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Max Verstappen may give F1 fans an exciting race at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix Associated PressMax Verstappen’s dominance of Formula 1 has left little for fans to be excited about ahead of a race when it comes to who might win – but that could all be about to change at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. Verstappen picked up where he left off last year during the season’s opener in Bahrain last weekend. The Dutchman cruised home more than 22 seconds clear of Sergio Perez in second. The RB19 in the hands of the 26-year-old proved to be a rocketship and the RB20 appears to have the same jet fuel inside of it. Perez struggled to keep pace with his teammate during 2023 season, ultimately finishing with less than half of Verstappen’s points tally (285 vs 575). The Mexican faced increased scrutiny over his future at the team, especially with the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the sport in their sister team, RB. Yet Perez has consistently proved his worth in one category, the streets. Despite only finishing last year with two wins to his name, they both came at street circuits – Jeddah and Baku. Furthermore, the only other circuit that Verstappen failed to claim victory in 2023 was Singapore – also a street circuit. And as F1 gets ready to return to Jeddah this weekend, Perez may well be looking to flex his muscles as King of the Streets come lights out. Admittedly, last year Verstappen suffered an issue in qualifying that saw him line up in P15 for lights out – but do not let that take away from Perez’s skills around the fast paced streets of Saudi. Why Max Verstappen may not win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix You would be a foolish person to bet against the Red Bull star at the moment, but in his own words, Verstappen admitted that street circuits were not his friend last season. “Mainly I think just street circuits and low-speed, kerbing,” he told Autosport when asked what the team need to improve on. “These kind of things, I think we are not the best at the moment.” Perez meanwhile is adamant that his driving ability is the key factor as to why he often finds success on a street layout. “The reason I’m strong on these circuits is because I am able to play with the car much more than I used to,” he said. “I think in the street circuits you have to be very strong in the race, and very strong with the pressure. “You have to be able to handle the pressure because you’re not able to make mistakes. If you do a small mistake, in a normal circuit, you can get away with it. “But in the streets, you cannot get away with those mistakes. And I probably have more confidence than others come race day.” Checo will be hoping to upset the odds and prevent Verstappen from claiming victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for two years running this weekend as F1 returns under the lights on Saturday.

Lewis Hamilton gives brutal verdict on Mercedes’ abysmal performance at F1 Saudi Arabia GP Associated PressMercedes star Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he felt like he was driving “in a different category” during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The seven-time F1 champion has had a miserable start to his final season with the team ahead of his 2025 move to Ferrari. Hamilton has finished behind Mercedes teammate George Russell in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with P5 and P9 results respectively. It is a far cry from three years ago where Hamilton would be the person to beat on track, something the 39-year-old is all too aware of. Lewis Hamilton: Driving for Mercedes “not fun” After taking home just two points from the fast-paced street circuit in Jeddah, Hamilton felt like he was at a major disadvantage compared to the rest of the grid. “It was like I was in a different category when I was going through the high speed with the other guys around me,” he told Autosport. “I wouldn’t say I’m having fun,” he added. “I mean, I’m racing for ninth, so I definitely can’t say that. Finishing ninth is definitely not fun. “But I am enjoying the actual racing part. And I was hunting and I was pushing as hard as I could, I was maximising everything I had with the car, I was right on the edge. “It was just unfortunately really lacking performance in the high-speed, where they were walking all over us.” It wasn’t all bad for Hamilton, however, as the Mercedes star conceded that there is a route back to the top for the team. “There are positives. The car is good in low speed. We have to add a lot of load in the high-speed. I think if we were able to do that then I think it puts us in the fight. But we’ve got some work to do.” Hamilton returns to action on Sunday, March 24 as F1 heads to Australia for lights out at the Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne.

F1 star raises concerns over new loophole for “guaranteed points” Associated PressWilliams F1 star Alex Albon has shared his concerns over a loophole for “guaranteed points” after Haas driver Kevin Magnussen took advantage of an in-race penalty to help his teammate secure a points finish. Magnussen was handed a 10-second penalty by stewards after he made contact with Albon during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dane then proceeded to overtake Yuki Tsunoda by leaving the track, going on to slow down the rest of the cars behind him. This opened up a sufficient pitstop window for Haas teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, allowing him to stop without losing positions. Albon worried over F1 strategy for “guaranteed points” Hulkenberg went on to claim a P10 finish, securing a vital point for Haas, moving them ahead of Williams in the constructors’ standings. Albon has now admitted his frustrations at what he sees as a soft penalty being handed out for a strategy that can “guarantee” a team points. “Why wouldn’t you do that everywhere?” he told Autosport after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “I don’t think five to 10 seconds is correct. I think it needs to be you must return the position back, and just leave it like that.” “You saw it this weekend [in Jeddah],” he added. “I think any team would do the same thing, if you sacrifice one driver for guaranteed points. “Maybe the top teams won’t do it. But the midfield teams who need to take points at any opportunity, you would do it every single time. “I think you might see more drivers doing it just to guarantee a teammate to have points.” Elsewhere, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has vented his frustration over driving a Mercedes that feels as if it is in a “different category” to the rest of the grid. And Silver Arrows chief, Toto Wolff, has also opened up on the one stumbling block preventing Mercedes from signing Max Verstappen – their car.

Formula E boss stuns Jermaine Jenas with $250k bet offer TNT SportsThe CEO of Formula E Jeff Dodds has vowed to donate $250,000 to charity if Max Verstappen fails to defend his Formula 1 world title this year. Verstappen has won the last three Drivers’ Championships and is a heavy odds-on favourite to clinch a fourth in a row. Testing for the new season began in Bahrain on Wednesday and Verstappen set the fastest lap time on day one of testing, before Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez did the same the following day. The performances of the Red Bull pair were ominous for the chasing pack, with the constructors’ new car receiving early praise for the improvements that have been made in the off-season. Dodds suggested that Formula E is much more interesting that Formula 1 because there are no overwhelming favourites in the sport. In a TNT Sports interview with Jermaine Jenas, Dodds said: “99 per cent he (Verstappen) gets that trophy. If he doesn’t win it we’ll give a quarter of a million dollars to the charity of choice of the other driver that wins it. “It wouldn’t be the worst day in the office to give a load of money to charity but absolutely he (Verstappen) is nailed on to win that season. “I know I’m going to turn up to Sao Paulo (the location for the next Formula E race) and neither of us have any idea who’s going to win that race, so I’m excited by that. “I know as an F1 fan, I absolutely already know who’s winning. You can’t win 19 out of 21 races in one season, come back after a bit of development on the cars, and not win the next one. I just can’t see it.”

F1 24: Release date, platforms, price, tracks, more EA SportsEA has revealed details of their upcoming racing sim, F1 24, and here’s when the game is releasing, along with its price, editions, platforms, and more. With F1 23‘s season coming to an end, players are now gearing up for the upcoming iteration as Electronic Arts has revealed the release date of their upcoming racing sim, F1 24. The new edition of the franchise will set new standards and bring more realism and improvements to the gameplay that Formula 1 fans have always wanted. It includes all the official drivers and some new tracks for you to delve into and feel the adrenaline right at your fingertips! So, with that said, here’s when the game is releasing, along with its editions, platforms it’ll be playable on, and more. Contents F1 24 release date EA Sports has confirmed that F1 24 will be released on May 31, 2024, and April will mark a full reveal of the game for the fans. Right now, there’s no info about the release time yet. But we’ll make sure to update this section as soon as we find something concrete online, so be sure to check back regularly. All F1 24 platforms EA has confirmed that F1 24 will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Epic Games, EA App, and Steam. That’s good news for all the previous-gen console owners as they won’t be left out from playing EA’s latest F1 game. All F1 24 editions and prices F1 24 will be available in two editions: Champions and Standard editions. Here’s a rundown of all the editions along with their prices: Standard edition PS4, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S: $69.99 / £69.99 – PC: $69.99 / £59.99 – – Champions edition PS4, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S: $89.99 / £89.99 – PC: $89.99 / £79.99 – – All F1 24 confirmed tracks EA’s latest F1 game will have all the official 24 circuits including the Las Vegas GP, Italy GP, Miami GP, and more. In fact, the Chinese GP also marks its return with the latest installment of the franchise. Here are all the confirmed tracks in F1 24: Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari: Emilia-Romagna GP – Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: Mexico GP – Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace: Brazil GP – Bahrein International Circuit: Bahrein GP – Baku City Circuit: Azerbaijan GP – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: Spain GP – Circuit de Monaco: Monaco GP – Circuit Gilles-Villenueve: Canada GP – Circuit of The Americas: USA GP – Hungaroring: Hungary GP – Jeddah Corniche Circuit: Saudi Arabia GP – Las Vegas Strip Circuit: Las Vegas GP – Losail International Circuit: Qatar GP – Marina Bay Street Circuit: Singapore GP – Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit: Australia GP – Miami International Autodrome: Miami GP – Monza: Italy GP – Red Bull Ring: Austria GP – Shanghai International Circuit: China GP – Silverstone Circuit: Great Britain GP – Spa-Francochamps: Belgium GP – Suzuka International Racing Course: Japan GP – Yas Marina Circuit: Abu Dhabi GP – Zandvoort: Netherlands GP – All F1 24 drivers All the Formula 1 drivers from the 10 teams will feature in F1 24 including the new Kick Sauber that replaces the Alpha Romeo team. Here are all the drivers and their teams in the game: For more on F1 24, be sure to check our page to stay on top of all updates.

F1 fans go wild over Pokemon themed Ferrari post at Japanese Grand Prix Associated Press/Niantic/The Pokemon CompanyFormula 1 fans could not hide their excitement after Ferrari shared a Pokemon themed social media post to introduce their SF-24 at the Japanese Grand Prix. F1 has arrived in Japan this weekend as Max Verstappen claimed pole in qualifying at Suzuka. Away from the action, Ferrari caught the attention of fans with a tribute to Pokemon at the home of the iconic franchise. As qualifying was about to get underway, Ferrari took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share a video of the team throwing a Pokeball at the garage. Yet rather than a wild Pokemon appearing, the Scuderia’s 2024 challenger emerged. Accompanied with the caption, “SF-24, we choose you!”, it did not take long before fans of both F1 and Pokemon heaped praise on the team for what they saw as not only a brilliant edit, but also a classy gesture with the race taking place in Japan. “Wow!! What a beauty. The sound is music itself,” commented one fan who picked up on the fact the video also included the iconic noise of a Pokemon emerging from the ball when sent out to battle. “That transition is absolutely amazing,” added another, while a third wrote, “This is awesome!” On track, Verstappen took pole with a superb 1:28.197s lap of Suzuka, with Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and McLaren star Lando Norris making up the top three. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso rounded off the top five as Oscar Piastri put his McLaren on the third row in sixth. Charles Leclerc (eighth) split the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton (seventh) and George Russell (ninth), with home favorite Yuki Tsunoda lining up in 10th after a superb drive to get into Q3 in his RB.

F1 24 is removing its predecessors’ most controversial feature EALeading up to F1 24’s launch, Codemasters has addressed fan feedback about F1 Life by removing one of the mode’s controversial aspects from the past two games. Both F1 22 and F1 23 came under fire for introducing and expanding on the F1 Life game mode. This addition was marketed by EA as giving players the chance to experience the “glitz and glamor” of how Formula 1 drivers live. However, it was not a popular feature with long-term franchise fans questioning its inclusion. It was a key point brought up in many reviews including our own which expressed that its inclusion had “EA’s fingerprints all over it,” as F1 22 was the first installment to be overlooked by the AAA publisher. However, F1 24 is shifting away from F1 Life and removing supercars entirely. This was confirmed by Senior Creative Director Lee Mather. Speaking to Overtake, Mather revealed, “We’ve decided to take [supercars] out at the moment. This essentially gives us the opportunity to focus on doubling down on the authenticity this year, which is what we’re really going for.” In the same interview, Lee Mather admitted that supercars “weren’t as successful” as Codemasters had anticipated. Despite this, the Senior Creative Director believes they “had a place in that year’s game,” and didn’t appear to regret their initial inclusion. Regardless, supercars will not make a return in F1 24. Instead, the new Formula 1 game focuses on improving the driving experience by enhancing the car’s aerodynamics, tuning, and overall feel as revealed in the official gameplay deep dive trailer.

Register Sign in Login to enable dark mode. Sign up for free to unlock exclusive perks: See fewer ads An Ad-lite experience on articles. Dark Mode Customize your Dexerto experience, choose between dark or light. Great deals with our monthly newsletter Recommendations for unmissable entertainment. Save money with the best online deals in Gaming, TV and Movies, and Tech. Already have a Dexerto Media Group account? Login Register Gaming Entertainment TV & Movies Esports Tech Connect With Us Twitter Twitch YouTube More Archive About Us Advertise With Us Sign up free now Sign in Gaming Entertainment TV & Movies Esports Tech Connect With Us More Sports F1 F1 | All All News Features Events Opinion Interviews Lego LEGO unveils life-sized McLaren MP4/4 to celebrate F1 icon Ayrton Senna Marius Boonzaier Lego LEGO unveils life-sized McLaren MP4/4 to celebrate F1 icon Ayrton Senna Marius Boonzaier F1 F1 24 system requirements: Recommended & minimum PC specs Rishov Mukherjee F1 F1 24 is removing its predecessors’ most controversial feature Kurt Perry F1 Chinese Grand Prix: How to watch, start time, TV channel, sprint race & more Matt Hobkinson F1 Christian Horner’s Sergio Perez comments will be uncomfortable for Ferrari & Carlos Sainz Matt Hobkinson Articles F1 Who is Helmut Marko? The controversial Red Bull chief and Max Verstappen ally Matt Hobkinson F1 Will Williams have two cars at the Japanese Grand Prix after Logan Sargeant crash? Matt Hobkinson F1 F1 fans go wild over Pokemon themed Ferrari post at Japanese Grand Prix Matt Hobkinson F1 Will Sebastian Vettel return to F1? Lewis Hamilton hails “amazing” Mercedes option Matt Hobkinson F1 Alex Albon reveals grandma’s “favorite driver” in hilarious viral post Matt Hobkinson F1 Why did Nico Rosberg retire? Will he ever return to F1? Matt Hobkinson F1 F1 champion claims Mercedes want Red Bull revenge in Max Verstappen deal Matt Hobkinson F1 F1 champion claims Red Bull don’t need Max Verstappen Matt Hobkinson F1 Japanese Grand Prix: How to watch, start time, TV channel & more Matt Hobkinson F1 Max Verstappen warned over “stupid” Mercedes move amid Red Bull exit rumors Matt Hobkinson 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 View Archive

Australian Grand Prix: How to watch, start time, TV channel & more Associated PressFormula 1 goes Down Under this weekend as the 20 drivers gear up for the Australian Grand Prix at the iconic Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne. Max Verstappen will be looking to make it three successive wins, after the Dutchman picked up where he left off last season with victories in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The 26-year-old led home another Red Bull 1-2, with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc rounding off the podium positions. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, had a race to forget after he finished down in ninth. The seven-time world champion came home ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who Williams F1 star Alex Albon believed was the beneficiary of a gaping flaw in the sport’s approach to in-race penalties. Here is all you need to know ahead of lights out in Australia. When is the Australian Grand Prix? The race gets under way on Sunday, March 24 at 4am GMT, 12am ET and 9pm PT (Saturday, March, 23). What time is qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix? Qualifying for the race takes place on Saturday, March 24 at 5am GMT, 1am ET and 10pm PT (Friday, March, 22). How can I watch the Australian Grand Prix on TV? Viewers in the UK can watch the race live on Sky Sports, while those in the US can catch the action on ESPN. Who is the reigning F1 champion? Max Verstappen topped the drivers’ standings for Red Bull last year – his third title in a row.

Zikz announced as 100 Thieves Valorant Head Coach after Evil Geniuses departure Twitter: ZikzlolFormer Evil Geniuses assistant coach Tony ‘Zikz’ Gray has signed on to become 100 Thieves’ Valorant Head Coach for the VCT 2024 season. After coaching CLG in League of Legends, leading the organization to back-to-back LCS championships in 2015 and 2016, followed by a stint at both TSM and 100 Thieves, Tony ‘Zikz’ Gray jumped ship to Valorant in 2022. Considered to be one of the best strategic minds when it came to League of Legends, the championship-winning coach joined Evil Geniuses as their assistant coach. Since then, the organization has taken the Valorant world by storm, becoming the first North American roster to win a Valorant World Championship — defeating Paper Rex 3–1 in the Valorant Champions 2023 finals in Los Angeles. On September 8, Zikz announced on Twtter/X that he would be departing Evil Geniuses, and is looking to continue his journey and win another championship. “Super thankful to have worked with this amazing group at EvilGeniuses,” he wrote. “There are countless memories that I will never forget for as long as I live.” He added: “Love all of you and wish the best for you guys, but now I am onto my next journey to win another one.” Zikz joins 100 Thieves as its Valorant head coach Keen to get another trophy under his belt, it appears Zikz will be returning to complete the heist for 100 Thieves. The 30-year-old has signed on to rejoin the organization as their new head coach in Valorant, as first reported by Blix.gg. While unable to secure 100 Thieves a trophy in League of Legends, Zikz will be aiming to bring home a championship in Valorant. The announcement also specified that Michael ‘Mikes’ Hockom will move down to the assistant coach position after spending last season as the sole coach of the team. 100 Thieves has not yet revealed its full roster for the 2024 VCT season and still needs to fill one spot to field a complete roster. The team released Brenden ‘stellar’ McGrath and Derrek ‘Derrek’ Ha early on in the off-season and have not yet announced their replacements.

