-do following is the list of top 10 free Mobile Games to try right now!
Alto’s Odyssey
Alto’s Odyssey is a game about Alto and his friends on an endless sandboarding journey to discover the secrets of a vast and unexplored majestic desert. Easy to learn, difficult to master the game plays out beautifully with breath-taking environment details and an original handcrafted soothing soundtrack. All in all the game is a lot more like the pc game GRIS, beautiful and challenging at the same time.
Auto Chess
After the popularity of Auto Chess mod of Dota 2 on PC, the genre of the game very quickly took the top spot on charts worldwide. In a short period of time, it became a fan favorite genre and soon the Mobile port was announced. Developed the Dragonest, Pit your strategy skills against 7 other players and prove your skills by adapting your strategies in real-time against enemies. By collecting/changing Hero cards, and arranging different formations, 8 chess gamers will be contending for the first prize. Players will randomly get their Heroes in the Sharing Cardpool and will be able to form special formations according to their unique strategies.
Critical Ops
Critical Ops is a 3D multiplayer FPS for mobile that is very similar to Counter-Strike Global Offensive. Critical Ops features three challenging game modes; Defuse, Team Deathmatch and Gungame. The game is completely free-to-play and only features weapons skins as microtransactions. Play competitively in ranked matches or custom game, Critical Ops offers a range of customizations for players to choose from.
Marvel Strike Force
Live out your Super Hero fantasies in Marvel Strike Force. Collect all of your favorite heroes, marshall them into a team, upgrade them, and lead them to victory against your enemies. This turn-based collector-battle game offers a pretty straight forward campaign and also gives the options to play online against other players.
Mini Militia Doodle Army 2
Developed by MiniClip, Mini Militia is a classic that started the race for multiplayer shooters on mobile and ruled it for a long time. Battle with up to 6 players online or locally. Experience the joy of a fun and fast-paced gameplay of this 2D cartoon themed cross between Soldat and Halo.
FIFA Soccer
For the first time, EA brings the complete FIFA experience for mobile games. Experience the same Fifa you love on your console and PC in this new Mobile version. Similar to every other Fifa experience, play head-to-head against your friends, build your own Ultimate Team, or challenge others in the new “VS Attack” mode. EA has done a good job on the mobile port and the controls also feel solid.
Asphalt 9 Legends
Sequel to the popular Asphalt 8: Airborne, Asphalt 9 Legends brings in variety of changes to the series. Pick from a top roster of real hypercars from renowned car manufacturers like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, etc. Pick your dream car and race across several beautifully created locations against other drivers from around the world. Just like the previous game, Asphalt 9 is graphically one of the best games available right now on Mobile.
Brawl Stars
From the creators of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, SuperCell, comes another action-packed fast-paced multiplayer game. Brawl solo against other brawlers or with friends in a variety of game modes in under three minutes. Brawl Stars offers a unique fast-paced experience for anyone looking for a quick game.
COD: Mobile (Call Of Duty Mobile)
Activision’s most popular franchise came to the mobile like a tornado and swept past various other Battle Royale games. COD Mobile quickly claimed the top spot in heart of many Battle Royale Fans. Since its launch, the game quickly found its way into more than 100,000,000+ mobiles and is still rising. But it is still behind the number 1.
PUBG: Mobile (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile)
The crown for the most popular game on the planet still remains with Tencent’s PUBG Mobile series*. Since its launch, the game has been a huge success worldwide from Esports tournaments to Streaming platforms, PUBG Mobile still remains uncontested. Although with the launch of COD: Mobile things started looking bad, Tencent quickly moved things around and the series still remains the most downloaded game ever.
The terms PPI and DPI are more important to gamers because both of these have an impact on gaming when it comes to smoothness and flow of the game. PPI is sometimes confused with DPI, and people consider both as same.
PPI stands for Pixels per Inch. This is a unit of calculation used for quantifying the number of pixels located on the surface of a square inch. Imagine a square inch that is separated and arranged in a series of cells to get a better picture of what it entails. Each cell inside the grid has a pixel within. PPI is calculated by the number of cells within the grid, also known as pixels.
DPI, or dots per inch, is a representation of a written paper or a digital scan size. The larger the number of the lines, the increasing the print or scan quality. Usually, DPI is the calculation of the amount of dots that can be put in a line over an inch or 2.54 centimeters. You can calculate PPI using an online PPI calculator and DPI with a DPI calculator to check your screen’s PPI and DPI.
The real difference between PPI and DPI
Common intuition would definitely lead you to think they aren’t the same. Also, if both words apply to width, so you might quickly equate pixels with dots probably because they are so tiny. Although PPI often applies to displays and visual components, DPI used properly when you are relating to items like written material.
