Author: Nik Ranger

All Genshin Impact Cyno ascension materials HoYoverseCyno is set to receive a rerun alongside Ayato in the second phase of Genshin Impact version 4.2. Here is a list of all the ascension materials that you need to farm for the unit. Cyno is not as popular of a unit in Genshin Impact, the primary reason being his low base damage. However, he can function in the Dendro teams within the game where he truly shines on account of reactions like Hyperbloom and Aggravate. Additionally, even though players are not that fond of his damage, a lot of them love his design. So, if you are one of those players who want to pull for Cyno and build him just because you like the character, we have you covered. Here are the ascension materials that you need for Cyno in the game. Genshin Impact Cyno ascension materials Cyno in Genshin Impact needs Scarab, Vajrada Amethyst Silver, and Divining Scroll for ascension. You will also need Thunderclap Fruitcore which can be obtained from the Electro Regisvine boss. The exact number of materials that you need has been presented below: Vajrada Amethyst Silver x1 – Vajrada Amethyst Fragment x9 – Vajrada Amethyst Chunk x9 – Vajrada Amethyst Gemstone x6 – Scarab x168 – Divining Scroll x18 – Sealed Scroll x30 – Forbidden Curse Scroll x36 – Thunderclap Fruitcore x46 – Genshin Impact Cyno talent level-up materials The talent level-up materials that you need for Cyno include Teachings of Admonition, Diving Scroll, Mudra of Malefic General, and Crown of Insight. Here are the exact number of materials that you’ll need: Teachings of Admonition x9 – Guide to Admonition x63 – Philosophies of Admonition x114 – Divining Scroll x18 – Sealed Scroll x66 – Forbidden Curse Scroll x93 – Mudra of the Malefic General x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – This is all that you need to know about Cyno’s ascension materials in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact

All Genshin Impact Clorinde ascension materials HoYoverseClorinde is an upcoming 5-star Electro sword unit in Genshin Impact. Here are all the ascension materials you need for the unit along with their locations. Clorinde has been part of Fontaine’s main story ever since version 4.0 was released, which makes her one of the most highly-anticipated units among Genshin Impact players. If you are willing to pull for her in version 4.7, you will also be looking to ascend her as fast as possible. Clorinde‘s ascension materials have been leaked and here is what we know about it so far. It is, however, important to mention that the information is based on leaks, which are subject to change in the future. Contents Clorinde ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Clorinde’s ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Clorinde talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Clorinde talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Clorinde ascension materials in Genshin Impact The materials you need for Clorinde are Vajrada Amethyst Silver and its upgrades, Fontemer Unihorn, Lumitoile, Transoceanic Pearl, and its upgrades. Among these, the Electro stones can be farmed from the Hypostasis. You can farm Fontemer Unihorn from the Millennial Pearl Seahorse boss, and Lumitoile is a local specialty of Fontaine. The exact number of materials you need to ascend Clorinde across every level are as follows: The total number of materials you need for Clorinde are as follows: Vajrada Amethyst Silver x1 – Vajrada Amethyst Fragment x9 – Vajrada Amethyst Chunk x9 – Vajrada Amethyst Gemstone x6 – Fontemer Unihorn x46 – Lumitoile x168 – Transoceanic Pearl x18 – Transoceanic Chunk x39 – Xenochromatic Crystal x36 – Mora x420,000 – Hero’s Wit x420 – Where to farm Clorinde’s materials in Genshin Impact? Vajrada Amethyst Silver and its upgrades This material can be farmed from the Electro Hypostasis in Mondstadt. You can reach this boss by teleporting to Cape Oath and traveling in the southwest direction. Fontemer Unihorn This material can be farmed by defeating the boss Millenial Pearl Seahorse in Sumeru. You can reach this boss by teleporting to an underground waypoint in Lokapala Jungle. This underground waypoint can be found by walking through a cave found in Mawtiyima Forest. Lumitoile This is a local specialty in Fontaine and is found in abundance along the coasts of the Liffey Region as marked by the Red circles on the map above. Transoceanic Pearl and its upgrades This is a material that is dropped by an enemy called Fontemer Aberrant, found in Fontaine. If you want to farm this material, use your Adventurer’s Handbook which can be accessed from the main menu or by clicking on the book symbol on the top right corner of your screen. Click on the book symbol, go to the enemies tab, and look for Fontemer Aberrant. From here, click on Navigate and the game will automatically guide you to the locations of this enemy. Clorinde talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact Clorinde in Genshin Impact needs access to Teachings of Justice and its upgrades, Transoceanic Pearl and its upgrades, and Everamber. The exact number of materials you need to level up Clorinde’s talents are as follows: Where to find Clorinde’s talent level-up materials Teachings of Justice and its upgrades Clorinde’s talent books can be farmed from the domain Pale Forgotten Glory in Fontaine. This particular talent book is available on Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. Everamber Everamber can be obtained by defeating the Guardian of Apep’s Oasis boss. This boss can be unlocked as part of Nahida’s second story quest in Genshin Impact. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators

All Genshin Impact Chiori ascension materials HoYoverseChiori is an upcoming brand new Geo 5-star unit in Genshin Impact. Here are the ascension and talent level-up materials for the unit. Genshin Impact version 4.5 is set to introduce a brand-new playable unit in the game that players have already come across once during the event quest in version 4.3 as the owner of a shop in Fontaine. Her name is Chiori, and she is a Geo unit. As it happens, players have been hyped about the character ever since she was first introduced. However, with her becoming playable in version 4.5, there is no doubt a lot of the player base will be looking to pull for her. Here is all we know about the ascension and talent level-up materials for Chiori. Genshin Impact Chiori Ascension materials Genshin Impact has officially confirmed the Ascension Materials needed for Chiori. These are the exact number of materials you will need: Prithiva Topaz Silver x1 – Prithiva Topaz Fragment x9 – Prithiva Topaz Chunk x9 – Prithiva Topaz Gemstone x6 – Artificed Spare Clockwork Component – Coppelia x46 – Dendrobium x168 – Spectral Husk x18 – Spectral Heart x30 – Spectral Nucleus x36 – Genshin Impact Chiori talent level-up materials Here are the Talent level-up materials you will need for Chiori: Teachings of Light x9 – Guide to Light x63 – Philosophies of Light x114 – Spectral Husk x18 – Spectral Heart x66 – Spectral Nucleus x93 – Lightless Silk String x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – For more on Genshin Impact, click on the links provided below. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact

All Genshin Impact Chevreuse ascension materials HoYoverseChevreuse is a brand new 4-star Pyro unit that is set for release in Genshin Impact version 4.3. Here are the Ascension and Talent level-up materials for the unit. Genshin Impact, ever since the release of Fontaine, has once again managed to appeal to the audience. The characters, storytelling, environmental setting, and QoL changes in the game have hit the mark, which has made players across the world very happy. The biggest talking point so far has been the characters that are hitting the mark in terms of design and viability. Hence, with Navia and Chevreuse releasing in version 4.3, the hype is at an all-time high. If you are planning to get Chevreuse, you will be looking to build her as soon as possible. Therefore, we have got you covered with regard to her Ascension and Talent level-up materials. Chevreuse ascension materials in Genshin Impact Genshin Impact has officially revealed the materials required to ascend Chevreuse. You will need Agnidus Agate Silver, Fontemer Unihorn, Lumidouce Bell, and Meshing Gear. Here are the exact number of items that you will need to ascend Chevreuse: Agnidus Agate Silver x1 – Agnidus Agate Fragment x9 – Agnidus Agate Chunk x9 – Agnidus Agate Gemstone x6 – Lumidouce Bell x168 – Fontemer Unihorn x46 – Meshing Gear x18 – Mechanical Spur Gear x30 – Artificed Dynamic Gear x36 – Chevreuse Talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact Here are all the Talent level-up materials for Chevreuse in Genshin Impact: Teachings of Order x9 – Guide to Order x63 – Philosophies of Order x114 – Meshing Gear x18 – Mechanical Spur Gear x66 – Artificed Dynamic Gear x93 – Lightless Eye of the Maelstrom x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – This is all that you need to know about Chevreuse Ascension materials in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact

All Genshin Impact Charlotte ascension materials HoYoverseCharlotte is an upcoming Cryo Catalyst user in Genshin Impact. Here is all you need to know about her ascension materials in the game. Charlotte is a character whom players have been acquainted with for quite a while in the game. She made her first appearance in Inazuma, where she introduced herself as a reporter. However, that meeting was extremely brief which left fans asking for more. As it happens, she has made a considerable amount of appearance in Fontaine and is ready to become playable in Genshin Impact patch 4.2. If you planning to pull for her in the next patch, then you can start farming for her beforehand. Here are the ascension materials you will need for Charlotte in Genshin Impact. Charlotte ascension materials Genshin Impact Charlotte’s ascension materials have not been confirmed yet, but they have been leaked by the community. As per the information provided on Honey Hunter, Charlotte will need Shivada Jade Silver, Beryl Conch, Meshing Gear, and Tourbillion Device for ascension. The total number of materials that you will need for her has been provided below: Shivada Jade Silver x1 – Shivada Jade Fragment x9 – Shivada Jade Chunk x9 – Shivada Jade Gemstone x6 – Beryl Conch x168 – Meshing Gear x18 – Mechanical Spur Gear x30 – Artificed Dynamic Gear x36 – Tourbillion Device x46 – Hero’s Wit x419 – Mora x7.1M – Charlotte talent level up materials in Genshin Impact In order to level up Charlotte’s talents, you will need access to Teachings of Justice, Guide to Justice, Philosophies of Justice, Meshing Gear, Mechanical Spur Gear, Artificed Dynamic Gear, un-named boss material, and Crown of Insight. The un-named boss material will be revealed at a much later date. Nevertheless, the total number of materials you will need for Charlotte is provided below: Teachings of Justice x9 – Guide to Justice x63 – Philosophies of Justice x114 – Meshing Gear x18 – Mechanical Spur Gear x66 – Ancient Dynamic Gear x93 – un-named boss material x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – There you have it, this is all you need to know about Charlotte’s ascension material in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish

All Genshin Impact Baizhu ascension materials HoYoverseBaizhu, the Dendro healer is set to receive a rerun in the second half of Genshin Impact version 4.6. Here is a list of the ascension materials for the characters in case you are willing to pull him. Baizhu is one of the best healers in all of Genshin Impact. His healing is on par with the likes of Kokomi and is an easy fit for almost any Dendro team in the game. However, he did not receive as much attention and had one of the lowest-selling banners of all time. As it happens, with Furina‘s release, his effectiveness has gone up due to his healing and synergy with the Hydro element. Hence, if you plan to pull for Baizhu, we have you covered. Here are the ascension materials for Baizhu in the game. Contents Baizhu ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Baizhu ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Baizhu talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Baizhu talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Baizhu ascension materials in Genshin Impact Baizhu in Genshin Impact requires Nagadus Emerald Silver, Evergloom Ring, Violetgrass, and Mora. The number of materials you need across every level has been listed in the following table: The ascension materials have been listed below: Nagadus Emerald Silver x1 – Nagadus Emerald Fragment x9 – Nagadus Emerald Chunk x9 – Nagadus Emerald Gemstone x6 – Evergloom Ring x46 – Violetgrass x168 – Fungal Spores x18 – Luminescent Pollen x30 – Crystalline Cyst Dust x36 – Where to farm Baizhu ascension materials in Genshin Impact Nagadus Emerald Silver and its upgrades This material can be farmed by defeating the boss Dendro Hypostasis. You can find it in the desert region of Sumeru near Dar al-Shifa. You just need to teleport to the Land of Lower Setekh waypoint and enter a cave to the east. Evergloom Ring This material can be farmed from the boss Iniquitous Baptist. This boss is located in the desert region of Sumeru near the Gate of Zulqarnain. Violetgrass This material is a Local Specialty of Liyue and can be found spread all across the region. The areas where Violetgrass is found in abundance are the Chasm, Mingyun Village, Mount Tianheng, Lingju Pass, Teatree Slope in Chenyu Vale, and Wuwang Hill. The areas have been marked in red in the above image. Fungal Spores and its upgrades Fungal Spores can be farmed from the enemy called Fungus. However, you must ensure you do not use Pyro or Electro attacks to kill the Fungal Spores. If you use Pyro or Electro attacks to defeat them, they will drop the Inactivated Fungal Nucleus. Therefore, it is recommended you use Cryo or Hydro to defeat this enemy. You can find this enemy in the Adventurer’s Handbook. All you need to do is select the enemy and click Navigate, and the game will automatically reveal their locations. Baizhu talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact Baizhu’s talents in Genshin Impact require Teachings of Gold, Guide to Gold, Philosophies of Gold, Fungal Spores, Luminescent Pollen, and Worldspan Fern. The exact materials you need to level up Baizhu’s talents in Genshin Impact have been listed below: Where to farm Baizhu ascension materials in Genshin Impact Teachings of Gold and its upgrades Teachings of Gold can be farmed from Taishan Mansion near Jueyun Karst in Liyue. You can farm this talent material on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Worldspan Fern Worldspan Fern is a drop from the Apep’s Guardian Trounce domain boss. You have to unlock this enemy by completing Nahida’s second story quest in Genshin Impact. This is all you need to know about Baizhu’s ascension materials in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform?

All Genshin Impact Ayato ascension materials HoYoverseAyato, the Hydro DPS unit in Genshin Impact is set to receive a rerun in version update 4.2. Here are the ascension materials that you will need for Ayato in the game. Ayato is an exceptionally powerful unit in Genshin Impact. He has very good damage output, and he also functions quite well with other units like Furina, Xingiu, and Yelan. His versatility makes him one of the best units to invest in within the game. Hence, if you are interested in pulling for Ayato, you can collect his ascension and talent level-up materials right away since all of them are available in the game. In case you are not sure about the exact materials you need, we have got you covered. All ascension materials for Ayato in Genshin Impact Ayato in Genshin Impact needs Varunada Lazurite Silver, Sakura Bloom, and Old Hanguard. You will also need Dew of Repudiation which can be farmed by defeating the Hydro Hypostasis. The exact number of materials that you require for Ayato has been discussed below: Varunada Lazurite Silver x1 – Varunada Lazurite Fragment x9 – Varunada Lazurite Chunk x9 – Varunada Lazurite Gemstone x6 – Sakura Bloom x168 – Old Handguard x18 – Kageuchi Handguard x30 – Famed Handguard x36 – Dew of Repudiation x46 – Genshin Impact Ayato talent level-up materials In order to upgrade Ayato’s talents, you will need Teachings of Elegance, Old Handguard, Mudra of Malefic General, and Crown of Insight. The exact number of materials that you need has been discussed below: Teachings of Elegance x9 – Guide to Elegance x63 – Philosophies of Elegance x114 – Old Handguard x18 – Kageuchi Handguard x66 – Famed Handguard x93 – Mudra of Malefic General x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – This concludes all that you need to know about Ayato’s ascension materials in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. Best Yae Miko build | Best Albedo build | Best Aloy build | Best Ayaka build | Best Barbara build | Best Childe build | Best Eula build | Best Ganyu build | Best Hu Tao build | Best Itto build | Best Jean build | Best Kazuha build | Best Keqing build | Best Klee build | Best Kokomi build | Best Mona build | Best Qiqi build | Best Raiden Shogun build | Best Shenhe build | Best Venti build | Best Xiao build | Best Yoimiya build | Best Yun Jin build | Best Zhongli build

All Genshin Impact Ayaka ascension materials HoYoverseAyaka is set to receive a rerun alongside Genshin Impact version update 4.3. Here is everything you need to know about the ascension materials for the characters. Ayaka is a pretty old unit in Genshin Impact at this point. She was released back in version update 2.0 and since then she has been able to maintain her position as one of the most popular hyper-carry units in the game. She is not as strong in the current meta as she was back then, but if you have Shenhe and Furina, Ayaka can still deal a lot of damage. Therefore, if you do not have Ayaka yet and looking to get her instead of Navia, you will need to collect her ascension materials as soon as possible. All her ascension materials are readily available for farming as of right now. Here is what you need to know regarding the ascension materials for Ayaka in the game. Ayaka ascension materials in Genshin Impact Ayaka in Genshin Impact requires Shivada Jade Silver, Sakura Bloom, Perpetual Heart, Old Handguard, Kageuchi Handguard, and Famed Handguard. The total number of materials you need to ascend her to 90 has been listed below: Shivada Jade Silver x1 – Shivada Jade Fragment x9 – Shivada Jade Chunk x9 – Shivada Jade Gemstone x6 – Sakura Bloom x168 – Perpetual Heart x46 – Old Handguard x18 – Kageuchi Handguard x30 – Famed Handguard x46 – Ayaka talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact The talent level-up materials you need for Ayaka in the game have been listed below: Teachings of Elegance x9 – Guide to Elegance x63 – Philosophies of Elegance x114 – Old Handguard x18 – Kageuchi Handguard x66 – Famed Handguard x93 – Bloodjade Branch x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – This is all you need to know about Ayaka’s Ascension materials in Genshin Impact. If you found it informative, do not forget to check out some of our other guides at Dexerto. Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact

All Genshin Impact Arlecchino ascension materials HoYoverseArlecchino is a brand new 5-star Polearm Pyro unit, released alongside Genshin Impact version 4.6. Here are the ascension and talent level-up materials for the unit that you need to farm for her. Arlecchino is the fourth Fatui Harbinger and is one of the most popular characters in Genshin Impact. Players have been waiting for her to become playable ever since she was revealed for the first time in the trailer, A Winter Night’s Lazzo. Arlecchino became playable on April 24, 2024, and players are quite hyped about her. If you are pulling for her, you will need to collect all her ascension materials beforehand. Here is what you need to farm for Arlecchino in Genshin Impact. Contents Arlecchino ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Arlecchino ascension materials in Genshin Impact – Arlecchino talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Where to farm Arlecchino talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact – Arlecchino ascension materials in Genshin Impact Arlecchino in Genshin Impact will require Agnidus Agate Silver, Recruit’s Insignia, Sergeant’s Insignia, Lieutenant’s Insignia, Rainbow Rose, and unnamed boss material. The materials you need across every level have been listed in the following table: The exact number of materials that you need to ascend here are as follows: Agnidus Agate Silver x1 – Agnidus Agate Fragment x9 – Agnidus Agate Chunk x9 – Agnidus Agate Gemstone x6 – Fragment of a Golden Melody x46 – Rainbow Rose x168 – Recruit’s Insignia x18 – Sergeant’s Insignia x30 – Lieutenant’s Insignia x36 – Where to farm Arlecchino ascension materials in Genshin Impact Agnidus Agate Silver and its upgrades You can farm this material from the Pyro Hypostasis in Inazuma. You can find the Pyro Hypostasis to the west of Kujou Encampment in Kannazuka. Fragment of a Golden Melody This is a material that is dropped by a boss named Legatus Golem. You can unlock this boss after completing The Shadow Over Petrichor World Quest. Rainbow Rose This is a local specialty of Fontaine that can be farmed all over the region. You can find it in abundance in the Beryl region, Northwest of the Court of Fontaine, and near Erinnyes Forest. The areas have been marked in red in the above image. Recruit’s Insignia and its upgrades These materials can be farmed by defeating the Fatui Skirmisher in Genshin Impact. You can locate these enemies from the Adventurer’s Handbook which can be found on the top right-hand corner of your screen. All you need to do is go to the enemies section in the Adventurer’s Handbook, look for the Fatui Skirmisher, and click navigate. The game will automatically guide you to the enemy locations. Arlecchino Talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact Arlecchino’s talent materials in Genshin Impact include Teachings of Order, Guide to Order, Philosophies of Order, Recruit’s Insignia and its upgrades, and Fading Candle. The total number of materials is as follows: Where to farm Arlecchino talent level-up materials in Genshin Impact Teachings of Order and its upgrades Teachings of Order can be farmed from the domain Pale Forgotten Glory in Fontaine. This domain can be found underwater as shown in the above image. You can farm this material on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Fading Candle This material is a drop from the Arlecchino boss fight in Genshin Impact. You need to unlock this boss fight by completing Arlecchino’s story quest called Ignis Purgatorius Chapter: Act 1. The domain is located to the South of Mont Esus East near a certain circular ruin. Arataki Itto build | Ayaka build | Diluc build | Eula build | Ganyu build | Genshin Impact tier list | Gorou build | Jean build | Keqing build |

All Genshin Impact Arataki Itto ascension materials HoYoverseArataki Itto is currently being featured alongside Chiori on a Genshin Impact rerun banner. Here are the ascension and talent level-up materials for the unit. Arataki Itto is quite a powerful unit in Genshin Impact. He is a DEF scaling DPS unit who can dish out brilliant damage, provided you put him in a dedicated Geo team. Ideally, you are expected to run Gorou and Albedo with Itto. However, with the release of Chiori in version 4.5, you can replace Albedo with a much stronger support character and increase Itto’s DPS by a lot. Hence, if you are looking to pull for Arataki Itto in version 4.5 as well, we have got you covered. Here is all you need to know about the ascension materials for Arataki Itto. Genshin Impact Arataki Itto ascension materials Arataki Itto in Genshin Impact requires Prithiva Topaz Silver, Onikabuto, Riftborn Regalia, Slime Condensate, Slime Secretions, and Slime Concentrate. The total number of ascension materials you will need are as follows: Prithiva Topaz Silver x1 – Prithiva Topaz Fragment x9 – Prithiva Topaz Chunk x9 – Prithiva Topaz Gemstone x6 – Onikabuto x168 – Riftborn Regalia x46 – Slime Condensate x18 – Slime Secretions x30 – Slime Concentrate x36 – Genshin Impact Arataki Itto talent level-up materials The ascension materials you need for Arataki Itto are as follows: Teachings of Elegance x9 – Guide to Elegance x63 – Philosophies of Elegance x114 – Slime Condensate x18 – Slime Secretions x66 – Slime Concentrate x93 – Ashen Heart x18 – Crown of Insight x3 – For more on Genshin Impact, click on the links provided below. All Electro characters in Genshin Impact | All Cryo characters in Genshin Impact | Games like Genshin Impact | Best Barbara build in Genshin Impact | Best Genshin Impact Wish Simulators | Genshin Impact stats tracker | Is Genshin Impact cross-platform? | All free characters in Genshin Impact | Genshin Impact pick rates | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to get Radish in Genshin Impact | Where to find your screenshot folder in Genshin Impact | Best Diluc build in Genshin Impact

All Genius Invokation TCG cards in Genshin Impact: Character Cards, Equipment Cards & Support Cards HoYoverseAll Genius Invokation TCG cards in Genshin Impact will have their own strengths and weaknesses, so here’s every card in the game mode so far. The Genshin Impact Genius Invokation TCG is home to plenty of Character Cards, Equipment Cards, and Support Cards that Travelers can use to get an advantage over their foes. In fact, starting from the 3.3 update, players can unlock and experiment with various cards to create the most powerful Genius Invokation decks. From the scorching hot attacks of Xiangling to the icy abilities of Ganyu, there are cards for every kind of elemental playstyle. So, if you’re wondering whether your favorite Genshin Impact character is featured in the new permanent game mode, then we’ve outlined every Genius Invokation card that’s coming to the game so far. Contents Genius Invokation TCG Character Cards – Genius Invokation TCG Equipment Cards – Genius Invokation TCG Support Cards – Genius Invokation TCG Character Cards Genshin Impact Character Cards can use Normal Attacks, Elemental Skills, and Elemental Bursts to eliminate other cards on the battlefield. Travelers can also set up and trigger Elemental Reactions, so it’s important to build decks around the cards below if you wish to dominate the competition. According to UBatcha, the Genshin Impact Genius Invokation TCG will feature 220 cards and 25 of them will be characters from the current playable character roster. The current list of Genshin Impact TCG characters can be found below: Ganyu – Diona – Kaeya – Chongyun – Kamisato Ayaka – Barbara – Xingqiu – Mona – Diluc – Xiangling – Bennett – Yoimiya – Fischl – Razor – Jean – Keqing – Cyno – Sucrose – Collei – Ningguang – Noelle – Arataki Itto – Maguu Kenki – Rhodeia of Loch – Cryo Hilichurl Shooter – Blazing Axe Mitachurl – Ice Shieldwall Mitachurl – Fatui Pyro Agent – Fatui Skirmisher- Hydrogunner Legionnaire – Genius Invokation TCG Equipment Cards Genius Invokation Equipment Cards serve as a way to buff your Character Cards’ attacks and defensive capabilities. Essentially, these weapons and Artifact sets can help give you the edge in combat, especially when playing against particularly tough opponents. All the currently confirmed Genius Invokation Equipment Cards can be found below: White Iron Greatsword – Sacrificial Greatsword – Skyward Spine – Traveler’s Handy Sword – Raven Bow – Sacrificial Bow – Viridescent Venerer – Mask of Solitude Basalt – Archaic Petra – White Tassel – Lithic Spear – Lucky Dog’s Silver Circlet – Traveling Doctor’s Handkerchief – Gambler’s Earrings – Instructor’s Cap – Exile’s Circlet – Broken Rime’s Echo – Heart of Depth – Witch’s Scorching Hat – Crimson Witch of Flames – Magic Guide – Sacrificial Fragments – Skyward Atlas – Skyward Harp – Wolf’s Gravestone – Sacrificial Sword – Aquila Favonia – Adventurer’s Bandana – Blizzard Strayer – Wine-Stained Tricorne – Thunder Summer’s Crown – Thundering Fur – Viridescent Venerer’s Diadem – Laurel Coronet – Deepwood Memories – Genius Invokation TCG Support Cards As the name suggests, Genius Invokation Support Cards can buff your Character Cards, providing them with the necessary nudge they need to continue fighting. Not much is known about this element of the game, but you can find all the current Support Cards below: Liben – Chef Mao – Katheryne – Hydro Mimic Ferret – Hydro Mimic Raptor – So, there you have it, that’s every Genius Invokation Character Card, Equipment Card, and Support Card we know about in the game so far. Make sure to check back here regularly as we’ll be adding to this list once HoYoverse reveals more cards. In the meantime, be sure to check out our Genshin Impact page for all the latest news and updates. How to get Mora | Genshin Impact promo codes | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to buy apples | Genshin Impact cross-save: How to link accounts | All Cryo characters | All Electro characters | All Geo characters | All Pyro characters | All Dendro characters | Is Genshin Impact on Steam? | Genshin Impact pick rates

All buffs and nerfs in Genshin Impact Version 2.6: Yae Miko, Kokomi, more HoYoverseGenshin Impact 2.6 character buffs and nerfs have helped to fix a number of bugs, which have enabled the likes of Yae Miko and Kokomi to truly shine. So, before you delve into the latest content, be sure to check out all the latest character changes. The Genshin Impact 2.6 update is finally here, which means Travelers can finally spend their Primogems on the Kamisato Ayato banner. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the addition of The Chasm – a new cavernous area that has been added to the game. While many players will be busy farming to get Ayato’s best build and exploring the new content, HoYoverse has made a number of significant changes to some fan-favorite characters. In fact, the likes of Yae Miko, Kokomi, and Bennett have all received some much-needed fixes. Whether you’re looking to build the most powerful team comp in Genshin Impact or just wish to know whether your favorite unit was hit hard, then be sure to check out all of the character buffs and nerfs in Genshin Impact 2.6. Contents Genshin Impact 2.6 character buffs and nerfs The Genshin Impact character buffs and nerfs for 2.6 mainly focus on fixing bugs that have impacted each unit’s performance. Those hoping for fixes to Yae Miko’s Elemental skill targeting will be glad to see that HoYoverse has finally addressed this game-breaking issue, while the abnormal damage from Eula and Bennett have also been rectified. All changes are listed below. Sangonomiya Kokomi Switching characters immediately after Kokomi has cast her Elemental Skill, and then switching back to Kokomi no longer results in the skill effect playing abnormally. Yae Miko Yae Miko’s foxtail effect now appears normally when she activates her Elemental Burst immediately after Raiden Shogun has used her Secret Art: Musou Shinsetsu. Sesshou Sakura will now prioritize attacks on the nearest opponents within range and no longer hit opponents at random. Eula HoYoverse has fixed an issue where the damage dealt by Eula’s Lightfall Sword from her Elemental Burst was abnormal when the frame rate was low. Bennett Bennett’s Passive Talent “Fearnaught” no longer has an abnormal duration under certain circumstances. So, there you have it, all the Genshin Impact character buffs and nerfs in the 2.6 update. Make sure you check out our Genshin Impact page for all the latest news and guides. Best Albedo build | Best Aloy build | Best Ayaka build | Best Barbara build | Best Childe build | Best Eula build | Best Ganyu build | Best Hu Tao build | Best Jean build | Best Kazuha build | Best Keqing build | Genshin Impact pick rates | Genshin Impact banner: What is the current banner? | All banner reruns in Genshin Impact

