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Starladder Berlin CSGO Major 2019 Legends Stage: Day 2 Recap

Abhishek Bajaj
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Starladder Berlin CSGO Major 2019 Legends Stage: Day 2 Recap

The teams returned to the stage after Day 1 of the New Legends Stage, with some looking to set the record straight while some fighting to get the early chance of making it to the Champions Stage.

Renegades vs Avangar

Vertigo was served to the viewers for the very first matchup that featured two teams with a 0-1 record. Avangar came in hot winning the first five rounds, starting on the Terrorist side. But, Renegades won eight of the remaining rounds in the half to gain a marginal lead going into the swap.

AVANGAR slowly plucked away at Renegades’ offence but the North American organisation won two rounds on the trot to bring it back to within around at 13-14. AVANGAR though, persevered with two successful retakes to close the map 16-13 and even out their record.

Natus Vincere vs DreamEaters

A CIS derby that no one thought they would have on their plate in the 0-1 bracket at the Legends Stage. DreamEaters have had an encouraging Major so far while Natus Vincere have started their campaign unable to hold down a lead against G2.

It looked like Natus Vincere were in for another tough time as DreamEaters racked up 6 rounds on the Terrorist side on Overpass. But, the CIS giants showed just why they are one of the favourites at the Major, conceding just 1 round on their own T side, closing Overpass 16-7. DreamEaters are now one Best-of-3 loss away from going 0-3 in the Legends Stage and having to go through the CIS Minor once again.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs CR4ZY

One of the spicier matchups in the 0-1 bracket, Ninjas in Pyjamas vs CR4ZY produced an individual masterclass from young Lithuanian star EspiranTo. With the match poised at 12-10 in favour of CR4ZY on Train, EspiranTo was up against it in a 1v3 retake situation with just a deagle in his hand.

It just so happened that the Deagle was enough, with the Lithuanian producing a highlight-worthy of the stage, having to turn 180 twice during the fast-paced 1v3. Nevertheless, NiP were unable to recover from the lost 1vx situation and CR4ZY closed out the map 16-10.

Besides EspiranTo’s audacious clutch, the matchup produced another storyline in the fact that f0rest continues to underperform at the Starladder Berlin CSGO Major, having a total negative K-D difference of 22 over the two maps played.

North vs mousesports

mousesports’ loss to FAZE Clan was one of the surprises of Day 1. While they started out strong, winning 10 rounds on the T side of Inferno, mousesports struggled against the North offence and with their inability to close out maps.

Despite leading 14-6, mousesports saw their lead reduced by North, with the Danish stack bringing it back to 13-15 before the German organisation finally shutting North down to even their record at the Berlin Major.

Liquid vs NRG

The latest iteration of the NA derby, Liquid went into the map against NRG as the slight favorites. And EliGE showed signs of just why he is being considered in discussions for the best player at the moment. But, the 22-year-old was unable to carry his team as NRG shut down Liquid on Dust 2 to go 2-0, pushing Liquid into the 1-1 bracket.

FAZE Clan vs Vitality

It was a straight forward route from Vitality in the first half of Dust 2, with the French stack winning 13 rounds on the CT side. FAZE Clan attempted to mount a comeback but Vitality proved too strong, closing out the map 16-7.

ENCE vs mibr

A matchup that was, on paper, heavily favoured towards ENCE, primarily because mibr were using zews as their fifth player at the Major. While the Brazilians did beat NiP in the opener, ENCE showed the difference between having an active player and a coach as the fifth.

mibr struggled to cope with the firepower of ENCE, who won 9 rounds on the T side of Inferno before running away with the map with a scoreline of 16-8.

Astralis vs G2

The way G2 started on their T side on Nuke, it rang ominous bells, especially for Astralis. But, the Danes showed that two can play at the game, dominating their own T side as well.

The highlight of the game was G2 using the SMG buys on their T side to great effect while the map and the day ended on a humorous note. G2 managed to kill every Astralis player on their retake but went to the wrong bombsite, ultimately gifting the Danes what was a deserved win with a scoreline of 16-7.

