The Zowie Extremesland groups are released for the China finals and Team Invictus have been placed in Group B alongside, New4, AllGamers, and MVP. Project. The games will begin on 22nd in the city of Shanghai.
The teams will be flying down to China to initiate their journey at the grand finals, participants of which will have the opportunity to bank $25,000 at the first place followed by $7,500 for the first runners-up $3,500 each will be awarded to each 3rd and 4th spot respectively. Nobody goes home empty pockets as the teams standing between 5th-8th spot and 9th-16th spot will also be awarded $1,750 and $450 respectively.
Zowie eXTREMESLAND groups
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
MongolZ
New4
Renegades
VG.CyberZen
Risky Gaming
All Gamers
NXL
GOGOGOMYTEAM
Dream[s]cape
Team Invictus
Rascal Jester
MiTH
MVP Karnal
MVP Project
EHOME
Rebellion
The invited teams
After the regional qualifiers in the respective countries, a total of 16 teams got qualified for the grand finals which is scheduled to be from 22nd to 25th of September in Shanghai, China. The four teams out of the 16 which are in the playoffs were directly invited to the event:
Renegades
The MongolZ
Rascal Jester
MVP Project
The qualified teams
Twelve teams which got an entry into the group stages were qualified from different regions with China leading the reservation with 4 slots. The qualifiers were hosted in 8 different countries other than China, which the host of the tournament. The teams qualified for the grand finals from different regions:
All Gamers (Born to Fire will be replaced as they are unable to attend) – China
MVP Karnal – Malaysia
Risky Gaming – Middle East
DreamScape – Singapore
GOGOMYTEAM – Taiwan
MiTH – Thailand
Rebellion – Vietnam
While group A looks toughest of all to compete within, even Group B has teams like MVP Project to give tough competition to the Indian side. We will be at the venue for the extensive coverage of the event as it goes for our readers. Where do you think will the Indian team end their journey at? Will it be in the top 3 this time?
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is currently the most hyped FPS multiplayer competitive video game undoubtedly. The hackers are not reluctant in their own fashion and continue to disrupt the game’s integrity, with having thousands of hours on the game and grands of dollars as the inventory value, the in-game abusers are least bothered to get banned from using ‘premium cheats’. CSGO VAC Ban arrives.
This has been a problem in CS:GO community for a very long time and it is the community who has suffered the most in these prolonged unfair games. Valve, on the other hand, has not been seen working on this particular issue with their strongest efforts. The cheaters are getting doubled and tripled with every passing day and no strict action or announcements have been made by Valve, until today.
The cheaters are getting doubled and tripled with every passing day and no strict action or announcements have been made by Valve, until today.
As it seems to be one of the biggest VAC bans in over a year period, the cheating communities, and forums have confirmed that their cheats were indeed detected by Valve a couple of hours ago. The technical side of this is not easily understandable, but it seems that Valve made some changes in their server-side encryption where the cheating software was exploiting.
Numerous cheating discussing forums also read a bunch of new threads by the users about the new ban wave.
According to the data gathered by VAC-BAN.com, close to 4000 accounts were handed ban by the VAC system, which triggered the 52-week high. Go check how many of the suspects according to you got banned!
After a huge success of Sliding Tackle tournaments in the previous installments, PlayX is back with a bigger gaming tournament ‘#PWND All India Gaming Championship’ in collaboration with Sony Playstation, Paytm, BenQ and Students’ Union of AIIMS during their annual fest “PULSE 2016”.
The event will start this Friday, 16th September and will go on until 22nd September at the Conference Hall of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
What sets this tournament apart is that it will run continuously for 7 days for 24 hours. There would be an array of competitive tournaments during that duration that includes FIFA 16, COD:BO3, Mortal Kombat X, WWE 2K16 and Rocket League.
