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Blast Pro Series Copenhagen Teams confirmed

Parth Gada
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Blast Pro Series Copenhagen Teams confirmed

The event takes place on November 2 and 3 in the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, with 6 teams invited with a prize pool of $250,000.

Navi was the last team to be confirmed, and will join previously invited teams FaZe, MIBR, NiP, Cloud9, and Astralis.

The unique format will see each team play the other in a best of 1 round robin format, with the top two advancing to the grand finals in a best of 3 contest. It promises to be a mouth-watering affair as 4 of the top 6 in the world play each other at least once, with 3 matches being held simultaneously in the group stage.

The full team list is as follows:

  • 🇩🇰 Astralis
  • 🇺🇸 Cloud9
  • 🇪🇺 FaZe Clan
  • 🇧🇷 MIBR
  • 🇺🇦 Navi
  • 🇸🇪 NiP

 

Team Vitality signs NBK, apEX, RpK, ZywOo and Happy

Bhavya Shah
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Team Vitality signs NBK, apEX, RpK, ZywOo and Happy

Team Vitality which is popularly known for it’s League of Legends roster, has expanded its venture into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive amid signing five French players. All five reportedly arrived in Paris to sign their respective contracts over the previous weekend. Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer would take a step back as Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt is expected to be the in-game-leader of the fresh French ‘superteam’. The squad will be trained and coached by Philippe “faculty” Rodier, who is a prominent figure in the French scene apart from being an author of several books related to esports and football.


Negotiations amongst the organization were underway since quite some time. But, finally, the French organization has revealed its project under the first person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The ex-EnVyUs duo of Happy-RpK happened to be free agents after the North-American organization released it’s main team and academy team in July, earlier this year.

On the other hand, Team Vitality bought out NBK and apEX from G2 Esports who were benched since July 5, after G2 brought in SmithZz and Ex6TenZ. According to several sources, buyout for each of them was expected to be around $800,000 USD as NBK and apEX had signed long term contracts with G2 Esports.

ZywOo has been reigning terror in the FACEIT Pro League (FPL) and in the local French scene. He is expected to be the next big thing in the French Counter-Strike circuit. The 17 year-old has moved in from Team aAa and he is already showing some great skills with his AWP in IEM Chicago Qualifier under the Waterboys banner.

Team Vitality’s roster:

🇫🇷 Nathan “NBK-“ Schmitt
🇫🇷 Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
🇫🇷 Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer
🇫🇷 Cédric “RpK” Guipouy
🇫🇷 Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut

🇫🇷 Philippe “faculty” Rodier (coach)

G2 announce departures of Apex and NBK following their transfer to Vitality

Parth Gada
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G2 announce departures of Apex and NBK following their transfer to Vitality

In a statement, the Berlin based organisation announced that Nathan “NBK” Schmitt and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire would be leaving G2, following the successful transfer of their contract to an undisclosed team, believed to be Team Vitality.

As reported earlier, the pair have been heavily linked to a move to French Esports organisation Team Vitality, who are looking to form a CSGO team, featuring The pair have been strongly linked with a move to French organisation Vitality, featuring ex-EnVyUs duo Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer and Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, aAa awper Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

The duo joined G2 from Team EnVyUs in February 2017, replacing ScreaM and RpK who went the other way, with Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux as the coach, with this roster being dubbed as the “French Super Team.”

The hype around them, however, was short-lived after limited successes in their early periods with wins at ESL Pro League Season 5, Dreamhack Tours 2017 and Dreamhack Malmö 2017 being their only victories, which masked their inconsistent performances at other events throughout the 14-month stint of the roster.

On June 4th this year, the organization announced the return of SmithZz and Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans to the active lineup at the expense of the pair. It was only inevitable that they would eventually be transferred out, and this statement was a mere formality and a farewell.

G2 CEO Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez issued the following statement:

I truly wish the best to NBK- and apEX for the next part of their CS:GO journey. On a personal level, I love Nathan and Dan and I would have absolutely loved to have the opportunity to spend more time with them. They have been fantastic ambassadors for G2 Esports and the game. The decision to move them to the bench was not an easy one or a reflection of either player’s ability or character. Throughout their time at G2, they proved their ability and strength as players and professionals and I have no doubt they will continue to do so at their new home.