Albedo banner rerun in Genshin Impact: Release date, 4-star characters, more HoYoverseThe Genshin Impact Albedo banner rerun will enable players to add the Geo character to their team, so here’s everything we know about his return so far. Albedo is a 5-star Geo character that is a great addition to any Genshin Impact team looking for a tanky support. The Kreideprinz utilizes his sword and AoE abilities to obliterate clustered enemies, while his tanky defense enables him to effortlessly sponge incoming damage. In fact, when Albedo is equipped with the best build, he can make short work of even the most stalwart of foes. While the game’s Albedo banner rerun was recently released, many Genshin Impact players will have missed the opportunity to unlock him. Whether you’re looking to unlock his power Constellation buffs or just wish to add him to your roster, then we have all the information you need about Albedo’s possible rerun. Contents Is there an Albedo banner rerun release date in Genshin Impact? – Albedo banner rerun 4-star characters in Genshin Impact – Is there an Albedo banner rerun release date in Genshin Impact? Albedo’s rerun banner was available in Genshin Impact between October 14, 2022, and November 1, 2022, during the game’s 3.1 update. The Chief Alchemist previously received a rerun in the Genshin Impact 2.3 update, which famously introduced Arataki Itto to the game. Albedo banner rerun 4-star characters in Genshin Impact The Albedo banner rerun characters have yet to be revealed, but HoYoverse will announce which 4-stars will join him as we get closer to a possible release date. All the previous characters that received a rate up in Albedo’s banner can be found below: Fischl (Electro) – Sucrose (Anemo) – Bennett (Pyro) – Noelle (Geo) – Rosaria (Cryo) – So, there you have it, everything we know about the Albedo banner rerun. Make sure you check out our other Genshin Impact page for all the latest news and guides. Best Genshin Impact characters: Ranked tier list | How to get Mora | How to get free characters | What is Pity in Genshin Impact? | Where to buy apples | Genshin Impact cross-save: How to link accounts | All Cryo characters | All Electro characters | All Geo characters | All Pyro characters | Is Genshin Impact on Steam? | Genshin Impact banner: What is the current banner? | Is there a Genshin Impact anime show? | Genshin Impact daily login rewards

Best Alhaitham Genshin Impact build: Artifacts, weapons, more HoYoverseAlhaitham is a formidable 5-star Dendro user in Genshin Impact. Here’s everything you need to know about effectively building the character. Alhaitham serves as the Sumeru Akademiya’s scribe and as a member of the Haravatat, one of the six Darshans. He also lives with the 4-star Dendro character Kaveh after the latter had financial issues following the construction of the Palace of Alcazarzaray. Alhaitham is an exceptionally powerful Main DPS that can quickly apply Dendro to opponents. He also has the ability to hit multiple targets with the potential to cause Dendro-related Elemental Reactions. If you’re looking to build Alhaitham, keep reading to learn our recommended Artifacts, weapons, and more. Contents Alhaitham abilities in Genshin Impact – Alhaitham Constellations in Genshin Impact – Best Alhaitham Artifacts in Genshin Impact – Best Alhaitham weapons in Genshin Impact – Alhaitham Talent Level-up and Ascension Materials – Best Alhaitham team comp in Genshin Impact – Alhaitham pros and cons in Genshin Impact – Should you pull for Alhaitham in Genshin Impact – Alhaitham trailer in Genshin Impact – Alhaitham abilities in Genshin Impact Normal Attack: Abductive Reasoning Normal Attack: Performs up to 5 rapid strikes. – Charged Attack: Consumes a certain amount of Stamina to unleash 2 rapid sword strikes. – Plunging Attack: Plunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE DMG upon impact. – Elemental Skill: Universality: An Elaboration on Form Rushes forward, dealing Dendro DMG to nearby opponents when the rush ends, causing a Chisel-Light Mirror to form. Holding this skill will cause it to behave differently. Hold: Enters Aiming Mode to adjust the direction of Alhaitham’s rush attack. Chisel-Light Mirror: When this skill is unleashed, Alhaitham will generate 1 Chisel-Light Mirror. If there are no Mirrors at this time, he will generate 1 additional Mirror. Chisel-Light Mirrors will have the following properties: When he possesses Chisel-Light Mirrors, Alhaitham’s Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attacks will be converted to Dendro damage that cannot be overriden – When attacks of the aforementioned kinds hit opponents, the Chisel-Light Mirrors will unleash a Projection Attack that deals AoE Dendro DMG based on the number of Mirrors on the field. – A total of 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors can exist at once. – The Chisel-Light Mirrors will disappear one after the other over time, and will all disappear when Alhaitham leaves the field. Elemental Burst: Fetters of Phenomena Creates a Particular Binding Field and deals multiple instances of AoE Dendro DMG. If Chisel-Light Mirrors exist when this ability is unleashed, all such Mirrors will be consumed and increase the number of DMG instances dealt. 2 seconds after this ability is unleashed, if 0/1/2/3 Mirrors were consumed, Alhaitham will generate 3/2/1/0 new Mirrors in turn. Alhaitham Constellations in Genshin Impact If you’re lucky enough to pull multiple copies of Alhaitham, here are the powerful buffs you’ll receive from his Constellations: Level One – Intuition: When a Projection Attack hits an opponent, Universality: An Elaboration on Form‘s CD is decreased by 1 second. This effect can be triggered once every 1 second. – Level Two – Debate: When Alhaitham generates a Chisel-Light Mirror, his Elemental Mastery will be increased by 50 for 8 seconds, max 4 stacks. Each stack’s duration is counted independently. This effect can be triggered even when the maximum number of Chisel-Light Mirrors has been reached. – Level Three – Negation: Increases the Level of Universality: An Elaboration on Form by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. – Level Four – Elucidation: When Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena is unleashed, the following effects will become active based on the number of Chisel-Light Mirrors consumed and created this time around: Each Mirror consumed will increase the Elemental Mastery of all other nearby party members by 30 for 15s. – Each Mirror generated will grant Alhaitham a 10% Dendro DMG Bonus for 15s. – The pre-existing duration of the aforementioned effects will be cleared if you use Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena again while they are in effect. – – Level Five – Sagacity: Increases the Level of Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena by 3. Maximum upgrade level is 15. – Level Six – Structuration: Alhaitham gains the following effects: 2 seconds after Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena is unleashed, he will generate 3 Chisel-Light Mirrors regardless of the number of mirrors consumed. – If Alhaitham generates Chisel-Light Mirrors when their numbers have already maxed out, his CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG will increase by 10% and 70% respectively for 5s. – If this effect is triggered again during its initial duration, the duration remaining will be increased by 5s. – – Best Alhaitham Artifacts in Genshin Impact If you want to run Alhaitham as a Dendro Main DPS, we recommend running the Gilded Dreams set if another character can have the Deepwood Memories artifacts equipped. Gilded Dreams will increase Alhaitham’s Elemental Mastery by 80 in addition to the ATK or Elemental Mastery of teammates, depending on their Elemental Type. Otherwise, we suggest using the Deepwood Memories set for Alhaitham to improve his Dendro DMG by 15% and reduce opponents’ Dendro RES by 30% for eight seconds. Best Alhaitham weapons in Genshin Impact The best weapon option for Alhaitham is the 5-star Light of Foliar Incision. This sword increases the character’s CRIT Rate by 4% in addition to increasing the DMG dealt by Normal Attacks and Elemental Skills by 120% of their Elemental Mastery. This effect occurs after Normal Attacks deal Elemental DMG, making it a great choice for Alhaitham. If you don’t have Alhaitham’s signature, you could run Primordial Jade Cutter to possess an ATK bonus based on 1.2% of his HP alongside a 20% HP bonus. Alternatively, the Wolf-Fang is also an excellent 4-star sword for Alhaitham to improve his Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst DMG by 16%. After hitting an opponent with either an Elemental Skill or Elemental Burst, Alhaitham’s CRIT Rate will increase by 2% at a maximum of four stacks, which can be triggered every 0.1 seconds. Alhaitham Talent Level-up and Ascension Materials Alhaitham Ascension Materials Alhaitham in Genshin Impact needs Nagadus Emerald Silver, Psuedo Stamens, Sand Grease Pupa, Faded Red Satin, Trimmed Red Silk, and Rich Red Brocade. The total number of materials you need to ascend Alhaitham are: Nagadus Emerald Silver x1 – Nagadus Emerald Fragment x9 – Nagadus Emerald Chunk x9 – Nagadus Emerald Gemstone x6 – Pseudo Stamens x46 – Faded Red Satin x18 – Trimmed Red Silk x30 – Rich Red Brocade x36 – Sand Grease Pupa x168 – Where to farm Alhaitham Ascension materials Nagadus Emerald Silver and its upgrades Nagadus Emerald Silver and its upgrades can be farmed from the Dendro Hypostasis in Sumeru. You can locate it in Dar al-Shifa, very close to the Land of Lower Setekh teleport waypoint. Sand Grease Pupa and its upgrades Sand Grease Pupa is a local specialty of Sumeru and can be located around Mt. Damavand in the desert region. The locations have been marked in red in the image provided above. Pseudo Stamens Pseudo Stamens is dropped by a boss named Setekh Wenut. This boss is located in the desert region of Sumeru very close to Wenut Tunnels teleport waypoint. Faded Red Satin and its upgrades Faded Red Satin and its upgrades can be farmed from the Eremites in Sumeru. You can locate these enemies from the Adventurer’s Handbook in Genshin Impact. You need to open the Adventurer’s Handbook, go to the enemies section, and look for Eremites. Click on navigate and the game will direct you to the location of the enemies automatically. Alhaitham Talent level-up materials Alhaitham in Genshin Impact needs Teachings of Ingenuity, Guide to Ingenuity, Philosophies of Ingenuity, Faded Red Satin and its upgrades, and Mirror of Mushin. The exact number of materials you need are as follows: Where to farm Alhaitham Talent level-up materials Teachings of Ingenuity and its upgrades Teachings of Ingenuity can be farmed from the Steeple of Ignorance domain in Sumeru. It can be found close to Chatrakam Cave. Mirror of Mushin Mirror of Mushin is dropped by the Scaramouche boss fight in Joururi Workshop in Sumeru. You need to unlock it by completing Sumeru’s Archon Quest in Genshin Impact. Best Alhaitham team comp in Genshin Impact We highly recommend placing Alhaitham on a team focused on triggering the Hyperbloom and Quicken Elemental Reactions. Therefore, we suggest running Alhaitham alongside Yelan, Nahida, and Kuki Shinobu. These are all great options to be able to hit multiple targets and cause Elemental Reactions. Alternatively, you could use Alhaitham on a Spread team consisting of Yae Miko, Nahida, and Zhongli. Yae Miko’s ability to apply Electro damage to several enemies off-field will perfectly coincide with Nahida and Zhongli’s Dendro application. Alhaitham pros and cons in Genshin Impact The pros and cons of using Alhaitham are as follows: Should you pull for Alhaitham in Genshin Impact Yes, you should pull for Alhaitham in Genshin Impact. His kit is exceptional and he can work in all kinds of Dendro teams. He can deal a lot of damage and his free-to-play potential is quite optimal. One of the biggest advantages of Alhaitham is that he can use the Gilded Dreams set, which synergizes well with every character you use in his party setups. The only downside of using Alhaitham is that he is difficult to execute. You need to be precise with his rotations and optimal with the artifact stats to ensure maximum damage. If you mess up his rotations, Alhaitham’s skills go into cooldown which will hamper your Spiral Abyss runs. Alhaitham trailer in Genshin Impact On January 17, 2023, HoYoverse officially released the trailer for Alhaitham on their YouTube channel. If you did not check it out yet, you can do so from the link provided below: That’s everything you need to know about our recommended build for Alhaitham. Check out our other Genshin Impact build guides below: Best Ayaka build | Best Childe build | Best Diluc build | Best Eula build | Best Ganyu build | Best Heizou build | Best Hu Tao build | Best Itto build | Best Kazuha build | Best Keqing build | Best Klee build | Best Qiqi build | Best Raiden Shogun build | Best Shenhe build | Best Yoimiya bu

10 games like Genshin Impact you should play in 2024 HoYoverseThese are 10 great games like Genshin Impact you should check out in 2024 if you’re planning to take a break from Teyvat for a while. Genshin Impact is one of the most beloved gacha games on the market thanks to it’s vibrant open world and a huge roster of characters to obtain for free or by pulling on the game‘s banners. Even the most dedicated Travelers may need a break every so often, however, and there’s some amazing games out there that could scratch the same itch. So, from other HoYoverse titles like Honkai Star Rail, to classic JRPGs, here are 10 games like Genshin Impact you should check out in 2024. Honkai Star Rail The latest game from Genshin Impact developers, HoYoverse, is Honkai Star Rail. While this game keeps its predecessor’s anime aesthetic, it swaps out action combat for a more traditional turn-based combat system. Set in a sci-fi-inspired universe, players in Honkai Star Rail join a group of adventurers onboard a space train called Astral Express as they travel to and explore different worlds. Like Genshin, there’s an extensive roster of characters to obtain in Honkai Star Rail, various progression systems, and unique environments to explore. With stunning cell-shaded graphics, a fantastic combat system, and even some appearances from characters featured in Teyvat, Honkai Star Rail is a perfect Genshin Impact alternative to pick up and play. Honkai Impact 3rd While Genshin was the game that put HoYoVerse on the map, it was actually the successor to the action RPG Honkai Impact 3rd, which was a Sci-Fi title released back in 2016 that features arcade hack-and-slash combat. Players control a team of up to three playable characters, known as Valkyries, and engage in missions that involve battling various enemies in fast, real-time combat. Due to its current lifespan, Honkai has even more content than Genshin to dive into, such as a single-player story, and several co-op, and multiplayer modes including raids where rare legendary weapons can be obtained. Outside of combat, there are mini-games to enjoy and a social simulation “Dorm” mode where players can get to know the different Valkyries and supporting characters that make up the world. If you’re a big Genshin Impact fan, it’s well worth checking out Honkai. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took the gaming world by storm when it was released in 2017 and is still one of the best Nintendo Switch games to this day. The latest of Link’s adventures starts off much like the original Zelda, where players are placed in the kingdom of Hyrule and given free rein to explore at their own pace. If you really want to, you can head straight for the final boss, or you can simply soak up the vast open world and explore the breathtaking (pun-intended) environments. Genshin Impact is a game that clearly took a lot of inspiration from Breath of the Wild in its non-linear fashion, combat and exploration mechanics, and the vast world of Teyvat. If you particularly love any of those elements of Genshin, then you definitely owe it to yourself to experience Breath of the Wild. With its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, also receiving critical acclaim this year, these make for a very excellent double feature. Another Eden Another Eden is a free-to-play mobile game that plays as a side-scrolling JRPG. The game features an in-depth story that is currently made up of over 80 main chapters, and players typically progress by interacting with the various NPCs found throughout the world. Genshin players who are particularly fond of unique character moments will likely find a lot to enjoy here, as this is one of the most story-driven mobile games ever made. The game’s battle system is played out in a traditional turn-based JRPG format, new party members will join protagonist Aldo throughout his adventure, and every character will gain experience and grow stronger as more enemies are defeated and the story progresses. The game offers a fantastic story experience with hours of content to dive into, and the adorable anime art style should please a lot of Genshin fans. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the latest installment in Monolith Soft’s flagship JRPG franchise. Set in a world at war, two groups of young fighters belonging to opposing factions are unexpectedly thrust together and set out on a dangerous journey to uncover the true secrets of their world. How’s that for a compelling premise? The game puts a lot of heart into its characters. The core group of 6 players will get to know on their adventure are all distinct and lovable – this is a massive timesink of a game with a big expansive world to explore and hordes of exciting enemies to battle. Aside from the story, combat is the biggest draw for the Xenoblade franchise, and with a party of 6 at your command (all with a specialized class and unique abilities), the MMO action-based system is as addictive as the character-switching fights in Genshin Impact. Much like Genshin, you can spend hours in the game simply battling out on the field or farming for resources. This was undoubtedly one of the most exciting Switch releases of 2022, and it’s well worth picking up. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch If graphics are a big draw for you, then you won’t find many games that are as visually charming as this one, as Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a collaboration between developers Level-5 and animation giants Studio Ghibli. The game follows the story of a young boy called Oliver who embarks through a strange land with the hopes of bringing his mother back to life. On his journey, Oliver encounters many vibrant allies and enemies who are all brought to life in stunning cutscenes fully animated by Studio Ghibli. Gameplay-wise, Ni No Kuni is a mix of exploration and turn-based battles where Oliver can either battle himself using magical abilities or command small collectible creatures known as “Familiars” to fight for him. Wrath of the White Witch is one of the most engaging and charming JRPGs of the last decade and is a must-play for any fan of the genre. Immortals Fenyx Rising Immortals Fenyx Rising is another game that derives a lot of inspiration from Breath of the Wild. This single-player adventure is set in a world of Greek mythology where protagonist Fenyx embarks on a quest to save their brother and defeat the evil Typhoon, who has escaped from the underworld. The game takes place across seven distinct regions, all of which are inspired by a different Greek god. As Fenyx journeys through each region, they must traverse the environment in various ways, including climbing, riding mounts, and flying. Combat is fast and fun with both melee and long-ranged options thanks to the various weapons Fenyx wields, including a bow and arrow, an axe, and a sword. Overall, Immortals Fenyx Rising doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a fun adventure that can keep players easily hooked from beginning to end. There’s also a big emphasis on environmental puzzles in this game, so if you enjoy the puzzle elements in Genshin Impact, this could be great to play when you’re taking some downtime from Teyvat. Tokyo Xanadu eX+ If you’re looking for more of a linear story that retains a similar anime style to Genshin, then Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a fantastic choice. This is a standalone title that comes from Nihon Falcom – the developer behind the ever-expanding Legend of Heroes series – and it feels a lot like a streamlined version of the Persona franchise. In Tokyo Xanadu, you take control of Kou – a high schooler quickly wrapped up in an otherwordly adventure where he, alongside his schoolfriends – must stop the ominous nightmare realm known as the Eclipse from taking over Tokyo. The game is split into two gameplay loops – dungeon crawling and free exploration. In dungeons, the player can take up to 3 characters with them that can be switched on the fly (much like in Genshin) to gain an advantage over enemies. Combat is hack-and-slash based and features various skills to learn and equip. Free exploration, meanwhile, is all about bonding with your party members, interacting with NPCs, and gearing up for your next dungeon run. Tokyo Xanadu features a similar combat system to Genshin and also places an emphasis on character introductions – often dedicating entire chapters and side stories to specific party members. It’s a great JRPG that typically goes on sale for cheap nowadays and is an underrated gem more people should pick up and play. Granblue Fantasy: Relink Granblue Fantasy: Relink is an action RPG that features a sizeable roster of characters, each with unique skills and playstyles. Based on the popular mobile game, Relink is great for both longtime fans and newcomers to the franchise. If experimenting with different characters and grinding to perfect builds is one of your favorite elements of Genshin Impact, then you’re bound to enjoy Relink’s gameplay loop. Every playable character has a stunning anime design and they all play akin to weapons in Monster Hunter meaning combat is significantly shaken up depending on the fighter you choose. From an intriguing main campaign that sees you captain an adventurous band of Skyfarers, heaps of quests you can tackle solo or alongside your friends in multiplayer, and a chunky endgame experience, there’s a lot to get out of Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Another release from Nihon Falcom that fans of Genshin will enjoy is Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana. While this may be the eighth entry in the Ys franchise, each story is standalone so you won’t have to worry about catching up with any lore. You play as an adventurer called Adol who finds himself shipwrecked on a mysterious island known as the Isle of Seiren. Adol soon teams up with other castaways, the noblewoman Laxia, and a fisherman, Sahad, to find a way off the island and help the group survive. Ys VIII features a fantastic action-combat system that sees you constantly switching between the three characters who each have their own unique strengths. The tropical island setting is stunning to explore, and the story is full of heart and intrigue as Adol tries to unravel his mysterious connection to a girl called Dana whom he keeps seeing in his dreams. Ys VIII is simply one of the best, and perhaps most underrated action JRPGs out there, and it’s firmly recommended for any Genshin Impact fans to check it out. If you click on a product link on this page, we may earn a small affiliate commission. For more gaming content, check out some of our other recommendation lists below: Games like Wordle | Co-op games like It Takes Two | Games like The Quarry | Games like Animal Crossing | Games like GTA

Genshin ImpactGenshin Impact McDonald’s collab: Release date, meals, location & rewardsMichelle Cornelia

YouTube Star and Activist Claire Wineland Has Died Aged 21 Claire’s Place Foundation / FacebookYouTuber and cystic fibrosis activist Claire Wineland has died from a stroke following a lung transplant operation, at age 21. She had spent years spreading awareness and reducing stigma about the genetic disorder. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth, Wineland harnessed the power of the internet to spread her message, sharing details of her treatments and day-to-day living, as she lived a full life in spite of the condition. A Californian, she rose to popularity through YouTube and Instagram especially. At her two popular TEDx Talks, the first in 2011 when she was aged only 14, and another in 2017, Wineland spoke eloquently and powerfully about living with CF, the importance of self-worth and the stigma of illness. “We view [sickness] as a curse because we don’t understand it. We view it as a curse from the gods, because we haven’t come to appreciate our own human suffering. But if we go through life and try to make something of ourselves, maybe one day we can realize it’s actually a gift.” The ‘Claire’s Place Foundation’, started by Wineland, confirmed her passing on September 3, saying she went peacefully and surrounded by family. They also confirmed that her organs have been made available for transplant. In Claire fashion, she is an organ donor. Claire’s remarkable family were so happy for the other families that were now getting the calls that the organ they had long been waiting for was now available for transplant. They had been on the receiving end of that call just one short week ago. We know Claire was loved all over the world. Your prayers, support and encouraging words, have been a huge source of strength for her and her family. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your massive amazing out pouring of love.” Her mother, Melissa Yeager, has told CNN that Wineland’s right kidney has been transplanted to a 44 year old woman in San Diego, and her left kidney to a 55 year old man in California. According to Wineland herself, she spent over 25% of her life hospitalized, but it didn’t hamper her zest for life and spreading awareness about her own, and all, illnesses. Her YouTube channel gained over 250,000 subscribers, and although she had to leave the platform in 2017 due to her illness, she maintained her following and campaigning on Twitter and Instagram. In addition to activism about cystic fibrosis specifically, she also hoped to reduce the societal stigma’s around disability and attractiveness. According to the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, more than 70,000 people suffer from the condition worldwide. It is a genetic condition, with no known cure.

Yogscast CEO steps down following sexual harassment allegations Mark ‘Turps’ Turpin has resigned from his CEO position at British YouTube collective ‘Yogscast’ following sexual harassment allegations from members of their online community. Turpin joined the company in 2012 as their Chief Executive Officer, where he remained for seven years until he resigned on July 17 after Yogscast community members accused him of sexual harassment. According to GamesIndustry.biz, allegations of his misconduct started swirling after a 17-year-old girl claimed that he tried to solicit nude photographs of her. Turpin was reportedly on leave while an investigation was held. Turpin was the company’s CEO since 2012. Turpin responds with an apology Turpin announced his resignation from Yogscast in a Reddit post on their official subreddit. “Hi guys. Just to let you know I’ve stepped down as CEO of the Yogscast.” he began. ” When I recently said we expected the highest levels of professionalism from our talent, I need to be held to those standards too.” Read More: Will KSI and Logan Paul ever fight again? – The former-CEO went on to address the allegations made against him, stating: “I have sent some inappropriate messages to several members of our community and I’m deeply embarrassed about this error of judgement. There’s no justification or excuse for my behaviour. I was in a position of considerable responsibility and you all deserved better from me.” He then ended his post with an apology to the people affected by his behaviour, saying “If you’ve been upset by my actions, I’m very sorry.” It’s the second claim to hit the company in a month The allegations against Turpin are the second of its kind this month, with the company dropping Matthew ‘CaffCast’ Meredith on July 5 after he was accused of sexually harassing “at least eight separate women.” Fans of Yogscast were alerted to his firing by the company’s Discord moderators, who posted a detailed statement about the collective’s decision to end their relationship with him. CaffCast was accused of similar behaviour earlier this month. Admin ‘Mighty Claw’ claimed that they had received “corroborated and proven evidence that shows Caff has been abusing his position to pursue sexual relationships with those he has power and influence over, using his position as a point of coercion and control.” It was also stated that CaffCast was in a long-term relationship, but would lie to newer female staff members about his romantic status, leading them to believe he was single. Mighty Claw also wrote that Caff would suggest hiring women to the moderation team, presumably so he could prey on them to “be able to more easily groom them for his sexual motivations.” The full statement from Mighty Claw. We’ll update you with any further developments as they occur.

Win a $500 Best Buy gift card by completing this Dexerto survey At Dexerto we’re constantly striving to take our coverage of esports, gaming and online entertainment to the next level. With this in mind, we’re asking you to complete a short survey to tell help us understand what we do well, what we could do better and what our audience would like to see more of. If the chance to be brutally honest with us about our content and website isn’t exciting enough, we’re also offering residents of the United States of America the chance to win a $500 Best Buy gift card. If you’re a US resident, you’re eligible to win the grand prize by simply completing the survey. The survey will let us know more about our readers and viewers, helping guide us to better serve you in the future and produce the content you want to see in the way you want to see it. Anyone can fill out the 10-minute survey ahead of its February 28 closing date, but please remember that the $500 gift card prize is available to US residents only. Create your own user feedback survey The full terms, conditions and rules for the $500 gift card giveaway can be found here.

Who is Etika and why are the NYPD searching for him? NYPDDaniel Desmond ‘Etika’ Amofah has been missing ever since he uploaded a distressing video alluding to suicide on YouTube, and now the New York Police Department have launched an investigation into his situation. Here’s everything we know. The Twitch streamer and YouTuber has been reported as missing, after last being heard on phone at 8 pm EST on June 19. Amofah uploaded a video with what has been described as a suicide note a few hours later that same night and has not been seen since by friends or family. Who is Etika? Etika is from Brooklyn and is 29-years-old. Standing at 6ft tall, he weighs around 160 pounds. The content creator has built up a large following on YouTube – attracting over 130,000 subscribers on the platform, who regularly engage with his videos. His role as a YouTuber involves him hosting livestreams and uploading videos, where he’ll often try out popular video games or tackle hot news topics with his own unique take. He does have a reputation for controversial comments, though, many of which he apologized for in his latest – now deleted – eight minute YouTube video. Homophobic slurs also landed Etika in hot water with Twitch in October 2018, where he was banned from streaming on the platform – as reported by Newsweek. That video included some distressing details, too. He wrote in the description: “As far as we know, there is no life after death. My time ends now, but if there is a way for me too, I’ll send you all as many blessings as I can from the other side.” Why are NYPD looking for Etika? The New York Police Department are calling out for any new information that could help their investigation into Etika’s whereabouts, after he was reported as missing on June 20, with his latest video potentially alluding to a planned suicide. The story was first picked up by esports consultant Rod Breslau on the night the video was uploaded to YouTube, who described the description of his video as a potential “suicide note” – as reported in our original news article. Have you seen Desmond Amofah aka Etika? He was last heard from June 19 at about 8PM by phone. He is 29 years old, approx 6 feet tall, and 160 lbs. He is a known @YouTube blogger and has many people concerned after a recent video. Call @NYPDTips anonymously with info 800-577-TIPS pic.twitter.com/SfaDa2OifJ— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 20, 2019 the description on the video is extremely distressing those who know Etika have reached out to him, and I have reached out to those who know him for updates pic.twitter.com/9s2ylrFCYw — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 20, 2019 June 19 wasn’t the first time that he has expressed suicidal thoughts, either, which might be a greater concern for those closest to him. Back in April of this year, Etika’s home door was broken down in order to check on his mental stability, after suggesting that he was going to take his own life. The internet personality wrote: “Savonarola! I’m going to kill myself! You lot certainly have already. Shame on you all, silly humans,” before suggesting that he was about to shoot himself in the forehead with a gun bought from Long Island, New York – as reported in our article at the time. Thankfully for his fans and loved ones he didn’t act on those words at that time, but his recent disappearance has caused serious concern. Savonarola! I’m going to kill myself! You lot certainly have already. Shame on you all, silly humans. — Etika @ 999 (@Etika) April 16, 2019 Etika also has a history of concerning acts, too, after being detained for anti-semitic tweets back in April 2019, having been placed in a psychiatric ward of a hospital following an altercation with a police officer just a month previous. There had initially been suggestions from members of the content creation community, such as KEEMSTAR, that this disappearance was actually a hoax – after some users dug up some of Etika’s old posts to Twitter, where he asked fans about when he should schedule his next mental breakdown. This MOTHER F*CKER! Never trust the Antichrist! pic.twitter.com/jGq92nuyij — KEEM :popcorn: (@KEEMSTAR) June 20, 2019 However, he is still yet to be found at the time of writing, and those who suggested it might not be genuine have now started to reach out for more details. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, or know anyone else that is, you can always talk to someone. Please reach out and call the Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (USA) or the Samaritans 116-123 (UK).

