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US Congress members request Blizzard to reverse Hearthstone pro’s suspension

Varun Parashar
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US Congress members request Blizzard to reverse Hearthstone pro’s suspension

Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai was suspended for six months after appearing in an official hearthstone stream earlier this month, wearing a gas mask as a show of support for the Hong Kong protests.

Blizzard imposed a 1 year ban and confiscated his recent winnings but later shortened the ban duration to six months and returned the $10,000 which were confiscated. The Taiwanese broadcast team presenting blitzchung’s livestream was also fired but later they were handed a six month suspension instead.

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress and from both sides of the aisle have called on Blizzard Entertainment to rethink its suspension on Chung who publicly supported the ongoing protests against Chinese rule there by shouting on his stream “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time” . On Friday, a letter was written to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick in which the legislators urged him to rethink over his decision.

This incident caught the attention of every gamer as an American University Hearthstone team held a sign which said ” Free Hong Kong, boycott Blizz” during an official match. The college players too were banned for 6 months in return for showing support for Chung. Lets understand the exact issue surrounding this controversy:

Since early June, Hong Kong citizens have protested a bill that would allow local authorities to detain and extradite persons wanted by the Chinese government in Beijing. Hong Kong has been under a special government since the United Kingdom ceded control of the territory to China in 1997. Demonstrators have also demanded an investigation into police misconduct during the protests, and a return of democratic reforms promised under the law governing the territory’s 1997 handover.

Uncountable brands were caught in this controversy and have been criticized for not taking a stand against the Chinese government in order to safeguard their own profits. Apple removed HKMapp, an application used by protestors in Hong Kong and NBA came into the limelight after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey Tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protestors and was thrown under the bus by his team’s governor.

We are glad that the Congress is stepping up to express discontent and are hoping that Chung’s punishment gets reversed as soon as possible.

NiP add THREAT as strategic coach

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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NiP add THREAT as strategic coach

Björn “THREAT” Pers will join Ninjas In Pyjamas as a second coach alongside Faruk “pita” Pita. The Swedish tactician previously had two years tenure with NiP between 2016-2018, winning tournaments such as StarSeries Season 2 Finals and IEM Oakland 2016 and 2017. He stepped down at the start of 2018 to “pursue other things in life” when pita came in as his replacement.

The two coaches will be working together, THREAT is set to focus on the tactical side of the game. pita added he has “long been looking” for a person to join him in the coaching department. THREAT’s set to be working “from a distance” while pita will be the on-field point person.

Faruk “Pita” Pita:

THREAT and his mastermind will have a lot of responsibilities coming into this team. I believe it’s healthy for me and the team to have another person with both coaching and in-game leader experience entering the team. We will work closely together and evaluate as time comes on how to make this work in the best possible way. He will be working with me on distance but occasionally joining us for practices in our facilities in Stockholm.
“At first he will be assisting me in structuring and tuning the team even more in situational plays and executes. He will also assist me and the players in preparations for our matches. Lastly, he will have the responsibility of helping our in-game leader to maximize his potential both as a player and in-game leader, something he has a lot of experience in.

NiP are now:

  • Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg
  • Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
  • Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson
  • Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora
  • Simon “twist” Eliasson
  • Faruk “pita” Pita (coach)
  • Björn “THREAT” Pers (coach)

After their first ESL Pro League group stage and qualifying for ECS Season 8 Finals, NiP will be set out for Turkey, where they will be competing at StarSeries i-League Season 8 between October 21-28.

New CSGO update adds reworked Cache, celebrates 20th anniversary

Parth Gada
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New CSGO update adds reworked Cache, celebrates 20th anniversary

Valve has celebrated the 20th anniversary of its release in style, by adding Cache back to official servers as well as releasing a weapon case as well as a sticker capsule.

While Cache will not be available for competitve play yet, with some bugs still to be fixed, it is available to be played on casual and deathmatch modes.

The CS20 Weapon Case and Sticker Capsule is an even better offering, with the weapon case consisting of the Classic Knife, which is a rendition of the one used in CS 1.6.

The Classic Knife is available in 13 different finishes, with the case likely to sell for a very high price in the market as it also contains 2 red and 3 pink skins. The sticker capsule also has iconic game designs which is sure to excite the purist.

You can read the full blog post of the release here:
https://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2019/10/25884/

Evil Geniuses qualify for ECS S8 Finals ahead of Cloud9

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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0
Evil Geniuses qualify for ECS S8 Finals ahead of Cloud9

Evil Geniuses qualified for ECS Season 8 NA LAN Finals after dominating Cloud9 with a 2-0 scoreline.

