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CSGO: Everything you need to know about the new Cache

The Crew
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CSGO: Everything you need to know about the new Cache

The remake of de_cache was showcased live earlier today at ESL One New York. The creators of the map have breathed life into the original Cache map by adding in new colors and multiple map adjustments that will drastically affect the play style of players for Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists alike.

The new map is inspired by a ghost city in Ukraine called Pripyat, near the Chernobyl Power Plant. The map looks incredibly realistic with overgrowth of nature throughout giving it an abandoned theme.

Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling has mentioned that the map will be released in October this year. It is likely to be added into the Steam WorkShop before getting included into the Active Map Pool in-game.

The first major map adjustment showcased today at ESL One New York was the addition of a window at mid. CTs are able to use this to their advantage by peeking through the small window to check for Terrorists who might be contesting the middle of the map.

Another big advantage to the Counter-Terrorists is that they can jump on top of the truck near CT-spawn, enabling them to keep a watch over the A-bomb site. The towering building has been replaced by a wall, allowing the CTs to throw utility towards quad and default position.

Screengrab via ESL

Players can now jump on the default boxes following which they can jump onto the railings on the outside of the wall, at the B-bomb site. This puts the player in a strong position to hold the site against the Terrorists.

Screengrab via ESL

Terrorists can now shoot through the thin walls using an AWP and pick off CTs who like to hold the common angle near checkers.

Screengrab via ESL

Players can throw grenades at mid without being blocked by any ceiling thanks to an open skybox in the checkers position.

Screengrab via ESL

CTs now have a new angle to hold off against Terrorists who like to push through the vents towards the B-bomb site. To perform this maneuver, first jump onto the small radiator that is poking out of the wall and then jump on top of the box.

The map has a cheeky off-angle for the CT side at the B-bomb site. To get to this position, the player can simply run and jump from heaven to the top of a small lamp that is hung on top of checkers.

The famous “Shroud position” still exists in the new Cache towards the A-bomb site. However, there was a pole in the original de_cache which has now been removed. Due to this, the Terrorists can only see the feet of the CT who is holding that position.

Finally, at mid, CTs can get to the boost position by jumping on the small box. A new platform has been added which aids in making the second jump, making the overall manoeuvre far easier than the original map.

Garena Free Fire introduces Blood Demon Rikoto

Varun Parashar
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Garena Free Fire introduces Blood Demon Rikoto

Garena Free Fire has been gaining traction at a swift pace, currently boasting the number 4 spot on Google playstore’s top free games chart. The game’s unique 10 minute matches featuring a maximum of 49 players force the user to hustle right from the first minute to ensure their survival. Regular updates from Garena cater the need for fresh innovative content to keep the players engaged at all times and Season 17 of their Elite Pass has just been announced.

Garena Free Fire announces season 17 of their Elite Pass (EP) which follows the story of Blood Demon’s revenge for justice. The EP will be released on 1st October 2019, while pre-orders started on 28th September 2019, where the gamers were surprised with the chance to win the Blood Demon Katana Skin – one of the best rewards of this season.

An interesting lore bespeaks the story behind this new addition

The season 17 Elite Pass conveys the story of Rikoto, the Japanese Samurai Blood Demon’s conflict with his master. Rikoto, the most skilled and disciplined swordmaster in his Bloodthorn tribe, was exiled years ago. When he heard that his wife was held under custody by the erstwhile dictator, Rikoto returned to his village to seek revenge. Not only did he win the war, he also gained the respect of the Bloodthorn Tribe, emerging as their rightful leader. A new era for the Bloodthorn is about to start with the rise of Blood Demon!

Elite pass holders are in for a treat as many exciting rewards are up for grabs like the two S grade costumes, an exclusive Blood Demon emote, backpacks, skateboards and many other in-game items. Apart from 2 bundles of cool samurai skins, survivors can also get bag and weapon skins combined with various special prizes and access to Elite Missions, as well as an increased daily gold income limit.

Garena’s Free Fire has been turning heads with its impressive performance on the charts combined with top notch gameplay, making it a serious contender to the likes of PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. Free Fire has become a massive hit on a global scale with more than 450 million registered users and over 50 million peak daily users as of May 2019. According to App Annie, it was the most downloaded battle royale game globally across the Google Play and iOS App stores combined in Q2 2019.

Watch to know more about the Blood Demon:

Stay tuned for exciting news and updates!

