Day 4 of the main event of The International 2019 is underway at the moment at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.
After game 1 of the best of 3 series between EG and OG, valve had a surprise in store for us.
A new hero, called Snapfire, was announced for Dota 2, coming fall 2019.
Here is the video of the reveal :
Valve has a tradition of announcing new heroes at TI and this year is no different.
Safe to say we are pretty excited for the arrival of the new hero.
Miikka โsuNnyโ Kemppi will finally return to the competitive circuit. ENCE have confirmed the capture of suNny from mousesports, who has been on the bench of the German organisation for a while now.
The Finnish star will join up with his fellow Fins after the Starladder Berlin Major 2019, with current ENCE IGL Aleksi โAleksibโ Virolainen to make way, as per HLTV. There were reports emanating from the likes of DeKay as to the aforementioned move, which now appears to have been confirmed.
What is still unclear is where the future of Aleksib lies and who will assume the role of IGL for ENCE. suNny returns to ENCE, having represented the organisation twice in the past. With suNnyโs addition ENCEโs lineup will look something like this.
The main event of The International 2019 is underway at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China from August 20th-25th 2019.
The 2nd day of the main event saw us part ways with Virtus.Pro and TNC Predator.
Todayโs schedule involved 2 upper bracket semi-finals and 2 lower bracket elimination games.
Well, consider this match as a match of regions, South America vs North America.
The rivalry goes deep and the winner takes it all. Infamous upset Team Newbee with a 2-1 finish eliminating Newbee from The International 9.
Game 1 โ Comfortable draft, individual skills. Team Infamous managed to close this game out against Team Newbee, again Newbee allowed Infamous to have a comfortable draft and let Infamous pick Hectorโs signature hero, Wraith King. Infamous took this game with a 1-0 lead. Here are some short clips and replays.
Game 2 โ With their TI run hanging by a thread, Team Newbee desperately needed to win this game in order to equalize the series and they just did that. With better drafts and call outs, Newbee were able to take this one equalizing the series 1-1.
Game 3 โ The decider game, Newbee let Infamous pick Wraith King again and paid heavily. Chris luckโs Slark mid made a lot of space for Wraith King allowing him to farm up a lot and get fat. Infamous closed this series out by upsetting Newbee.
With this loss, Newbee are knocked out of The International 2019 in the 9th-12th place.
Infamous go on to the next round of the lower bracket to face the winner of Mineski vs Secret.
Newbee were the favourites based on group stage results, but previous results donโt matter. This is TI. Also not banning Wraith King proved costly for Newbee.
The 2nd game of the day saw Team Secret take on the last hope for the SEA community, Mineski, who had a lot of pressure on their shoulders. With the recent DPC performances, everyone would favour Team Secret in this match-up but Mineski showed the world that they are not to be taken lightly they put up a huge fight against Team Secret and took it all the way to the third game and make Team Secret sweat.
Game 1 โ Epic mega creepsโ comeback by Team Secret. Mineski builds a huge lead and were steamrolling Team Secret and were on the doorstep of victory. Mineski committed hard in the last push of the game, cost them the game. Moon (Mineskiโs mid player) on the alchemist died without having a buyback and Team Secret capitalised on this mistake and went all-in with their mid lane push closing out this game with a 1-0 lead over Team Mineski.
Game 2 โ With a better draft over Team Secret, Mineski were able to capitalise on their early net worth lead over Team Secret and keep their TI dream run alive. Although Team Secret had the lead at one moment, they made a lot of mistakes and Mineski grabbed their chance and wiped Team Secret, tying the series 1-1.
Game 3 โ Game 3 was similar to games 1 and 2, an intense battle for survival.
Mineski got the Wraith King, but Team Secret got the faceless void and tiny and were able to combo them together to finally beat Mineski and win the best of 3.
Team Secret take the win with a 2-1 scoreline, thereby advancing to Lower Bracket Round 3, where they face Team Infamous tomorrow.
With this loss, Team Mineski has been eliminated from The International 2019 in the 9th-12th place.
This was one of the best matches of The International 2019. Both teams played equally well, but Secret managed to triumph over Mineski.