For any particular character or illustration, the clarity and accuracy of a printed document are properly determined by the amount of ink dots. Similar objects are calculated by both DPI and PPI, but pixels are not dots, and dots are not pixels, so DPI is not the same as PPI.
PPI and DPI are sometimes used to explain the same phenomenon, however. It’s not true, but major corporations, including Google and Microsoft and a number of device vendors, still use such words interchangeably, and then people began using them broadly too.
Effects of PPI on gaming
PPI, or pixels per inch, is one norm that helps bind resolution and image size together. Proportions of pixels depend on how many pixels you line up inside a specified area because they don’t have exact physical size. When you have 1000 pixels in a 10-inch region, it is equal to 100 PPI.
The lower the pixel size, the higher the PPI would be at a similar resolution. The larger the PPI is, the lower the actual pixel dimension is. A 32′′ display with 1080p resolution, for example, has 69 PPI. PPI is 138 at 4K, which implies larger and smaller pixels within the same region.
Size (inch)
1080p
1440p
4K
24
92 PPI
123 PPI
184 PPI
28
79 PPI
105 PPI
157 PPI
32
69 PPI
92 PPI
138 PPI
A higher PPI helps in better pictures, but a few drawbacks are still present. Designers use centimeters to determine the scale of the visual elements of games and machines, not inches. In a low PPI display, a 100-pixel line seems wider while in a high PPI one, it is shorter. On-screen items and text will become unreadable when PPI becomes too big.
Human Eye Max PPI
Distance
286 PPI
61 cm
191 PPI
91 cm
115 PPI
152 cm
57 PPI
305 cm
So while playing games like Pubg, Fortnite, or any racing game on a PC or mobile device is affected by PPI. More PPI makes your controls more sensitive on the screen. Let’s leave sensitivity to DPI for the next section because the impact of PPI on gaming is more on the resolution. Greater PPI leads to a greater resolution, which eventually makes you perform better in a game.
How DPI affect gaming?
A DPI higher is not necessarily good for gaming. When you push the mouse a little bit, you don’t want the mouse cursor to float over the display all the way. At the other side, a higher DPI setting lets your mouse sense minor gestures and adapt to them, so you can target items more precisely. You should check your DPI before you dive into the playing area of Pubg for a chicken dinner.
Let’s presume you’re playing a game of the first-person shooter, for starters. A greater DPI may be useful by helping you to shoot easily with quick mouse movements when zooming in with a scope and attempting to hit specific objects accurately. This DPI could be too sensitive while playing the game normally without the zooming the scope of your gun. That is the reason there is a button to control your DPI on good quality mouse. You can lower or increase DPI using that button while playing a game.
How much PPI matter when buying a mobile or monitor?
Of course, PPI matters. You may be tempted to pick the one with the biggest diagonal size as you go purchasing a new computer monitor, iPhone, or some other form of gadget that has a display. Going large where you can, is just normal, right? But that’s not necessarily the correct option, and here’s an example. Let’s pretend you choose to buy a new mobile, so you want a large screen for it. Around 6″. You plan to prefer iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy S9 after browsing across the website. The Samsung Galaxy S9 is fitted with 568 PPI pixel density, 1440 x 2960 pixel resolution, and a 5.8-inch display. IPhone X has a screen size of 5.8 inches, 463 PPI pixel density, and 1125 x 2436 pixel resolution. While both have a comparable screen size, the Samsung Galaxy S9’s resolution and PPI pixel density are far better than what the iPhone X by Apple has to deliver. This ensures far more pixels are scattered across a comparable physical area, the frame.
Wrapping Up
A higher PPI, or pixel density, indicates you’re having even more clarity about something that’s seen on your phone. That implies better clearer lines, gaming, sensitivity, better fonts, higher efficiency, and images. It is the same with DPI; the higher the DPI, your cursor will fly more quickly as you use your mouse or touch your mobile’s screen.
Note that, more DPI than a certain limit will cause problems while playing games. Set both of your PPI and DPI after checking it using PPI and DPI calculator, respectively, and play your favorite games like a pro.
Valorant has already gained more popularity in its closed beta stage than most other games have attained in their lifetime. It has helped Twitch to skyrocket their viewership with more than 1.7 million viewers on Valorant streams across the streaming platform.
After the groundbreaking success of Valorant during its initial stages, Riot has decided to remove restrictions on the beta key drop systems on Twitch which they announced through a blog post. Previously, only certain streamers with drops enabled on stream would drop occasional beta keys to their viewers. But Riot decided to revise this system by making beta keys available across all Valorant streams. This means that any streamer will now drop Valorant beta keys as long as they’re streaming Valorant. However, they also announced that the number of beta key drops available won’t be increased.