Logitech acquires Streamlabs for $89 million

Varun Parashar
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Logitech acquires Streamlabs for $89 million

Logitech is one of the world’s leading names when it comes to Gaming, producing all essential peripherals required to level up your game play. In a press release on their official website, Logitech announced the acquisition of Streamlabs, a popular and sophisticated livestreaming tool. Streamlabs is a leader in software and tools for live streaming, allowing game streamers to engage with viewers, grow their brands and channels, and monetize their broadcasts across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Mixer and Facebook.

Ujesh Desai, general manager and vice president of Logitech G, commented:

“We’ve been fans of Streamlabs and their software since we started partnering with them over two years ago. Their industry-leading software is complementary to our existing gaming portfolio, and we believe we can do even greater things together.”

Logitech has agreed to acquire Streamlabs for approximately $89 million in cash, with an additional payment of $29 million in Logitech stock subject to the achievement of significant revenue growth targets for Streamlabs.

Streamlabs claims that 70% of Twitch uses Streamlabs, owing to its user-friendly interface and a wide array of options, themes and apps you can use to perfect the look of your stream ad per your own preferences. Streamlabs enables the user to stream to Twitch as well as competing platforms like YouTube, Mixer, and Facebook and is supposedly better than Twitch’s own newly released streaming software, Twitch Studio.

Logitech owns Blue Microphones which is the usual choice for a majority of the streamers so owning Streamlabs should enable better integration of Logitech’s stream friendly hardware which is popular amongst streamers and the newly acquired software which already dominates the streaming world.

stay tuned for more exciting news and updates!

Here are the Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open Winners

Varun Parashar
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Here are the Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open Winners

The finals for Asphalt 9: Legends and PUBG Mobile at the Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open have concluded and the Champions have been crowned.

FutbolistCo, all the way from Istanbul were crowned PUBG Mobile champions and walked with a whopping $44,000 in prize money. It was a 6 game series and the standings just after game 4 showed a neck to neck competition between Team Plague, FutbolistCo and Team Qlash. Entity gaming, the representatives from India were performing phenomenally with 51 points in the bag securing the 5th spot after game 4 ended.

scoreboard after game 4

it all came down to the last two games of the series and FutbolistCo were engaged with Unicorns of Love in a close range gunfight in the final round and both teams gave it their all. FutbolistCo dominated and won their second Chicken dinner in the tournament by securing the 1st place spot in the last round over Unicorns of Love, making them the Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open champions of PUBG Mobile. this event will go down in the books as for the first time ever, PUBG Mobile was played on the Vodafone 5G Network making this event one of a kind.

 Asphalt 9: Legends was dominated by “FUTURE FLASH” who beat “RpM_Alex” and walked away with roughly $49,000 and a stunning trophy.

The finals was an intense 5 game series and both the competitors made it a neck to neck race till game 4. A slightly mistimed jump from RpM_Alex in the final race caused him to ram into a wall which let Future Flash cruise towards the victory line making him the ultimate champion. This grave mistake caused Alex the title, he walked home as second best with $7,600 in prize money. Future Flash was overwhelmed with his first ever victory at an event and it was even more special as this was the first time a mobile esport tournament was played on a 5G Network.

The event was a huge success and the world saw that endless possibilities arise when the world’s finest network a.k.a Vodafone pairs up with the Technology Mastermind, Huawei. The new Huawei Mate 20x 5G performed seamlessly in the hands of every player and was also reviewed by TrilluXeCs at the event. Vodafone 5G ESL Mobile Open leveled up the mobile esport industry and we can surely expect newer and better events in the upcoming years.

Stay tuned for more exciting news and updates!

Dreamhack Delhi 2019 announced

The Crew
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Dreamhack Delhi 2019 announced

DreamHack is coming to India this year in December with tons of exciting new events.

The iconic DreamHack event that every gamer yearns to attend is back, this time setting up a stage in Delhi, later this year in December. The event is announced to take place between December 6th To December 8th at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds, Okhla.

DreamHack is one of the largest events for gaming, eSports and technology. Fans from all around the states come to have the time of their lives at the event. DreamHack, Delhi is said to host many exciting activities this year including, BYOC/ BYOD LAN parties, cosplays, eSports, live music, concerts and much more. It is a must-visit for every gamer and tech-loving crowd out there.

This year, DreamHack is boasting a massive prize pool of over Rupees 55 Lacs! The major activities at the event include BYOC & BYOD tournaments, Pan Fest, eSports, cosplay, live music, stand-up comedy, dev zone, retro/ table-top games, and a streamer zone.

