A devil’s advocate may be a proverb which often is metaphorically compared as someone with point of disagreement and willing committing to the different ideology in terms of generous topics. In the case of scandals and match-fixing allegations which surfaced last year into the CSGO scenario as the biggest scams which went unnoticed for long.
The top-notch NA organization, iBP whose players were accused of having unconventional advantage over losing a game on purpose were recently handed a ban for lifetime by Valve; for having being involved sham scam of match-fixing and purposely throwing away games for thousands of dollars. There were mixed-up feedbacks and perspective to the decision rule out by Valve which eventually means ending the careers of the involved players in the CSGO for a lifetime which also effected the reputation of the brand iBUYPOWER and the organization as a whole, in itself.
Pointed on by a Reddit user which goes by the name eNt_, iBP may have hired a law consultancy firm to deal with the damages and to stand by the contrary of the ruling out by Valve Corp. We still don’t know what would be the fate of the players who got their career ended, but not to forget, ShaZam still remains unbanned and continues to play for OpTiC Gaming, even though he was allegedly involved in the scandal.
Street Fighter V launched to great critical praise last week, and it’s clear that players are more than ready to start seriously competing.
Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world, has announced that Street Fighter V has already broken registration records just four days after it opened.
Unlike IV, Capcom has confirmed that V will be the only version of the game. We won’t be getting a Turbo or Ultra edition, in other words. This could be because of the greater acceptance of downloadable content—meaning that if a change needs to be made to V, it can be done so with a simple update. And the best part? All balance updates will be free.
In 4 days, SFV has broken the record for the most entrants at Evo in a single game! This is going to be a crazy year! #Evo2016
Ultra Street Fighter IV had 2,227 individual competitors in 2015, which broke records; V has already seen huge competitive success in the most odd of ways. Peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz setup an exhibition match between rapper Lupe Fiasco, known to be a huge fan of the game, and Daigo Umehara, the bestStreet Fighter player in the world. Most assumed that the match would be a wash in Umehara’s favor, but surprisingly, Fiasco won. This blew up over social media, and became a trending topic on both Facebook and Twitter. For a short time Fiasco was the No. 1 ranked player in the world. A bucket list moment for Fiasco, we’re sure.
Evo 2016 will take place July 15-17 in Las Vegas with the finals being held at Mandalay Bay.
The recent controversy flying around the NA fame holder Freakazoid who is very famous about his calm and holy nature when it comes to ‘not bullying people’ has emerged last night when he was trashtalking to s1mple. All of this was caught at CLG tarik’s stream.
When you claim that you don’t care about black or white people, and while coming across a black man, if you feel insecure, that is hypocrisy at the best level and such is a metaphorical comparison for Freakazoid’s ideology. The NA star always has been know for his humble and gentle preaching on how we should not bully people regardless of their looks and gameplay.Even though this time, he was mocking someone who is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr better than him, he went on to shittalk to s1mple about how baad his gameplay is and how much left out and disgrace he is for whatever team he plays for.
The stream on which, whole of this was recorded found it’s way to Reddit where thousands of community member shared their disappointments and anger towards the hypocrite. Joining the community members were some of the relatives of Freakazoid, journalists, analyzers and reputed YouTubers.
Trashtalking is not a big deal when it comes to Esports, people do mock each other in-game while to apprehend their complexity and disassemble on common consent. But why was this reaction or event was over-hyped? Why people were so harsh on his mocking to s1mple? Hasn’t this happened even in the past when fnatic’s team mocked NiP Get_Right when he was up for handshake? Then what has made people so much salty about this?
“If you bully it’s just a sign of weakness from the person because they are insecure about themselves” – Freakazoidd
Well, now you know why the proverb, “Practice what you preach.” is so popular and accurate. Freakazoid and s1mple’s whole of stream transcript has been drawn out by a fellow user NALMAO, which is pasted below:
Freakazoid bullies s1mple
ptr: we go A [unknown]: keeeepooo freakazoid: shut up simple you fucking suck s1mple: who’s talking? s1mple: ohh my gaawww freakazoid: shut up dude you suck s1mple: #100 player in north america?? is it you?? s1mple: hey ptr, who is talking to me? ptr: (doesnt respond) freakazoid: yo, why do you aim at the ground when you… run around?