When is the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out? Release date, rumors and more With whispers about a new ‘Nintendo Switch 2’ console running rampant in the gaming community, here’s everything we know about the next console so far. The Nintendo Switch was released in March 2017, following months of leaks and rumors as to what it would look like and how it would perform. It allows players to move between both a stationary console and a handheld, showing Nintendo were aiming to give players two different types of gaming experience. This is very different to the ‘entertainment system’ approach from Microsoft and Sony with the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4. The Nintendo Switch has now sold over 35 million units overtaking the iconic N64 console. In short, it has proven very profitable for the premium handheld console suppliers. Hardware rumors & leaks The biggest piece of information we have so far about a potential Nintendo Switch 2 console is based on hints towards new technology. In March 2019, Nintendo pushed a 5.0 firmware update to its current Switch console, which was found to make reference to technology that is not included in their gaming systems at the moment. Switchbrew Hackers found reference to a new Tegra 214 chip, which will be an improvement on the Nintendo Switch’s T210 chipset. There was also a mention of upgraded RAM in their post, which could be rising from 4GB to 8GB in a future console, as well as an upgraded Print Circuit Board. At this stage these potential hardware improvements remain unconfirmed but there is unlikely to be smoke without fire. It seems a good bet that there will be an improved Nintendo Switch at some point down the line, that will likely utilize the above hardware. Two new Nintendo Switch consoles? It doesn’t seem a completely alien concept that there could be multiple versions of different consoles coming with the next-generation. Microsoft is reportedly working on two versions of their next Xbox – aimed at different audiences. Back in October, The Wall Street Journal also reported that, according to “suppliers and others with direct knowledge of the plan”, a new console is likely to include several performance updates, upgraded LCD display and new software functionality. Nintendo Switch Lite announced One of these supposed two consoles was confirmed on July 10 – with Nintendo announcing a “Lite” version of the Switch. It is a smaller version of the original Switch which doesn’t have detachable Joy-Cons, can’t be outputted to a TV but will come at a cheaper price of $199.99 RRP. It will release on September 20 and be available in three different colors – yellow, grey and turquoise. It is also important to note it will only be available for Switch games that are compatible with handheld mode – something that can be seen on the back of all Nintendo Switch game boxes. Release Date It’s sometimes difficult to predict when a new console is going to be released, especially something like the Nintendo Switch 2, but we do have some key pieces of information which could help us work out a potential timeline. Read More: When is the Xbox Scarlett coming out? Everything we know about the next generation of Xbox consoles – We now know the Nintendo Switch Lite will release in September 2019 but an upgraded version of the console, and its release date, may not be available for a while. Key Takeaways If you look back at the five-year lifespan for the Wii U, it’s possible that Nintendo could potentially replicate that and look towards 2022 as a general release date for the Switch 2. While there will be a lot of rumors to keep up with in the meantime, what we have to work with right now is purely speculation. However, as the Nintendo Switch Lite has been confirmed for 2019, there’s a chance that prototypes of any Switch 2 console could spring up later this year – like Microsoft did when they first showed us the Xbox One X at E3 2017. It remains to be seen just what Nintendo will do before they decide to upgrade the Switch. What is for sure is that fans will be eagerly anticipating the news. Last updated 10:35 ET, July 10, 2019.

Walmart reveals why employees removed violent video game ads WalmartWalmart has issued an official statement after news broke on August 8 that the company was telling its employees to remove violent video game displays from stores. In an email to The Washington Post, Tara House, of Walmart’s Corporate Communications department said Walmart has “..taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and this action does not reflect a long-term change in our video game assortment.” The decision to remove violent video game ads came after US President Donald Trump implied video games were part of a wider societal problem that “glorifies violence” in the wake of a deadly shooting at an El Paso Walmart that left 20 dead. “We are focused on assisting our associates and their families, as well as supporting the community, as we continue a thoughtful and thorough review of our policies,” House added. As Dexerto previously reported, the company sent a notice to stores titled, “Immediate Action: Remove Signing and Displays Referencing Violence.” 600Employees were instructed to, “Review your store for any signing or displays that contain violent images or aggressive behavior. Remove from the sales floor or turn off these immediately.” The notice went on to demand that they “turn off or unplug any video game display consoles that show a demo of violent games, specifically PlayStation and Xbox units” and “verify that no movies depicting violence are playing in Electronics.” 600Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said in a press release, “We are a learning organization, and, as you can imagine, we will work to understand the many important issues that arise from El Paso and Southaven, as well as those that have been raised in the broader national discussion around gun violence.” “We will be thoughtful and deliberate in our responses, and we will act in a way that reflects the best values of our company, with a focus on serving the needs of our customers, associates and communities.” While Walmart was criticized for pulling the ads, this wasn’t its only response to the deadly shooting in El Paso. On August 7, the company announced $400,000 to help those impacted. There is no word on when violent video game ads can resume at Walmart.

Walmart reportedly removes violent video game ads after mass shootings FreepikRetail giants Walmart are reportedly taking down displays depicting violence across its store fronts, while also disabling video game demos, videos, and signage of the same nature. The move comes at the heels of mass shootings located in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, which brought a wave of criticisms toward violence in video games as political pundits look for a cause to the tragic events. As a retail giant, Walmart sells products ranging from video games of all nature to hunting equipment which in many super stores includes actual rifles on their product floor. While there’s a tense atmosphere among the gaming community and the political arena surrounding depictions of violence in video games, it should be noted that both the El Paso tragedy as well as a separate Mississippi shooting on July 30 took place at Walmarts. Two Walmart employees were killed in the Mississippi shooting, and over 20 people died as a result of the El Paso attack. Now the international super-chain are taking “precautionary measures” following the series of mass shootings across the United States. “Immediate Action: Remove Signing and Displays Referencing Violence,” Walmart’s notice to employees reads. “Review your store for any signing or displays that contain violent images or aggressive behavior. Remove from the sales floor or turn off these immediately.” Moreover, the memo instructs employees to “turn off or unplug any video game display consoles that show a demo of violent games, specifically PlayStation and Xbox units.” The decision will also encompass the cancellation for any future events that Walmart stores might have had planned for shooter games. “Cancel any events promoting combat style or third-person shooter games that may be scheduled in Electronics,” the meme reads. It seems as though Walmart is covering all of their bases by also issuing takedowns for any movies or hunting videos that may contain violent images. If employees are unsure if something qualifies, they are being notified to remove it just to be safe. ESPN similarly took measures by cancelling their X Games Apex Legends Invitational highlight in response to the mass shootings. The video game industry and its supporters have been adamant that violent video games are being scapegoated by policymakers which could very well deter any progress for finding a worthwhile solution to save lives and prevent further shootings.

Venue of Madden tournament shooting is set to reopen WJCT / YouTubeThe Good Luck Have Fun Game Bar and Chicago Pizza, home to the tragic shooting during a Madden 19 tournament in August, is re-opening its doors to the public. A Facebook post made by the GLHF Bar revealed that the venue would be opening on Friday, October 5, and will be making some major changes moving forward – including placing a greater emphasis on competitive gaming. In addition, the Bar will be undergoing renovations, and will contain such features as private booths and streaming stations for live esports events. “…we have decided to rebuild your favorite Game Bar from the ground up,” the statement reads. “We want to provide a beautiful, fun environment for our entire community that has done so much for us.” The statement held that more information would be forthcoming in the following weeks – likely good news for attendees. The GLHF Game Bar in Jacksonville, Florida, was home to a shooting during a Madden 19 tournament on August 26, 2018, which resulted in the death of two players and the injury of eleven. Both Electronic Arts and notable community members came forward in support of the victims, with the likes of internet personality KEEMSTAR and others holding charity tournaments to help with funeral costs and hospital bills for those affected. While the adjoining Chicago Pizza will open for business as usual, it seems like the GLHF Game Bar is moving forward with a new initiative to come back even stronger than before.

US Federal Trade Commission to investigate Loot boxes & child gambling Blizzard EntertainmentThe United States Federal Trade Commission has pledged to explore apparent “endemic” loot boxes in the video games industry, following a potential connection to child gambling. This issue was highlighted by the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) in 2017 as they called for the removal of loot boxes in titles such as Blizzard’s Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm. The decision to investigate the issue was confirmed by FTC Chairman Joe Simons, during an oversight committee hearing in Congress. Senator Maggie Hassan, who put the question to Congress, said: “Loot boxes are now endemic in the video games industry and are present in everything from casual smartphone games to the newest, high budget releases. “Loot boxes will represent a $50 billion industry by the year 2022,” she continued. “It’s time for the FTC to investigate these mechanisms to ensure that children are being adequately protected.” Senator Hassan also pointed out that there is more to be done to educate parents about addiction and other issues that video games can present for their children. It’s not just Overwatch which has been at the forefront of the debate, though, as Call of Duty had a supply drop system – very similar to loot boxes – until last year. Plus, following an investigation from the U.S state of Hawaii, State Senators called out Electronic Arts for what they referred to as the creation of a ‘Star Wars-themed online casino’. In response to these concerns, the Entertainment Software Association told Polygon: “Loot boxes are one way that players can enhance the experience that video games offer. Contrary to assertions, loot boxes are not gambling. “They have no real-world value, players always receive something that enhances their experience, and they are entirely optional to purchase. They can enhance the experience for those who choose to use them, but have no impact on those who do not.”

Twitter set to enforce new rules prohibiting “dehumanizing language” TwitterTwitter have announced that they are to update their rules to prohibit “dehumanizing language” on the social media site, possibly signaling a move towards clarifying the site’s rules on interaction and harassment. In a blog post Twitter’s, Vijaya Gadde and Del Harvey said that the social media platform would be trying something new by asking users for their feedback on the policy before it becomes part of the official Twitter rules. “With this change, we want to expand our hateful conduct policy to include content that dehumanizes others based on their membership in an identifiable group,” they wrote. “Even when the material does not include a direct target.” Users are invited to participate in a survey on the new rules that will be open until October 9, after which the site will continue with its regular policy change process and share what they decide with users when they update Twitter’s policies later in the year. The platform has received fire in the past for its foggy rules on what is acceptable or bannable speech on the site, with many users tagging CEO Jack Dorsey in tweets showing abuse they received which saw no action by Twitter. Whether or not this will affect the atmosphere on Twitter and what effect user feedback will have on the new policy remains to be seen, but users will be happy to see the social media platform listening to user responses while developing the new rules.

Twitter reveals plan to hide Likes and Retweets on new Twttr app Twitter has rolled out a brand new prototype app to a small group of beta testers before a possible global release with a number of new features, including one that hides Likes and Retweets for posts on a user’s feed. Called “Twttr”, the new app was first shown off publicly on Tuesday, March 12 and it includes some of the biggest changes to the platform since it’s launch in 2006. Besides new features to try and help pictures and video on Twitter, It also doesn’t show the number of retweets or likes a tweet receives in a users feed, a change the company says is designed to make Twitter “friendlier”. With likes and retweets hidden on the main feed, users will have to now open the reply menu to a tweet in order to see the number of likes and retweets. If users are reading tweets on their feed or in a thread, likes and retweets will no longer show up below any of the tweets. Replies have also gotten changed, replies from the original poster of the tweet or from followers will be highlighted in blue, while responses from others will be marked grey. The massive changes to how interaction works on the platform could rub some users and creators, who might rely on Likes and Retweets to track how well content does, the wrong way. Knowing the nature of Twitter, the company will no doubt receive a ton of feedback on the new features from users before it ever goes live. USERS: we love twitter but it has problems TWITTER: great we’ll fix them USERS: do you want to know what they are TWITTER: absolutely not— actioncookbook (@actioncookbook) January 5, 2016 Twttr is still a prototype that seems to be in its early stages, so we have no idea when, of even if, the changes will be rolled out to more and more users.

Twitter Has Begun Removing Locked Accounts From Follower Counts Twitter has announced that it will be removing locked accounts from follower counts. Twitter announced this change in policy on July 11, and it has gone into effect, with many users reports that the number of followers on their account(s) have been reduced. The social media giant commented that they wanted to ensure that follower numbers remain authentic and wholesome. As part of our ongoing and global effort to build trust and encourage healthy conversation on Twitter, every part of the service matters. Follower counts are a visible feature, and we want everyone to have confidence that the numbers are meaningful and accurate. When an account begins exhibiting sudden changes in behavior, Twitter may lock it and contact the owner to make sure that they still have control of it. These sudden changes in account behavior could include Tweeting a large volume of unsolicited replies or mentions, Tweeting misleading links, or if a large number of accounts block the account after mentioning them. We sometimes lock an account if we see email and password combinations from other services posted online and believe that information could put the security of an account at risk — so we require accounts to change of their passwords for protection. Until we confirm that everything is ok with the account, we lock it, which makes them unable to Tweet or see ads. Locked accounts, which are created by real people, should not be confused with spam accounts or bots, which are usually automated, making them much easier to predict and shut down. As far as who is being affected and in what way, Twitter has described follower count decreases to be by four or fewer for most accounts, but could be more significant for accounts with a larger number of followers. Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop. We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation. Though the most significant changes are happening in the next few days, follower counts may continue to change more regularly as part of our ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts. Although the goal of these changes is to improve account credibility, it will be limited to just followers and not Tweets, Likes, and Retweets, since accounts cannot do any of those things once they have been locked. Our ongoing work to improve the health of conversations on Twitter encompasses all aspects of our service. This specific update is focused on followers because it is one of the most visible features on our service and often associated with account credibility. Once an account is locked, it cannot Tweet, like or Retweet and it is not served ads. Twitter’s full announcement can be read down below, or by visiting their online blog here. – As part of our ongoing and global effort to build trust and encourage healthy conversation on Twitter, every part of the service matters. Follower counts are a visible feature, and we want everyone to have confidence that the numbers are meaningful and accurate. Over the years, we’ve locked accounts when we detected sudden changes in account behavior. In these situations, we reach out to the owners of the accounts and unless they validate the account and reset their passwords, we keep them locked with no ability to log in. This week, we’ll be removing these locked accounts from follower counts across profiles globally. As a result, the number of followers displayed on many profiles may go down. Most people will see a change of four followers or fewer; others with larger follower counts will experience a more significant drop. We understand this may be hard for some, but we believe accuracy and transparency make Twitter a more trusted service for public conversation. Though the most significant changes are happening in the next few days, follower counts may continue to change more regularly as part of our ongoing work to proactively identify and challenge problematic accounts. Why does an account get locked? If we detect sudden changes in account behavior, we may lock the account and contact the owner to confirm they still have control of it. These sudden changes in account behavior could include Tweeting a large volume of unsolicited replies or mentions, Tweeting misleading links, or if a large number of accounts block the account after mentioning them. We sometimes lock an account if we see email and password combinations from other services posted online and believe that information could put the security of an account at risk — so we require accounts to change of their passwords for protection. Until we confirm that everything is ok with the account, we lock it, which makes them unable to Tweet or see ads. How are these accounts different from spam or bots? In most cases, these accounts were created by real people but we cannot confirm that the original person who opened the account still has control and access to it. Spam accounts (sometimes referred to as bots) typically exhibit spammy behavior from the beginning, are increasingly predictable by our systems, and can be automatically shut down with our technology. You can learn more about our ongoing work to prevent spam on Twitter here. Why just followers? Will this expand to Tweets, Likes, and Retweets? Our ongoing work to improve the health of conversations on Twitter encompasses all aspects of our service. This specific update is focused on followers because it is one of the most visible features on our service and often associated with account credibility. Once an account is locked, it cannot Tweet, like or Retweet and it is not served ads. Will this change affect your Monthly Active User (MAU) or Daily Active User (DAU) metrics? No, it will not. Removing locked accounts from followers doesn’t impact MAU or DAU. Locked accounts that have not reset their password in more than one month are not included in MAU or DAU. While today’s change doesn’t affect MAU or DAU, some accounts we remove from the service as part of our ongoing commitment to a healthy public conversation have the potential to impact publicly reported metrics. Continuing to Communicate with You This is another step to improve Twitter and ensure everyone can have confidence in their followers. Follow @Twitter and @TwitterSafety for the latest updates as we continue our commitment to serve the public conversation.

Twitter founder says they “want to change” likes and followers in response to Kanye West tweet TIMEPopular music artist Kanye West wants changes to be made to how likes and followers are displayed on Twitter, and Jack Dorsey, the social media platform’s founder, agrees. Kanye West believes that Twitter users’ likes and followers are too prominently displayed on the platform, creating a culture that puts too much value into how popular everyone is on social media. “We should be able to participate in social media without having to show how many followers or likes we have,” the rapper explained in a tweet. “Just like how we can turn off the comments, we should be able to turn off the display of followers. This has an intense negative impact on our self worth.” Kanye’s tweet caught the attention of Jack Dorsey, and the two began a private conversation in which the Twitter CEO revealed that the platform is considering reforming the likes and followers system in order to reduce their significance in the public forum. Read More: How to watch the Conor McGregor vs Khabib UFC press conference? Stream and global timings – “We’ve been thinking deeply about the follower and like counts, and what that incentivizes. We want to change,” Dorsey said in a text message. “Us making that number bold and big incentivized people to want to increase it, and feel bad if they couldn’t. That’s not right.” It’s clear that both West and Dorsey believe that people should want to use Twitter to contribute to “the global conversation,” rather than build up a large follower-base just because that is what is demanded in today’s social culture. Although there doesn’t appear to be any hint of immediate change in the near future, the fact that the CEO of Twitter is publicly having this sort of conversation does hint at major changes coming to the platform at some point.

Twitter Discover Bug That Could Compromise Account Passwords Twitter have announced that they have discovered a bug in their systems that could compromise account passwords. The announcement came on May 3rd as the social media giants have informed their users to take precaution. Created in March of 2006, Twitter quickly established itself as one of the most prominent social media platforms on the internet and, as of 2016, had more than 319 million active users. Many are attracted by Twitter’s simplicity and efficiency and have turned to it to quickly get their news, interact with others, and express themselves to their followers. Read More: Activision Blizzard Report Increased Revenue, But Confirm Fortnite Battle Royale Has Impacted – With such a vast user-base, Twitter understandably prioritizes user privacy and security, which makes this latest development slightly daunting. We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password. https://t.co/RyEDvQOTaZ — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 3, 2018 It would be safe to assume that a considerable portion of Twitter users use the same password on the website that they do on at least one other service. Therefore, despite the fact that the bug has been fixed and there appear to be no indications of misuse, Twitter recommends that their users change their password on all services where they’ve used it. Essentially, the bug that they have found unmasks the users’ passwords that are stored in a hidden internal log that is normally encrypted and cannot be viewed by employees. It will be worth keeping an eye on the situation to see whether there are any long-term effects of this security issue. – A more detailed explanation of the issue can be seen below, or on the official Twitter blog. When you set a password for your Twitter account, we use technology that masks it so no one at the company can see it. We recently identified a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We have fixed the bug, and our investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone. Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password. You can change your Twitter password anytime by going to the password settings page. About The Bug We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system. This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard. Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process. We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again. Tips on Account Security Again, although we have no reason to believe password information ever left Twitter’s systems or was misused by anyone, there are a few steps you can take to help us keep your account safe: Change your password on Twitter and on any other service where you may have used the same password. – Use a strong password that you don’t reuse on other websites. – Enable login verification, also known as two factor authentication. This is the single best action you can take to increase your account security. – Use a password manager to make sure you’re using strong, unique passwords everywhere. – We are very sorry this happened. We recognize and appreciate the trust you place in us, and are committed to earning that trust every day.

Twitter Accounts Across the World Mysteriously Losing Followers If you logged into Twitter on May 25th and saw a sudden unexpected drop in followers, you were not the only one, as some popular accounts have lost hundreds of thousands mysteriously overnight. Fluctuations in follower counts aren’t necessarily uncommon – with Twitter often clearing up bot accounts, accounts reported for spam or breaking the user agreement – but this is one of the more significant and mysterious irregularities. According to social media statistics tracking website SocialBlade, almost every active verified Twitter account took a hit, with many large accounts losing over 100,000 in single day. More: PewDiePie Takes Another Shot at Alinity After Racial Slur and Admitting She Received Twitch Favors – The mass unfollowing occurred simultaneously across accounts on Friday May 25th, and as of right now it is entirely unexplained. The largest dip found so far is on Justin Biebers account – the second most followed on Twitter, which lost over 160,000 followers on May 25th. Similarly, the number one followed account is singer Katy Perry, who lost just over 110,000. Other big names and smaller accounts too lost thousands of followers, examples of which you can see below – all data coming from SocialBlade. Justin Bieber – Down 161,967 400 The most likely cause is Twitter doing a clear out of bot or inactive accounts, responding to spam reports en masse. It is also possible that they are removing accounts which they have evidence to suggest do not comply with the rules of eligibility, such as people under the age 13 years old, which Twitter do not allow. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we take steps to remove such information and terminate the child’s account. However, neither Twitter nor TwitterSupport have released any public information or reasoning for the massive follower decrease on accounts. And as a final note, Dexerto’s own accounts (@Dexerto, @DexertoIntel and @DexertoLive) also took a hit, so make sure you are still following – just in case.

TwitchCon announce changes for day two and three after first day was marred by large crowds People trying to attend TwitchCon 2018 were met with massive crowds that stretched around the block and have led to changes for the final two days of the event. The 2018 edition of TwitchCon is being held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in California and features a host of major events, including the Fortnite Fall Skirmish and the Doritos Bowl Blackout tournament. Despite so many events taking place, though, many fans were unable to even get inside the event as the massive lines made it nearly impossible to gain access to the event. Every convention typically features long lines as fans are forced to wait in security lines before entering. It seems like TwitchCon 2018 featured far greater crowds than expected, however. Popular Twitch streamer Mychal ‘trihex’ Jefferson was quick to comment on the crazy lines early Friday morning as he wondered whether he’d get inside for the Twitch keynote presentation. Good morning #TwitchCon2018. These lines for badge pickup are absolutely awful :joyful: Hope I make it to the keynote… :pray: pic.twitter.com/8ygLsxHH9C — trihex @ TwitchCon 2018 (@trihex) October 26, 2018 Trihex wasn’t the only one having to battle the insanely long lines, though, as many convention attendees were forced to wait in line for hours. The problem was bad enough that Twitch issued a statement on the matter Friday afternoon that announced changes coming to the other days of the event. The lines at TwitchCon didn’t hold up to the bar we’ve set for the show. We’re sorry. This is what we’re doing about it: -Tonight, the show closes one hour later, at 7PM -Friday-only attendees: come back for free on Saturday -Registration opens one hour earlier on Sat, at 7AM— TwitchCon 2018 (@TwitchCon) October 27, 2018 The extended times and the ability for those who had previously only bought Friday passes to attend the convention on Saturday will hopefully allow the impacted attendees a chance to enjoy their time there despite the Day 1 struggles. As people gear up for Day 2 of the three-day event, those hoping to avoid any more struggles are encouraged to show up extra early to ensure they can get in promptly to experience all that TwitchCon has to offer.

Twitch sued for over $2.8 billion by major Russian media company A lawsuit against Twitch has been issued by Rambler Group, a Russian media company seeking over $2.8 billion in damages following a violation of exclusive distribution rights. Twitch is primarily known for housing some of the biggest content creators and internet personalities around the world. However, the streaming platform has expanded its coverage of late to include all manner of physical sporting broadcasts such as NFL’s Thursday Night Football for instance. A recent incident involving a violation of exclusive English Premier League distribution rights in Russia, has resulted in a roughly $2.84 billion lawsuit. Rambler Group purchased exclusive digital distribution rights of the English Premier League in 2019 with a duration of three seasons. The deal allegedly cost €7 million and means that any Russian fan wishing to view the games will need to go through a Rambler-owned streaming platform. The controversy stems from select Twitch streamers broadcasting English Premier League games in Russia, directly violating the exclusive rights of Rambler Group. According to screenshots provided by Rambler, 36,000 viewers tuned into various games on a number of streams, which ultimately led to a claim of copyright infringement. Initially, Rambler demanded Twitch be banned from Russia entirely. However, a secondary demand was made which accumulated the maximum possible fine for each of the 36,000 viewers, equating to 180.345 billion rubles, or $2.84 billion USD. While Twitch never received an official complaint from Rambler prior to legal action, the streaming platform eventually removed a number of channels that were in direct violation. Streamers that had been caught distributing the content on their own channels were struck down and permanently banned from the platform. However, the Russian media group seeks compensation for the damages already dealt and appears set on establishing new boundaries in the region, fighting the streaming giant every step of the way. Given that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is not in effect throughout Russia, each case of supposed copyright infringement is treated uniquely and deliberated upon at length depending on its individual value. Despite having been delayed for unknown reasons a total of four times already, a fifth hearing is in place for the conflicting parties to find common ground and reach a resolution. There’s no telling whether the dispute will be settled swiftly, nor whether the billions will be paid out, but with a new court hearing set for December 20, conversations will be ongoing until an amicable solution is reached.

Twitch sued for $25m over “suggestive” streamers Alinity, Pokimane, more Pokimane/Alinity/Twitch[jwplayer 3rV0GuQ7]A Twitch viewer from California has submitted a civil complaint seeking $25 million in damages from Twitch for exposing them to “overly suggestive and sexual content from various female streamers” while using the site. Based on court documents obtained by Dexerto, the plaintiff Erik Estavillo, who has previously sued Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Blizzard, submitted the formal complaint to court on June 15 seeking a lawsuit, and Twitch itself was served with an official summons on June 19. According to the complaint, filed in the Santa Clara Superior Court of California, Estavillo suffers from several medical issues that require him to rely entirely on the internet for all of his entertainment, as well as OCD and sex addiction, which the complaint claims Twitch only makes worse. “Twitch has extremely exacerbated his condition by displaying many sexually suggestive women streamers through Twitch’s twisted programming net code,” the complaint states, “making it nearly impossible for the plaintiff to use Twitch without being exposed to such sexual content.” Estavillo, who is following 786 female streamers and 0 male streamers according to the complaint, argues that the site doesn’t offer a way to filter streamers by gender; therefore, he’s forced to choose a “game and/or category to watch, with thumbnails showing these scantily clad women, alongside men, of being the only streaming channels available to him.” “In addition, Twitch also takes advantage of the plaintiff and many other sexually addicted viewers by allowing them to ‘Subscribe, Donate, or Pay Bits’ to these women streamers,” it continues. “Twitch uses this immediate gratification reward system against their sexually addicted viewers no different than how a Casino would.” The complaint goes on to list several female streamers it claims “continues to expose viewers who just want to see people playing video games on Twitch, but instead get exposed to sexually addictive material and content on a consistent and regular basis daily.” These include: Amouranth – Quqco – ST Peach – JadeTheJaguar – Pink_Sparkles – Valeria7K – DanielaAzuage_ – lilchipmunk – iaaras2 – theRaychul – KrystiPryde – SonjaShio – Gavrilka – MizzyRose – KayPikeFashion – Alinity – QTCinderella – Pokimane – Velvet_7 – Loserfruit – In requesting relief, the complaint wants all the streamers listed above permanently banned for violating Twitch’s TOS, along with $25 million dollars “to be split between the plaintiff and other Twitch Prime Turbo Subscribers,” with any leftover going to various charities. Whether or not the lawsuit will go anywhere in court remains to be seen, but according to court documents, Twitch was officially served with a summons by the court on June 19 – so they will have to respond in some way or the other. As we mentioned earlier, Estavillo has filed numerous lawsuits against other companies before, but it will be interesting to see how Twitch responds and how the scenario plays out. You can read the full complaint against Twitch from Estavillo here.