The match kicked off on C9’s pick Train. The North Americans starting on the Tside. Tarik “tarik” Celik opened up the scoreboard with a double in the pistol round to set his team and Evil Geniuses continued on Tarik’s hard work to secure a 6 rounds lead, despite Cloud9 getting quite a few bomb plants. Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov continued with an AWP quad kill, on the A bombsite. Timothy “autimatic” Ta’s quad kill finally got the first round for them after being 11-0 down, and they continued with a B rush that went successful. Unfortunately for C9, that was all they managed before EG bounced back, finished the half 13-2 up, added a successful Ivy rush in the pistol and concluded the map 16-2.

The BO3 then took us to Inferno. The momentum went back and forth with both teams finding success on force-buys. The score was evened out when Evil Geniuses found a ground to build upon on the CT side, CeRq leading the fragging for his side as they took a four-round lead. Kenneth “koosta” Suen did the majority of the heavy lifting for Cloud9 added their fourth round after a successful 2v2 clutch on B site. Evil Geniuses didn’t lose their footing from the match, though, continuing with the same aggression that got them entry kills and big advantages shortly into the round.
Cloud9 finished the half 11-4 down, secured their first pistol after the switch, but failed to convert rounds against force buys which put them on the back foot again. It was 14-5 before Cloud9 afforded their first full buy on the CT side of Inferno, only having limited rounds to work with. C9 pushed it back to 15-9, but eventually losing out to a B split and Evil Geniuses claimed the series, 2-0.

Censor leaves FaZe Clan for CoD NYC

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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0
Censor leaves FaZe Clan for CoD NYC

Professional Call of Duty player and popular YouTuber Doug ‘Censor’ Martin has announced his departure from FaZe Clan to join New York City’s pro COD team.

After being orgless for the entirety of the Black Ops 4 CWL season, Censor was clear about his intention is to compete again in Call of Duty esports once again. Despite several people thinking he would not make it, he mentioned several organization’s interest in him, and on October 5, confirmed that he will sign with a team.

He posted a video with the announcement, Censor confirmed that he will be the substitute player for NYC , who had already announced their full starting lineup a couple of weeks prior.

I’m going to be the substitute player for New York, and honestly guys, I’m just so grateful for this opportunity,” he said. “I know there is a lot of scrutiny around me, and not playing for a year, and people thinking whatever they want to think, it doesn’t really matter to me at the end of the day.”
“All that I care about is the fact that I’m a part of this franchise, that this team embraces me. All these players are extremely professional and are great, and they all want me to be here.

NYC CALL OF DUTY STARTING LINEUP:

•Dillon ‘Attach’ Price
•Thomas ‘ZooMaa’ Paparatto
•Donovan ‘Temp’ Laroda
•Lamar ‘Accuracy’ Abedi
•Trei ‘Zer0’ Morris

Fnatic announces Indian Pubg Mobile lineup

Varun Parashar
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Fnatic announces Indian Pubg Mobile lineup

Fnatic, one of the biggest names in esports has announced an official lineup for Pubg Mobile comprising of top Indian players. The lineup is as follows:

  • Tanmay Singh aka Scout
  • Paritosh Sharma aka paritosh_plays
  • Ujwal aka DreaM
  • Harpreet Singh Janjuha aka RonaK
  • Mohammed Owais Lakhani aka Owais
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3woRftBCWe/

PUBG Mobile is currently the most popular mobile game in India and seeing an international esports organization step in to make a lineup comprising soleley of Indian pros is a big breakthrough for the scene. Indian players have represented the country in numerous international events be it PMCO 2019 or Milan Games Italy, the players have stepped up to help create a global presence of our country in Pubg Mobile competitive scene. Fnatic has handpicked top tier players with competitive experience and this looks like a dream roster. The players have already updated their social media handles stating it proudly that they now play for Fnatic.

The players brag certain unmatchable achievements. RonaK and Owais both formerly played for Team Soul where they were crowned as Pubg Mobile Indian Series 2019 champions as well as PMCO Indian regional champions. It was announced in August by scOut_OP on his stream that these 5 players will come together to form Team X with which they will compete in PUBG Mobile India Tour 2019. The exact same roster has been picked up by Fnatic and they seem ready to take the competitive scene by storm and make a run to become the world’s best PUBG Mobile team.

Puma Joins Nike and Adidas in the Esports Apparel Sponsorship Chase

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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0
Puma Joins Nike and Adidas in the Esports Apparel Sponsorship Chase

Along with the rapid growth of eSports, the organizations are acquiring more and more top their MNC to sponsor them besides regular peripheral manufacturers. Automobile giants like Audi, NISSAN are all part of this esports sponsorship bandwagon. With the growth of the scene, the teams are acquiring new fans every day, and like any other hypebeast their merchandise sales are going nowhere but upwards.