(ingame callouts)
silent talking about a clutch hes trying to make s1mple: “silent, shut the fuck up.” (s1mple thought silent was freak??) silent: what did you do this round, simple? s1mple: what are you doing, silent? s1mple: you should just die, like you die at EMS katowice qualifier. silent: you’re not making any sense s1mple: *unintelligible sentence* freakazoid: simple, why are you such a noob, dude? s1mple: why? freakazoid: you’re such a baiter, dude
(at this point, freakazoid’s name in mumble is stewie2k) s1mple: stewie, please. shut the fuck up stewie. freakazoid: stop baiting for kills, dude, you suck. s1mple: i dont know how you’re playing for cloud9.
freakazoid: i dont know how you play for any team. s1mple: *unintelligible sentence* freakazoid: what’s the longest.. uh.. what’s the longest team you’ve ever been on in your life? freakazoid: a couple months? s1mple: 1 year. with hellraisers. freakazoid: oh wow freakazoid: how long did that take. are you guys… still friends with them? s1mple: yeah. s1mple: how long can you be in this team? why not answer this question? freakazoid: how long you been on liquid? s1mple: oh, its good when everyone hates you s1mple: “on reddit.. everywhere” (talking about how people dislike stewie, or himself months ago?) s1mple: *unintelligible sentence* freakazoid: do you even have real life friends? freakazoid: i don’t think you have real life friends, do you? s1mple: “yeah I have *unintelligible as well” freakazoid: its ok dude.. i dont need to.. hit the soft spot.. dude. freakazoid: do you have any balls? freakazoid: or.. nah? freakazoid: you just like to talk unintelligible and then get scared in person, huh? s1mple: why did you start talking to me? s1mple: “everyone hates you, I don’t want to talk to you as well.” (assumedly still believes freak is stewie) s1mple: you can try to talk with reddit or hltv, not with me, pls. freakazoid: at least reddit talks back, dude, you can’t even have a conversation. s1mple: dude, everyone’s talking that you’re shit. s1mple: come on. s1mple: you should play better, go deathmatch. stop talking and go deathmatch, do something. freakazoid: “you like eating shit?” (unable to comprehend was s1mple is saying, or just taking a cheap shot at the kid’s accent) freakazoid: man have you seen your aim? your aim sucks dick. s1mple: yea ok. freakazoid: “you rush for kills and still die.” (5 minutes before: freakazoid: “stop baiting for kills, dude, you suck.”) s1mple: ok. stop talking to me please. s1mple: *unintelligible* (possibly: you’re idiot) s1mple: seriously. freakazoid: seriously dude, its time for a taan. s1mple: unintelligible s1mple: you’re fucking dick every official match. go. pls. dont talk with me. unintelligible freakazoid: hey stop losing rounds dude. you keep talking to me. shut uup, you suck, you aim at the ground when you run around; you’re so bad, you need a tan, get some friends, shut the fuck uup. s1mple: who’s losing rounds? s1mple: what are you talking about? freakazoid: man you lose your team so many rounds bro freakazoid: goddamn ive seen you play s1mple: and you? freakazoid: “i love jumping through smokes bro what can I say” (at this point purposefully misleading simple as to who’s approaching him) freakazoid: i make plays. you make dumb plays. s1mple: chuckling freakazoid: what are you, santa claus? s1mple: you are the worst player on cloud9. seriously. you should play better, man. go deathmatch. freakazoid: you’re the wors- you’re the best player on every other team. just because you feed kills. s1mple: thank you s1mple: no im not feed kills, in every team i was entry fragger or i was a lurker or AWP player, you dont know anything about me so shut the fuck up. s1mple: unintelligible will never play at lan. s1mple: trying to talk with me. 0.5 kdr. s1mple: i dont even want to talk with you. seriously. s1mple: you’re shit. you’re a piece of fucking shit player. freakzoid: now i know why everybody hates you. s1mple: “yes. reddit and hltv hates you” s1mple: everyone. freakazoid: yeah.. i think you’re bad dude.. i think you just need to go uh.. drink a protein shake. you’re looking all skinny bud. s1mple: yeah man. freakazoid: its ok if you hate your life man. s1mple: stewie what are you talking about? freakazoid: “hey have a nice day.” (never says that he isn’t stewie)
