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VALORANT to launch with 5 free and 5 unlockable characters

Souhit Dey
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VALORANT to launch with 5 free and 5 unlockable characters

As it nears its release date, the hype surrounding VALORANT, Riot’s entry to the FPS genre grows bigger and bigger. VALORANT is a unique game that combines MOBA elements from games like Overwatch and pairs it with the skill-based shooting of titles like CS:GO.

Although not much has been revealed about VALORANT just yet, it has been confirmed by executive producer Anna Donion that the game will launch with at least ten playable characters. According to Riot, players will have the option to unlock characters with in-game currency which they can gain as they interact more with the game, or they can simply use real money to unlock the characters they wish to. This model has previously been seen in many games like Riot’s own League of Legends and other popular titles like Rainbow 6 Siege, so it’s a no-brainer that Riot took the same approach for VALORANT. The game is reported to launch with five characters being locked behind a paywall and a stack of other agents that are free to use by default.

Currently, the identities of eight speculated agents have been confirmed. The agents have been revealed as Viper, Phoenix, Jett, Cypher, Sova, Sage, Brimstone and Omen. Additionally, Riot has also confirmed that VALORANT like many other F2P titles will also have a battle-pass feature for its users. The good news is that Riot has assured us that the battle-pass to be included in the game won’t be a pay-to-win feature and VALORANT will live up to its competitive spirit, much to our joy.

How to watch FLASHPOINT Season 1

Bhavya Shah
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How to watch FLASHPOINT Season 1

The inaugural season of the much-awaited franchised league is imminent. Flashpoint 1 shall begin later today. However, the clarity and basic information pertaining to the league is not quite communicated well with the community per say. For starters, the league will feature 8 founding teams and 4 teams are invited through the qualifiers; a total of 12.

The foremost season will be entirely played out at a studio location in Los Angeles, USA. However, earlier the playoffs were to be held at an indoor arena in Stockholm which was later called off due to COVID-19 outbreak. The founding teams had to pay a $2m entry fee to buy-in their respective slots. Earlier the league expected 10 founding members alongside 2 invites, but they settled with 8 founding members and 4 invites.

The league held North-America, South-America and Europe qualifiers followed by a global LAN qualifiers to finalize the invited non-founding members of the league. The league is, at large, organised and managed by FACEIT & B Site Inc. The matchmaking platform had seemingly seized the Esports Championship Series (ECS) to focus on the franchised league.

Schedule & Prize Pool

The league will feature a mammoth $1,000,000 prize pool. Prize pool distribution is, however, yet to be publicized. It will be played out for a little over 5 weeks between March 13 – April 19, 2020:

  • Phase 1: March 13 – March 22
  • Phase 2: March 27 – April 5
  • Playoffs: April 9 – April 19

Participating teams

  • Cloud9 (Founding Member)
  • C0ntact Gaming (Founding Member)
  • Dignitas (Founding Member)
  • Gen.G (Founding Member)
  • MAD Lions (Founding Member)
  • MIBR (Founding Member)
  • Team Envy (Founding Member)
  • FunPlus Phoenix (Founding Member)
  • Orgless (LAN Qualifier)
  • Chaos Esports (LAN Qualifier)
  • HAVU (LAN Qualifier)
  • Copenhagen Flames (LAN Qualifier)

Stream

Watch live video from flashpointcs on www.twitch.tv

Format

First and foremost, each and every match will be a best-of-three encounter. 12 teams will be divided into 3 groups. Phase 1 & Phase 2 will feature double-elimination format and the points shall be awarded accordingly:

  • 1st: 75 points
  • 2nd: 50 points
  • 3rd: 30 points
  • 4th: 15 points

After the conclusion of both phases, the top 8 teams shall advance to playoffs. Playoffs will be yet again double-elimination best-of-three and the teams will be seeded according to points. This is a promising format!

