Japanese girl group XG has teamed up with Riot Games to announce their upcoming single ‘Undefeated’ for the Valorant Valorant Champions Tour Pacific 2024.
XG To Release New Single ‘Undefeated’ for VCT Pacific 2024
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with XG on the creation of UNDEFEATED for VCT Pacific,” Jake Sin, Head of VALORANT Esports APAC at Riot Games, said in a statement. “We hope the track will not only bring more hype to what will undoubtedly be a thrilling VCT Pacific season but also demonstrate our commitment to our passionate community.”
The song will carry an inspiring message of “fearlessly seizing victory at all times” and will feature “a heavy bassline, minimalistic drum composition, and dreamy synthesizers,” as officially confirmed in a press release.
‘Undefeated’ is set to be available globally on all streaming platforms on April 12, 2024.
VCT Pacific stands is one of the four prestigious international leagues within the Valorant Esports ecosystem alongside the VCT Americas, VCT EMEA, and VCT CN. Each of these leagues sees professional Valorant teams throughout their respective region engage in fierce competition, vying for select spots in the global events including VCT Masters and Champions.
The inaugural stage of Valorant’s VCT Pacific 2024 unfolds in Seoul, South Korea, spanning from April 6 to May 12. This event serves as a battleground for top-tier teams across Asia to showcase their prowess, with the top three teams from this tournament earning spots in Valorant Masters Shanghai 2024, taking place from May 23 to June 9.
Naman “MortaL” Mathur, is a highly respected and influential figure in the Indian gaming landscape and the co-owner of the renowned Indian esports organization S8UL Esports. MortaL gained prominence through his remarkable skills in PUBG Mobile, initially as both a content creator and professional esports player, but has since retired from esports. Notably, he has enjoyed massive success both as an esports athlete and a content creator.
Mortal’s Early Life and Career
Mortal was born on 22nd May 1996, in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Contrary to popular belief, Mortal did not start his content creation or esports journey with PUBG Mobile, he started his journey with Mini Militia – Doodle Army 2, a 2D multiplayer combat game, in 2017. However, with the launch of PUBG Mobile in March 2018, he adopted this new game. Although he regularly published videos on his channel, he got his breakthrough in October 2018, when one of his videos went viral.
After getting recognition on YouTube, MortaL stepped into the world of esports and dominated it with Team SouL. He and the team demonstrated exceptional performance in PUBG Mobile India Series (PMIS) 2019 to clinch the title, and thus, proving themselves as one of the best teams in the country. Following this, Team SouL went on to win PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 – Spring Split: India, which offered them an opportunity to represent India at the PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 – Spring Split: Global Finals, but finished at 12th position. Team SouL, along with MortaL, secured the runner-up position in the PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 – Fall Split: South Asia. Following this, Team SouL represented India at the PUBG Mobile Club Open – Fall Split Global Finals and Peacekeeper Elite Championship 2019, finishing at 12th position in both tournaments.
2020 was full of struggle for MortaL in terms of esports. Additionally, the ban on PUBG Mobile imposed by the Indian government further interrupted his journey. As a result, MortaL announced retirement from the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) esports scene soon after the game’s launch. Despite retiring, MortaL has been supporting Team SouL from the back end and has played a crucial role in the team’s victory so far, including in the BGMI Pro Series (BMPS) Season 1.
Although 2023 and 2024 have posed significant challenges, Team SouL’s new roster has been making waves in the BGMI community with frequent wins and podium finishes.
Mortal also achieved second place in the prestigious Esports Mobile Players of the Year category at the 2023 Esports Awards. Additionally, S8UL Esports twice won the Content Group of the Year Award in 2022 and 2023 at Esports Awards.
Mortal’s Social Media Presence
Alongside esports, Mortal has also built a significant presence on social media platforms. His YouTube channel, MortaL, boasts a massive 7 million subscribers as of writing this article, where he shares gameplay highlights, strategies, and live streams. Mortal also commands a substantial following of 5.3 million users on Instagram.
Mortal’s Estimated Earnings
According to Social Blade, Mortal’s YouTube channel generates an estimated annual income ranging between $32K (₹26,65,179) and $512.4K (₹4,26,76,181). Furthermore, his success in esports has proven financially lucrative, with reported earnings of $57,435 from competitive gaming victories alone, as per Liquipedia.
While these figures offer insights into Mortal’s financial success, they should be considered rough estimates rather than exact figures.
The Fortnite Battle Pass instantly gets players hooked as everyone finds themselves in a rush to complete but recent reports from players suggest that the Weekly Quest reward system has been blocked by a freshly surfaced Battle Pass bug.
