Astralis were to face Team Liquid on their home soil in Brooklyn for the Semi-Finals of ESL One New York. As mouth-watering as it seemed Liquid had one thing in their minds going into the matchup, that is revenge for the debacle in Berlin Major earlier this month. The map pool included Vertigo and Dust 2 followed by Overpass.
MAP 1: Vertigo
Vertigo kicked off with 4k from Young John. The liquid looked supreme, having won the first 6 rounds before Astralis got their number on the board. Elige was certainly the best player for Liquid. NAF, Stewie, and Twistzz had their moments around the map, but an underwhelming performance from their skipper Nitr0. On the contrary Astralis skipper, Gla1ve was on the top of the scoreboard for the Danes. The first half ended with Liquid managing 9 rounds on the defence, just 3 ahead of the Danes who managed only 6, but upon switching sides the North Americans failed to get any point on the board as Astralis took every single round, taking Vertigo with a 16-9 scoreline.
MAP 2: Dust 2
Dust 2 was a tricky pick for Liquid but they are were tactically sound all throughout the game. The American side managed 11 rounds on the offence in the first half while Astralis only won 4. On switching sides, both teams won an equal number of rounds. The map witnessed another supreme performance from Elige. Liquid secured the same scoreline from MAP 1 but this time in their favour with a 16-9 scoreline. Overall a strong reply to Astralisโs Vertigo performance, showing how dominant they can exactly be on their map of choice.
MAP 3: Overpass
Both teams have faced each other on this map on several best of three series, and are certainly very deep into each other’s playbook in this map. The desire to win the series was evident from both teams trying extremely hard to bring the momentum on their side. Overpass has been definitely the closest map played on this series yet with the first half closing with a 7-8 scoreline in favour of the Danes. In the 2nd half of Overpass, much like the 1st half had a very close scoreline but Astralis seem to run away with it in the end with a 16-13 scoreline.
Astralis will face off against the winner of Evil Geniuses or G2 Esports later today.
Independence League is a groundbreaking event organized by Entity Gaming which is envisaged with the motive to bring together gamers from across every border. The first season saw Indian teams competing with Pakistan teams in the well know PUBG mobile showdown. The livestream hit nearly 11,000 concurrent viewers from the subcontinent! The hindi casting was done by the well known Ketan ‘K18’ Patel.
6-9 PM IST, 30th September. India vs Indonesia. Save the date.
The exciting news is that there is a second season which is coming up after season 1 saw a grand success! 8 teams from India and Indonesia will be competing against each other in the battlegrounds of PUBG Mobile. The event will be livestreamed by Ketan ‘K18’ patel. This season is going live on 30th September from 6 Pm to 9 Pm IST.
MVP PK have finalized their roster, adding on-board three new players, including veteran Min-Soo โglowโ Kim.
The 31 year old veteran of the counter-strike competitive scene continues his journey with MVP PK after parting ways with his previous South Korean team in March together with his teammate Keun-Chul โsoloโ Kang.
Amongst the three recruits for MVP PKโs new roster is Seung-won โkiNgโ Lee. The 18 year old has no prior competitive experience and was picked up by coach Seon-Ho โtermiโ Pyeon who found him in public servers.
Hoping to improve their performance after not being able to qualify for StarLadder Major, MVP PK will be taking part with their new roster in the upcoming Asia-Pacific division of ESL Pro League Season 1.
After Syed “SumaiL” Sumail Hassan announced his departure from EG after TI9, the star mid-laner who had worn the EG jersey for 5 years was constantly under the radar of fans regarding his future plans. SumaiL is best known for his TI5 win at the age of only 16 and is famous for his praise worthy aggressive midlane gameplay.
Not soon after EG lost its star mid-laner, rumors surfaced hinting that SumaiL will be joining a new lineup which included his elder brother Yawar “YawaR” Hassan.
Finally, the rumors have been confirmed and an independent team has been registered under the name of Quincy Crew which feature the brothers under the same jersey. The team also features ex stars from Newbee, VGJ.Storm and Forward which include Quinn “CCnC” Callahan, Arif “MSS” Anwar and Avery “SVG” Silverman respectively. For now the team doesn’t have any particular organisation to play under, but their manager KBBQ assured on Twitter the “org situation to be fully settled soon!”.
quincy crew assembled @SumaaaaiL@ccncdota2@YawaR_YS@MSSDota@SVGDota , ready to begin this year's DPC journey with qualifiers looming. expecting org situation to be fully settled soon!