They also released a farewell video to mark the memorable moments the two had in their time at G2.

Zywoo leaves AAA for Waterboys

Parth Gada
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Zywoo leaves AAA for Waterboys

aAa have announced the departure of their star awper Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, as he prepares to join newly formed Vitality alongside Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, and ex-EnVyUs pair Cédric “RpK” Guipouy and Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer.

The 17-year-old prodigy is highly rated among fellow pros and experts, and is said to be the next big awping talent in the French scene after KennyS. He has won the FACEIT Pro League – Europe for 3 months in a row from June to August this year. His statistics are really impressive, with a K/D of 1.36, ADR of 97.1 and an overall HLTV rating of 1.40.

In an interview to the aAa website, thanked his teammates and staff.

“Thank you * aAa * for the pro coaching and coaching, all the staff was really great, and I was very happy to wear this historic CS tag. Thanks also to my teammates, Nonick, WaneG, MetaL, Wallax, BouLy, but also PM and Ozstriker, with whom I was able to progress and have a great time. Finally, thank you to all those who support me, I will do everything not to disappoint you!” he said.

The president of aAa gaming, Oliver “Chapter1” Ozoux was very happy with his progress and wished him well.

“For our return on Counter-Strike, we knew that by recruiting this team we recruit players of very good level, with an excellent state of mind, but also an exceptional player in the person of ZywOo. And the least we can say is that he did not disappoint us. It was a real pleasure to count him among us, and to have seen him evolve with his teammates. In addition to his extraordinary skill and his reserved nature outside servers, Mathieu has also shown concern and listening to the structure. We are very happy and proud of the path he has traveled with * aAa *, and wish him every success in his future projects – he has all the qualities to become one of the world’s undisputed leaders.”

Waterboys have the following lineup:

🇫🇷 Nathan “NBK-“ Schmitt

🇫🇷 Dan “apEX” Madesclaire

🇫🇷 Cédric “RpK” Guipouy

🇫🇷 Vincent “Happy” Schopenhauer

🇫🇷 Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut

 

G2 Roster in doubt as KennyS does not sign new contract

Parth Gada
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G2 Roster in doubt as KennyS does not sign new contract

Kenny “KennyS” Schrub has cast his G2 future in huge doubt, after he has refused to sign a new contract, according to this report by VPEsports.

Prior to the major, the squad signed a new contract with lower terms but with better work balance. However, the 7th Best rated player of 2017 is yet to sign the contract as of today. This does not cast immediate doubt over their future, but does potentially pave the way for Kenny to leave for free on the expiry of his current contract in February 2020.

The team has had a rocky start, with a 2-3 loss at the FACEIT Major being described as underwhelming, with both their victories coming in overtime against C9 and Hellraisers, while losing convincingly to FaZe, MIBR and Complexity. They were called out by their own CEO Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez who was disappointed by their performance at their major, while the poor performance of Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux has opened up further rumours about the potential return of Belgian pro Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom.

No immediate changes are expected in the project started by Ex6TenZ and Richard “shox” Papillon, but G2 will be hoping that the future of Kenny is resolved as soon as possible, so that the team can either continue working with their star awper for the considerable future or could possibly look for replacements and also make some money at the same time. They have, however, signed former EnvyUs coach, Damian “MaLeK” Marcel after the major, who debuted at ESL One New York.

 

 

Hooch to replace electronic in Team Russia for WESG Qualifier

Parth Gada
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Hooch to replace electronic in Team Russia for WESG Qualifier

In what is a huge blow to Team Russia, they will be without their star Denis “electronic” Sharipov for the upcoming WESG Russia qualifiers in Russia.

According to hltv.org, Dmitry “hooch” Bogdanov is set to replace the Navi star who will not be able to attend the event due to sponsorship obligations.

Photo Via HLTV.org

The squad will now clash head to head with another Russian team forZe; who beat the likes of major participant Winstrike and Vyalie Pitoni without dropping a map in the closed qualifier to book their place in the main event finals which takes place on October 6 at the IgoMir Exhibition.

Russia, who are the reigning WESG champions, will be hoping to defend their title with hooch, who incidentally was their replacement last time out too when he replaced Egor “flamie” Vasilyev.