Twitch streamer SmashGodxXx banned after allegedly assaulting girlfriend on stream Twitch: SmashGodxXxA Twitch streamer with over 11,000 followers has been accused of beating his girlfriend on stream, after clips surfaced where he denies “slapping” her, but screams and thumps can be heard. SmashGodxXx’s channel has now been banned. The streamer, who goes by SmashGodxXx, was seen asking his girlfriend to leave the room. As she ignored him, he turned the camera to the side, and an audible slap could be heard. Following the initial clip, the streamer and his girlfriend both addressed the claims made from viewers about the incident. SmashGodxXx suggested that viewers were making a “big deal” out of it, saying “it wasn’t even a slap, it was just literally like a slash.” Throughout the stream, he continually blames his girlfriend, saying “it’s on her.” “If she wants to act up for content, or whatever it may be, and she wants to cost my life for this, and my job, that’s on her. Honestly, I try my best.” As he repeats that he isn’t to blame, and that it wasn’t a serious instance of abuse, his girlfriend sits almost silent and in tears. Then, he proceeds to hug her, although the woman seems reluctant to return the affection. In perhaps the most startling segment, the streamer’s sister enters to take the camera out of the room. Despite her talking to camera, loud thuds and screams can be heard. Warning: Viewers may find the footage distressing. A full 16-minute recording to the stream has been kept and uploaded via Streamable, as the original VOD and clips from the stream have been removed, presumably by SmashGodxXx himself. Much of this video features SmashGodxXx claiming his partner “caused this.” As the woman sits in tears, he even says that everything is fine with them. Near the end of the video, his sister enters the room and takes the camera out. In his community Discord, screenshots show the streamer attempting to bury Reddit posts about the situation. In one comment, he writes “Please downvote that sh*t” and asks people to report the post. On March 31, his channel was banned from Twitch. SmashGodxXx has been banned on numerous occasions before, in 2018 and 2019. On Discord, he states that he will appeal the ban, because “clip showed me doing nothing wrong.” Twitch does not comment on community guideline violations to respect the privacy of users. A previous case of abuse on Twitch with another streamer resulted in a permanent ban, and the user was charged with assault. MrDeadMoth was accidentally allowed to return to the platform, but was quickly re-banned.

Twitch streamer Ohlana passes away at 26 from suicide Instagram: Ohlanatv[jwplayer Y7PB7YwV]Twitch streamer Lannia ‘Ohlana’ has died due to an apparent suicide. She was 26 years old. Ohlana was a popular personality who had recently hit 100,000 followers on Twitch, often either playing CS:GO or ‘in real life’ travelling streams. However, concerns were raised for the Canadian-Vietnamese streamer after she had posted a series of concerning tweets and Instagram stories to her social media channels. Her final tweet read “it’s not anybody’s fault.” Her previous tweet, on July 6, said “depressed people struggle to reach out in fear the ones closest to them will have cops show up and forcefully confine them against their will. So they’re stuck feeling alone with their dark thoughts because they don’t want to be trapped where they just feel worse.” depressed ppl struggle to reach out in fear the ones closest to them will have cops show up and forcefully confine them against their will. so they’re stuck feeling alone with their dark thoughts because they don’t want to be trapped where they just feel worse. — ohlana (@_ohlana) July 6, 2020 In her Instagram story on July 6, she posted a statement, which now appears to be her final message before taking her life. “I have cried, loved, and shared so many great memories with so many of you who are still or used to be in my life. I thank all of you for letting me. I look back in awe of all the opportunities I have been given in my life and I am appreciative. From surviving off video games to travelling the world on an impulse… but most importantly all of the people I’ve met during this run.” “Ive made my mistakes, I’ve taken my loses and I endured all of the consequences that were deemed valid. But sometimes it clouds my skies a little larger than it should. Some storms are heavier than others… and that’s okay. We all fight our own battles.” Concluding her post, she said “It’s a beautiful day today. Go out and enjoy it for me.” Tributes paid to Ohlana Friends and fans paid tribute to Ohlana. Fellow streamer and collaborator Bawnsai said “I’m really glad I got to meet you. The time we spent together was short but sweet. just like you LOL. Omg you were so funny. I always wished we had more time together. I’ll miss you my friend. Rest easy.” I’m really glad I got to meet you. The time we spent together was short but sweet, just like you LOL. Omg you were so funny. I always wished we had more time together. I’ll miss you my friend. Rest easy💜 — jenny 🌻 (@bawnsai) July 8, 2020 Nosleeptv wrote “She was beautiful inside and out and I’m so sorry this happened.” https://twitter.com/Nosleepnstv/status/1280777309063012352 One of her fans and friends, DE4Ner, shared a Twitlonger thanking Ohlana for how she had cared for him throughout his own struggles. “You are the friend that I will never forget, never. I will never forget the insights you have given me, the lessons you have taught me and memories you have shared. You will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you. Thank you for being you.” Ohlana’s death comes only a week after the passing of Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein, who took his own life on July 2. A popular GTA streamer, Kenny “Blue622” Tancredi, also died unexpectedly on July 5, the cause of death is unconfirmed. Heightened scrutiny has now been placed on how content creation, particularly for streamers, and the challenges it presents, often exacerbated by trolls and drama, is taking its toll on these individuals. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, and you would like to talk to someone, please reach out and call the Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (USA), the Samaritans 116-123 (UK), or Lifeline 13-11-14 (AUS).

Twitch streamer K1KA dies aged 21 Instagram: Kikax3Twitch streamer K1KA has sadly passed away at the tender age of 21, family and friends have confirmed on Thursday, December 9. Serbian streamer K1KA, who described herself as an “Ex semi-pro CS:GO player who’s now learning to play League of Legends,” was just 21 at the time of her passing. A statement posted to her Instagram story on December 9 reads: “With great sorrow unfortunately we need to announce that our dear friend and angel passed away this evening 8/12/2021. We would like to extend our condolences to her friends, family, and fans. This will be a hard time for us all and all we can do is keep her memory alive. We love you Kika and miss you more than words can explain.” While the cause of death is not confirmed, the Instagram post also urges readers to take action if they’re having suicidal thoughts. It reads: “If you are having suicidal thoughts or suffering from depression please speak to someone you are not alone.” K1KA officially passed away on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, and you would like to talk to someone, please reach out and call the Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (USA), the Samaritans 116-123 (UK), or Lifeline 13-11-14 (AUS).

Twitch pledges to make platform “safer” after streamer abuse allegations TwitchTwitch has pledged to make their streaming platform “safer for everyone” in a statement released in response to the numerous sexual abuse allegations leveled at a handful of high-profile streamers using the Amazon-owned site in the last few days. On June 20, popular Destiny streamer Lono ‘SayNoToRage’ was accused by multiple women of making unwarranted sexual advances. Their accusations alleged the Twitch partner had, on multiple occasions, “cornered” women and pressured them “for sex” at annual gaming events. Over the weekend, more women came forward with their own stories. Some were related to SayNoToRage. Others were new accusations, leveled at YouTuber Tom ‘ProSyndicate’ Casell and CSGO caster Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer, among others. Twitch released an official statement on June 21, responding to the multitude of accusations that had come to light on social media across the weekend. The platform said it took all recent accusations “extremely seriously.” The site also confirmed it had opened investigations into the accounts of the accused streamers, and added they would “work with law enforcement where applicable.” “We’re thankful for the bravery shown by those who have come forward to speak about their experiences, and we are committed to working to make the streaming community safer for everyone,” the official statement concluded. Twitch has come under fire for its official statement since it was posted. According to music streamer YourStarling, who replied to the site’s Twitter post, Twitch chief executive Emmett Shear was made aware of “partners using their platforms to abuse women,” with her “case” used as an example. The streamer alleged his response during the All Hands meeting was to say ‘Wow, the things that go on our platform, can’t really comment,” before moving on. YourStarling added that the meeting was “recorded,” but that she didn’t have the recordings on-hand. Dexerto has reached out to Twitch for a response to YourStarling’s allegations. This was a recorded meeting A YEAR AGO. He KNEW that there was a partner abuse problem at Twitch. He was given information about partners weaponizing their platforms. He didn’t follow up, he didn’t address it. This is Twitch culture. Sweep the ugly stuff under the rug for profit. — Starling (@YourStarlingTTV) June 22, 2020 Some of the accused gaming personalities have already issued responses to the growing accusations. SayNoToRage made a since-deleted video which attributed his actions to his own troubled past, but admitted he removed it due to sounding “insincere.” Syndicate was accused of sexual abuse by ZombiUnicorn and ex-girlfriend KaitlinWitcher. He admitted he was “in actual shock” and confirmed he would be making a statement on what he said were “false allegations” soon.

Twitch partnerships director accused of sexual assault TwitchTwitch Accounts Director of Strategic Partnerships Hassan Bokhari is facing allegations of sexual assault from longtime broadcaster ‘Vio,’ as more streamers are coming forward with similar accounts. Bokhari, known on the platform as simply ‘Hassan,’ reportedly used his position of power at Twitch to levy event passes, free products, and Partner status – a sought-after career goal for some streamers – to get closer to these women. Eventually it culminated into Vio feeling pressured to perform sexual acts and engage in intimate relations with Bokhari. Just to clarify, this is a perfect example of one of many ways he’d get his foot in the door with you if he was interested. I noticed he’d often hang out/seek out smaller streamers that weren’t partnered. A lot of grooming behavior that I’ve experienced as well. — Vio ?️?????? (@VioTCZ) June 25, 2020 “Eventually he managed to pressure me into oral sex,” Vio said. “By PAX West 2015, he managed to pressure me into sex. I said no more times than I can count, but each time Hassan took ‘no’ as ‘convince me.’” Vio, formerly known as ‘vio7_2’ on Twitch until a favor from Bokhari immediately resulted in the change, shared her story detailing a pattern of manipulation, persuasion, and promises she said he would use to form bonds. “He abused his position a lot,” Vio said in her TwitLonger. “[One night he] links me to a form. The form was meant for partners as a Christmas gift to them… He used the form to get my number, and I even called him out on it which he casually played off.” She mentioned that some items Bokhari was offering were only meant for partnered Twitch streamers, which he allegedly replied: “I have a feeling you’ll be [a partner] soon.’” Promotion packages and other gifts, like an instant pass into Pax East 2015, were methods he would use to get information on potential victims, such as phone numbers, or ways to get near them, according to Vio. She noted how the Twitch Director would handle sensitive information about other partnered streamers, “I’ve seen things from partner dashboards/revenue dashboards, work emails, work group chats/emails especially in regards to bans, personal partner contracts including the ones of some of the biggest streamers.” After forming a consistent relationship with Bokhari, Vio later said that she confronted him about explicit photos of her circulating among friends. According to her, she had shared concerns about taking the images for him, and later caught wind that Bokhari was the likely source of them getting out. He denied involvement in the leaked photos, according to Vio. Bokhari nor Twitch have responded to the allegations. Other female Twitch streamers have spoken out about interactions with Bokhari. “When I was an affiliate [Bokhari] hit on me and asked me to go to Vegas with him after lurking in my chat for like a week,” streamer ‘yellowspoongirl’ said in reply to Vio’s story. “It really threw me off and I was scared to directly turn him down because I legit thought I wouldn’t get partnered.” Vio shared messages between Bokhari and a female streamer referenced as ‘Domi,’ in which he reportedly contacted her to give promotional items and then later suggested a meet-up. Since posting this I’ve had a couple of women reach out to me privately, sharing similar experiences. Dom wanted me to share this exchange as an example of his power abuse/how he’d hit women up to do them favors. The same tactic that he used with me. Note, she wasn’t partnered. https://t.co/hlf5toVmF3 pic.twitter.com/1ZbtThR0YQ — Vio 🌙✨🖤 (@wtfisavio) June 25, 2020 These accusations follow Twitch’s announcement on June 24 that the company would be making strides to make the platform a safer place for its users. “For those who’ve come forward and would like to share additional information, and to anyone who hasn’t shared their experience and wants to do so,” Twitch wrote in a statement.” You can report confidentially through the reporting tools on each streamer’s channel page. “We’re also committed to continuing our efforts to make Twitch a safer environment with more tools to combat harassment and hate… We will continue to assess accusations against people affiliated with Twitch and explore ways Twitch can collaborate with other industry leaders on this important issue.” An update on our investigations into the recent allegations of sexual abuse and harassment involving Twitch streamers and actions we’re taking. https://t.co/OLJzU9LEVU — Twitch (@Twitch) June 25, 2020 The allegations against Bokhari come at the heels of numerous survivors in the scene sharing their stories against creators, streamers, and prominent industry figures like Syndicate, TobiWan, SayNoToRage, Mini Ladd, THINND, and more.

Twitch partner, Hi-Rez Studio employee arrested in Super Bowl child sex sting [Update] Undercover officers in Atlanta arrested 21 men on Super Bowl Sunday for allegedly arranging to have sex with a child and one of the men arrested was 32-year-old Thomas ‘Elvinelol’ Cheung, an employee at Hi-Rez Studios and a Twitch partner. The sting, nicknamed “Operation Interception” was centered in Brookhaven, Ga and was conducted by members of the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The goal of the operation was “to arrest persons who communicate with children on-line, have sexually explicit conversations, and then travel to meet them for the purpose of having sex,” according to a February 4 release from the task force. The task force used popular dating apps to ID the suspects, who were allegedly willing to have sex with children. “Those arrested had sexually explicit conversations with whom they believed to be a child and most of those arrested traveled to meet a child for sex,” the release stated. Read More: How to download Apex Legends battle royale on PC, Xbox One, PS4 – reveal trailer, system requirements, and more – Cheung wasn’t mentioned in the press release, besides being listed as one of the 21 men who were arrested and charged during the sting. https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/nfl/superbowl/21-men-arrested-in-football-themed-child-sex-sting/85-c77ce5b0-f7e9-459b-885d-3fc57e8eff59Cheung works as the Community Specialist for the game Smite at Hi-Rez, is listed as a Twitch partner and is a brand ambassador for SteelSeries and NZXT. UPDATE, FEB 5: Hi-Rez Studios CEO/President Stewart Chisam released a statement, explaining they’re unable to comment on specifics in Cheung’s case, but confirming he is no longer employed by the company. According to the press release, Cheung and the other 20 men arrested have been charged under the Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 2007 or charged with trafficking of persons for labor or sexual servitude. His case will be prosecuted by the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney in Georgia.

Twitch is Replacing the ‘IRL’ and ‘Creative’ Sections With 10 New Categories, Including Special Section For ‘ASMR’ Twitch has announced that it will be removing the IRL and Creative categories from the streaming directory. The popular streaming platform will be adding ten new categories in their place, which will provide a more specific description of the content being streamed. The decision to reform the IRL and Creative sections was announced by Twitch on August 9, and will be implemented sometime in mid-September. In mid-September we will remove IRL and Creative as categories and add more than 10 new categories, which will let you better describe the content of your streams. These categories will be added to the Browse page, which will be updated to show gaming and non-gaming categories in a single view. Art – For all the artists creating paintings, illustrations, animation, comics, photography, and more, whether you’re using digital or traditional methods or techniques. – Hobbies & Crafts – Use this category when you’re crafting real world objects or working on DIY projects. Includes making costumes, sewing, sculpture, LEGO, woodwork, metalwork, and more. – Food & Drink – From cooking to eating and everything in between, this category is for anything related to the creation, culture, or consumption of food and drinks. – Music & Performing Arts – Use this category when you’re dancing, singing, composing music, playing an instrument, and more. – Beauty & Body Art – Use this category when you’re streaming makeup, skincare, bodypainting, tattooing, and more. – Science & Technology – Use this category when you’re streaming activities like software development, game design, science experiments, engineering, or robotics. – Just Chatting – This category is for conversations between streamers and viewers, like when you’re warming up at the start of your stream, doing Q&As, or live vlogging. – Travel & Outdoors – Whether you’re exploring a new city or just hanging out in your hometown, this category covers all your walking-and-talking needs. – Sports & Fitness – From team sports to training solo, this category includes everything you’d do in a gym and more. – Tabletop RPGs – Finally a place to stream all the tabletop RPGs you love. – Special Events – This is where you’ll find big events like TwitchCon, E3, and PAX, as well as special announcements from game developers and publishers. – Talk Shows & Podcasts – This category name gets an update for all the podcasters out there. – ASMR – A centralized place for ASMR content. – As for why the the two major categories are being broken down into ten, Twitch has explained that they were too broad and did not do well in accurately describing the contents of the streams in those sections. Creative and IRL have become catch-all categories that don’t help describe the content of a stream – New categories give you more accurate ways to describe your stream and help viewers find you – This feature is also scheduled to go live mid-September, and the initial list of tags that will be available can be found by clicking here. The full announcement for replacing the IRL and Creative sections can be viewed below: Add new streaming categories that are more specific than IRL and Creative What Is It? With so many streamers on Twitch, we need to give you better ways to describe your stream when you go live. In mid-September we will remove IRL and Creative as categories and add more than 10 new categories, which will let you better describe the content of your streams. These categories will be added to the Browse page, which will be updated to show gaming and non-gaming categories in a single view. You can see the list of categories below, and share your feedback or suggestions for additional categories here. We are also saying goodbye to Communities and introducing Tags, which will let you describe your stream in even more detail beyond the category you’re streaming. Learn more about Tags and Communities here. These are the new categories we plan to add: Art – For all the artists creating paintings, illustrations, animation, comics, photography, and more, whether you’re using digital or traditional methods or techniques. – Hobbies & Crafts – Use this category when you’re crafting real world objects or working on DIY projects. Includes making costumes, sewing, sculpture, LEGO, woodwork, metalwork, and more. – Food & Drink – From cooking to eating and everything in between, this category is for anything related to the creation, culture, or consumption of food and drinks. – Music & Performing Arts – Use this category when you’re dancing, singing, composing music, playing an instrument, and more. – Beauty & Body Art – Use this category when you’re streaming makeup, skincare, bodypainting, tattooing, and more. – Science & Technology – Use this category when you’re streaming activities like software development, game design, science experiments, engineering, or robotics. – Just Chatting – This category is for conversations between streamers and viewers, like when you’re warming up at the start of your stream, doing Q&As, or live vlogging. – Travel & Outdoors – Whether you’re exploring a new city or just hanging out in your hometown, this category covers all your walking-and-talking needs. – Sports & Fitness – From team sports to training solo, this category includes everything you’d do in a gym and more. – Tabletop RPGs – Finally a place to stream all the tabletop RPGs you love. – Special Events – This is where you’ll find big events like TwitchCon, E3, and PAX, as well as special announcements from game developers and publishers. – Talk Shows & Podcasts – This category name gets an update for all the podcasters out there. – ASMR – A centralized place for ASMR content. – Why? Why combine games with non-gaming categories? We learned from Communities that having multiple directories made it harder for non-gaming streamers to build an audience and prevented streamers from exploring the full range of content they were interested in streaming. – Combining games and non-gaming categories into one directory improves visibility for non-gaming streamers. – Tags will let viewers filter for the categories and streams they’re interested in watching, which makes a mixed directory more manageable. – Why split up IRL and Creative? Creative and IRL have become catch-all categories that don’t help describe the content of a stream – New categories give you more accurate ways to describe your stream and help viewers find you – Tags will let you add even more detail beyond the category you’re streaming – Timing We are targeting mid-September, but this timing is subject to change. We will regularly update this card when we have more information to share. More Info We’re also introducing Tags. Learn More. Tune in to our next Discovery Updates live stream at 2 pm Pacific Friday, August 24– right after Twitch Weekly. The team working on this project will be there to answer your questions and share the latest updates. Have Questions about this project? Send us your questions right here. We’ll answer frequently asked questions on this card and our discovery updates live streams.

New Twitch ‘Community Gifting’ Feature Allows Users to Gift Up to 100 Subs at Once TwitchTwitch has introduced a brand new feature called “Community Gifting” that will allow users to gift a custom amount of subscribers to any given channel at once. Users can choose to gift Tier 1, 2, or 3 subscriptions, and up to 100 subscribers can be gifted at once. The process to using the Community Gifting feature is simple: the user must first select the option under the ‘Gift a Sub’ tab on the channel of their choice Once chosen, a new screen will pop up allowing the user to choose a preset number of subs to gift, or enter a custom number of their choosing. Once the price for the gifted subs is payed for, the channel will receive the subs and the notifications will also pop up in the chat, showing every single sub that was gifted. As for the gift recipients, Twitch has an algorithm in place that allows them to select the viewers that will receive the gifted subscription. We use an algorithm to help us select gift recipients starting with eligible viewers in chat, then followers, mods, and other factors that identify members of a community. Our algorithm also avoids giving trolls subs and we are constantly improving our algorithm to detect this behavior. Although there is no way for the user who is doing the gifting to pick and choose each viewer who will receive the subs, Twitch is looking to adding that as an option in the future. Q. Can I choose all of my gift recipients when gifting to the community? A. Not at the moment, but you’re not the first person to ask! We love hearing feedback and will look into incorporating it into future improvements. For more information about the new Community Gifting feature, visit the official announcement page for it here.

Twitch avoids ban in Russia over pirated content Popular livestreaming platform Twitch will not be taken down in Russia after threats of a lawsuit against the Amazon-owned website were dropped on December 17, according to reports from Russian media. A lawsuit looming over Twitch’s head to the value of $2.8 billion has reportedly been dropped, meaning that the service will not be blocked in Russia. Russian media company Rambler Group was planning on suing the Amazon-owned website for damages after it was found that Twitch was hosting content they had the rights to. Rambler Group claimed 36,000 cases of copyright infringement over English Premier League soccer matches on Twitch, which some users had streamed on the platform without permission. The Rambler Group has owned the rights to the Premier League in Russia since early 2019. Vadim Ampelonsky, the spokesperson for Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor, told state media that the lawsuit was being dropped and the government was no longer pursuing Twitch over the copyrighted content. It’s stated that Twitch removed the content from the platform, which satisfied the Rambler Group. While Twitch is known for hosting more gaming-orientated content, rebroadcasts of popular sporting events often appear on the platform. These streams are often unlicensed and illegal with Twitch not holding the rights to host content on these major events, but it can also be difficult to police. Twitch does have some rights to sporting events around the world though. Through Amazon, Twitch now hosts an NFL Thursday Night Football broadcast, as well as various USA Basketball, Junior NBA, and National Basketball League (Australia) streams. Formula 1 also made a legitimate appearance on the platform for the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, streaming the race live and free to people in certain European countries. Russia has the third-largest share of Twitch viewership across the world, controlling 6.31% of the market, putting it behind the United States and Germany. Russian broadcasts of Dota 2 and CS:GO are especially popular during major tournaments like The International. No update has been made to the Courts of General Jurisdiction of the City of Moscow website, with a hearing still set to be held on December 20.

TSM Myth fires back at Dafran after he mocks his Twitch viewers vs Sinatraa Instagram: tsm_myth, Overwatch LeagueEx-Overwatch League pro Daniel ‘dafran’ Francesca has been one of the few supporting Valorant pro Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won throughout investigations of sexual assault, and recently he’s locked horns with TSM’s Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani. As more information emerges from both Riot Games and the police department’s investigation into Sinatraa, the situation continues to escalate. Firmly defending him throughout the entire situation is former OWL pro dafran, whose opinions have generally been met with backlash. Fellow Twitch streamers, including Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, have condemned his comments. This time it’s iconic TSM streamer, Myth, that’s become the target of dafran’s tweets, and he’s quickly responded. Dafran slams “washed up Fortnite guy” Myth On May 20, Sinatraa made a surprise return to the world of Valorant streaming, and in response, dafran launched a Twitter tirade on Myth. Writing “there’s something sweet about this washed up Fortnite guy @TSM_Myth streaming his usual Valorant and being hardstuck immortal while having less viewers than @sinatraa,” tempers started to fray pretty quickly. https://twitter.com/dafran/status/1395238535913951233 Elaborating that Myth is “taking the easy route,” dafran accuses Myth of encouraging users to “sh*t on Sinatraa and me.” He was one of the people taking the easy route, farming being liked by the metoo movement and crazy pokimane feminists to shit on Sinatraa and me. The rest of them is shitters too — Farmer Dafran (@dafran) May 20, 2021 Myth responds An hour after the original tweet, Myth clapped back with a meme. Read More: Best Valorant Agents: Every character ranked – Joking that he “found a picture of @dafran and @sinatraa,” the image shows a smaller dog sniffing another dog. I found a picture of @dafran and @sinatraa https://t.co/tPqquf7AaZ pic.twitter.com/WCTAthzZQF — Myth (@Myth_) May 20, 2021 In turn, dafran hit back with “funny, still a washed up Valorant commentator though.” We’ll have to see if the situation continues to escalate between the two streamers, especially as Sinatraa continues his Valorant comeback.

Tributes paid to AJ Crimson: Beauty influencer dies aged 27 AJ Crimson BeautyMake-up artist and beauty entrepreneur AJ Crimson has died, age 27. The celebrated businessman was known for his work with celebrities and brands, as well as a popular figure in the beauty industry and on Instagram. Founder of AJ Crimson Beauty, Crimson’s products and work featured in numerous TV shows and fashion magazines, including Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Esquire and more. Some of his celebrity work included the likes of Fergie, Christina Milian, Estelle, Amerie, and Hilary Duff. On the AJ Crimson Beauty website, he is described as “a beauty industry rock star, entrepreneur, a self-taught celebrity makeup artist, and beauty & lifestyle expert.” Through his work in the industry, Detroit-native AJ Crimson also built up a substantial social media following, primarily on Instagram, with over 100,000 followers. Tributes paid to AJ Crimson After news was shared across social media of Crimson’s passing, comments flooded in from fans and colleagues. The Makeup Show said “A bright light has gone out. We just spoke today about his keynote for @themakeupshow NYC. AJ Crimson you made this makeup family, industry and world a better place with your talent and authenticity. It will never be the same.” View this post on Instagram On his latest Instagram post, showing off one of the brand’s new products, a brush collection, the comments are now filled with mourning fans and many colleagues in the Beauty industry. Tym Wallace, a hair technician, wrote “I just can’t believe this man…. Love you AJ!!!” “Wow. I can’t believe this. Rest In Peace my beautiful friend. You will be missed.” Beaty influencer takishahair said. Read More: TikTok’s viral ‘Story Time’ Trend – Photographer and fellow celebrity makeup artist D’Andre Michael wrote, “You did well and had soo sooo much more to accomplish. We’re gonna miss you dearly and honor and keep your legacy alive… spread your wings angel.” The cause of death has not been officially confirmed.

TikToker Claire Miller charged with murdering her disabled sister TikTok / Lancaster County District Attorney14-year-old Claire Miller has been charged after fatally stabbing her sister, who was wheelchair-bound, before calling 911 and confessing. The teen, who is being tried as an adult, was a popular creator on TikTok with millions of video views. After news of the homicide charges was reported, TikTok users quickly recognized Miller from appearing on their ‘For You’ page. Miller allegedly killed her disabled sister, Helen Miller, while their parents slept, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, in Pennsylvania. Officers arriving on the scene were directed to Helen’s room by Claire, and lifesaving efforts by EMS were unsuccessful. Miller repeatedly told the responding officers “I killed my sister.” Helen Miller was pronounced dead at 4:13 am on February 22. Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement: “Police indicate there is no threat to public safety. Manheim Township Police are fully committed to this investigation. Investigators and members of the Lancaster County Major Crimes Unit are still at the residence collecting evidence and working to determine the circumstances that led to Helen Miller’s death.” Who was Claire Miller on TikTok? In the wake of the tragic incident, Claire Miller’s TikTok profile has gone wildly viral. A TikTok highlighting the disturbing story asked “So did anybody come across the same girl on their [For You page] or just me?” Miller’s TikTok account, ‘spiritsandsuchconsulting’, has a number of videos with upwards of 1 million views. It’s possible that following this incident, TikTok will close the profile. One of the videos, from January 13, features her sister Helen, who she is now accused of murdering, seen in her wheelchair with their father. Read More: Tommyinnit responds after shock TikTok ban – Users are reporting that her videos have been appearing on their For You page much more since the arrest, calling it “chilling.” It’s unclear how the TikTok algorithm works, but an increase in people looking for her profile will likely cause a snowball effect for these videos to be recommended to more users. Claire Miller has been charged with Criminal Homicide will, and it is expected that she will be transported to Lancaster County Prison after arraignment. Anyone charged with homicide in Pennsylvania is not eligible for bail.

