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Vici Gaming beats 2Ez Gaming 2-1, advances to ESL Pro League S8 Asia Finals

Deepak Ojha
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Vici Gaming beats 2Ez Gaming 2-1, advances to ESL Pro League S8 Asia Finals

Vici Gaming beat 2Ez Gaming 2-1 (Inferno 16-12, Overpass 12-16, Mirage 16-3) at ESL Pro League CS:GO Season 8 playoffs. The second leg will feature the Chinese team CyberZen facing Lucid Dreams from Thailand for the spot in the Asia finals. The Asian teams are battling it out for a slot in ESL Pro League S8 Global Finals, scheduled in Denmark this December.

Inferno (left over)

The best of three series drew Inferno, Overpass & Mirage. The first map Inferno began with 2Ez on the Terrorist side. The first pistol, 2Ez barely managed to get in their favor with Antidote the only one surviving. Quick to rebound in the first gun round, Vici Gaming couldn’t settle their economy and were forced to reset at 1-3.

Though 2Ez had a rough time facing the pistols, Vici Gaming picked three swift rounds, taking the lead at 4-3.  Further extending their lead to another few rounds, Vici stood at 6 rounds, where Rahul “t1to” Sridhar’s clutch got 2Ez important rounds. Twelve rounds into the first map Vici & 2Ez shared six rounds each, which slightly favored the Indian side.

Tejas ‘Rex’ Kotian appeared better than usual, with remarkable trading capabilities on the server, alongside Falken. The first half concluded 8-7 in favor of 2Ez Gaming.

2Ez Gaming took the second pistol too, thanks to Rex’s double headshot on the retake. ViCi got few rounds and the scores leveled again at 10-10. The momentum shifted towards the Chinese as the map progressed 23 rounds. Though trailing three rounds behind, Sabyasachi ‘antidote’ Bose’s heroics with the AWP displayed some classic Counter Strike. Losing consecutively five rounds, ViCi stretched themselves to map point. Rexy, however, had other plans, clinching a triple kill after to save his team from losing the first map. The following round too was turned around by yet another triple by ‘Pok1,’ making the score to 12-15, eventually, falling at 12-16.

Overpass (ViCi Gaming’s pick)

2Ez’ pistol winning streak continued in Overpass, they picked two quick rounds. Rex, though! up against rifles with an MP9 still managed to clutch the round for his team. Back and forth every alternate round, at the end of the tenth round, 2Ez & Vici Gaming shared five rounds each.

Sabyasachi ‘Antidote’ Bose displayed flawless skills through his Sniper rifle at crucial moments. The first of the second map ended with 9-6 favoring VICI Gaming. 2Ez Gaming took the fourth pistol round in their favor. 2Ez Gaming took the lead in the gun rounds as the scores progressed 11-10, adjusting the pace of the game, Vici were caught off-guard on multiple occasions. The pressure was levied of the underdogs. So much so that Vici Gaming were forced to a tactical timeout in the 24th round, scores being 10-13.

Vici Gaming got the taste of their own medicine, as 2Ez dominated the second half by limiting their opponents to 11-15. Failing to secure the map at 12-15, 2Ez Gaming absorbed their tactical timeout to discuss the loopholes. 2Ez beat Vici Gaming 16-12, forcing the final map of the series to play.

Mirage (2Ez Gaming’s pick)

2Ez gaming had a rough start in the final map, opening their scoreboard in the eighth round. VICI Gaming left no margin for error in the first half, dominating the game with a convincing 9-2. After a technical hiatus, the game resumed with 2Ez winning a clean round, only to lose the following round, making the score 3-10.

The first half scored 12-3 in favor of ViCi Gaming. The map ended with three more rounds going to VICI Gaming, final scores 16-3.

2Ez Gaming signed former Optic India’s Sabyasachi ‘Antidote’ Bose, just two days ago. Antidote had released a statement assuring the community of his hard work & performance in near future. After today’s game, Antidote’s hard work was evident, sharing the top charts of Asian Counter Strike.

On covers, Tejas ‘Rex’ Kotian, pictured by ESL India

Who manufactured the deadly Russian AK-47?