The main event will be from 16th -18th September and the registration fee for each game is mentioned below:
Fifa 16 (Solo) Best of 3 group stages & knockout – INR 500 per person
Fifa 16 ( Coop) Best of 3 knockout – INR 1000 per team
COD: BO3 (2v2) Best Of 3 Maps Knockout – INR 1000 per team
Mortal Kombat X (1v1) Knockout – INR 200 per person
WWE 2k16 (1V1) Knockout – INR 200 per person
There will be daily tournaments from 19th to 22nd September of the above-mentioned games with a registration fee of INR 200 for each participant and there will be daily winners for each of them.
All the games will be played on The PlayStation 4. PlayX has also partnered with Paytm and BenQ for the event and will be giving out Prizes worth INR 1 Lakhs in cash, in-app currency and Paytm cash/discount vouchers.
Registrations will be accepted at the venue starting 11 AM on 16th September. The details and rules can be checked out at PlayX’s facebook event page. https://www.facebook.com/events/1731851683745792/
PULSE is the biggest Socio-Cultural, Literary and Sports Festival in South East Asia and most awaited event in the calendar of a Medical student in India as well as surrounding SAARC countries. There will be over 40,000 students from over 750 Medical and Dental Colleges all over India as well as various engineering, arts and commerce colleges from all over Delhi and NCR.
Expect it to be a seven-day gaming extravaganza for all gaming enthusiasts with competitive gamers from all over the country competing against each other for ultimate glory.
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Selfless Gaming owner and coach Steve “Ryu” Rattacasa. We talked today about the state of the NA CS scene, how CS is evolving itself and we also spoke a bit about Selfless and himself.
Selfless Gaming is based out of North America and has Overwatch, Rocket League, Killer Instinct and Super Smash Bros alongside, CS:GO teams for both Males and Females.
Reece: First of all, let’s talk a bit about the American CS scene. The American CS scene has always been a big scene, but now more teams are growing who were formerly unknown to the casual fan with the help of big competitions like ELeague and ESL Pro League: NA. Do you think the NA scene could grow bigger than the EU scene in the future?
Ryu: Yes because that’s what the math is going to show—and Americans love competition, love competitive sports/activities, and having things like ELEAGUE showcasing our games on TV will continue to push it into the mainstream (which it’s still not a part of).
People say there are issues with the American CS scene, for example, they say players have no passion and are just there for the big salaries. From both a business view and a player’s view, do you think there are any major issues with the American CS scene right now, and what do you think could be done to solve these issues?
Selfless at Cologne 2016 Qualifiers
It’s definitely disappointing to see the average work ethic of some of the teams/players that “make it” to the pro level—but I’ve always said the entire “system” for a player to go through to get recognized was flawed. It rewarded individual stats and overly aggressive styles of play which never emphasized the most important things, like teamwork, communication, etc. That’s slowly begun to change, but it’s still a few seasons out before we see what kind of impact some of those changes will have.
There have been a lot of organizations who have come and gone and have only survived a short period of time. In your opinion, what makes a successful and sustainable esports organization?
Generating revenue, super passionate fans, and great, long-term partnerships—and it’s real, really hard to do. Right now the scene is flooded with big name investor money, and none of those orgs have the real incentive to be profitable or sustainable, and that’s extremely risky. That’s how bubbles grow…
What do you think is different with the EU scene and the NA scene? Do you think the NA scene could become bigger than the EU scene? Why?
There’s almost too much to list, but I’d say overall the NA scene focuses on individual aim, and EU plays good, consistent team-based CS:GO. We certainly have the talent for it, but it’ll take time. C9 (Cloud 9) is an example of what a team would need to look like to beat EU teams regularly.
Onto a bit about Selfless now. Recently we saw some roster changes with Michael “Mainline” Jaber being dropped and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte being added. Was there any big reason behind this change or was it just the right player popping up at the right time?
Mainline lost his love of the game—the fire, the drive, the passion. He was lethargic in practices, he was late frequently, and we just weren’t “feeling it” with him anymore. It was obvious we had to move on, and once we started to shift the in-game leadership role away from him, he either had to step it up with his work ethic and grind himself into being a top player, or move on. He decided to move on. I loved playing with him and wish that wasn’t the case, but I think a bit of a break for him from the top competitive scene will be really good for him in the long run. He’s not hanging up the mouse just yet.