TikTok star Leonardo Gil dies in hit and run at age 34 TikTok: Leonardogil01TikToker and doctor Leonardo Gil has died at age 34 from a hit and run accident. The 34-year-old doctor, Leonardo Gil, who gained popularity on TikTok with over 100,000 followers, has died following a hit and run incident on his motorbike after finishing a shift at a hospital in Hialeah, Florida on January 25. According to a report by WSVN, a passerby found the 34-year-old on the ground after the accident, and immediately called emergency services. Leonardo was rushed to the hospital but later died from his injuries. Leonardo began working at Hialeah hospital as a janitor 10 years ago when he moved from Cuba. Gil eventually became a patient transporter and went on to become an endoscopy technician. His aunt Katiuska Fernandez told WSVN: “Leonardo knew how to make people smile. Whether he met you on the streets, or if you were one of his more than 90,000 TikTok followers, his goal was to brighten up your day. “Everybody knows he’s going to say something good,” she added. Leonardo Gil’s TikTok popularity The popular doctor would reply to comments during his break while working at the hospital. From hilarious dances to jokes, Leonardo would average hundreds of thousands of views on each TikTok. Devastated by the news, fans of the TikToker have flooded the comments of Leonardo’s most recent TikTok. “I can’t believe you are gone. You will be missed. My heart is completely broken at this moment,” said one fan. ” I can’t believe this, I’m in shock,” another added. A GoFundMe to help cover the funeral and memorial costs was set up shortly after the TikTok star’s death. So far over $13,000 has been raised by over 200 donators.

TIkTok star Kate Hudson confirms daughter Eliza has died Instagram: KateHudson007After a gruelling battle with a rare form of cancer, TikTok star Kate Hudson has confirmed that her daughter, Eliza, has passed away. TikTok creator, Kate Hudson, spent most of her time on the social media platform sharing videos of her two-and-a-half-year-old, Eliza. In the wake of Eliza not feeling well over the week prior to her passing away, Hudson confirmed in an emotional Instagram post that the little star had lost her ongoing battle with Rhabdoid tumour (an aggressive form of cancer) on June 20. With over 5.4 million followers on the streaming website, tributes are pouring in from far and wide to honor the impact she had on the online community. Kate Hudson announces TikTok star Eliza’s death Releasing a heartbreaking post on Instagram, Kate has used the platform to share her thoughts with the world. “My sweet baby girl. I don’t know how we will go on without you. I know we promised you we would we brave, just like you,” she writes. “But we are broken. Even though we know you are no longer suffering or in pain or frustrated with what life had become. “I woke up this morning [June 20], still half asleep, and reached for your hand. But you were not there. You left last night. In a van that took you away. I wanted to run after you. But I couldn’t. I have to accept this new reality…but I am not ready to let you go. I don’t think I ever will be ready to move on.” She concludes that “I want to believe you are somewhere with my dad and my sister….and your sister…all loved ones you never met. I want to believe you are all together. Dancing in meadows or swinging on trees or walking alongside a beach somewhere with ocean salt water washing over your toes.” “I also want to believe your soul transferred into us, your Mamma and your Dadda. That you left your little body and gently latched onto our souls. That we are now intertwined for life. I want to believe you are still alive somewhere.” View this post on Instagram Fans mourn Eliza’s passing As the news broke, fans all around the globe have come together using the hashtags #FrogYouCancer and #HeyEliza to celebrate her life and contribution to internet culture. One fan writes “Cancer is so cruel…especially when it takes someone so young… Rest in Peace sweet girl.” cancer is so cruel…especially when it takes someone so young. my heart aches. sending all my love to eliza’s family. rest in peace sweet girl 💛 #heyeliza pic.twitter.com/GMwEVKgKSo — sof (@sofiavictoria37) June 21, 2021 Another writes “Rest in piece (peace) little Eliza. You made an amazing impact on millions of peoples lives.” Rest in piece little Eliza ❤️ You made an amazing impact on millions of peoples lives. You will be so missed 👼🏻 #FrogYouCancer 🐸 #HeyEliza pic.twitter.com/gAIiq6Fimm — mom (@CocoMamaa_) June 21, 2021 Another fan shared an adorable video of the TikTok star on a spinning swing, writing “against all the odds, you showed the world who’s boss. You touched so many people’s lives with your smiles and strength.” https://twitter.com/pluruto/status/1407070793364877313 As fans continue to come together, Eliza’s family will know that they are not alone. If you, or anyone you know, are suffering from cancer, support is available at Cancer Care 800-813-4673 (USA), Macmillan Cancer Support 0808-808-00-00 (UK) or Cancer Council 13-11-20 (Aus).

TikTok star Brandon Brootal dies: Tributes paid by fans Instagram: brandonmckessonTikTok creator Brandon Brootal has died, according to a post on his Instagram on January 30. Fans have paid tribute to the star, who had amassed a following of over 1.4 million on TikTok. Known as ‘brandonbrootal7’ on TikTok, Brandon McKesson posted what he called ‘early 2000’s emo/scene content’ to his account, and his efforts had made him one of the most popular creators in this genre on the app. The last video on his account was posted on November 28, 2021, talking about his hope to find an emo girlfriend, “that special one.” After his absence from posting, fans pleaded with him to return to making videos, but news hit his Instagram account, that he had passed. “To honor the request of Brandon’s fans, his family will continue to post unreleased photos here for you to remember him by,” the post read. “Long Live Brandon Brootal, Rest In Peace, Brandon.” The Instagram account has since been made unavailable. View this post on Instagram Two videos were also to have been recovered from Brandon’s camera roll, where he discussed why he hadn’t “been focusing on his appearance” as much, followed by a heartbreaking video in which he said he was going to die and “I don’t think I’m going to be here anymore.” Tributes paid to Brandon Brootal on TikTok As news of his passing spread, the TikTok community has paid their respects to the late creator. The hashtag #brandonbrootal has accrued over 1.5 million views, with the top TikTok from ‘Goldfish’ full of commenters expressing their sympathies and remembering Brandon’s content. https://www.tiktok.com/@gpldfish/video/7059752957826420015 “He was genuinely one of my favorite creators and it’s sad that all anyone did was bully him,” one fan said. Another posted, “I loved him so much, he was unapologetic about being himself and it was inspirational and I am genuinely upset.” Brandon’s family said that he loved poetry and music, and would continue to post and repost content from Brandon’s archives to maintain his presence on social media. “We will continue to honor Brandon’s memory by carrying on as we believe he would have wanted.” If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, or know anyone that is, and you would like to talk to someone, please reach out and call the Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (USA) or the Samaritans 116-123 (UK).

TheRockinR Charity founded to raise brain tumor awareness The gaming community continues to help its members who are battling illness with the creation of a special charity in memory of one incredibly passionate gamer. A UK-based charity, TheRockinR, was created to honor the memory of a strong-willed and passionate gamer, Reece ‘TheRockinR’ Miree. Its goal is to bring joy and comfort to other gamers-at-heart who have an ailment that prevents them from indulging in their love for games. TheRockinR is another organization started within the gaming community that seeks to help those in need. This one is unique, however, in that it strives “to support children through the healing process as they undergo treatment in pediatric hospitals or hospices.” Read more: Fortnite: Everything you need to know about the new modes – Team Rumble LTM and Alchemist Pop-Up Cup – Miree was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an inoperable and incurable brain tumor, at the age of 10. He passed away at the age of 11. Although tragically taken, his story is one of hope by finding joy in what you love. TheRockinR is a registered charity created by Miree’s family and headed by his father, Jonny Miree, that aims to support anyone else afflicted by DIPG. The charity provides mobile gaming units to patients and, in conjunction with the charity Abbie’s Army, aims to raise awareness and funding into DIPG “research, (to) help overturn this ‘terminal’ prognosis.” To help the cause, TheRockinR takes one-time or monthly donations, as well as shares and retweets. In donating, people or businesses can help sponsor a gaming unit that “offer huge benefits to patients, healthcare professionals, play specialists and parents, often offering a welcome distraction to the child’s illness or treatment.” To learn more about TheRockinR, visit the official website at therockinr.org.uk.

The Esports Community Paid Tribute to TotalBiscuit Following Death at Age 33 The death of popular YouTuber and game critic John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain sent shockwaves across the internet when it was announced on Friday, May 24th. Total Biscuit, who was 33 at the time of his death, had been struggling with bowel cancer, which he was first diagnosed with back in 2014. His illness had been confirmed as terminal in October 2015 but his death still came as a shock to people across the globe who had followed his work. Earlier in May, he had released a statement to say that his intensive treatments were no longer working and as a result, he’d be retiring and no longer working. Unfortunately it was announced just later that month that he had passed away, with his wife writing a poem on both his and her Twitter accounts to explain the situation. As a controversial personality within the gaming and esports scene, he didn’t hold back with his opinion, however upon learning of his death, even some of his fiercest critics posted touching tributes across social media. More: – Friends, foes, former co-workers and those who just simply admired his work all paid tribute to the work he did within the gaming scene, and many looked back fondly on their time together. We’ve rounded up a collection of tributes posted on Twitter following the announcement of his death. Esports journalist Richard Lewis Absolutely devastated about John’s passing. We just spoke last month. I never for a second truly believed this would happen. This will take some time. My thoughts are with his family. — Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) May 25, 2018 Team Liquid’s official account Everyone at Team Liquid is devastated after hearing the news that John “”Total Biscuit”” Bain has passed away. He has been a valuable contributor in all forms of the online gaming community in his life and he will be deeply missed. Thoughts are with his family at this time. pic.twitter.com/5WTbTJ6k9e— TLnet (@TLnet) May 25, 2018 Commentator Shaun ‘Apollo’ Clark So many thoughts, in 2010/2011 times. I couldn’t get paid by tournament organizers to cast, Totalbiscuit was casting along side me who was. He found out, instantly saying wtf and shared 50% his earnings until I did. So many things he did. — Shaun Clark (@ApolloSC2) May 25, 2018 Twitch’s Official Account John Bain’s opinionated game critiques and sense of humor led to him becoming one of the most prominent voices in the gaming industry. The emote bearing his face represents the indelible mark that he has left on Twitch. Thank you for everything, TotalBiscuit. — Twitch (@Twitch) May 25, 2018 YouTuber SkyWilliams I’m not ready to face reality in the wake of @Totalbiscuit’s passing. he had brought so much greatness to the world. to us. i decided to share some fun memories in an attempt to give those grieving a smile. i just wish time could slow down today Rest easy, Biscuit Bear. pic.twitter.com/KiCRYJPfoF — ♡♪!? (@SkyWilliams) May 24, 2018 Yogscast Host Lewis Brindley Really sad about @totalbiscuit passing. I always admired his way of cutting through the bullshit – how he was never afraid of anyone or anything. He helped us get started and promoted the first Jingle Jam, and I’ll never forget laughing together as we were blown up by ARSE mines. — Lewis Brindley (@YogscastLewis) May 25, 2018 Commenator Anders Blume Waking up to the news that totalbiscuit has passed away is so upsetting. As someone who quietly followed his fight with cancer, it was and is incredible how he kept finding the strength. Thoughts are with his family and loved ones. — Anders Blume (@OnFireAnders) May 25, 2018 Esports journalist Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields Our personal relationship was contentious but @Totalbiscuit was a pioneer in many respects and achieved a successful and prodigious career both in esports and outside of it. Farewell to a modern day gaming icon or iconoclast, depending on where you’re sat. — Thorin (@Thooorin) May 25, 2018 Esports Journalist Slasher Totalbiscuit was a positive influence in the lives of so many in gaming and esports. TB was there for me when things were at their worst, and this is a story you’ll hear repeated by those who knew him best and those who watched him online. The Cynical Brit will forever live on. pic.twitter.com/xmkGmHcOdu — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) May 25, 2018 The Official ESL Account We lost an integral part of the gaming community yesterday. Rest in peace @Totalbiscuit – you will be missed. pic.twitter.com/r5do7KrEuL — ESL (@ESL) May 25, 2018

Syndicate releases statement addressing sexual abuse allegations YouTube: Life of Tom[jwplayer ftb8P7Xy] Faced with accusations of sexual abuse from two different women, popular YouTuber and Call of Duty personality Tom ‘ProSyndicate’ Cassell has issued a statement claiming his innocence. The allegations first surfaced on June 21, when Natalie ‘ZombiUnicorn’ Casanova, a well-known content creator, posted a video going into detail about an incident that allegedly took place while she and Cassell were hosting a Legends of Gaming YouTuber tournament in 2016. Shortly thereafter, his ex-girlfriend, Kaitlin Witcher, also spoke out in her own series of emotional Twitter clips, claiming that a similar situation had occurred in a Los Angeles hotel room back in 2012. At the time, Syndicate immediately denied the accusations on Twitter, saying he was in “actual shock” and that he’d be making a statement “regarding the false allegations” at some point. I honestly don’t know what to say with all these allegations being made against me. I’m in actual shock. I seriously am. I want to address every single thing that’s been said. I will be making a statement regarding all the false allegations in the following days.— Tom (@Syndicate) June 21, 2020 That statement finally came several days later, on June 24, in the form of a long Twitter post. In it, Cassell called the allegations from both women false, providing details about his relationships with both and explaining that no aspect of either involved any wrongdoing. He also repeatedly mentioned that he fully supports women who have the courage to speak out against their abusers, but that these particular instances are part of an online crusade against him. “This is character assassination by social media without evidence to support it or any justification,” he wrote. “These two women have chosen to make horrendous allegations against me for reasons I do not understand, attempting to stage a public trial without giving me a chance to defend myself.” In the case of Casanova, Syndicate admitted that they’d been involved in a sexual encounter, but one that was fully consensual. He revealed that the two had discussed and agreed to her taking a pill the next morning, which disputes her original claims that he had forced her to via a female assistant from his workplace. As for Kaitlin Witcher, he revealed that, while they had been together during their teenage years, it was never a “full sexual relationship” because she didn’t want one, which he says he “respected.” “The allegations she made against me are completely false,” Cassell said of Witcher. “I know she has been through some tough times in her life and always considered her to be a good person, but these claims she has made against me are entirely wrong.” At the time of publication, neither Casanova nor Wither have commented on Syndicate’s statement. We will continue to bring you the latest on this story as it continues to develop and more details are revealed.

Street Fighter pro Robinho denies rape accusations after disturbing claims on stream PATOZ TeamBrazilian fighting game pro Robson ‘Robinho’ Oliveira has denied accusations of rape after telling a story of an encounter with a former partner on stream, in which some have claimed he admitted to the act. He has since claimed that he made the story up. During one of his Street Fighter Twitch streams, Robinho told a story of how he felt wronged by a former partner, and sought revenge on her, laughing throughout. Saying that he “found out” about her having relations with other men before him, referring to her as a “hardcore skank,” Robinho then explained that it “caused an uproar” for him. “We went out and got hammered, we got really drunk,” he said. “I took her to a house and I called like eight dudes. I said ‘Today, she’s gonna get f**ked up.’ … She got herself all broken. I did her good, everyone got a turn.” Can’t say I’m proud to contribute to the FGC with this translation, but here goes. 🚨A bit of context to our viewers: Robinho is a Brazilian SFV proplayer that got qualified to the CPT. He was previously involved in a vaccination controversy, and now he brought this up mid-stream pic.twitter.com/SrFDd3sIpx— Cruz ☯️ (@CruzaderOnline) January 6, 2022 The story was incredibly alarming and immediately caused a stir among the FGC community. As a result, Robinho was removed from PATOZ team, and the Capcom Pro Tour has started to remove any mention of him from their website. https://twitter.com/patozteam/status/1479164073635889154 Shortly after the clip started to gain traction across social media, Robinho denied the claims in a conversation with globo.com. “That was a story I made up right away, in a jibe,” he said. “That thing about drinking doesn’t even exist. People are (sic) distorting the whole story … It’s a story that doesn’t even exist, something I said in the joke, now they’re accusing me of something that was said in jest. “I’m sad because people are being mean. Wanting to harm me with it, even banning me from the Capcom Cup.” In the interview, Robinho claimed that the incident took place when he was 13 and she was 15, but everything from the moment where he said she was “drunk” was fabricated. On January 7, Capcom revealed that Robinho would henceforth be permanently banned from all Capcom-owned and/or operated events. The Capcom Cup VIII was due to take place in February 2022, with Robinho having qualified through the South American qualifiers. In the early hours of January 7, they announced that the tournament was being canceled due to the ongoing global health crisis.

Square Enix death threats in Japan now affecting tournaments too Square EnixOn August 15, Japan-based video game developer Square Enix cancelled four of its upcoming gaming tournaments due to death threats. Starwing Paradox has become a hit in Japan since it was released in arcades in November, with developer Square Enix holding tournaments across the country for the best players. Management on the game’s staff team received death threats and on August 15, the developer announced that it was pulling four upcoming tournaments for mecha arcade game. Death threats against Starwing Paradox staff Starwing Paradox tournaments due to be held on the weekend of August on the weekends of August 17 and August 24 in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, and Fukuoka were cancelled after members of the management team received death threats. In a statement on August 15, Square Enix said (translation by Google Translate): “August 17 (Sat) and August 24 (Sat) 2019 tournaments scheduled to be held in 4 cities in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Fukuoka have been cancelled.” The developer then revealed that the reason for the cancellation was due to death threats against staff. “From last week until yesterday, there were several killing notices to the “Star and Wings Paradox” management team.” Police were contacted after such threats, and the postponement of the events were in the interest of public safety. “In response to this, we consulted with the police on the premise of submitting a damage report and, after careful discussions with relevant parties, we will give the top priority to customer safety and take the above measures.” “We apologize to those who were looking forward to the event and apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.” It’s not the only threat Square Enix received On August 11, a 40-year-old man was arrested after allegedly threatening Square Enix headquarters in Shinjuku, Tokyo in what was described as a ‘Kyoto Animation-inspired arson attack’. The threat was sent via the company’s website inquiry form, and that the suspect demanded a refund for a game before saying he would set the headquarters ablaze if he couldn’t get it. Police later detailed how the man admitted he had said it out of “anger” but wasn’t serious.

Sony is Ending Support for the PlayStation 2 After Eighteen Years Sony have announced that customer support for their popular Playstation 2 console will no longer be available, as of August 31. With the company no longer offering warranties, repairs, and any other form of support in Japan, the console has essentially reached the end of its lifespan. In a report by Japanese website IT Media, players who looked to repair their console one final time were given the opportunity to fill out a maintenance form up until August 31. News of this announcement was released on June 22, giving enthusiasts a little over two months to repair their trusty system. The console was released in March of 2000, and was produced until 2013. With support ending in 2018, the PS2 enjoyed a long, happy lifespan of eighteen years. Within those eighteen years, the system released some of gaming’s most treasured classics. From Shadow of the Colossus to Okami, Kingdom Hearts, and more, the PlayStation 2 was a treasured console for many. It was likewise one of the best-selling gaming systems, with over 158 million units sold at the end of its production in January 2013. The PS2 also featured a library of over 3,000 games, rendering it as one of the longest-lasting systems as well as one of the most versatile.

Sony invests $250 million in Fortnite developers Epic Games Sony / Epic Games[jwplayer dDOO1bSy]Sony announced it was investing in Epic Games on July 9 by buying a $250 million minority stake in the Fortnite developer. According to VentureBeat, this elevates the bar of money raised for the North Carolina-based studio to a total $1.83 billion to date. This is another step forward between both entities as they’ve collaborated with their individual platforms before. Sony called the move a “strategic investment” and made it through one of their wholly-owned subsidiaries. In a joint-statement the companies said that they’re working toward advancing “the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially connected online services.” The investment was made so that the PlayStation-maker and Epic could “broaden their collaboration across Sony’s leading portfolio of entertainment assets and technology.” “Epic’s powerful technology in areas such as graphics places them at the forefront of game engine development with Unreal Engine and other innovations,” Sony Corporation CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said. This comes on the heels of Epic Games’ reveal of Unreal Engine 5 in May. The tech demo was an impressive feat of engineering and one of the first looks at how next generation technologies will be able change games. But video games aren’t the only avenue that Sony is looking to bolster with the renewed partnership. Yoshida brought up Fortnite’s advances in entertainment as a whole. He wants to bring “value to consumers” in verticals that go beyond video games, and Epic Games CEO Epic Tim Sweeney is also looking forward to that prospect. “Sony and Epic have both built businesses at the intersection of creativity and technology, and we share a vision of real-time 3D social experiences leading to a convergence of gaming, film, and music,” Sweeney said. “Together we strive to build an even more open and accessible digital ecosystem for all consumers and content creators alike.” Not only did Epic’s Fortnite eventually become one of the first fully-realized PlayStation 4 crossplay titles in 2018, the battle royale also played host to massive digital concerts starring the likes of Travis Scott, Marshmallow, and more. With this deal, expect Sony and Epic to collaborate a lot more on potential projects that could expand further than Fortnite and the PlayStation 5.

Sinatraa’s girlfriend emmyuh speaks out on allegations and reveals text messages Twitter: emmyuhAmid Riot Games’ investigation into Jay ‘sinatraa’ Won regarding the alleged sexual abuse of his ex-girlfriend, Cleo ‘cle0h’ Hernandez, Won’s current girlfriend has addressed the situation with text message receipts in hand. Valorant star Jay ‘sinatraa’ Won was accused of sexual abuse by his ex-girlfriend, cle0h, earlier in 2021. The investigation has led to the Sentinels player being suspended from professional Valorant play until further notice, and has seen Blizzard offer refunds for the former San Francisco Shock player’s Overwatch League Zarya MVP skin. Throughout the whole affair his current girlfriend, Emmyuh, has remained completely silent regarding the situation, but she’s now spoken out and shared screenshots of text messages from Cleo. Sinatraa’s girlfriend defends him In a Tweet from April 20, 2021, emmy has attached a lengthy statement defending her boyfriend amid the investigation. Simply entitled “the situation at hand,” the extensive document has a collection of text messages from another of cle0h’s ex’s, which alleges that she has been prone to erratic behavior in past relationships. https://twitter.com/emmyuh/status/1384407183228502022 Amid a host of screenshots discussing cleoh’s prior relationship is one which reads that “Cleo measures how hard she bullies someone by their follower count,” and that despite no longer being in a relationship with the ex in question she deemed them as “‘her property’” and caused issues when they tried to move on. It also notes that, despite originally claiming that when emmy had reached out to her cleoh “completely [forgave] her,” she has gone on to start a TikTok campaign against her on a private TikTok account. The link to the emmy’s full statement can be found here. Sinatraa’s girlfriend confirms they are still dating To close her statement emmy confirms that the pair are still dating and that she has “never felt unsafe” during their relationship. She writes: “I am still dating Jay. I have heard his side and I have never felt unsafe throughout my relationship with Jay. Jay has always put my comfort above anything, always.” Concluding that “I hope that you guys will hear him out when he addresses it all publicly,” we’ll keep you updated with how the situation continues to develop.

Sinatraa’s ex deletes post with “additional claims” and police report details Valorant EsportsValorant star Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won’s ex-girlfriend, Cleo ‘cle0h’ Hernandez, has removed her “additional claims” post on Twitter that stated she had filed a police report against the esports player. In March, Overwatch League MVP turned Valorant sensation Sinatraa was accused of sexual abuse by an ex-girlfriend, cle0h, resulting in suspensions from both Sentinels and Riot Games. As the situation continued to progress, cle0h made a second post in April to explain that a police report had been filed and an investigation into the situation was well underway. However, for reasons unknown, the Tweet and associated document have been removed from the internet. Sinatraa’s ex deletes Tweet Along with the Tweet being deleted, the link to the extensive document is now broken. Google’s error notification claims that the “file you’ve requested has been deleted,” suggesting that this was done of cle0h’s own accord. While there could be several reasons that the document has been removed, presumptions immediately point to a matter of legalities. Sinatraa is still benched by Sentinels as investigations continue. His spot has been filled by former Cloud9 player Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, who has helped the team secure their place at Stage 2 Masters in Iceland, the first major LAN event for Valorant. For Sinatraa’s part, he hasn’t made any public statements since his initial denial of cle0h’s accusations on March 11.

Shroud Partners Up With Postmates After Making Over 161 Orders So Far This Year – Details and Favorite Meals Twitch streamer Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has officially partnered up with Postmates food delivery service. After being a customer of their for years, the former CSGO pro player finally decided to go beyond just using them as a service provider. Shroud’s fondness for Postmates is well documented as he has made over 161 orders so far this year, sometimes even getting food delivered up to four times a day. “Postmates has been a lifesaver for me. I stream for hours every day and being able to rely on Postmates to deliver food to me fast has been huge for ensuring I have the fuel I’ve needed to get through the grind. Excited to announce a full partnership with a service I already use all the time!” The streamer’s most frequent order over the years have been burritos, and his favorite selection of food are Korean, American, and fast food. Typically, Shroud’s go-to orders throughout the day are: 9 AM: Two eggs and french toast – 2 PM: BBQ pork lunch and pan-fried rice cake – 5 PM: Burrito, chips and guacamole – 10 PM: Hershey’s bar, Slurpee and Haagen Dazs vanilla pint – That clearly shows that Postmates plays a very important role in sustaining one of the industry’s top gamers. Shroud’s newly formed partnership with Postmates will not only be beneficial for him, but also to his viewers, followers, and fans, who will be receiving surprises during streams, including free deliveries, food, and more. Shroud will also get his own personal code in the app; all new Postmates users can get $100 in free delivery credits simply by typing “SHROUD” in the promotional code box after making a new account.

Seattle Police Department have created a solution to combat swatting The Seattle Police Department have released a new way for streamers in the area to protect themselves against swatting. In an attempt to provide first responders with as much information as possible as they head to a call, the Seattle PD have introduced a new system called ‘Rave Facility’ to help combat these hoax calls. Streamers and online personalities who are concerned about being a target for swatting can sign up for the Rave Facility, which will put them on a list that makes the call taker aware there there is a possibility the call is a hoax. The Seattle Police Department have confirmed that officers will respond to these calls no matter what, and the new system won’t cause any delay in the quickness of officer response times. The department believes that it is important for officers to be provided as much information as possible before they head to a call, so this new Rave Facility program will work alongside the Seattle PD’s SMART 911 system, which provides officers with real time information before they arrive at a call. Swatting is a term used to describe a fake or hoax call made to a police department, in an attempt to force armed officers to storm someone’s home. Online personalities and streamers are usually the victims of this prank, such as the Clout Gang who were recently targeted. While this system is currently only available in Seattle, it will be interesting to see if it spreads around the country in an effort to stop future swatting incidents.

SCUF responds to sexual harassment allegations from former employee Several hours after a former employee posted allegations of sexual harassment at SCUF, the controller company officially responded. Early in the morning on August 9, 2021, former SCUF employee @vivisquid on Twitter posted a Twitlonger blasting the company. In it, she laid out multiple claims of sexual harassment she allegedly experienced during her time at the Atlanta, Georgia-based company. Former SCUF employee claims years of harassment https://twitter.com/vivisquid/status/1424684627088846853?s=20 “I still can’t speak about it without breaking down,” she wrote about her experience. “It’s something I will continue to be affected by for years. I’m really scared to try to get another office job, because I feel like it’s bound to happen again.” What Vivi shares in the Twitlonger is graphic so we won’t be going into the exact details here. However if you read through it, you’ll see it does call out several employees by name. On top of that, she also recounts multiple instances she says made her working life miserable. After posting the Twitlonge, she continued on Twitter, at one point claiming that employees at SCUF weren’t able to access the Human Resources department “without permission.” As well as the fact she was still scared to speak out about what happened due to fear of retaliation. https://twitter.com/vivisquid/status/1424696024275329035?s=20 On top of the harassment she also mentioned racism was a huge issue at the company as well, but added it was a “story for a different day.” Dexerto was able to corroborate the detail about HR and the allegations of racism from the Twitlonger in particular from another former SCUF employee who requested to remain anonymous for this story. SCUF promises to investigate “internally” Several hours after Vivi posted the allegations, SCUF responded with an official release of their own claiming they were investigating the matter internally. “This is something we take extremely seriously and we are urgently investigating this matter to take further additional actions internally,” SCUF said in a statement on Twitter. “Sexual harassment, of any kind, is not tolerated at SCUF and we continuously strive for an inclusive and safe work environment.” The gaming world was rocked by the news that Activision-Blizzard is getting sued by the state of California for “fostering an unsafe work environment,” in July of 2021. SCUF isn’t a household name like Blizzard. But, they still sponsor plenty of streamers and content creators and their ads can be found all over Twitch and the gaming side of YouTube. At this point it’s currently unknown what actions SCUF will take, or really what will end up happening next. As this is a developing story, we’ll be sure to post all the updates as they happen.