Deepak Ojha
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Who manufactured the deadly Russian AK-47?

American-war veteran George S. Patton once said, “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” That though, was long before AK-47 was manufactured. Little did The General of the United States Army knew about the Russian weapon designers, the deadly weapons they would unveil in 1947.

The full form of AK-47 isn’t as silly as Assault Killer or Rifle. Instead, AK-47 stands for Avtomat Kalashnikov, designed in 1947, hence the name. Automatic Kalashnikov 1947 was developed in Soviet Union during the Cold War by Mikhail Kalashnikov, Lieutenant-General of the Russian Military.

Kalashnikov began working on the manufacturing & designing of weapons in early 1940’s. In an interview to The Independent, he described working on the design, while recovering from the wounds he had acquired during the Battle of Bryansk, World War II.

There’s a reason why it is considered to be the most Lethal of all time. The AK-47 had the best features from the already deadly weaponry like American M1 Garand and the German StG44.

Early struggle of Kalashnikov

Apparently, not to reinvent the wheel, Kalashnikov during the early foundations, focused on the efficiency of the short-stroke gas piston above the barrel. A breech-block mechanism similar to his 1944 carbine, and a curved 30-round magazine. Though, it failed to beat the weapons as Simonov’s AVS-31, which Mikhail was accused of copying.

Kalashnikov’s enthusiasm didn’t end there, he released new prototypes in November, 1947. The upper and lower receivers were combined into a single receiver. The selector and safety were combined into a single control-lever/dust-cover on the right side of the rifle. And, the bolt-handle was simply attached to the bolt-carrier. This simplified the design and production of the rifle.

The first army trial series began in early 1948.The new rifle proved to be reliable under a wide range of conditions with convenient handling characteristics. In 1949, it was adopted by the Soviet Army as “7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK).”

The use of AK-47 in video games

Other than the famous Counter Strike & Battlefield franchise, there are several other shooting/fighting war games with AK-47 in use.

  • Left 4 Dead
  • Call of Duty
  • Project IGI
  • Far Cry
  • Medal of Honor

The weapon penetration is not identical in all the games, but acquaintance of AK-47 is evident. Now, these comes in different colors, prints & design.

AK-47 in Military

104 countries use AK-47 for their Military & Army, though only 55 countries have officially acknowledged. The statistics of arms manufacturing reveal that until 2009, close to 100 million AK-47’s were produced all across the globe. The country of origin, Russia, only accounts to 10% of the total manufactured AK-47 around the world.

The average price of AK-47 ranges between $500-1200, depending upon the locality & availability.

Mikhail Kalashnikov passed away in 2013 following a gastric hemorrhage. The Kalashnikov group in 2013 were also declared bankrupt and taken over by a private group for $41 million.

QZ’s game ban lifted, account status restored

Pranav Nalawade
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QZ’s game ban lifted, account status restored

We had reported of a potential hack being detected in China, according to this Reddit post. Following which another post suggested famous pro-QZ had received a game ban on his account.

The reports now appear contrary as the game ban has been lifted from the account. The reason is still unknown but it’s clear the game ban is no longer in effect. Which also means the whole inventory is now accessible as per the Steam’s default terms, with no trade ban whatsoever.

According to our initial investigation on the banned accounts, hundreds of thousands of dollars turned worthless. QZ’s account now seems to have recovered.

TyLoo QZ series is very similar to what happened in India with f0rsaken. QZ was earlier in controversy when he was handed a VAC during MSI Beat It 2013. An inquiry was opened and ESL was notified and it was confirmed, QZ had indeed a VAC on one of his accounts.

In the recent past, adjacent to 2016, TyLoo was disqualified from Asia Minor after it was unveiled QZ had a VAC. Well, you could argue that this VAC/Game Ban wave could be a result of the aftermath of the forsaken saga. Not to forget if you’re caught cheating in China, you can even get a sentence in prison. This is not the first time though. Valve has earlier banned cheaters as much as 60,000 on a single day.

According to this Reddit post, several other accounts have also been handed VAC & few got Overwatch bans. Players such as Blackmamba, w1nd & OZ had received the Overwatch bans.

We shall update you as soon as we have more information on this.