This completes their lineup which is as follows:

🇷🇺 Mihail “dosia” Stolyarov

🇷🇺 Denis “seized” Kostin

🇷🇺 Egor “flamie” Vasilyev

🇷🇺 Georgi “WorldEdit” Yaskin

🇷🇺 Dmitry “hooch” Bogdanov

Valve launches new CSGO Update titled “Make the Bureau Proud”

Parth Gada
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Valve launches new CSGO Update titled “Make the Bureau Proud”

Valve today launched a new CSGO update, in which players can now use the MP5-SD in official matchmaking, and have added a new setting “mp_solid_teammates 2”, which allows players to stand on top of teammates and is enabled in casual, demolition and Flying Scoutsman game modes.

They have also updated the FBI Character Models on Nuke, Agency, and Office.

Some minor changes have been made on Nuke, Train, and Office as well. For example, the corridor leading to the ramp room has been made slightly wider on Nuke and windows are now fully breakable in Office. Surprisingly, this is the first time Office has seen an update since May 2015.

Finally, now that the FACEIT Major is over, the default landing page on the Watch tab has been adjusted to the global live matches tab. The in-game Champion and Finalist trophies have also been updated.

Here is the entire changelog:

[GAMEPLAY]

  • Updated FBI character models have been deployed to Nuke, Agency, and Office.
  • Enabled MP5-SD in official Competitive Matchmaking.
  • Added a new setting “mp_solid_teammates 2” which enables standing on top of teammates while still allowing to walk through them. The feature is now enabled in official Casual, Demolition, and Flying Scoutsman game modes.

[SERVERS]

  • This update includes an updated version of steam client.so for Linux dedicated servers which has multiple threading and integration fixes. For a limited time and old version of steam client.so can still be used on CS:GO Linux dedicated servers.

[MISC]

  • The 2018 Inferno collection and 2018 Nuke collection are now available as rank-up drops.
  • Updated alpha channels on the SSG 08 and Mac-10 in the new 2018 Inferno collection.
  • Fixed rare cases where audio device configuration will not save properly.
  • Fixed the Beartooth Music Kit to respect MVP music volume.

[PANORAMA]

  • Fixed a VRAM leak in threaded Open GL contexts on OSX and Linux.
  • Fixed a rare mouse left-click issue on OSX.
  • Multiple performance improvements for OSX and Linux clients.
  • Added support for DDS files using DXT3 compression.
  • Added support for DDS encoded PNG files.

[MAPS]

Nuke:

  • Made corridor leading to ramp room from T side slightly wider.
  • Moved doors connected to trophy room slightly.
  • Changed CT team to FBI

Train:

  • Removed angled pieces on bomb train in A site.
  • Improved player collision on bomb train in A site.
  • Added grenade collision to ceiling of heaven in A site

Office:

  • Made windows fully breakable instead of partially
  • Fixed snowman’s hat not falling off when getting shot in the snow-head.
  • Smoothed out movement on stairs
  • Widened openings by CT spawn and truck in garage
  • Moved some furniture in T spawn
  • Fixed some minor graphical glitches
  • Tweaked lighting in CT spawn

 

 

OpTic India Announces the Departure of Formless

Parth Gada
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OpTic India Announces the Departure of Formless

In a Twitter post, the team announced that Rishabh “Formless” Tomar would be leaving the roster and thanked him for his contribution.

https://twitter.com/OpTicIndia/status/1047114234889420800

Formless was initially among the final 5 that were shortlisted by Optic India, on 1st June, after a gruelling selection process that consisted some of the finest talents of India.

On the 12th of July, however, they announced the signing of German pro – Lukas’ YB’ Gröning, in a bid to get some international experience, with YB previously having been the IGL of BLUEJAYS.

This meant the end of Formless in the active roster and was benched in the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup 2018-Main Qualifier. The subsequent performances with YB at the helm, including a victory at Zowie Extremesland Asia 2018, meant the end of the road for his Optic India journey.

It is yet to be seen which team Formless joins next.