Richard Lewis: How the Internet failed Etika NewsweekAt the time of writing, it has been just a few hours since a body hauled out of the East River in New York City has been identified as that of Desmond ‘Etika’ Amofah. The 29-year-old had been missing for days, his belongings found near a bridge, a deliberately left clue that this time wouldn’t be like all the others when he had battled with the darkness. This time he would lose. I didn’t know Desmond and barely followed his work, only really watching from afar the last year. There will be better people to pay tribute to his life than me. That isn’t what this is. Nor is it an attempt to turn his tragic death into a happening, to make this all about me like so many others have, to treat it like an event and proudly declare ‘I was there’ while checking the mirror to see if my crocodile tears have dried up. I wasn’t there and, because I didn’t know the man, my sense of loss isn’t personal. This won’t be an obituary. Instead, let it be a message to those who know what they did, and how they pushed and pulled a public figure to the point that he felt suicide was the only way to avoid consequences that were most likely imagined. There were few voices telling him this important truth but plenty that fed this dangerous lie. Posting the suicide hotline and saying how much you’ll miss him will not absolve you. Etika had, for some time, clear and obvious problems with mental health. This isn’t surprising. All studies show that there has been a huge rise of mental illness worldwide. I talk of it often. I see it often. How can anyone’s mind hold up to the awful online world we’ve created? Reality TV mechanics feeding the notion we can simply ‘vote off’ people we don’t like. Cancel culture mobs pouring over everything you’ve ever said and ever done and pushing for it to go viral in a bid to strip you of everything you’ve ever had. Constant access to fans and abusers alike who can instantly hit you with a slew of unchecked vitriol that drowns out any positives you might enjoy reading. Forums of people dedicated to finding out where you live and looking to put those details out publicly, removing even the sanctuary of home. This amid a backdrop of the hysterical, screeching 24-hour news channels that dream up an apocalyptic crisis every day. Yet every hour we scan social media in the hope of being part of the next thing, to delude ourselves that we have already made it and are important, or to torture ourselves by staring at the lives of people we think we can never emulate. Desmond seemed the type of person who would somehow negotiate that landscape and remain unscathed. Energetic, enthusiastic, with a strange charisma that shone through even in moments that should have been nerdy and awkward, what this past year did to him was hard to watch. You couldn’t help but notice that for a young man he talked about death just a little too much for it not to be concerning. His moods started to appear just a little bit too big, his silences a little bit too quiet. And then last year ended with a cry for help. He sabotaged his own YouTube channel – six years of work – and made a Reddit post saying goodbye to his fans, stating that it was his “time to die.” A few days later he posted that he had a “meltdown” and apologized for scaring people like that. Already. fans and talking heads alike were coming up with their own theories and were quick to label the whole episode as an attention seeking exercise. In a more compassionate time we’d all know a few things. We’d know that those who are depressed and suicidal will often not succeed the first time. We’d know that it’s common for people suffering in this way to try and self-sabotage their lives, to give them the final push over the edge into the abyss. We’d know that even if it was a cry for attention, specifically the attention of love, that isn’t a thing to condemn someone for. But we don’t know anything any more. Nothing that matters. We know how to trend, how to get clout and how to traffic in the misery of others. In the months after this initial suicidal message things went back to normal, except now there was the added burden of the imagined shame. His tweets would occasionally generate cruel jokes about his mental health in the replies, people calling him a fake, some people even telling him to do it. And let’s just put it on the record what no-one else seems willing to say. You know what the mob wants when they come to constantly apply the pressure, to tell you that society will never forgive you for the things you did and said. Social media is a device where total strangers can make sure you’re never allowed to forget and move on from your mistakes. Instead, you must constantly answer to the faceless, nameless strangers who hold you to a moral standard from the safety of anonymity. Then comes the exaggerations and the lies. They tell your employers, they go after your partners and kids. Your mistakes tarnish anyone and everyone who stands with you. They want you to crack. That’s why they never stop. They want you to crack and maybe kill yourself. That is how they ‘vote you off.’ It’s just another game, a way to pass the time. Pile on and see if the words we type can erase things we don’t like from existence, even people if we try hard enough. They can feel that way because social media has reduced us down to distillations of ourselves, avatars on the world wide web that don’t have a person behind them. Words on a screen. No consequences. Oh, did they die? Did they do it? Well, they weren’t real anyway. So what lessons do you think Desmond learned in the months he spent trying to recover? He learned that his public vulnerability was just another weapon that would be used against him, that his sickness had somehow made people disappointed in him. And when you’re in the grips of a disease that mainlines guilt and self loathing into your system these words are not so easily shrugged off. There was maybe a point here where the right support would have stopped the grim inevitability of this story. As we now know, it didn’t. In April he would begin tweeting about committing suicide again, saying he was going to shoot himself in the head. Everything pointed to someone in serious distress and pain. Among the fanbase, the discussion wasn’t how best to help him but rather whether or not you could continue to support him. After all, this was just more fakery, right? Just a ploy to try and get clicks and hits, a theory that made no sense given he had made essentially deleted his YouTube channel. “I’m done expecting anything from him anymore.” “I’ve supported this dude way too long…” “He’s destroying any trust he has built with his fans.” Yes. You were the real victims in this you brave, loyal supporters. Think of the myopia it takes to arrive at the conclusion that an entertainer threatening suicide is actually harming you. Now think about how someone who feels worthless, that they’d be better off dead, will react to reading that even large parts of their own audience doesn’t have the patience for them to get better; that a fan would rather go watch someone else than extend any concern because two suicidal episodes is just too many for them. Remember these comments. I will bet Desmond did. By late April he was still clearly unwell. In another move that we know is textbook to those contemplating suicide he began to push away friends by blocking them on Twitter, synthesizing arguments about getting him verified as an excuse to do so. Despite this being done via DM we know this happened because who wants to keep anything this ‘”juicy”‘ private? So cue the people posting about how, once again, his behaviour was affecting them. Some even publicly went so far as to say that they couldn’t be his friend any longer and implying his illness-driven behaviour was selfish, that “he’s not going to hurt himself ever” just those around him. He was arrested after police were called to say he might be a danger to himself. Of course, the hellscape we live in these days means the ordeal was livestreamed to a crowd of people most likely tuning in for an instalment of suicide-by-cop. Briefly detained then released when it was abundantly clear that the best place for Desmond was a hospital, he was cast back out into the world of e-celebrity where a line of people ready to exploit his illness was queued up round the social media block. Just the day after, he went on YouTube gossip program DramaAlert hosted by Daniel ‘Keemstar’ Keem. The content is watched by millions of people. It is news, it is content that has a valid place on the platform but the lack of editorial oversight is plain to see. Hosting an interview with someone who had a psychotic episode just 24 hours prior would be disgusting enough by itself. The content of the interview ends up somehow even worse when analyzed. In a fair world the interview would never have seen the light of day, and in doing so, might have absolved Keem of some of the guilt I would hope he feels. In the interview, Etika repeatedly says he has “become god,” that everything was predetermined and also says a lot of other things indicative of someone in mental crisis. Unprompted at the midpoint of the interview Keem offers this philosophical nugget: “The scariest thing about thinking that the world is a simulation and it’s predestined and all of that is that then there is no reason to live.” He would later add: “Then why live… Just jump off a cliff. If it’s just a simulation, who cares?” At worst, this shows a staggering lack of sensitivity but I’m honestly not even sure it can be labeled that benign. I am trying to think of the mindset it takes to bring up suicide being an action free from consequences to someone who has repeatedly threatened to commit suicide. I am trying to think of a reason someone would do that. I don’t want to articulate it. I recall in 2016 when TV psychology charlatan Dr. Phil interviewed actress Shelley Duvall. It was the first time she had made a public appearance in years. Clearly unwell, the show was met with near-universal condemnation, and rightly called out as the exploitative trash that it was. No such objections were raised for the Etika interview. Oh, now he has died many are clipping the interview and saying this was all Keem’s fault. At the time, the vast majority of comments on the video – including some from other well-established YouTubers – are making jokes at Etika’s expense. May began with Desmond having another streamed altercation with a police officer. He was arrested and for an all too brief time put into a hospital. If only he had stayed there. It’s not clear what happened – one of the very few details kept private – but he was released amid fans attacking those who were trying to make him stay. I watched what would be Desmond’s final video on June 19 like so many others. Gone was the mania present in his last few public appearances. Instead a cold, detached clarity as he walked to what would be the place of his death. In it he offered apologies to his fans, to his friends. He spoke of consequences he was too scared to face. He said how he had nobody because he had pushed them all away, something that wasn’t true but was easy to believe because so many had said it. “I guess I am mentally ill,” he concluded with a sigh, not breaking stride. “But I’m not going to put responsibility on it. I did a lot of wrong too… In an attempt to be edgy I fucked up my whole life.” More alarming than the contents was the fact that the video was a timed release, published long after anyone would have been able to stop him from taking this final course of action. Any discussion about concern quickly turned to conspiracy theories when the internet decided to dredge through his old tweets. Among them they found an exchange with a fan where he asked: “When should I have my next mental breakdown y’all?” Someone suggested June 20, the day that Etika would be officially recognized as missing. Many, including Keem, took this as a smoking gun that this meant it was all a hoax. “He’s fooled us again,” people declared as if they had been cheated, incapable of spending just a second to acknowledge that someone threatening suicide and not following through isn’t a deception. The subsequent drip feed of information… His personal effects being found next to a bridge, CCTV images of someone matching his description staring out of the bridge edge, a body being found a few days later… This time it had happened. Formal identification took place on June 25. Like that Etika was gone and people acted like it was sudden, a bolt from the blue, when it was anything but. The fans spoke of their love and adoration, messages that came too late. Typically, the people who nudged him along the way said how shocked they were, how much it hurt them. Rubberneckers swung by via the trending tag asking if his death was related to a Netflix series because they just had to be part of whatever was popular. The trolls came out too, replying to his final tweet with jokes and revelry. Many will talk about the spectre of depression that loomed over all of this. Desmond was desperately ill and part of his specific illness makes you do all you can to actively reject and avoid help. I already asked how anyone could stay sane for long in the environment we’ve created but what happens when even the people just like you don’t push you to get help? If a few more people had been more concerned with sacrificing their time to do what was right, to make that effort for a human being they should easily have been able to empathize with because his problems should also be their problems, where would Desmond be now? Maybe the same place, maybe not. How many put clicks first and concern second? Why am I left with the uneasy feeling that I watched the internet crowdsource killing a man for their entertainment? No getting away from the brutal reality. At the end of all of it, a bright, funny and entertaining young man is dead. Despite giving so much of himself to others, he died not knowing he was loved. His last words spoke of his “stained legacy” but the stain is not left by him. No quiet remembrance either. Meaningless petitions to have his YouTube channel restored are doing the rounds, a misguided retroactive removal of what little agency Desmond had in his life. They think it shows that they care. Thoughts, prayers, a hashtag and on to the next moment. Insincere catharsis. All I have is that I hope he has found peace but I would rather he had found help. This really isn’t the place for that though and that is unlikely to change any time soon. Within 24 hours of Desmond’s death being confirmed to the general public a YouTuber with 4.5 million followers released a video called “Etika Ouija Board Challenge At 3am!! (GONE WRONG).” If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, or know anyone that is, and you would like to talk to someone, please reach out and call the Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255 (USA) or the Samaritans 116-123 (UK).

Retailers last shipping dates for Christmas: Walmart, Best Buy, more Don’t delay buying that last gift with Christmas getting closer; these retailers are posting their shipping deadlines before the big day. Shopping during the holiday season even outside of gifts is a bit of a minefield. Generally, it’s recommended to have all of your orders placed by December 19 to account for the generic five-day shipping period, but other than that it’s a risk to order anything at all in the hopes it’ll come before December 25. Thankfully, some of the most popular retailers have announced the latest you can order those last-minute gifts before the big day in December, so you can relax knowing your presents, or even just some common shopping, will come in time. Last shipping dates of selected retailers Here are the last shipping dates of the most recommended retailers to shop with this holiday season. Amazon latest shipping date Amazon helpfully labels every item currently available to arrive before December 25. The most common date for standard Amazon delivery is December 17; this depends on the item, so it may still be worth looking to see if that particular gift is available for standard delivery. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, which often boasts next-day delivery on most items, you can cut it a little closer with a recommended last order date of December 20; this depends on the item and is subject to availability. Amazon are offering great last-minute deals for the holiday season, including a variety of LEGO sets and the Apple M1 iPad Air just to name a few great savings from the global shopping giant that rivals Santa Claus with its shipping coverage. Walmart last shipping date for Christmas Walmart offers a standard paid shipping service that ships orders out within two days of placing your order. It’s recommended to have all of your orders in for December 20 for standard shipping. Walmart offers a subscription service similar to Amazon Prime called Walmart+, where delivery is free and shipped within the same day. It’s recommended to have all of your orders in for December 22 at the latest for shipping with Walmart+. Walmart is offering some new products and great deals ready for the perfect gifts including discounts on LEGO Flowers and plants sets and some odd snack-based snuggies. It’s cold this winter we don’t judge how people stay warm. Best Buy last shipping date Best Buy’s last shipping dates are very specific due to the different shipping methods available from Best Buy. Best Buy memberships can expect to get orders within 2 days of placing the order but generally, shipping is free. December 15 for shipping by ground – December 21 for overnight shipping – December 22 for same day shipping – December 24 before 5pm local time for in-store pickup (subject to availablity per store stock) – Best Buy is offering some great deals on retiring LEGO Star Wars sets and even Motorola’s Razr Plus foldable phone in time for the holiday season. LEGO Store last shipping date Even the LEGO store is trying its best to accommodate for those last-minute gifts and purchases of exclusive releases. Orders over $35 will automatically qualify for free standard shipping of 3 – 5 days. The last day to order from the LEGO Store with standard shipping is Midday EST, December 19. Any orders placed after this date will likely not come before December 25. LEGO does offer Express Delivery throughout the year; however, this isn’t included during the holiday season. The LEGO Store offer some great sets that are exclusive to their own store as well as offer some great rewards with their LEGO Insiders program that’s worth shopping with them directly. Target last shipping date Target’s standard shipping period is within five days of placing your order. For the holiday season, the last shipping day for orders with Standard Shipping is December 18. Target RedCard is a service that offers discounts and two-day shipping so members can get a few extra days with their last shipping date set at December 20. Those are all of the main retailers who have made their last shipping date before December 25 known for all you last-minute shoppers. If you’re looking for some gift recommendations this holiday season you cannot go wrong with LEGO Harry Potter for that little bit extra Christmas magic.

Reddit Went Down for 15 Minutes and Everyone on the Internet Freaked Out Accordingly The world stood still on Wednesday, July 11 when the sixth most popular website went down for maintenance. Reddit has become a staple on the internet for people to find everything from cat pictures to funny videos, and of course esports and gaming news. Out of the blue on Wednesday at approximately 9am BST (4am EST, 1am PST) the website stopped working and started to display that it was down for maintenance. It came back online just 15 minutes later. Regular Reddit users will know that this isn’t a regular occurrence for the website to go down. However, that time of day is popular for developers to roll out updates on their websites, as it’s generally viewed as the quietest time for western users. Since launching a complete overhaul in 2018, Reddit has become subject to criticism for the way the new site works. Many are hoping this was an attempt to fix the issues which include lagging interface and a multitude of bugs. That didn’t stop a load of people freaking out for fifteen minutes. Check out some of the best below. Reddit is down for maintenance!?!? THE END IS NIGH! FLEEEEEEE FOR YOUR LIVES! pic.twitter.com/ZQSrb7qugA — RedzyReviews (@RedzyReviews) July 11, 2018 We’ll keep you updated on the situation.

Queen dies aged 96: Jake Paul, KSI, TommyInnit, MrBeast & more pay tribute WikimediaQueen Elizabeth II passed away aged 96 and quickly become the biggest story on the internet, with Twitch streamers and YouTubers paying tribute to her historic 70-year reign. The United Kingdom was put on red alert on September 8, as rumors of the Queen’s health deteriorating spread across the House of Commons and on social media. Her passing was confirmed by The Royal Family at around 6:30 PM, GMT. In a statement posted to Twitter, they said: “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.” Queen Elizabeth II passes away aged 96 The news marks the end of her 70-year reign with the crown, and the incumbent king – Charles, her son – has been confirmed. Her successor, formerly the Prince of Wales, is 73 years old and acceded the throne immediately after his mother’s death. Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, has become the heir apparent. As reported by the BBC, His Majesty The King said: “The death of my beloved mother Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. “We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.” Elizabeth II first came to the throne in 1952, overseeing an enormous amount of social change in her reign. Tributes pour in for Queen Elizabeth II Jake Paul Popular influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul was among the first in the space to pay tribute to the Queen, tweeting: “Dignity defined. An inspirational leader for many generations.” He added: “Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II.” KSI One of the biggest UK-based content creators, and boxers, KSI posted: “RIP Queen Elizabeth II,” shortly after the news broke from Buckingham Palace. TommyInnit YouTuber TommyInnit paid tribute to the monarch, saying: “Rest in peace Lizzy.” MrBeast MrBeast also paid his respects in the comments, responding to The Royal Family’s announcement. FaZe Clan Esports and content creation organization, FaZe Clan, quote retweeted the message from The Royal Family, with a love heart and British flag emojis. Millions of tributes have poured in for the Queen, from all corners of the globe, to commemorate her historic run leading Britain. King Charles will now lead The United Kingdom and is now head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms.

US President condemns “gruesome” video games following US mass shootings – Hillary Clinton responds geralt, PixabayThe US President has claimed that the United States of America must stop the “glorification” of violence in the video game industry, following a shooting in El Paso, Texas that saw 21 people killed. The businessman turned politician suggested that the violence in video games is a problem that must be reduced in the future, during a speech on August 5. These suggestions come just days after a 21 year-old white male was arrested at the scene of an attack in El Paso, near the US-Mexico border, where the gunman opened fire on a number of civilians in Walmart on August 3. There was also another attack a day later in Dayton, Ohio where nine people were shot dead in the Oregon District. Fortnite Battle Royale is just one of many games that have faced scrutiny since the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” the President said in his speech. “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.” He added: “It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves in a culture that celebrates violence. We should stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately.” Now facing a potential death penalty, the attacker has been charged with capital murder and claims their actions were a response to the “the Hispanic invasion of Texas” – according to quotes from the BBC. The President is not the only one to have turned their focus towards issues of video game violence since the news unfolded, though, with former FBI agent Maureen O’Connell claiming that perhaps popular games such as Fortnite Battle Royale could be part of the problem during an appearance on FOX News. Fortnite Battle Royale was brought into the debate by O’Connell on Fox News. She said: “If I were a betting man, I’d say that he probably logs six to eight hours a day playing one of those, you know, Fortnite or one of those video game where you’re doing nothing but dehumanising people by blowing their heads off one after another, after another.” However, in response to these claims, esports consultant Rod Breslau took to Twitter to respond. “Fox News, others in the media, and politicians are already blaming specifically video games and FPS games including Fortnite of all things for yet another awful multiple mass shootings here in America,” he tweeted. “Video game guns don’t kill people, real guns do.” Fox News, others in the media, and politicians are already blaming specifically video games and FPS games including FORTNITE of all things for yet another awful multiple mass shootings here in America, in Dayton and El Paso video game guns don’t kill people, real guns do pic.twitter.com/Y5sq0nPH23 — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 4, 2019 This sentiment was also echoed by the 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who refused to accept The President’ss comments following the shootings and instead appeared to identify guns as the problem. “People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth,” she tweeted. “The difference is the guns.” People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth. The difference is the guns. — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) Call of Duty. “I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill,” he said, before suggesting that the country also turns a blind eye to violence on social media as well. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy also echoed those thoughts on Fox, describing shooting games as “dehumanising” people as well. Contrary to the alleged connection between violence and video games from politicians and commentators, though, a study published by the Oxford Internet Institute in February 2019 found that there was not a relationship between the two. It states that researchers found “no relationship between aggressive behaviour in teenagers and the amount of time spent playing violent video games,” and this isn’t the only study to have came to the same conclusion. The President made it very clear that work to stop or substantially reduce potential problems related to video game violence will begin immediately, but what that will look like in real terms remains to be seen. Article last updated on August 5, 2019 at 13:47 (EST).

Pope says Virgin Mary was world’s first “influencer” before social media ‘Influencers’ are some of the most talked people about in 21st century, with popular internet personalities deemed ‘influential’ to the masses, but Pope Francis thinks influencers have been around long before social media. During a visit to Panama, the Pope addressed an estimated 600,000 people at a ‘World Youth Day’ festival in Panama City. There, he discussed the issues of social media and of course ‘influencers’, with some surprising insight. According to a website which tracks the activity of Pope Francis, he said during his address that Mary was an “influencer” but “without wanting or seeking it”. He made reference to ‘social networks’, and how the mother of Jesus was the woman that had the “biggest influence” on the world without Twitter, Facebook and so on. “The young woman of Nazareth didn’t appear in the social networks of the time, she wasn’t an influencer, but without wanting it or seeking it, she became the woman that had the biggest influence in history.” He reiterated this sentiment on Twitter, explaining that by accepting to birth Jesus, Mary became the most influential woman in history, and the first “influencer of God”. With her “yes”, Mary became the most influential woman in history. Without social networks, she became the first “influencer”: the “influencer” of God. #Panama2019 — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) January 27, 2019 The Pope himself has become a fairly influential figure on social media, with his English language account currently approaching 18 million followers. It seems as though the Pope was trying to convey the message to the youth of Panama that one doesn’t need a large internet following to be influential, even in 2019.

Politicians blame Call of Duty and Fortnite for recent US mass shootings FOX News / Epic GamesIn the wake of two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio on August 3 and 4, politicians are blaming video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty for the violence. Within a 24 hour period, two mass shootings took place in El Paso, Texas on the morning of August 3, and in the early hours of August 4 in Dayton, Ohio. As is usually the case with these types of tragedies, politicians quickly took to major news outlets to blame the deadly violence on video games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. Politicians – “Video games are to blame!” Emotions ran high as Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick appeared on FOX News and demanded federal intervention into video games. “And how long are we going to, for example, ignore it at the federal level particularly, where they can do something about the video game industry? In this manifesto that we believe to be from the shooter, he talks about his super-soldier fantasy on Call of Duty,” he stated. While the politician admitted that there were studies that show that games don’t increase violence, he then stated: “What’s changed in this country? We’ve always had guns, we’ve always had evil. And I see a video game industry, that teaches young people to kill”. Esports analyst Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau tweeted out the clip, and said: “Republican Texas Lieutenant Governor @DanPatrick is calling for federal government intervention into the video game industry, citing the Call of Duty reference from the terrorist’s manifesto. he also wants you to pray more in school. Dan Patrick is religious boomer personified.” Republican Texas Lieutenant Governor @DanPatrick is calling for federal government intervention into the video game industry, citing the Call of Duty reference from the terrorist’s manifesto he also wants you to pray more in school Dan Patrick is religious boomer personified pic.twitter.com/hOwaW4zzJS — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 4, 2019 The network also interviewed former FBI agent Maureen O’ Connell on their channel, who said: “If I were a betting man, I’d say he probably logged 6-8 hours a day playing one of those, you know Fortnite, or one of those video games where you’re doing nothing but dehumanizing people by blowing their heads off, one after another, after another.” Slasher, again, tweeted the video, and argued: “Fox News, others in the media, and politicians are already blaming specifically video games and FPS games including FORTNITE of all things for yet another awful multiple mass shootings here in America, in Dayton and El Paso. video game guns don’t kill people, real guns do.” Fox News, others in the media, and politicians are already blaming specifically video games and FPS games including FORTNITE of all things for yet another awful multiple mass shootings here in America, in Dayton and El Paso video game guns don’t kill people, real guns do pic.twitter.com/Y5sq0nPH23 — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 4, 2019 FOX also had an interview with GOP House minority leader Kevin McCarthy who said that he felt that video games “dehumanize” people and is a problem for the future. “The idea of these video games that dehumanize individuals, and have a game of shooting individuals, I’ve always felt that was a problem for future generations,” he said. (Timestamp of 3:10 for mobile viewers.) People were angry at the remarks Video game fans took to social media to express their anger at the coverage, as many were upset at those blaming video games for the violence. Popular Twitch streamer Ben ‘DrLupo‘ Lupo tweeted: “Dear mainstream media. The only thing desensitizing a majority of the US to gun violence is all the gun violence. Video games haven’t influenced me, or anyone else, to go out and kill someone. Please stop lying. This is exhausting. We need actual change. Love, -Lupo” Dear mainstream media, The only thing desensitizing a majority of the US to gun violence is all the gun violence. Video games haven’t influenced me, or anyone else, to go out and kill someone. Please stop lying. This is exhausting. We need actual change. Love, -Lupo :heart:️:purple_heart:— DrLupo (@DrLupo) August 4, 2019 Former Call of Duty caster Jack ‘CouRage‘ Dunlop weighed in on the situation writing: “Shocked. Disgusted. Horrified. The second amendment was written when a gun took a minute to reload for one shot. I’m humiliated in myself for not taking action in the past. I’m going to do my research and vote for the candidates who will make the change we so desperately need.” Shocked. Disgusted. Horrified. The second amendment was written when a gun took a minute to reload for one shot. I’m humiliated in myself for not taking action in the past. I’m going to do my research and vote for the candidates who will make the change we so desperately need. — Jack “CouRage” Dunlop (@CouRageJD) August 4, 2019 The tragic incidents in Texas and Ohio saw at least 29 lives taken and 53 people seriously injured.

Police investigate Twitch HQ after possible shooting threat TwitchSan Francisco police are currently investigating a possible shooting threat made against Twitch headquarters on August 6. According to a report by Business Insider, the streaming company was made aware of a threat issued against its San Francisco, California headquarters on August 6. Police confirmed on August 7 that it is actively looking into the threat, though its nature is currently unknown. 600Twitch didn’t specifically say what the threat was, but employees on private social media accounts seem to suggest that it could be shooting-related. Workers were given the choice to work from home while police conducted their investigation. “We were made aware of a threat against our San Francisco HQ on Tuesday, and have been working directly with law enforcement as they investigate.” “The safety and security of our employees is our top priority, and we are focused on ensuring this is resolved quickly and safely,” a representative of the streaming platform told Business Insider. 600Officer Adam Lobsinger of the San Francisco Police Department also spoke to the publication. “A threat is being made against a business located on the 300 block of Bush Street. We don’t have any suspect or know how credible the threat is at this time,” he said. The August 7 threat comes just days after the tragic August 3 and August 4 mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio where at least 31 people were killed. US President Donald Trump issued a speech on August 5 to condemn violent video games following the shootings, after other politicians laid some of the blame on them a day earlier. “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. it is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves in a culture that celebrates violence. We should stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately,” he stated. The investigation of the threat against Twitch HQ is still ongoing.

Overwatch content creator Jayne found safe after going missing Twitter/AskJayneCanadian police have located missing former Overwatch content creator, Justin ‘Jayne’ Conroy, confirming he is safe. According to the Airdrie RCMP, Jayne was reported missing on June 22 after leaving his residence in the Cooper’s Crossing neighborhood two days earlier. Fortunately, CTV News in Calgary has reported that police found Jayne on June 24 and he is currently safe. As an Overwatch content creator, Jayne first broke onto the scene for his educational gameplay and coaching series, where he would help players rank up by evaluating their gameplay. https://twitter.com/RCMPAlberta/status/1539729179306082309 Jayne’s popularity and success eventually landed him a coaching gig for the Overwatch World Cup in 2018, where the country finished in a respectable third place. He would go on to be an assistant coach for the Dallas Fuel before transitioning to a content creator for Envy and eventually quitting streaming entirely. News of Jayne’s safety reached Overwatch fans who expressed relief on Reddit that he was safe. As one comment said, “[t]hat’s good to hear, I honestly was fearing the worst. Hope he can get support in whatever he is dealing with and can recover!” Many big names with large followings in the gaming and streaming community, also outside of the Overwatch scene, spread the word about Jayne’s disappearance on social media, to aid the goal of finding him safe and well.

Pokémon Go player murdered in Albuquerque after witnessing robbery A 21-year-old woman was shot and killed in Albuquerque, local police have reported, after she and her boyfriend witnessed a robbery while playing Pokémon Go near Bianchetti Park. The victim was confirmed to be 21-year-old Cayla Campos by local police. Campos and her boyfriend, Sidney, were reportedly playing Pokémon Go at around 11.50pm on October 18, when the two allegedly witnessed a robbery being committed near where they were playing. A police spokesperson detailed in an email released the following day that Cayla and Sidney had been seated in their own car, when they saw two strangers attempting to rob the driver of another car parked nearby on the edge of Bianchetti Park. When the two attempted to leave, the suspected criminals fired multiple shots into the fleeing vehicle. The gunfire struck Campos in the back of the head and caused their vehicle to crash into a nearby house. The 21-year-old later succumbed to her injuries at UNM Hospital. Campos’ death was reported on Pokémon Go message boards, where many urged other players to make sure they are safe, and aware of their surroundings when playing Niantic’s augmented reality game. “Take into account your own safety and when you go out and play,” long-term player Kody Love told Koat on October 19, and suggested what happened to Campos should be a warning for other fans of the massively-popular handheld game. He added: “It definitely makes me think twice about where and when I’m playing. There’s a lot of rough neighborhoods and times you probably shouldn’t be out. I mean, you just need to be aware of your surroundings, and be safe.” Young player David Hutzel also offered his own advice to other Pokémon Go fans: “It’s kind of freaky… Stay around your neighborhood and always carry something with you that you can contact your parents with.” Albuquerque police have confirmed they are seeking the public’s help identifying the suspects, and the victims of the Bianchetti Park robbery, as well as information on the silver four-door sedan and a red car (possibly a Ford Mustang), both sighted at the scene. If you have any information, the police have urged you to contact them at 505-242-2677.