31.10.2018 // UTC 05:00 PM – UPDATE: The earlier version of the story reported QZ had got VAC, instead, its a GAME ban just yet.
31.10.2018 // UTC 06:47 PM – UPDATE: QZ has now been unbanned.

Antidote’s perspective on the Forsaken episode

Abhishek Bajaj
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Antidote’s perspective on the Forsaken episode

Sabyasachi ‘antidote’ Bose, the famous AWPer of Optic India returned to his hometown after the whole fiasco. The 22-year-old has not spoken a word since the whole Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat incident unfolded, which lead to Optic withdrawing their setup from the region. Though there were several accusations and allegations, everything must now be put to rest. The complete statement is as mentioned below:

I would like to begin my statement with an apology to all my fans, supporters of the team and the Counter-Strike community in general. I love my country and have harbored dreams of representing the nation. Even though this information might not mean a lot to you, I was carrying the Indian flag with me throughout the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND LAN Finals.

This statement is not for the naysayers and doubters, but for people who love me and this game. I would normally refrain from saying all this. The hate that I and the rest of the players received was unjustified but bearable, given the situation. But, when the hate comments trickle down to the family members, in my case my beloved mother, it becomes a pill that is hard to swallow. I love the community but it shames me to say that it let me down when it began targeting my Mother’s social media account to vent their frustration and sorrow. All in the rear view mirror now, though.

The event was my first experience of representing India at an International LAN. I was pumped. Leading 1-0 in the elimination series against Revolution, the incident caught me off-guard. We had taken a timeout to resolve an issue with Marzil’s monitor. As people could see, I was seated far away from forsaken.

Sabyasachi ‘antidote’ Bose

Sabyasachi 'antidote' Bose

I had my headsets on and was not aware of the situation. All I could see was admins talking, which I reckoned was regarding Marzil’s issue. Soon, the number of admins increased, which alerted me a bit. I took my headsets off only to find out through my teammates that forsaken was caught running a hack on his desktop and we were disqualified immediately. I froze for a bit and broke down soon after. I wanted to confront him and perhaps, even take the matter into my own hands.

But, I chose to act professionally, also bearing in mind the repercussions that would befall on me for violent conduct on the stage or at the LAN event. We had no communication with forsaken after the incident.

Coming to the allegations about the Optic India players being aware of his hacks, let me tell you, in hindsight, forsaken is the most hard-working hacker anyone would probably come across. First of all, he was chosen through a rigorous tryout process conducted by Optic India and Sostronk. Obviously, everybody had heard rumors of him not being clean.

However, once we arrived at the boot camp, we were quickly won over by forsaken’s dedication towards the game. I am a player who takes pride in the gaming hours I put in towards improving my game. But, we used to take time off after practice to play other games with friends or just chill. Not forsaken though. He used to practice his aim on Deathmatch for hours and hours, even until 3 in the morning on some occasions.

I would like to remind people that I and a few other players from within the community had taken a stand against forsaken during our days at Eternal Esports. Our decision was driven by the constant rumors, which also led to us having a difficult time as no top team would agree to scrim with us. I have been associated with Counter Strike for almost a decade now. I truly love this game and If I would have seen something that looked unethical, I would have never continued to be a part of the team.

Some of his shots did raise suspicions. But, he had convinced us through his insane hours towards the game in front of our very eyes, that he could hit those shots; shots that most of us would find difficult to replicate. We never came across any suspicious software running in the background or anything that would alert us to the use of cheats in any way. But, then again, we were never there to investigate. I had a huge responsibility on my shoulders. I was focused on improving my own skill level and giving my all to do justice to the opportunity that Optic India had provided.

Looking back on it, I can just say that he managed to fool Optic India, Sostronk, the various tournament organizers, and his teammates as well. The cheat was well conceited so as to not come under our scanner and in a way, it is better for the Counter Strike scene that the incident happened as it would discourage other players from going down the same path.

As I have already mentioned the hate, I would also like to shed some light on the love and support I received. To the credit of the professional scene, all the players who were aware of the situation were always full of positivity towards me and the other players. The attendees at eXTREMESLAND offered support not only through the video message for the Indian community but members from NASR, Boot Dreamscape, and other teams came to console us and raise our spirits. The comforting and reassuring fact was the love I received from Nepal, Bangladesh and from within India as well.