You can see the emotions the casters of the game are going through while casting this game.
With this game, we conclude the Lower Bracket Round 1 games and the TOP 8 of TI9 have been confirmed.
Now that the lower bracket games were over, the action shifts to the upper bracket games.
First upper bracket semi-final sees domestic rivals PSG.LGD take on VICI Gaming. Although VICI gaming won 2 majors this season, PSGLGD were slight favourites coming into this matchup and they showed us why.
Game 1-
Vici Gaming drafted a very magic damage heavy lineup and had to finish the game early to stand a chance. But they messed up their timings. PSG.LGD carries took their time to farm up the items they needed, and once they got their BKBโs, there was nothing VG could do to stop the PSG.LGD train. AMEโs Terrorblade and Maybeโs Kunkka ran them over. PSG.LGD take a 1-0 lead.
Game 2-
Vici gaming improved on their game 1 draft, but their draft was still on a timer, while PSG.LGD had AME on one of the best late-game heroes Spectre and Maybe was rocking the Dragon Knight. VG messed up their timings again and couldnโt end the game in time due to a few misplayed fights. This enabled Spectre and Dragon Knight to get all the items they needed. VG did not possess the damage to kill the LGD heroes anymore and had to cave in.
PSG.LGD take the series 2-0 in dominating fashion.
With this win, PSG.LGD proceed to the upper bracket final and will play the winner of the EG/OG game, while VG are pushed down to the lower bracket.
Also, this win guarantees a top 3 finish for PSG.LGD and an appearance on the final day of TI9.
The most awaited match up of the day was finally here. EG contains a lot of EX-OG players, who departed OG to join Evil Geniuses on not-so-cordial terms. There was an air of revenge around this game.
Game 1-
Game one saw Evil Geniuses completely outplay OG from the laning stage onwards. Topsonโs invoker and Anaโs PA had no impact on the game, and RTZ on his signature TB was able to farm freely, while Sumail on his Lina owned OG and did not allow them to win a big fight ever. OG tried to kills4 multiple times, but the enchantress was just too hard to kill. They were behind by a huge margin, and could not cope with EGโs draft
Game 2 –
OG in game 2 looked like a completely different team, they destroyed EG in the laning stage with Topson running around the map on his tiny killing Rtz on his TB again and again.
Although OG faced a few hiccups mid-game, they managed to easily close out the game to even the series 1-1.
Game 3-
Game 3 was just a stomp. This time Topsonโs invoker made huge plays, while Sumail on his mirana lacked damage to kill ANA since he went for magic damage over physical damage build.RTZโs AM never got the space to farm and OG just ran over the EG draft to secure an easy win over EG and wrapped up the series 2-1.
With this loss EG are relegated to the Lower Bracket while OG move on to face LGD in the upper bracket final.
This win also guaranteed top 3 for OG at TI9.
This brings us to an end of todayโs games.
Todayโs standings:
The winner of the ARCANA vote was also announced today.
Tomorrow, we will get to witness 3 lower bracket elimination games. The all-star game will be played tomorrow as well.
The action resumes tomorrow at 7:30 AM IST.
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Electronic Sports League (ESL), the organizers of Intel Extreme Masters have revealed initial information about the upcoming IEM: Beijing 2019. $250,000 event will feature eight teams from across the world. Five teams will be directly invited while the remaining three will qualify through China Qualifier, Asia Qualifier and Europe Qualifier respectively.
Out of the five invites, two of them have already been revealed by ESL โ Astralis & Team Liquid. The previous iteration was won by NRG Esports grabbing the major share worth $125,000 while TyLoo were the runners-up.
The event will be held at Beijing University Students’ Gymnasium on November 08-09. This will be the fourth event under the Season 3 of Intel Grand Slam. Previous iterations were won by Astralis and Team Liquid (invitees) respectively.
Each year, The International Battle Pass owners get a chance to vote throughout the duration of the battle pass on which hero should receive an Arcana item set. An Arcana set comes with extensive customizations such as animations, icons, sounds, and more.After weeks of voting, finally the winner of The International 2019 ARCANA VOTE has been announced.