People were calling the police because Instagram and Facebook were down Emergency services in the USA and Australia have had to request that internet users stop phoning 911 and Australian equivalent, 000, to report that Facebook and Instagram were down. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, had possibly its most widespread outage on March 13 – 14, with users unable to access or load either website all around the world. Facebook acknowledged the issues, and assured users that they were not caused by a malicious DDoS, in a post on Twitter – the only social network which appeared to survive the crash, as it’s not part of Facebook’s ‘family of apps’. We’re focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack. — Facebook (@facebook) March 13, 2019 With Facebook and Instagram among the most visited sites in the world, behind only the likes of YouTube and Google, the news of mass outages quickly spread – but some users’ panic went slightly too far. Australian news show ‘Sunrise’ reported that “Queensland police are saying please don’t call 000 – I know…” Emergency services are asking the public to stop calling triple zero about the Facebook and Instagram outage :neutral_face: pic.twitter.com/ZHlGr1uQAt — Sunrise (@sunriseon7) March 13, 2019 Canterbury Police in New Zealand also had to make a plea on Twitter to stop residents phoning to report Facebook outages. We know. Our @facebook and @instagram haven’t been working either. Unfortunately we cannot do anything about this because, you know, they’re based in America and we’re the Police. So please don’t call us to report this. Pretty please. — Canterbury Police NZ (@NZPCanterbury) March 13, 2019 It wasn’t just Queensland and New Zealand residents either, as there were also reports of calls being made to 911 in California, and other places in the US. Police in Bothell, Washington had to make a similar plea on their Twitter account. We will move mountains to help those in our community, however we can’t fix Facebook so please don’t call 911 to “”let us know its down.”” pic.twitter.com/6K5C2s3Vsk — Bothell Police (@BothellPolice) October 11, 2017 It should go without saying that phoning law enforcement to inform them of a website outage is a serious waste of police time. Facebook and Instagram has been coming back online for most users on March 14, but it appears it’s not completely out of the woods yet.

Overwatch & League of Legends fans pay tribute to murdered voice actress Christiane Louise Blizzard EntertainmentOverwatch, Halo, and League of Legends fans are paying tribute to Brazilian voice actress Christiane Louise after she was killed on August 6, 2021. Local authorities in Rio de Janeiro have arrested a man in connection to the murder of Brazilian voice actress Christiane Louise. Known for lending her vocal talents to Cortana (Halo), Mercy (Overwatch) and Sivir (League of Legends), she had established herself as an excellent professional in the gaming and entertainment industry at large. Her voice can also be heard in The Simpsons, Everybody Hates Chris, and League of Justice Without Limits. Beginning her career in the mid-90s with Art Sound studios, she created a career full of colorful, rich characters. The news of her death was confirmed by her co-worker Mário Tupinambá Filho via Instagram. “I love you forever,” he wrote in a touching tribute. View this post on Instagram Developments after Louise’s passing have now turned into a murder investigation. Brazilian police have apprehended suspect Pedro Paulo Gonçalves Vasconcellos da Costa on suspicion of murder after he allegedly confessed to police. Pedro’s mother, Eliane Gonçalves Vasconcellos da Costa, has also been connected to the crime but she has not been found by the authorities at the time of writing. Tributes and love for the life of Christiane Louise have been pouring in from fans across the globe. Spanning her various collective works, heart-warming messages continue to remember the actress for her impact on the lives of fans. Notably, multiple Overwatch players have left simple tributes in the form of Mercy’s signature phrase “Heroes Never Die”. Christiane Louise’s legacy lives on through her immense library of work.

Over 300K people sign UK petition requiring ID to join social media after Euro loss Twitter/FacebookA petition to require legal identification to sign up for social media in the UK is gaining momentum after some of England’s football stars received abuse following England’s heartbreaking loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 Finals. The eyes of the football world watched the hopes and dreams of England get crushed in real time as they fell to Italy in the Finals of the Euro 2020 tournament. Instead of coming together to celebrate the great run, though, some fans unfortunately decided to hurl abuse at the players online instead – which has led to a petition asking for ID to sign up for social media, getting hundreds of thousands of signatures on the UK Parliament’s website. Even though it’s gained thousands of votes since the Euros defeat, the request for Parliament to consider and debate the petition was first made back in April. Originally, the petition was created back in April by English media personality Katie Price, decrying the online abuses her disabled son Harvey was receiving. Read More: Good Week, Bad Week: ACE Family hit with lawsuits, Jake & Logan Paul praised by Tyson Fury – It’s gotten a massive shot in the arm following the July 11 loss though, especially after the English FA put out a statement condemning the online racist abuse players like Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, and Jadon Sancho all received after the Italy game. Price seems delighted by all the attention her request has received following the match, but a new law from the UK government to require IDs online probably won’t be happening anytime soon. Wow! Look how many of you have now signed my #trackatroll petition! Thank you all so much! ❤🐸🌈https://t.co/XCXj9J6sde pic.twitter.com/NiBTMECOrD — Katie Price (@KatiePrice) July 12, 2021 That’s because, despite it’s newfound popularity, the UK government already posted an official response to the request back in May of 2021 basically shutting the idea down. “The Online Safety legislation will address anonymous harmful activity,” the official response states. “User ID verification for social media could disproportionately impact vulnerable users and interfere with freedom of expression.” So, while Rashford, Saka, Sancho, and the rest of the England team will unfortunately have some unpleasant mentions and DMs piling up, it doesn’t seem like the UK will be requiring IDs to sign up for Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media anytime soon.

OpTic Gaming is Giving Designers a Chance to Be Featured in Upcoming Merchandise OpTic GamingWith modern society having a culture so deep rooted in fashion, it is difficult for most people to get their designs through to a large audience. Even in esports, only very few organizations have fan-bases vast enough to have a sustainable presence in the merchandise business. One such organization is North American esports giant OpTic Gaming, who are giving designers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get their work exposed in a major way. The organization has announced that it will be accepting design ideas that could feature in upcoming merchandise, with the designer(s) getting a split of the sales. Read More: OpTic’s CouRage Pulls Off an Incredible 1v3 While Being Trapped Inside of a Basement in Fortnite – The announcement came on May 23rd via a post on the org’s official Twitter page. Have a design idea for merch? Stretch your creative muscles and share your OpTic Gear ideas with us for a chance to see it featured in an upcoming merch drop and get a split of the sales!There’s no limit to the amount of designs we’ll choose from! Submit at: Merch@OpTicGear.gg Have a design idea for merch? Stretch your creative muscles and share your OpTic Gear ideas with us for a chance to see it featured in an upcoming merch drop and get a split of the sales!There’s no limit to the amount of designs we’ll choose from! Submit at: Merch@OpTicGear.gg pic.twitter.com/fas9iZN98o— OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTicGaming) May 23, 2018 This presents an incredible opportunity for everyday, aspiring designers to get their work into the spotlight of esports’ public square, along with a potentially fat paycheck. But despite the financial incentive, one cannot truly put a price on the potential of doing business with an organization like OpTic Gaming, and the opportunities that may stem from it in the future. – All those who wish to submit design ideas to OpTic Gaming can do so by sending it via email to Merch@OpTicGear.gg.

OpTic Gaming Announces Madden Charity Stream to Support Families Impacted by Jacksonville Mass Shooting TwitterFollowing the tragic shooting at the Jacksonville Landing during a Madden 19 tournament, esports team OpTic Gaming has stepped up to organize an initiative with the victims and their families in mind. They echoed their sentiments following news of the shooting – but they wanted to do more. “We are heartbroken for the victims of the Jacksonville incident today, and wish to express our condolences to their families, friends, and loved ones. This tragedy is felt by all of us in the gaming community, together we will stand strong in support of each other.” On August 27th, the day following the incident, OpTic announced they would be organizing a charity tournament in an effort to support the victims’ families. The charity is scheduled for Friday, August 31st, from 2 PM to 8 PM CT. All proceeds raised by the competition will go towards the victims’ families. “To support the families of those affected in yesterday’s tragedy in Jacksonville, we will be doing a Madden charity live stream this Friday from 2PM-8PM CT All donations made during the live stream will go to aid families of the victims. More info coming soon.”

OpTic Gaming have launched a new social media app that rewards users for posting OpTic Gaming have teamed up with Singapore-based social media company JET8 to release a new social media app named OpTic Snap. OpTic Snap allows users to share pictures or videos with other fans of the OpTic organization, while earning rewards for everything they post. The rewards come in the form of discounts on the OpTic Gaming store. Members of the Greenwall who upload content earn ‘JETS’, which they can then redeem for up to 20% off items found on OpTic’s merchandise site. Snap your moments, get in-app likes, comments and shares, get a discount on @OpTicGaming merchandise. Introducing OpTic Snap. Available on the Play Store. Know more about it here: https://t.co/pcdEK7YzaZ#OpTicIndia #Greenwall #OpTicSnap pic.twitter.com/TZevqP606G — OpTic India (@OpTicIndia) September 17, 2018 In a statement released on OpTic’s website, JET8 Director Joshua Thompson stated; “Esports fans are passionate about their favorite teams, and spend a huge amount of time creating and sharing social media content. JET8 allows OpTic Snap to reward their fans for this support and turn them into paid micro-influencers, building a powerful community where both the brand and its fans share in value.” OpTic Gaming General Manager Romain Bigeard shared his excitement at the opportunity to give back to the Greenwall’s massive fanbase, saying; “This isn’t just an opportunity for us to give back to the fans that have loyally supported the organization for years. It’s a way for us to help them get even better connected with each other as well, forging tighter bonds and an even more vibrant fan culture” The OpTic Snap app is currently focused on the Indian and Southeast Asian markets, but OpTic have confirmed their intention to release news about a western hemisphere version in the future. While there is no information about an iOS version of the app, OpTic Snap is currently available as a free download on the Google Play Store.

Notorious Rainbow Six cheater is top suspect in fake Ubisoft hostage situation Ubisoft / Wikimedia CommonsRecent reports reveal that the chief suspect in Ubisoft Montreal’s 2020 fake hostage situation is an avid Rainbow Six Siege player who was banned over 80 times for cheating in the online multiplayer. In November 2020, Ubisoft Montreal’s Mile-End headquarters was the subject of a hostage hoax in which the perpetrators claimed that the entire building would be blown up if a $2 million ransom wasn’t rewarded. After hours of police and special unit forces investigating, evacuations of the building’s daycare, and employees barricading themselves on the roof, it was revealed to be a baseless threat all along with no real imminent danger. Now, Montreal’s La Presse has uncovered court documents that point out the top suspect at the moment — and it’s a French Rainbow Six player who had been banned from the game over 80 times by Ubisoft’s ethics committee. Additionally, the digital newspaper has reached the cheater and suspect for comment. According to La Presse’s reports, Yanni Ouahioune, who goes by ‘Yannox’ and ‘Y4nnoXX’ online, has a history of problematic behavior with Ubisoft. The R6 player’s list of offenses includes creating a fake Ubisoft website to steal other players’ account information, getting other players swatted, and calling the game company’s Montreal headquarters to harass employees. Contacted by La Presse over Snapchat, Ouahioune admits to earlier wrongdoings but denies any involvement in the 2020 hostage situation: “I didn’t do anything. I just cheated in their video game. The only time I called Ubisoft, it was to insult them for banning me.” As it stands, the investigation appears to still be ongoing. Reportedly, the hostage hoax cost Ubisoft $1.7 million (in Canadian dollars) for lost productivity, $15,000 in psychological services, and $40,000 in material damages. After the initial November 2020 incident, the company’s Montreal headquarters was allegedly swatted a few more times — none as impactful as the original effort. While Ouahioune is the top suspect at the moment, the Frenchman maintains that he is innocent regarding this situation: “I don’t have a PC anymore. I just have an old telephone and I stopped all my bad activities. I don’t want my mother to be disappointed in me anymore.” All quotes are translated from French by the writer, some inconsistencies in translation may apply.

Noguchi’s Bell – An animated series made in Dreams on PlayStation coming soon Cyber Sheep FilmsNoguchi’s Bell is a new impressive-looking animated series made entirely in Dreams on Playstation, and the first episode only has people hungry for more. Dreams isn’t really a game itself, even though it’s on Playstation. Developed by Media Molecule and released by Sony in 2020, it’s a platform where anyone can create basically whatever they can think up. This includes entire VR worlds, games, animations, and much more. Dreams lets you make whatever you want it’s not necessarily ‘easy,’ which is why Noguchi’s Bell by Cyber Sheep Films is blowing people away with just how good it looks. What is Noguchi’s Bell? Without spoiling anything, the series is about Noguchi Michio, a young samurai on a perilous journey through the desert. Like most other wandering samurai (or ‘ronin’) he’s looking for something to end his long search. That something would, in Michio’s case, would be a master swordsman to teach him the ways of the blade. However there’s apparently nothing to be found except an eccentric old man and his noodle shop. Want to know if Noguchi will find the training he’s looking for? Or what exactly is going on with that bell? Like we said, no spoilers, so you’ll have to watch and find out for yourself. Being a series though, we won’t get all the answers in episode one. The good news is that there are more episodes on the way. Noguchi’s Bell release date: New episodes The bad news? There’s no set release date for them just yet, though Cyber Sheep did tell Dexerto episode two would probably be out around 4-5 months once the Kickstarter was fully funded. The show’s Kickstarter launches on August 26 during Gamescom, which will feature a brand-new trailer as well. If you want another way to keep up to date on Noguchi’s Bell, you can also follow them on Twitter.

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony explain how the President could make consoles too expensive Nintendo LifeIn a joint letter to the President’s administration Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have argued that U.S. President proposed tariffs on China could hurt the video game industry and make consoles more expensive than ever. The letter was sent to the United States Trade Representative regarding the yet-to-be-finalized list of goods imported from China that will be subject to a new, 25 percent increase on tariffs (a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states). Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony say the cost from these new taxes will ultimately be passed on to American consumers and could put more than 220,000 jobs at risk. U.S. President (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) have yet to reach an agreement on trade between the two countries. What did the companies have to say? In the letter Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo point out that the video game industry generated $43.4 billion dollars in 2018 and employs more than 220,000 people both directly and indirectly. They also point out that in 2018, over 96 percent of video game consoles imported into the United States were produced in China, which means they would be affected by the new 25 percent tariff – a cost that most likely would be passed on to consumers. “The video game console supply chain has developed in China over many years of investment by our companies and our partners,” the letter read. “It would cause significant supply chain disruption to shift sourcing entirely to the United States or a third country, and it would increase costs – even beyond the cost of the proposed tariffs – on products that are already manufactured under tight margin conditions.” “Given that the main purpose of video game consoles is to play games, the harm to the thousands of U.S.-based game and accessory developers who depend on console sales to generate demand for their products would be equally profound,” the letter continued. “The ripple effect of harm could be dramatic.” 96 percent of video game consoles imported into the United States are produced in China. What happens next? The President laid out his new proposal to impose a 25 percent import tax on nearly all consumer goods produced in China in May of 2019, but so far there’s no official word from the White House or the U.S. Trade Representative about when they would go into effect. China’s President Xi Jinping and the President will both be at the 2019 G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan and there’s talk that the two could move forward on a trade agreement that would avoid the tariffs, but we’ll just have to wait and see. All the recent talk from games companies about their amazing, next-gen consoles might be for nothing if the tariffs go into effect and the price climbs out of the reach of average video game consumers.

New York mass shooter livestreamed attack on Twitch Maki BeckerA gunman who killed at least 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, streamed the attack live on Twitch while it was happening. The stream was quickly taken down following reports. After posting an online manifesto proclaiming he was a white supremacist, a shooter opened fire on a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Upon arriving, police found victims inside and outside of the store, according to a report by BNO News. The attack left ten people dead, and three more injured. Additionally, the shooter streamed the attack on Twitch, as well. Mass shooting streamed live on Twitch The attack on May 14 was streamed live on Twitch, with graphic images, including one woman being shot as she walked outside the store. BREAKING: The death toll has risen to 10 in a mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. https://t.co/N08wAwjwNc — The Associated Press (@AP) May 14, 2022 Twitch said the quick takedown demonstrated a “very strong response time considering the challenges of live content moderation, and shows good progress.” Twitch’s VP of trust and safety, Angela Hession, continued in a statement, “In the end, we are all part of one internet, and we know by now that that content or behavior rarely — if ever — will stay contained on one platform,” she said. Twitch is working with other social platforms and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, to prevent the spread of the video.

New VIP role allows Twitch streamers to reward valuable viewers Popular live-streaming platform Twitch is adding a brand new VIP role for streamers to assign to certain viewers. Streamers will be able to use this new role to reward and recognize valuable viewers and members of their community, such as those that may have helped them meet the requirements to achieve Affiliate and/or Partner status. Whoever a streamer assigns as a VIP will receive a special badge in chat, and unlike the subscriber, top bits donator, and top clipper badges, the VIP emblem can only be assigned by the streamer and cannot be purchased or earned. Those who are given VIP status in streams will be privy to performing the following actions: Chat without being affected by slow, sub-only, or followers-only modes – Chat without being affected by rate limits – Chat in all rooms except Mod-only rooms – Post links in chat even when links are disabled – Celebrate the most loyal members of your community, even that one who only uses dad jokes in chat. Go to the Roles page on your dashboard and recognize their contributions with the new VIP Badge: https://t.co/GgxcmC4rnD pic.twitter.com/cxSC5IRXXZ — Twitch (@Twitch) November 14, 2018 Streamers will not have unlimited VIP slots at their disposal, as each block of additional slots will have to be earned based on stream performance. The first 10 VIP slots can be unlocked by completing the “Build a Community” achievement, which requires 50 followers and five unique chatters in a stream. Further VIP slots (20/30/40/50/60/80/100) can be assigned when there are 10/15/20/25/50/100/200 unique chatters in a stream. As of now, it appears that the limit to the number of VIP badges a streamer can hand out is maxed out at 100, and it’s unclear whether Twitch will increase this capability in the future. This is the third role that streamers have the power to assign to others, joining the Moderator and Editor roles. The VIP role is essentially an intermediary status between regular viewers/subscribers and Moderators.

New SCUF Gaming harassment allegations describe hostile work culture SCUFA former SCUF employee has claimed that they witnessed sexism and harassment while working for the company. On August 9, gaming controller company SCUF put out an official statement that they are investigating a recent claim of sexual harassment and a toxic work environment from a former employee. A second former member of staff at SCUF, who requested to remain anonymous, has since reached out to Dexerto to make additional claims of sexual harassment. “I personally had an issue with a co-worker who I had to work fairly closely with,” they alleged. “He would often get way too close to me, try to flirt, and just, in general, be really weird around me. “Eventually things escalated when instead of asking me to hand him a controller I had on my leg, he reached over me without any warning to grab it, touching my inner thigh in the process. I was so uncomfortable and shocked, so I went to the break room. I talked to another co-worker about the situation, but was told: “he probably didn’t mean it”. I felt very conflicted about what to do, and was too anxious to report it to HR. “He often would ask about my weekend plans – to which I always said I was busy with xyz – and got very persistent, tried to use a one liner, and gave me his number. At this point I reported it, but was met with “he probably didn’t mean it” and that HR couldn’t do anything about it. I was absolutely crushed that I worked up the courage to try and end it there, but had no support. I also had to continue working closely with him. “People know HR isn’t going to do much at all, especially if it’s a higher position employee, so they pretty much just suck it up. “I have listened to co-workers talk about how they have cried during meetings while being yelled at. I have also cried during meetings. I have spent time in therapy working on how my experience there affected me.” The allegations continued, “SCUF’s diversity is a huge issue. They have POC working in production who are treated like second-class citizens – they can’t even go into work through the front because their keycards only work for the back half of the building (which HR is in the front, mind you). Most of the POC working in the front office and marketing left entirely.” However, another former Scuf Gaming employee told Dexerto that the entire production team, regardless of race, enter through the back door. The individual later clarified that they reached out with the hope of their comments leading to improvements in the Scuf Gaming workplace environment. “I want SCUF to do better, and be better for all of the brilliant employees who deserve more,” they concluded. “There are a lot of people who work there that do great things, and I just want them to have a better environment to excel in.” Dexerto has reached out to SCUF and Corsair for comment on the situation. Update, August 11 Former SCUF employee vivi used Twitlonger to make clarifications on her earlier comments about her time at Scuf Gaming in a follow-up post regarding the work environment. https://twitter.com/vivisquid/status/1425376910037725189 After her initial post, SCUF confirmed they were immediately investigating the sexual harassment claims.

NBA legend Kobe Bryant confirmed dead in helicopter crash Instagram: @kobebryantNBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter passed away on January 26 after being involved in a fatal helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. According to an article from TMZ Sports, the 41-year-old was traveling with his second-oldest daughter Gianna Maria and six other passengers when the helicopter went down, causing a fire to break out. There were no survivors reported, and nine people have been confirmed to be deceased, including the pilot. His wife, Vanessa Bryant, was not on board. Eyewitnesses also told the news outlet that spluttering could be heard from the helicopter’s engine before the fatal accident occurred. The Pennsylvania-born star played his entire 20-year basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers and won five championships and made 18 All-Star games before he retired in April 2016. He was regarded as one of the “greatest players in the history of our game” by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. His other achievements include being the 2008 NBA MVP and two-time NBA Finals MVP, as well as being awarded an Oscar for his 2018 film Dear Basketball, a short love letter dedicated to the sport. The sporting legend had famously used private helicopter travel for many years, and commuted from his home in Newport Beach, California to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles to play matches. In 2018, Bryant invested in Epic Games under his firm $100m Bryant Stibel, and also put money into an esports training ground at the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California. Bryant’s daughter Gianna – nicknamed Gigi – was also a massive basketball fan, and often attended games with her father. Earlier in January, Kobe credited her for reigniting his love of the sport following his retirement. “You know what’s funny? Before Gigi got into basketball I hardly watched it, but now that’s she’s into basketball, we watch every night,” he said on the Showtime Basketball podcast on January 8. He then revealed how they’d attended a Lakers game together, and that it was the first one he’d been to since his jerseys were retired in 2017. “When I took her to the Laker game, that’s the first Laker game I’ve been to I think since my jersey retirement,” he said. “We just had so much fun because it was the first time I was seeing the game through her eyes.” (Timestamp 32:30 for mobile viewers.) Tributes for the NBA legend and Gianna poured out on social media, with many celebrities and influencers paying their respects on Twitter. “RIP and prayers to his entire family and everyone affected,” Fortnite star Tyler ‘Ninja‘ Blevins tweeted. WWIII scares, the corona virus, now we lost Kobe to a helicopter crash? Say it aint so 2020 is horrific. RIP and prayers to his entire family and everyone affected. — Ninja (@Ninja) January 26, 2020 Twitch star Dr Disrespect was devastated by the tragedy. “Completely destroyed right now,” he said. “Kobe Bryant, you provided so many incredible memories and inspirational moments. You were the best. RIP.” “What a terrible terrible tragedy,” 100 Thieves member Jack ‘CouRage‘ Dunlop said. “I feel so bad for his family. RIP Kobe Bryant.” Popular YouTuber and Team 10 Founder Jake Paul also shared his condolences. “Sending so much love to kobe’s family… this s**t can’t be real… so heartbreaking,” he said. “Kobe was such a titan in our time. You knew that even if you were not a fan of basketball. He impacted so many people in a positive way,” Twitch streamer Brett ‘Dakotaz‘ Hoffman tweeted. “Truly will be missed by the world. May he rest in peace & everyone on board.” https://twitter.com/dakotaz/status/1221532915609362432 FaZe Clan’s Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff said, “Damn man… Unbelievable news. Rest In Peace [Kobe Bryant], heart goes out to his family.” Bryant is survived by his wife Vanessa and three children, daughters Natalia, Bianca, and their seven-month-old Capri.

MMO veteran and EverQuest co-creator Brad McQuaid has died Legendary Everquest co-creator and Pantheon developer Brad McQuaid has died aged 51. McQuaid’s death was first reported by Pantheon’s social media accounts, and has sparked an outpouring of online tributes. “It is with deep regret we share that Brad McQuaid passed away last night,” Visionary Realms’ Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Twitter account posted on the evening of November 19. “He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by gamers worldwide. Thank you for bringing us together through your worlds. Rest in peace Aradune. VR [Visionary Realms] offers our deepest condolences to Brad’s family.” It is with deep regret we share that Brad McQuaid passed away last night. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered by gamers worldwide. Thank you for bringing us together through your worlds. Rest in peace @Aradune. VR offers our deepest condolences to Brad’s family. — Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (@PantheonMMO) November 20, 2019 Visionary Realms director of communications Benjamin Dean confirmed on Pantheon MMO’s public forums that McQuaid passed away at home. “Brad was a visionary, a mentor, an artist, a trailblazer, a friend, a husband, a father,” Dean said in the company’s official announcement. “He touched thousands of lives with his dreams. He changed the landscape of video games forever. He will be deeply missed and forever remembered in life and in Pantheon. Thank you, Brad, for bringing us together through your worlds. “Rest in peace, Aradune. All of us at Visionary Realms offer our deepest condolences to Brad’s family and during this most difficult time, we kindly ask that you respect the privacy of Brad’s family.” EverQuest’s social media account also posted a tribute to the game’s legendary co-creator and former chief creative officer: “We are devastated to hear of the passing of Brad McQuaid and are eternally grateful for the EverQuest Universe he was instrumental in creating. His effect on all of us is immeasurable & life-changing. Continue your great quest, Aradune.” From the EverQuest Teams, We are devastated to hear of the passing of Brad McQuaid and are eternally grateful for the EverQuest Universe he was instrumental in creating. His effect on all of us is immeasurable & life-changing. Continue your great quest, Aradune. — EverQuest (@everquest) November 20, 2019 McQuaid, who was known as Aradune to much of the online MMO community, first started out in development as a lead programmer for Sony Online Entertainment. The young developer soon became a producer on EverQuest. He was quickly promoted to chief creative officer for the fantasy MMO title, and was dubbed one of the “next game gods” in November 2000 by PC Gamer for his efforts in making EverQuest one of the biggest RPGs ever. In January 2002, McQuaid departed Sony to found Sigil Games alongside fellow EverQuest developer Jeff Butler. The pair launched their first title, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and five years later the independent start-up was purchased by SOE. Most recently, the former MMO veteran was working on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, another fantasy title that had raised more than $400,000 in its crowdfunding efforts across Kickstarter and other websites. It is currently in pre-alpha.

Microsoft Introduces Xbox All Access Subscription Microsoft has introduced a new subscription service for Xbox One that offers a multitude of benefits. Dubbed Microsoft All Access, the service offers two tiers for two different prices for a limited time. With the new Microsoft All Access pass, buyers can bundle a new Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, and use online services with Xbox Live Gold without paying upfront. Instead, users will opt for a lower, monthly cost, depending on what tier of services they choose. The Microsoft All Access pass offers two tiers of service – one for $21.99 and another for $34.99. With the $21.99 subscription, users will get an Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass, along with an Xbox One S 1TB. Subscribers can get the new Xbox One X for $34.99, along with the Live Gold and Game Pass subscriptions. Both tiers offer a 24-month period for the Live Gold and Game Pass subscriptions, with 0% APR for that same time frame. In addition, both tiers utilize Dell Preferred Account, a financing service that helps buyers manage their subscriptions. However, not everyone might be qualified for the deal: Microsoft stated that only “qualified customers” can take advantage of All Access, which means a credit check could make or break a potential buyer’s ability to take part in the service. According to Microsoft, this service is only available in their stores, and will only last for a limited time. Those looking into the service had better move fast – the deal spans from August 27th – December 31st, and only while supplies last.