You are the owner of Selfless Gaming, you write the articles for the site, but you also coach the team and do analyst elements for the ESL Pro League North American scrims. Do you prefer the business side of things or the pundit side of things, or even the player side of things as you used to be a player? Why?
I love all of it. Being an owner allows me the opportunity to move my focus around to different elements any given day of the week. So in addition to the coaching stuff, the analyst work, and the “general CS:GO” activities, I also get to work on marketing, social media, recruiting talent (for CS:GO and other games), finding and securing partnerships, and so on. My previous career in technology was very successful but got very, very boring for me quickly. This variety is really the spice of my life right now, and I love it all.
Valve have made a few big changes to CS:GO recently. For example, the coaching ban. As a coach yourself, what do you think about the coaching ban?
Classic Valve—not listening to what the players want, and operating as an obstacle to the growth and progression of the game instead of a catalyst for it. It’s ridiculous and will result in lower quality CS:GO.
They’ve made some other pretty big changes recently like the gambling ban and of course, new gun sounds. People are even saying CS:GO is dying. What do you think about the gambling ban? Do you think CS:GO is heading up or down? Is it “dying” like people say?
I don’t care about the gambling ban—and I think it’s only a short-term thing anyways. Esports betting will be MASSIVE—way bigger than people think or realize right now—but it’ll take the time to follow the appropriate legal avenues. I don’t think the game is dying anytime soon, despite the 12-year-olds who lost skins and issued death threats via anonymous social media accounts not being able to wager skins anymore.
Dota 2 has “The Invitational,” an annual tournament with a massive prize pool which determines the best team in the world. With Counter Strike, we usually have 3 major tournaments per year. Which format do you think is better, the one big tournament style or the 3 tournament style?
I love what Valve has done with the International, but I prefer at least 2 MAJOR events per year, so I’m not a huge fan of the single gigantic event per year.
Now a bit about yourself. You transitioned from being an IGL to a coach due to a busy work schedule. How hard was it to stop playing and start coaching? Do you think you might follow the steps of Immortal’s Zews and return to being a player at some point in the future?
It wasn’t too hard—I was able to do the things I was truly good at, I was able to bring in young talent and help players develop and play the right way. The only hard part about it was WATCHING instead of playing, and knowing that my impact on the game was less “direct”. As much as I think my value could be at an all-time high as a player right now (due to the ridiculous coaching rule change), I have no plans to return to playing. I truly believe that if I did, with my work ethic, I could be back in form quickly, though.
Finally, what can you say to help people who are trying to break through to the professional scene?
Recognize what you are naturally good at (because yes, TALENT EXISTS), and go all in on that. Hard work should be a part of your equation for success regardless of what you do in life, so figure out the strengths you have, work really hard, and always be a great teammate. And as a relevant side note, I’d encourage all younger players that want to go pro in one way or another to focus on building their individual following/brand. That’ll be more and more important as Esports grows.
Thank you very much for your time, Steve. Any last things to say? Any shoutouts?
Thank you to every single fan of any/all of our teams, all of our supporters, all the haters who keep fanning the flames, and a huge shutout to ClutchChairz for making the best gaming chairs we’ve ever been fortunate to game in. As I write this, Kaboose is lounging hardcore in his chair and loving it.
Esports is a rapidly growing industry and more people are participating and generally getting involved daily. In terms of registered players, games such as League of Legends (LoL) peaked at around 67 million in June 2015 according to Statista, whilst titles like DOTA2 and CS:GO continue to rake in large numbers in terms of attendance at their events.
A report by eSports Marketing showed that LoL Worlds 2015 tallied more than 36 million unique viewers, while The International 2015 peaked at more than 4.6 million concurrent viewers.
All-female pro-gaming team member Nicole Cheung play an online game at Cyber Games Arena in Kowloon Bay. 05AUG15. Credits: smcp.com
They are numerous multiplayer online battle arena or MOBA games which became immensely popular after the success of the first Defense of the Ancients or DOTA that was a modded map integrated into the original Warcraft game. The theme is primarily fantasy, involving legends, folklore and mythical creatures such as elves, undead, and fairies.