Ogre Magi and Windranger were the two heroes who made it to the grand finale.
Ogre Magi reached the finals by beating Faceless Void by 4.1 million votes, while Windranger beat Spectre by around 3 million votes.
Ogre Magi wins the arcana vote against Windranger by over 6 million votes !
Winning moment:
Ogre Magi has been one of the most played heroes during the The International 2019, while WR has been one of the highest picked heroes in pub games.
The arcana set should be released by the end of this year, keeping in mind that the Rubick arcana was released around that time of the year.
As Ogre Magi would say โYe gods, how’d that happen? What the. Who’d the. How’d that happen?โ ๐
โThat was skill all right. Pure skill.โ
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Player Unknownโs Battlegrounds is a multiplayer battle royale game which rose to supremacy soon after its release. Currently, PUBG has over 400 million users with 50 million users playing it on a daily basis.
TENCENT put in unbeatable effort into perfecting this game and making it a global sensation when it comes to battle royale. Depending upon the game mode, a certain number of players land at a location and salvage items and resources and fight till their death to become the last man standing. Tencent designed the gameโs maps with utmost detail but what if we told you that a few of your favourite loot spots actually exist in real life?
The famous hot drop location truly exists in Chernobyl, Russia. It is one of the most crowded places on the map with constant action taking place throughout the game. The abandoned Pripyat swimming pool is also featured in the game where players can find decent to good level loot. The key to survive is to depend on audio cues to take down nearby enemies at a fast pace.
We all remember the moment when we came across a hidden bunker in the game and looted some pretty impressive stuff. Yes, Shelter too exists in real life in the form of abandoned storage of nuclear weapons, at Fedosia โ Ukraine. The shelter is a popular drop location where intense squad fights take place beneath the ground. The bunker is not marked on the map but once you find this mega load of loot, you just canโt forget where it was.
The infamous hot drop location where you either find supreme quality loot which might just win you the game or get rushed upon by a squad which was sadly quicker than you. This location exists in the real world at Kaliningrad, Russia. Georgopol is one of the most visited places on the map and if youโre planning to land here, just be as fast as you can to turn your opponents into dust.
An island connected to the mainland via two bridges and a vast space of water, this drop location provides the player with a wide array of loot buildings varying from mini bunkers to radio towers. The real-life location is present in Duga, Russia. Whenever you land at this location, always be careful while leaving as a squad might just be waiting to welcome you at any of the two bridges!
An array of buildings parallel to a road just to the north of the mansion. The paddy hay which makes for a majority part where tactical ambushes and gunfights take places is actually located in the Slovakia province, Russia. You can find brilliant loot at this location if you figure out which building types hold the maximum items and can later execute enemies with ease in the massive barren hay land when they are trying to run away from you in a frenzy of fear.
Located at the south-east end of the map, this massive depression in the land makes up for cabins and small-sized buildings where you can salvage a decent amount of loot. The real-life location of this map is taken from West Roxbury quarry. The key tactic to survive at this spot is to be alert of your surroundings as a shot can be landed from any direction from a player at an elevated spot. This is a rather unpopular landing spot but later develops into a battleground for heavy assaults and planned team fights.
A temple type structure which sits at the Eastern side of sanhok is one of the most popular hot drop locations on the map. A complicated section of tunnels results in close end gunfights and melee wars. A player needs to know this location like the palm of their hands to ace their way out of it. You can find all the loot you need to win the game right at this major spot. The real-life place is taken from Mountains of Dagestan, Russia.
A valley surrounded by mountains sits at the north-west side of Erangel where you can find essential pieces of Armour and weapons. The real-life location is taken from Alberty, Rocky mountain region, Canada. Vast areas of Greenlands exists around this location, which requires you to make an early run to reach the safe zone in time. This location saves you from being killed early on in the game and make it into the top 50 with ease.
A beautiful landscape full of dried-out trees can be seen just as you exit Mylta Power. Beware of prone or hidden enemies as they can take advantage of your carelessness and end your game with a single shot to the head. It serves to be as an amazing waiting spot if you want to rally with your teammates or get a few early kills in-game. The location red forest is taken from Red forest, Chernobyl surrounded by nuclear power plants.
