James Yang, Global eSport Director of PUBG Mobile at Tencent Games, revealed some great news about the future of the game during the third and final day of the PUBG Mobile Club Open Spring Split (or PMCO).
Yang, in particular, announced the birth of the PUBG Mobile 2020 World League, an official eSport competition for the popular battle royale in pocket format. Further information on this league was not revealed, but Yang said it should start soon. He also said that the tournament will be reserved for professional teams.
This announcement came in the middle of the PMCO Spring Split world finals, where the best players competed for the title of seasonal champions. The PMCO lasted about three days, for sixteen intense PUBG Mobile matches and an exhibition match with stars like basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo and DJ Alan Walker.
In addition, Yang also revealed the registration date for the new PMCO fall season. Registration for all 10 regions in which the championship is divided will start on August 8th.
PUBG Mobile has been a huge success since it was launched in March 2018. The nature of the game paved the way for eSport. The PMCO has been divided into two seasons: Spring and Fall. The prize pool for the full year was initially $ 2 million, but the announcement was increased to $ 2.5 million following a partnership with producer Oppo.
At the moment, as we were saying, not much is known about the PUBG Mobile World League but the second part of 2019 (with the close partnership between ESL and Vodafone for the 5G Mobile Open) and 2020 are really full of events, for all fans of PUBG.
Theย PUBG MOBILE STAR CHALLENGE (PMSC)ย is the second iteration of the Star Challenge Series, produced byย VSPN (Versus Programming Network). ย 16 of the very best and popular gaming creators will be teamed up with top PUBG Mobile Pro players for a fight of stardom and a massive prize pool of 250,000 US$ during this summer.
This massive event will take place on 7th-8th September 2019 and will comprise of 16 top voted creators and 16 pro teams consisting of 48 professional players.
The PMSC 2019 is going to Taipei and will take place in the first week of September. This tournament will feature the top content creators from the world which means players who stream. There was a voting period, following which the top 16 content creators who qualified and played a round of matches. This list of the top 16 content creators from around the world includes four Indian names. These four are Dynamo Gaming, RawKnee Gaming, Kronten Gaming and Gareebooo. Letโs take a look at the two lists from the tournament.
PUBG Mobile Star Challenge 2019: List of qualified teams and players
PMSC 2019: PUBG Mobile pro teams
Nova Esports
NOVA Monster Shield
GC Busan
EVOS Esports
Elite Esports
BRK Gaming
Bigetron Esports
RRQ Athena
All Rejection Gaming
Team Secret
Unique Team
Spacestation Gaming
SCARZ Black
Sixty Nine Team (SNT)
Team SouL
PMSC 2019: PUBG Mobile content creators
Dynamo Gaming
Kronten Gaming
Gareebooo
The Raw
Knee Gaming
BulShark
Dita Afifah N
Ken Boo
ARXY
Mitchel
NIKITANGA
Rolex
XinXuan
K7kaiChi
KisiL
Alice MG
Tsulin02
Prize Pool
A prize pool of 250,000 US$ will be split between all 16 teams where the Winners walks home with 100,000 US$ and the Second place team will get 50,000 US$, 25,000 US$ will go to the third-place squad.
2 teams comprising of our homegrown heroes will compete against the best of the world in this event. Team Soul (Mortal, Viper, Ronak, Owais) and Team IND (Sc0utOp, Kratos, Trance, Daljitsk) are the ones to watch out for as they fight for global dominance.
With only a week left for The International to start, Valve just added a little spice to the hype train and announced the amazingly talented individuals that will host, cast and analyse but most importantly entertain the audience and give us a little insight.
Your hosts for TI9 –
Literally, legendary line up with the ever-entertaining Duo of Sir Action Slacks and Kaci!
Sir Action Slacks, the funniest and jolly guy to ever exist in the Dota 2 universe, will be hosting The International 9 at Shanghai
English broadcasters for TI9 –
Russian Broadcasters for TI9-
Your Chinese Broadcasters for TI9-
With this announcement, Valve really hyped up the community and gave us a hint that some crazy stuff is gonna go down at TI9, Shanghai. Get ready to get bamboozled by Valve and most importantly enjoy! With this announcement, Valve completes all the major announcements that are to be published before TI, but its gonna be an active week with the teams rolling in at the venue and practicing.