“Tapping into the world of esports, and its broad, dynamic consumer audience, is critical to our marketing strategy moving forward,” said Adam Petrick, global director of brand and marketing at Puma.

“Being able to transcend esports and elevate our brand within a broader global audience is the natural evolution of the growth of Cloud9,” added Jordan Udko, executive vice president, commercial partnerships for Cloud9.

The craze for esports have gone to the extent that once considered ‘not a real sport’ by athletes is acquiring attention from world’s top sportswear manufacturers, including Nike and Adidas. According to a report by ADWEEK, Puma widely known sports apparel manufacturer has decided to join their competition to sponsor popular North American eSports Organization Cloud9. The brand has launched its first collection with the org, however quantities are limited and the clothing will sell for $25 to $75 and be available for purchase on the websites of both companies.

Pros appeal to CSGO devs: Nerf SG 553

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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4
Pros appeal to CSGO devs: Nerf SG 553

CSGO had various meta throughout its long tenure in esports. The world’s most popular fps is a very strategical game and a lot that revolves around the weapons purchased by players before the rounds.

The most recent meta was initiated in November 2018, when Valve decided to make changes to the economic system, adding a systematic loss bonus system into the game, which translated to the fact that we are to see more gun rounds in the game rather than frequent ecos after round losses. Besides this economic change Valve decided to bring changes into the scoped weapons or ‘COD guns’ as colloquial CSGO language suggests.

The AUG and the SG-553 went through a price drop with the CT guns going for $3300 dollars just a $200 dollars above the popular CT rifle M4A4 at $3000 while the T sided gun SG was reduced to $2750 just $50 dollar above the common choice AK-47.

Terrorist guns are cheap and having to not to buy kits, the economic advantage is on their side, now with the loss bonus, they can force a decent buy every round even after losing rounds after rounds. AUG, however, was the meta for a while which however has been nerfed by Valve, while the Kreig is still dominating the scene as the low price drew the attention of pro players who exploited its true potential.

Players like Elige from Team Liquid and Brehze from EG have showcased how devastating it can be. The weapon is a scoped alternative to the AK, boasting its one shot one kill, even if a helmet is present at the cost of a difficult recoil pattern. The gun has been so unfair to the M4A4’s of the CTs that pros are calling for it to be nerfed.

The problem with the SG 553 is that it is incredibly powerful in both close and long-range situations due to its scope, giving the Terrorists little more reason not to buy the AK-47.The AUG however, which is the Counter-Terrorist equivalent of the scoped rifle, was nerfed in June 2019, meaning that now one side has access to a superior set of weapons. Valve have yet to comment on the matter. However, the company has been shaking things up in CSGO in 2019 with Cache being remastered and many guns seeing changes throughout the year, so it is possible they are upto something already.

16-year-old PUBG addict who faked his own kidnapping rescued in Hyderabad

Pranav Nalawade
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0
16-year-old PUBG addict who faked his own kidnapping rescued in Hyderabad

A 16 year old, who faked his own kidnapping was rescued from a bus terminal in Hyderabad, after initially demanding a ransom of Rs 3 lakh.

The teen, who was a huge PUBG addict, went missing on October 11 on the pretext of meeting a friend, but instead left for Mumbai. However, he got down at Solapur and demanded Rs 3 lakh from his mother, by using the phone of a passerby.

He returned to Hyderabad the next day and booked a ticket for Guntur, where his grandparents live. However, his mother got the message of the ticket confirmation and alerted the police immediately who rescued him.

The boy, who was being coached for IIT, was addicted to playing PUBG which saw a dip in his studies. Consequently, his parents took his phone after which he decided to take this extreme step.

Call of Duty Mobile introduces Gun Game

Varun Parashar
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1
Call of Duty Mobile introduces Gun Game

Call of Duty: Mobile has had an explosive record breaking launch as it managed to cross 100 million downloads on both iOS and Android just a week after its release. It proved dominant over some of the biggest titles in the world such as PUBG, Fortnite and Apex Legends which managed 26.3 million, 22.5 million and 25 million downloads respectively in their first week of release.

Activision has already begun introducing new content at a swift pace as just last week, they added a Free-for-All mode and now a limited duration Gun Game mode has also been added. The mode is playable for 31 days and will put 10 players against each other and every time they get a kill, the weapon in use will be switched. The final goal is to reach 200 points or 20 kills as each kill rewards you with 10 points. The weapons can range from Shotguns, Assault rifles, Sniper rifles and even rocket launchers. The most challenging is the final kill in which the players will be handed a knife.

Call of Duty is known for the variety of game modes it offers to the players and Gun Game, one of the most prestigious modes on console versions of the game has finally made its way to the mobile version as well. We are excited to see what comes next as Activision is in no mood to rest and wants to lift this game to its greatest magnitude as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for more exciting news and updates!

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