Mylta Power, the most popular spot at the south-west end of Erangel can be identified by enormous nuclear power plant buildings serving as hiding spots. You can find a high amount of submachine guns as well as assault rifles at this location but beware as you surely wonโt be the only one there. Widespread buildings make traversing a difficult task and having a vehicle at your disposal might just be a lifesaver at times. This location is inspired by the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plants in Russia.
Well, Tencent really did manage to turn these real-life locations into havens of destruction as PUBG maps in real life where all of you battle it out for supremacy over the 99 others that you left behind. We are excited to see what more is yet to come with map updates and remastered versions of existing maps. Stay tuned for more!
TalkEsport, along with several other media outlets, had earlier run a story surrounding the probability of Dreamhack returning to India in 2019 to be a part of Indiajoyโs Digital event series Indiajoy 2019 in Hyderabad in November.
The supposed story was run based on information available on their website itself (which now appears to be removed), with an image of partnering events including Dreamhack as well. However, Indiajoy have now come up with a unsatisfactory clarification on their Facebook page, stating that the โrumoursโ are false and that Dreamhack will not form part of Indiajoy, 2019.
It is rather surprising that, despite the information once being publicly available, Indiajoy have iterated that the articles were published without their โconcentโ (to be read as consent). The organisers have issued a request to all publishing houses to remove (ergo edit) the story and not post such information without prior confirmation, which is baffling since it was information available on a public domain.
For now though, gamers now have to wait for an official DreamHack announcement until then, you have to settle with other events & esports activities happening in India.
Well known Korean Organisation T1 (formerly SK Telecom T1) announced their entry into the DOTA 2 circuit earlier today.
They announced their first player on their twitter handle.
Forev is no stranger to DOTA 2. He has been in many top teams over the year, most famously being part of MVP.Phoenix and more recently, J Storm.
T1 ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS is a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor, new global esports organization with operations based out of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seoul. With competitive gaming rosters fielded in League of Legends, Fortnite, Player Unknownโs Battlegrounds, Super Smash Brothers, Hearthstone, and Apex Legends, T1 aims to be the worldโs most successful and widely known premier esports organization.
SK T1 is well known for its League of Legends team.
SK Telecom T1 is the only team to have won the World Championship three times.
With the formation of the new T1 organisation, they aim to conquer all other esports as well.
We can only wait and see who will be the other players joining Forev at T1.
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In the aftermath of their futile run at the Europe Minor of StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019, fnatic have taken a couple of crucial decisions. London based organization has benched Richard โXiztโ Landstrรถm and Simon โtwistโ Eliasson to enter ‘a new phase for CS:GO’. Their recent performances have been quite lackluster and the fans are extremely disappointed about their absence at the upcoming major. “We set goals and we failed,” fnatic wrote on Twitter.
For the first time in the history of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, fnatic won’t be attending a major. Richard has been quite inconsistent in the fragging department while his style of calling has not yielded results. Fnatic seems to be replying more towards Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin and plans to build their roster around the trio for the upcoming season of action packed Counter-Strike.
Richard โXiztโ Landstrรถm: โI’m thankful for the opportunity that Fnatic gave me to play there again and itโs unfortunate we were unable to accomplish the goals we made when the team was created.”
“During my time at Fnatic, there have been many ups but mostly downs. We showed some good results and played in two Premier finals but we couldn’t come out on top in either. However, lately, it’s only gotten worse and it has become clear that itโs time for a change.”
“I know I haven’t been playing well lately and certainly far from the level where I want to be myself. I think being on the bench will be beneficial for Fnatic and also have a positive effect on me in the long-run. I have no excuses for my bad performances and I only see this as a time for me to work even harder, to keep my head up, focus on myself and improve my individual skill. I am sure there will be more vetoes from me in grand finals in the near future!”