I am a guy who loves to let my game talk for me. But, this was an incident where it became necessary to iterate just how oblivious we were to forsaken and his wrongdoings.

Looking towards the future, I am now blessed to be a part of 2ez gaming and hope to continue my dream of representing India at the grandest of stages.

Shoutout to Optic India for giving me and my former teammates a once in a lifetime opportunity and 2ez gaming for giving me a platform to continue doing what I do best.

UPDATED; Former TyLoo player banned after private Chinese cheat is detected

Deepak Ojha
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2
UPDATED; Former TyLoo player banned after private Chinese cheat is detected

It has been reported that a VAC wave has emerged in China, after a famous private CSGO hack was detected. The first account spotted to have the game ban as per our information was “qZzzZzzz” who’s the brother of famous TyLoo player Hui ‘DD’ Wu.

QZ has now been unbanned. The account status has been restored.

Quanqing ‘QZ’ Wu had played for TyLoo as a substitute in the last month at WESG.

Credits https://www.hltv.org/gallery/view/55399

Valve has supposedly up their game in hunting the cheaters, the recent VAC ban which swiped thousands of hackers in China was just detected.

According to our investigation on the banned accounts, hundreds of thousands of dollars were turned worthless.

TyLoo QZ series is very similar to what has happened back here in India with the f0rsaken. QZ was earlier in controversy when he was handed a VAC during MSI Beat It 2013. An inquiry was opened and ESL was notified and it was confirmed, QZ had indeed a VAC on one of his accounts. The recent ban brings more disorder to the already suffering region.

In the recent past, adjacent to 2016, TyLoo was disqualified from Asia Minor after it was unveiled QZ had a VAC. Well, you could argue that this VAC Ban wave could be a result of the aftermath of forsaken saga. Not to forget if you’re caught cheating in China, you can even get a sentence in prison. This is not the first time though. Valve has earlier banned cheaters as much as 60,000 on a single day.

According to this Reddit post, several other accounts have also been VAC banned.

UPDATE: The earlier version of the story reported QZ had got VAC, instead, its a GAME ban just yet.
UPDATE 2: QZ has now been unbanned.

Fornite parent company Epic Games raises $1.25 billion in latest funding

Mayank Jain
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Fornite parent company Epic Games raises $1.25 billion in latest funding

Epic Games, the studio behind fruitful fight royale shooter Fortnite, has brought $1.25 billion up in their most recent capital raising round.

Following the case of huge esports associations like Cloud9, which as of late aggregated $50 million, Epic completely bested their outcomes. Some portion of the speculation round were seven firms – KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, aXiomatic, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. These seven new financial specialists join the effectively existing investors – Tencent, Disney, and Endeavor.

Ted Oberwager of KKR stated, “Epic Games has fundamentally changed the model for interactive entertainment under the company’s visionary leadership. Alongside a special group of investors, we are thrilled to support Epic’s dedicated employees and the passionate community of players and developers that lies at the heart of everything that Epic Games does.”

Aphoristic is the parent organization of Team Liquid who as of late made their very own financing round raising $26 million and including NBA Star Michael Jordan among their speculators. On account of aXiomatic’s interest in the occasion, Liquid currently have a minority stake in Epic.

The aggregate total assets of Epic Games is evaluated to be around $12.5 billion. Epic Games author and CEO Tim Sweeney is as yet the controlling proprietor of the organization. A tremendous offer is held by Tencent who claim around 40% after a noteworthy speculation made in 2012.

Entity Gaming accused of mistreatment and unpaid dues

Deepak Ojha
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Entity Gaming accused of mistreatment and unpaid dues

Indian DotA 2 organization Entity Gaming has been accused of mistreating one of their ex-coaches, a medium post read. Anthony Hodgson states, the team was fired, out of the blue. Not to withheld the drama going around in the Indian competitive gaming circuit, this story attracts further negativity.

Anthony, the coach, explains how they were performing well, except the team got fired. Fired, for reasons stated “spending too much money” and “poor results this season.”

