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Father supports his 14-year-old sonโ€™s esports career and lets him quit school

Prateek Jain
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32
Father supports his 14-year-old sonโ€™s esports career and lets him quit school

Fornite is one of the most played and viewed game on the planet. With the game having a kid-friendly rating more and more kids and teenagers are getting involved with the esports scene of the game.

In case of Jordan also known as Crimz in Fortnite plays video game 8-10 hours daily. Jordan is a 12-year-old kid who has dropped school and only attends few hours of daily online classes in-between his daily playing routine.

His father David Herzog fully supports his career path of becoming a professional gamer and for that, he bought him gaming equipment worth more than $30,000. David also cancelled family vacations so his son can focus fully on his career and doesnโ€™t get interrupted. He even bought Jordan a Maserati car with a personal gaming tag on its license plate.

For a long time, Jordan has been playing video games and started playing since he was 3 years old. At 7, Jordan was competent with Halo. At 12, he won a local tournament and earned his first prize money.

It was Davidโ€™s decision to remove Jordan from school and go after esports career path to fame, success and respect. โ€œIโ€™ve been breeding him for thisโ€ was Davidโ€™s words when asked. He later went on saying that the explosive growth of esports and Fortnite, in general, was the reason for his decision.

David himself is involved in the gaming industry for a long time. According to David, he is one the top-15 eBay seller in the world by trading video games and merchandise. He is also working towards setting up his own gaming merchandise and clothing business.

So far, Jordan has earned a total of $60,000 from playing video games, which is managed by David to invest in Jordan’s future.

Reliance Jio and PUBG team up for PUBG Lite in India; Jio users to get in-game goodies

Prateek Jain
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4
Reliance Jio and PUBG team up for PUBG Lite in India; Jio users to get in-game goodies

Indiaโ€™s biggest telecom service provider Reliance Jio has formed a partnership with PUBG Corp. for the launch of their upcoming free-2-play game PUBG Lite in India. This news comes from an announcement made by the PUBG Corp.

Currently, only PUBG Lite Beta version is available in India with a full launch to happen very soon.

PUBG Lite is a free-2-play PC version of the PUBG.This version of game is specially optimized for low end PCs such that it will run even on 2 core CPUs and require low end GPUs ( works even on low end intel onboard HD graphics). PUBG Lite features similar gameplay experience as the paid version.

Since the game is always online multiplayer game, a good internet connection is a must to enjoy the game to its full extent. For this, PUBG Lite has partnered with Reliance Jio. The partnership is exclusive to Indian Jio users only.

As part of the partnership, Jio users who register for PUBG Lite will be eligible for exclusive rewards such as free skins via a game code delivered to emails.

How to enroll for free rewards: 

To enrol for Free Rewards Jio users need to visit https://gamesarena.jio.com and fill up the registration form. After which users will be getting a verification link on the registered email account and later after successful verification users will receive another email with a unique redemption code.

The unique code can be redeemed inside PUBG Lite only. To redeem the code just go to Menu and click on โ€œAdd Bonus/Gift codeโ€  and put the unique code received in email over there and click redeem.

Since the mobile version of the game is super-hit in India, Jio made the first move and partnered with PUBG Corp. But expect other telecom giants such as Airtel and Vodafone-Idea to make a move soon. The anticipation of the game is huge and in the Indian market, it can be successful just like the mobile version.

Four kids emptied their parentโ€™s bank account purchasing FIFA 19 packs

Prateek Jain
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2
Four kids emptied their parentโ€™s bank account purchasing FIFA 19 packs

EA has come under many loot-box controversies as of late with them calling loot-box system as โ€œSurprise Mechanicsโ€. EA has been lobbying hard in favour of loot-box mechanics and almost every game they make now features this โ€œSurprise Mechanicโ€. Even the games that are priced at $60 or are free-2-play, EA games feature loot-box system.

So now you might ask what are these loot-boxes? Loot-boxes (or Surprise mechanics) are form of in-game transaction that a player can do in order to attain certain in-game items. The content of these loot-boxes is hidden and only revealed after player purchases and opens them.