With Day 2 now complete, we have a clearer picture of who will be fighting for survival on Day 3 and who will look to book their place in the Champions Stage of the Starladder Berlin CSGO Major 2019.

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CSGO: forZe add liTTle as main coach

Raj 'Stan' Shah
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CSGO: forZe add liTTle as main coach

Since the departure of Rustam “5TRYK#R” Alimkuloc prior to the CSI Minors, ForZe have employed the services of Little on an interim basis, now sifned to a full-time main coach position. Their ex-player helped them through the regional qualifiers for The Berlin Major and also got them through the New Challenger Stage, where they almost made it to Challengers but then failed against the compatriots “DreamEaters” The Russian Powerhouse.

Before the coaching role on the organization, ‘Little” was part of Ex-Spartak line up that was acquired by Forze to represent its colors back during September 2017. Then he was subsequently benched, replaced by ‘Jenya “FL1T” Lebedev.

With their Major run in the past, the experience will make a difference, ForZe are now totally focused on the ECS Season 8 EU Pinnacle Cup, and will be contesting for a spot at the Lan Finals Blast Pro Series.

Also, with the addition of Little on a full-time basis, ForZe Roster would be something like this!

  • Dmitriy “facecrack” Alekseye
  • Almaz “almazer” Asadullin
  • Jenya “FL1T” Lebedev
  • Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov
  • Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov
  • Anatoliy “liTTle” Yashin (coach)

Lazarus releases its male CS:GO team

Raj 'Stan' Shah
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Lazarus releases its male CS:GO team

The NA Organization ‘Lazarus’ has released its male CS:GO roster within just five months with the reason to focus on other priorities. The Russian Lazarus female lineup will continue to represent the organization though.

Braxton ‘Swag’ Pierce the IGL of their team was a consistent performer online due to the North America talent that the team possesses. They even finished first in the ESL Pro League, America’s: NA Relegation Tournament

This lineup won a few lower tier online events, such as the WINNERS League Season Two: NA Invite Division. Lazarus’s former roster reached great heights for a team that competed at a low level compared to other Top NA Csgo teams.

There was a conversation going on during minor for the StarLadder Berlin Major when Lazarus spot was forfeited to Luminosity due to roster issues.

The team lost Tyson “TenZ” Ngo to “cloud9” and Pujan “FNS” Mehta forcing them to do nothing else but withdraw from the competition.

The Ex-Lazarus players will now have their toughest tests in the upcoming ESL Pro League where they’ll play against Cloud9, FURIA, and MIBR.

Heroic signs Snappi

Aditya Singhal
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Heroic signs Snappi

Heroic has just announced that they will re-sign former player Marco โ€œSnappiโ€ Pfeiffer.

Recently heroic announced the departure of Adam โ€œfribergโ€ Friberg from the roster, just after the news was sinking in they announce the rejoining of Snappi.

Snappi was a part of Heroic for a long time period of 2 years between the years 2016 and 2018, he left the organization to join Optic but found it hard to find success under the North American organization and was released in June following that.

Snappi is known for his experience in the game as an in-game leader still blameF will continue to IGL, giving the veteran Danish player the freedom โ€œto play the positions he like the mostโ€, according to Heroic.

Heroic who will make their first appearance with the new line-up in the ECS Season 8 Pinnacle Cup, kicking off September 10, now have:

  • Patrick โ€œes3tagโ€ Hansen
  • Benjamin โ€œblameFโ€ Bremer
  • Martin โ€œstavnโ€ Lund
  • Johannes โ€œb0RUPโ€ Borup
  • Marco โ€œSnappiโ€ Pfeiffer
  • Frederik โ€œLOMMEโ€ Nielsen
  • Daniel โ€œmertzโ€ Mertz (inactive)

Dota 2: Coach QQQ decides to quit PSG.LGD, they will skip the first major

Dhairya Jhaveri
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Dota 2: Coach QQQ decides to quit PSG.LGD, they will skip the first major

PSG.LGD gaming via their social media handles officially announced the departure of Yao โ€œQQQโ€ Yi. QQQ joined PSG.LGD as the head coach in January 2017 and in this two year of tenure, PSG.LGD performed well under his guidance.