end
Cloud9 Manager’s View
“Cloud9 players should strive to set a positive example for those who look up to them. Friendly trash talk is one thing but when personal attacks begin a line has been crossed regardless of it being online or on LAN. Ryan will be expected to do all he can to promote a healthy atmosphere within the community. The biggest lesson to take away from this is to think before you speak or act. The professional scene as a whole can learn from this event. As CS:GO grows to new heights so must our sportsmanship standards, which includes everyone, not just fREAKAZOiD.”
– Tres “stunna” Saranthus, Cloud9 CS:GO Manager
I would like to apologize to @Liquid_s1mple and fans on behalf of @Cloud9gg. There will be consequences as this is entirely unacceptable.
“I have failed my community, teammates, and organization. I would like to offer a sincere apology to s1mple for the poor decision I made last night. The way I behaved was unacceptable. I expect better from myself, and will do all I can to meet those expectations going forward. This experience has taught me that one slip up can cost you everything. At the end of the day I would like to make amends with s1mple and move forward from this. I hope he and the community can forgive my actions.”
– Ryan “fREAKAZOiD” Abadir, Cloud9 CS:GO Player
Cloud9’s take on this
This surely is not what every other individual or organization is prepared for, these are the spontaneous acts which lead to certain point of disagreements and leads to disgraceful comments from the community. Cloud9 fined Freakazoid for a whole month of salary from which 50% shall be entitled to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, and the other half to Born This Way Foundation. Also Freakazoid would be persuaded to attend an anti-bullying seminar in Los Angeles, CA hosted by PACER.
If you are one of the millions of CS:GO players out there and also use AMD hardware, then you should read this or risk getting permanent banned. Yesterday there was a big and anticipated update to CS:GO that added seven new community maps in competitive matchmaking and a lot more. That in itself is great news, but it looks like that update causes a lot of trouble for AMD users.
Reddit is already full of threads on the issue and luckily there seems to be a workaround for now. The most important thing for you as a CS:GO player and AMD user is that you don’t attempt to rejoin and rejoin after your game crashes you out, or you risk the bans that a lot of people are experiencing.
Nuke has returned back to competitive gaming after revamp.
It looks like the issue ends up in the graphic settings and it isn’t limited to the new maps as first suggested. Older maps such as Nuke and Dust are equally affected by this bug. The easy way to work around this, at least for now, is to simply set your graphics settings to low. This has been reported to fix the issue. Other users are reporting that it is enough to set Shader to medium and potentially also turn off multi-core rendering.
We can be pretty sure that all bans issued by this bug will be lifted again, but it is still a major bug that will have quite an influence on people. They can’t play their ranked matches until it has been resolved and generally risk missing out.
It’s amazing the kind of mayhem that can be unleashed when cutting-edge technology gets pushed past its old limits.
Consider Deadpool, which tells the tale of Wade Winston Wilson, a Special Forces operative turned mercenary whose mutant powers are rivaled only by his smart mouth.
“The power of GPU rendering combined with the speed and real-time interactivity of the HP workstations equipped with M6000s allowed us to consider rendering things we wouldn’t have been able to before. It made the process so much easier and more efficient.” – Kevin Margo, Blur Studios.
