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StarLadder StarSeries Season 5 Finals talent revealed

Pranav Nalawade
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StarLadder StarSeries Season 5 Finals talent revealed

Earlier today,ย StarSeries revealed theย on-air talent list for StarSeries i-League Season 5.ย The list of English commentators includes Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Sean “seang@res” Gares, Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett and Anders Blum.

With four days left for the LAN finals of StarLadder StarSeries & i-League Season 5, the event will feature 16 teams and the best of three Swiss format that StarLadder introduced in Season 4.

Here is the full talent list:

  • James Duffield – Host
  • Tres “stunna” Saranthus – Host
  • Pala “Mantrousse” Gilroy Sen – Host

 

  • Duncan “Thorin” Shields – Analyst
  • Janko “YNk” Paunoviฤ‡ – Analyst
  • Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill – Analyst
  • Sean “seang@res” Gares – Analyst

 

  • Henry “HenryG” Greer – Caster
  • Halvor “vENdetta” Gulestรธl – Caster
  • Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett – Caster
  • Tom “Tombizz” Bissmire – Caster
  • Jason “moses” O’Toole – Caster
  • Harry “JustHarry” Russell – Caster
  • Anders Blume – Caster
  • ย Hugo Byron – Caster

The $300,000 will feature teams from across the globe. Six teams received direct invites, meanwhile remaining ten teams qualified through regional qualifiers.

Below are all sixteen participants of the event:

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Team Liquid๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ mousesports๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Natus Vincere๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท SK Gaming
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ NRG Esports๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Renegades ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช GODSENT๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ AGO Esports
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ North๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ AVANGAR๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ HellRaisers๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ VG.FlashGaming
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ TyLoo๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Gambit ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ Virtus.pro๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Ninjas in Pyjamas

 

Shox completes lineup with boddy, NBK ignored

Pranav Nalawade
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Shox completes lineup with boddy, NBK ignored

Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro is all set to complete the composition of Richard “shox” Papillon and Kรฉvin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans. However, according to a report by Flickshot.fr Negotiations on signing contracts between G2 Esports and the roster are continuing. According to the portal, the fifth player of the team could be Nathan NBK Schmitt, but some of the team’s players do not wish to play with him.

Earlier Flickshot.fr reported that the management of G2 Esports will give up the current lineup in favor of Papillon. Besides shox and Ex6TenZ team will include Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub. In the case of the Bodyy transition, the organization will retain the status of the “legend” for the next major, as it will have 60% of the composition that went to the playoffs on ELEAGUE Major 2018.

On March 9, 2018, Shox was expelled from G2 Esports. With him, the team left the coach SmithZz, who resumed his playing career. Later shox told that he wanted to radically change the composition of G2 Esports by inviting Ex6TenZ and SmithZz instead of NBK and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire. KennyS was not against substitutions, but Bodyy did not believe in the future of such composition. As a result, the collective took ร“scar “mixwell” Caรฑellas for a probationary period.

With this move, G2 Esport reportedly looks as follows:

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ชย Kรฉvin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ทย Richard “shox” Papillon

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ทย Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ทย Kenny “kennyS” Schrub

 

Eastide to host $225,000 premier CSGO tournament

Bhavya Shah
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Eastide to host $225,000 premier CSGO tournament

Eastide, a South-Korea based company, is all set to host a prestigious Counter-Strike tournament in Shaoxing, China. The offline event will be held at Shaoxing Olympic Sports Center, Zhejiang, China from August 15-19.

The event will host eight teams, out of which five teams will be directly invited from North America and Europe. Out of the remaining three teams, two would qualify through European Qualifiers while the winner of Asian Qualifiers would secure the slot at the indoor arena inside Shaoxing Olympic Sports Center.

The event would feature best-of-three double-elimination brackets while the grand-final would be a best-of-five map and the team from upper-bracket will have one map advantage.

Map pool:

Cache-Dust 2-Inferno-Mirage-Train-Overpass-Nuke

Additional details regarding hosts, analysts, commentators, prize-pool distribution, and qualifiers would be revealed in the upcoming month.

SoStronk Anticheat rolled out in the desktop application

Deepak Ojha
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SoStronk Anticheat rolled out in the desktop application

After a couple of years of beta, alpha and numerous successful quality assurance test runs, SoStronk anticheat could now be the next project. The development team of SoStronk has been communicating about their anti-cheat for quite sometime now.