Fantasy, of course, is a recurring theme in video games from hardcore dungeon crawlers like the Diablo series which features characters such as druids and demons all the way to casual titles like Pixies of the Forest which features fairies. Mysterious places, interesting stories, and magical beings let people imagine all sorts of things.
The combination of an appealing theme and solid game mechanics works well for many players. That said, LoL and DOTA2 are just two of the most popular eSports titles today.
So why does eSports get so much hype?
It’s dynamic
There’s not one stable, foolproof way to play eSports. There may be tried and tested tactics, but then again your opponent could have a trick up their sleeve which you didn’t anticipate. The battlefields and strategies are dynamic. Different moves and styles of teamwork get concocted by gamers all around the world for them to emerge victoriously.
Characteristics such as these can also apply to players themselves. The stereotypical view of a basement-dwelling, jobless nerd or anti-social player has now been quashed as eSports has grown into an uber cool pursuit. In fact, ESPN found that in the US alone, over 50% of eSports fans have full-time jobs and more than 40% of that figure is made up of parents.
Some professional teams also seek assistance from traditional athletes and fitness coaches to help them train and workout, given that to play better, you need to have not only a well-conditioned mind but a healthy body as well.
It’s unpredictable
Due to eSports being dynamic as mentioned above, you really can’t be sure how a game would turn out. DotaBlast showed one good example, which was when two-time Major champions, OG, got eliminated early on in the recently held The International 2016. This unpredictability stirs up emotions in the games: excitement, joy, heartbreaks, frustrations, and more.
It’s accessible
Regardless of whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a casual fan and viewer, eSports games are accessible anytime, anywhere. You don’t necessarily have to leave the comfort of your home to get in on the action, with the exception of participating in professional tournaments and attending events.
It’s rewarding
Considering the global community of eSports, there are now several companies investing in advertisements, promotions, and sponsorships. From this much support, prize money in major tournaments gets bumped up into the millions. DOTA2 clubs like Evil Geniuses for instance amassed almost $9 million in prize money last year, with their captain Peter “ppd” Dager receiving over $1.7 million. The allure of doing what you love, and earning a ton amount of money in the process, is simply irresistible to many.
All in all, eSports has a combination of factors that led it to be one of the most watched and participated activities in the world today. The good news is, all of this has only just begun in the past few years and the industry is booming which means it’s safe to say the hype will not die down for a pretty long time.
Ninjas in Pyjamas, the Swedish powerhouse known to have CS veterans on their side win Starladder StarSeries Season 2 finals beating G2. Esports 2-0 in an intense best-of-three series. They go home with the trophy and $150,000 in the bank. Their first win after DreamHack Malmo, which was hosted earlier this year in Sweden.
The first map looked pretty much unsophisticated in terms of action as G2 looked shaky and failed to hold their grounds in most of the rounds. The initial dominance of the game already had delivered the predictions of the results as G2 were unable to win a single round until the 10th round in the first map cache. The first half ended at 12-3 in the favor of NiP and they only allowed another 4 rounds to the French side before taking the first map in their favor with a 16-7 scoreline.
StarSeries Season 2 finals
Maikelele was the game-changer during the final series entirely
The second map did deliver all the expectations and the treat the fans deserved, the game began on a lighter note for the French side as they took the first three rounds starting on the Terrorist side of Overpass. The game took turns there onwards as both the sides equalized multiple times before concluding the first half to a 9-6 lead to NiP, all thanks to Maikelele’s 3Ks consecutively in two rounds. It was all back and forth until Ninjas in Pyjamas were on the match point in the 28th round but failed to capitalize the three round advantage as G2 managed to even the scores at 15-15 with SmithZz contributing two important kills to secure an Overtime entry.