Pubg Mobile took the gaming world by storm with nearly 200 million active players on both ios and android. Tencent has launched a lighter version of the game, built for low-end devices and optimized to work with minimal network requirements, promises to be as gruesome and intense as the full version. PUBG Mobile Lite is optimized for low-end phones with as low as 2GB of RAM. It is currently available only for Android with no word on an iOS version as yet. Within the first three days of its launch, Pubg mobile achieved the number one spot on the free games section on the Google play store, but how is it different from the original game?
It comes with a similar experience as Pubg Mobile but with certain limitations with optimized features for a smooth gaming experience even on low-end phones and bad network connections. Pubg Mobile offers only one map- Erangelโs modified version (2km x 2km) which can accommodate 60 players fighting 10-minute matches for that prestigious chicken dinner.
If youโre a regular Pubg mobile player then noticing the reduced graphics quality is inevitable. The gameโs graphics are not as immersive as PUBG Mobile, while this may affect overall experience, it ensures smoother lag-free gameplay. The detailed audio mechanism is still on par with the regular version.
PUBG Mobile Lite also exposes shooters within the mini-mapโs range in the form of red dots blinking for a few seconds. Other than gameplay, the experience on PUBG Mobile Lite is pretty much the same with all home screen features still available. Thereโs also a monthly โWinner Passโ with rewards which replaces the seasonal โRoyale Passโ. The ranking system is retained from the regular version, enabling the players to rank up to higher leagues and fight high skilled competitors. Pubg Mobile lite comes with an aim assist mechanism which makes it easier for the players to fire at their opponents with greater accuracy.
The game starts off with easy chicken dinners but as you fight your way towards the higher leagues, it becomes more challenging and difficult to win. Overall gameplay and user experience makes it easier to play than the regular version so if youโre a beginner then Pubg Lite will serve as the best training ground, and if youโre stuck with a low-end device and bad internet then it will serve as the best battle royale experience.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Indian team for the Overwatch World Cup 2019 was announced a short while ago. Indians are used to seeing their country at the biggest esports event in the world, but thanks toRushindra โSalbaticโSinha, Vasu โmethodโ Chaturvedi and Ashwath โAshrโ Ravee and the entire Global Esports team, India will be represented at the Overwatch World Cup 2019 at Anaheim Convention Center, California, USA.
A lot of efforts and hard work has gone into making this dream a reality, and now that this is happening, we as Indian esports fans should back our Indian squad wholeheartedly.
Let’s take a look at how this was made possible.
Back in May 2019, Global Esports CEO & Founder Rushindra โSalbaticโSinha announced that India would be getting a slot at the Overwatch World Cup 2019, but since India was not in the top 10 teams, the players would have to fund their trip themselves. That is where Global Esports came in, not only did they negotiate with Blizzard to get India represented at the Overwatch World Cup, but also will foo the bill for the teamโs visit to the World Cup.
We promised, and now here's us delivering! Powered by Global eSports, the Overwatch Competition Committee welcomes you to take your shot! Here's your chance to sign up to tryout for the official Indian Overwatch World Cup Team! https://t.co/37Zc5z3aouhttps://t.co/ZJQkBXzv1Vpic.twitter.com/D4U4pBll5y
Global Esports is in direct touch with Blizzard and working with them to bring overwatch world cup to India. Since Blizzard will only be funding the top 10 teams and India doesn’t fall under that category (since this will be the first time India goes to any esports world cup) the entire expenses must be borne by the player. Thatโs where Global eSports comes in and takes over, so the player is wonโt have to bare any cost. Once the team is selected there will be roadshows hosted by GE across India to promote both overwatch and Team India. GE will provide the final selected players with a bootcamp in Mumbai along with all the PCs, peripherals and equipment necessary. Global eSports will also be taking the finalized players to our Korean Bootcamp to spend a few weeks / months there and practice against some of the best players in the world [Regular scrims with Contenders / OWL teams] GE will then fly down and pay for accommodation of the players for the World cup in November at Anaheim, California.