It is rather interesting that SumaiL will be leaving his iconic mid-lane to go for position 1 carry, while CCnc will be taking over the duty of the mid-laner in the new lineup.
Richard “shox” Papillon has finally joined the French side Vitality. After the benching of NBK, Shox is picked up by Vitality on a 2-year deal and as it seems he is the most expensive player in their history. The 27-year-old has been linked to Vitality after the StarLadder Major. G2, on the other hand, picked up KioShiMa, who at one point was favorite to join Vitality.
The Frenchman joins two of his former teammates from Titan and G2, Cรฉdric “RpK” Guipouy and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire. Alex “ALEX” McMeekin will be the in-game leader of the team, the organization stated that adding shox is replacing NBK- on a “positional, like-for-like basis”, the decision was made by their coach, Rรฉmy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam.
Vitality’s lineup now looks as follows:
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
Cรฉdric “RpK” Guipouy
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
Alex “ALEX” McMeekin
Richard “shox” Papillon
Rรฉmy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (coach)
Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt (benched)
We will get to see the Major winner in action for Vitality at DreamHack Masters Malmรถ, taking place between October 1-6, where Vitality are set to meet TYLOO in the opening round of Group A at ESL Pro League Season 10.
Simon “twist” Eliasson has joined NiP, following the departure of Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund. Twist is a proven AWPer who somewhat took over the role during his tenure with Fnatic but he has been on the bench for them since August.
everyone, please give Simon @twist Eliasson a warm welcome to the NIP family.
The 24-year-old will be looking forward to enter this phase of his career with apex form. After countless rumours the deal has finally gone through, he will be integrated into the team as a primary AWPer.
We wish nothing but good luck to @twist, who makes the move over to @NiPGaming.
The following statement was included in the official announcement, while twist answered questions about his role:
The internationally proven top tier 24-year-old will be wielding the AWP for his new team, providing a stable foundation for our players and coaching staff to build new strategies on. Simon, with his experience and maturity, also brings a calming presence to the server which is often underestimated as a factor in a teamโs success.
Donating giant amounts of cash to different content creators has become a common hobby for a lot of people: they donate thousands of dollars to support their beloved streamers or just to see his/her reaction. However, there are some cases, when such significant donations have their own unique stories, some of which are not only interesting and funny but also impactful.
In association with DeStream.net, we bring to you the five inspiring stories.
Blessed with Lucky Sevens
In
2016, a Russian streamer Kirill โVJLinkโ Zyryanov received a huge amount of
$12000 with a single donation. This story is as dramatic, as his reaction:
Kirill
is a super-extraordinary personality. He sometimes does such crazy stuff on his
streams, that you may even think heโs an alien.
But what is the most surprising thing about him, is that VJLink streams
since the very start of Twitch and nobody got a chance to see him in a wilted
state. There were a lot of different moments over the past years. Good times,
bad times, ups and downs, but nothing could break VJLinkโs stubbornness.
Nothingโฆ except for one day.
That
day he was streaming in some flaccid state, and after another loss in Dota 2
match, Kirill burst through. He started to cry, calling himself โa useless
loserโ. His fans were shocked. Unlike the cocky and confident youngster with
vulgar behavior and nasty character, VJLink appeared genuinely broken and lost.
It was a real tragedy.
But as the legends say โthere comes the Dovahkiinโ. The Dragonborn of this story has become a very generous viewer with the nickname โStarikโ. He made a single donation of a giant amount of 777,777 rubles ($12000) with words: โYouโre not a loser, Kirill! Thank you for your work! Wish you success!โ After that, it was VJLinkโs turn to get shocked. He was sitting motionless for almost 2 minutes, just staring at the screen, and only tears were flowing from his eyes. During those 2 minutes, other viewers joined Starik and started encouraging and donating to Kirill. The situation turned upside down: he started crying even harder, but this time because of happiness.
Community Is Not Just A Word:
In April 2017, a streamer with a tiny audience of 5000 subscribers Adam โLo0pโ Bahriz got a giant donation. He received $6000 from another streamer – Sparkles. Besides, Adam received thousands of dollars from the compassionate community in that period.