YouTube’s head of gaming makes bold prediction about esports YouTube’s head of gaming, Ryan ‘Fwiz’ Wyatt, made a predictive statement about the future of competitive gaming in an interview with OpTic CEO Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez. Fwiz discussed the growth rate of esports as compared to gaming overall, and felt that esports would eventually surpass viewership of traditional sports. Read More: Laid-off Telltale Games employee reveals shocking situation following termination meeting – “I think over the next ten years, esports is gonna be massive,” he stated. “I think the next generation of kids are going to primarily watch esports over traditional sports.” He felt that esports’ current growth, which is slim compared to gaming overall, would only last for the ‘short-term,’ and was interested in investing in it for the long-haul. “I’m hopeful, and I’m big on esports long-term.” However, Fwiz felt that esports had a few things to work on before it could reach the growth he predicted. He felt that esports could benefit from turning top players into celebrities, as well as making wide appeals to the general gaming audience. “I think, in order for people to be really interested in tuning into the live broadcasts, the human-interest pieces – making celebrities out of esports – is a really big thing,” he stated. “…we basically need, like, ten more Ninjas.” H3CZ agreed with this sentiment, citing the success of both Nadeshot and OpTic Gaming’s players after they began creating content outside of their esports careers. Fwiz’s statements were part of the very first Eavesdrop Podcast, hosted by H3CZ. The podcast will also feature Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar in its second episode.

ZETA DIVISION remove Valorant player flappy over “inappropriate behavior” ZETA DIVISIONJapanese esports giants ZETA DIVISION have announced that transgender Valorant player ‘flappy’ has been removed from their Game Changers division. The decision comes after an internal investigation into flappy’s past behavior revealed that the player had been involved in “inappropriate behavior” prior to joining the team. ZETA DIVISION concluded that flappy had “violated community ethics, such as smurfing,” and engaged in actions that “violate moral principles.” The latter includes “racism and other forms of socially unethical behavior,” “trolling,” and account sharing. “In light of the above, it appears that flappy’s involvement in these acts was habitual, and in light of the degree and type of involvement, we have determined that the maliciousness of the acts was high,” a statement read. “ZETA DIVISION takes this matter very seriously.” The Japanese organization expressed their “deepest apologies” for this matter, which has “caused great concern to our fans and other parties, and has undermined trust in ZETA DIVISION.” They also vowed to improve the scope of their investigations into the past conduct and friendships of prospective new players and content creators. flappy joined ZETA DIVISION on July 27 as part of the organization’s Game Changers division. Days later, a Japanese gossip account verified on Twitter questioned flappy’s gender, prompting ZETA DIVISION to say that flappy “is a transgender woman who has been going to the hospital and taking hormones.” ZETA DIVISION explained that they did not disclose this information at first to protect the player, who is also a minor. This is not the first time that ZETA DIVISION have taken disciplinary action against a player for inappropriate behavior. In December 2021, they suspended Shogo ‘takej’ Takemori, who at the time played for their men’s Valorant team, for three months for boosting another player’s account. As a result of the investigation and flappy’s removal from the team, ZETA DIVISION have announced that their women’s team have withdrawn from VCT Game Changers Japan. Reignite Lily will take the vacant spot in the four-team tournament.

xQc claims politics should be left out of esports after Virtus.pro Dota 2 ban Twitch: xQcxQc claimed political statements have no place in esports after Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 team was disqualified from a tournament due to a player allegedly drawing a Russian pro-war symbol. On April 29, Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 roster was disqualified from a tournament after one of their players, Ivan ‘Pure’ Moskalenko, allegedly drew a Russian pro-war symbol on the mini-map while the game was paused. xQc was shocked to learn about the situation. Watching the events unfold on stream left him stunned, mainly because the team Virtus.pro were playing against had two Ukrainian players on the team. It didn’t sit well with him. Когда пытаешься весь интернет наебать что вышло случайно. Жаль ты тварь намеренно все дорисовывал. pic.twitter.com/JPpfqiS1GD — Виктор Волков (@KoTHunt) April 29, 2022 However, he was also surprised the entire team was disqualified because of one player’s actions. After thinking about it a little more, he concluded that political issues should be left out of esports. “I think overall, it doesn’t matter what it is, anything political in the middle of a tournament game… it’s just f**king yikes. “I don’t give a f**k about what side it’s for or what it is. I don’t care what it is. Politics in video games [makes me think] why?” he added, reiterating his belief that there’s no place for them given the sensitivity of these issues. xQc didn’t condone the behavior by any means, nor did he specifically say the punishment wasn’t justified. He believes that all political issues shouldn’t be mentioned during a tournament, including this one. Not everyone will agree with the take. In fact, people who follow regular sports have the same debate going on too. However, it’s clear where xQc stands in that conversation, at least when it comes to esports.

XSET CEO on the failing of FaZe Clan and his org’s plan to surpass them XSETThe CEO of XSET and former President of FaZe Clan, Greg Selkoe, sat down with Dexerto to discuss what he believes to be the failings of FaZe, and how that has impacted the esports industry and his organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Greg Selkoe started XSET in 2020 after spending over two years with FaZe Clan as the president of the company. The competing professional gaming organization and lifestyle brand launched with a commitment to inclusivity in contrast to the fratty nature of FaZe. In the almost three years since, XSET has expanded its operations, including buying up other brands and creating activations across North America, as the company continues on a path toward profitability. In that time, FaZe Clan has remained one of the leading esports organizations in terms of popularity and competitive achievements. But after going public in 2022, FaZe is now also seen as an illustration of the current state of the esports industry as the company’s stock continues to trade well below $1 and its critical financial situation is continually showcased in public filings. Selkoe told Dexerto that the current iteration of FaZe is something that other esports companies, including his own, should learn from. “We have to be better,” Selkoe said. One of the key lessons that Selkoe took to XSET from FaZe specifically is to instil a culture of collaboration. “There were a lot of problems within the culture at FaZe. It was always a zero sum game where if someone in the company won, there was someone else mad in the company, there was a lot of fiefdoms and fighting, so first thing we’re like, whatever we do, it’s got to have a good internal culture,” he said. The XSET head also said hiring non-endemic people, or people from adjacent industries that couldn’t handle the learning curve that accompanies a gaming and lifestyle company, is something that FaZe has been guilty of after his exit. With FaZe’s financials now available to the public, fans and executives can see the kind of cash the company has had to burn through in the past year. According to Selkoe, not many organizations, if any, have that kind of capital or are able to burn through it this fast. FaZe posted a $53.2 million net loss for 2022 despite a 32% revenue increase year-over-year to $70 million. “When things get a little challenging, and you have to kind of peel back the covers, you have to have a real business built and I think FaZe didn’t have a plan, didn’t have a direction, and they just spent an incredible amount of money,” Selkoe said. How to survive the esports winter XSET closed its Series A funding round in July 2022 and is currently raising its second round. The CEO said investors do bring up FaZe Clan during meetings as esports has become a cold investment recently. However, he uses it as a jumping off point for a conversation around sustainability in the industry “We believe you don’t have to trade growth and marketing for huge losses. So, we’ve tried to raise what we think is actually the minimum we need to continue to prove the model. And is that impacted by what’s going on out there? Probably,” Selkoe said. “We have to be doubly clear that we understand that every penny we spend has got to go towards building a long-term sustainable business.” One aspect of the business that is not supposed to be profitable for XSET is its esports division. Selkoe explained he hopes the esports vertical can get close to breaking even, as he doesn’t have the “magic bullet” to make competitive gaming profitable. This is in line with XSET letting its co-founder Macro Mereu take some of its more expensive esports teams with him as he started his own organization, M80. The former FaZe executive said he wants XSET to be a part of the gaming culture and esports is one slice of the pie, not the whole thing. “We want to be in esports,” the XSET executive said. “But to the extent that esports is part of lifestyle, and if you have 15 esports teams it costs a lot of damn money. So I think we want to do it in a measured way, in a way that works with our brand.” XSET competed in as many as 12 different esports titles in 2022 at its peak investment into competitive gaming. The company signed players in Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite and Madden alongside fielding teams in Rocket League, Rainbow Six: Siege and Valorant. The organization also put significant resources into Valorant, fielding a Game Changers and VCT roster, and crafted a roster that saw international competition with its VCT team qualifying for Masters Copenhagen and placing in the top six at Valorant Champions 2022. The organization was also in the running to join VCT Americas, the Riot Games partnered league, and if it made the cut would have had revenue sharing opportunities in the game. XSET also saw international success in other titles as its Rainbow Six team made top four at the 2022 Berlin Major and the Rocket League squad made an appearance at the 2021 Spring North American Major. Since Mereu’s exit, XSET has cut down its esports division significantly with its current lineup consisting of Apex Legends, Valorant Game Changers and NBA 2K teams along with a smattering of players in fighting games, iRacing and Warzone. Clinton Sparks, the company’s co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer, stepped down also from his executive role recently. “We thank Clinton for his service as both Co-founder and Business Development Officer at XSET. His contributions were significant in building the company and are appreciated,” a public relations representative from the company said. Building a cultural movement with XSET Selkoe used the sneaker company Vans and its stature in the skateboarding community and culture as an example of how XSET wants to position itself in the gaming industry. On top of having a diverse background of executives, creators and investors, XSET also has a broad reach in gaming as a whole. “The kind of stuff that we’re developing is gaming, it’s in the DNA, but we’re really trying to build something. Even if you’re not into gaming, you can buy the merch and be into it,” he said. The organization recently signed on Web3 content creator Bryce ‘Brycent’ Johnson in an authentic attempt to engage with the crypto and NFT community. “We’re not selling NFTs, we’re not doing a shit coin where we rip off our customers. But there is value in Web3, in the blockchain, and so we’re not going to be afraid to try some stuff with someone like Bryson, who’s super authentic. Like, just a great dude. And, again, we’re not going to be dictated to on what are the things that you can do as a gaming org, or an esports organization or a youth gaming related media brand. All that stuff is great, but we’re gonna just do what we do,” Selkoe said. The XSET CEO said he isn’t rooting against FaZe, or any other company in the industry, to fail. But he’s not worried about what the competition is doing as he tries to position XSET as the place to engage with the gaming culture. “I think the rumors of the industry’s demise are greatly exaggerated,” Selkoe said. “It’s just going to change.”

xQc lays out plans to “revolutionize” esports & it involves lots of betting Twitch: xQcxQc has claimed he can “revolutionize” esports if given the chance, and his grand scheme involves a lot of co-streaming and easy access to betting. Although most may know him as the streaming juggernaut, before that, xQc was a professional gamer. He was most notably part of the first Dallas Fuel roster in the Overwatch League and was considered one of the best Western main tanks at the time. Of course, nowadays, we know him as xQc the streamer, but in his lengthy career in front of the camera, he hasn’t shunned esports, be it co-streaming CS2 Majors or even considering buying a Valorant team in 2023. Now, when asked how he’d go about furthering the esports industry, xQc had quite the plan laid out. During a Q&A stream on September 8, xQc was asked several questions about esports, with a viewer curious what he’d do to help the industry. xQc was quick to answer, “I’ve literally said the industry is struggling… even before the Overwatch League days it was struggling.” His suggestion on how to fix the industry is through “watch parties, [co-streaming], and through possible live betting with live viewing… Some of these things are at the core, some of the most social things that we as humans do.” Although xQc was quick to acknowledge that the gambling aspect of his pitch was “degen”, the streamer likened it to the digital version of going to a sports bar and watching football with friends. However, this time, it’s routed through streamers and personalities. He said that although the industry has already opened up co-streams in recent years, xQc felt it was moving at a “turtle pace” and needed to have done so faster. “That is the biggest block that would loosen up that tight financial hold there is in esports. I could revolutionize if I was at the helm, but then I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff that I don’t understand as an outsider.”

xQc doesn’t think it’s burnout that makes professional esports players quit Blizzard EntertainmentBurnout in esports athletes, according to former Dallas Fuel player Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, isn’t caused by mental strain or a tough practice schedule, but a failure to adapt. The conversation started when Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise, tweeted about the seemingly high rate of burnout in esports players in their 20s. After Nate Nanzer, Commissioner of the Overwatch League responded, the conversation naturally switched to burnout in Overwatch more specifically. In response to esports reporter Kevin Hitt, who claimed Overwatch League Team’s intense practice schedules could be to blame for player burnout, xQc said he didn’t think mental strain was to blame. The core issue is that the games change. With each change every team has to practice as a unit and consider every permutation. That requires intense practices and a lot of time . It’s the main reason I wouldn’t buy a LOL team . Support is great. But doesn’t change the issue — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) December 28, 2018 “I don’t know where these numbers come from,” Felix told Hitt, who said players often practice 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week. “Teams (almost all of them) practice 3 blocks of 2 hours. Vod reviews and & stuff aren’t as mentally straining, but even when compiled it doesn’t come close to that.” Instead, xQc claimed that “Players don’t last long because they fail to adapt” to changes in the game. I don’t know where these numbers come from, teams (almost all of them) practice 3 blocks of 2 hours. Vod reviews and & stuff aren’t as mentally straining, but even when compiled it doesn’t come close to that. Players don’t last long because they fail to adapt — xQc (@xQc) December 28, 2018 If anyone would know about Overwatch burnout, it’s xQc, who played for the Dallas Fuel before being released during Stage Two of the league’s first season for repeated controversies, even after that, he was still one of the game’s most prolific streamers on Twitch. There was one team, the Shanghai Dragons, who reportedly practiced 12 hours a day, six days a week during Season One, but the team parted ways with the head and assistant coaches shortly after the season was over. Burnout is an important topic in esports, especially the Overwatch League, and some teams, like the Seoul Dynasty, have made player mental health a top priority headed into Season Two.

11 worst esports rebrands: Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, more NorthOne of the most important aspects of a business is its brand, consumers and customers need something to connect to and remember. This is perhaps even more important when it comes to sports and esports, with teams looking to stand out and garner the support of fans. Esports was birthed early on in the internet’s lifespan and design standards evolve rapidly so, naturally, many esports organizations are updating their branding and ethos to ensure they’re putting their best foot forward and giving themselves the optimum chance to connect with potential fans. This was even more prevalent in 2020 than years prior, with over a dozen prominent brands in the industry being updated with varied success. While it may take a while for dedicated fans and industry figures to acclimate to a new identity after growing familiar with an old brand over years, some updates simply missed the mark. To keep track of the less successful attempts, I’ve compiled a list of the brand refreshes we’re not too hot on. Who do you think will take the top spot as my worst esports rebrand? The 11 worst esports rebrands 11. FunPlus Phoenix “The vision we want to share is the spirit of Faith, Passion, and Xpossibility,” the organization told fans when it revealed its new logo. What is Xpossibility? It’s the sound of a group of desperate executives reaching to try and make their company’s name mean something. Choosing to forego a name that’s become a staple in the industry, especially after their victory at the League of Legends World Championship 2019, FunPlus Phoenix decided to adopt the acronym of FPX. The logo is arguably an improvement, but now going by what could seem like a random selection of letters won’t be too effective when it comes to being memorable unless you already knew of the brand prior to the renovation. Good work, PFX, XPF, FPX. 10. DAMWON Gaming What do you do when you cement your brand in the history of the biggest esport to ever exist? You sell your soul to a corporate entity, of course. There was presumably plenty of commercial interest in the org after they won the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, including from automotive giants KIA. Not happy just selling a spot on the jerseys, DAMWON decided to ditch their new-found legacy by changing their name to DWG KIA. I’ve seen a similar result from my cat walking across my keyboard. 9. Panda Global When trying to create a brand that creates an impression, it makes sense to create a name that didn’t exist before. You’ll occasionally see bold entrepreneurs attempt to hijack a name and make it their own, and that’s what Panda Global have done. Now known as simply Panda, they’ve chosen to be represented by an animal that’s known to be slow, lazy, and clumsy. Fittingly, that last characteristic is exactly how we’d describe this change. You’ll never be able to make people think of your organization over the adorable animal when they see the name ‘Panda,’ so this rebrand seems like a huge misstep. At least they know what animal will be their mascot if esports ever follows in the footsteps of traditional sports. 8. NRG One of the worst-received logo changes to date is undoubtedly that of NRG. It was a bold move considering the organization was starting to become a leading brand in North America, and it fell as flat as the new logo looked. The icing on the cake for the redesign was that NRG misspelt “unapologetic” on the sleeve of their new merchandise, ironically resulting in another reason that the team should have apologised to their loyal fans. 7. EXCEL ESPORTS If you have to release a video to explain how the hell your new logo makes any sense in relation to your overall brand, then you’ve probably made a bad decision. EXCEL ESPORTS revealed a refreshed identity (pictured, middle) as they became one of 10 teams in Riot Games’ LEC and it simply neglected the obvious opportunities that are available with their ‘XL’ identity. I should have put together a PowerPoint for Excel to explain why this was a bad idea, it may have given them a different Outlook and caused them to have a Word with the designer behind the concept. They’ve since updated their logo once again (pictured, right) and it’s much better, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean I’ll soon forget what once was. 6. CR4ZY Valiance & Co decided to change their entire brand and, seemingly inspired by the mental state of the branding ‘expert’ they consulted, they landed on CR4ZY. I’m used to seeing players have interesting in-game names combining random words with numbers in esports, but a professional organization that wants to be taken seriously? It definitely requires valiance to think this was a good move. 5. Dignitas Dignitas have been around for almost two decades, it’s a name that’s been around for as long as esports has received investment and interest from the outside world. Ditching their iconic logo in October 2018, their new owners Philadelphia 76ers decided that the team was best represented by an… owl? (Pictured, middle). Inspired by the owl logo (which was recently changed, thankfully, as seen on the right of the above image) I have one question for those who made the decision: hoo the hell are you and why are you in a position of power? 4. Evil Geniuses When Evil Geniuses was taken over by investment firm PEAK6, I had no idea that they would take the name seriously. EG had what was possibly the most iconic logo in the entirety of esports but the new owners felt they had to make a statement. The evilest plan was disposing of the iconic crest altogether in favor of a poor font choice with no discernible identity (pictured, middle). The fan response made the organization seem more like Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil than James Bond’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld, however. They’ve since changed again (pictured, right), adapting the original crest and restoring some sort of faith in those behind the company. 3. HellRaisers Nothing has made an entire industry raise their eyebrows quite like HellRaisers’ new logo. Moving away from their demonic emblem is an inspired choice, especially considering the apt name of the organization. I’m not sure what the new logo is supposed to represent and it appears those behind the change aren’t willing to try and explain it. Let’s not forget that, in their announcement, they said that they had been around for 10 years despite the organization being launched in 2014. When it comes to what HellRaisers are smoking, your guess is as good as mine. 2. North It’s hard for me to sum up the hilarious rebrand that North undertook better than what Dexerto’s own Richard Lewis did at the time of the announcement. “Not all dragons are equal,” he wrote. “I was thinking Nidhogg. They’ve gone for Puff. Inexplicably toothy, goofy and about as intimidating as a chicken korma, maybe it’s actually an appropriate logo given how the Counter-Strike team has performed lately.” In a press release explaining the organizational changes, the org explained that they wanted to “create a ‘why’ to follow North, not just by doing what everyone else is doing.” If you want to support a team which is represented by a dragon that’s prone to forget how to fly mid-flight and can never find the glasses on top of its head, they did their job perfectly with this rebrand. 1. Black Devils The rebrand from Team Kinguin to Black Devils was so short-lived that a normal logo file doesn’t exist anywhere on the internet for the ill-informed brand, I’ve had to use a promotional image from their announcement. I actually spoke to Kinguin’s CEO Viktor Wanli about the rebrand at the time and he assured that they didn’t mean to upset anybody. The naming was inspired by the heritage and history of Poland, as an armoured division of the Polish army had a nickname of the ‘black devils.’ They wanted to keep the ‘devils’ aspect of the name without invoking any racial connotations and these devils.one was birthed, but Black Devils definitely left a bad taste in the industry’s mouth. That’s the danger of a non-English speaking organization choosing a name in English, but it’s shocking all the same. The status of rebrands in 2021 2021 doesn’t appear to be slowing down in the rebrand department and it’s off to a good start. The likes of Korean League of Legends competition LCK, North America’s premier LoL league LCS, LEC team Rogue, and Dignitas have all made changes to their visual identities. Keep an eye on Dexerto throughout the year to stay on top of the latest changes as esports continues to evolve and adapt!