According to the company’s social handle, SoStronk has already rolled out the installer. The new program will be first tested for reliability before making it a core part of the application.

SoStronk anticheat

Users who wish to enable the anti-cheat can do so by enabling it from the app settings. The desktop application now supports the anticheat. You can find the option in Settings -> General -> Anticheat.

SoStronk anticheat

SoStronk has been the choice of the professionals and the majority of the Indian & Asian Counter Strike community. The rise of their user-base, have, in a manner, attracted the hackers too.

SoStronk is considered to be one of the best CSGO match making platform in Asia. Valve’s ignorance to the hackers and FACEIT’s non-availability of servers in India, cruised SoStronk to become one of the largest CSGO platform in the world.

Overseas presence

SoStronk has been the choice of professional event companies. The reliability they claim was proven when it was the chosen platform for PGL Major. Their entry to tap the Asian professional scene was successful through their Get Stronk! tournament which attracted an immense presence.

Moreover, with the likes of Sudhen ‘bleh’ Wahengbam being an active part, SoStronk has an excellent profile overseas.

Repute in the community

SoStronk’s success comes packed with their divergent operation intoย unique community-driven events, professional scrim, 128-tic PUGs, ranking leader-board and an exclusive market. SoStronk anticheat was the only odd reason why they had to bear the brunt of the criticism, if at all. Despite building the application from scratch and giving the community an alternate to the hijacked Valve Matchmaking, anticheat was still the problem.

The launch of SoStronk anticheat will certainly take the company to the right direction. The community will even have their share of celebrations on a possible elimination (probably) of hijackers.

NRG hires ImAPet as a coach

Pranav Nalawade
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NRG hires ImAPet as a coach

NRG Esports has terminated the contract with British coach Ian “Immi” Harding. Chet “ImAPet” Singh, who previously worked with OpTic Gaming and Counter Logic Gaming, became the new mentor of the brand. Immi, on Twitter, thanked the organization for the opportunity and said that he was ready to consider the proposals as an in-game-leader, coach or analyst.

Immi joined NRG in March 2018. He helped the team take second place in the regular season of ESL Pro League Season 7 and the first in ECS Season 5. With him, NRG won the iBUYPOWER Invitational – Spring 2018. He couldn’t attend LAN-finals of ESL Pro League Season 7 due to Visa issues.

ImAPet coached OpTic Gaming from July 2017 to April 2018. In August Tarik “tari” Celik and Will “RUSH” Wierzba left the team and both of them joined Cloud9. The organization gathered a European team with Adam “friberg” Friberg, ImAPet continued to train the team. With him, OpTic took 5-6th place at Intel Extreme Masters Season XII Oakland and Esports Championship Series Season 4 but did not pass on ELEAGUE Major 2018. In early February, players alternately left the club. On April 24, the organization formed a Danish team, the new coach was Casper “ruggah” Due.

From May 28 to June 3, NRG Esports will perform at the StarSeries i-League Season 5. The prize fund of the tournament is $300,000 USD. In the first match of the group stage, NRG will meet with Team Liquid.

NRG Esports Line-up:

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌย Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov

๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐย Damian “daps” Steele

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธย Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธย Ethan “nahtE” Arnold

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธย Jacob “FugLy” Medina

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธย Chet “ImAPet” Singh (coach)

 

 

TyLoo signs AE on loan

Bhavya Shah
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TyLoo signs AE on loan

Few days back, Ke “Mo” Liu fell from a segway (scooter) and got himself injured. Later, he was hospitalized and he was operated for femoral neck fracture. He couldn’t attend StarSeries i-League S5 Qualifier and Lei “bottle” Mao from Eclipse fielded in for Ke “Mo” Liu. TyLoo successfully qualified for StarSeries i-League S5 and secured third-position at CS:GO Asia Championship China Qualifier.

On May 21, TyLoo announced that Yue “AE” Yu from Team Eclipse would play for them until Ke “Mo” Liu fully recovers back. He has been hired on a loan from Team Eclipse for a short span of time. He is an establishing name in the Chinese pro-scene and has a few commendable performances in domestic as well as international circuit.