Battle Pass is a key element in every Fortnite season as it grants special access to players to their hands on a couple of extra perks and cosmetics that remain restricted to owners of the pass for that specific season/chapter. However, a plethora of users have reported that their weekly rewards have been blocked and the Battle Pass is the culprit.
According to a Reddit user Which-Positive-7752, despite completing the necessary tasks, the game does not grant him the promised rewards which has been an understandably frustrating experience. Before we write this off as a one-off issue, the comment section is filled with other users experiencing the same while there is only a handful who were spared from this experience.
“I just reported it to EPIC support, and they said they have no idea of this bug. I told them a simple Google search would tell them everything they needed to know. It’s like they’re not even trying. They’re so blase about any problems,” said a user.
“I think this is happening to pretty much everyone,” said another one.
The bug will likely be fixed shortly given the amount of attention it has garnered on the likes of Reddit but it won’t be until the next update it remains unclear what will become of the players who have already completed their tasks.
Norwegian Dota 2 pro Tommy “Taiga” Le has recently found himself hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons after a damaging video of him being allegedly involved in match-fixing surfaced online.
The video posted by content creator Morf on his YouTube channel aims to showcase how Taiga was involved in match-fixing during his days with the OG Dota 2 roster.
In his video, Morf presented compelling evidence provided by Valve-banned player Alexander “Sensibility” Filatov. Sensibility alleged that he and Taiga were accomplices during his time at OG. According to him, Taiga initially supplied insider knowledge, eventually escalating to involvement in spot-fixing during matches, including manipulation of aspects like First Blood.
The situation swiftly escalated to the point where Taiga had to share his screen with Sensibility during his games. According to Taiga, he was blackmailed by Sensibility with the threat of exposing their previous misdeeds.
As claimed by Sensibility, Taiga eventually ceased collaboration with him and allegedly resumed match-fixing activities, this time through a different intermediary. This purported action prompted Sensibility to come forward and expose Taiga.
Taiga has not responded to Morf’s video at the time of writing.
OG has released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) addressing the matter. They disclosed that upon hearing rumors regarding Taiga’s alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal in 2023, they had notified the relevant event organizers, including PGL. Following this, they suspended the player and launched a thorough investigation.
Despite their efforts, no substantial evidence supporting the allegations was uncovered. Consequently, the organization refrained from making any assertions that could potentially harm the 25-year-old’s career.
Since the release of Counter-Strike 2 in September 2023, game-breaking bugs and glitches have been a common occurrence in the title. From the infamous ‘Michael Jackson peek’ to the Overpass glitch that prevents players from moving, CS2 has seen it all. While Valve is generally prompt in patching out such issues, some of the more stealthy bugs still manage to evade their radar.
However, none of the bugs we’ve seen in CS2 so far were perhaps as frustrating as a recent glitch that has been haunting players from throughout the world.
Players Abusing This Gamebreaking CS2 Bug Can Use ‘Sv_Cheats’ Protected Commands
The recently uncovered game-breaking CS2 bug enables players to use client-side console commands that are protected by the ‘sv_cheat’ function in games. For instance, players can see enemies through walls, see their character from a third-person perspective, and abuse a plethora of other console commands that can provide an unfair advantage to them in a competitive game.
The aforementioned bug was brought to light by X (formerly Twitter) user ‘Anti-Cheat Police Department’ via a post made on the platform.
The video caption reads, “A terrible bug allowing players to use any sv_cheats protected client side cvar, it is unsure if it can be used in official matchmaking servers, as shown in the video.”
A terrible bug allowing players to use any sv_cheats protected client side cvar, it is unsure if it can be used in official matchmaking servers, as shown in the video, its all just console commands. @CounterStrike
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) April 7, 2024
As seen in the attached video, the cheater can see their enemies through walls, switch to TPP, and abuse other commands that require ‘sv_cheats” enabled to function.
The CS2 community has urged Valve to fix this issue at the earliest.
According to a report by Dust2.us, Josh “JBa” Barutt will be absent from IEM Chengdu 2024 because of food poisoning, which led him to miss his flight to Chin and now Wildcard will have coach João “horvy” Horvath step in as a replacement for the event.
With less than 24 hours to go, Wildcard will have their coach play as a stand-in having failed to source another player with the little time in their hand. While horvy’s history as a player is far from common knowledge, Wildcard will have to walk into every match as the underdog given the major names won’t let the obvious weak link have an easy time on LAN.