Misfits launches Women of Misfits to mentor and advocate for women in gaming MisfitsEsports organization Misfits Gaming have announced Women of Misfits, a platform led by their female executives to “inspire female gamers.” Misfits Gaming are launching the platform in an effort to provide mentorship, networking opportunities, and advocacy to women in gaming and esports. They are looking to create a space where women can discuss ideas and “be inspired by influential women both inside and outside of the organization.” The platform will be led by executives within the ownership group of Misfits Gaming, Call of Duty franchise Florida Mutineers, and Overwatch franchise Florida Mayhem. Chief revenue officer Lagen Nash, vice president of communications Becca Henry, and co-founder Laurie Silvers are among those involved. The Women of Misfits platform includes a monthly series of talks that will live on YouTube. The first speaker line-up includes tennis veteran Chris Evert, comedian and YouTuber GloZell Green, baseball coach Bianca Smith, and four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero, and Born This Way Foundation executive director Maya Enista Smith. Read More: How Envy will expand with $40m investment – Women at Misfits Gaming Group will be paired with mentors in the organization for guidance and career advice as part of the mentorship pillar in the program. The platform will provide network opportunities between women at the company and others to “share experiences, collaborate on ideas, and build support groups.” Advocacy is said to be another pillar, with the aforementioned executives not only supporting those internally at the organization but also those in the wider gaming and esports industries. Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Our group of misfits has grown into a huge family with women working across all departments, and 50% of our leadership team consisting of women. We wouldn’t be where we are without our powerful women, and we remember that every day! pic.twitter.com/iapLtUbudO — Misfits Gaming (@MisfitsGG) March 8, 2021 “I am truly inspired and amazed with our women at MGG and their many accomplishments and eager to watch this platform ascend,” said Misfits CEO Ben Spoont. “The determination and dedication to push one another to break the boundaries as women within the esports industry is remarkable, and I am confident this platform will resonate not only within MGG, but also within our wider community.”

G2 vs SKT at LoL Worlds beats Fortnite WC as most-viewed esports match An absolutely classic series between European favorites G2 Esports and Korean juggernauts SK Telecom T1 was one for the ages, as the semifinal series at League of Legends Worlds 2019 crushed the Fortnite World Cup in match viewership records. It wouldn’t be Worlds if some world records weren’t broken. At the semifinals for Worlds 2019 in Madrid, Spain, the hometown European squad from G2 took on the LoL god himself ‘Faker’ and the SK Telecom T1 roster. According to the numbers from Esports Charts, this match between the two teams has shattered the record for the highest peak concurrent viewers in any esports match not including China, coming up just short of 4 million concurrent viewers across the YouTube and Twitch platforms. Despite coming up just short of the 4 million mark, the G2 Esports vs SKT semifinal absolutely crushed the previous record set by the Fortnite World Cup this past summer, when the final rounds of the Solo competition hit a peak of around 2.3 million viewers. Sentinels’ player Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf ended up winning the solo World Cup. The 2019 iteration of the League of Legends World Championships has set another record as well, with the most hours watched across an entire esports tournament. With still the grand finals still yet to be played, the event is sitting on a whopping 125 million hours watched, with the second closest being this year’s Dota 2 International, with over 88 million hours watched. For additional context, the two CSGO majors for 2019 hit 53 million hours watched and 45 million hours watched. The pre-mentioned Fortnite World Cup Finals hit 22 million hours watched. This year’s LoL Worlds event actually already had a match break the peak viewer record, when SK Telecom T1 faced Splyce in the quarterfinals, their peak went over 2.5 million viewers. Other matches in the playoffs like G2 vs DAMWON and Invictus vs FunPlus Phoenix eclipsed two million viewers as well. But G2 Esports and SK Telecom T1 absolutely trounced all the other matches from this year’s Worlds with its viewership performance. Not very surprising though if you consider the formula. Two incredibly talented and popular teams from two huge markets. The semifinals of what is now the most-viewed single esports event ever in terms of total hours watched. And with its European location and start time, it was at a time that was reasonably watchable for all of the game’s major markets, especially the two with teams representing them. G2 ended up winning the series itself, to the delight of the European crowd. They will now face FunPlus Phoenix in the grand finals on November 10, in Paris, France.

Wiz Khalifa reveals partnership with Pittsburgh-based esports team Wiz Khalifa – Instagram / Pittsburgh KnightsRapper Wiz Khalifa announced his partnership with the Pittsburgh Knights, an esports organization based out of home area where he’ll be on as a strategic partner. The Pittsburgh area rapper revealed he would be partnering with the Pittsburgh Knights in an attempt to keep the esports community growing more than it already is. This news was revealed in an exclusive by Forbes and Wiz touched a bit more on what his role would be with the team in an interview. Knights x @WizKhalifa A business and entertainment partnership as only #Pittsburgh can do it. Exclusive launch tee: https://t.co/aO68lO7XjZ pic.twitter.com/P2niFKp634 — Pittsburgh Knights (@KnightsGG) July 19, 2019 At the moment, it seems very up in the air as Knights president James O’Connor said they are happy to have him join. “He’s always ahead of the curve; he’s creative and savvy and we admire him and his team for their work ethic,” he said. “We’re really happy to welcome him into the Knights’ family.” With Wiz Khalifa being a music maker, there is always a chance he could create an exclusive theme song for the team, something he touched upon in an interview with Forbes. “I’m always hands-on with my partnerships and my team will be an extension of the Knights,” he told Forbes. “I’m going to be there supporting however I can. I’m a work on the song in time as well.” Blessed to partner with @TaylorGang – Bringing #Pittsburgh together, Thanks Will https://t.co/4peItsMsPD — James O’Connor (@jamesoconnor) July 19, 2019 One of Wiz’s first big hits was ‘Black and Yellow’ which are the colors of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have the Knights under their wing. One of his dreams was to partner with the NFL team in some way and this gave him the option to do so while also doing what he loves. “Growing up thinking about this wasn’t even imaginable,” he said. “We are taking the Knights brand and esports to the next level.” Currently, the Knights field a team in Smite, Paladins, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Madden, Super Smash Bros., and Gwent. The future looks bright for the organization if they’re able to keep picking up big names like this. In the meantime, we’ll just have to wait and see what Wiz has in store for a potential theme song.