The story was as follows: Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy type 2, or simply HSAN 2 – a very serious and dangerous disease. Adam has it. He is almost blind and deaf, he doesnโt feel pain at all, his nose is heavily damaged (a big part of it got removed), and he got a lot of teeth removed.
Despite all, Adamโs CS:GO playing skill is so high, that he managed to reach the Rank B in ESEA (E-Sports Entertainment Association) which is a great and very difficult achievement for even able-bodied people.
As they say, the
video game community is bipolar.
Especially the CS:GO community. At the beginning of his next match, Adam graciously notified his teammates that in general heโs got some problems with pronunciation and verbal contact due to his disease. He wasnโt understood that day: Lo0pโs teammates started to bully him and call him โa trollโ. Moreover, soon they kicked him out of the match. To say that Adam was upset is to say nothing.
After this
obnoxious incident, one of Adamโs viewers wrote about it on Reddit. And Reddit
just exploded:
Thousands
of people went on to Lo0pโs Twitch channel and started donating and inspiring
him. The number of his followers jumped from 5K to nearly 100K. Adam was even
invited to EnvyUs – prestigious esports team as a streamer. Meanwhile, Twitch
shared some of his highlights, like doing aces. Thanks to these, by the end of
the day, Adam got 5000 active viewers on his channel. Lo0p received thousands
of dollars from a lot of caring people. However, the streamer โSparklesโ was
the most distinguished of them. In his YouTube video, Sparkles donated $6000
with a single donation and said: โFor the surgery. Respect from CS:GO community!โ
In 2017 Adam Bahriz got his first eye surgery and was able to pay for college and travel back to his homeland – Algeria. โHonestly all these donations have given me, a 17-year-old, a level of financial security that I cannot even begin to fathom,โ – Were Adamโs words about it. So, they say, the video game community is bipolar.
A Prank For A Million?
1,400,000 rubles – almost $22000. This was the amount, that was donated to a popular Russian streamer Vladimir โBratishkinoffโ Bratishkin (not the real surname) by his friend Sergey โAdamsonโ. Or not? This story is sad and funny at the same time.
Due to several difficulties, In 2016 Vladimir was living in his friendโs flat for a couple of days. Also, he continued streaming via Sergeyโs computer in order not to keep off his schedule. After Bratishkin went back home, Adamson noticed, that his friend forgot about logging out from his donating platform account. And this is where the insidious plan was born.
Adamson
has called one of his friends like โHey, I have a great idea!โ. After that,
these two have decided to turn on a video-capture program and started sending
test-donations to Vladimir. After the first 10,000 rubles, Bratishkin cracked
up. The streamer was very surprised and happy. Seeing this, Adamson even
started repeatedly saying: โVova, man, forgive me. Iโm so sorry, bro.โ The passion was rising with every minute.
Bratishkin has even broken his glass from an overabundance of feelings after
the sum has reached 160 000 rubles. The streamer started to jump and run all
over the room after 200 000. โOh my god, Iโm so sorry, Vova.โ – kept saying
Sergey.
On
260 000 Bratishkin started to realize that there is something wrong. A couple
of donations later Adamson sent him 1 000 000 rubles ($15 500) with โHello from
Adamson! Itโs a prank bro!โ words. โI was pranked, okay, I was pranked!โ –
Said the streamer and started to laugh. Vladimir continued his stream as if
nothing had happened. But all of us understand that at least Vova felt a bit
sad.
On
his YouTube channel, Sergey said that Bratishkin didnโt feel offended. Vova
even said that he is thankful for the great emotions Adamson delivered to him.
So, everything is ok, and guys are good friends until today. Everything is
okay, except for the broken glass.
We have a video of Adamson donating fake money to Bratishkin. It is in Russian, but you donโt need to know the Russian to understand whatโs happening here. (The timecode for donations: 2:14).
This
year was special for a streamer known as โExotic Chaoticโ on Twitch. He
received an immense amount of $75000 from another streamer and his friend, who
donated him under the โKingMascotโ nickname.
โExotic Chaoticโ is a streamer who is delved into Fortnite. He works on collecting every Skin available in the game. Chaotic has played almost with every pro Fortnite player and celebrities like Ninja and Tfue.