Multiple trials were held over the last few weeks to ensure that the best of the best make it to the final squad of 7. The Team India World Cup Committee was led by Rushindra โSalbaticโSinha as General Manager, Vasu โmethodโ Chaturvedi as Team Coach and Ashwath โAshrโ Ravee as Community Lead. The try-outs were free and open for people of all ranks and skill levels. The final 7 made it here after going through a very rigorous selection process.
After many weeks of trials, the final 7 were announced today.
Announcing the Overwatch World Cup Team India 2019.
Global Esports CEO released the following statement along with the roster reveal:
Weโve worked ridiculously hard as a company for the past 2 years in developing talent and growing the overwatch scene. We start Global eSports with overwatch as the first game which gave us an entry into eSports. It is extremely satisfying to see all our hard work culminate to the point that where earlier India wasnโt even invited to the world cup to now having to manage and run the World Cup team as general manager. This is truly a glorious day for Indian esports and weโre proud that GE was the one to take it there. We have a lot planned for the official Indian World Cup team. We will be doing roadshows, bootcamp in India, tournaments in sea and bootcamp in Korea to train with the best of the best. All these activities are going to be handled by Global eSports and will give Indian players the opportunity they deserve. All of this will culminate in the overwatch worldcup happening in front of 80,000 people at Blizzcon on 1st November at the worldcup stadium near Los Angeles, California where weโll go up against every other country. We have the raw talent in our country and now the opportunity to nurture and give them a chance on a global stage. Regardless of the result our goal is to make our country proud. #GoTeamIndia
The seven who will be representing India at the Overwatch World Cup are:
Tanks:
Vatsal โNightmare2kโ Uniyal: Main Tank
Girish โDJDestinyโ Das: Off Tank
Nishant โArchangelโ Chhabra: Off Tank
DPS:
Aman โCruziโ Vivek
Chirag โKcotโ Gupta
Supports:
Sparsh โSoulHunterโ Oza: Main Support
Megh โPrimalMageโ Patel: Flex Support
The Overwatch World Cup main event begins on 1st November 2019 at Blizzcon, Anaheim Convention Centre, California, USA.
Tyler โNinjaโ Belvins, the popular Fortnite streamer, has recently broken 1 million subscriptions on Mixer.com.
The news comes out only five days after Ninja signed an exclusive streaming deal with Mixer, the streaming company owned by Microsoft. Ninja had made the decision to be able to touch his roots and experience the reason he fell in love with streaming.
Today we hit 1,000,000 active subscribers on mixer ^-^ thank you for all the incredible support. I haven't felt this good in a long time. pic.twitter.com/kdLgBJk0Ud
Ninja announced him achieving the milestone on Twitter. On his post, he thanked his fans for all the amazing support he had received after he left Twitch. Additionally, he said that he had not โfelt this good in a long timeโ
Yesterday marked the best/craziest day of my life. Hosted from @Ninja himself as his first @WatchMixer host. I had to turn off alerts as It was an endless wave of over 1.5k instant follows. Almost teared up and extremely grateful for this man. ill post the video later. Thank you pic.twitter.com/Cr0QFVLV9K
Ninja spread love to the Mixer community by hosting another Fornite streamer. The streamer called โSoloQ_Jokerrโ tweeted out saying that he had the โcraziest/best day of my lifeโ. He added that the host by Ninja forced him to turn off the alerts because he was gaining tons of followers every second. The streamer became emotional on the camera and thanked Ninja for the host. Additionally, he said Ninja had changed his life in a day and that Ninja is an โamazing guyโ
I'll never be able to find the words to thank @Ninja for the raid on @WatchMixer tonight. The Man, The Myth, The Legend came and knocked me for 6 with his kindness. What a community and 3000+ new followers just from today. August was already an amazing month but this is insane! pic.twitter.com/r9molbX34p
Ninja also raided another streamer called โPHATTPANZโ. PHATTPANZ thanked Ninja for the raid. PHATTPANTZ gained more than 3000 followers following a raid by Ninja. He concluded by saying that August had been a really good month for him โbut this insaneโ
However, the streamer has been helped hugely by Mixer on his journey to reach 1 million subscribers. Mixer, the company, have run a promotional campaign to pull Ninjaโs Twitch audience to their own streaming platform. Mixer ran a free subscription service for Ninja for the first two months. After the promotion expires, fans will be forced to pay a monthly fee if they wish to be subscribed to Ninja.