Women in Esports: Sjokz, Frankie & more break down the challenges & goals Flickr: Mobilus In Mobili/Erin Ashley Simon/Riot Games/IEM/MissMarieAs 2021 draws to a close, Dexerto spoke to several women around the esports industry to hear about their experiences from the year. In October 2021, a post appeared on the League of Legends subreddit that boldly asked the question: ‘why are there no female League of Legends pro players?’ The replies to this and other posts on the topic are eerily emblematic of the challenges women still face in esports, and gaming more widely. On one hand, there was the creation of Valorant Game Changers, an all-women pro circuit for Riot’s FPS. On the other, the announcement of a $500,000 CS:GO women’s circuit run by ESL as part of its #GGForAll initiative has sparked a heated debate about whether or not separating tournaments by gender is doing a disservice to women in esports. in 2008 there was literally a world of warcraft team named “”gonna rape hafu at regionals”” that qualified for blizzcon regionals no i’m not surprised at the news — Hafu (@itshafu) July 28, 2021 All this begs the question: when it comes to esports, how do women currently in the industry feel about the state of affairs as 2021 draws to a close? Dexerto spoke to five women – Rainbow Six Siege player and content creator Marieke ‘MissMarie’ Denise, broadcaster and host Frankie Ward, two-time Valorant Game Changers champion Mathilde ‘Nelo’ Bartoise, host and esports personality Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere, and broadcaster and esports org owner Erin Ashley Simon. They shared their thoughts on the past year, and what still needs to change in esports. Contents Nelo – Valorant Game Changers champion – Sjokz – Broadcaster and Host – MissMarie – Rainbow 6 Pro, Content Creator – Frankie Ward – Broadcaster & Host – Erin Ashley Simon – Broadcaster, Host, XSET co-owner – Mathilde ‘Nelo’ Bartoise – Valorant Game Changers champion Nelo dominated the early stages of the EMEA edition of Valorant Game Changers, the all-women pro circuit for Riot’s FPS title. Having taken home the first two EMEA Game Changers titles, Nelo gave her insight into how Game Changers has helped women’s esports and the importance of creating safe spaces for women in gaming. When Valorant Game Changers began in March 2021, it was a North America-only event. The NA region ran three Game Changers events, and six Academy events, over the course of the year. The format was brought to the EMEA region in September, with the first series in the region starting on September 27. On October 3, TENSTAR Nova were crowned the first EMEA Game Changers champions after beating Rix.GG Lightning 3-1 in the grand final. Nelo, the MVP of the title decider, could hardly contain herself when the team put the series to bed. That’s how it feels to be the Champions. 👑 @ClaCSGO | @Bully_Nelo | @_Lirilia | @Sliicyy_ | @Ninouu97 | @Twenee1_cs 👑#RISINGSTARS pic.twitter.com/Rlx1Lh3KCy — TENSTAR (@TENSTARGG) October 3, 2021 “I was in shock,” she said. “It was the first-ever trophy I had won, and I had won on it such a big stage. I just couldn’t believe it.” What was more, her journey with Tenstar Nova had seen her defeat The Originals, a team that included Juliano, Petra, zAAz, and other big-name players, “It was so surreal,” Nelo explained. “These women who I looked up, who had inspired to me try Valorant professionally, I was playing against them. It didn’t feel real when we beat them.” But TENSTAR Nova weren’t finished. In the second EMEA Series in October, which now featured a double-elimination format, they lost to The Originals, who were now playing as G2 Gozen. TENSTAR would bounce back and beat G2 to reach the final, in they successfully defended their title, this time beating Oxxgen Esports. “Series 2 was so much harder,” Nelo said. “We lost and had to go through the loser’s bracket. And to face G2 twice was very difficult. So the second win felt even better than the first, because we had to do so much more to earn it.” In the third EMEA series of the year, TENSTAR would finish fourth as G2 finally got the better of them, and Oxygen Esports avenged their Series 2 Grand Final loss. However, overall, Game Changers has meant the world to Nelo. “It is very hard to get onto a team as a woman,” she said. “People do not like to recruit women for men’s teams so even if you are very good, teams might just not be interested in you. “But Game Changers is very good because it gives women the chance to play. I think some people do not know how good women can be at Valorant, and this is the chance to show them.” However, Game Changers’ transition to the EMEA region was not the smoothest. A proposal to make one of the events mixed-gender was met with strong backlash from the community. And Nelo agreed with the decision to keep the events for women only for the time being. “Women need a safe space to play and grow as players,” she explained. “I do not feel that would be the case if men were allowed to compete as well. Having women’s-only spaces in esports is a good thing as it gives women an opportunity that they do not often have.” Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere – Broadcaster and host Arguably the face of the LEC, Sjokz is one of the most recognizable figures in esports. She spoke to Dexerto about being the face of League, the women’s circuits for the game, and the dangers of gender-segregated events. Practically every League of Legends esports fan knows who Sjokz is. The former Riot-contracted broadcaster-turned-freelancer has been the face of the LEC and Worlds for several years. “I’ve been freelance for a couple of years now,” Sjokz said, “but it’s only recently that I’ve really felt the freedom of it. Everyone knows me for League but being freelance allows me to explore other avenues. I love Counter-Strike, and I would really love to do more with that in 2022. But for example, people ask me if I was ‘taken off the desk’ for Worlds this year. I asked to leave the desk this year. I wanted to be on the ground in Iceland, doing interviews and things like that. I know that interviews are a much smaller part of the broadcast but it’s what I wanted to do.” She admitted that her heavy association with League impacted her enjoyment of her Esports Host of the Year award at the recent Esports Awards. “Obviously I am very touched and very grateful to win and win back-to-back as well,” Sjokz said. “But I don’t know, I guess I don’t feel like I deserved it as much this year? I thought to myself, ‘I’ve really [only] done League this year’. It’s not like last year when I was doing all these other things.” Despite this, receiving the award has inspired Sjokz to take matters into her own hands, “I don’t think back-to-back-to-back is very likely,” she said with a laugh. “But at the same time, I want to work with the people who are trying to break into the industry and the people who don’t get nominated for these awards. I want to use my position to help other people grow.” As part of the Worlds 2021 proceedings, Global Head of League of Legends Esports Naz Aletaha announced Riot was looking into bringing the Valorant Game Changers model to League of Legends. It’s a move that Sjokz is excited about. “I think it’s an absolutely fantastic idea,” she said. “I have to admit, I’ve been disappointed that I’ve not been able to do anything Game Changers because I would have loved to have been involved and given another woman’s perspective on it all. But I think bringing that model to League is a fantastic idea. We definitely need to see more opportunities to help women who play professionally. This year, I spent some time working with a women’s initiative in France but the more projects and opportunities that are out there, the better.” But Sjokz did hold some reservations about the idea. “The end goal shouldn’t be to have a women’s only League of Legends scene,” she said. “I don’t think that a women’s-only channel is what any esport should be striving for. But creating a women’s circuit is a great way to get these players noticed, and to get women’s League as a whole noticed too.” Marieke ‘MissMarie’ Denise – Rainbow 6 Pro and content creator MissMarie, a long-time Rainbow Six Siege pro player, joined player-centric org Delta Project in 2021 and spoke to Dexerto about the need for women’s esports to be taken more seriously, and the importance of giving women in the industry better exposure. MissMarie has been playing Rainbow Six Siege almost as long as the game has been out. Her professional career, which dates back to 2018, has seen her follow the usual pro path of jumping from team to team. In 2021, she joined Delta Project, a player-centric org founded by two-time Rainbow Six champion Fabian ‘Fabian’ Hällsten. Her biggest issue has often been finding opponents who are willing to take a women’s team seriously. “People they make assumptions when they find out they are scrimming a women’s team and so they don’t get it their full effort,” she explained. “We’re a serious, professional team and we are often unable to practice properly because people think, ‘oh they’re girls, they’re going to play badly.’” With Delta Project, MissMarie won the first season of Project Athena, a women’s league established by OPL and Rainbow Six caster Jess Bolden. With Delta Project working to create their own women’s tournament in 2022, MissMarie is hopeful that other organizers will follow suit. “I am really excited for a Delta Project tournament,” she said. “Because I am part of the creator project at Ubisoft, there are restrictions on the competitive events I can enter. But overall, there just needs to be more tournaments for women that take women’s teams seriously. “I hope we get another season from the CCS Women’s League and Project Athena. but I just want to be able to play in as many tournaments as possible. There are so many great women out there playing the game, they just need the opportunities to compete.” MissMarie also advocates for helping create spaces where women can be themselves. “I am completely myself when I stream because there’s no point in pretending to be something you aren’t,” MissMarie said. “There is a certain way that people think women in esports are meant to be but I hope I can show other women that they can be themselves too.” While a member of Delta Project’s women’s team, MissMarie’s primary focus is content creation. She streams on Twitch and also produces YouTube and TikTok content. That gives her a unique insight into how women’s creators are also treated when it comes to esports-related content. Twitch Rivals, the popular show match format, has invested heavily in Rainbow Six. And while women are frequently seen at the smaller Twitch Rivals Showdown events, just six women have participated in the six mainline Twitch Rivals events – and MissMarie would like to see the streaming giant do more to increase inclusivity at its bigger events. “I completely respect that captains at Twitch Rivals get to choose their team,” MissMarie said, “and I have nothing but love for the women who have played in those events before. But I feel that Twitch needs to do more. “They could reach out to smaller female creators in the scene and offer them the opportunity to play. Because I feel it works both ways. If you pick a big streamer, then lots of people will watch your event. But if you pick a smaller streamer, then lots of people will go watch their streams after the event. It’s just a win for everyone.” As for what needs to change with esports in general, MissMarie said that everything comes down to people. “Companies can do really great things like tournaments and supporting women,” she said, “but if people still view women as less, and don’t take women in esports seriously, nothing changes.” Frankie Ward – Broadcaster and host Frankie Ward is known to many for her work in the Counter-Strike scene, but 2021 saw her take on desk duties at The International 10, and the role of commentator for the reboot of 90s gaming show GamesMaster. Her conversation with Dexerto centered around how Valorant’s success has impacted CS:GO, facing abuse at TI, and being the female face of gaming television. The success of Valorant, and its women’s circuit, Valorant Game Changers, has had a knock-on effect within the FPS scene. “I think Game Changers is great, and it’s amazing to see these opportunities being afforded for women,” Frankie explained. “But because Riot has seen so much success with Game Changers, the women’s scene in CS:GO is dying as a result. There isn’t the same level of opportunity or developer support, so women are leaving for Valorant.” The exodus from CS:GO to Valorant is one that has been extensively reported on, but rarely with a focus on the women’s scene. In May 2021, Dignitas Female, one of the most prolific women’s teams in CS:GO, switched their focus to Valorant. Iconic European CS:GO talent like Julia ‘Juliano’ Kiran, Petra ‘Petra’ Stoker, and Zainab ‘zAAz’ Turkie, all left CS:GO for Valorant, and now play under the G2 brand. To Frankie, it’s clear why they are opting to switch. “Valve [developer of CS:GO] is just very hands-off when it comes to things like tournament organization,” she said. “Women’s tournaments especially are organized by external groups and increasingly, it’s just not a viable path for women. But Riot is the complete opposite – it simply presents better prospects.” While CS:GO is Frankie’s bread and butter, she also received the opportunity to serve on the broadcast team for The International 10, the end-of-season tournament in Dota 2. “I was so honored to be chosen for TI,” Frankie said. When the opportunity came around, she immediately began to learn the game, playing and streaming it consistently throughout 2021. [Editors note: A previous version misquoted that Frankie did not play Dota prior to TI – we apologize for the error.] But once there, she was hit with the ugly reality of being a front-facing woman in esports. “I wasn’t looking at Reddit during TI, mainly because I literally didn’t have the time to,” Frankie explained. “But then stuff started to come on my Twitter.” Frankie put some of the comments down to ignorance. “People on Reddit don’t know how much work goes into producing an event like TI,” she said. “We were working insane hours to ensure that we could provide the best experience for the fans. But beyond that, when people say I asked the wrong question, or demand to know why I am asking a certain question, it’s not like I’m just making up as I go along. I go through everything with the broadcast team beforehand but even then, when you’re on stage and you have someone in your ear telling you that they are cutting back to the desk in 10 seconds and you’re nowhere near done with the questions you had in mind, you ask the questions that are going to get great soundbites. That are going to give the most watchable answers. “No one on the broadcast team had an issue with the questions I asked or how I performed at the desk. It’s why I don’t take advice from Reddit.” But she also felt that more personal attacks she received were symptomatic of the attitudes people hold towards women in esports. In contrast, the response from the professional community was very positive. “Obviously I’m not saying that men in esports don’t get criticized,” she said. “They just get criticized in different ways. When people see a woman working in esports and take issue with that, the things they say are so much more personal. It’s not about the performance, it’s about them as a person. “When people, especially my male colleagues, started challenging people about what they were saying, that was really big to me. I think we’ve seen a lot of occasions where a woman in esports gets harassed online and people who could have spoken up didn’t. But a lot of big-name people were speaking out this time. “Richard Lewis did a whole video debunking all the ridiculous stuff people were saying. I didn’t watch the whole thing because it was like, 90 minutes long, but it was just crazy to me that here’s Richard Lewis talking about all these things Reddit is saying about me” But TI was not the only big new project for Frankie in 2021. She also joined the cast of GamesMaster, an E4 reboot of the iconic 90s gaming gameshow. “I was so excited when I heard about the casting call for GamesMaster,” Frankie said, “and when they told me they were going to cast me, it was because I had come with this really deep knowledge of esports. “While iconic, the original show didn’t have the best attitude towards women,” Frankie explained. “I felt that ‘women gamers’ was a little too much of a punchline and Zoe Ball was kind of treated like a joke. “So the fact that they are bringing me on and the attitude is just so different is really great. It feels like a show for 2021, that treats women in gaming just like anyone else” The attitude of the project is emblematic of what Frankie wants to see change in esports. “I think companies and organizers need to do more for women in esports,” Frankie said. “Riot has been really really great with Game Changers but that’s just one company. Take the drama about the PGL Major for example. Obviously, there was the whole thing on Twitter about the broadcast team not being diverse. “To their credit, they listened and they brought Freya [Spiers] in. And of course Freya absolutely killed it, but there’s no reason for her not to be on the team from the start. People always try to hit back with ‘who would you replace then’, and if they can add people to the team, then we don’t have to replace people. “Bringing women in doesn’t need to be this big showy gesture, it just needs to be a thing that happens from the outset.” Erin Ashley Simon – Broadcaster, host, part-owner of XSET Erin Ashley Simon is one of esports’ brightest stars, having taken on an ownership role at XSET alongside her work in streaming and broadcasting. She sat down with Dexerto to talk about women in leadership, the importance of diversity, gaming’s authenticity, and esports accountability. In November 2020, Erin Ashley Simon was revealed as one of the owners of XSET, an esports organization established by former FaZe Clan executives. “During the process of them getting everything together for the organization, I was tapped by Clinton Sparks, with whom I had a very solid friendship from his time at FaZe Clan. “And he was like, ‘We’re setting up this new esports org that’s centered around the core values of diversity and inclusion. We would love for you to be a part of this.’” With XSET launching in July 2020, Erin worked behind the scenes until her November reveal. It was an addition to a stacked résumé that includes a decade of media experience, name recognition across esports, and broadcasting roles at some of the biggest events in the industry. She recently had a scholarship launched in her name at her alma mater, the University of Kentucky, and continues to shine as one of the brightest personalities in esports. But taking on an ownership role was a whole new challenge for Erin and one that spoke to why more underrepresented communities need to be a voice at the leadership tables in esports. “To be honest, you cannot know the experiences of a marginalized community if you aren’t part of that community,” she said. “And if you want to learn about those communities, you have to go out and be part of them.” “Esports has been unwelcoming to so many underrepresented communities for a long time,” she said. “That means people from those communities aren’t going to come to you, you have to go to them.” However, diversity is often a topic mishandled by corporate entities. The ‘diversity win!’ meme speaks the often-seen corporate culture of favoring fleeting, photogenic diversity over meaningful change. It’s why Erin wants to see sincere, intersectional diversity in esports. “You get a lot of celebrities who try to jump on this esports and gaming trend but the thing is, those spaces are becoming so much more aware of authenticity,” she explained. “You won’t get anywhere if the audience doesn’t feel like you’re there because you actually enjoy the space.” Esports orgs who recognize this have seen great results in big-name signings. XSET signed Denver Broncos free safety and avid gamer Justin Simmons in November 2021. In January 2021, WNBA star Ariel Powers, who takes her Xbox to every road game, signed with Team Liquid. “There has been a ton of studies that all say the same thing – diversity increases profits,” Erin said. “If you are pushing back against diversity, you are literally hurting your business.” Away from the bigger picture, Erin also stressed the importance of women in the industry being themselves. “We are at our strongest, our most powerful, when we are true to ourselves,” she said. “Women especially get told all the time that there is a certain way for us to behave, look, be. But you can’t succeed until you accept who you are.” As for what still needs to change within esports, Erin was very clear. “This is my answer, and I’ve said it on Twitter, but men need to step up,” she explained. “It’s not just a woman’s problem. Men, especially white men, have to understand the privilege that they have and they need to be the ones to hold other men accountable, to tell them that what they are doing and what they are saying is wrong. We should not just lean on women, and especially not just lean on women of color, to fix the problem. “In order to fix the problem, it’s going to take a village. And that village requires men in the industry to step up, to speak up, and to do more. And I’m not saying all men, because there are men in the industry who do this and who are great allies. But we need more.”

Why VCT Stage 2 in North America has been so competitive Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesNorth American Valorant has had its ebbs and flows through its almost two years of competitive play, going from a region dominated by Sentinels to one where OpTic Gaming and other squads are vying for the crown. The region is far away from the beta period, when Sentinels and TSM won almost every major event, and now boasts a deep pool of teams in VCT Challengers events and tier-two tournaments. In VCT Stage 1 Challengers, Cloud9 and The Guard finished the group stage undefeated. Neither team made it to the playoffs in Stage 2, which saw three teams finish with a 4-1 record and four with a 3-2 record. When asked about the parity across teams in the region, pros that competed in VCT Stage 2 Challengers pointed to the rise of analysts, the new Chamber meta and the higher number of agents as reasons why Stage 2 has been so competitive. “I think that people are innovating,” 100 Thieves player William ‘Will’ Cheng said in an interview with Dexerto. “There are a lot more different comps, and a lot of that has to do with, I feel like, good coaching staff.” “I think that a lot of these teams picked up a good group of analysts and started throwing in less vanilla comps. Because at the beginning, when Sentinels was dominating, we were running comps that were really basic.” Coaches in Valorant are nothing new, with many teams having them since the beta period of the title. But the rise of teams employing the services of analysts that can theory craft new agent compositions and help scout other squads has been a newer phenomenon in the esport. New agents bring in more variety The reason that many of the early compositions in Valorant were basic was mainly because of the lack of diversity in agent picks. Teams competing in the beta period only had 10 agents to choose from. As the game has continued to evolve and more agents have come out, other teams have risen to prominence, according to NRG Esports IGL James ‘hazed’ Cobb. “With few agents to pick from early on, I think there was an established meta, and you play it because it is strong,” he explained. “There’s not a lot of creativity you can have, but every time a new agent comes out, it just gives you another opportunity to like reinvent the meta. And I think it will be like [League of Legends]: The longer it’s out, the more it’s like you’re playing to your team’s strength instead of what the strongest agent is.” One of those new agents added into the mix recently was Chamber. The Sentinel has been the object of much strife in the community as his kit seems a little overpowered, allowing him to take fights and instantly teleport to safety. This has opened up a spot on most rosters for a second carry of sorts outside of the usual entry player that plays primarily Duelists, or the flex player that switches between Duelists and Initiators. With the introduction of Chamber, and the new compositions and strategies that came with him, more teams started to improve, according to Ghost Gaming’s Marc-Andre ‘NiSMO’ Tayar. “I think a lot of teams worked hard and came up with some cool stuff that we hadn’t seen in the past,” NiSMO said. “But I do think the meta did change the results on the leaderboard, overall. Now you can see Chamber was played in, I think, 80% of the maps, and I think it’s just because you could take fights nonstop and just teleport away. Eighteen seconds later, you could teleport again.” His teammate Brock ‘brawk’ Somerhalder gave a similar statement about the agent, saying that teams can swing the momentum of the game in their favor easier thanks to his abilities. “I think it’s really momentum-based,” brawk said. “So any team can beat any team at like this level, honestly. It just depends on who’s playing better. But I do think Chamber is a character that has f***** with the meta.” But Chamber and other agents coming into the fold isn’t the only thing that can change the landscape of the region in an esport. As time goes on, more players and teams start to figure out the meta and break down the game as they start to challenge those at the top of the scene. That is what happened to TSM when VCT started in 2021, according to hazed. “People have just figured out the game.” hazed said. “It’s not really the way it used to be where there was just like a couple of top teams, and they kind of dominate the regions. People have caught up, they have figured it out, they are creating their own metas, they just understand the game better as a whole. So now you’re seeing a lot more teams kind of come up through the ranks and challenge. “So yeah, I think it has to do with the game being out for two years at this point as well.” Whether this will continue to happen through the Challengers playoffs and beyond has yet to be seen as OpTic Gaming are the current favorites to win and go to Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen. At least one new team will make their first trip to an international event as NRG, FaZe and XSET are also still in contention in the tournament.

Why do esports organizations keep rebranding? Experts weigh in ESL/FPX/PsyonixA trend that’s emerged over the past couple of years in esports is organizations rebranding, but why do they deem it necessary to change a visual identity they’ve had in place for years? It’s considered counter-intuitive to some, but there are some merits to a brand refresh. When it comes to selling your company and its services or products, branding is a crucial decision. It communicates your company and its offering to the audience you’re looking to tap into, hopefully providing a connection point and keeping it top of mind when prospective consumers are scouring the market. In an industry that’s predicated on competition, there’s additional nuance. There’s a need in esports and sports alike to create an identity that fans can root for; a brand that’s relatable or aspirational that helps to foster long-term supporters. In 2020 alone, over a dozen prominent entities in the esports industry opted to ditch their logo (and in some cases, their company’s entire identity) in place of something fresh. There are plenty of reasons these decisions were made. Why do esports organizations keep rebranding? The conception of esports happened at different times, depending on who you ask, but it’s very clear that entities housing competitive players really started to emerge in the early 2000s. At this time, though, these teams were made up of friends who enjoyed playing alongside each other — it was remarkably rare for a tournament to have the life-changing financial incentives that are commonplace today. These teams weren’t established as multi-million dollar companies or media giants, and thus time and resources weren’t funneled into branding. These organizations, which were actually just gaming clans, were simply a product of the times. As the industry has professionalized and become more economically lucrative, the functions and demands of such brands have changed. The likes of Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, and Ninjas in Pyjamas have been around for years and, as such, they’ve had to develop in every area as the industry too developed. No wonder companies that were once present-minded inventions have had to change their branding, they needed to adapt to the new environment surrounding them as they blossomed into professional operations. “With the esports scene moving at lightning pace, it’s not uncommon for brands to rapidly outgrow their original branding,” designer Owen M. Roe told Dexerto. “If you’re founding a team with limited resources at your disposal, you’re not going to be able to afford world-class designers. “Eventually, there will come a point where a bad logo will begin to hurt your bottom line, whether it’s with brand recognition, merchandising, or because it just plain old looks dated. Fans strongly identify with logos, so it’s important to give them something to be proud of — but that’s also what makes esports rebrands so hit or miss.” “Tenets of great design are timeless, but the market is so dynamic that sometimes rebrands are necessary — for example, if an organization switched regions and the old branding no longer effectively represents them,” Theorycraft founder and creative strategist Lauren Gaba Flanagan told Dexerto. “Also, if brand architecture wasn’t built correctly at launch, a rebrand is a good opportunity to correct and refresh that. That said, observing shifts in design trends is the wrong reason to rebrand. Organizations have to consider what their brand communicates to consumers, and also how well it serves its purpose across the board. These days, branding has to be well-suited to digital channels, on merchandise and branded accessories, in broadcast graphics, and supporting assets across their entire operation. Creating a timeless brand Esports is a digital-first industry that’s evolving at a rapid pace, so it’s impossible to ensure that a brand is able to stand the test of time in every application. It’s more sensible to try and represent what your company is right now and where you envisage it being in the short-to-medium-term. Read More: 11 worst esports rebrands – Should we, as an industry, simply expect constant iterations of recognizable brands organizations attempt to communicate their ethos while staying in line with current design trends and norms? Despite not knowing how things will develop in the future, Roe believes that companies should still be aspirational. “The goal should always be to make timeless logo designs,” he said. “Frequent & unnecessary rebrands are probably indicative of a larger problem within the organization. We see brands like Evil Geniuses and Dignitas throw away their iconic logos in favor of a hollow corporate rebrand, only to return to form with an updated iteration of their original branding. “There’s a reason they made the decision to go back to their original logos, that’s what the fans identify with, there’s history there. Esports rebrands should aim to build on & improve what has already been established.” It’s not uncommon to see new owners come in and change the logo (and overall direction) of an organization, as Roe stated. HBSE with Dignitas and PEAK6 with Evil Geniuses are perfect examples, only realizing that changes they felt were necessary would alienate their fan bases when the damage had been done. In these cases, they reverted back to the original designs, but attempted to modernize them. “I hope we don’t see organizations with beloved branding pushed to rebrand simply because they feel pressure to modernize,” Flanagan added. “From the practical (what do I do with all my old merchandise?) to the emotional (I have fond memories of the old logo), any organization planning to rebrand has to do the work of appropriately retraining and reconditioning people on identification and association. A lot goes into that, so rebranding is a card you can pull maybe once. If the same org is rebranding multiple times, that’s a bigger problem. “Brands can’t be futureproofed unless they’re composed of solid fundamentals, so organizations need to invest in great brand identities upfront — but that investment also must be ongoing. You need great designers who will continually think of ways to creatively apply the identity — through apparel design, photography, social, motion graphics — because that’s what can really keep decades-old branding feeling fresh and inventive. Org branding should be consistent and distinct while remaining flexible enough to incorporate changing rosters, games, and trends.” The jury is out on whether the recent rebrands in esports will stand the test of time — though there are some that have been disappointing, to say the least — but it’s clear that this trend has emerged for the right reasons. Organizations want to optimize their potential for growth and success, and saying branding is part of that formula would be an understatement.