As the game progressed, the pressure was on the top of each side, Overtime at Overpass disestablished all the predictions when even after a huge triple by Friberg, G2 managed to equalize the score and close the first overtime all squared. Maikelele, being a stand-in in NiP for pyth was the game-changer entirely in the overpass with his support plays and crucial kills. He stepped up quite confidently to take the responsibility of the A site and managed to get a couple of kills to secure a clean second Overtime for NiP. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the second map of grand finals in the second overtime with a scoreline of 22-18.
Invisible Wings, who were recently acquired by EnTity Esports have been successfully managed to qualify for Dew Arena LAN in the fourth and last qualifiers, beating Team Overcome 2-0 in a best of three. They will fly down to Delhi to play the LAN qualifiers alongside, Team Invictus (doubtful), MxB Gaming and Team Brutality.
In the fourth and final online qualifiers of the Mountain Dew DewArena, Invisible Wings didn’t have anything fancy rather some basic CS which was enough to knock out Overcome out of the tournament. The first map: de_mirage, Invisible Wings beat Team Overcome 16-3 which was Overcome’s pick. And the decider map which was the pick of Invisible Wings, they beat Overcome 16-4.
Overall, Team Overcome didn’t look prepared much and much out of their minds while playing the games today, from missing the shots to getting caught off-guard, everything went down the hills for them. Interestingly, Team Overcome beat Invisible Wings in the same fashion a couple of weeks ago at NVIDIA FPS Battle, but things looked pretty shaky in this grand final of Mountain Dew Dew Arena, wherein they failed to get double scores in both of the maps combined.
Invisible Wings will move ahead to the LAN finals of Dew Arena wherein they will be playing for INR 3,50,000 split and a chance to earn fame by getting featured on the GameFuel pack which will be retailed all across India.
ESWC has finally opened the doors for the CS:GO fans out there with the return after 2 long years halt. The game will feature a prize pool of $75,000 and a slot especially for Indian teams at ESWC 2016. The qualifiers will be hosted by NODWIN Gaming at their Gurugram headquarters later this month.
Electronic Sports World Championship (ESWC), the European company which started their operations in organization Counter Strike events in the year 2003 had reserved a slot for the Indian community two years ago where MTS – GameGod and NODWIN joined hands to support and made things possible for the Indian side to qualify and visit Paris to represent India.
Brackets
After a year gap, NODWIN has managed to get India a slot at ESWC for CS:GO. The opportunity once again is great and can help Indians get exposure and experience to the International CS:GO scene. The Indian qualifiers of CS:GO will be in a set of three, the open online qualifiers, online playoffs and the LAN finals.
The online qualifiers [REGISTRATION OPEN] will remain open until 15th of September and the matches will be commenced between 16th and 17th of September for the online set of qualifiers. The format will be a single elimination best-of-three game for the initial phase, best-of-three for the quarters and the top four teams rising from the quarter will advance to the online playoffs.
ESWC India – Potential Invitees
As the official bracket says, there will be four teams invited to the online playoffs which will be challenged by four qualified teams which will further be taken ahead by the challengers and the invitees to LAN playoffs. The current state of Indian CS:GO community suggests comfortably that the four teams which hold the responsibility to be generously invited would be:
Team Brutality – confirmed invitation
EnTity Esports Blue (ex-Invisible Wings)
EnTity Esports Golden (ex-Invictus)
Team Overcome / MxB
The fourth slot will be fought between MxB and Team Overcome, it will be interesting to see how the organizers make their way through the selection process of the fourth slot provided that their level of experience and skills are far from different. They could be possibly asked to play against each other for the invitee slot where the losing team can get back into the brackets via the open-qualifier registration. Most importantly, as the players on both the sides are younger to have an independent passport of their own. Not having one could possibly a reason for their loss of participation.
Important information for the teams registering for the event: Each player / manager of the team registering for the event should have a valid Indian passport and they need to send it to [email protected] at the time of registering themselves. The organizers will not entertain any further alterations in the team after the registration period has been completed.
The online play-offs will be played on 18th of September, wherefrom the top 4 will advance to the LAN finals. The LAN finals is scheduled to be happening on 22nd of September which will be played in NODWIN Gaming’s headquarters in Gurugram. All the games played in quarters and further will be a best-of-three elimination. The winning team from the LAN finals will have the privilege to gain a free sponsored trip to the ESWC international event to be held in Paris.