In case of FIFA 19, these loot-boxes features player cards which are used to build teams and compete in games ultimate team mode. These player cards are obtained from card packs which have different tiers that cost differently with more expensive packs having higher chances to drop rare player cards. Rating of cards is based on the card rank such as Bronze, Silver and Gold with the Gold featuring the best ( or god stats).

As per BBCโ€™s report, 4 children emptied their parentsโ€™ bank account after purchasing FIFA card packs in FIFA 19 on Nintendo Switch. The kids observed their father make purchase once and remembered it. Later on, the kids went on shopping craze and bought many FIFA card packs spending a total of ยฃ550.

Mr. Carter’s bank statement,ย via BBC

Thomas Carter, the father of 4 kids, once bought them a single pack for ยฃ8. However, he did not realize that the card number was saved by Nintendo Switch and also, he didnโ€™t setup a unique pin number to used to approve every purchase. Therefore, the children were able to gain access to their parentโ€™s bank account and went on to emptying it to get lucky with Golden Messi card.

The parents didnโ€™t realize this until their card was declined due to insufficient balance. Later on, the parentโ€™s confiscated the Switch and contacted Nintendo. Nintendo promised to reverse all transactionsand refund all the money and removing all the players from the account.

Mr. Carter also accepted that he was short-sighted and didnโ€™t take proper precautions against the 1st transaction. Although he still voiced concerns regarding loot box systems, and said: “You pay ยฃ40 (~$50) for the game, which is a lot of money in itself, but then the only way to get a great team is essentially by gamblingโ€.

Since FIFA 19 is rated 3+ years many kids can fall prey to a similar thing. The Loot-box mechanic is predatory and believe it or not is a form of gambling and have implications on the mind of young children. EA had been called out a numerous time for this predatory in-game transaction mechanic, but they still donโ€™t do anything about it and just brush reports like this aside.

Photo: FOX Sports Asia

Apple generates more game revenue than Blizzard Entertainment

Prateek Jain
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0
Apple generates more game revenue than Blizzard Entertainment

Apple becomes the fourth biggest gaming company in the world with the continued rise of mobile gaming beating out big companyโ€™s like Activision-Blizzard, EA, Nintendo. Apple was only beaten by giants such as Tencent, Sony and Microsoft. All according to the report โ€œGlobal Games Market Reportโ€ by Newzoo which outlined the top 35 companies that operate in the gaming market ( not restricted to a single platform).

Apple is arguably the biggest technology company in the world and also one of the most popular smartphone brands in the world making their iOS one of the most used mobile OS in the market.

According to report, Apple earned a total of $9.45 billion from gaming in 2018 which is a year-on-year increase of 18% from 2017’s total.

Apple doesnโ€™t make games of any type and generates most of this gaming revenue from theapp-storewhich is the only place to install apps on iOS as side loading isnโ€™t a thing in iOS.

Due to lack of sideloading, all the in-game purchases must go through app store itself and Apple gets a cut from every such transactions and that constitutes to a major part of the revenue.

The reports also suggest that this revenue stream for the company is set to rise as the mobile gaming market is currently showing no signs of slowing down and is increasing incredibly fast. The mobile gaming market is set to outpace the PC gaming market by 2022 and with that companyโ€™s like Apple and Google will see a rise in its revenues.

FaZe Clan enter negotiations for Coldzera

Malav Popat
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1
FaZe Clan enter negotiations for Coldzera

A report from OverDrive aka Arkady Myasnitsky, states that FaZe Clan have entered negotiations for Marcelo “coldzera” David who will be replacing Filip “NEO” Kubski on the active roster.

This news comes out after Brazilian superstar, coldzera, reportedly wanted to bench himself from the MiBR active lineup and will only be attending  BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles and IEM Chicago with the Brazilian team.

Following the spread of this news, coldzera posted on Instagram with the following caption (translated with Google Translate) โ€œLet us remember that the inner man always renews himself. Fighting enriches him with experience, pain improves his emotions, and sacrifice temper his temper. The incarnate Spirit undergoes constant transformations on the outside, in order to acculturate and to magnify itself within.โ€

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzoZOBYFOyL/

On the post, FaZe Niko commented the FaZe Clan motto โ€œ#FaZeUpโ€, adding to the speculation of coldzera moving to FaZe. The comments on the post have now been disabled following the rumours gaining traction.