Why Pansy’s esports success was so important to my own journey Wojciech Wandzel, Riot Games, DexertoLauren ‘Pansy’ Scott is an icon in esports, inspiring young women to break the mold and grab the competitive bull by the horns – and it just so happens I am one of them. Picture the scene: 23-year-old Lauren (hi, that’s me) has just completed her Masters’ degree in War Studies, a topic which, while close to my heart, didn’t exactly open up a wealth of immediate job prospects. I walked into the world confused about where the future might take me – especially considering travel restrictions single-handedly ruined an internship I had planned in Krakow, Poland. I vividly remember dropping down in front of the TV, totally deflated, asking myself, ‘What the hell do I do now?’ There was no LEC or LCK to watch, Valorant didn’t exist, and CS:GO was never really my thing. So instead, I tuned into the PUBG DreamHack Spring Showdown for background noise to blot out my racing thoughts. And that’s when I heard “Lauren.” Coincidence or fate? It was like that moment when you’re walking down the street and someone says your name – it shattered my little existential crisis and pulled me right back to the screen. A woman called Lauren? Casting? Sure I’d seen Indiana ‘Froskurinn’ Black cast many an LEC game, but a woman? In competitive FPS? I was intrigued. As someone still relatively new to the esports world, the idea of a female in the male-dominated shooter scene was insane to me. Doesn’t she get hate? How does she deal with it? And yet, as I watched I realized that this woman was, indeed, an absolute queen. Not only was her game knowledge on point, but her personality was also vibrant, her banter hilarious. While one part of me was watching the game because it was fun, another wanted it to end so that I could find out who this woman was. Of course, as you’ve likely worked out, it was Pansy and her partner in crime, Mike ‘Hypoc’ Robins. So there I was, half a cup of coffee down my throat, debating whether or not I could actually make it in esports despite being a woman. Could I be the next Pansy? A brave new world You see, I had worked in esports for a while, but not exactly in the capacity I expected. I wanted to report the news, engage with casters, players, and the wider squads; not simply write press releases. Landing myself my position here at Dexerto has allowed me to do that, and just so happened to coincide with the rise of Valorant. As Riot’s core broadcast team came together, I was elated when I realized Pansy would be on the EMEA team (where there is a relatively even split between men and women). From Spike Nations of Twitch to First Strike, Pansy cast and I was enchanted. I became more absorbed in Valorant than I had in any other esport just because watching her cast was so much fun. Pansy has always accompanied me throughout my esports journey, helping me grow from someone who barely understood competitive gaming to someone who lives and breathes it every day of her life. As my confidence grew, so did the stories I wrote and the interviews I did – and I had Pansy to thank for it. Sisters supporting sisters is basically my mantra, but women actively emboldening other women is a dream-made reality. Pansy inspires me every single day, and I wouldn’t be in the position I am in if I hadn’t watched that PUBG tournament. Read More: VCT 2022 Stage 1 Challengers NA and Europe – Boundaries are made to be pushed, stereotypes born to be shattered – Pansy taught me that, and inspired me to walk in her footsteps and make her proud; not just her, but all of my fellow women in the esports universe. Her down-to-earth personality and dedication to her crafted sewed a seed within my young mind, allowing me to blossom and grow into the writer and esports fan that I am today. While my aesthetic screams black roses with thorny stems, at my core there’s a colorful flower that continues to grow and improve upon itself. And funnily enough, yes, it’s a pansy.

What is the Farming Simulator League? €250,000 tournament explained The world of competitive Farming Simulator is taking a big step up – as an official league, boasting a €250,000 prize pool, has been unveiled by developer GIANTS Software. Professional leagues have become the closest thing to a standardized system across esports titles, with CS:GO, League of Legends, Call of Duty, PUBG and more all having a ‘Pro League’ of some capacity. We can finally add Farming Simulator to that list, as GIANTS Software have announced the inaugural league beginning in 2019, following a ‘testing of the waters’ in 2017 and 2018. The ‘Farming Simulator Championship’ is becoming the ‘Farming Simulator League’, “a full-fledged esports league with 10 tournaments across Europe.” The season will culminate with one team crowned the Farming Simulator Champion and €100,000 in prizing, which will take place at FarmCon 2020. The total prize pool across the 10 events amounts to €250,000. The league has also secured some big name sponsors, including Intel, Logitech and noblechairs, Christian Ammann, CEO of GIANTS Software and manager of the esports division, explained that they want to show that farming can be both fun and competitive. “Competitive farming is something people enjoy for years now, but it hasn’t been done in eSports so far. We have lots of eSports enthusiasts in our company who can’t wait to show the world that farming can indeed be fun and competitive at the same time.” What is “competitive farming”? Played on Farming Simulator 19, the competitive matches will take the shape of a 3v3 mode. Although the exact details of the game mode itself have not been fully unveiled, GIANTS explain that “teams challenge each other to determine who is the best on the field.” “The game will, of course, stand true to its roots in farming and combine real field work like harvesting with fun and challenging game elements.” The league will no longer use the hay bale stacking mode which was used for previous competitive events. These events pulled in significant spectating numbers, as shown in the image below from an event in 2018. The Farming Simulator series remains incredibly popular with its casual player base, with the latest release, Farming Simulator 2019 reportedly selling 1 million copies in its first 10 days. If it can continue to grow its burgeoning esports scene alongside maintaining its casual fans, who knows, maybe competitive farming will be the next big thing in esports?

Who’s nominated for the 2018 Esports Awards? Group two finalists The second round of nominees for the 2018 Esports Awards have now been named, with some of the biggest and most influential names in the industry on the list. The Esports Awards is an annual show celebrating the best in business across a range of categories, from organizations and players, to sponsors and photographers. On July 11th, a collection of finalists for the 2018 Esports Awards were announced for Group One, across the 12 different categories. On September 13, another set of categories have been revealed for Group Two, with a set of new nominees. Voting for the 2018 Esports Awards (Group Two) can be found right here, with the show taking place on Monday, November 12th. 2018 Esports Award Nominees – Group Two Esports Broadcaster of the Year Brandon Smith and Richard Buckley – Uber – Sjockz – Goldenboy – Machine – Soe Gschwind-Penski – Maven – Laure Valée – MonteCristo – Deficio – James Bardolph – Quickshot – Esports Console Player of the Year NICKMERCS – Kenny – Problem X – Leffen – Msdossary – SonicFox – Shotzzy – Tokido – Assault – Esports PC Player of the Year s1mple – Profit – NiKo – Pengu – Uzi – Dupreeh – Ana – JJoNak – Scoom – Smeb – Doublelift – Carpe – Esports Console Rookie of the Year Kenny – DhTekkz – Priestahh – Dashy – Alexx – Msdossary – TJHaLy – Esports PC Rookie of the Year JJoNak – Licorice – JSTN – Wokka – Ropz – Carpe – CeRq – Bwipo – Profit – Topson – Esports Live Event of the Year ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 – LoL World Championship 2018 – Overwatch League Grand Final 2018 – COD World League Championship 2018 – The International 2018 – The Six Invitational 2018 – IEM Katowice 2018 – EVO 2018 Champion Series – Rocket League Championship Series – FACEIT Major 2018 – PUBG Global Invitational 2018 – Clash Royale Crown Championship – Esports Personality of the Year Ninja – CouRage – Dr DisRespect – Goldenboy – Nadeshot – Soe Gschwind-Penski – shroud – DrLupo – Sjokz – Chris Puckett – Esports Unsung Hero of the Year DrLupo – MrBeast – Nadeshot – Terroriser – Milos Nedeljkovic – Ryan Morrison – Sheever – Kim Meltzer – Esports Organization of the Year Cloud9 – Team Liquid – Team SoloMid – FaZe Clan – 100 Thieves – OpTic Gaming – Echo Fox – Team Envy – G2 Esports – Fnatic – Esports Team of the Year Astralis (CS:GO) – London Spitfire (OWL) – Evil Geniuses (COD) – Royal Never Give Up (LOL) – Team Liquid (PUBG) – Nova eSports (Clash Royale) – Team Dignitas (Rocket League) – OG (Dota) – KT Rolster (LOL) – Natus Vincere (CS:GO) – Fnatic (LOL) – Team Liquid (LOL) –

WGL win first qualifier for $100,000 Splitgate Pro Series 1047 Games/LogitechWGL have won the first open qualifier for the $100,000 Splitgate Pro Series after coasting through a 128-team bracket. Find out how you can sign up for the following tournaments. The qualifying process for the Splitgate Pro Series is already underway, and Dexerto is here to bring you all the action as the official media partner of this exciting tournament. With a whopping $100,000 prize pool, the Launch Season will culminate in the Grand Finals on December 12 with the eight best 4v4 teams. Splitgate developer 1047 Games has partnered with Logitech Esports Services, who will handle all event and live broadcast operations throughout the season. Splitgate players can enter the qualifiers for free for a chance at the $100,000 prize pool, as well as gear from ASTRO Gaming. Fans can take part in giveaways on social media and will be able to claim stream drops by tuning in to Splitgate’s official Twitch channel. First qualifier over WGL came out on top of the first qualifier following an almost flawless run in the single-elimination bracket. They didn’t drop a single game in their first six matches before beating Animeniacs 3-1 in the grand final. Congratulations to WGL for winning the first $5,000 #SplitgateProSeries Qualifier tournament! 🏆 @ggKJewls 🏆 @JalenMans 🏆 @Exulting_ 🏆 @MaybeMattieWe’ll be back next week with Open Qualifier #2. Don’t miss out and sign up now: https://t.co/wbjgkVM8uU pic.twitter.com/d3W2q9SxIL — Splitgate Esports (@SGEsports) October 18, 2021 With their first-place finish, WGL claimed the top weekly prize of $2,500, with each player earning 100 SPS points. The seven teams with the most points after six qualifiers will secure spots in the Grand Finals, which will also feature the winner of the high-stakes Last Chance Qualifier. How to sign up for the Splitgate Pro Series To participate in the Splitgate Pro Series open qualifiers, 4v4 teams simply need to create a free account and sign up for each week’s tournament. Registration for the second open qualifier, scheduled for October 24, is already open. The full details about the Launch Season are available on the official Splitgate Pro Series site, where players can find all the latest news, the schedule, and the standings.

What is esports? Riot GamesEsports is the term used for competitive video gaming. Like professional sports, esports are organized and incredibly lucrative. We’re here to give you a beginner’s guide to the world of esports. What are esports games? Games based around PvP (player v player) gameplay make for the biggest titles in the esports industry. Some of the biggest games in esports include: However, there are thriving esports communities for games you might not expect, such as Tetris and Farming Simulator. Esports communities typically come out of games where players have found a consistent way to compete against one another. How do esports work? The two main iterations of esports are league and tournament play. League play operates like any other league-based sport. You play a group of teams that are based in your geographical region. After a regular season, most league-based esports then move to a playoff bracket to determine the winner of the league. League of Legends operates a league-based system, with each region (China, Korea, Europe, North America, etc) running two league stages a year – the Spring split and the Summer split. Each league stage, played in a round-robin format, is followed by regional playoffs to determine a split’s final standings. The Spring split’s playoffs also grant qualification to League of League equivalent to an All-Star Game, the Mid-Season Invitational. The Summer split’s playoffs serve as qualification for the League of Legends World Championships, the game’s season-ending tournament that sees the best teams from around the world compete. League play has become more formalized in the past half-decade or so. Traditionally, many leagues operated a promotion/relegation system. However, as esports have grown more lucrative, leagues have started to transition to a franchise-based format. Entry to the top leagues now often requires buying a spot in that league. These spots can be expensive – League of Legends team Schalke 04 sold their spot in Europe’s LEC for $31.5 million in July 2021, while Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag, owner of esports organization 100 Thieves, revealed in September 2021 it cost him $27 million to buy a spot in the Call of Duty League. Some esports forgo a league format altogether and instead run a tournament circuit throughout the year. Teams may qualify for these often global tournaments through regional qualifiers, and often earn points based on where they finish. These points are then used to determine qualification for season-ending tournaments. VALORANT uses a circuit system. Each region runs a number of tournaments throughout the year, with teams earning points based on where they finish. There is also a number of international tournaments that also offer points. At the end of the season, the top teams from each region then compete at the year-ending VALORANT Champions tournament. Some esports, such as Call of Duty, League of Legends, VALORANT, CS:GO, and Overwatch, are team sports. While the size of the team varies from game to game, most fall in the 4-6 range. Other esports, such as Fortnite, Hearthstone, PUBG, and Pokémon, are individual events. Who plays esports? Esports athletes are typically in their late teens or early 20s, though it’s not uncommon for the top players to play into their late 20s or even early 30s. Esports athletes come from all over the world, though games are often more prominent in some regions than some others. League of Legends is considered to be dominated by Chinese and South Korean teams, while Call of Duty’s professional scene is primarily comprised of players from North America and Europe. VALORANT’s talent pool is largely concentrated in Europe and North America, but there are also strong teams from Latin America, primarily Brazil, and South Korea. Women in esports Esports are open to all. Unlike sports such as soccer and basketball, there is no gender segregation. However, women have historically struggled to break into the highest levels of the industry. Some women have managed to find success as esports athletes. The late Maria ‘Remilia’ Creveling spent some time in the LCS, North America’s top league for League of Legends. Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn was the first woman to win a major Starcraft II tournament. Rumay ‘Hafu’ Wang was a dominant force in competitive World of Warcraft before she chose to focus her career on streaming. Li ‘Liooon’ Xiaomeng became the first woman to win the Hearthstone Grandmaster Global Finals. Women have succeeded in esports in spite of the challenges many have faced. There is a misguided perception in some quarters of the male-dominated industry that women don’t possess the skills to compete at the highest level, while a lot of women regularly receive verbal abuse when playing multiplayer games online. The esports industry has begun to try and help elevate women. There is a history of women’s-only tournaments, and 2021 saw Riot Games begin the Game Changers program, an all-women VALORANT circuit. Esports organization SK Gaming also announced a project to help develop female and non-binary talent in the League of Legends scene. Who is the best at esports? There is no simple answer to who is the best at esports, as it varies from game to game. China and South Korea are widely seen as producing some of the world’s best esports talent due to their firm embrace of the industry. But every esport has its dominant region. Read More: Faker records 2000th kill in the LCK – The same principle applies to the “household names” of esports, with each game having its own icons. League of Legends has Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, a three-time World Champion and a personality so revered he has essentially become part of the game’s lore. Call of Duty has Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter, who has won three World Championships with three different teams. CS:GO has Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, who is widely seen as one of the most technically skilled players of all time. How do I join esports? The first step to becoming an esport athlete is mastering the game you want to compete in. It requires complete dedication, with esports athletes centering their life around professional gaming, spending hours upon hours every day perfecting their skills. A good esports athlete needs fast reflexes, exceptional hand-eye coordination, good communication, and an unrivaled knowledge of the game they play. A successful esports athlete needs to be able to do all of this better than the thousands of other players fighting for a place at the top of their game. Most games offer a way to climb the competitive ladder. League of Legends has ranked soloq, CS:GO has the FACEIT system, a private matchmaking system that eventually leads to the FPL, a private league that pits you against some of the best talent in the world. Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, a player for CS:GO team mousesports, is one of the most famous examples who gained a spot on a professional team after coming through the FPL system. Teams keep an eye on their game’s ranked game mode in order to snag the next generation of stars. However, to increase your chances of being spotted by a professional team, you need to be active in your game’s community. This often means joining a small, amateur team and playing in tournaments. Many esports professionals spend the early years of their career jumping from team to team as they hone their skills and grow their reputation in the scene. League of Legends player Adam ‘Adam’ Maanane was playing at the second level of the game’s French scene as recently as August 2020. In October 2021, he heads to World Championships with one of the most storied teams in the game’s history, Fnatic. How much do esports players make? The amount of money an esports athlete makes is a very subjective question. A good player might be able to make a living from esports, through salary, prize money earned at tournaments, and sponsorship deals with brands. Elite esports athletes may make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. But there are those whose esports earnings might be a few hundred dollars a year, earned at local or regional amateur tournaments. These individuals might have full-time jobs and enter these tournaments primarily for fun. A lot of factors determine how much a full-time esports athlete will make – the game they play, how much success they can achieve, how marketable they are seen as by sponsors. Many athletes also supplement their income through streaming on platforms such as Twitch. The list of top-earning athletes in esports is dominated by Dota 2 players, in large part due to the huge prize pools offered at The International, the game’s end-of-year tournament. The 2021 prize pool exceeds $40 million. Thanks to a rapid rise in popularity and external investment from major companies, esports is estimated to be a billion-dollar industry. How do I watch esports? There are two types of esports events – online and offline. Online events are played remotely, with the players not competing in the same place as one another. To watch these events, people will tune in to live broadcasts of the event. These can often be found on websites such as YouTube and Twitch. Offline events are played in a single location, with competitors traveling there to take part. Offline events are also known as LAN (Local Access Network) events. This can be done for the sake of fairness, especially in the case of international events where things like internet speed may differ. Or it can be done due to the scope of the event – the organizers may not have the resources to host all their competitors online. Offline events will often have a live audience at the venue, as well as broadcast for people to watch online. Major tournaments are watched by hundreds of thousands of fans. The biggest tournaments are watched by millions. The 2020 League of Legends World Championships was watched by a reported 3.8 million viewers. Schedules for events are maintained by tournament organizers and are easily found online. How long do matches take? Match length depends on the game being played. League of Legends matches take around 35 minutes to complete but playoff series are played in a best of five format. The Call of Duty League season is broken down into ‘stages’, with each day of competition running for six or seven hours. VALORANT matches can last around two hours. It’s best to do your research for the esports you are interested in watching. Why do people enjoy watching esports? Esports are like any other sport. People have their favorite teams. There’s drama, heartbreak, and moments that take your breath away. It’s a showcase of what happens when someone dedicates their life to something and perfects it.