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Kevin “xccurate” Susanto
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Hui “DD” Wu
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ HaoWen “somebody” Xu
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Yue “AE” Yu (stand-in)
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Ke “Mo” Liu (benched/injured)

 

All you need to know about CSGO Asia Championship

Bhavya Shah
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4
All you need to know about CSGO Asia Championship

With Valve’s intention to influence China’s approach to competitive Counter-Strike and bringing it to global levels, Valve will be hosting CSGO Asia Championship (CAC) fromย June 14 to June 18ย where many international teams from around the globe will be participating along with two Chinese teams.

The event will be hosted at Yuanshen Gymnasium, Shanghai, China which can accommodate 12,000 people with a whopping prize pool worth $300,000 USD.

Eight teams, divided into two groups will fight over the span of five days in Shanghai’s indoor gymnasium stadium. CAC will feature double-elimination best-of-three group-stages and the upper-bracket winner would directly move into the semi-finals. It would then follow single-elimination best-of-three playoffs.

CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 – Tournament Information

DateJanuary 12th - 28th, 2018
OrganizerELEAGUE
Location Atlanta (The New Challengers & The New Legends) & Boston (The New Champions), United States
VenueTurner Studios (The New Challengers & The New Legends) & Agganis Arena (The New Champions)
Prize Pool$1,000,000
Teams24 Teams

Coverage

Format

  • Group Stage: June 14th – 15th, 2018
  • Two double-elimination format (GSL) Groups (4 teams each)
  • All matches are Bo3
  • Top team from each group advances to the Semifinals
  • 2nd & 3rd teams from each group advance to the Quarterfinals
  • Playoffs: June 17th – 18th, 2018
  • Single-Elimination bracket
  • All matches are Bo3

Consequently, five teams and the winner of CS:GO Asia Summit 2018 are directly invited. While the remaining two slots would be filled by the top two teams from the Chinese Qualifier. All teams confirmed at CS:GO Asia Championship are:

  • ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑย Virtus.pro [Invited]

  • ย ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Natus Vincereย [Invited]

  • ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ชย Ninjas in Pyjamas [Invited]

  • ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ทย EnVyUs [Invited]

  • ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Heroic [Invited]

  • ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ทย MVP PK [CS:GO Asia Summit]

  • ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย VG.Flash [Chinese Qualifier]

  • ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย TyLoo [Chinese Qualifier]

*Although Fierce Tiger won the Chinese Qualifier, it has been disqualified soon after Kun “LEo” Hou was handed over the Valve Anti-cheat Ban (VAC). TyLoo, securing the third position in the Chinese Qualifier, is expected to replace LEo and co.

Map pool

Cache-Dust 2-Inferno-Mirage-Train-Overpass-Nuke

Prize Pool

  • 1st Place: $150,000 USD
  • 2nd Place: $60,000 USD
  • 3rd-4th Place: $30,000 USD
  • 5th-6th Place: $10,000 USD
  • 7th-8th Place:ย $5,000ย USD

CS:GO Asia Championship will be hosted by PGL alongside Perfect World. All the matches at CSGO Asia Championship 2018 will be broadcasted live on the respective streams of PGLย and Perfect World.

Chinese CSGO pro Kun “LEo” Hou handed VAC

Bhavya Shah
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5
Chinese CSGO pro Kun “LEo” Hou handed VAC

Kun “LEo” Hou, with 1.22 HLTV rating, used to be a rising name in the Chinese Counter-Strike. Kun “LEo” Hou was handed a VAC Ban this Saturday by Valve Anti-cheat alongside Perfect World. 5ewin, a popular matchmaking platform in China has also banned LEo for cheating. He used to play for a well-known Chinese team, Fierce Tiger. Perfect World, through it’s official Weibo handle, revealed that they would further investigate for any other misconduct.

On May 17, his side won the Chinese qualifiers for CS:GO Asia Championship 2018 by beating VG.Flash 2-0 in the best-of-three finals. Being the top seed, Fierce Tiger has been disqualified due to the VAC ban handed over to Kun “LEo” Hou. Further, he has been permanently banned from participating in any of the Perfect World or Valve-sponsored events. TyLoo, which secured third position at the CS:GO Asia Championship 2018 Chinese Qualifier is likely to replace Fierce Tiger.