Further contemplating the disappointment, Anthony says the contract was shrunk to a mere two months against the initial an year term. Even when some of the players had just renewed their contracts, one as early as a month ago. Though he states, the management has presented the possibilities of working together in near future. However, the team is on “let go” status as of now.

Excerpts from the medium post, which is now on the front page of r/DotA2 also suggest that the players were illegally hired under a “tourist visa.” The post goes on to point out how the termination-in-effect should have been prior with a 30-days notice, which the management reduced to 15-days, that too post several negotiations.

  • 30 days termination notice, shortened to 15-days
  • the players were hired on a tourist visa
  • the contract seems to be valid on “Singapore Law”

Allegations by the coach

Anthony continues “I accepted their 15 days offer. Why? Because regardless of what the contract says, there was no real legal recourse for me in the situation. Somewhere along the line, my employers had become aggressive, and had made it very clear they were not willing to concede any liability. I was still waiting for them to pay for my return flight (and, indeed, my salary for September was still outstanding at the time). If I evaluate myself to not have legal recourse, at some point I have to just play nice to make sure I get the most that I can, rather than risk losing the few things I’m still hoping to get.”

“Why is there no legal recourse? Because I’m a South African, “working” in India on a tourist visa (as insisted by the employer), bound by a contract under Singaporean law. I’m set to leave India in a few days, and can’t afford heavy legal fees. What sort of steps could someone in my position reasonably take?”

Management’s response

After the post started to get traction from the community, Entity Gaming’s manager Sid Joshi responded to the allegations, refuting the claims. In between the comments on Reddit post, Sid revealed why they had to fire the lineup. Retaliating back to Anthony ‘Scantzor’ Hodgson, Joshi wrote,  “I let him go because he sabotaged my roster and spoilt our relationship with a potential recruit. The contract never mentioned a severance package and we still gave him 15 days salary as goodwill.”

The response further ignited a controversy about the player in question, “black.” And more ex-Entity Gaming players came out in defense of the Scantzor.

Yang “Deth” Wu Heng put on his narrative and blamed Entity Gaming & management. Deth says Sid is “creating lies” “to salvage the situation.”

“All this to me is just Sid trying to salvage the situation by creating lies and spinning the narrative in a way that portrays them as the victim. There’s no doubt he’s going to continue and try to defend himself and the organisation with lies. But that’s just what they are – lies.”

Former Entity player Castaway suggests otherwise

Travis “Castaway” Waters, another Entity Gaming players, however, has a different version of the story, backing the management. According to Castaway, Entity Gaming’s behavior is far from what Scantzor has described.

“I experienced professional care from flight booking, making sure the food was good enough for us on a day-to-day basis, constantly fixing any internet issues experienced and making sure all our needs and wants were met, that we could just focus on Dota,” he says.

The community is divided on the issue, some blamed it on the organization. Others, reasonably looking for more evidences to have a better perspective.

Though one thing is still unclear. The parties who’ve spoken out couldn’t clarify if the players were indeed hired on a tourist visa. Which will have consequences, dire consequences.

Red Dead Redemption 2 record opener $725mn beats Avengers with $85mn

Mayank Jain
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Red Dead Redemption 2 record opener $725mn beats Avengers with $85mn

Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption 2 on Friday, Oct. 26. The cowboy redemption was the most video game of the year. It takes place in a huge open-world format, and includes both a dense single-player campaign. An online multiplayer mode coming in November.

Rockstar Games, the studio behind Red Dead Redemption 2, calls the game “the biggest entertainment launch of 2018” — which compares it to other video games, movies, music and books.

That tops the highest-grossing movie in history, “Avengers: Infinity Wars,” which earned more than $640 million during its opening weekend earlier this year.  But “Red Dead Redemption 2” still isn’t the highest grossing entertainment launch of all time. That distinction also goes to Rockstar Games for “Grand Theft Auto V,” which earned over a $1 billion in sell-through in its first three days. Though it launched on a Tuesday.

And in its opening weekend it achieved some major milestones.

Sony Interactive Entertainment also confirmed that the sequel set new records on its PlayStation Network. The highest ever pre-orders, highest day one sales, and the highest sales for the first three days than any other title on Sony’s PlayStation 4 platform.