Furthermore, according to the extended announcement on Weibo, it seems like PSG.LGD wanted him to stay for the next DPC circuit as well but QQQ decision was firm. Right after PSG.LGD finished at third place and lost against Liquid. QQQ posted on this Weibo page, “to the youth that I never regretted, farewell.” pointing towards his decision of quitting the competitive scene.

“We really appreciate the effort and hard-work QQQ has been putting on the team. After having a thorough discussion with him, we respect his own choice and wish him the best of luck in the future.” PSG.LGD on Weibo.

In the same announcement, PSG.LGD also pointed out that Linsen “fy” Xu will take a 3-month break to undergo eye surgery before returning to the competitive scene &
that PSG.LGD will skip the first major of the season.

Excerpt from PSG.LGD’s official announcement

โ€œTo recover from his eye surgery, player of LGD Gaming Dota2 Division, Linsen โ€œfyโ€ Xu will take a 3-month break before he returns to the team. After a thorough communication within the team, we decided that the Dota2 Division of LGD Gaming will not attend the first Major in the upcoming season as both the club and players want to start the new season with our full roster.โ€

Meanwhile, PSG.LGD’s roster stays the same.

Aleksib talks about his departure from ENCE, the aftermath

Raj 'Stan' Shah
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Aleksib talks about his departure from ENCE, the aftermath

Professional CSGO Player Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen talks about how Team ENCE have been affected by the news of his departure after the StarLadder Berlin Major.

Aleksib is the in-game leader of ENCE, a Finnish team that rose to fame in early 2019 after a miraculous run in the IEM Katowice Major, taking second place after falling to Astralis, the world’s number one team at the time.

Since then the team performed consistently and then winning BLAST Pro Series Madrid and taking multiple second places they shocked everyone with their new meta and playstyle.

However, as they announced the farewell of Aleksib from Team ENCE and the player has now spoken about the matter.

When asked about the current IGL of the team Aleksib stated that Himself and Allu are sharing that role and just playing with the flow, giving an example of his recent game where he felt great on the Tside giving calls playing his aggressive gameplay once the sides changed they switched roles with allu and kept their calms and won the game.

And then asked about their Bootcamp and the environment there he replied with he replied: โ€œJust a normal boot camp. We played a lot and my mentality was a bit off at first, but I have good composure now and I can keep it up.โ€

While many question the move, ENCE’s performance didn’t seem to be particularly affected by it, as they demolished AVANGAR 16-5 to secure a strong start to the StarLadder Berlin Major. Theyโ€™ll play their next match on August 29, against MIBR.

While the on and off due to this, ENCE’s performance and dedication haven’t been affected in anyway, they won pretty easily against AVANGAR 16-5 to secure a strong start to the StarLadder Berlin Major. Their next match is on 29th August even though their opponents aren’t decided yet.

League of Legends mobile version leaked

Varun Parashar
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League of Legends mobile version leaked

League of Legends is a massively popular MOBA game which dominates twitch viewership counts on a regular basis with exceptions during special events. The fans have been asking for new features and updates for a long time and riot responded by teasing a mobile version of the game. Head of Global Esports John Needham wrote that the game would be “more accessible to fans across the globe.”ย It’s hard to argue there is a better, more playable and wider-reaching method than bringing League of Legends to the Mobile gaming platform. Looking closely at the rate at which the mobile gaming industry is developing, bringing console and PC games to mobile inarguably seems like a very good idea for the gameโ€™s potential growth.

