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Could Free Fire Survive in the Battle Royale Battle?

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Developed by 111dots and Garena being the sole publisher of the game, Garena Free Fire was launched globally on December 4, 2017, for both Android & iOS. From the beginning of its release, the game had to compete with other mobile BR games that were there in the market at that time. Currently, the game is competing with the likes of COD Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Rules of Survival (ROS) and other mobile BR games.

Lately, we have seen a significant rise in the number of mobile BR games, the BR gaming market is on the bloom as well. We see new BR games being launched that are really exciting and attract a lot of players, so the question which arises here is, “Can Garena Free Fire can survive in such a competitive market?” Let’s take a closer look.

Balanced BR environment?

Due to it’s simplified gameplay & mechanics that were meant for low to mid-range devices, Free Fire was able to build a good player base. In the beginning, Free Fire’s competitors like COD Mobile and PUBG Mobile weren’t compatible with low to mid-end devices but later on, they also improved their compatibility and performance with lower-end devices to get an upper-hand in the mobile BR market.

But still, Garena Free Fire has been able to slightly stand out from its competitors by having a smoother and lighter BR experience. This is one of the main reasons why Free Fire continues to attract newcomers & hold onto its loyal player base.

Becoming Pay-to-Win?

It’s very surprising how Free Fire is heading towards a “Pay-To-Win” model. This will surely degrade Free Fire’s approachable nature and its value in the lower-end devices market. Last year the game passed its $1 billion dollar revenue mark, we wonder if Free Fire can continue with this momentum.

Buzz & The Hype!

Consistency and uniqueness of the in-game events which are updated on a regular basis are one of the key factors why Garena Free Fire is able to maintain the interest of its players. They are very good at keeping their fans engaged through events & freebies and by rewarding their players with buffs, costumes, gun skins and so on.

To keep creating a buzz in order to please the Free Fire community, Garena has also collaborated with several celebs and famous streamers. Another main motive of this initiative is to attract new players to install & try out the game worldwide.

Engagement of Users

The key aspect which keeps any online game alive is the amount of value being given to the players by the developers of the game. The devs frequently reach out to the fans & keep’s an eye on the feedback given by them and try to exceed their expectations.

The way in which the game frequently introduces new characters, features, modes, etc. and promotes them, we can clearly say that Free Fire devs pass this test with flying colors. Very smooth gameplay combined with regular events & rewards makes Free Fire as one of the fan favorites in the mobile BR market. 

Will the game be able to keep up with the on-going momentum even with a P2W model? We’ll find out soon.

Astralis Group reports $5M loss in its first Annual Report for the year 2019

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The Danish Esports Organisation Astralis Group published its first Annual Report in which the group reported total revenue of $7.1M and a net loss of $5M for the year 2019. The group also became the first Esports organization to publicly list itself on Nasdaq Copenhagen and offer its IPO in November 2019 for a base price of kr10 (approx $1.45). Since then the share has lost more than 60% value and currently trades at kr4.5 (approx $0.66).

Currently, The Astralis Group owns 3 esports teams:- Astralis (CS:GO), Origen (League of Legends) and Future Football Club (FIFA 19/20). The previous owner of these teams, RFRSH ApS also had a history of running on losses and following a management buyout in August 2019, these came together and formed The Astralis Group.

The Group also reported about the revenue generated by each team and according to that Astralis generated 81% ($5.7M), Origen 16 % ($1.14M) and Future FC 3% ($0.26M). Meanwhile, each team other than Future Fc made a loss overall.

Astralis won six tournaments throughout 2019 while spending $6.5M in operating expenses and made a loss of $728K. Although Astralis won their third consecutive CS:GO Major and fourth Major title in total, the loss is in fact caused by a higher payout of prize money to the players due to which Astralis saw very little of that prize money.

The report also highlighted about potential risks of Novel Coronavirus which has “the potential to impact sponsorship revenue if both existing or potential sponsors aren’t able to utilize their sponsorship in certain markets or if Astralis Group is unable to fulfill its obligations towards agreements.”

How to watch WeSave! Charity Play by WePlay! Esports

With the Coronavirus pandemic around the globe and it’s showing no signs of stopping, WePlay! insisted to ”show the strength and unity of the Dota 2 community” coming up with a fully-online tournament called WePlay! Charity Play in this Covid-19 havoc.

Where to?

