Home Blog Page 1968

All you need to know about Free Fire India Championship 2020

The esports scene for Garena’s Free Fire is about to be skyrocketed with the announcement of Free Fire India Championship 2020. This massive tournament is limited to India only and will feature a prodigious prize pool of INR 35 Lakh. The registrations have already begun and are open till the 26th of January.

2019 was a great year for Free Fire as it became the world’s most downloaded mobile battle royale game. The 2019 esports scene began in February with the commencement of Free Fire Thailand Championship and events kept happening around the globe throughout the year. 2020 looks promising for the game with such Free Fire India Championship taking place on such an enormous level. The event’s prize pool breakdown is as follows:

screengrab via Garena

Tournament Format

After registrations conclude, the qualifier stage will commence from 31st Jan and will continue till 13th February through which 24 teams will advance to the league stage. The top 2 teams from Free Fire India Today league will get slots in the League Stage as well. The league stage will take place from 29th February to 15th March and will feature 4 groups and 6 matches. The top 12 teams will move on to the Finals taking place on 29th March 2020 where the winning squad will walk away with INR 15 lakh and the prestigious title of Free Fire India Champions.

Rules and Regulations

  • Each team can comprise of 4-5 players with a minimum level 10 account
  • No rank requirements are imposed for registration
  • No skill, loadout, costumes, fashion, vault, or collection restrictions or requirements are imposed. Players are free to equip any items and skills in any combination in each game.
  • Upon successful registration, a team may not change its team name for the remainder of the tournament. Teams may change their name at any time between different tournaments.
  • Each participant can be a member of only one team in a tournament. Participants are free to switch teams between different tournaments.
  • Teams will accumulate infraction points for their membersโ€™ offenses. Penalties for infraction points are: 1~3 points: Verbal Warnings | 4 points and above: Immediate Disqualification
  • When a team is considered no-show, they will not be allowed to participate in any official Free Fire India Championship games

Scoring

Like most mobile esports tournaments, teams will be ranked on the table based on points they accumulate for their match placements and kills secured at the end of each round. The standard scoring table is as follows:

20 Points per kill

1st 300
2nd200
3rd170
4th135
5th105
6th80
7th60
8th 45
9th30
10th20
11th10
12th0

Registration

The registrations are open till the 26th of January but only the first 6048 teams to register will be selected for online qualifiers. The players need to be a minimum of 14 years of age to be eligible to register. After clicking on the below-given link, you can access the registration page by clicking on the drop down menu on the top right hand side corner.

Stay tuned for more exciting news and updates!

Astralis Group’s Stock Falls 17% since IPO

1

Astralis Group โ€“ parent company of Future FC, Origen and Astralis was reported to be the foremost esport team to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO). On the contrary, most of the other prominent organizations have followed the seed funding through venture capitalists approach.

Astralis Group launched the IPO at 8.95 DKK (1.33 USD as on 17/01/20) on First North Growth Market in the second week of December 2019. However, as of today, Astralis Group’s stock is trading at 7.42 DKK (1.11 USD) which distinctly shows a 17% dip.

At certain point between today and the launch of IPO, the share price even fell down to 6 DKK (0.89 USD as on 17/01/20) which might have been an alarming situation considering an approximate 33% fall in the share price in initial days.

However, considering the fact that Astralis Group has never been profitable in their books of accounts, might be a concern for investors in early stage though this seems an astonishing long-term prospect.

Naโ€™Vi to bench GuardiaN – Report

According to a report by 1pv.fr,ย  CIS Organization Natus Vincere have lately been reconsidering their options to field Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovรกcs for their future projects and opportunities. Having been transferred from FaZe Clan at the end of the Berlin Major, the Ukrainian has failed to show up and couldnโ€™t keep up his top notch performances on the track.

Under the Faze Clan banner, GuardiaN did manage to help FaZe Clan sweep two Quarter final finishes and finishing second at the ELEAGUE Boston Major 2018 where we witnessed North American Giants Cloud9 lift their First Major Title. Soon after GuardiaN rose to his peak as FaZe Clan lifted the IEM Sydney 2018 title alongside winning the ELEAGUE Invitational 2019 and Blast Pro Miami 2019. But unfortunately the Ukrainian couldnโ€™t steer his team to the playoffs of the Starladder Berlin Major which saw the European side exit the tournaments in the group stage. Soon later GuardiaN filled in the shoes for Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko when the later planned to retire from the competitive scene.