India at ESWC 2014
The previous version of ESWC where India had a chance to represent, Team Virtual Impact came on top against Wolf.
WESG APAC will have CS:GO, DotA 2, StarCraft 2 and Hearthstone as their games. The $5.5 million tournament was announced by Alibaba earlier this year which is scheduled to be on November 13-15 this year.
The event will feature teams from all over the world in all the different games. WESG APAC – Asia Pacific qualifiers will feature all the games, the dates and other important details about the registration has been revealed.
WESG APAC
The WESC APAC qualifiers will be in the month of September for the Indian and SEA region where the online qualifiers will decide which teams will progress to the regional finals, scheduled in Korea from November 11th -13th, 2016. The schedule is as below:
Registration : September 08 ~ 19 (India + South East Asia)
Bracket Open : September 23
Online Tournament : September 26 (DOTA2)
Online Tournament : September 25 (CS:GO)
Online Tournament : September 26 (StarCraft2)
Online Tournament : September 25 (HearthStone)
Players are required to have a valid passport at the time of registration and their consent to the tournament participation agreement terms.
The APAC region will have 6 reserved slot at the grand finals, each for CS:GO, DotA 2, StarCraft 2 and HearthStone. A total of 8 teams will be awarded the cash prizes.
CS:GO & DotA 2
1. ~ $30,000
2. ~ $18,000
3. ~ $9,000
4. ~ $6,000
5-6. ~ $3,000
5-6. ~ $3,000
7-8. ~ $3,000
7-8. ~ $3,000
StarCraft 2 & Hearthstone
1. ~ $11,200
2. ~ $6,000
3. ~ $3,000
4. ~ $1,500
5-6. ~ $1,200
5-6. ~ $1,200
7-8. ~ $1,200
7-8. ~ $1,200
All the travel, accomodations and VISA concerns will be covered by the organizers itself. The regional qualifier will be hosted in Korea, therefrom the Grand Finals in China, later this year.
After WESA, another group of North American eSports organization has formed a Professional Esports Association for the welfare. They plan to expand extensively into becoming NBA of eSports.
PEA is that the second association to emerge this year The owner-operated PEA, whose foundation members area unit TSM, Cloud9, Liquid, CLG, Immortals, NRG, and quality, went public these days with the same seven North American groups.
The Association will officially make their presence in 2017, with their inaugural title CS:GO.
The organization is going to be distinctive because the players can get 50% of the share whereas the other half goes to the homeowners. The casters also are not unmarked as they’ll receive the share adequate to a player. Players representatives will also have their say and will be allowed to have a seat on the foundations Committee which is able to rule on things like tournament formats, rules, and prize distribution.
PEA will begin their operation with a $1 million league which will be a ten-week season. the primary season of the league will feature $500,000.
“The PEA represents something new in eSports – an association of top teams running their own league and sharing the profits and the decision-making with the players. This has been the architecture of traditional major sports leagues for many decades, but it is a new evolution for eSports. This will allow us to finally build a stable, healthy, long-term environment for the players, the community, the media and the sponsors.” said Jason Katz, PEA Commissioner.
Official statements in regard to PEA
“This marks the end of the ‘Wild West’ days of eSports. The community and players want stability and dependability. Leagues come and go, teams join them and depart, but with the PEA, the teams are making a long-term commitment to be here, playing for the fans, for the indefinite future.” said Jack Etienne, CEO of Cloud9.
“It’s time for leagues to share the rewards and strategic decisions with the players, and the best way for team organizations to do that is for us to do it ourselves. The PEA is a vehicle for us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the players, doing what we all love,” said Andy Dinh, CEO of TSM.
“Publisher leagues and third-party tournament organizers aren’t sharing profits with the players and teams. This is hindering the potential for eSports to rival other professional sports leagues, where players and teams are all aligned to put on the best show year after year,” said Steve Arhancet, co-CEO of Team Liquid.