We all know how great Valve is as a developer and how much it likes to listen to the community and fulfil their wishes ๐ Keeping that in mind letโs take a look at the new experimental matchmaking update that valve pushed out a while ago.
These experimental changes will be initially supposedย to be part of the upcoming Summer Scrub changes, but valve decided to release this early citing the following:
We were initially going to release this change as part of the Summer Scrub update, the amount of significant underlying code changes required for this update introduces a lot of potential instability. So we are splitting the Summer Scrub update into two parts, this first part for a matchmaking rework, and the second part soon after for bug fixes and a few quality of life additions.
Valve has done away with the concept of Party and Solo MMR.Party and Solo MMR don’t exist anymore. The matchmaking system is being redesigned. Instead of Party and Solo MMR stats on our profile, we can now see 2 new stats called โCoreโ and โSupportโ MMR.
We had Ranked Roles matchmaking exclusively for Battle pass owners and DOTA + subscribers, but ranked roles is now the new โnormalโ ranked matchmaking.
The support role has been split up into โHard Supportโ and โSoft Supportโ, while the other options are the traditional Off Lane, Safe Lane and Mid Lane.
Now when you matchmake, you will have the option of selecting roles from position 1 through 5 (Safe Lane Core through Hard Support).
Each MMR type will also have its own leaderboard, and for the purposes of this short experimental period, the existing rank will be applied as the initial rank for both Core and Support.
The changes will be active till the end of the season.
These experimental changes will remain active for the rest of this season for you to try out. Sometime after The International concludes, weโll issue a call for community feedback to help guide the next steps in our efforts to increase matchmaking quality for everyone. We hope to have your support and patience through this experiment as well as subsequent changes towards the path of making a better overall matchmaking system.
While these changes might be controversial and might not be liked by all, these are desperately needed in DOTA to keep matchmaking fresh and alive and motivate people to play ranked.
In an effort to maximize overall region balance, we decided to release the Immortal 3 treasure while North America is asleep. Check it out: https://t.co/xKW1D5gNKD
In a probable attempt to deflect the upcoming debate over gun control, the Republicans have taken a stance to pass on the blame of repeated mass shootings onto video games tagging them as โviolent and dehumanizingโ.
Since the two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that claimed more than 30 lives, several Republican politicians have given interviews on the matter and all conclude videos games as a source that teaches people โto killโ.
Image from BBC through Getty Images
Similarly, the top Republican at the moment, President Donald Trump, have also accused โgruesome and grisly video gamesโ for glorifying violence. Yesterday while addressing public, President Trump claimed video games as the source of evil and his plans to regulate the industry.
While various studies and researchers have shown that the video games have little to no influence on the minds of people playing it and provide evidence that these claims from Republican politicians are simply not true.
Rather the studies claim that the state of mental health and
easy availability of guns are the biggest source of violence. Studies have also pointed at the urgent need of stricter gun laws and called for nationwide mental health improvement programs.
So far in 2019 alone, there have been more than 250 reported
mass shootings in U.S killing hundreds if not thousands of innocent people.
But, even after repeated calls for stricter gun laws the policy makers
constantly argue otherwise and deflect the talks about gun control.
Since, everyone in the Dota universe knows that August is a TI month, here is a short rundown of the final eighteen teams that will battle it out in Shanghai, China for a prize pool of over a $30 million dollars and ultimately the Aegis of the immortal.