  • Over $725 million in worldwide sales in the first three days
  • Most preordered full game on the PlayStation Network
  • Highest Sales for the first three days
  • Biggest day one full game sales on the PlayStation Network

That is indeed units sold, not units shipped. Rockstar is no uncertainty going to continue posting refreshes as Red Dead hits new turning points, and a billion dollars is straightaway.

While its session of the year status might be begging to be proven wrong, it appears we have our reasonable statistics to believe.

Ate Gaming completes signing of former Optic’s Vishal ‘Haivaan’ Sharma

Pranav Nalawade
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Ate Gaming completes signing of former Optic’s Vishal ‘Haivaan’ Sharma

Ate Gaming has revealed to TalkEsport the signing of Vishal “haiVaan” Sharma, who has been a free agent ever since the entire OpTic India roster was dropped. The news comes in when players are gearing up the battle for the next season of ESL India Premiership.

HaiVaan has seen a meteoric rise to the CS Scene, having worked his way up the SoStronk Next Ladder and then impressing in the OpTic India tryouts in Bangalore, which saw him being selected among the final 5 of 1400 applicants, beating the likes of many professional players in the process.

Speaking on the development, the organization’s owner Sagar Vyas quoted:

“Ate Gaming is India’s oldest and most successful organization. We are working hard to create a CSGO franchise which leads the nation as during the CS 1.6 era. After having seen Vishal perform at LAN with Optic. I am sure he will bring great results.”

Initially an IGL, he was soon relieved of his in-game leading duties with the acquisition of Lukas “yb” Gröning.

Ate Gaming team recently finished 3rd in Dew Arena, the new in-game leading of HaiVaan might bring them some more favorable results.

Ate Gaming’s complete roster is:

🇮🇳 Anish “Bogeymanh” Singh
🇮🇳 Akshay “Kappa” Sinkar
🇮🇳 Ritesh “RiTz” Shah
🇮🇳 Jay “FOX” Shah
🇮🇳 Vishal “haiVaan” Sharma
🇮🇳 Norbu “karam1L” Tsering
🇮🇳 Rohitkumar “vel0city” kshirsagar

2Ez Gaming picks up former Optic India’s antidote

Parth Gada
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2Ez Gaming picks up former Optic India’s antidote

2ez Gaming have confirmed the signing of ex-opTic India player Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose and Aaquib “FalKen” Dingankar, replacing the duo of Sunny “Recoilmaster” Gadge and Saharyar “BaDMaN” Shaikh.

Ameya Mankar echoed the thoughts of the team’s manager Omkar Yadav, about the importance of.. of having a strong awper like Antidote in the team.

2ez as a team could use someone who would bring stability in the team and we feel FalKen and Antidote would be the best match for the team, as one of them being the best awper in the indian pro circuit

The Mumbai based squad, who just yesterday defeated Slaughter Rage Army 2-0 in the rematch of the ESL India Fall Premiership Finale after the OpTic India fiasco, will hope that the experience and prowess of Antidote and FalKen can help them have a good run in ESL Pro League Asia and also challenge to be the best side in India.

FalKen, who most recently played for Entity and has since been coaching 2ez, is a veteran of the Indian CSGO scene, and will look to add some much-needed stability and balance, as well as actively support the explosive duo of Antidote and t1to.

Antidote, on the other hand, is considered to be one of the best awpers of India, will look to redeem himself and get another opportunity to represent India, after his team OpTic India was disbanded following the forsaken cheating scandal. His stats are among the best in India, with an average rating of 1.21, K/D of 1.28 and an impressive game 75.5 percent round wins when he got the first kill.

This means that the Mumbai based org, apart from its main CSGO squad, has a PUBG team, along with an academy team for CSGO, to nurture upcoming talent as well as provide them with the backing and support of an organization of the size of 2ez.

2Ez Gaming complete roster is:

🇮🇳 Rahul “t1toSAVAGE” Sridhar

🇮🇳 Tejas “Rex” Kotian

🇮🇳 Chinmay “Pok1” Mehta

🇮🇳 Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose

🇮🇳 Aaquib “FalKen” Dingankar

 

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