It’s also the story of how the film’s startling opening sequence — one that would’ve seemed unimaginable a few years ago — came to be.fhp
Based on Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero and directed by Blur Studios’ Tim Miller, Deadpool is action-packed from beginning to end, starting with the film’s incredible title sequence.
It’s a 90-second-long camera shot that weaves its way through a climactic, frozen-in-time, battle scene. Miller turned to Blur to develop the sequence, which was created entirely in CG.
GPU-Powered Rendering Turns Seeing Into Believing
Deadpool up-side down
As a first step, Blur developed detailed pre viz – previews of what the scenes would look like – to show to the studio and to Tim. Typically, such concept previews are rudimentary. They use simplified models, lighting and textures. But not all clients can see beyond these limitations.
Kevin Margo, a visual effects supervisor/director at Blur who served as a lighting TD for Deadpool, had previously explored GPU rendering during the making of his own fully computer-generated short film, Construct. So, he knew it would allow his team to make the previz as visually realistic and immersive as possible.
“We wanted to put our best quality preview in front of Fox,” Margo said.
Blur Studios built CG assets from the ground up using Autodesk 3ds Max. They then rendered them using Chaos Group’s GPU renderer, V-Ray RT, which runs exclusively on NVIDIA GPUs, and is up to 15 times faster than a CPU renderer.
G2 Esports is pleased to announce a partnership with Vodafone, one of the leading telecommunications groups in the world. As part of this landmark partnership, which symbolises Vodafone’s first foray into esports, G2 will be supporting a Spanish League of Legends squad, who will play under the name “G2.Vodafone”.
Joining their ranks will be Rosendo “Sendo” Fuentes, Kevin “Inkos” Alpire, Ismael “Miniduke” Martinez, Guillermo “Sou” Velasco and Jesús “Falco” Perez, five incredibly talented and motivated young players. They will be flying G2’s colours high in future tournaments, starting with LVP’s Honor Division – the highest tier in Spanish League of Legends. Later this week, the team will attend ESL Expo Barcelona, where it will compete for the national championship and the lion’s share of an €80,000 prize pool.
G2 Esports’ CEO, Carlos “ocelote” Rodríguez Santiago, gave the following statement about the partnership with Vodafone: “G2.Vodafone is an opportunity to stay connected to a world that I am passionate about. You can expect a team that is very excited and eager to make history. The nature of competition is in connecting and communicating with other people. As such, I am excited to begin this adventure with Vodafone.“
Cristina Barbosa, Brand Director at Vodafone Spain, provided her thoughts on the company’s historical partnership with G2 Esports: “Betting on esports is in line not just with what we believe that will be the future of entertainment and also of sports, but also because they thrive in an environment – that of high-speed broadband – that is our natural living space and where Vodafone can bring value to these new scenarios of entertainment and consumption.“
Professional e-sports athlete Ryan Hart (UK) has just set a Guinness World Records title for the Most consecutive opponents on Street Fighter V, going up against an incredible 260 people during an ambitious 11-hour record attempt at GAME in Manchester’s intu Trafford Centre.
Playing continuously, with no rest breaks, Ryan was required to win at least 90% of the matches – but the talented gamer managed to beat his challengers in every single game.
Overseen by official Guinness World Records adjudicator Pravin Patel, Ryan took on the epic gaming challenge to celebrate the launch of the latest instalment of the long-running fighting videogame franchise.
Speaking about his record, Ryan Hart said: “I’m thrilled to have set a new Guinness World Record for Street Fighter V, I feel it complements the longevity my gaming career has had and I’m really happy about that. Not being allowed to take any breaks whatsoever for 11 hours was really tough. There were times in the challenge where I just wanted it to be over but I tried to stay calm and think in small steps.”
As a result of his achievement Hart has secured a coveted place in the Guinness World Records 2017 Gamer’s Edition book, out later this year.