FaZe Clan will be removing NEO who took over the reins of the team from Niko after FaZe had an unsuccessful trial period with AdreN, who joined Avangar.

However, Coldzera will only join the team after the major since the roster lock date for the major has already passed and no changes can be made after the date.

The potential FaZe roster could look like:

  • Nikola “NiKo” Kovaฤ
  • Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovรกcs
  • Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
  • Hรฅvard “rain” Nygaard
  • Marcelo “coldzera” David
  • Janko “YNk” Paunoviฤ‡ (coach)

Astralis invited to DreamHack Masters Malmรถ 2019

Bhavya Shah
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0
Astralis invited to DreamHack Masters Malmรถ 2019

DreamHack has begun to hand out invites for the Malmรถ event which will be held on October 01-06. Astralis received the foremost official invite for the tournament. This is yet another ‘S-Tier’ event under Intel Grand Slam Season 3. Sixteen teams will be battling for the mighty share of the prize pool worth $250,000 USD.

Astralis is the first team to receive invites, however, OpTic Gaming had booked their slot after it’s victory at DreamHack Open Summer in June 2019. Other invites and several details are yet to be revealed by the hosts.

Astralis had an incredible 2018, although, they seem quite lacklustre this season. Danes’ recent loss at ECS Season 7, BLAST Pro Series Miami, ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals and ESL One: Cologne 2019 suggest their dominance has halted.

Kid Streams Fortnite Ten Hours A Day For Dad’s Cancer Treatment

Parth Gada
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3
Kid Streams Fortnite Ten Hours A Day For Dad’s Cancer Treatment

A young streamer from Canada has for the past 5 days been streaming Fortnite for 10 hours straight in a bid to raise funds for the treatment of his father, who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Rectal Cancer.

zyITV said on Twitch that if his dad did not undergo Chemotherapy, he would die within a year and the donations would help him survive for at least 3 years with a 20 percent probability of beating it.

He wrote:

His cancer spread to his lungs and liver which brought him to stage 4 cancer. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy. These are the circumstances that the doctors gave him: No chemo one-year death, three years chemo 20% live. Please donate anything you possibly can. All money will go towards funding his medication. Much love from me and all of my family members.

His dad had explained how tough it had been in his live stream, saying โ€œItโ€™s very hard. It gives you so much trouble that you cannot walk. Some days, I feel I have to lay down for days in bed. I cannot move. But I have to fight.โ€

The first real donation that brought traction in the campaign was by Complexity Player MackWood who donated $25 and since then his stream has exploded with donations from around the world.

https://twitter.com/zylTV_/status/1148199515645722625

His target of $5000 has already been exceeded by over $8000. Of the $13000, he plans to use $5000 for the immediate treatment of his dad and a further $3000 being kept aside for emergency purposes, and the remaining money will be used for improving his stream.

BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles talent revealed; other details inside

Bhavya Shah
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1
BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles talent revealed; other details inside

BLAST Pro Series, the organizers, have revealed the on-air crew for the upcoming BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles. The lengthy lineup consists of 13 talents including the stage host, interviewer and task host alongside 4 analysts and 3 pairs of commentators.

Show Host:

  • stunnaย (Tres Saranthus)

Desk Host:

  • Sjokzย (Eefje Depoortere)

Interviewer:

  • Frankieย (Frankie Ward)

Analysts:

  • SPUNJย (Chad Burchill)
  • seang@resย (Sean Gares)
  • n0thingย (Jordan Gilbert)
  • potterย (Christine Chi)

Commentators:

  • Andersย (Anders Blume)
  • mosesย (Jason O’Toole)
  • James Bardolphย (James Bardolph)
  • ddkย (Daniel Kapadia)
  • laundersย (Mohan Govindasamy)
  • Hugo Byronย (Hugo Byron)

The event will be held this weekend at HD Buttercup Building. Six teams from Europe, America and Australia will be attending the $250,000 USD event. The tournament will follow best-of-one round-robin group stage format where each team will play against the other five teams.