The streamer has just started his another Fortnite match when $75000 alert box notified about the donation world record. The donator was another content creator and Chaoticโs friend KingMascot, who decided that the streamer totally deserves that money.
When the alert box appeared, Chaotic was talking about something. Shocked and distrustful at the same time, he was trying to both talk, react, and check his PayPal account. So, his reaction was funny and genuinely chaotic. After the streamer made sure money wasnโt fake, he still needed almost 10 minutes to completely realize it.
The reason why KingMascot donated Exotic Chaotic so
much money was that Chaotic was not in the best financial conditions at that
time. KingMascot was sure, that his friend definitely deserved the cash:
โKnown him for over a year. Hasnโt been in the best spot for money his whole life. He deserves it more than anyone. So he can get a new place for his girlfriend and 4-year-old child!โ – Said KingMascot about his friend.
Watching this video down below, you can see and try to feel all the emotions that Exotic Chaotic felt.
Insidious Love:
We live in an era, where sexism is
nothing but much of an archaic remnant of the past centuries. But for some
people, sexism has become a weapon which they use in every tricky situation.
This year, a female streamer Devon โB00blesxdโ received $12000 in a short
period from her fan who had โDisruptedorderโ nickname. And here is what
happened next:
Shortly before, Devon had participated in a popular twitch show called โTheRajjchelorโ. After that, she started accusing one of her top-donators of making sexist insults against her. As you may have guessed, this top-donator was Disruptedorder.
โHeโs saying to me: โThis slut s*** is
unattractive. The cocaine s*** is unattractive. Your attitude is s***. You need
to grow the f*** up.โ<โฆ> this is a guy that donates to my f***ing stream
and think he is entitled to s***!โ -Said Devon about Disruptedorder.
You can watch her full speech in the video below.
After these words on July 10, she got banned on Twitch. On July 11 B00blesxd tried to explain on her Twitter, that the reason for the ban was her outfit, not her ardent speech:
So, the girl was offended by her top donator, the girl answered to this offense. The end. Disruptedorder has become out of order. Everything is clear…until this moment:
On July 11 the donator posted a series of screenshots to Reddit, where it is clearly visible that the main part of the money was a loan, not a donation:
Apparently, B00ble was manipulating her fan: asking for multiple loans for a medical cure and some other mysterious reasons, promising to pay him back and confessing love to him.
After these, Devon started to claim that these photos are fake, but, on July 11, a new Reddit post called โThe Truth about Boobles Top Donatorโ appeared. This post leads to a giant series of screenshots that are telling a short story about B00bleโs and her top donatorโs arduous relationship.
And even now the story didnโt end.
On the same day, Devon posted a video on Twitter, where Disruptedorder allegedly
confesses faking the chat in order not to lose his face. Despite, the majority
of people didnโt believe B00ble. At the same time, โThe Truth aboutโ Reddit post gets updated with
some explanations:
โAt the moment Boobles is manipulating this poor guy more into forcing him to DM her that he faked the screenshots. I just talked to Boobles and Disrupted, he says he doesn’t want her job to be ruined and thatโs why he DMed her on twitter saying the screenshots are faked.โ
This was the final part of the story. And in the end, the question arises: Did it become a widespread mental disease when fans are donating vast amounts of money to female streamers hoping for a romantic relationship? We all should think about it because such nasty stories are becoming more and more common day by day.
These were our five cases when donations had unusual and sometimes instructive stories behind them. It is very generous when people support their beloved content creator. But letโs not forget a simple truth: unhealthy love is just another way for self-destruction.
And finally, let me tell you more about DeStream, which is a philanthropic platform focused on providing new experiences and aimed to eliminate borders between viewers and content creators.
If youโre a streamer or wish to become a streamer, they have great tools to ease your job and help you become unique and attractive. For more detailed information visit their website: www.destream.net
As ESL mentions it in their tweet, these will be the first 10 players to play the new version of de_Cache live, made by map-creatorsFMPone and Volcano.ย
The showmatch will see North American stars battling against each other as the Liquid firepower duo Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski will fight against their teammates Nick “nitr0” Cannella and Jake “Stewie2K” Yip.