Robert Morris University in Chicago has a League of Legends team, and 35 players are on scholarships. eGamer Evan Lawson and coach Kurt Melcher break it down for AJ+. RMU’s Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and Hearthstone teams also have scholarship players, but only a couple per team. From video journalist Cindy Martin.
The ESL Pro League Season 3 kicks off today with Europe’s and North America’s very best teams participating. For several weeks, the teams will be playing it out against each other on the ESEA platform for for a slot in the season finals and their share of the incredible US$750,000 prize pool.
The prize pool money will be distributed as follows:
The industry might or might not be up-to the mark in terms of core membership or an optimistic vision, but sometimes professionals make their way through, without complaining about problems and hurdles, with sheer dedication, and a perception of changing the goal post.
We have with us today, the diary of the very famous and talented man from the Indian Esports industry, Sudhen Bleh Wahengbam, who has a moderate presence considered by his unalloyed and worthiest shoutcasts. We sat down with him and asked questions about his personal and professional life. Preserving sleek transparency, Bleh also shared his views on how can we contribute towards a developing Esports ecosystem in India and why are we lacking in terms of exposures even though with all the resources available. Bleh directly looks after the Broadcasting and Production affairs at SoStronk HQ, Bangalore. You can connect with bleh on both twitter and facebook.
At Analysis desk Machinegun
We know nothing about your family and personal life, would you allow us to sneak-into it a little to know more about you? Where are you from?
I’m usually quite private about my life and never let my work leak into my personal space. But that being said, I was born in Bangalore but raised in Manipur where I did most of my schooling, after which I got into Engineering and also spent a year or so in the US pursuing my Masters. I come from a very academic background family wise, and I guess I was lucky to be able to balance my gaming addiction with my studies.
Amidst of 1.6 and CSGO era, how did you manage to step-up as a caster?
I’ve been following eSports since around 2001 watching broadcasts of Starcraft and Quake 3 on TV shows, giving me a glimpse into eSports. I can say I started playing CS with v1.3, but never really thought of pursuing it competitively (although I had a sick AWP then :P) as I saw no feasible potential for me as an actual profession but the game always remained a passion.
After 1.6 died, I was looking forward to CS:GO when it was announced. I was sorely disappointed with how utterly shit it was when it first came out, but was happy with how it became more competitively viable as some time passed. Since, I was working a boring job at that time (circa 2012) and had time to kill, I picked up CS:GO with a zeal to try and compete at a high level; something I never bothered with in 1.6.
Got a really good internet connection soon after (thanks ACT!) and started streaming for the heck of it, and well, one thing led to another, and here we are.
Were you a speaker by Hobby even before you started casting CSGO?
Funnily enough I used to have immense stage fright and stutter a lot in school. I guess it helped that I got into a lot of Rock/Metal music and even performed on stage as a vocalist a few times during my high school and college days, which helped me be confidence in front of an audience.
Casting for me was a joke I used to pull of in MatchMaking games or PUGs when I used to give a joke/faux cast when my teammate was alone in a clutch, trying to imitate an Anders or a Semmler. Until someone said, ‘Hey you should actually do this for real tournaments’ and I thought why not?
Did you even think of pursuing this as your primary career?
This is actually my primary career at the moment. As the head of SoStronk’s broadcasting and Production one major aspect of my job is casting/analyzing games and getting paid for it. Not to mention, being a part of any major Asian CS:GO event as a caster/analyst.
Would I have thought this would be a potential career a couple of years ago? Hell no. But I’m glad I had the balls to stand up for myself and decide to take the leap of faith into something that almost everyone and their parents said was a stupid idea.
You are a core asset to the Indian esports Industry and have contributed a lot in a very short time-span, even if the circumstances don’t allow you, would you still be a part of the industry?
That’s very hard to answer. I’m lucky in many ways to be where I am right now, but at the same time, I did make the effort to carve out my own niche in this nascent industry. I would always go back to the time when I used to cast random ESEA games for a grand total of 1 viewer for hours altogether. From 1 viewer to 20000+ viewers don’t happen just because of circumstances, it also boils down a lot on your work and how you mentally approach this industry.