Match-ups

Group A

  • MAD Lions vs. HAVU
  • Copenhagen Flames vs.c0ntact

Group B

  • GEN.G vs. Envy
  • Chaos vs. MIBR

Group C

  • FunPlus Phoenix vs. Cloud9
  • Orgless vs. Dignitas

PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia 2020 groups revamped

Varun Parashar
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PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia 2020 groups revamped

With the postponement of PMPL SA 2020 and the confirmation of Team Instinct’s participation, the groups revealed on 6th March have been modified. Soltisquad, the replacement for Instinct Esports will no longer participate and here are the new groups following a reshuffle of the pack.

Group A

  • TSM – Entity
  • Marcos Gaming
  • Team Hype
  • Celtz

Group B

  • Soul
  • Team Tamilas
  • Instinct Esports
  • VSG Crawlers

Group C

  • SynerGE
  • Megastars
  • Jyanmarra
  • UMumba RXN

Group D

  • Team IND
  • Orange Rock
  • Deadeyes Guys
  • Fnatic

Group E

  • Powerhouse
  • Godlike
  • Team Xtreme
  • Elementrix

Groups A-D has 3 Indian squads competing against a single South Asian team but Group E comprises of 2 Indian as well as 2 SA squads. Each group also comprises of a single direct qualified team. It looks like a fairly balanced group stage with every squad being given an equal chance to move on to the next stage.

PUBG Mobile Pro League is set to kick off on 19th March with the group stage although the format, selection of maps as well as the broadcast talent has not been confirmed yet. With the event being overlooked by Nodwin Gaming, we can expect some tier 1 casters to turn up to the occasion forcing the viewers to stay glued to their seats.

This event will proceed as an online tournament with no audience or venue involved although fans can catch all the action live on both the Indian as well as Bangladesh PUBG Mobile Esports channel.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

ESL One Los Angeles DotA 2 Major canceled

Maël Valentin
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ESL One Los Angeles DotA 2 Major canceled

After travel restrictions and subsequent VISA rules alteration, Valve and ESL have jointly decided to call off the DotA 2 Major scheduled at Los Angeles this year.

The move comes in after the worldwide outage of a global health emergency COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization yesterday. President Trump suspended all flying from Europe to the U.S., making it worse for the organizers.

ESL is also prioritizing to get everyone who purchased tickets for their refund.

“We’re currently working with the venue and ticketing provider to refund tickets as soon as possible,” ESL said. “If you purchased a ticket, you should be receiving email communication in the coming days. We are deeply saddened that we won’t be able to bring you the event you deserved.”

The tweet, however, emphasizes the event being postponed but it seems canceled for now with no positive future as the virus spread hadn’t been under control for most of Europe.

Prior to this, IEM Katowice saw the gathering licensing been revoked by the European authorities to curb the spread. ESL Pro League, on the other hand, was moved to online qualifiers from an ESL Studio in Europe after the virus outbreak in the region.

ESL Pro League Season 11 to be played online amid coronavirus outbreak

Bhavya Shah
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ESL Pro League Season 11 to be played online amid coronavirus outbreak

Electronic Sports League (ESL), the organisers of Pro League have revealed that ESL Pro League Season 11 will be played online amid COVID-19 spread. Initially, the group stages were set to held at a studio in Malta and 1STBANK CENTER in Denver, USA was set to host the playoffs. Now, as per the press release, the group stages shall proceed online while the playoffs will be conducted at a studio in Europe without a live audience.

This comes in after the announcement of new travel restrictions imposed by government of Malta. The Denver finals’ abandonment is yet another setback for ESL after the IEM Katowice was hosted at Spodek arena without an audience. Earlier, Flashpoint also decided to not host grand-finale in Stockholm and the organisers will conduct the whole event at a studio in Los Angeles.

“This decision was largely motivated by the fact that Malta, the country of our originally planned studio location (for group stages), has instituted a wide range of travel restrictions and quarantine regulations as of today. These travel restrictions have made it impossible for a large amount of staff and the majority of teams to make their way to the planned season location,” the press release read.