Right from your couch, available in English, Russian and Ukrainian languages on WePlay!’s official streams at https://www.twitch.tv/team/weplay

What for?

24 teams from around the world for a noble cause, to be a helping hand in this fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in which all of us are together. $120,000 and all the donations on streams from the viewers will go right to CEPI and GlobalGiving to help aid.

Teams participating?

North America

  • business associates
  • CR4ZY
  • Cloud9
  • Evil Geniuses

South America

  • NoPing e-sports
  • Thunder Predator
  • beastcoast
  • FURIA Esports

Europe

  • Team Liquid
  • Team Secret
  • Team Nigma
  • OG

CIS

  • Virtus.pro
  • HellRaisers
  • Natus Vincere
  • B8

China

  • EHOME
  • Invictus Gaming
  • Vici Gaming
  • PSG.LGD

Southeast Asia

  • Geek Fam
  • BOOM Esports
  • TNC Predator
  • beastcoast

and the format?

24 teams in all, the tournament will run throughout the regions concurrently. Each of six major regions Europe, CIS, North and South America, China and Southeast Asia will have four teams playing for a prize pool of $20,000, rounding up $120,000 altogether.

Each group will be single-elimination with best-of-three matches all the way through.

and the date?

March 20th – 26th.

March 20

  • Match #1 – 6am CT, Geek Fam vs. BOOM Esports
  • Match #2 – 11am CT, B8 vs. Natus Vincere
  • Match #3 – 3pm CT, Cloud9 vs. CR4ZY

March 21

  • Match #1 – 7am CT, PSG.LGD vs. Invictus Gaming
  • Match #2 – 12pm CT, Team Liquid vs. OG
  • Match #3 – 4pm CT, FURIA Esports vs. NoPing Esports

March 22

  • Match #1 – 6am CT, TNC Predator vs. Team Adroit
  • Match #2 – 11am CT, Virtus Pro vs. HellRaisers
  • Match #3 – 3pm CT, Evil Geniuses vs. business associates

March 23

  • Match #1 – 7am CT, EHOME vs. Vici Gaming
  • Match #2 – 12pm CT, Team Secret vs. Nigma
  • Match #3 – 4pm CT, beastcoast vs. Thunder Predator

March 24

  • Match #1 – 6am CT, Southeast Asia Finals
  • Match #2 – 11am CT, CIS Finals
  • Match #3 – 3pm CT, North America Finals

March 25

  • Match #1 – 7am CT, China Finals
  • Match #2 – 12pm CT, Europe Finals
  • Match #3 – 4pm CT, South America Finals

Streams:

Watch live video from WePlayEsport_RU on www.twitch.tv Watch live video from WePlayEsport_EN on www.twitch.tv

Also Read:

Coronavirus: ESL Mobile Open S4 Finals postponed indefinitely

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One of the biggest mobile esports events, the ESL Mobile Open Season 4 Finals has been postponed indefinitely owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus Esl made the announcement via their social media handles and made it clear that event will not be broadcasted as planned.

The event featured 4 big mobile esports titles i.e Asphalt 9, Clash of Clans, Dota Underlords and finally PUBG Mobile. While Season 4 finals are postponed, ESL has opened the registration for Season 5 starting today.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

TE Originals: Natus Vincere, Perfecto & Sweet Serendipity

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Scene: Natus Vincere have brought in Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovacs from FAZE Clan in an attempt to reinvigorate their lineup. Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has transitioned into the ‘Assaulter’ role. Big things are expected from Na’Vi under Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov, with Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy there to lend a helping hand.

But, what was expected to be a dream lineup turned into a nightmare quickly. GuardiaN seemed like a shadow of his former self, missing simple shots and s1mple began seeping back into his old toxic days due to the frustration.

While they remained competitive, GuardiaN’s inconsistency was reflected in the team’s performance and with B1ad3 unable to bring upon an improvement in this atmosphere, a change was brought in. GuardiaN was removed from the active lineup and the search for a new fifth began.

Several names popped up, the noisiest chants coming for the then AVANGAR star Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali. But, Natus Vincere had a serious challenge at hand; the challenge to reinvigorate s1mple. The Ukrainian still put up impressive numbers but seem to be lagging behind his competitors for the top spot since giving up the Big Green Gun. Be it a case of a shot to his confidence or out of frustration of not being able to help the team with the AWP, s1mple just wasn’t that effective without the AWP.