Not just Liquid, show match will also see players from the likes of G2 and Evil Geniuses contending against each other. Legendary AWPer Kenny “kennyS” Schrub andย content-king Tarik “tarik” Celik will be joining Elige and Twistzz for this show match, whereas Audric “JacKz” Jug and Ethan “Ethan” Arnold will look to put up a fight against their fellow teammates in the conquest to win the first-ever live-match on the revamped version of Cache.ย
Concluding the second team will be Danish star, and Optic rifler Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke while Joshua “steel” Nissan will be the fifth for the first team. Former Ghost IGL who has been out of action since June, also tweeted that he can show Tarik what real content is, if put on a team against him.
Think you can get me in the showmatch? Put me on nitroโs team and Iโll show Tarik what real content is ๐
Cache is currently out of the active map pool as it was replaced by vertigo in late March. Itโd be interesting to see the views of professional players on the reworked cache and whether it makes its way into the competitive map pool.
An SSIU investigation found
six counter-strike players in Melbourne who have allegedly been fixing CS:GO
matches. Now the players are facing up to 10 years in prison for the crime.
A 10-year prison sentence is now a possibility for those who fix esports matches
Cheating in sports has always been a serious matter where competitions are concerned. Fixing casino games or cheating at soccer could mean a prison sentence for the players. Now, this is also a possibility for those who fix video games. Six people, who were caught allegedly fixing the Valveโs Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) League in Australia, were arrested and could be facing jail time. The game is one of the staples in the community which has been around for decades.
The individuals were arrested by the Victoria
Police Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit and Organized Crime Intelligence
Unit. All six of them were located in the general Melbourne area and were a
part of a match-fixing circle. As some claim, match-fixing is not as uncommon
in the area as it might seem.
The activity of the circle came to the
attention of the authorities through a sportsbook operator. The League
responded after the operator alerted them about a possible CS:GO match-fixing
incident. This demonstrates how seriously the members of the gaming community
take honesty and ethics.
The investigation, which was launched in March 2019 and lasted for about five months, found out that the members of the match-fixing ring were intentionally losing games in order to make money from betting. There were 20 such bets made in total. Although this is an esports match and not a physical sport like soccer, or a poker game at one of the best online casinos, where such an incident would be punished severely, the arrested individuals are still looking at a 10-year prison sentence.
Regulating the match-fixing in
esports
The players are now facing 10 years in prison
but itโs highly likely that the sentence will be reduced due to the nature of
the sport. Chances are, video gaming fixing wonโt be punished as severely as
other forms of match-fixing. Meanwhile, the authorities, SSIU, and Organized
Crime Intelligence Unit continue to work with betting agencies some of which
are involved in esports to further continue identifying such instances.
โEsports is really an emerging sporting
industry and with that will come the demand for betting availability on the
outcomes of tournaments and matches. Itโs important that police and other
agencies within the law enforcement, gaming and betting industries continue to
work together to target any suspicious activity. These warrants also highlight
that police will take any reports of suspicious or criminal activity within
esports seriously, and we encourage anyone with information to come forward,โ –
said Neil Paterson, an Assistant Commissioner commented on the incident.
Another big step in the regulation of esports
is the establishment of the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) which will work to improve
integrity and ethics in the industry. Cheating in esports might have been only
punished with a verbal warning before but this could soon change due to the new
stance that the regulators have taken to the activity.
Indian Fifa Pro Saransh Jain took home the King Of Games cup hosted in Maldives. The tournament was hosted by Bigalows and was sponsored by the likes of the Maldives Esports Association and Coca Cola. The tournament saw 128 players compete for the trophy, this was the inaugural event but they hope to host it every year.
Saranshโs incredible journey began from the qualifier stage which he stormed through in all four of them, and booking this ticket to Maldives after securing the final qualifier hosted by Lets Game Now. Going into the tournament he was faced by serious tactical challenges as he usually picks France National Team but the tournament being Clubs only, he had to adapt and had to be pragmatic in his approach, Franch is one of the most well-balanced teams in the world, with prolific forwards, pacey wingers, strong midfielders and a solid defense, Saransh upon the regulations, chose to go with Juventus.
โSo, I normally played with France but since at this event, it was clubs only I had to change my primary team which was a big task. But I somehow adapted well because I practiced with Juventus quite a bit since the startโ โ Saransh Jain
Saransh came out on the top in every single stage of the tournament and lifted an international trophy. His reaching of new heights every year is just a hint that India is ready to reach a higher level in esports.