The current roster is as follows:

🇮🇳 Sabyasachi “Antidote” Bose

🇮🇳 Agneya “Marzil” Koushik

🇮🇳 Nikhil “Forsaken” Kumawat

🇮🇳 Vishal “Haivaan” Sharma

🇩🇪 Lukas “YB” Gröning

 

 

 

Fnatic sign Twist, Draken Benched

Parth Gada
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1
Fnatic sign Twist, Draken Benched

Fnatic have announced the signing of Simon “twist” Eliasson from Red Reserve, in place of William “draken” Sundin who has been removed from the active roster.

The signing has been announced just days after Robin “flusha” Rönnquist was transferred to Cloud9, with Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom acting as their stand-in for Fnatic at ESL One New York.

The Swedes will now play with ScreaM and twist for their first match in the ESL Pro League against Heroic today.

Twist returns to the Fnatic side he helped reached the semi finals at the ELEAGUE Major, Atlanta, in his 7-month stint with the Swedish powerhouse back in August 2016.

Speaking to Fnatic’s website

I’m thrilled to be back at Fnatic, an organisation I have always looked up to since I started following the professional scene.

I’m happy to team up with some of the best Swedish players in the scene and I’m confident we are going to do great things.

I will not take this chance for granted. Thank you to those who have always believed in me.

Twist, who was seen as a very promising talent in early 2016, has not yet lived up to his hype. However, in the past 3 months, he has had a very respectable HLTV rating of 1.16 with his lowest rating being 1.03 at Dreamhack Open Montreal 2018. This, however, has to be taken with the caveat that he played Tier 2 and 3 opponents during his time at Red Reserve.

Twist will most likely be seen as the secondary awper to JW, who had relinquished his duties on the arrival of Draken, although he can be the primary awper as well. The path for Draken is unclear, but for now he will have to watch all the action from the bench. He, however, is hopeful.

I want to thank Fnatic for my short time here and I wish the players good luck.

Although this was not the best fit for me in terms of timing, I am excited to try new things and look forward to whatever my future brings me.

The current roster looks as follows:

🇸🇪 Jesper “JW” Wecksell

🇸🇪 Freddy “Krimz” Johansson

🇸🇪 Richard “Xizt” Landström

🇸🇪 Simon “twist” Eliasson

🇧🇪 Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom

 

Asian Pro League announced on FACE IT

The Crew
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Asian Pro League announced on FACE IT

FACEIT has announced Asian Pro League, which opens it doors today and is available to every player in Asia across 20 countries! The league is created by the community leaders of Asian CS:GO, in joint effort with all the big local communities from every single country.

The Asian Pro League (APL) provides a platform for Asia’s best CS:GO players and budding pros to prove themselves, showcasing the skill and talent our continent has to the rest of the World.

Asian Pro League

To make sure everyone has the best ping, we’ve added both Hong Kong and Singapore servers to the league, offered in different divisions so you can play together with your neighbor countries without lag.

How does it work?

League is open to players of all levels, but is aimed at amateur and semi-professional players in Asia who are looking to break into the pro scene. Players compete in different divisions, determined by their FACEIT ranks. Over a month long season, points are allocated to individuals based on their win ratio. The system rewards players with talent and sportsmanship. The ultimate goal is to be invite into the coveted Pro Division.

The list of invited players has been released by CSGO2ASIA.

APL Pro Division ($1500 Prizepool per month, best professional teams and players invited, everyone can qualify through APL Div 1 of Hong Kong and Singapore)

APL Division 1 (7-10 FACEIT Skill Level, Singapore server, $250 Prizepool, Top 1 qualifies to APL Pro Div 1)

APL Division 2 (1-6 FACEIT Skill Level, Singapore server)

APL Division 1 (7-10 FACEIT Skill Level, Hong Kong server, $250 Prizepool, Top 1 qualifies to APL Pro Div 1)

APL Division 2 (1-6 FACEIT Skill Level, Hong Kong server)

What APL offers:

  • 128-tick rate server located in Singapore and Hong Kong
  • Mandatory anti-cheat
  • Seasons and prizes
  • 24/7 Dedicated admins and moderators
  • Subscriptions support the growth of the Asian CS:GO scene
  • Inclusive multi-division league with the opportunity to rise in the ranks and join Asia’s best
  • $1500 in prize money for season 1

Inputs from the FACEIT Press Release

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