No, I mean the circumstances as in, god-forbid if things don’t go right way with SoStronk or whatever the planning is about?
Even if circumstances change, I still am going to remain in the scene, as I feel eSports is just starting off and I have much to give to the scene. The opportunities are enormous, not just for the players, but for others like me who cater to other aspects of eSports. Given the right mental fortitude and drive, there is no dearth of opportunities.
What is your take on the current Esports scenario in India? Talking about players, individuals, organizations, what are you suggestions to the newcomers? Should people focus more on setting up organizations? or focus on the gameplay?
eSports in India is still very fledgling and not helped by the fact that so many so called ‘eSports organizers’ are hosting atrocities called ‘eSports events’ just to make a quick buck while setting back the entire scene by quite a few years by their myopic, selfish actions.
Players need to be more mature, and have that will-to-win-no-matter-what mentality. eSports people need to rise above daily soap operas and look at the bigger picture to take things forward.
I feel we need eSports organizations set up preferably by ex-players who have a vision, not those who are still getting hard-ons over their past achievements and stuck in the past. And the players should only focus on playing, not be involved with the politics and running of the organization. This segregation is very important at this juncture.
Have you been following any caster to impersonate prior to yourself taking on the charge?
I have never tried to impersonate any caster as such, but yes I used to be huge fans of Joe Miller, Paul ‘ReDeYe’ Chaloner and Stuart ‘Tosspot’ Saw and have learnt a lot from them w.r.t what casting entails. And ofcourse the work ethic of Anders in particular.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
My inspiration? I don’t have any inspiration in particular from eSports, I guess I draw it from heavy metal. Something about this type of music gets me to go all out and do what I want to do, and screw whoever says I can’t.
Tell us a little about your experience at ESL Taipei.
IEM Taipei was simply put, fucking incredible. Casting, analyzing and most importantly, getting drunk with the likes of Anders, Semmler, Moses, Pansy, Vendetta and DDK was absolutely amazing. To talk to these guys about CS in general and of course just hanging out with the royalty of CS casting was definitely something I can tick off my bucket list.
Also just to see how an IEM is conducted and managed puts into stark contrast how abysmal and backwards the events in India are.
You are India’s one of the innovative and credible Esports organization, SoStronk, what are your further plans with SoStronk?
SoStronk is on the cusp of breaking out as one of the 3rd party platforms for CS:GO. The team is extremely qualified, dedicated and talented. They genuinely love eSports and have the know-how and drive to make their crazy dreams a reality. I’m really glad to be a part of the team because they are doing things which no one in India, or anywhere on the planet are doing right now.
I plan to continue my work with them, primarily because they share my vision of eSports and I see big things in the horizon for SoStronk. Ask anyone of our users, they know SoStronk is synonymous with quality and competence; something which is non-existent when it comes to so many other eSports organizers in the country.
What is the best advice you’d give to the fresh talents and the junior casters?
Firstly, do your preparation. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to be competent and prepared. You’re going to be compared with the likes of an Anders or a DDK, and unless you bring something new or unique to the table, you’re heading for a dead end.
I would really recommend new casters to read ReDeYe’s guide to eSports broadcasting, work on your delivery, understand the game extremely in depth, be open to criticism and build a solid knowledge base and don’t get disheartened easily. There are no shortcuts, you need to persevere like in any other field; but with the right approach and work ethic it’s possible to get somewhere. And most importantly, don’t forget to have fun!
Thanks for being very frank and transparent all-throughout. Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Shoutout to all the guys who used to tune in when I just started casting and gave me that initial encouragement to keep continuing. Also, a huge shoutout to the brilliant nutcases in SoStronk who make me continue to do. what I love.
And of course to everyone who want to make it in eSports, don’t let anyone get you down. Just persevere and always keep your head up. GLHF!