“Because of this, instead of having over a hundred players, coaches, team members and ESL staff in a single location over multiple weeks, teams and players will be playing their matches either from home, team houses or in suitable boot camp locations in Europe and play out their matches on dedicated online servers.”

ESL thanked CSPPA and ensured the fans in Denver with a definite event in the future. The organisers further informed the ticket holders about the refund process and apologized due to the abandonment of the Denver finale. As of today, Coronavirus has over 124,000 cases and 4,585 confirmed deaths spread across 100 countries. World Health Organisation have declared the virus as a pandemic.

AMD SAPPHIRE DOTA PIT Minor 2020 announced

Varun Gavankar
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AMD SAPPHIRE DOTA PIT Minor 2020 announced

The AMD SAPPHIRE Dota PIT Minor 2020 is the eighth tournament by One Game Agency. Eight teams will take part in it for a share of $300,000 USD prize pool and DPC points up for grabs. The event to be hosted at the Spaladium Arena, In Split, Croatia, on April 2020.

AMD SAPPHIRE DOTA PIT Minor 2020 make OGA’s third move in the Dota Pro Circuit. Ninjas in Pyjamas were crowned champions last year while Team Liquid prevailed in the grand finals over Vici Gaming in 2018 edition.

The main event is set to happen next month April 23rd to April 26th while the closed regional qualifiers for it will begin from 29th of March onwards, a week after the ESL One Los Angeles Major. Also, the winner of event will secure a ticket at the EPICENTER Major 2020.

The prize pool and DPC point distribution are as follows:

PUBG Mobile Pro League SA 2020 Teams To Root For

Varun Parashar
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PUBG Mobile Pro League SA 2020 Teams To Root For

19th March 2020 marks the beginning of the third stage in the PUBG Mobile South Asian pro circuit, the PUBG Mobile Pro League. The top 14 Indian teams alongside the top 6 from South Asia will clash in this online tournament to reserve a birth at PUBG Mobile World League 2020. Out of the 20 participating squads, the dominant 5 which rise to the top of the table will advance to the next stage. Here are 5 squads you need to keep an eye out for:

TSM Entity

Globally renowned esports giant, Team Solo Mid partnered with India’s one of the most successful lineups, Entity Gaming. This power-packed squad has a long list of achievements to back their supremacy in the Indian PUBG Mobile scenario. Their active roster is a perfect combination of experience backed by raw talent. This squad managed to place first at a minor tournament going by the name of PUBG Mobile Mafia Cup Season 1. They placed 1st at PMCO Fall Split South Asia 2019 and went on to represent the country at Vodafone 5G ESL Open Milan 2019 and bagged an impressive 4th place finish. They also managed a top 5 finish at PMCO Spring Split 2019. TSM Entity is a directly qualified squad for PMPL 2020 South Asia and their active roster is as follows:

  • Abhijeet “Ghatak” Andhare
  • Suraj “Neyooooo” Majumdar
  • Jonathan ” Jonathan” Amaral
  • Abhishek “ZGOD” Choudhary
  • Vivek “ClutchGod” Horo

Team Soul

Often regarded as the pride of the Indian PUBG Mobile scenario, Team Soul is the inventor of the concept of competitive squad gameplay in the game. Lead by Namant Mathur also known as “Mortal”, a veteran player of the game and the biggest streamer in the country, Team Soul brings to the table some impeccable experience and flair. Their most notable achievement is a first-place finish at PMCO Spring Split India 2019 where they walked away with a prize amount of $60,000. Soul also placed first at PUBG Mobile India Series 2019. Their latest addition is Fnatic’s ex-player “Sangwan” with whom they have spent a great amount of time practicing for this very tournament. Team Soul finished 2nd at PMCO Fall Split South Asia 2020 which helped them bag a direct qualification for PMPL 2020. Their current active roster is as follows:

  • Naman “Mortal” Mathur
  • Yash “Viper” Soni
  • Parv “ReGaLToS” Singh
  • Aman “Aman” Jain
  • Dhruv ” Sangwan” Sangwan

Orange Rock

This Indian PUBG Mobile moniker is often regarded as the definition of consistency. Known for its consistent and never changing rankings, table positions and stable gameplay, Team Orange Rock a serious contender for the title. They qualified for this tournament by placing 2nd at PMCO Spring Split Indian Regional Finals and throughout the event, they maintained a stable top 3 position on the rankings table. They grinded through all the 3 stages and left behind a big chunk of newcomers as well as veterans which makes them such a promising squad. It is a rather unusual coincidence that the team placed 2nd at the Semi-Finals as well as Regional Finals of PMCO Spring 2020 against a mixed bag of squads that asserts their consistency itself. The current roster is as follows:

  • Anto
  • Daljitsk
  • John
  • VampireOP
  • Mavi

Team GodLike

Owned by renowned Indian streamer/player KronTen, this roster has revamped the meaning of the word aggression. GodLike has been a part of the Indian scenario for a long time and over time, their gameplay has evolved and now stands at its ever best. Topping the table at PMCO Indian Regional Finals 2020, this roster comes at PMPL with a hunger for victory depicted by their aggressive style of play. Never failing rotations, squad house ambushes and gunfights makes them a fearful team to be pit against. They also placed 2nd at Mafia Cup Season 1 alongside a 3rd place finish at PUBG Mobile Star Challenge 2019. Their current squad stands as follows:

  • Gopal “Carry” Sarda
  • Chisin “Xz1st” Raingaim
  • Arshpreet ” GiLL” Singh
  • Shekhar “Smxkie” Patil
  • Chetan “KronTen” Chandgude

Fnatic

On October 18th, 2019, a revolution began when the first international esports organization, Fnatic stepped into the Indian mobile esports scenario and picked up a PUBG Mobile squad. This roster is a literal star squad comprising of the biggest names in Indian PUBG Mobile. Fnatic has a reputation for last-minute comebacks and a gruesome gunfighting style where they take upon the opponents head-on without a tinge of fear. More than anything, this team is regarded as a fan favorite owing to the arsenal of popular streamers and content creators like ScoutOP and Ronak. The entry of coach Aurum elevated the team’s gameplay to new heights as they are the champions of PUBG Mobile All-Stars India 2019. They tore through the best of Indian squads and also ended up winning the mastery scrims for PMAS 2019. A deadly sense of gameplay backed by crowd support is what makes this team a serious contender. Their active roster stands as follows:

  • Tanmay “ScOutOP” Singh
  • Harpreet “Ronak” Singh
  • Mohammed “Owais” Lakhani
  • Ashish “Ash” Bhatnagar
  • Paritosh “Paritosh” Sharma

PUBG Mobile Pro League South Asia will kick off on 19th March and will be an online tournament instead of a LAN owing to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Stay tuned for more news and updates!

Flashpoint CSGO League gets WWE writer onboard for theatrical antics

Bhavya Shah
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Flashpoint CSGO League gets WWE writer onboard for theatrical antics

Flashpoint League that is inclined to onset latet this week have revealed an astonishing signing. The organisers have signed a former WWE scriptwriter to engage the fans through shenanigans and theatrics. During a podcast on Flashpoint’s Twitch channel among a couple of talent crew associates and the CEO of Team Envy, Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles revealed that the league will indulge players in a media training sessions with former WWE writer to develop personalities of professionals.

“We’re going to do some media training with the players, and we have a former WWE writer who’s going to be talking to the players and his job is to work with the players to develop their personalities in the same way that he literally worked with WWE wrestling,” said Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles

His co-participants Duncan “Thorin” Shields and Mike “hastr0” Rufail initially chuckled and laughed off though former later clarified and justified the writer’s induction. Even Thorin was uncertain at first however his concerns were addressed by the scriptwriter.