According to the report, the 28year Old hasnโ€™t been showing up at the teamโ€™s practice schedules and in the due course Aleksandr โ€œs1mpleโ€ Kostyliev is reportedlyย  stepping in the Sniper role with Rodion “fear” Smyk from the Naโ€™Viย  Jr Rosterย  has been rifling at the practice sessions. At the moment, the acquisition is not yet confirmed by any official sources but Naโ€™Vi might be looking for some fresh blood from the player pool.ย  Please stay tuned for some further content and news about GuardiaN and his fate at Natus Vincere.

Ninja gets his own Fortnite skins

1

EPIC Games, with its latest Fortnite update, has introduced The Icon Series where they are expected to animate popular content creators into skins for player models in the game.

Skins bring cosmetic enhancements to various aspects of a video game. They are popularly seen in from of weapon skins and player models and help players escape from the stray looks of those they use on a regular basis.

Having previously collaborated with Mashmallow and Major Lazer, their next step in blending real life with the game is this Icon Series Update, where we will see many content creators turned into skins, starting with Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins.

The player model is in perfect sync with Ninja’s theme. Bult around his signature blue color, the character boast a Blue Jacket with a Ninja logo in up the sleeves. A pair of black mitt gloves. The high collars of the jacket cover the side edges of the face. The face resembles Ninja by a mile and has his iconic blue hair with sublime spikes held by a yellow headband.

Dota 2: DreamLeauge Season 13 -The Leipzig Major groups revealed

It hasnโ€™t been long since the WePlay! Bukovel Minor finished merely any days ago, now we have even a bigger adventure in front of ours – The Leipzig Major.

The major will be featuring sixteen best teams from around the world that will brawl for the glory of $1,000,000 prize pool and 15,000 DPC points.

The teams are divided into four groups and consist of four teams each. Also, the groups to follow GSL format.

Group stage is set to happen on the first two days of the tournament, January 18-19. At the end of the group stage, the top two seeds from each group will be heading to upper bracket playoffs, while the bottom two from each group will fight for their survival via lower bracket run. โ€จโ€จ

GROUP A : โ€จ

  • Fnatic
  • Nigma
  • Team Aster
  • TNC Predator

The first group consist of Fnatic, Team Aster, TNC Predator and Nigma. Looking at this group it looks like every single one of the team here is capable of making it to the Upper Bracket. An interesting fact about this group is that the TWO of the SEA juggernauts are in the same group and the match between them is not going to be ordinary.

GROUP B :

  • beastcoast
  • Chaos Esports Club
  • Team Secret
  • Vici Gaming

The second group wind up together some big names such as Choas Esports Club, Team Secret, Vici Gaming and Beastcoast.
Having a view top seed of the group is probably going to be Team Secret or Vici Gaming as both have been playing some top of the line dota for the past months. Also, let’s not forget Vici Gaming who won the One Esports Dota 2 World Pro invitational in December with flawless 3-0 series win in a B05 against Evil Geniuses.

GROUP C : โ€จ

  • Alliance
  • Invictus Gaming
  • Reality Rift
  • Virtus.pro

Alliance, Virtus Pro, Invictus Gaming and Reality Rift will have to clash to result out which two teams will be heading to the upper bracket. Alliance is a clear favourite here, also Nikobaby who was MVP of the DreamLeauge S12 with only 10 deaths that tournament. Well, a lot has changed since then and it’s DOTA at the end of the day as the new patch is also unpredictable.

Group D :

  • Evil Geniuses
  • Natus Vincere
  • paiN Gaming
  • Team Liquid

The last group is putting together Evil Genuises, Naโ€™Vi, PaiN and Team Liquid.
A glance at this group, EG and Team Liquid definitely two names to have an upper hand here.
Pain Gaming and Natus Vincere are also two very respectable names in the Dota 2 World. Naโ€™Vi has been on a rise with some good dota past month as well.

All groups will start on 18th January at 14:30 EET/04:30 PST/20:30 SGT will four series running in parallel in the DreamLeauge official Twitch channels.

WePlay! Bukovel Minor hero and team statistics provides insights into the 7.23f meta

Team Nigma had an amazing performance at the WePlay! Bukovel Minor. Even though they dropped into the lower bracket after a humiliating 2-1 loss to Royal Never Give Up (RNG) early on, they managed to make their way back into the finals and bag the title of champions. The fan favorites secured their spot at the Leipzig Major with their 3-1 victory in the Minor grand finals after a nail biting rematch against RNG.