The International 9 is being held this year in Shanghai, China from Aug 15 – 25, 2019. The venue for the mega event will be the famous Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Team Secret
Team Secret is like a mixed bag of talents. With dota 2 veterans led by the legendary dota 2 player โPuppeyโ. Recently, Team Secret has performed very well and is pretty much on a roll winning tournaments after tournaments in a row. Team Secret is known for its fantastic synergy, strategies and individual gameplay.
Active roster for The International
Puppey. Clement Ivanov
MidOne. Nai Zheng Yeik
YapzOr. yazied Jaradat
Zai. Ludwig Wรฅhlberg
Nisha. Michaล Jankowski
Team Liquid
Team Liquid can be seen struggling to close outtournaments with a win. Of course, nobody can blame them because of the recent change in their active roster Swapping out Matumbaman for W33ha and Miracle shifting to safelane carry position. Weโve seen Miracle using his artistry skills in pub games trying out Arc Warden safelane and now Shadow Fiend as well. We, as the audience can perhaps see some exciting matches and interesting picks coming out from Team Liquid.
Active roster for The International
Miracle. Amer Al-Barkawi
W33ha. Aliwi Omar
MinD_ContRoL. Ivan Ivanov
GH. MarounMerhej
Kuroky. Kuro Salehi Takhasomi
TNC
Predators
TNC Predators are the dark horses of The International, hands down. TNC caught the public eye when in TI6 they absolutely upset the OG fans by winning the series 2-1. TNC Predators are performing well all things considered. They have a new coach โHeenโ who previously coached Team Liquid.
We can see a newly reformed TNC with good co-ordination and decision-making skills.
Active roster for The International
Gabbi. Kim Villafuerte
Armel. Armel Paul Tabios
Kuku. Carlo Palad
Tims. Timothy Randrup
Eyyou. Nico Barcelon
Alliance
Team Alliance, The International 3 winners. This team has gone through a lot of roster shuffles. But finally, they built the synergy that they craved and needed. With their recent win at the Dota Summit, Alliance are heading into TI with a good mood and a positive mental attitude. Mickeโs troll really stands out, his quick farming ability on any carry hero makes him one of the best carry players right now.
Active roster for The International
miCKe. Michael Vu
qojqva. Maximilian Brรถcker
Boxi. Samuel Svahn
Taiga. Tommy Le
iNsaNiA. Aydin Sarkohi
Virtus Pro
Virtus Pro (VP), is a team that is known for its extremely aggressive playstyle of Dota. Under the leadership of Solo, the team has prospered well. Off late, they are struggling in many tournaments. Mostly, because of teams figured out how to counter VPโs aggressive playstyle. But this is TI we can surely count on VP for giving us a good, intense series this TI.
Active roster for The International
RAMZES666. Roman Kushnarev
No[o]ne. Vladimir Minenko
9pasha. Pavel Khvastunov
RodjER. Vladimir Nikogosyan
Solo. Alexei Berezin
Team
OG
Infamous team, OG known for its true friendship and positive attitude. Team OG are the current Aegis holders, they won TI 8, with sheer passion for the game and next level harmony in the team. Under the leadership of their captain N0tail, OG has surely blossomed into a top tier team. N0tail knows how to properly utilize his teamโs potential & the hero pool of his teammates.
Active roster for The International
ana. Anathan Pham
Topson. TopiasTaavitsainen
Ceb. Sรฉbastien Debs
JerAx. Jesse Vainikka
N0tail. Johan Sundstein
PSG.LGD
PSG.LGD is a Chinese team, known for their sheer flexibility. This particular team knows how to Improvise, Adapt and Overcome, period. They simply play every series depending on the opposite team. They know when to be aggressive and when to play patiently. PSG.LGD is a team that is well disciplined, the organization restricted the use of mobile phones and social media for the dota 2 roster, so that the players are more focused on their game and ultimately improve & win on their home ground
Active roster for The International
Ame. Wang Chunyu
Somnus `M. Lu Yao
Chalice. Yang Shenyi
fy. Xu Linsen
xNova. Yap Jian Wei
Vici Gaming
Vici Gaming (VG) is another team that represents the Chinese Dota 2 community. This team is known for its individual plays and absolutely destroy their opponents. VGโs core players are highly skilled individuals. Ori & Paparazzi sure know how to carry their team towards victory. But, ultimately dota is a team game, team gameplay carries more weight here, individual plays are not enough to cut it. Hopefully, we as audience get to see a newly reformed gameplay and team synergy from team Vici Gaming.