“I was actually concerned when I heard we were bringing in a real WWE writer because obviously WWE does go a bit too silly sometimes and they have those weird things for kids. However, one area that actually reassured me was that this guy said the best wrestling characters are the ones that are the person just turned up to eleven,” said the analyst.

“They are cranked up to be theatrical, but they still have some elements of who that person is. It’s not like when you make a fake wrestling character that’s really silly. He is, for example, not going to make a super-quiet person like Daps the swag baller, he’s not going to do that. It’s going to be appropriate to the character of the person as well,” Thorin further added.

MonteCristo then went ahead and talked about the different personality types of a player like Damian “daps” Steele and Epitacio “TACO” de Melo. This is the first time an esport league is bringing in a writer to enhance player’s character. It is a highly uncharted territory and the organisers might be risking it by setting a precedent. However, the stakes are not quite high even if the writer has minimal impact.

Trash-talks, personal grudges and storylines have a significant impact on enthusiastic fans while an average viewer might not be wooed by the superficial antics. Flashpoint League will kick off on March 13 with twelve teams and a whopping $1,000,000 prize pool.

PUBG Mobile: 12-year-old boy steals Rs 3 lakh from parents to buy friends costly phones

Varun Parashar
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PUBG Mobile: 12-year-old boy steals Rs 3 lakh from parents to buy friends costly phones

PUBG Mobile, the infamous Battle Royale title has made the headlines yet again but all for the wrong reasons. Just when it seems like this game is out of all the substandard incident reports, it all reverses and PUBG Mobile again becomes a diabolical phenomenon instead of a glorious one.

An incident occurred in Gujarat, Kutch where a 12-year-old player of the game reportedly stole INR 3 lakh. It was for the sole purpose of buying expensive phones for his friends to play the game. It is completely understandable that to play this game you do need high-end devices, but this is taking it too far. The boy’s parents run a grocery store and always had their fair share of suspicions about the boy’s intentions. He was soon taken into custody where he confessed to the police his dreadful actions. He was caught red-handed by his parents when he came in to steal more money from the cupboard.

A complaint has been filed and appropriate action will be taken in accordance with the fact that all suspects are minors.

It seems like the bad vibe surrounding this game is never-ending. On a regular basis, children committing serious crimes in the name of the game have come up in recent times.

We urge every gamer out there to never forget their own limits and to not go out of bounds and commit permanently damaging actions for the sake of temporary gains.

Call of Duty Warzone is the new Free To Play Battle Royale Game

Satendra Krishna
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Call of Duty Warzone is the new Free To Play Battle Royale Game

The free-to-play and cross platform experience, Call of Duty: Warzone, is available to download now, for free. You do not need to own the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to download, play and enjoy Warzone. Call of Duty: Warzone is free for everyone.

Warzone is a massive combat arena, set in the expansive and dense city of Verdansk, where up to 150 players will battle for victory, across two distinct epic modes of play, Battle Royale and Plunder.

How to Get Warzone 

For owners of the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone will replace the previously named ‘Classified’ panel in the Main Menu. A one-time early access will give Modern Warfare owners the ability to download Warzone at 8AM PDT.

For Modern Warfare owners who are current and have the most recent title updates, the download will be a 18-22GB. Once download is complete, Modern Warfare owners will “unlock” the Warzone panel, which was previously classified, and can enter the lobby and play.

The rollout has started. Expect your game to update shortly. 

For non-owners of the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone will be available to download free in respective first-party stores starting as early as 12 PM PDT. Head to the store and search for ‘Warzone.’ Choose Call of Duty: Warzone to download. Warzone is a 80-101GB download for new, free-to-play users. Download could take up to several hours depending on bandwidth, service provider, additional regional factors and will vary by platform. 

The full version of Call of Duty:Modern Warfare is not required to play Warzone.

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