Riot has also announced that Valorant closed beta will soon be expanded to 3 more regions – Brazil, LATAM and Korea. However, they couldn’t confirm any dates for the release just yet. These countries will be joining the previous list of countries included in the closed beta namely US, Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and CIS countries. In the blog post, they once again reminded the players that Valorant beta drops happen all the time, even when players are offline. They also emphasized on the fact that the drops happen based on the Riot account’s home-based region of the player which can be checked from here.
100 Thieves might have some competition as TSM announced that their new gaming facility that is worth $50 million is all set to open in the spring of 2020. Leena Xu, the president of TSM esports and Content Creator, Myth gave TSM fans a sneak peek of the org’s new gaming facility that could undoubtedly be the biggest largest esport centre ever created in North America.
The facility boasts of 25,000 square feet and is scheduled to open in the spring of 2020. The interior of TSM’s gaming facility is all painted in black and white and feature a lot of space for TSM’s employees. The gaming facility also features a closed theatre with bleaches that will allow the org to hold seminars and meetings & to also host launch parties for esport events.
League of Legends pro player for TSM, Bjergsen has also put his own touch to the facility while requesting for a sensory deprivation tank for the players to float in for meditation sessions. The Wellness Centre will also comprise nap pods for employees and streamers in order to take breaks. (pretty dope right?)
For the esports team, the entire upstairs area has been allotted. The area includes lounges for preparation and coaching, scrim rooms, streaming setups, a cafe, fitness centre and a green screen area for content creation. TSM’s gaming facility is all set to compete with 100 Thieves $35 million Clash App Compound which opened in the starting of this year for their employees, staff, streamers, content creators and their pro players.
After the competitive teams of TSM in games like Rocket League and PUBG respectively failed to finish in the top three in the event’s they played, TSM decided to drop their rosters from both the games.
However, René “Braexco” Rehling, Michael “mykLe” Wake and Rory “rawryy” Logue will still stay with the organization as content creators and streamers. TSM said that, “Each and every one of these players has demonstrated their work ethic and determination to succeed”. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts and time with the organization” they further added.
Only after a year since the players joined the competitive Rocket League roster for TSM, they are being released as well by the org. The team captain remkoe mentioned that, “the entire team knew about this decision for weeks and that their performance was the main reason for this decision.”
Remkoe also said that “It is unlikely you’ll see TSM returning to RL anytime soon unless there are big changes to the league or game in the coming future.” Hopefully, these players can find greener pastures for themselves in the coming future.
Apart from the $250,000 main event WePlay! in now extending its Pushka Leauge with a Divison 2 event with $5,000 on the line that will be open to the teams that will be disheartened in their run of the main event.
Although considering there won’t be the same amount of money up for grabs like the main division, Division 2 will have a chance to earn some money and appear on the broadcast of the official channel. Division 2 will feature teams from CIS and Europe that failed in closed qualifiers of Division 1 plus two teams, each from one region, that will march their way in via open qualifier round.
A day late scheduling than of Division 1, WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 qualifiers will go live on 18th of April for CIS region and April 19 for Europe. Division 2 will also have the same runtime as of the main division that is from April 23rd to May 11th.
Division 2 will have eight teams in all, split into two GSL groups of four. At the end of the group stage, bottom from each group will be eliminated while the rest will continue into a double elimination playoff bracket.
WePlay! Pushka Divison 2 champions and runner up will secure a spot in the next iteration of the event.
WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 prize pool distribution:
We are just a little more than a week away from another online Dota 2 event, WePlay! Pushka Leauge.
Qualifiers for Europe and CIS region of $250k event are about to go live tomorrow through a round of open and closed qualifiers, one team from each region to unite with the other 12 teams that received direct invites to the main event.
The qualifiers of the event will take place on 15-22. Both divisions having two open slots available, open qualifiers of the event to take place on April 16 for the CIS division and on April 17 for the European division. The matches will start at 13:00 CET. The top two teams from each region will move ahead onto the closed qualifier to compete against the direct invite teams of closed qualifiers.
European division has the Chicken Fighters roster captained by SoNNeikO and Viking.gg who put up a show against OG recently at the ESL Los Angeles Online while CIS to power the newly formed VP.Prodigy and Cyber Legacy will the four teams invited to the closed qualifiers.
The closed qualifiers will be a three day affair from April 20-23 and will be live-streamed on Twitch.
Once all of this is concluded, we will have 14 teams on paper which already include some big names such as Team Secret, OG, Na’Vi, Virtus Pro and many other tier 1 teams for the main event.
Two regions will clash within the main event that will run from April 23rd to May 11th in mixed playoffs and a chunk of the $250,000 prize pool.