Warzone star Rated joins Tommey on 100 Thieves’ roster 100 ThievesBuilding on the world’s first Call of Duty: Warzone esports team, 100 Thieves have added former London Royal Raven, Rhys ‘Rated’ Price, as the second member of their battle royale roster. [jwplayer br5AuoVJ] While Rated wasn’t a focal point of the Royal Ravens in the Call of Duty League, he has emerged as one of the best Warzone players on Verdansk. With his stream popping off and tournament money rolling in, it should be no surprise that he was among 100T’s top candidates for their growing roster. When Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag announced that 100T would be fielding a battle royale team alongside their Los Angeles Thieves CDL squad, it was historic and fans were anxious to hear who would get signed. Now, Rated joins fellow native of the United Kingdom and former CDL pro, Thomas ‘Tommey’ Trewren, as the team’s highly respected core. Welcome Rhys “@Rated_COD” Price as our newest competitive Warzone player & creator! With 7 years competing in Call of Duty at the highest level, he took Warzone by storm at launch. We’re so excited to have him and can’t wait to see him play under the 100 Thieves banner! #100T pic.twitter.com/TUnfwLAatD — 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) November 25, 2020 Based in Los Angeles, some may be surprised that 100 Thieves have gone across the pond for their Warzone cornerstones. But, looking at Tommey and Rated’s successes in Verdansk, the signing becomes exponentially justified. While Tommey sits at No. 5 on the Warzone earnings list, Rated is nearby at No. 7 with a hefty $70K in winnings. Those numbers become even more impressive when one factors in that Rated’s first major tournament invitation was in late June, while some of the other top earners began competing months earlier. Another great stream my brothers subs, love & support flying in. Husker’s Howl heat 2 tomorrow w/@Tommey Also we ended the night by hawking on Crim see you tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/BEm2YoyNF8 — Rhys Price (@Rated_COD) November 6, 2020 Characterized best as a steady player, Rated picks his angles and fights deliberately, shoots as straight as anyone, and has rightfully become known as one of Verdansk’s most intimidating forces. It’s a testament to his skill that competitors regularly express some degree of annoyance when finding out that they’re stuck in a lobby with the wicked Welshman. Having teamed with Tommey many times already, the addition is a sensible one. Most recently, the duo took second place during the HusKerrs Howl tournament. While it’s unclear who else will be joining the roster, Tommey and Rated provide an excellent foundation with clear comms and a general reluctance to tilt. With another Englishman, Liam ‘Jukeyz’ James, already signed to the Royal Ravens, one has to wonder if Nadeshot will put up the cash for Warzone’s best unsigned star: Aydan ‘Aydan’ Conrad.

Walmart selling esports merch from teams like Astralis, Team Liquid, and NYXL Blizzard Entertainment / Twitter: Astralis / Team Liquid / Flickr: Mike MozartWalmart is now stocking merchandise from the best League of Legends, Overwatch, and CS:GO teams in the world, like Team SoloMid, the Los Angeles Valiant, and Fnatic on their website. Walmart is now hopping on board the esports merchandise train, stocking jerseys and accessories from some of the world’s most recognizable esports brands. The Esports Fan Shop stocks items from the North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), the Overwatch League, the ESL Shop, and more. This means fans can pick up jerseys from Cloud 9, Ninjas in Pajamas, the San Francisco Shock, and over 40 more teams. Most of the merchandise is sold and shipped from the outside organizations that originally stocked them. So, Overwatch League jerseys will still come from Fanatics and INTO THE AM, and LCS merch will still come from We Are Nations. However, the prices on the merch has been significantly slashed in some cases, and free delivery is on offer for a lot of the items. Fans can pick up a jersey from any of the 10 LCS teams for $60.00, the same price as We Are Nations, but get free delivery on any order. Overwatch League jerseys for every team have been reduced in price by around 30% across the board, but fans won’t be able to get their hands on the Inaugural Season jerseys through the Walmart site. Free shipping is on offer, though, which might make it more appealing than buying straight off Fanatics or INTO THE AM. CS:GO fans can also grab their favourite teams merchandise through Walmart and dodge the hefty shipping fees for the most part. The American shopping giant has had a partnership with Mixer star Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins since 2018, stocking his iconic headband in stores across North America for $21.99. They also stock Cloud 9-branded HyperX headsets and mouse pads in store. Read more: Steel still aiming for the top in CSGO – While the Esports Fan Shop is currently only available online, it’s a step towards getting physical esports merchandise in brick-and-mortar stores. Shipping looks to be US and Canada only, so international buyers won’t be able to grab some of the amazing deals on offer. But, if you are based in North America, now is the perfect time to snap up some of this year’s merch before teams debut new lines in 2020.

Warzone pro Almond signs to Rokkr as Warzone player & content creator Minnesota ROKKRAmerican Call of Duty pro and streamer Almond has announced he’s joining the Minnesota RØKKR as a Warzone player and content creator going forward. Warzone is basically ingrained into CoD at this point, so it’s no surprise CDL teams are signing players and content creators for the battle royale in droves. On June 22 American Warzone pro Ben ‘Almond’ announced he’d he joining the RØKKR to fill out their roster for the battle royale and as a streamer going forward. Excited to announce that I am joining @ROKKR as a Warzone Player/Content Creator!#PlayAsOne #NeverDone pic.twitter.com/OrjdX4MyRu — Ben (@AlmxndTV) June 22, 2021 “I grew up in Minnesota, I’ve always been here. It’s my home state,” Almond explained. “To the RØKKR fans: I can’t wait to bring home some championships in Warzone for you guys.” Almond has been a regular face in the HusKerrs Top Dog Duo Days tournaments, and plenty of other Warzone competitions, but it remains to be seen how he’ll perform with a top-tier org backing him up. The RØKKR already signed Rasim ‘Blazt‘ Ogresevic to their Warzone squad back in April of 2021, so it will also be interesting to watch and see how these two newfound teammates perform together RØKKR’s latest signee has been on tear along with regular duo and 100 Thieves Warzone star Thomas ‘Tommey’ Trewren. The two took top spot, along with trio fill Edy ‘Newbz’ Juan, in the $25,000 eFuse TeeP’s Trials in June. Top 10 Total Kills from Season 3 of Warzone 1) @Almxnd_ 2) @aydan 3) @TBE_Newbzz 4) @Tommey 5) @Rated_COD 6) @ZLanerOFFICIAL 7) @Destroy_215 8) @HusKerrs 9) @Fifakill_ 10) @Jukeyz pic.twitter.com/R5z00mu2HD— In The Zone (@InTheZoneStats_) June 19, 2021 In fact, Almond and Tommey have cleaned up nearly $50,000 in tournament winnings between the two since only May. As the Warzone competitive season gets underway, there’s going to be a ton of excitement behind RØKKR’s new pickup and fans will expect him to keep his stellar form.

Vodafone Giants under fire for ‘racist’ Tweet Spanish esports organization Vodafone Giants have come under fire after posting what appears to be a blatantly racist joke on their official Twitter page. On June 3, the official Vodafone Giants Twitter account posed the question “Qué es una luciérnaga negra?” (‘What is a black firefly?’). This joke tweet went unanswered for a few hours, leaving fans confused, even speculating that the account had been hacked or the post had been sent in error. Around two hours later however, they followed up their initial Tweet with the answer: “Una luciernigga” – substituting ‘naga’ for the racial slur. Making matters worse, the post also included a seemingly random GIF of a black man, naked save for his underwear, rollerblading. Joan ‘Shanks’ Namay is a fighting game player for Giants. “We changed the joke this Monday and apologize to all the people who may have been offended by the (joke) published this morning. Sorry for any offense caused.” Cambiamos de chiste este lunes y pedimos perdón a todas las personas que se hayan podido sentir ofendidas por el publicado esta mañana. Disculpad las molestias ocasionadas. — Vodafone Giants (@GiantsGaming) June 3, 2019 Giants field teams in CS:GO, League of Legends, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty, Fortnite Battle Royale, Hearthstone and a number of fighting and sports games.

VSFighting XI 2023: Results & winners VSFighting XIVSFighting XI is a tournament encompassing a variety of fighting games that is organized by Electronic Dojo. All details, including the results, and winners of VSFighting XI 2023 have been presented in this article. Fighting game tournaments are always interesting to watch, no matter how big or small they are. Over the past two months, fans got to witness Red Bull Kumite, EVO 2023, and Gamers8, all of which offered a lot of entertainment. It is now time to move on to the next one, VS Fighting XI, where some of the best players will compete across multiple major fighting game titles like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive, and more. All the details regarding this event have been listed in the next few sections. Note: The coverage only consists of the major titles at VSFighting XI which include Street Fighter 6, Tekken 7, Guilty Gear Strive, King of Fighters XV, and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The side games have not been included in this coverage. Contents VSFighting XI Winners – Street Fighter 6 – Tekken 7 – King of Fighters XV – Guilty Gear Strive – Dragon Ball FighterZ – VSFighting XI 2023: Results and winners Street Fighter 6 All results: Here Tekken 7 All results: Here King of Fighters XV All results: Here Guilty Gear Strive All results: Here Dragon Ball FighterZ All results: Here This concludes our guide for VSFighting XI 2023. If you found it informative, please follow our esports page for even more details on fighting games and other major titles.

VK confirms sale of esports org Virtus.pro in seven-figure deal Virtus.proRussian technology giant VK has disclosed the amount it received for the sale of esports organization Virtus.pro in 2022. VK revealed in the company’s 2022 annual report, published earlier this week, that in Q4 it sold Virtus.pro in a deal worth 174 million rubles (approximately $2.8 million at the time of the announcement). The change of ownership in Virtus.pro was announced in September 2022, when Armenian businessman Aram Karamanukyan was unveiled as the new CEO of Virtus.pro and an investor in the company. Very little was known about his background other than his prior experience in the construction business and hospitality industry. In an exclusive interview with Dexerto days after the announcement, Mr. Karamanukyan confirmed that the transaction had been “made on market terms”, rejecting the notion that it was merely a scheme to bypass the sanctions placed on Virtus.pro by numerous tournament organizers since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Virtus.pro was targeted by tournament organizers due to the alleged ties between its parent company, ESforce, and the Russian government. In 2018, ESforce was acquired by VK, then known as Mail.Ru Group Limited. Since December 2021, Russian state-run insurer Sogaz has a controlling stake in VK, with the company being included on the European Union’s February 28 sanctions list imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. For over a year now, Virtus.pro’s CS:GO team have had to compete as ‘Outsiders’ due to ESforce’s ties to the Kremlin. The situation has been different for Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 squad, however. The team initially had to play as ‘Outsiders’, but they’ve been able to represent Virtus.pro in all competitions since Mr. Karamanukyan joined the organization. The legitimacy of the Virtus.pro sale process has come under question, especially since Nikolai Petrossian, a former ESforce chief, replaced Mr. Karamanukyan as the organization’s CEO in December 2022. Many saw this as confirmation that ESforce and Virtus.pro are still connected in some way. The future of Virtus.pro’s teams It remains unclear at this point if ESL and BLAST will allow Outsiders to compete in their CS:GO tournaments as Virtus.pro. In September, Dexerto revealed that both tournament organizers were looking into the leadership changes in the Russian organization. Contacted by Dexerto, ESL said that the review process is still underway. “We have been reviewing the recent changes in the structure and ownership of Virtus.pro and are currently in the process of finalizing this review. If any announcements come out of this, then these will be made in due course.” BLAST declined to comment when contacted by Dexerto. Virtus.pro’s CS:GO squad is currently playing (under the name Outsiders) in ESL Pro League Season 17, in Malta. The team is through to the tournament’s Round of 12 after placing second in Group A. Should ESL continue to ban Virtus.pro from its tournaments, the organization’s Dota 2 squad might have to revert to the Outsiders name temporarily if it qualifies for ESL One Berlin Major 2023. The event will take place from April 26 to May 7, with 18 teams in attendance. In addition to their main CS:GO and Dota 2 teams, Virtus.pro have an academy and a women’s CS:GO squads, as well as Rainbow Six, PUBG Mobile and Warface rosters.

Virtus.pro drop Dota 2 pro Pure after using pro-Russian war symbol in-game Virtus.proVirtus.pro have dropped Dota 2 pro Ivan ‘Pure’ Moskalenko from their roster after the team, competing under the name Outsiders, was disqualified by Beyond the Summit. The disqualification came as a result of Pure allegedly drawing the pro-Russian war symbol, Z, in-game. Outsiders, the Virtus.pro Dota roster competing independently of the org following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have been disqualified from the Dota Pro Circuit Eastern Europe Playoffs after one of their players reportedly drew a Russian pro-war symbol during their match against Mind Games. “Outsiders is disqualified from the DPC EEU Tour 2 Regional Playoffs. Mind Games will receive a retroactive forfeit win for their match earlier today. All future matches Outsiders would have played are forfeit as well,” the BTS Dota account said on Twitter. The moment was highlighted by several Twitter users and prompted Virtus.pro to release a video before the ban with the player who drew it, Pure, explaining what happened. “There was a long pause in the game. The guys and I were talking and drawing on the mini-map. When we realized what exactly me drawing turned out to be, we tried to cover it up. I didn’t mean to offend anyone, it all happened by accident. Peace to all,” Pure said in the video. Despite his explanation, on April 30, Virtus.pro released a statement confirming they had parted company with Pure because his actions led to the disqualification. Their statement said: “We were notified that the final decision [disqualification] was up to the publisher. The severity of the punishment is shocking… Virtus.pro has been consistently opposing any cases of inciting hatred in esports. The club terminates contract with Ivan ‘Pure’ Moskalenko for his diminishing actions that led to disqualification… and caused a great deal of harm to our relationship with the worldwide esports society.” They confirmed that roster changes will be announced in due course. Because of the disqualification, Outsiders will miss the ESL One Stockholm 2022 Major, the first Major of the season for the esport. The Virtus.pro Dota lineup was competing under the name Outsiders to continue to compete in the Dota Pro Circuit due to tournament organizers and esports developers keeping Russian-state-backed organizations out of their competitions. Gambit Esports has had to do the same thing in Valorant and Counter-Strike, before the team moved to Cloud9, with its rosters. This is not the first time the Russian organization has been in hot water, as it also incurred a ban from the ESL Pro League in March 2022.

Virtus.pro enter three-year sponsorship with crypto exchange Bybit Bybit/DreamHackVirtus.pro are the latest esports organization to establish a sponsorship deal with Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange. Perhaps the best-known Russian team brand in esports, Virtus.pro are prominent targets of sponsorships when companies are looking to appeal to that particular market. Aligning with that notion, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit have announced a sponsorship deal with them — lasting for three years at an undisclosed value. Bybit’s logo will be present on VP’s jerseys and digital platforms, including social media, though the sponsorship also includes “community initiatives” that aim to educate fans on finances, NFTs, and cryptocurrency. Only true fans remember what today is all about. It’s been exactly 5 years since https://t.co/RghpmPyTHr iconic Dota 2 roster was signed ⭐️ Share your most memorable matches of that legendary roster in the comments 👇🏻#Dota2 #GOGOVP pic.twitter.com/CjQGHCUjFS — Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) August 4, 2021 The crpyto company have announced noteworthy deals with Ukraine-based Natus Vincere, Denmark-based Astralis, and Sweden-based Alliance in the last week alone as they look to make their mark on the esports industry. Founded in March 2018 and claiming to have more than 2 million registered users, Bybit will use the exposure from the deal with Virtus.pro to promote their upcoming World Series of Trading competition. The event, which has options for solo or team participation, will dish out over 6m USDT in prize winnings for those who choose to get involved. To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away at break of day, to find our long-forgotten gold…With a grand prize pool of 7,500,000 USDT, it’s time to rally your troops and prepare for the showdown! Register now: https://t.co/tkxyPGXEdB pic.twitter.com/uhStsQIznR — Bybit (@Bybit_Official) August 19, 2021 “Both digital financial assets and esports are relatively new industries,” said Virtus.pro CEO Sergey Glamazda. “Despite their fast growth and the fact that everyone is talking about it, a lot of people may still find it complicated and not easy to understand. “That is where our goals with Bybit are aligned: we are constantly improving and trying to make what we do best as simple as possible to understand for the audience. We are delighted to have Bybit joining esports with their large-scale projects and proud to be their partners in Russia!”