So, Na’Vi took the right and easy step of reinstating s1mple as the Primary AWPer. Now, onto the task of completing the active lineup. Many names were doing the rounds. There were reports of them practicing with Igor ‘Forester’ Bezotecheskiy, who currently plays for Hard Legion. Although, the Evgeny ‘FL1T’ Lebedev saga takes the cake as the most enticing event during Na’Vi’s search for fifth.

Natus Vincere and FL1T were reportedly both interested in making the move happen. But, the CIS organization had to back out after forZe quoted a ludicrous transfer price for the 19-year-old. The move did not end up happening and forZe’s statement in the aftermath was a thing of beauty.

forZe confirmed that Na’Vi had indeed enquired for FL1T but that the player was happy to stay put and honor the contract at his current team. The statement was ridiculed by esports experts and personalities on social media platforms.

Once this entire Macabre was put to a close, another name started doing the rounds, this time in the form of Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy. People put it as a toss-up between Forester and Perfecto. The statistics seem to prefer the former.

Na’Vi chose Perfecto and signed him from SYMAN. There were early hiccups, with ICE Challenge not really going their way and the start of BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 was far from ideal. A 2-0 loss to Vitality and Natus Vincere were staring down the barrel of a direct elimination from BLAST Premier Spring 2020.

But, they rallied from it, beat Astralis and then went on to top their Group, exacting revenge against Vitality and then beating the surprise package, Complexity. What impressed people more was how Natus Vincere got those wins in the bag. We saw chemistry like never before. There was a development in their style of play and that reflected in the confidence they all had not just in the playbook but also in each other.

IEM Katowice though, showed just how powerful this Natus Vincere can be. On the back of just a few weeks of Bootcamp, the CIS giants outplayed teams at the event with ease, with the likes of G2 Esports and Astralis getting decimated in the semi-finals and finals respectively.

With an admirable buddy system in place and everyone on the same page, it seems that Perfecto was indeed the perfect addition to their roster. The victory on Mirage against G2 Esports was particularly pleasing and highlighted just why Perfecto was brought in.

In s1mple’s words,” I think all of our players have insane individual skill. All of our players are the same age, so we understand each other better outside and inside the game. “

Natus Vincere have two explosive players in electronic and s1mple. Boombl4 is very active on the map on the defence. flamie was the only anchor within the lineup. Perfecto’s arrival ensured stability on the other site while enabling electronic, s1mple and Boombl4 to play their game.

Perfecto is the calm to the chaos that the stars of Natus Vincere tend to revel in. B1ad3 could inculcate a structure within the play that allows the CIS giants to get the best of both worlds.

A man living his dream is dangerous because he just doesn’t want to wake up. To Perfecto, this is all a dream; to play under the tag of the biggest CIS organization in the history of the game; to play with two of the best players in the world.

When the Coronavirus outbreak cools down and the LAN events return, it will be up to Perfecto and Natus Vincere that this conglomeration has it all to maintain their #1 HlTV Ranking. The Natus Vincere era could have well begun and Perfecto’s addition will be the initiation point of it, if it does hold good.

Photos via HLTV.org & ESL

Also Read:

https://www.talkesport.com/originals/these-are-the-most-expensive-skins-in-csgo-right-now/

Free Fire India Championship Finals will be a closed-door event amidst Coronavirus outbreak

After announcing the postponement of the Free Fire Champions Cup, Garena has taken yet another difficult decision and has announced the FFIC Finals to be a closed-door event.

Garena holds the health and safety of the players in their highest regard as they made it clear via the announcement:

The finals on 28th Mar, 2020 will be live-streamed on our official YouTube and Facebook page. Keeping to our commitment of prioritising the well-being of our athletes and fans, it is not feasible to bring all under one roof. Thank you for your understanding and support!

The date of the Finals remains unchanged and it is set to kick off on 28th March although the event will feature no audience. Fans can still relish the event by tuning into the Livestream as 12 teams will give it their all to win the title of champions alongside INR 15 Lakh prize money.

PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia Day 1 Recap

All 5 matches of Day 1, Week 1 of PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia have come to an end. The first 4 matches were played between groups A, B, C, D and in the 5th match, Group B took an exit and Group E came by. It was a rollercoaster ride with chicken dinner winners taking an early exit in the next match itself as well as veteran Indian teams being outplayed by underdogs. Here’s all you need to know about day 1:

Maps and Winners

MatchMapWinning Squad
1ErangelTSM Entity
2SanhokTeam Soul
3MiramarUMumbaxRxN
4VikendiFnatic
5SanhokTeam Xtreme

Top Players

SynerGE and TSM Entity, two of the directly qualified squads have an inarguably strong player lineup with impressive stats as well as perfect shot-calling in-game. These rosters dedicated time with their respective rosters while the rest of the pack was fighting their way up through the group and final stages of PMCO. A player worth mentioning is Team Tamilas’ MantyOP who brought top tier teams to their knees with his perfect sense of rotations and aim set on the head during team fights.

Overall Standings

All the 20 teams played a match today although teams from Group E played a single match as they are lined up to play the remaining ones tomorrow

pos 1-10
pos 11-20

Analysis

The day couldn’t have been more interesting with TSM Entity refusing to step down from the #1 spot of the table. Team Soul pulled off a chicken dinner in match 2 with a total of 15 kills as Viper, one of their founding members exhibited ace level gameplay. Team Orange Rock, a team from which fans had high expectations from did not have a great time as they consecutively underperformed and took early exits in each match. UMumba, the underdog squad shut all mouths with their performance in match 3 where they bagged a win with their perfectly coordinated gameplay. Team Godlike and Xtreme from Group E played their first match and managed to make it to the final circle in a faceoff. Team Xtreme bagged the win but Godlike established themselves as serious contenders. Team SynerGE seems to have a gift in Seervi as he continuously carried the team on his shoulders and had his fair share of moments throughout the day. Team Tamilas, the underdog stars of PMCO regionals gave some serious competition to top tier squads and MantyOP took the fight head-on with teams like Soul, Fnatic as well as TSM Entity.

As day 1 comes to an end, we have a basic picture of what the teams plan to bring to the table. TSM Entity, SynerGE, Team Xtreme and Fnatic have proved themselves early on in the game while veteran squads like Orange Rock and Marcos Gaming still have a lot of proving to do. The league stage continues for another 4 days and the fight for the $200,000 prize pool continues tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

TSM Entity go crazy in game 1 with a total of 19 kills in PUBG Mobile Pro League SA

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A major tire tournament is afoot and right in the first match of the first day of the first week, TSM Entity has bagged a chicken dinner with an unbelievable total of 19 kills.

The map being played was Erangel and Indian squad UMumba took an early exit at the 6-minute mark. The game progressed slow for the first 15 minutes but after that, TSM Entity kept bagging kills and was in no mood to stop. They also took down team Soul in the second last circle of the game handing them a 6th place finish. ZGod was named the match MVP as he decimated 7 other players and dealt total damage of 725.

This performance right in the opening game was unexpected and with this domination, TSM Entity has given reason to the rest of the teams to fear them. Basically this squad became the cause for the exit of almost 5 other teams out of the total 16 playing. If TSM Entity continues to play like this, within a week’s time they will position themself as unbeatable. They literally tried to pan the final remaining player of Jyanmarra and that states the kind of confidence they were playing with.

47 matches remain and PUBG Mobile Pro League SA is off to a mindblowing start.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

These Are The Most Expensive Skins in CSGO Right Now

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Valve’s Counter-Strike:Global Offensive is known for it’s most aesthetic market place along with the insane FPS mechanics. Over these years CS:GO has transitioned into a famous Esports Title with a plethora of events being organized every year with some whopping prize pools unlike in the early days when it hadn’t attracted a formidable player base. But with Valve revamping the game in 2013 with some weapon spray aesthetics, we did witness a turn in the events when the Arms Deals update was inculcated in the game. Since then, these weapon skins have caught everyone’s eye as players did found them to be visually appealing provided with the fact that these skins won’t be adding any extra muscle power to your weapon. After the community market was set up for CS:GO, players did found themselves to grab up some skins from the market or would sell their equipped skins to go for some different kinds.

Image result for csgo skins

CS:GO has showered the community with many cases either dropped in matches or could be bought from the community market where each one of them would provide us with a unique skin from its the collection when opened. This doesn’t mean that every time you would get another one from the same but you could be hung upon a recurring chain. These skins are defined on the basis of their rarities where there are sorted into Eight different tiers. Among these tiers, the skin with the Consumer Grade tier would be the most common whereas the Contraband grade is the rarest among the hierarchy.