Fierce Tiger is playing the Chinese Qualifier for the Asian Minor and it has already defeated ROAR 2-0 in the best-of-three semi-finals. On 20 May, Fierce Tiger was matched up against VG.Flash in the best-of-three finals for a slot at the Asian Minor. Although VG.Flash did not appear on the server due to ‘internet issues’, sources close to the team suggest that VG.Flash suspected ‘foul play’ since an unpopular player named “tbgirl” took LEo’s place in Fierce Tiger. FACEIT has already been notified about the VAC ban but necessary action hasn’t been taken by the organizers.

Fierce Tiger line-up:

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ Kun “LEo” Hou

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย Bin “Savage” Liu

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย QingYu “Monster” Deng

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย Zhen “HZ” Huang

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย BingYuan “tb” Li

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณย “tbgirl” (Stand-in)

shroud, n0thing, seangares, lurppis and Fifflaren teamed up

The Crew
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shroud, n0thing, seangares, lurppis and Fifflaren teamed up

On 18th of April, Michael “shroud” Grzesiek’s contract with Cloud 9 officially ended. Few days back, he hinted on his stream that he would play ESEA Open matches since alot of people love to see him play Counter-Strike. Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen created a team on ESEA named Old Guys Club (OGC) and shroud was seen in the roster.

On August 15, 2017, Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert retired from the professional Counter-Strike scene. Since then, he has been passionately streaming on Twitch. Being a legend in the North-American scene, he needs no introduction. He has played for Cloud 9 since the organization’s entry into Counter-Strike. He has achieved a lot of commendable achievements including first place at ESL Pro League – Season 4, iBUYPOWER Invitational 2016 – Summer, Esports Championship Series – Season 3 and CyberPower PC Summer 2016 Pro Series.

Sean “seang@res” Gares is one of the finest and intelligent in-game-leader, North-American Counter-Strike has ever had. Sean “seang@res” Gares has played alongside Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek during Cloud 9’s 2015 era. Recently, he was seen analyzing few premier tournaments including ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. During his tenure in Misfits, as an in-game-leader, he has secured first place at CyberPowerPC Extreme Gaming Series – Fall 2017 Invitational and Americas Minor Championship – Boston 2018: NA Last Chance Qualifier.

Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson is one of the oldest legends of this game. He was a crucial part of NiP’s 87-0 winning streak during 2016. He has won majority of the prominent Counter-Strike tournaments during the early days of newborn Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Credits: ESEA website

This mix line-up would be playing ESEA Open and as of now, they aren’t signed by any organization.

Line-up:

๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Michael “shroud” Grzesiek

๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Sean “seang@res” Gares

Invites and dates for FACEIT Minors revealed

The Crew
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0
Invites and dates for FACEIT Minors revealed

Two months back, it was revealed that FACEIT will be hosting the 13th Valve sponsored major. FACEIT has revealed the dates for FACEIT Minors alongside invites for the CIS and Asian minor through it’s Twitter handle. Each of the regional minors would be held at Twickenham Stadium, London, owned and managed by Rugby Football Union (RFU). The FACEIT regional minors would begin in the second week of July.

  • American Minor (Both NA & SA): 7-11 July

  • CIS Minor: 10-13 July

  • Asian Minor (Including Oceania): 16-20 July

  • Asian Minor (Including Oceania): 16-20 July

Invites for Asian minor:ย 

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ TyLoo

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Renegades

Invites for CIS minor:

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ Hellraisers

๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บย ForZe

๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ฟย AVANGAR

๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡พย Nemiga Gaming

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บย FlipSid3 Tactics

๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บย Spirit

๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ EPG

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆย Pro100

FACEIT will be hosting everything from open qualifiers, minors and the major itself. โ€œBy hosting each stage of the tournament at Twickenham Stadium weโ€™re hoping to bring new life to the Minors,โ€ said Michele Attisani, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of FACEIT.

Top two teams from four regional minors would be invited to the FACEIT Minor Closed Qualifiers. These eight teams would compete with eight other invited teams for one of the eight slots at the FACEIT Major Challenger Stage and $50,000 USD. The open qualifiers for the FACEIT Regional Minors would be held between May 14 and June 17 on FACEIT’s matchmaking platform.

 

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