VCT 2023 roster regulations explained: minimum salaries, import rules & roster sizes Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesWith Valorant moving into a VCT partnered league system, Riot Games is implementing more strict rules around roster construction and adding more regulations. These are the most important roster rules for VCT teams. Organizations looking to field rosters for the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour partnered leagues will have to follow new rules and regulations around their team’s construction. These rules are subject to change and may be altered as the Valorant players union gets going or other factors. One of the key roster regulations for VCT, that Riot highlighted during the initial announcement, was minimum salaries for players across the three leagues. The minimum salary regulation across all three leagues is $50,000 for the Americas league, €50,000 for EMEA, and ₩67,000,000 for APAC. If teams wish to pay in other currencies, they will have to match the exchange rate between the currency of the league according to the new rule book. A player’s compensation outside of their weekly salary – including streaming money, prize money, or performance bonuses – is not factored into their base minimum salary, so organizations cannot get around paying a player the minimum required by saying it is made up elsewhere. VCT roster import regulations Fans familiar with League of Legends will know that Riot has put forth rules before on residency requirements for players. Those rules have carried over, but are more strict, in Valorant. VCT rosters are limited to one non-resident, or import, a player on their starting roster as four players must be residents of the countries the league represents. Residents are defined by Riot as a player that has citizenship, is a lawful permanent resident, or is a refugee or asylum seeker in the country of the respective league’s territory. Duel citizens will also have to choose a residency in one league if they are legal residents that could compete in two leagues. The one exception to the rule is Game Changers players. In an effort to incentivize organizations to bring on Game Changers players, or “Game Changers Alums” per the rule book, players from Game Changers can claim residency in the “applicable League Territory” and do not have to satisfy residency rules. Game Changers Alums are defined as players who have started on a team competing in a regional playoffs of Game Changers. League roster sizes and age requirements Teams are required to have the minimum amount of players needed to compete in the league, six, as well as a head coach and general manager through the start and end of the league’s season. All six players must be eligible to compete in the league, so a team cannot have two imports with one on the bench at all times. In that scenario the team would need to have eight total players, six of which are residents, to stay within the roster requirements. The maximum number of players a team can have is 10, Global Esports will be testing that rule heading into October, including a “Reserve Roster.” The Reserve Roster is where players who are in the process of becoming eligible to join the main roster can be siloed. Examples of players in the process of becoming eligible from Riot include competitors waiting for a work visa, and a player who is banned or ineligible to play in league matches. The reserve roster might also be a good spot for teams to house younger players that do not meet the minimum age requirement to play in the VCT league yet. Players born on or before March 26, 2005, or 17 years old, are eligible to compete in the leagues and Game Changers events. Players can be grandfathered past the age requirement if they competed in Challengers main events in 2022 and within one year of turning 17, if their parent or guardian accepts all rules and policies of the league they want to participate in.

VCT Free Agency 2022: The best unsigned Valorant players in the Americas Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesThe 2022-23 VCT free agency period runs until February 2023 and will see the 10 partnered teams in the Americas league sign a minimum of 60 players. With the breadth of the league, covering North and South America, there are bound to be players that are skilled enough to compete but are left out of the league. While some teams have already finalized their rosters, some still have open spots left and they can all make changes up to the deadline. Here are a few players that are restricted or free agents that are Valorant Champions Tour ready. Former starting Sentinels players: dapr, ShahZaM and zombs Sentinels have benched three of the founding members of their Valorant squad. Only Hunter ‘SicK’ Mims has survived and has a place on the 2023 roster. While these players are still under contract with Sentinels, they have been allowed to explore other opportunities and their contracts are reportedly up when 2023 rolls around. Jared ‘zombs’ Gitlin, Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan and Michael ‘dapr’ Gulino have all competed at international events and have been considered the best in their respective team roles at one time in the past two years. While Sentinels might have crashed and burned in 2022, these three are still valuable free agents on the VCT market. Former KRÜ Esports player delz1k Joaquín Ignacio ‘delz1k’ Espinoza Soto was released by KRÜ on October 1 together with Roberto Francisco ‘Mazino’ Rivas Bugueño, who has since joined Leviatán. delz1k was part of the team during its international runs in 2021 and 2022, experiencing the highs and lows of South American Valorant during that time. While maybe not the hottest player on the market, delz1k remains one of the best competitors from South America. FaZe Clan players: babybay, dicey and supamen While FaZe Clan may have never made an international event in Valorant in the open era, the team still had some of the best players in North America. In 2022, FaZe were just a few maps away from representing the region at an international event in Stage 2 and the Last Chance Qualifier. Of the players still attached to the roster, star fragger Andrej ‘babybay’ Francisty is a competitor that has yet to be attached to a team in the partnered league that has been called one of the best in the region. Both Quan ‘dicey’ Tran and Phat “supamen” Le are also respected in the region for their fragging power and tactical skills, respectively. The younger Valorant generation: The Guard, former Knights and Version1 players While there are a smattering of veteran VCT free agents not on a partnered team, there are also many younger players that have proven themselves in North America that are in the same boat fighting partnered team spots. Players from The Guard, who have international experience, have announced they are looking for new offerers. Those names include Jacob ‘valyn’ Batio, Michael ‘neT’ Bernet, Jonah ‘JonahP’ Pulice and Ha ‘Sayaplayer’ Jung-woo. Both Knights and Version1 shocked the region in 2022 with surprise qualifications to the VCT Challengers league, and those players are also on the market. Ashton ‘Frosty’ Rakoske and Amgalan ‘Genghsta’ Nemekhbayar are former Knights players that have entered free agency while teenage standout Logan ‘skuba’ Jenkins is a restricted VCT free agent. The last player a part of that group is Alexander ‘Zander’ Dituri, the young IGL for Version1, who is a restricted free agent as well. Other available VCT free agents The pool of players on the free agency market in VCT across the Americas is deep and cannot fit into a condensed list. Here are a few more names that are restricted or free agents for the 2023 season and their current or former organizations. BCJ – gMd, corey, Rossy, Subroza (TSM roster) – wippie, penny, effys (other Version1 players) – Moose, TiGG (Shopify Rebellion) – Will (100 Thieves) – Ethan, hazed, eeiu, tex (NRG) – curry, mitch (Cloud9) – adverso (Leviatán) – gtnziN, mNdS (MIBR) –

Outsiders renamed to Virtus.pro on official Valve ranking ahead of TI 2022 Virtus.proOutsiders should compete at TI 2022 as Virtus.pro after the team’s name was changed on the official website of the famed Dota 2 competition. The DPC rankings, published by Valve on Dota 2’s official website, now display Outsiders as Virtus.pro – a change from only a few weeks ago, when the team still appeared under the organization-less name. The name change is likely connected to the recent appointment of Aram Karamanukyan as CEO and investor in Virtus.pro. In a comment to Escorenews, Virtus.pro said that Mr Karamanukyan, who is Armenian, owns the Virtus.pro trademark and that their teams will compete “exclusively” under the organization’s tag in all games. With this change in ownership, Virtus.pro appear to have found a way to circumvent the sanctions placed on the organization following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian state-run insurance company Sogaz has a controlling stake in Virtus.pro’s ownership group VK, and is one of the companies included on the European Union’s sanctions list imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Because of this, some tournament organizers, like ESL, forced Virtus.pro’s teams to play under a neutral name, without any reference to the organization or its sponsors. BLAST went one step further, issuing an outright ban on Russia-based teams and canceling the CIS qualifier for its Spring Showdown event. Recently, ESforce Holding, Virtus.pro’s parent company, stopped listing Virtus.pro as a key asset on its website. So far, there has not been an announcement about the transfer of ownership of Virtus.pro – a requirement since VK is a publicly-traded company. Outsiders’ Dota 2 team is due to compete in the last-chance qualifier for TI 2022, which kicks off on October 8. Earlier that month, the Outsiders CS:GO team is slated to play in IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR B – a qualifying event for the IEM Rio CS:GO Major. Dexerto has reached out to Valve, ESL and BLAST for comment.

Valorant community blast Riot ruling to ban coach from VCT Game Changers Grand Finals Riot GamesThe Valorant community is outraged after Shopify Rebellion coach Rob ‘Robwiz’ Kennedy was suspended and fined for flipping the middle finger to opponents, leading to him being excluded from the Grand Finals. Shopify Rebellion stunned Valorant fans on November 19, where against all odds the Rebels took down both Cloud9 White and Liquid Brazil on their lower-bracket miracle run. But, for the Grand Finals, where they look to take down G2 Gozen for the title, Shopify will be without its coach. According to a competitive ruling from Riot, Robwiz violated rule 7.1.2 after making an offensive gesture toward their opponents upon winning the series. “Coaches must observe the highest standard of personal integrity and good sportsmanship,” the tournament organizers stated. As a result, the coach will be absent in the Grand Final match on November 20, as well as receiving a fine and warning that further violations of the policy will lead to increased penalties. According to Shopify’s bENITA, their opponents C9 White have been trash-talking for months, which Robwiz finally hit back at. “Just wanna state that we’ve been getting sh*t talked for months in-game and out of game. 2 gamechangers of getting pummeled with unsportsmanlike behavior. All good,” she said. Valorant community outraged at competitive ruling Pros, content creators and Valorant fans across the community were outraged by the ruling, with many hitting out at Riot for their decision. “Coaching asks so much of someone. We’re lucky to have a coach who cares about his team and the game as much as Rob,” said Sentinels’ strategic coach kaplan. “With that passion comes heated moments. To lose his opportunity to coach grands he’s worked so hard for because of one hand gesture would be everyone’s loss.” “If you want esports to grow and become like traditional sports, especially the women’s scene, trash talking and stuff like the middle finger should be normal. You guys are too soft. This is nothing compared to what pro athletes say and do in a competitive environment,” one fan wrote. Though unlikely, with Valorant community blast Riot ruling to ban coach from VCT Game Changers Grand Finalsthe community in such an uproar, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Riot go back on the ruling.

Valorant Red Bull Home Ground: The best new esports format? Riot Games, Red Bull, DexertoThe Red Bull Home Ground tournament was Valorant esports’ premier preseason tournament, featuring some of Europe’s biggest teams. One of its most unique aspects was a revolutionary new format. But how well did it work? The Red Bull Home Ground tournament served as a great way of kicking off the new year for the European Valorant scene. With the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) just about to get underway, we got a great insight into how teams are shaping up, as G2 Esports came out on top. While the first major official tournament, First Strike, featured traditional BO3s for the knockout phase and a BO5 Grand Final, Home Ground worked a little bit differently. The basic premise was this: each team selected one of Valorant’s five maps which would operate as their “home ground” for the tournament. They would be guaranteed to play this map within their first two games, with the other map being their opponents’ Home Ground. If a team won both their own and their opponents’ home ground, the series would end at 2-0. If the score was 1-1, it would progress to a traditional BO5. A way to keep things fresh In theory, the system would allow teams to hone a particular map, knowing it would definitely come up in their draft. This would technically give the underdogs a better chance of picking up a map win, leading to a longer series and therefore more practice for teams. Alliance GM and analyst for the event, James ‘BanKs’ Banks, believes the format provides a good amount of variety in series, making it better balanced as a preseason tournament. “The format for me is a good warm-up mode for the teams, almost like a pre-VCT tournament,” he told Dexerto. “You get what could be a basic BO3 if you straight win 2-0, but if you win one map each you are forced to play a BO5, testing a lot of teams’ stamina and map pool accordingly. “More teams is the only thing I would add. Just so we could have potentially seen more games, discover the form of teams after the break before going into VCT. “[While] I don’t think it is needed to spread to more tournaments, I think things like this are great to mix it up and give us a different dynamic.” It’s important to consider that, if both teams win on their respective home ground, you are guaranteed at least two more maps. This gives teams more practice than a traditional BO3. But is the format needlessly complicated? Team Liquid streamer and Sova aficionado Jonas ‘AverageJonas’ Navarsete believes the format overcomplicates scheduling, and is harder for viewers to understand. “I understand that it’s a cool and slightly unique concept, but I think it’s a lot harder for the viewer to understand, and makes scheduling the tournament harder too,” he told Dexerto. “Considering there are five maps and eight teams, I don’t see a problem with playing out the BO5s so there will potentially be less waiting on one side of the bracket.” While we are yet to see one in professional Valorant, the format also removed the possibility of the magical BO5 reverse sweep, where a team loses their first two games but goes on to win the final three. A look at the numbers Win-rate on “home grounds” ended up being bang on half. Of the 14 maps played on home grounds, teams won their chosen map seven times. The most curious case was Ninjas in Pyjamas, who managed to lose both their Home games, but beat Futbolist and G2 on their patches. The format was also impacted by changes being made to Split less than a week before the tournament, meaning teams hadn’t yet had the chance to get used to it. Team Liquid In-Game Leader Adam ‘ec1s’ Eccles said: “Our home map would have been Split before the changes and I think a lot of teams feel the same.” The win-rate for Home teams on Split was 50%, with G2 dropping a game to NiP and NiP losing to Futbolist. Both teams lost on this map to underdog teams, suggesting the changes made the map a less secure pick than it may have been otherwise. Read More: Alliance announce full Valorant roster – Ec1s also believes the majority of teams don’t yet have a signature map. “Obviously G2 have that really strong record on Ascent, but when we discussed our strongest map we got four different answers,” he added. How could Red Bull make it better? While the format itself had a very obvious impact on the scoreboards, it feels like there’s room for improvement in thematic impact during the games. We’d suggest adding team-related decor to their home ground maps. In official Riot LoL tournaments, you’ll see banners representing each team in its base, which adds a feeling of ownership to certain parts of the map. While the final was fortunately a five-game banger, with map one being so close there was a risk of the series ending at 2-0. Given how spectacular the finals are supposed to be, it would have been underwhelming to have only seen two games, especially with Liquid coming off a five-game series with SUMN FC in the semis. Tweaking the format for the final in some way, perhaps by guaranteeing a team game three map selection if they go 2-0 up, could preserve the impact of the home ground theme, while ensuring the BO5 ends up feeling more complete. So, did it work? In short, yes. The format didn’t change the fact that many incredible moments happened in this tournament, from Mixwell’s slick ninja defuse to ScreaM’s unreal Jett ace in the finals. Holy 🤯@ScreaM_ coming in HUGE as Liquid take Icebox! Split up next: https://t.co/s2gumSPVeN pic.twitter.com/QWNX7XqnFH — Valorant News (@ValorINTEL) January 31, 2021 It was also something a bit different. Valorant has provided esports with a chance to rewrite the rules a bit and try new things. While this isn’t a revolutionary format by any means, it added a cool theme to the tournament and afforded teams an opportunity to experiment. When it comes to official Riot tournaments like the VCT, which will be more organically hyped up, traditional formats will probably work best. Adding a unique twist to this smaller tournament did add some spice, though, and we hope to see something like it again.

Usain Bolt joins esports org Wylde as co-owner: “We’re building something big” WYLDEEight-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Usain Bolt announced today that he would be taking his first steps into the world of esports, becoming co-owner of Ireland-based esports organization Wylde. The organization, founded in 2021, has “deep roots in the Caribbean”, and fields teams in Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Valorant, and FIFA. Investments in esports from celebrity figures have been on the rise in recent years. David Beckham and GUILD, Snoop Dogg and FaZe Clan, Post Malone and Envy Gaming; more and more celebrities are looking to esports as a potential investment and ownership opportunity. It’s time for the Fastest Man on the planet to join the fastest growing sport in the world, Esport. This is my team, this is WYLDE. Follow @wylde_gg #GOWYLDE ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/XlsAd7DViU— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) March 29, 2022 And now, Usain Bolt is joining their ranks, announcing on March 30 that he would be entering co-ownership of Irish esports organization Wylde. The organization has teams in the European regional leagues of Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, Rocket League, and FIFA. In the announcement video, Bolt said, “I’ve been a gamer all my life – it’s a big community, and it’s just getting bigger. Esports has become so big that people are making a job out of it. “I always try to put myself with brands that I know are trying to go forward and do big things, and I feel like WYLDE is going in that direction, and I want to be a part of the journey. I’m excited, looking forward to being the world champions.” Who are Wylde? Wylde’s website describes them as an organization “created by the convergence of gaming, entertainment, and a competitive performance culture.” Interestingly, their ownership group has no history in the esports world, with both its founders coming from the world of traditional business rather than from the gaming sphere. Read more: FunPlus Phoenix replaced by Team Liquid at VCT Masters Reykjavik due to travel restrictions – They recently competed in the newly-introduced Valorant Regional Leagues, playing alongside teams like BDS and Team Vitality in VLR Revolution France. Their Rocket League team competes in the EU RLCS, and they also host a women’s team in the esport.

LoL pro Uzi explains the injury which has plagued his career Riot GamesRoyal Never Give Up‘s star AD carry Jian ‘Uzi’ Zi-Hao has explained the injuries which have taken a toll on his health and made him contemplate retirement from League of Legends. Although esports doesn’t involve strenuous exercise, elements like posture and movement are still critical to maintaining a healthy body. Some players have been forced to retire due to wrist or shoulder problems, like ex-Cloud 9‘s Hai ‘Hai’ Du Lam. Uzi is one of those players who has struggled with injuries across his career. The Chinese fan-favorite has been around since 2012, attending five World Championships, and winning one Mid-Season Invitational as well as two domestic LPL titles. In a promotional video for Nike on September 8, Uzi explained issues he has had with his shoulder and right arm, forcing him to sit out for parts of his career. Read More: First look at Nike LPL jerseys – “The worst part is this area,” he says, pointing to his right shoulder. “Then, it’ll affect the entire arm. It feels like my arm is retired already.” He also said that his arms have been worn out after years of playing, and are equivalent to someone twice his age. “One time I went to the hospital for a check up and the doctor said my arms are similar to that of a 40 to 50 year old. He really told me that.” Read More: TSM suffer shocking loss – On top of that, Uzi faces issues with his lower body strength after having to sit for prolonged periods of time over the last seven years to practice. “I often feel like my legs have no strength. The lower part of the body feels like it’s not mine.” Twitter user ‘iCrystalization’ cut together parts of the interview with Nike, which talked about “career longevity, injuring and maintaining players health, as per the LPL partnership.” Uzi: “”The worst part is this area, it will affect the entire arm. Sometimes it feels like my arm is retired already…”” Cut together some of Uzi’s parts in a recent video by Nike, which talks career longevity, injuries and maintaining players health, as per the LPL partnership. pic.twitter.com/EPCxTs1ytQ — Linda :pig_face::boar: (@iCrystalization) September 9, 2019 Uzi most recently took a month-long break at the start of 2019, which allowed him to rest up before the start of the competitive season. He also stepped back from the game in July 2018, just as Royal’s run into Worlds was starting to heat up. He has been contemplating retirement since his time on Oh My God in 2015, where he complained about shoulder pains during a team boot camp. Since then, the bot laner has gone through a purple patch of form, dominating international League of Legends and helping make China the most dominant region in 2018. Uzi and his team, Royal Never Give Up, will be attending Worlds 2019 in October, which is set to take place in Europe. You can keep up with who has qualified via our Worlds 2019 hub.