For all esports fans out there, DreamHack Delhi will feature a CS:GO Invitational Tournament between both national and international teams, battling it out for the title. They will also have a KO Fight Night Championship, so if you love playing fighting games, this is the place to be.

The gates to DreamHack, Delhi open in about 66 days from today. Tickets to the event start from Rupees 499 only. Make sure to grab your ticket before they’re all sold out!

EG beat Astralis to win ESL One New York 2019

The Crew
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EG beat Astralis to win ESL One New York 2019

Finally, the new Evil Geniuses roster left their mark with an astonishing victory at ESL One New York. They received a direct invite to battle for the $200,000 prize pool with seven more teams.

Photo via ESL

In group B, EG clashed against FaZe and Astralis. EG won both of the sets, dominating the matches and not dropping a single map. The North Americans proved themselves to be extremely scary for every team in the event by qualifying into the playoffs, winning against both the teams 2-0 in two successive best-of-threes.

In the playoffs, EG came out on top with yet another victory in a Bo3 semi-final match against G2, scoring 16:8 on Dust2 and 16:7 on Nuke. This propelled them into the finals with a strong momentum in which they haven’t dropped a single map in the entire event and were looking absolutely unstoppable.

As fate would have it, EG would face off against Astralis for the second time at ESL One New York, but this time it would be in the grand finals.

The Danish powerhouse put up a strong fight against EG but fell short against them in the Bo5 finals. Three games were all it took for the Americans to close out the dances and bag the championship to their name.

Evil Geniuses vs Astralis Bo5 Recap

The vetoes can be found here:

  • Astralis removed Mirage
  • Evil Geniuses removed Overpass
  • Astralis picked Inferno
  • Evil Geniuses picked Dust2
  • Astralis picked Train
  • Evil Geniuses picked Nuke
  • Vertigo was left over

Map 1 of the Bo5 grand finals was played on Inferno. Despite being one of the strongest maps for Astralis. EG was able to take the win, closing out the match with ease, scoring 16-3. Tarik “tarik” Celik played brilliantly, top fragging for his team with 16 kills.

Inferno – Image: HLTV

Map 2 took both the teams to Dust2. Here Astralis showed promising play, winning the first half of the map on the CT side. From there Astralis continued their lead till 12-7, on the T side. This lead was, however short-lived, as EG quickly bounced back, taking the game back in their control and not losing a single point and converting the match into a win, scoring 16-12.

Dust 2 – Image: HLTV

Map 3 was decided to be played on Train. EG continued showing their dominance and showed no signs of slowing down their momentum. The Americans took the first half of the map 8-7 on the CT side. Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov top fragged on Train, with 35 kills to his name. The Bulgarian player had some insane plays, he was pushed into many clutch situations but kept his calm. The map went all the way to a nail-biting double-overtime, it was anyone’s game at this point but Astralis manage to come out on top, scoring 22-20 and delivering EG their first map loss at the event.

Train – Image: HLTV

Map 4 was decided by EG, they chose to take the game to Nuke. CeRq turned out to be a true asset for EG yet again on Nuke, landing very crucial AWP shots when it truly mattered. Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte’s aggressive plays helped EG claim victory over Astralis scoring 16-8, rounding out the set 3-1, taking the win.

Photo via ESL

History is said to repeat itself, Astralis has never won an ESL One Championship, it seems like the curse continues and New York will be no exception. The Danish powerhouse put up a strong fight against EG but fell short against them in the Bo5 finals. The boys in the blue will be taking home their first ESL One title.

ESL One New York Final Placements:

PlacePrize MoneyTeam
1$100,000Evil Geniuses
2$40,000Astralis
3/4$18,000Team Liquid
3/4 $18,000G2 Esports
5/6$8,000ENCE
5/6$8,000OpTic Gaming
7/8$4,000eUnited
7/8$4,000FaZe Clan

Evil Geniuses and Astralis will be facing each other in the upcoming DreamHack Masters event in Malmo. It will be interesting to see how things play out then. Share your thoughts in the comments, who do you think will come out on top?

Valve finally reveals the new updated Cache at ESL One New York

The Crew
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Valve finally reveals the new updated Cache at ESL One New York

Valve finally shows off the long-awaited remake of de_cache for the very first time today, at ESL One New York. The map is completely revamped with a new design and multiple new positions to play. Compared to the original, the remade Cache has come to life visually with its incredibly realistic looking graphics and colours. The map is inspired by a ghost city in Ukraine known as Pripyat, near the Chernobyl Power Plant.