Active roster for The International
Paparazi. Zhang Chengjun
Ori. Zeng Jiaoyang
Yang. Zhou Haiyang
Fade. Pan Yi
Dy. Ding Cong
Evil Geniuses
Evil Genuises (EG) are for sure both geniuses and evil. Their evil and at the same time genius playstyle is what differentiates them from the rest of the NA teams. EG have one of the best core players in the history of dota who are known for their individual plays. After their miraculous run at TI6 and also for giving us the infamous โ10 million $ echo slamโ had a roster shuffle and post that the team is struggling to close out any tournaments. It almost feels like theyโre cursed to always finish at the third place. They have mad potential, if they win this TI, they will be the first organization to win TI twice.
Active roster for The International
Arteezy. ArtourBabaev
SumaiL. Sumail Hassan
S4. Gustav Magnusson
Cr1t- Andreas Nielsen
Fly. Tal Aizik
Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP)
Team NIP is a team that has literally mad potential this TI. Under the leadership of TI6 winner, ppd. The team has weaponized their ability to draft better and utilize individual plays plus hero pools of the team. Surprising opponents with out of the book picks and still managing to win, thatโs NIP for you! With Ace and Fata being the core players with mad individual plays and 33 the playmaker this team can give us a good series!
Active roster for The International
Ace. Marcus Hoelgaard
Fata. Adrian Trinks
33. Neta Shapira
Saksa. Martin Sazdov
ppd. Peter Dager
Keen Gaming (KG)
Keen gaming is a Chinese team managing to accumulate enough DPC points to get directly invited to TI. This roster features, some of the legendary Chinese dota 2 players that have a lot of experience. Keen gaming is a team that isnโt so active in the Dota 2 scene but this might be the trump card that they have. If you remember team CDEC, Fly to Moon, Ad finem all these underdogs destroying the best teams in Dota 2. Keen gaming arenโt completely new in the scene. Kaka position 4 support player is an insane playmaker he showed his skill in ti7 while representing Team Newbee. Keen gaming may be the underdog team but they have the potential to destroy others.
Active roster for The International
old chicken. Wang Zhiyong
ไธZhaiJingkai
eLeVeN. Ren Yangwei
Kaka. Hu Liangzhi
dark. Song Runxi
Team Mineski
The legendary organisation in SEA.ButMineski had a torrid 2018-19 season, with their squad not able to achieve much, apart from a good showing at ESL One Mumbai. Multiple changes made throughout the year didnโt help the team either. After adding Nikobaby and Bimbo for the TI qualifiers, no one knew how Mineski will perform, but they somehow managed to qualify to TI via the SEA qualifier, beating Team Jinesbrus in the final, with excellent performances by Moon and Nikobaby. The current iteration of Team Mineski are heavy underdogs at the International.
Active roster for The International
Nikobaby. Nikolay Nikolov
Moon. Kam Boon Seng
kpii. Damien Chok
Bimbo. Ryan Jay Qui
ninjaboogie. Michael Ross Jr.
NatusVincere (Naโvi)
The legendary organization, TI1 winners. After failing to qualify for TI for three years in a row, they finally managed to do it this time, battling out in the open qualifiers. Under the captaincy of SoNNeiko, this team can surely put on a good fight against the best teams in the world, with the huge hero pool of Blizzy and their star Mid lanerMagicaL, team Navi can definitely pull out some upsets in TI.
Active roster for The International
Crystallize. Vladislav Krystanek
MagicaL. IdanVardanian
Blizzy. Evgeniy Ree
Zayac. BakytEmilzhanov
SoNNeikO. Akbar Butaev
Infamous
Team Infamous are the representatives of the South American dota 2 scene. They are the underdogs going into the The International, they can surely upset some dota 2 teams. Known for their aggressive out of the blue playstyle, they can surely represent their region well.