It has been long since Riot games has given the fans something to look up to but, recently a leaked video of LOL Mobile version has surfaced on a League of Legends mobile Facebook group. It is believed that the footage was taken from Chinese media and then posted by one of the groupโ€™s members.ย Riot Games has decided to stay silent regarding the matter but such an outbreak of leaked content can confirm the news that a mobile version of League of Legends is well underway.

The new leaked video is so intricate that it shows detailed aspects of the game right from button placement to the overall functionality of the game. If youโ€™re too curious to find out then you can see the latest leaked video right here:

This level of detailing shows the effort that would go into a legitimate title instead of a fake leak. Additionally, it shows part of the game besides just in-game footage and an actor using the phone instead of just on-screen footage. Taking into consideration all the evidence, we think that this leak most likely, is credible and the world of mobile gaming is about to be altered forever. Without a doubt, League of Legends will dominate across all app stores and fans will finally be given what they have been waiting for.

Tfue overtakes shroud to become number 1 Twitch streamer

Parth Gada
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Tfue overtakes shroud to become number 1 Twitch streamer

Ever since Tyler โ€œNinjaโ€ Blevins shocked the community by switching to mixer on August 1st, the race for the most popular Twitch streamer began, with another surprise in store.

Fortnite Streamer Turner โ€œTfueโ€ Tenney on Tuesday overtook Shroud to be the most followed streamer on Twitch with 6.9 million followers compared to Shroudโ€™s 6.8. This is still way less than Ninjaโ€™s 14.7 Million count, despite being inactive for almost a month.

Apart from that, Tfue is also the 2nd fastest growing streamer post Ninjaโ€™s final stream, with around 81000 new followers, only behind Fortnite World Champion winner Bugha, who grew by nearly a quarter of a million.

Tfue now also leads in number of hours watched, with over 9.6 million as of August 27, ahead of heavyweights like World of Warcraft streamer Asmongold, Overwatch pro Felix โ€œxQcโ€ Lengyel, and shroud.

While Fortnite as a game has dropped down the pecking order in terms of popularity on Twitch, partly due to Ninjaโ€™s absence but majorly because of World of Warcrafts new Classic release and premier events in Dota 2 and CSGO like the International, Tfue continues to be the top streamer of Twitch and is expected to be there for a while.

Featured image courtesy of Dexerto

Round 2 matchups for the StarLadder Berlin Major New Legends Stage revealed

Pranav Nalawade
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Round 2 matchups for the StarLadder Berlin Major New Legends Stage revealed

After the first day of the Swiss group stage in Berlin has come to an end, half of the 16 attending teams have recorded a win and are in the 1-0 pool, while the other half is in the defeated, 0-1 pool. Per standard Swiss rules, the team matchups have been drawn between teams with the same record.

After losing from MIBR, NiP will play against CR4ZY.

The full draw looks as follows:

1-0 pool:

  • Astralis vs. G2: 00:15am IST.
  • Liquid vs. NRG: 20:30pm IST.
  • ENCE vs. MIBR: 23:00pm IST.
  • FaZe vs. Vitality: 21:45pm IST.

0-1 pool:

  • Natus Vincere vs. DreamEaters: 16:45pm IST.
  • NiP vs. CR4ZY: 18:00pm IST.
  • Renegades vs. Avangar:15:30pm IST.
  • North vs. mousesports: 19:15pm IST.

Starladder Berlin CSGO Major Legends Stage Day 1 Recap

Aditya Singhal
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Starladder Berlin CSGO Major Legends Stage Day 1 Recap

The CSGO festival started off in style with the 16 teams battling it out to make it to the New Champions stage and claim the trophy. Today it was Swiss Round 1 and all the games played were best of 1โ€™s. Hereโ€™s a short recap of all the games that took place today in the Verti Music Hall.

ENCE vs. AVANGAR

The first matchup was pretty straight forward for the Finnish side (ENCE) which were the favourites as well on de_overpass. ENCE won the match 16-5 and AVANGAR never found a way to come back in the game.