With the Minor coming to its conclusion, the game statistics have been revealed and we can draw a lot of insight into the current meta from it. So far, the most contested hero in the tournament has been Doom who was either picked or banned in 100% of the matches played. Doom is undoubtedly one of the strongest offlaners in the current patch and the sheer amount of contesting this hero faced at the Minor proves why he is such a game changer. The most picked hero in the Minor was the Grand Magus Rubick with a pick rate of 57.50%. The witty son of Aghanim massively increases magic output and debuff duration with his passive, which makes him a great pick for almost any lineup. In addition, his Fade Bolt is a very good spell which allows him to harass enemy cores in lane, secure range creeps, and push waves with ease making him one of the best supports in the meta.

Proceeding further, Phantom Lancer secured the spot for hero with the highest win rate at the Minor. Among the 10 games he was picked in, Phantom Lancer won 8 of them, thus making his win rate a massive 80%. This hero has been praised a lot for his ability to jungle very early on and secure the crucial neutral drops. On top of that, his ability to snowball into the late game with levels and proper items also compliments his massive win rate at the Minor. Sadly, Disruptor seems to be the hero with the least possible win rate, winning only 7 out of the 17 games he was picked in, his win rate is a disappointing 41.18%. The gifted Stormcrafter has one of the best trading spells at level one and his ultimate deals an insane amount of damage in teamfights but despite all the facts, it seems that this hero is just not cut for the ongoing meta or its playstyle.

CSGO: Evil Geniuses’ CeRq has most AWP kills in 2019

Evil Geniuses Counter-Strike roster, formerly under NRG Esports banner until late September 2019 had a tight schedule this year as they attended highest LAN events compared to other teams. 20-year-old Bulgarian star AWP is way ahead of the competition as the other AWPers are quite far behind in the race.

Further, he was ranked at 18th spot on HLTV’s ‘Top Players of 2019’ list. Tsvetelin โ€œCeRqโ€ Dimitrov’s side finished the year with a couple of trophies โ€“ ESL One: New York & StarLadder i-League Season 8 while secured semi-final finish at StarLadder Major: Berlin, ECS Season 8 Finals and EPICENTER 2019.

Evil Geniuses’s big green boss topped the chart with 1,424 AWP kills at premier LAN events followed by Mathieu โ€œZywOoโ€ Herbaut (1,079) and Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovรกcs (1,031).

2020 will witness even tough competition as mousesports’ star-AWPer ร–zgรผr “woxic” Eker will probably attend even more LAN events after ending 2019 on a high. While Astralis also skipped a few events in early 2019, we might see more of Nicolai “device” Reedtz in 2020. You cannot count out Jesper “JW” Wecksell after fnatic’s resurgence.

Statistical courtesy: HLTV

byali, kamil join ESEA roster of ex-Virtus.pro

Soon after Virtus.pro signed Team AVANGAR’s Counter-Strike roster that reached the finals of recently held StarLadder Berlin Major, the Polish lineup of Virtus.pro was laid off. While majority of the roster decided to stick together, Michaล‚ “snatchie” Rudzki and Michaล‚ “MICHU” Mรผller allegedly decided to part ways with rest of them according to a report by cybersport.pl.

Prior to commencement of Mountain Dew League (MDL) Season 33, Paweล‚ “byali” Bieliล„ski and Kamil “kamil” Kamiล„ski have joined ex-Virtus.pro lineup’s ESEA roster, HLTV has learned. Paweล‚ has earlier played alongside Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski in the glorious Virtus.pro’s polish lineup and have secured several titles including the EMS One: Katowice 2014 major.

Kamil has meanwhile rose to fame during his tenure under PRIDE and later headed Mumbai to continue his stint under Indian organization Global Esports. Meanwhile Paweล‚ has mostly been inactive after his departure from Virtus.pro in May 2019 while he eventually played open qualifiers with mixed lineups.

Ex-Virtus.pro’s most likely roster moving forward would be:

  • Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski
  • Tomasz “phr” Wรณjcik
  • Arek “Vegi” Nawojski
  • Paweล‚ “byali” Bieliล„ski
  • Kamil “kamil” Kamiล„ski

CR4ZY to sell its CSGO roster to NA organization – Report

0

European organization CR4ZY has reportedly sold its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive lineup to a North-American organization, according to HLTV. The buyer is not yet revealed and the deal will be officially announced in upcoming days.

Formerly known as Team Valiance, CR4ZY rose to fame after securing 9th-11th position at StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. Soon after the major, Nemanja ‘huNter- Kovaฤ and Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isakoviฤ‡ โ€“ the Serbian star duo was snatched away by G2 Esports.