Active roster for The International
K1. Hector Antonio Rodriguez
Chris Luck. Jean Pierre Gonzales
Wisper. Adrian Cespedes Dobles
Scofield. Elvis De la Crus Peรฑa
Stinger. Steven Vargas
Royal Never Give Up
Royal Never Give Up (RNG) is a Chinese team that battled it out in the Chinese open qualifiers and managed to secure a slot in TI9. This team hosts some of the experienced players in the Chinese Dota 2 history featuring LaNm and the infamous ah fu known for his aegis steal at TI7. Under the guidance of Super, these chinese representatives can definitely pull out some surprises at TI with hometown advantage.
Active roster for The International
Monet. Du Peng
Setsu. Gao Zhenxiong
Flyby. Su Lei
LaNm. Zhang Zhicheng
ah fu. Tue Soon Chuan
Chaos Esports Club
Chaos esports club, consists of highly skilled individuals. With the recent addition of Matumbaman and vTfaded this roster is now complete and is all set for mass destruction of teams! Under the guidance of Misery who was the captain of Digital Chaos (DC) that shook everyone and finished at second place at ti6. This roster is newly formed yes but the players have mad potential can definitely intensify the games and make it entertaining for the audience.
Active roster for The International
vtFaded. Cheng Jia Hao
MATUMBAMAN. Lasse Urpalainen
KheZu. Maurice Gutmann
MiLAN. Milan Kozomara
MISERY. Rasmus Berth Filipsen
Team Newbee (Ex Forward Gaming)
With a recent organizational shuffle, this is a Chinese organization consisting of NA players. With the recent shift in the roles between the players, Yawar shifting to the position 1 and CCNC to position 2, it seems that the team is performing and have adapted well. This team are purely the NA underdogs going into the international.
Active roster for The International
YawaR. Yawar Hassan
CCnC. Quinn Callahan
Sneyking. Jingjun Wu
MSS. Arif Anwar
pieliedie. Johan Astrom
Team Fnatic
Team Fnatic has had a lot of ups and downs in the 2018-19 season. At some events they had exceptionally good runs, and looked like the best SEA team out there (for example, they finished 3rd at the Stockholm Major: Dreamleague 11, beating a lot of good teams on the way) and then there are events like MDL Paris Major and Epicenter Major, where Fnatic finished dead last. As a result of the 2 last-place finishes at the last 2 majors of the year, Fnatic made a roster change, replacing MP with DuBu, while shifting Jabz to the role of carry. No one has seen the new Fnatic team in action. Only time will tell, if they will perform at their full potential at TI9.
Alexander ‘kakafu’ Szymanczyk, the coach of BIG, has announced on Twitter that he has stepped down from the position of Head Coach from BIG. Additionally, he has announced that he seeks a new project as a coach or analyst internationally.
Recently, BIG has been making headlines due to their roster changes. First, veteran, German, CS:GO, player, Fatih “gob b” Dayik announced his retirement from the professional Counter-Strike. However, gob b will still be a part of BIG and will take a new role in the organization soon. Secondly, BIG announced the return of Smooya and Nex in the active lineup. A move that saw Nex being forced to the bench. Kakafuโs exit from the organization adds to the pile of changes BIG has made in the recent past.
Kakafu began his professional Counter-Strike Career with Counter-Strike 1.6 in 2010 with โBAHURWAโ. In 2014, he joined a professional CS:GO team called โAUSTRIAN POWERHOUSEโ.He joined BIG in 2017, on a transfer from PENTA.ย
With kakafu on the team, the team placed 5-8th at the PGL Major held in Krakow. In his Twitter post, kakafu did not mention a reason to leave the team. The move could be linked to a failure to make it to the Major through the Europe Minor. The team has faced issues after the addition of XANTARES in the active lineup. The team did not only face communication issues but also saw a change in the IGL of the team.
BIGโs next event will be Game Clash Masters 2019 followed by ESL Pro Leauge Season 10 Europe.