JBa’s being the highest-rated player for Wildcard in the last three months, holding an impressive 1.13 rating as a rifle, will be a massive blow. Adding to the challenge, JBa’s absence means that Wildcard will have to compete in IEM Chengdu with two substitutes, as they have had to bring in Ian “motm” Hardy for Qihao “C4LLM3SU3” Su.
Wildcard were far from favourites to win the event but a deep run might have been on the cards for them had they been able to field two of their starters. Having lost two players to misfortune, Wildcard will have their chances hurt but it would be foolish to write them off just because of what a piece of paper says.
With 24 hours left for IEM Chengdu to kick off, one of the dark horses of the tournament in Monte Esports is set to be replaced by Steel Helmet, a regional powerhouse with former Tyloo players at its core.
Monte Esports has been an interesting team that has delivered mixed results at big events in the past and was showing promise leading up to IEM Chengdu however an unforeseen travel issue has forced them to drop out, making way for the Chinese side, Steel Helmet who will replace them in the event.
Steel Helmet might be a lesser-known side but it has some of the best Chinese CS2 players forming their core who previously appeared in events of this stature under the Tyloo banner. It can be argued that they are far from the level of teams that will be attending the event but the same players are known to cause major upsets at big stages.
Steel Helmet might not have the same flair about them as Monte but we won’t be too surprised to see them take off a few scalps at the event, especially on their home soil. LAN events come with a lot of complications that are mostly avoidable on online events which reduces the gap between two teams and becomes a recipe for a good match and Steel Helmet has all the ingredients for exactly that.
Riot Games has just shipped a new patch to League of Legends, and it brings some much-needed changes to Skarner.
For the uninitiated, the recent VGU rework dropped the Primordial Sovereign’s winrate to a mere 37.3 percent. This hotfix aims to address that issue by introducing several minor buffs to Skarner that will help the Champ become more relevant in the Jungler role while nerfing some aspects of Skarner top.
“Right now, Top is outperforming Jungle when at low mastery (yet to be seen whether that’s the case when mastered though). High mastery Skarners are performing pretty well on him,“ LoL’s lead gameplay designer, Matt “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, said in a statement. “We think despite his low average winrates, he’s still quite strong, but has several optimizations that need to be learned (eg. Q before E, etc.)”
We're micropatching some buffs to Skarner JGL and nerfs to Skarner Top!
Right now, Top is outperforming Jungle when at low mastery (yet to be seen whether that's the case when mastered though). High mastery Skarners are performing pretty well on him.
Unless you have been living under a rock, no way the news of Fortnite collaborating with popular anime Avatar: The Last Airbender has gone past your ears. Fortnite is known to make bizarre collaborations occasionally to keep their player base hooked to the game, which has become a crucial part of their culture since then.
The Fortnite X Avatar: The Last Airbender collaboration is on the horizon and scheduled for a release on 12th April. During the event, expect to see plenty of challenges, fun activities, and a lot more, needless to say, it will also bring tons of cosmetics like skins, melees, and many more.
The upcoming collaboration will include various characters and skins from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Fans can look forward to seeing Aang and Appa in the collaboration’s mini-pass, where Appa may even be used as a glider while Aang will be a unique character skin. Katara has also been announced as a skin, and there are speculations that characters such as Zuko, Toph, and Sokka might join the lineup of skins.
Concept art via DAIMAOOFTHEGREEN Reddit
Speculations have surfaced that just like the anime Avatar: The Last Airbender, mystic elements linked to water, fire, earth, and air might get introduced into the game as a part of the collaboration. These elements could play a significant role in how the game operates, possibly granting players special powers or abilities. That being said, all of this only accounts for nothing more than rumours so we have to wait until the update arrives to see.
With the first major of Counter Strike 2 concluding, we are already onto the first Premier event of the post-major era, with IEM Chengdu set to kick off on 8th April 2022.
While the major winners in NAVI will not be taking part, that doesn’t take the fun out of the event, given some of the big names like FaZe, G2, Mouz, C9, and more will be taking part. Given it is an ESL event, expect all the extravaganzas and excitement that comes with it, along with a top-tier talent lineup.
Familiar names all over the board along with some local presence in Yu “DXMaster” Hao whose influence in the region remains unmatched. Top casters in SPUNJ, MACHINE, HARRY, and HUGO, along with analysts like Maniac and YNK and lively hosts like Freya and Stunna all coming together to create a thrilling event at IEM Chengdu.
The voices taking you through the next week of Counter-Strike in China! 🇨🇳