Two All-Star teams will be playing in a show match in the reworked Cache’s debut. Team Toxic having stewie2k, nitr0, Ethan, steel, and JaCkz will take on Team Squeaky consisting of EliGE, kennyS, tarik, k0nfig, and Twistzz.

Valve had removed de_cache from the active duty map pool, replacing it with Inferno, earlier this year in March. Cache is likely to be re-introduced into the active pool in October after the creators have enough feedback from its debut here at the Barclay Center Stage.

From the looks of it, the map seems to favor the Counter-Terrorists. Garazzo admits that the original map was inherently more T-sided, which was addressed in the rework by shortening the rotation times required by the CT side.

Did FaZe Clan make a mistake by picking up coldzera?

The Crew
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Did FaZe Clan make a mistake by picking up coldzera?

The Brazilian CSGO star had the worst performance of his career with FaZe at ESL One New York.

FaZe Clan had completed the signing of Marcelo “coldzera” David from MiBR, this was announced on Thursday, earlier this week. The Brazilian’s fan following, especially from Brazil, were starved for a long time due to him not being able to play during his benching from MiBR. Fans from all around the globe were drooling to watch the new lineup in action at ESL One New York, where coldzera would make his debut with the European team alongside Nikola “Niko” Kovac, who was expected to be the in-game leader.

High hopes were attached to the Brazilian’s name, he was always put in the highest tier of players, along with s1mple, dev1ce, and NiKo as one the greatest individual players in the competitive scene. coldzera on parting ways with MiBR had promised his Brazilian fans to represent them all, even though he was no longer a part of a Brazilian organization.

In an Instagram post, he had written, “To my Brazilian fans: even though I am no longer in a Brazilian team, I will always represent each and every one of you.”

coldzera, who had multiple Majors to his name in the past during the LG/SK era, was known to pull his own weight and that of his team’s throughout a match. Shockingly, at ESL One New York, in his debut with FaZe Clan, he had the worst performance in terms of K/D ratio in his entire competitive career with only 49 kills and 75 total deaths.

Not only did he have the worst stats in his career at ESL, but also could not help bag a single map for his team at the event. Faze Clan was eliminated from the tournament after losing 0:2 to OpTic, and 0:2 to EG.

Despite their shortcomings, Coldzera remained positive about his team’s performance and is optimistic about his future with the European organization. In his defence, Coldzera mentioned that the new roster did not get enough time to practice, which is an understandable reason for their poor performance in New York.

Although his fans were let down, it is possible that the team can pick things up after their much-needed practice sessions. FaZe Clan will not be playing in the upcoming DreamHack Masters event in Malmo, hence they will have enough time to build up synergies and bounce back stronger.

Valve will release the remade Cache in October

The Crew
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Valve will release the remade Cache in October

FMPONE will be officially releasing the remade Cache soon after ESL ONE New York, in October.

Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling, one of the creators behind the original Cache map in CS:GO, has announced the release date for the remake of the map. It is said to be released in October after processing feedback from ESL ONE New York.

The remade Cache is unlikely to be added into the Active Duty map pool. It will most likely be released into the Steam Workshop from where players may download and play the map if they wish to.

The world premiere of the remade Cache will be live on ESL’s Twitch channel on Sept. 29 at 10:20am CT during the Cache show match at ESL One New York.

Fans could expect either Overpass or Mirage to be rotated out of the map pool to make way for the new cache. This change is likely to take place before the commencement of the next CS:GO Major in May 2020.

The official date has not been announced yet, however, we can expect the new Cache map to be playable between mid to late October.

ESL Pro Tour Masters Championships announced with $1 million prize pool

The Crew
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ESL Pro Tour Masters Championships announced with $1 million prize pool

ESL Pro Tour Masters Championships will be having a prize pool of $1 million after IEM Katowice 2020.

Michal “Carmac” Blicharz, ESL’s VP of Pro Gaming, in a press conference at the Barclays Centre, announced that the ESL Pro Tour Masters Championships will have a $1 million prize pool starting with ESL One Cologne 2020. However, the Masters Championship, IEM Katowice 2020, will remain in the already announced prize pool of $500,000.

The ESL Pro Tour is the combination of ESL’s and DreamHack’s circuits, having over 20 competitions. DreamHack Opens, ESL’s national championships, or MDL are the challenger tournaments that will lead to the Masters tournaments.

For the teams who fail to get directly invited for the Masters Championships based on their rankings, open qualifiers will be held to qualify for the ESL Pro Tour events. DreamHack Masters Malmo, IEM Beijing, and the ESL Pro League finals will be the first few tournaments to send their winners to the Masters Championship.

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