ENCE has started their campaign on a start that no one expected them to make because of the roster changes they will be going through just after the majors.

Astralis vs. DreamEaters

One of the matchups that some people were excited about because the DreamEaters has eaten dreams of other teams but the Danish side was too strong to for their comfort. The map was de_dust2 with Astralis starting on the CT side with a slow start and gave the first 3 rounds to DreamEaters. There were some resistance in the starting rounds by the Russians but when the formers worldโ€™s best team got them going they took 7 rounds in a row and ended the half 9-6 scoreline.

The DreamEaters took the second round pistol and the following anti-eco but Danes didnโ€™t slow down and won the game 16-9 as they were expected to.

NRG vs. Renegades

This one was a banger of a game which every CSGO fan will cherish (not Renegades fans), this map was de_dust2 again and took all the 30 rounds to decide who will be the winner. NRG took the W against the Australian team with a score line of 16-14. The former started on the CT side and took the half 10-5 in their favour.

The second half was the time when the real game began and Australian side started stringing consecutive rounds but soon it was a back and forth affair but NRG looked more poised in the last 2 rounds that mattered and took the win. This was the first match that a challenger team took the win over the returning legends.

Liquid vs. CR4ZY

The worldโ€™s best team taking on the team which have created a sense of fear in some of the top teams in the tournament but the North American squad showed why they are the best team coming to the tournament. The match was played on de_mirage which both the teams loves playing and Liquid won it 16-9 with a pretty dominating CT side.

In the first half CR4ZY showed some great CT side and took the lead 8-7 but the T-side just looked flat on the side of CR4ZY and took only 1 round against the mighty Liquid. Team Liquid showed that they are here to lift the trophy either by hook or crook.

Vitality vs. North

Vitality won their first game of the 2nd stage rather dominatingly than they were expected after that challengers stage games run they had, they won the game 16-9 on de_inferno. The French men (Vitality) showed why they are the 2nd best team in the HLTV rankings and North was found struggling. Vitality started on the CT side and won the half 9-6 not with much resilience from the Danish side and when the sides were switched the North defence looked flat and Vitality didnโ€™t allow them to make the information plays and thatโ€™s why North never knew what was coming their way.

North had a good run in the challengers stage with a 3-0 score to qualify to the legends stage but the real test begins now and letโ€™s see what they are capable of in the coming stages.

FaZe vs. Mousesports

This matchup always brings up the hype because of the ex-teammates rivalry between Karrigan and his ex-teammates in Faze. Mousesports were the favourites coming into this match but FaZe took over the W on de_mirage with a score line of 16-8 which is pretty dominating. Mousesports never looked good in this match even in the rounds they won. Faze started on the CT side and posted 9 rounds, the following pistol round was won by mousesports but Faze took the very next round and cemented a good lead and won the match in style.

No one expected it to be that dominant because of their performances before the player break. Rain played a huge role in getting this win while Niko didnโ€™t had a good time in the server.

Natus vincere vs. G2 Esports

NaVi were the favourites coming to this matchup and they showed a pretty dominating CT half on de_overpass with a score line of 10-5 but we saw a huge comeback from the French squad (G2) on theirCT side with KennySโ€™ AWP making some impact which was not seen on their T side half and this helped them to take the match to Overtime and grabbing the win with a score line of 19-17.

This was the first OT game of the Legends stage thus and oh my this was with a lot of fireworks, some awkward rounds. This game will surely boost the confidence of the French squad continuing this campaign.

MIBR vs. NiP

This was a match that was evens stevens because of the roster situation of both the teams, Brazilian Squad playing with their coach and the swedes playing with a Stand-in. The Map was de_dust2 and MIBR started on the CT Side with a 6-0 start and ended up winning the half 9-6.

The Swedish side made a comeback and equalised the score 12-12 but it was not enough and MIBR took the win taking next 4 rounds in a row with a score line of 16-12.

The New Legends Stage Day 1 Standings

Photo via StarLadder

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