However, the organization soon signed Georgi ‘SHiPZ’ Grigorov and the former coach moved to playing five. The lineup still holds a returning challengers’ slot at ESL One: Rio 2020 Major and they won the recently held DreamHack Open: Rotterdam 2019.

With several new organizations โ€“ OG, Evil Geniuses, Dignitas, 100Thieves, Gen.G, Team Secret and Godsent among others entering CS:GO scene due to the hyped-up franchised league(s), the list of teams entering CS:GO is not over just yet.

CR4ZY’s CS:GO lineup is:

  • Nestorย “LETN1”ย Taniฤ‡
  • Rokasย “EspiranTo”ย Milasauskas
  • Ottoย “ottoNd”ย Sihvo
  • Lukaย “emi”ย Vukoviฤ‡
  • Georgiย “SHiPZ”ย Grigorov
  • Neilย “NeiL_M”ย Murphyย (coach)

Dota 2: Nigma win WePlay! Bukovel Minor, a ticket to Leipzig Major

What a weekend it has been already for Dota 2 fans as WePlay! Bukovel Minor advanced through its playoffs towards Grand Finals. After some quality dota and long games, Nigma has crowned champions over Royal Never Give Up, though they had a difficult start.

Nigmaโ€™s debut at the WePlay! Bukovel Minor wasnโ€™t smoothest, to be honest, yet it was a successful one.

Game 1:

Right into the game Royal Never Give Up was quite a force early game, putting Nigma on its back foot early. Nigma rebounded that into a wild play by Aliwi โ€w33โ€ Omaromar on Huskar and Kuro โ€kurokyโ€ Salehi Takhasomi on Abbadon which saw Nigma turn into a triple kill in favour which should’ve been a clean gank.

That enabled Nigma further and Amer โ€Miracle-โ€ Al-Barkawiโ€™s Alchemist gather a chunk of gold net worth advantage. That didn’t last long as Royal Never Give Up had an incredible amount of control with Outworld Devourer, Centaur Warrunner, Shadow Demon and Treant Protector. In comparison, Nigma had only a little which enabled RNG to break them in team fights leading themselves to victory.

Game 2:

Nigma went back to some of their comfort picks for the second game. Maroun “GH” Merhej played his signature Earthshaker, w33 went to Windranger, and Miracle- picked up Phantom Lancer.

Nigma had the early start with plenty kills for the team in the early game. Though, that didnโ€™t convert into a gold lead leading RNGโ€™s heroes to keep a toe-to-toe battle.

RNG was way out ahead and nigma was were only one racks away from being mega, some major mistakes cost them that lead and Miracleโ€™s PL was able to purchase a Divine Rapier.

This affair went to an 80min game. While tables were turned into the late game RNG were the first one to get mega by Nigma. The game also saw the first-ever Tier 5 neutral items of the DPC come into play.

Meanwhile, now that RNG was at the backseat Nigma controlled much of the field, enjoying outpost XP boosts and Roshan. Nigma finally and went in for some massacre, buybacks used by RNG but Nigma found the kills and w33โ€™s Windranger found the opportunity to attack RNG Ancient to even the series.

Game 3:

Game three was a quick one had the same early game story from game 2 for Nigma. Nigma racking up kills but Royal Never Give Up holding their grounds in terms of farm. This time Nigma manage to take control in the mid game. Miracle- once again flexing on his Phantom Lancer, having an early Diffusal Blade timing and using it to drain mana of Gao โ€œSetsuโ€ Zhenxiongโ€™s Storm Spirit.

This one only took 23 minutes as they stomped over RNG and took the series lead.

Game 4:

Game four had a different tale to tell this time. While the early game was fairly even, RNG went mad in the mid-game with an early radiance on Du โ€Monetโ€ Pengโ€™s Spectre. Nigma was quickly on their back foot already.

RNG grew scary and monstrous but had to fight out Miracle-โ€™s Drow Ranger heading to high ground. They were able to take out two lanes of barracks from Nigmaโ€™s base but heading to the third lane of racks despite being 40,000 gold deficit Nigma initiated a team fight that forced out multiple buybacks.

Taking no time they charged down the midlane and demolished RNGโ€™s tier-four towers and ended up bursting down the ancient to steal away the victory right in front of RNGโ€™s eyes. Summing up the series 3-1 in favour of Nigma.

Kuro once again shows how humble he is, heading to celebrations. w33 hesitated lifting the trophy so kuro insisted and when Kuro got Support MVP of the tournament he immediately gave it to GH.

With that, the first DPC even of 2020 comes to an end as Nigma claims the final slot heading to the DreamLeauge Season 13 Major.