These skins would then be refined after their wear is determined, the specific variable for such kind of classification is known as the Float value. The lesser the Float Value, the better that specific skin would look and vice versa. So on a scale of 0.00x to 1.00 where the parameter 0.00x is considered as to be the lowest, it might be called as skin with negligible wear. But the ones with the value around 1.00 parameter, they might be called as the ones with the maximum amount of wear. If you take a look at the image attached below, one can easily determine the quality of the skin.

Image Courtesy : Dexerto.com

Among these various skins and their classes, we also do have a collection of knives where one can replace their default knife in-game with one from these collections. The fact about these knives is they can’t be used for melee attacks unlike other titles but you can definitely deal damage if you’re flanking the opposite force or to gain a fast movement speed by taking it out in your hand for quick rotation.

The above image depicts the collection from the Chroma Case which is available in the community market.

You might want to explore some of the most Expensive Weapon Skins in the community among which some are the rarest and difficult to lay our hands-on.

AWPP Dragon Lore

AWP Dragon Lore, the most expensive weapon skin for the snipers across the globe. Since the launch of CS:GO, this has been a hot stock on the market and in the community as well. But after the removal of Cobblestone from the Active Duty Map Loadout, the chances of getting this skin through the Major souvenir drops were completely hammered where we saw a never-ending inclination in the price of the same. This skin currently holds a value of $19000 making it the most expensive gamble in the community.

AK-47 Fire Serpent

This weapon skin can be found in the Operation Bravo Case making you super lucky if you get this on opening the same. With a mesmerizing pattern of a serpent on the body, you can always enter the bid to get the StatTrak version of it for $1300.

M4A4 Howl

Proved to be another top-notch rifle skin up for grabs on the market, this has been the most iconic Contraband rifle in the Community since the start. With this skin, you might come out howling with those flashy Sprays.

AUG | Akihabara Accept

Found in the Rising sun collection, this might amaze you if you are a true Anime fan. Depicting a Japanese Slang ie “I did it”, it really might be a perfect fit for your loadout.

M9 Bayonet Marble Fade

With a price tag of $750 on the market, it comes with a mesmerizing pattern of three metallic colors on the blade which can really be a perfect flex for your loadout if you’re looking to inspect it in-game.

StatTrak Karambit Doppler Sapphire

You would need just $5,800 to showcase this in your loadout. After you purchase it to make sure you don’t stare at it only to get sniped by the opposition.

M9 Bayonet (Crimson Web)

If you’re a marvel fan, you might remember someone if you look at these cool webbings. You can always get hold of it by paying a hefty sum of $6000.

On 29/10/2019, Steam did culminate an update where the Case keys were barred from being traded for skins. This saw an instant rise in the skin prices on the community market.

So here we are, the best CS:GO skins to showcase your inventory out in the Public. But a gentle reminder to everyone, as said before, these skins won’t help you to aim with more precision. But your teammates and your opponents might admire you for the same.

Razer converts manufacturing lines to produce surgical masks

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The spread of Novel Coronavirus has the whole world gripped into tension and the worldwide health system is running overcapacity. There is a serious shortage of medical equipment and materials which have also put the medical staff at risk of getting infected by the virus. Under these emergency situation companies around the globe are offering help from loaning 3D printers to free cabs/drinks/buffets for medical staffs everyone is trying to help the government contain the spread.

https://twitter.com/minliangtan/status/1240529762788896768

In a public post, Razer CEO, Min Liang-Tan, announced that Razer will be converting some of its manufacturing lines to produce 1 Million surgical masks and will be giving them away to countries around the world.

According to him, Countries around the globe are facing a serious shortage of surgical masks used by the frontline healthcare staffs which is working nonstop in containing the spread of the virus. Due to this shortage, some countries have even banned exporting surgical masks to ensure they are ready for containing spread.

Over the past few days, Min Liang-Tan has been working with razer’s designers and engineers trying to convert their manufacturing lines around the globe to produce the surgical mask and distribute them to Razer’s global/regional offices to donate them to their respective governments/health authorities.

All of us have a part to play and we should be doing whatever we can with the situation getting more serious. Please keep yourself and your family safe – and do lets support each other in these trying times. The team at Razer is stepping up to do what we can.

This emergency conversion of some of our lines and donation of masks is the first step of many that Razer will take. We are committed to contributing our extra time, resources, effort and talent toward the fight against COVID-19.

Starting with Singapore where Razer’s SEA HQ is located, Razer plans to convert more plants and distribute masks ASAP.