Man arrested after threatening Square Enix with arson Square EnixA suspect has been arrested for threatening massive video game publisher Square Enix with a Kyoto Animation-inspired arson attack, nearly a month after the animation studio was set ablaze by a man accusing the company of plagiarism. Reports from Anime News Network state that a 40-year-old male suspect was arrested in Shinjuku after threatening Square Enix with a copycat arson attack inspired by the Kyoto Animation fire. The threat in question was reportedly sent via an inquiry form on the company’s website, causing a “forcible obstruction of business” at the publisher. 600Police state that the suspect demanded a refund for a game, threatening to repeat the KyoAni arson attack and admitting to police that he was “angry” about losing a match in the game. The game that caused the suspect’s anger is a smartphone title published under Square Enix, for which the suspect is a registered user. This wouldn’t be the first time Square Enix has been met with such a threat, either: the company received a similar warning in late March, after a 29-year-old male sent a message threatening to kill the publisher’s staff. This suspect was likewise arrested by law enforcement. 600 While unrelated to Square Enix, yet another similar incident occurred in late July, when a 29-year-old nursing employee sent a threatening message referring to the KyoAni fire to his former supervisor via the LINE messaging application. “I’m off to get revenge,” the message reportedly read. “Maybe it’ll be the Hokkaido version of KyoAni?” 600The Kyoto Animation fire made waves across the globe, with 35 reported deaths and 33 injuries. Additionally, most of the computers and materials in Studio 1 were destroyed. The suspect, who did not work for the studio, reportedly entered the building through its front door and doused both materials and employees with gasoline, with police apprehending the man shortly after he ignited the blaze. 600Since then, victims have begun to return to work in spite of the tragedy, with one employee stating that working “is the greatest counterattack to what the arsonist did.” Law enforcement found no gasoline or other such materials at the home of the Square Enix suspect.

Major internet disruption as Twitch, Reddit, Amazon, Twitter and more impacted Users on Twitch, Reddit, Amazon, Twitter, and a number of other websites previously reported outages as servers went down across the entire internet. In a major internet event that is not entirely the first of its kind, following a massive outage on Cloudfare back in July 2020, a whole host of customers and users experienced tremendous difficulty navigating their way around their regular websites. Whether you’re scrolling through articles or looking for something to buy, on June 8, 2021, reports were posted in the thousands about connectivity issues. The disruptions were flagged during the morning when Twitter emojis were replaced by code scrambled across our timelines. Twitch, Reddit & Twitter down The likes of Etsy, HBO Max, PayPal, and other services people use daily suffered major outages. As seen on Down Detector, a service monitoring major website server issues, thousands of problem reports were submitted across multiple platforms. For Reddit, over 20,000 reports have been filed at the time of writing. For Twitch, 5,500. For Amazon, 3,000. Twitter emojis broken Twitter previously suffered from internet breakage, too, as emojis appeared incorrectly across the social media platform. https://twitter.com/alemeraldom/status/1402205551141048320?s=20 New York Times back online – 13:22 PM (BST) The New York Times’ issues seem to have been resolved, with the majority of sites affected now having their issues resolved. Most services back online – 12:20 PM (BST) While The New York Times’ site still seems inaccessible, the other sites listed above all seem to currently be back up for users to visit. Twitch Update – 12:11 PM (BST) Twitch Support has tweeted out that their issue has now “been resolved” after tweeting an hour ago that they were aware of issues. Despite this, some users are reporting that there are issues, with others mentioning that one method to fix this is to “close your browser and open it again”. The Etsy status account also mentioned that their site is back to normal operations, and Dexerto can confirm after visiting the site that this seems to be the case. Amazon Update – 12:03 PM (BST) Users have since started to report that Reddit has come back online, meaning you can visit your favorite subreddit pages again. Amazon is also reporting that their service is “operating normally” in North America, Europe, South America, and other regions. As the dust settles on this internet outage, we’ll be sure to keep this page updated. With some websites recovering, fingers crossed it won’t be long before things are running like normal.

Madden Tournament Shooting Victims Officially Identified by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office @True_818 / @spotmeplzzzThe Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has formally identified the deceased victims of the recent shooting at a Madden tournament as Elijah Clayton and Taylor Robertson. Clayton and Robertson were competitors at the Madden event when a fellow competitor, David Katz, opened fire on August 26, killing them both and injuring multiple others before eventually taking his own life. The Sheriff’s Office officially released the information on August 27, a day after the horrific event took place. Clayton was better known as ‘TrueBoy’ by his Madden competitors, colleagues and fans, while Robertson played under the name ‘SpotMePlzzz’. OpTic Gaming Announces Madden Charity Stream to Support Families Impacted by Jacksonville Mass Shooting The Madden 2017 Classic champion competed for Dot City Gaming and was a proud father and husband. In an interview with EA Sports just last week, True described playing in the Madden Ultimate League playoffs as a “blessing” and stated ““I’m always laughing and joking around. I’m just me, a cool dude. There’s really nowhere to go but up, honestly.” The shooter, Katz, was eliminated in the early stages of the tournament. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams has not yet commented on hee 24-year-old from Baltimore’s motive for Katz’s devastating attack.

Madden Player Hailed as Hero for Shielding Younger Players During Jacksonville Shooting Ronald “SirusTheVirus” Casey risked his own life to protect younger Madden players in the midst of the Jacksonville shooting. On August 26th, a competitor in a Madden 19 qualifying tournament opened fire in Jacksonville Landing’s GLHF game bar, killing two players and injuring eleven before turning the gun on himself. During the chaos of the incident, one player risked his life to protect others in the venue using his own body. Known as “SirusTheVirus,” the Ohio-based Madden player shielded younger competitors as the shooter unloaded in a moment of quick-thinking. He described the incident in an interview with Fox45, stating that they were lucky the gunman wasn’t weilding an automatic weapon. “A bullet hit the wall or whatever, came over and I could smell it. That’s when I was like, man, I just made the decision to jump on top of the guys.” Casey was just behind the stream setup, which caught the gut-wrenching incident on camera. One of the players on stream, Eli “trueboy” Clayton, was killed. “The gun shots started taking off just, pop, pop, pop, and it just like it took everyone by surprise,” he said. “This was the worst thing I’ve seen in my life. I’m sitting there and I see these people getting shot.” Multiple Twitter users reached out to Casey, thanking him for his heroic act and hailing him as a hero. “@SirusTheVirusTV and @fitzmagic13 dad are heroes. Shout out to these guys for putting other people’s lives in front of theirs and trying to shield them while the shooting happened. Truly glad they’re both okay 🙏🏻🙏🏻”

Local Sheriff’s Office Make Terrible Blunder Linking Twitch To Pedophilia On May 26th the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office in South Dakota linked Twitch in a failed attempt to expose another streaming site associated with underage pornography. The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office have not taken the time clarify the mistake or link the correct website since tweeting out the first mishap. The tweet comes as a warning but the mix up has resulted in it being rather counter-productive to law enforcement’s intentions. The website which they intended to highlight was in fact liveme.com, which according to reports has been involved in a number of instances of online abuse, targeting young users. live.me, which redirects to Twitch.tv, was accidentally linked in the tweet, creating confusion among Twitter readers. WARNING: Pedophiles are using popular live streaming app https://t.co/zW9S3ccQP1 to manipulate underage girls into performing sexual acts, reward them with virtual currency, and post screen captures or recordings of the girls online to be sold and distributed as child porn. — Pennington County SO (@PennCoSheriff) May 26, 2018 It appears to be an honest mistake, but at the time of writing the Sheriff’s Office Twitter account has not corrected their error. Penn County SO claimed that the streaming site liveme.com rewarded streamers with a virtual currency, that pedophiles used to incentivize underage users, which is similar to Twitch’s ‘bits’ currency. Twitch streamers can be donated real money, or bits, a form of virtual currency on the popular streaming site. While Twitch has not responded to the blunder at this point, users can find relief in knowing that the two websites are not affiliated in any way. Twitch remains a prominent streaming service primarily for gamers with strict guidelines that prevent disturbing and illegal content, as mentioned in the SO’s tweet, from being promoted or distributed across their service.

Lizard Squad claim responsibility for Instagram, Facebook DDoS attack Black hat hacking organization Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for attacks on Instagram and Facebook Messenger on November 18, which saw the services go down for millions of users across the world. Popular social media sites Instagram and Facebook Messenger went down for about an hour on November 18, leaving users unable to message and scroll through the sites. It was speculated to be an attack on Facebook servers originally, but now a hacking group has stepped forward to take responsibility for the outages that affected users primarily in North America and Europe. Lizard Squad noted on their Twitter page on November 18 that they were the group behind Facebook’s platform-wide outage. Read more: Lizard Squad members reportedly arrested – “Try sending a message through Instagram, Facebook Messenger,” the group stated. https://twitter.com/UGLegion/status/1196560604607242240 The outage, which was suspected to be a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, overloaded Facebook’s servers, leaving users unable to access the website’s themselves. Messages were not sending or being sent over Messenger and Instagram, while posts were not posting and loading on Facebook. Lizard Squad are a veteran hacking organization who have been flung back into the spotlight after a spate of recent attacks. Fortnite, Modern Warfare, and the UK Labour Party have all fallen into the notorious group’s targets. Read more: Fortnite servers go down on November 9 – However, their attacks haven’t gone unnoticed by authorities, with a UK-based member of the Lizard Squad reportedly arrested on November 16 after the Labour party attack. That attack garnered wide-spread media attention after the group allegedly accessed party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s bank account, hitting the party hard in the middle of an election campaign in Britain. https://twitter.com/UGLegion/status/1194983456574525440 Facebook and its associated services are operational as of now, so users should be able to use Instagram, Messenger, and other sites without any disruptions. Facebook are yet to release a statement on the November 18 attacks, but we will update you when they do.

Kyle Rittenhouse’s TikTok account becomes major focal point in trial Kyle Rittenhouse’s TikTok account became a major focal point in his trial after prosecutors displayed and questioned the teenager about his profile on the video-sharing platform. 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is being charged with multiple homicides and unlawful possession of a firearm after killing two and injuring a third during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in November 2020. As Kyle took to the stand to defend himself during the trial, the prosecutor brought up and questioned the teenager about his TikTok account. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Rittenhouse about his TikTok account named ‘4doorsmorewh*res’. The account had 24 followers and has since been taken down from the platform, but an old screenshot was displayed in the courtroom. Kyle was asked about the account, where the prosecutor specifically mentioned the profile picture which showed the teenager holding a rifle. Rittenhouse’s account bio also read “Bruh, I’m just trying to be famous.” The mentioning of the teenager’s TikTok has agitated many across social media. Some argue that it was unnecessary to mention the TikTok account. “The clown show continues,” said one, along with the clip of the prosecution talking about Kyle’s TikTok. What the hell is the point of that line of questioning? Just demonstrates that he’s a typical teenage boy with typical teenage boy sense of humor. — 🏜️AZKB🌵🇺🇸 (@karbar711) November 10, 2021 “What the hell is the point of that line of questioning? Just demonstrates that he’s a typical teenage boy with a typical teenage boy sense of humor,” said another on Twitter. TikTok is also full of users uploading content discussing the trial, as their platform of choice is now part of the proceedings. Multiple videos about the trial have racked up millions of views. Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial is still ongoing, with the teenager pleading not guilty to his charges after stating he acted to protect himself. However, some are accusing the prosecution of trying to entrap Mr. Rittenhouse, and demanding for them to be reprimanded for the “out of line questioning.”

Kansas ‘Call of Duty Swatter’ Tyler Barriss Reportedly Confessed After Arrest, Police Officer Testifies The tragic case of the fatal swatting which resulted from an argument over a $2 Call of Duty wager match took another unexpected turn yesterday, May 22nd. The accused, infamous swatter Tyler Barriss, confessed to making the hoax phone call prompting the heavy police response, a police officer testified. Appearing in court for a preliminary hearing, Tyler Raj Barriss, 25, was charged in December 2017 with giving false alarm, interference with law-enforcement officers and involuntary manslaughter. The Wichita police say that Barriss phoned local police on December 28, claiming there was an ongoing murder and hostage situation at a Wichita address. He was given a false address by an individual engaged in an argument over a Call of Duty wager match, and the address lead to the home of Andrew Finch, who police officer Justin Rapp fatally shot on the scene. Los Angeles police detective Edward Dorroh testified that Barriss ‘confessed’ going to a local library, where he used WiFi to make the hoax call. “To cut to the chase, he confessed. It was straightforward.” As the first swatting incident believed to result in a death, there was also testimony of Barriss’ comments in a transcript of a police interview, where he explains he was aware of the dangers of these swatting attempts. “I did know that, yeah. I’m not gonna deny that. I did know. It’s just the fact that the worst possible outcome happened is so unfortunate.” Tyler Barriss in Court, as it was testified he had confessed to the swatting call. Image: KSN The police officer who fired the fatal shot, Justin Rapp, also appeared to give testimony. It was announced last month that he would not face criminal charges. “I believed that the male caller, had shot his father in the head, as he had reported, and that he had additional people inside the residence at gunpoint.” He also explained how Finch apparently lowered his hands towards his waist band in a motion that looked like he was drawing a weapon on officers. He also claims that Finch was not obeying police instructions. “My fear is that he is going to open fire on the officers. […] I fired one shot, and struck that individual.” Police officer Justin Rapp, who took the fatal shot, testifies in court. Image: KSN The hearing resulted in the court ruling that there was sufficient evidence to take the case to trial. Barriss is also facing charges on another, unrelated swatting incident in Calgary, which took place six days before the Kansas swatting. More: Infamous ‘Call of Duty’ Swatter Gains Access to Twitter While in Jail – Threatens to SWAT Again – A woman was reportedly targeted by a swatting due to her online persona, and similarly, police responded to what they were told was a man having shot his father in the head and holding his mother and younger brother hostage. A female exited the premises and calmed the situation explaining the reports were false, and no one was hurt in the Calgary incident.

Juice WRLD dead at 21: Tributes pour in from gaming community The gaming and streaming community has paid tribute to Juice WRLD, a young but already acclaimed music artist who had been influential in the scene, after he died suddenly at age 21 on December 8. As reported by TMZ, the Chicago-born rapper and singer, real name Jarad Higgins, died from a seizure in Chicago’s Midway airport. As well as attaining mainstream success with his hits like Lucid Dreams, Juice WRLD was massively popular within the gaming and esports scene especially. He even pushed for streamers to play his music on stream following copyright concerns. The rapper apologized to Twitch streamers in June of 2018 after numerous channels were struck down by bans for playing his music, stating: “My apologies for the people that got banned for listening to my music while streaming…I will do what I can to prevent that from happening again.” My apologies for the ppl that got banned for listening to my music while streaming…I will do what I can to prevent that from happening again 🙁 999 — . (@JuiceWorlddd) June 23, 2018 Only two days prior to his death, top streamer Ninja had revealed that JuiceWRLD was the number one artist he had listened to throughout 2019. Thank you @juiceworlddd for spending 45 hours with me this year on @Spotify. You are my #1. #spotifywrapped https://t.co/5xXbWDgsKs — Ninja (@Ninja) December 5, 2019 Ninja led tributes to the late rapper, saying he was “heartbroken” by the news. Countless other streamers were also left devastated by the news. Waking up to @JuiceWorlddd passing from a seizure… I loved his music and he was my most listened to artist in 2019. Im heartbroken, my love goes out to his family and loved ones. To soon man. — Ninja (@Ninja) December 8, 2019 Wow… did not expect to wake up to see @JuiceWorlddd passed… loved his music… so talented and gone from us way too soon. RIP. — timthetatman👑 (@timthetatman) December 8, 2019 Bro no 🙁 another legend gone too soon, Prayers go out to friends and family. — cloakzy (@cloakzy) December 8, 2019 Damn Juice. Rest In Peace. No one deserves to pass that young… Felt like he was just getting started. — Lirik (@LIRIK) December 8, 2019 Professional esports players including CS:GO pros Dev1ce and NAFFLY, and Call of Duty pros Tommey and Censor also sent out messages following the news, among many others. This fucking sucks man. Loved his music and it helped me through a lot this year. R.I.P Juice WRLD. pic.twitter.com/jDKxlOC0ph — Tommey (@Tommey) December 8, 2019 YouTubers also paid tribute to the rapper, including No Jumper’s Adam22, who had featured JuiceWRLD on his podcast in Septemeber 2018. Damn, rest in peace Juice Wrld. Just turned 21 too, way too young. You won’t be forgotten — Deji (@Deji) December 8, 2019 Lil Yachty and Lil Nas X, two of Juice Wrld’s contemporaries, were stunned by the news. Lil Yachty featured on a remix of another of Higgin’s biggest hits, ‘All girls are the same’. Wow, I can not believe this. Rip my brother juice world 😭😭😭 — CONCRETE BOY BOAT^ (@lilyachty) December 8, 2019 Juice Wrld was an avid fan of video games and had always been supportive of the culture, even donning a video game-style cover art for his ‘Death Race for Love’ album – his second, and now final album, of his career. TMZ report that he was rushed to hospital, but was pronounced dead a short time later on the morning of December 8.

Joe O’Brien: In memory of a great esports writer The Dexerto family are saddened to announce that our writer Joe O’Brien has died at the tender age of 25 following a brave battle with cancer. A kind and humble young man, Joe wasn’t outspoken and would never shout about the massive role that he played in the growth of Dexerto, but he was a great esports writer – one of the very best, in fact. Whether it was Call of Duty, League of Legends, CSGO or Overwatch, he had an unrivaled knowledge of a wide range of esports, and whether he was keeping the fans updated with the latest news or, in his later career, writing and editing scripts, he knew how to tell a great story. He was always available to help other writers with their work, and his unbelievable generosity of spirit stayed with him even as he was suffering, making sure his friends and colleagues felt as ease as he delivered the devastating news that he wouldn’t be around for much longer. But even though he has gone, he leaves a huge legacy, and one that we intend to honor by being humble and working as hard as we can to improve – just like Joe did every day. As the first ever Dexerto employee, Joe has been with us all the way as Dexerto has grown from a fledgling esports startup into what it is today. As the person who originally hired Joe, I wanted share my experiences of working with him. Joe O’Brien – A tribute Joe has been a part of the fabric for Dexerto for so long that I had to go back to 2015 to find our first conversation on Twitter. He delivered his message in typical self-deprecating fashion, saying: “Hey, probably not qualified enough but I figured I’d offer, if you don’t have anyone to cover Gfinity I’d be happy to help.” Little did he know, I needed his help. At the time, Dexerto consisted of myself, plus founders Chris, Josh and Nico. I’d produce the majority of the video and written content from events such as Gfinity and beyond, putting ungodly hours into getting our website off the ground. A popular phrase online is “shoot your shot” and in 2015, Joe did exactly that. As for his claim that he wasn’t qualified, little did he know that he was messaging someone who had only just learned the difference between there and their! He would immediately raise the standard of writing at Dexerto. What struck me about Joe when I first met him at the Gfinity Arena was his maturity for someone so young. The thing I remember vividly about our first conversation was what he had to say about his fiance, Laurel. Getting to know each other, we started talking about our personal lives and he mentioned that he was engaged. Perhaps it was my facial expression that gave it away, but I must have given him a look that said something like: Who gets engaged at 19 or 20? Picking up on this, he reassured me with a huge smile and said that it was just right. Little did I know at the time that this was Joe’s way – he always wanted to make people around him feel at ease. He was so sincere and I totally believed him – five years later he would marry the love of his life. Sometimes you just know. Of course we had a job to do – we were at the Gfinity Arena to cover a Call of Duty esports event, and there was no one more able to do that than Joe. He had an infectious passion for Call of Duty, esports, and gaming, but he was also a great writer. I would have liked to snap him up immediately to work for us, but as a startup with limited financial resources, we just couldn’t afford to bring him on as a full-time writer. Yet Joe was so determined to follow his passion that he still wanted to contribute. He had enjoyed his first experience as an esports journalist and months later he contacted me again and began doing regular work as a volunteer. In 2016, he started working part-time, before becoming Dexerto’s first ever full-time employee. Joe was brilliant, but there is no such thing as the perfect employee and I’ll admit that Joe and I had some ups and downs, but one thing I always loved about Joe was his honesty and resilience. He never made excuses – If you told him something was wrong or questioned why he hadn’t done something, he never blamed anyone else and would just fix it. It was a quality that I cherished and wish everyone could be like that. Joe was often the yin to my yang when it came to content, especially back when the editorial team consisted of just the two of us. I’d write up the far less serious content, while he’d balance it out with a 2,000 word dissertation on why Jurd was Splyce’s best player, or why Search and Destroy statistically doesn’t actually win championships (which at the time he was right about, despite what those who hadn’t looked at the numbers claimed). As the website grew and we expanded the team, I relied on Joe to help train the new writers and share what he’d learned over the years with the new recruits. A lot of these writers still work for us, and thanks to Joe’s initial help, have gone on to achieve great things. He just understood Dexerto and was generous enough to help others on the road to reaching their goals. As such, he was instrumental to the growth of the company, and that was something that he was rightly proud of. Despite his often timid nature, Joe was never afraid of a challenge and he displayed an unbelievable dedication to his role. For example, he agreed to turn his life upside-down to cover the first season of the Overwatch League, becoming a night owl as he covered games that would start at 9pm his time and finish at 4am. It was perhaps something I took for granted as he was never one to make demands, his slightly reserved character perhaps holding him back from requesting promotions – he just got on with his job, being a great writer. In fact, it was only in January of this year, four years after he joined, that he finally came to me to discuss his future with the company. He loved writing, but he wanted to offer more. With his ability to craft longer written content, he became our video script editor, working on esports documentaries. This change in role came at a time when the global pandemic had put a halt to our regular coverage from tournaments, putting extra pressure on Joe to write, commission and edit scripts every day for our YouTube channel – and what an incredible job he did. Only Joe, with his knowledge, talent and meticulous attention to detail was able to do this job, and through crafting compelling stories about the journeys of the biggest esports players, he helped shape another area of Dexerto. Sadly, that is where his journey with Dexerto came to an end. In September, Joe learned that he had an aggressive form of liver cancer and he took time off in order to get treatment. However, just a month later his condition deteriorated, and he was given the option of having intense chemotherapy that could potentially kill him, but at best keep him alive for six months to a year, or he could go home to spend his final weeks with his wife and family. He made the incredibly brave decision to go home. On Friday November 27, Joe passed away in his sleep at home with his family by his side. Joe leaves a legacy that will never be forgotten – he put everything into Dexerto over the years, and I know that we’ll never stop crediting him for helping us get to where we are. However, the last conversation I had with him on the phone says more about the incredible young man that he was. He acknowledged that his colleagues and friends found it difficult to find the right words to say in these situations, and not only did he put me at ease, but he thanked me for allowing him to do his dream job. He said he’d had a great life and had absolutely no regrets. It takes a special type of person to be that humble and thankful given the circumstances, and that’s a person I’ll proudly always call my friend and colleague. Thank you, Joe, for everything.

Jacksonville Shooter Had History of Mental Illness, Obtained Guns Legally The gunman who opened fire on a Madden 19 tournament on Sunday had a history of mental illness but obtained guns legally. David Katz, 24, killed two competitors at the tournament in Jacksonville, and injured multiple others, before turning the weapon on himself and taking his own life. Now, according to multiple reports, it has come to light that Katz was hospitalized twice as a teenager in psychiatric facilities and prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic medication. The information reportedly comes from court records relating to Katz’s parents’ divorce in 2007, according to reports from the Associated Press. The parents appear to have strongly disagreed with each other on how to care for their son, with the father claiming that his estranged wife was exaggerating the illness as part of their custody battle. 650https://twitter.com/JSOPIO/status/1034171122420523014 Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams also revealed that the shooter was able to purchase his firearms, a .45 caliber handgun and a 9mm handgun, legally from a licensed dealer within a month of his devastating attack Williams went on to explain that only one of the weapons was used, that one of them had an aftermarket laser sight that attached to the trigger guard, and that it was clear that Katz “targeted other gamers at the event”. Read More: OpTic Announces Madden Charity Stream to Support Families Impacted by Jacksonville Shooting – Katz was a player in the Madden tournament and was eliminated in the early stages, but police investigating the shooting say that they have not yet determined a motive for his attack. Eli Clayton, 22, and Taylor Roberston, 28, have been identified as the competitors that lost their lives in the fatal shooting. Both were well known within the Madden community, with EA stating “their deaths are an inconceivable tragedy”.

Is Twitter down? Users report crashes worldwide on July 11 A widespread crash appears to have affected Twitter worldwide on July 11, a first on such a scale in recent memory. The social media platform is the go-to hub for the world’s going-ons, but ground to a halt at approximately 11:50AM PT, on July 11. Update: at approximately 12:50AM PT on July 11, Twitter services resumed for most users – with the outage lasting roughly one hour. Users were met with a somewhat vague ‘something went technically wrong’ error when visiting the home page on desktop, while others saw their feed refreshing endlessly. On mobile apps, the problem prevented new Tweets from loading, and sending them was also not possible, if you were able to reach the main page at all. Of course, Twitter is usually the place the online world goes to report such major issues, and seeing the mini-blogging platform endure such a widespread outage is rare. Tracking website ‘down-detector’ received a whopping 25,000+ reports on July 11, at around 12PM PT (3PM ET, 8PM BST) 600Coincidentally, the crash came on the same day as another of the web’s biggest platforms crashed, as Reddit users found the site out of action. Both Reddit and Twitter are central hubs for what’s going on in the world, with hundreds of millions of daily visitors, and users where almost lost without them. Twitter reportedly had 126 million unique daily visitors in February 2019, making it one of the most popular platforms, although it is dwarfed by Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube. Twitter is yet to address the outage at the time of writing, but we will keep you updated as the situation progresses.

Is Twitter down? Login issues reported on October 14 TwitterPopular social media site Twitter appears to be suffering from some major issues, with users across the world reporting problems with the platform on Monday, October 14. The social media giant is one of the most popular in the world, with millions of users signing in daily to see what’s taking place around the world in real-time, however many were unable to log in at all in the early hours on October 14. Users attempted to sign into their accounts but were greeted with an error code, leaving them unable to view their timeline or post any tweets of their own. The issues appeared to begin around 4:30 AM EST, with reports beginning to appear on the DownDetector website as users struggled to access their accounts. The problems appear to be widespread too, with users in both the east and west coasts of the United States, the United Kingdom and a large part of mainland Europe, and Japan the most significantly affected by Twitter’s issues. When attempting to log in, users are met with a message which states: “That page has expired or does not exist. Please try logging in again.” The issue currently seems to be affecting only those who use the desktop version of the site, with mobile users seemingly unaffected for the time being. Twitter is one of the most popular websites in the world, with over 126 million daily users visiting the site in February 2019, with statistics estimating that around 500 million tweets are sent per day, which averages out at 6,000 every second. The outage comes less than 24 hours after Twitch suffered issues, with the streaming site crashing as millions logged on to watch Fortnite’s The End event. Twitter has yet to address the outage at the time of writing, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated with any news or important information as the situation progresses.

Is TweetDeck down? Users report widespread outage on July 1 TwitterUsers are reporting widespread problems with TweetDeck on July 1 as Tweetdeck has gone down. The start of a new month has created a wide assortment of issues as Tweetdeck has crashed for many users and in turn, they are going to Twitter to complain about. This outage was first reported around 2:30 PM EST and appears to affect users all around the world and not just one particular area. The outages are still being reported showing that the issue has not yet subsided. Tweetdeck itself is aware of the problems and came out with a statement saying they are looking into the problems and will keep people updated when new information is available. “We are aware that some people are having issues with loading TweetDeck,” they tweeted. “Our team is working to resolves the issue, and we’ll share more updates on this thread!” We are aware that some people are having issues with loading TweetDeck. Our team is working to resolve the issue, and we’ll share more updates on this thread! — TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) July 1, 2019 According to the outage map, it seems like the most widespread problem areas include the United States and Europe, but other places are reporting problems too. The map updates each time a user reports a new issue and you’ll be able to track it live through their website right here. Many disgruntled Twitter users have voiced their displeasure about the issues. TweetDeck going down creates problems for many businesses and people as they rely on the service to schedule tweets in advance. Journalists working right now with Tweetdeck down… pic.twitter.com/Y9bDwltRB7 — Kris Pangilinan (@KrisReports) July 1, 2019 Tweetdeck goes down and suddenly I’m looking at raw Twitter like they turned on the lights in a dive bar at 2AM. — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) July 1, 2019 Yep! Looks like Tweetdeck is down for many in Europe and quite a few the other side of the pond.#omgweareallgoingtodie — VirtualAstro (@VirtualAstro) July 1, 2019 It’s worth mentioning that the outages seem to go in and out for people but there’s definitely something going on. In the meantime, we will keep you updated when the issue has subsided. TweetDeck is hard at work figuring out the issue and what is causing it to be down for so many people.