Top four teams will advance to single-elimination best-of-three playoffs and the winner will take home $125,000 USD. Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid and MIBR are the invited circuit teams while NRG Esports and Renegades received the wild-card entry.

Three live matches will be streamed in three different languages (English, Russian & German) at a time during the round-robin stage.

Cloud9’s revamped roster will be making it’s foremost appearance this weekend in Los Angeles while it is still unclear whether FaZe Clan will be attending with Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski or Marcelo “coldzera” David. Certain sources rumoured that FaZe is negotiating to acquire the service of Brazilian star.

Team Liquid grabs $1 Million Intel Grand Slam Prize

Bhavya Shah
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0
Team Liquid grabs $1 Million Intel Grand Slam Prize

Intel Grand Slam (IGS) is a circuit of ESL and DreamHack Master tournaments. If a team wins ‘S-Tier’ event, and it also secures three titles at the following nine ‘S-Tier’ events, the team is said to have conquered the Intel Grand Slam.

Team Liquid, after it’s recent triumph at the cathedral of Counter-Strike, ESL One: Cologne 2019, will receive the cheque for $1,000,000 USD. The amount will be directly transferred to the players, not the organization. North-Americans won the second season of IGS, while the inaugural season was conquered by Astralis.

Team Liquid secured the title merely in 63 days beginning from May 05 after winning IEM Sydney. Season 2 of IGS lasted only for 144 days while the inaugural version took 523 days until Astralis reigned supreme.

Titles won by Team Liquid:

It is quite interesting to note that the Americans won four consecutive titles against four different opponents in the finale.

ESL was contacted by hltv regarding the third season of IGS, however, the organizers denied to comment on the subject. Interestingly, Liquipedia has already created a page for the same. With statistical inputs via HLTV.

Liquid defeat Vitality to win ESL One Cologne

Malav Popat
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1
Liquid defeat Vitality to win ESL One Cologne

The finals of the ESL event in Cologne, the cathedral of Counterstrike, saw Liquid emerging victorious in the 5 map affair after the following scorelines.

Final Score :ย 

  • Liquid won Overpass (16-6)
  • Vitality won Dust 2 (19-17)
  • Liquid won Inferno (16-10)
  • Liquid won Mirage (16-8)

The BO5 finals were played on Overpass, Dust 2, Inferno, and Mirage after the following vetoes:

  • Liquid removed Nuke
  • Vitality removed Train
  • Liquid picked Overpass
  • Vitality picked Dust2
  • Liquid picked Inferno
  • Vitality picked Mirage
  • Vertigo was left over

The first map of the finals was Overpass, something most people would refer to as home soil for Vitality. However, the North Americans were too heavy for the French and plucked out 9 rounds at half time. As the sides switched, Liquid hit the gas and racked out 7 rounds in a row and Liquid emerged victorious in the first map with a 16-6 scoreline.

However, Vitality were quick to reply on Dust 2. Two extremely close halves, following a 7-8 scoreline on both the games, saw the game move to overtime. In the overtime session, Vitality emerged victorious after a spectacular 1v3 clutch by Zywoo on match point closed out the game for the French.

The teams headed to Inferno, a map both teams have shown strength on. However, it was Liquid that dominated Vitality with an 11-4 scoreline. Liquid broke all dreams of a comeback for Vitality and closed the map out with a scoreline of 16-10.

Mirage was the last map of the series where Liquid wrapped the series with a 3-1 scoreline. The first half of the neck hinted of a neck to neck finish with an 8-7 scoreline with Liquid in lead. However, Liquid zoomed past the French side and a 1v2 clutch by Elige pushed the North-Americans to championship point. Liquid displayed really good methodical CounterStrike and wrapped the game with a scoreline of 16-8.

With this victory, Liquid have taken home 1 million dollars for successfully completing Season 2 of the Intel Grand Slam along with 125,000$ for winning ESL One Cologne.

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