“I wish the team nothing but the best going forward – they have good players and Fnatic as an organisation is one of the best in esports.โ
Simon โtwistโ Eliasson: “I do want to thank Fnatic for the opportunity once again and I’ll continue always trying to make Swedish CS fans proud.โ
Andreas Samuelsson, Director, CS:GO Team: โI want to thank Simon and Richard for everything we have achieved together.”
“Both of these players have been very professional during their time with Fnatic. We had a great time together outside the server and they showed good potential in Shanghai and Sydney; itโs a great shame we never found any consistency nor the right chemistry in-game to achieve our goals.”
“Given the magnitude of failing to qualify for a Major for the first time in Fnaticโs history, a change was indeed necessary. Now, sadly without Simon and Richard, we must build a strong, consistent line-up for the future and bring Fnatic back to the very top.”
“I wish them both nothing but the best for the future.โ
“For the first instance in Fnaticโs history, our efforts were not sufficient enough to secure ourselves a place at the Major – our lowest point in a long journey of Counter-Strike,” fnatic wrote in a statement. However, fnatic have a long break to fix things. Their next event will be DreamHack Malmรถ in the first week of October. Fnatic’s roster for the time being is:
The StarLadder Major, the most hyped CSGO event of the year, is set to begin on the 23rd August and one could not be more excited for the event. Hereโs how you can catch up with all the content for the New Challengers Stage of the Major.
All you need to know about the New Challengers Stage:
A viewer can catch all the action from the Major on the official Twitch Channel, linked below.
The tournament will follow the Swiss system. The first and second round will be in a B01 format, while the third round will be in a BO3 system. If a team wins three games, they will move onto the next stage of the Major, the main stage.
| Team Vitality | AVANGAR |
| G2 Esports | Complexity Gaming |
| HellRaisers | Mousesports |
| NRG Esports | ForZe |
| Grayhound Gaming | CR4ZY |
| FURIA Esports | Syman Gaming |
| TYLOO | North |
| DreamEaters | INTZ eSports |
TalkEsport picks- Starladder Berlin Major 2019 Challenger Pick’Em
August 23, Day 1
| Round 1 | MATCH | IST |
| BO1 | Team Vitality vs. Syman Gamingย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย | 15:30 |
| BO1 | NRG Esports vs. DreamEaters | 15:30 |
| BO1 | G2 Esports vs. TYLOO | 16:45 |
| BO1 | North vs. INTZ Esports | 16:45 |
| BO1 | FURIA Esports vs. HellRaisers | 18:00 |
| BO1 | mousesports vs. forZe | 18:00 |
| BO1 | AVANGAR vs. Complexity Gaming | 19:15 |
| BO1 | CR4ZY vs. Grayhound Gaming | 19:15 |
| Round 2 | MATCH | IST |
| BO1 | Match #1 | 20:30 |
| BO1 | Match #2 | 20:30 |
| BO1 | Match #3 | 21:45 |
| BO1 | Match #4 | 21:45 |
| BO1 | Match #5 | 23:00 |
| BO1 | Match #6 | 23:00 |
| BO1 | Match #7 | 00:15 |
| BO1 | Match #8 | 00:15 |
August 24, Day 2
| Round 3 | MATCH | IST |
| BO1 | Match #3 | 16:30 |
| BO1 | Match #4 | 16:30 |
| BO1 | Match #5 | 17:45 |
| BO1 | Match #6 | 17:45 |
| BO1 | Match #1 | 19:00 |
| BO1 | Match #2 | 19:00 |
| BO1 | Match #7 | 22:15 |
| BO1 | Match #8 | 22:15 |
August 25, Day 3
| Round 4 | MATCH | IST |
| BO3 | Match #1 | 15:30 |
| BO3 | Match #2 | 15:30 |
| BO3 | Match #3 | 18:45 |
| BO3 | Match #4 | 18:45 |
| BO3 | Match #5 | 22:00 |
| BO3 | Match #6 | 22:00 |
August 26, Day 4
| Round 5 | MATCH | IST |
| BO3 | Match #1 | 15:30 |
| BO3 | Match #2 | 18:45 |
| BO3 | Match #3 | 22:00 |
This page was last updated on August 22, 2019, at 12:43 AM IST.
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