UMG Announce Partnership with World Series of Poker to Bring Esports Back to Las Vegas One of the top online gaming tournament websites and event organizers, UMG, have announced a groundbreaking partnership with the most prestigious poker tournament organizer, World Series of Poker. A World Series of Poker bracelet is regarded as the top prize within the world of professional poker, and has been a mainstay annual event in Las Vegas for many years. The event, which runs for a total of 50 days each year, attracts some 250,000 live spectators all looking to enjoy the most competitive and high level poker in the world – the perfect environment for esports. UMG, who have been organizing live esports events for years and run one of the most popular online tournament websites for competitive gamers, boasting an impressive 1.9m active monthly users, and so are the perfect partnership for WSOP to embrace esports. In the press release, it is outlined that games such as Fortnite, FIFA and Hearthstone will all be available to compete in on the ‘UMG Esports Stage” – which will feature in the main tournament poker room in the Rio Convention center. Dave Antony, CEO at UMG, explains: “Last year we watched our initiative to grow esports in Las Vegas grow by leaps and bounds. Bringing the UMG Esports Stage into the World Series of Poker events is an amazing next step in continuing this initiative into 2018 and beyond. UMG will utilize its ground breaking event management app to help organize the event and to constantly update participants of upcoming play and special events at the UMG stage.” The ‘event management’ App which Antony speaks of will be an Apple Store and Google Play application, and participants and attendees will be envouraged to download it prior to the event. There will be a mix of games on both Xbox One and PC, and the schedule for tournaments will also be posted on the app. You can find out more about the UMG and WSOP partnership in the official video.

Ukraine’s national esports teams quit IESF WEC over Russia unban IESFThe Ukrainian national CS:GO and Dota 2 teams have withdrawn from the IESF World Esports Championship 2023 after the organization lifted the ban on Russian teams. The decision comes after members of the International Esports Federation (IESF) voted in favor of letting Russian players compete under their country’s name again following a ban imposed in 2022 because of the war in Ukraine. According to a statement issued by the Russian Esports Federation (RESF), 32 delegates voted in favor of Russia’s reinstatement, 13 voted against, and 25 abstained. A proposal put forward by the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) to suspend RESF from the IESF was rejected by the congress, the Russian Federation added. Ukraine’s Dota 2 team was the first to announce that it was withdrawing from the event, forfeiting the lower bracket match against Indonesia. “After the news and the fact that this decision to unban Russia is final, [there is] no desire to compete anymore,” Ukraine support Ivan ‘Kidaro’ Bondarev is quoted by Cybersport.ru as saying. On X/Twitter, Ukrainian esports organization IKLA, whose CS:GO team was due to play Serbia on September 1 in the quarter-finals of the IESF CS:GO competition, announced that the squad is pulling out of the event. The IESF has not yet issued a statement on the lifting of Russia’s ban. The UESF vowed to challenge this decision in court and accused delegates of taking bribes. “The international federation is already mired in corruption scandals,” the UESF said on Telegram, seemingly referencing a July report by Romanian media outlet ReporterIS detailing the organization’s murky finances. The 2023 IESF WEC is taking place in Iași, Romania, and features tournaments in CS:GO, Dota 2, FIFA, Tekken 7, Mobile Legends, and PUBG Mobile. It is the 15th world championship organized by the IESF, which brings together 140 esports federations from all over the world.

Smash Ultimate’s newest fighter Hero will be tournament legal at Super Smash Con NintendoSuper Smash Bros Ultimate’s Hero will be released July 30 and will be tournament legal in the upcoming major tournament, Super Smash Con. The major, held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia, will feature tournaments for every console version of Smash Bros released – N64, Melee, Brawl, Wii U and Ultimate. The latter of which still has ongoing patches and content such as the release of Hero from Dragon Quest. Hero will be released as part of patch 4.0.0, which includes a new tournament mode, the ability to predict a winner in spectator mode, and a “very easy” setting for adventure mode. ICYMI: “”The Hero”” Nintendo Direct is on YouTube this time, not Twitch!https://t.co/wkpeH9WZLS Also – to clarify, this new char WILL be legal at #SSC19 🙂 Tomorrow is the LAST day to register!https://t.co/FHLlXbyfPB — Super Smash Con (@SuperSmashCon) July 30, 2019 The event posted a link to the latest Nintendo Direct on its Twitter and added “To clarify, this new char WILL be legal at #SSC19 :).” Read More: Ultimate players are upset at “casual” new tournament mode This will be the first major featuring the 4.0.0 patch as the next upcoming major tournament, Evo, had its patch lock date set for July 17. It will be interesting to see if any players pick up Hero and get good enough with him to the point that they feel comfortable using him at such a massive event. Super Smash Con has already had some controversy come its way with the implementation of a new “ledge grab limit”. Michael Brancato, the tournament director for Super Smash Con, announced rule 5.4.7 on July 21. The new rule states, in the event of a match going to a timeout, teams or players can invoke the ledge grab limit by checking the cliffhangers statistics for all players. Should one player or team reach 60 ledge grabs, they will forfeit the match. However, if both players in a singles match – or one from each team – break the 60 limit, the rule will be disregarded. With both Ultimate and Melee getting some serious changes to how they play with the addition of new fighters and rules, this event is shaping up to produce some very fresh gameplay. It’s also possible that the new Ultimate patch could buff and nerf other fighters, leading to a massive meta shift. Super Smash Con begins Thursday, August 8 and concludes Sunday, August 11.

Fnatic, Excel, Royal Ravens and more set to form UK Esports Team Committee UKETC/Michal Konkol/Riot GamesA collection of major esports teams based in the United Kingdom are set to announce their alliance as part of a not-for-profit committee in the coming days, with the goal of “progressing and growing the UK esports industry.” Prominent names in UK esports such as EXCEL, Fnatic, Call of Duty League franchise London Royal Ravens, and Overwatch League franchise London Spitfire are joining forces under the committee in an attempt to grow esports in the nation. As per the UK Esports Team Committee’s official website, which is live publicly ahead of any official announcement, seven teams have come together alongside the support of the British Esports Association. The not-for-profit association, which positions itself as a national body for esports, will not consider the committee a “formal sub-committee” to allow it to “operate independently.” The union of teams aims to provide a collective voice for UK esports to represent their views and interests to the wider industry and local government. Their website also claims that they will establish standards that need to be met for other UK organizations to be considered a “professional esports team.” The other members of the UK Esports Team Committee are Endpoint, MnM Gaming, and Vexed Gaming. Of note, there’s no mention of the nation’s other prominent organization, Guild, who are backed by former footballer David Beckham and based in London, England. The guidelines that teams in the committee have put forth for others that wish to join them include having a brand history of at least three years, a “respectable” track record in UK esports competitions, contractual commitments to staff and players, and senior staff with “good reputational history.” In 2008, the United Kingdom eSports Association was formed in hopes of becoming a governing body of competitive gaming in the nation. Major UK teams such as Reason Gaming, Team Infused, Fnatic, and Dignitas were involved in the initiative. The association signed for bankruptcy in December 2009 and allegedly owed a significant amount of teams and players money.

UK Esports Awards 2020 nominations and winners Twitch: @UKCSGOThe third UK Esports Awards ceremony took place on Friday, 12th November, featuring some of the biggest names from the British esports scene. Friday night was dedicated to acknowledging the best British esports had to offer this year, with multiple individuals across several sectors of the industry receiving recognition for their hard work during a very difficult year. Previous winners of the Awards have included the likes of Adam Fitch, Josh ‘Sideshow’ Wilkinson, and Frankie Wood – and this year saw yet another star-studded cast of esports’ brightest. How to watch If you were not able to catch the stream live, the UKCSGO Twitch channel has made the VOD available for everyone to view at their leisure. The Winners Admin Of The Year : Avery “obr1nk” Thomas, – Leonora ‘Duck’ Tomlinson – Chris “Hench” Henshaw – Backstage Hero: Aaron ‘AaronGillLIVE‘ Gill – Ben Tsow – Frazer Scully – Caster Of The Year: Peter “kremer3” Kremer – Callum ‘shogun’ Keir – Jack Peters – Will ‘viperoon’ Wittingham – Manager Of The Year: Zack ‘czer’ Chandler – Kalvin Chung – Peter Kremer – Organisation Of The Year: Excel – Endpoint – Vexed – London Esports – Aura Esports – Player Of The Year: Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin – Max ‘MiGHTYMAX’ Heath – Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman – Euan ‘Tadpole‘ Ingram – Marc Robert ‘Caedrel’ Lamont – Photographer Of The Year: Joe Brady – Charlotte Peers – Katy Eyre – Jak Howard – Griizzly – Presenter Of The Year: Frankie Ward – Cole and Stumpy – Simon Hill – Adam Savage – James Banks – Reporter Of The Year: Su Collins – Richard Lewis – George Geddes – Adam Fitch – Jacob Hale – Service Provider Of The Year: Hitmarker – Gamers Apparel – Faceit – raven.gg – EpicLAN – Streamer Of The Year: johnpee – snakeecod – subparbutinhd – eternalstephhd – onscreen – Tournament Of The Year: epicLAN – Neosurf Cup – The NUEL – ESL UK Premiership – Videographer Of The Year: Kieran Gibbs – Michael Gately – Charles Dalton – Rhys Rasmussen – The event, graciously hosted by Elle Osili-Wood was streamed on Twitch at 7 pm GMT. Each candidate had the opportunity to include a video with brief acceptance speeches following their award. Dexerto would especially like to congratulate Yisu Collins on her personal award as Reporter Of The Year, as well as her important contribution to the scene.

Two Dota 2 Players Don’t Make it Home Following Tournament in Philippines, One Confirmed Deceased Ezra Acayan – TwitterOne player has been confirmed deceased and another is missing after three competitors traveled home from a Dota 2 tournament in the Philippines. Documentary photographer Ezra Acayan posted a series of tweets detailing the death of 18-year-old Joshua Laxamana, a prominent Dota 2 player in the region. Laxamana, known by his tag ‘imadotes,’ was killed on his way home from a tournament with two other friends. One of these friends, 15-year-old Julius Sebastian, has been reported missing. The two, accompanied by an unnamed friend, left for the Dota 2 tournament on August 14. They made the trek from their hometown of Tarlac City to the venue in Baguio City – a 140 kilometer journey. a report on GMA News Online, Laxamana ignored a police checkpoint and even fired upon officers in Barangay Poblacion, Balungao. He was killed on the Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway. Laxamana and Sebastian had decided to push ahead to get home after the event, while the party’s third friend elected to stay behind and rest. Upon returning to Tarlac City, the friend learned that his companions hadn’t made it back ahead of him. Police have since stated that Laxmana was a member of the Akyat Bahay gang, holding that he fought against officers at the Barangay checkpoint. They likewise accused him of taking part in four other “akyat-bahay” robberies. According to Acayan’s Twitter thread, police have painted a picture of Laxamana as a “notorious burglar,” in possession of a motorbike and a .45 caliber pistol. Searches are still underway for Julius Sebastian.

TwitchCon 2019 Twitch Rivals tournament – games, prize pool, how to play, and more TwitchA massive Twitch Rivals tournament is being held at TwitchCon 2019 featuring a $1 million prize pool across Apex Legends, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics and Fortnite. Here’s what you need to know. Twitch Rivals gives streamers a chance to compete against one another for bragging rights and a decent payday. Now, the tournament is coming back to TwitchCon and it’s bigger than ever as over $1 million is up for grabs and for the first time, it’s open to more than just Twitch Partners. What games are involved? Four of the most popular games across Twitch will be represented here including Fortnite, Apex Legends, League of Legends. Over the course of three days, each game will be represented with, beginning first with Fortnite, then day two bundles League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics together, and finally things conclude with Apex Legends on the final day. How are the winnings split? With four games and over $1 million of winners available, there’s a lot of ways players can cash out. Of that total, $500,000 is going to Apex Legends alone, but the rest of the splits have not yet been revealed by Twitch. No matter what way you slice it, over $500,000 being split between three games is going to be a good chunk of change. How can you play? Twitch Partners and Affiliates have the option to play in the tournaments, provided they make the trip to TwitchCon of course. For the Apex Legends and League of Legends players, there is a way to get involved ahead of time to guarantee yourself a spot. The Road to TwitchCon tournaments will allows winning Partners from Europe and North America to get a free trip to TwitchCon and guarantee them a spot in the official tournaments. There are two Apex tournaments and one League one, and you can check out the times for those three tournaments below. Apex Legends Road to TwitchCon I: August 28-29 – – League of Legends Road to TwitchCon: September 4-5 – – Apex Legends Road to TwitchCon II: September 9 – – For the Partners and Affiliates without guaranteed spots, you can either be picked from the live audience or prove your skills in the Open Bracket. This Open Bracket will only be available to Teamfight Tactics and takes place during the League of Legends tournament. There will be eight open lobbies which will give anyone a chance to qualify.

Twitter’s New Esport Team Hashtags Emojis Possibly Related to Fortnite – OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan, Team Envy and More *Update: two more esports teams have had hashtag emojis added; G2 Esports and FlyQuest – neither of these organizations are involved in Fortnite. Twitter has launched a new set of hashtag emojis, or ‘hashflags’, representing logo’s of major North American esports organizations – and is possibly linked to Fortnite esports. Mimicking that of major traditional sports teams, Twitter has added emojis for OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan, Team Envy and more, although the reasoning is not entirely clear. Typically, hashflags are only available for a certain period of time, usually to cover a special event or occasion, such as the FIFA World Cup or US elections. And at first, it appears the only link between these new esports hashflags is that all the organizations that have them are North American. We’ve enabled custom emojis for some of your favorite teams!#TeamEnvy#TSMWin#C9Win#100Win#FaZeUp#TLWin#FlyQ#G2Army#NRGFam#GreenWall Just use their hashtags to cheer and Tweet along, and you’ll unlock their emoji. — Twitter Gaming (@TwitterGaming) July 25, 2018 There are a number of big tournaments coming up this weekend, including the PGI PUBG Invitational, CWL Stage Two Playoffs, week six of the NA LCS Summer Split and more. However, not all of these teams are competing in these events, in fact, there is only one game that all of them are involved in. Fortnite, which also got it’s own #Fortnite Llama emoji recently, is the most likely link between all these major esports organizations. All of these teams have players competing in Fortnite, and it is the only game that matches each team across the board. It perhaps hints at something in the works from Fortnite developer Epic Games, who are currently running their ‘Summer Skirmish’ series. These new team hashflags, linked only through being North American and all having Fortnite players/teams, could mean that some kind of professional team only event is planned. Fortnite esports teams with Twitter hashflags: OpTic Gaming: Baldy, WizKay, Mars, Dramas TSM: Myth, Hamlinz, Daequan, aimbotcalvin FaZe Clan: Joamock, Cloak, Tfue, SpaceLyon, Tennp0, Yelo 100 Thieves: Parallax, Kenith, Risker, SirDemetrious Team Liquid: 72hrs, Strafesh0t, Poach, Chap NRG Esports: Vicaros, TheGeneral, Kaysid, Zayt Team Envy: KingRichard Cloud9/Cloud9 White/Cloud9 Blue: Hysteria / Blind, Topboy, Zoof / Bandit, Boss, Shivzy, Criz Update: Spanish organization G2 Esports and North American ‘FlyQuest’ have both had esports emojis added. Neither of these teams have Fortnite players or rosters, so perhaps these new hashflags are not related to Fortnite in any way. Esports consultant and journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau claims to have been told that these new emoji’s are not linked to a specific game or event. Twitter has added emojis to several esports teams. From what I’ve been told this isn’t tied to any specific game, but is Twitter working to promote esports more on the platform.#Greenwall#FaZeUp #TSM#C9WIN #100T#LETSGOLIQUID #TeamEnvy#NRGFam — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 25, 2018

TSM suspend $210m FTX partnership amid crypto exchange collapse TSMNorth American esports organization TSM has suspended its partnership with FTX amid ongoing controversy around the cryptocurrency trading platform’s collapse. In mid-November, cryptocurrency exchange FTX was thrown into the spotlight after it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. This left billions of dollars of exposure in chaos for users and shareholders. Binance, a rival crypto exchange, was reported to be buying out FTX but following due diligence, decided to pull the plug on the deal. This sent the platform into a collapse, with their lucrative sponsorship deals with the likes of TSM and the Miami Heat up the air. On November 13, TSM issued their own statement on the matter, stating that the organization was “consulting legal counsel to determine the best next steps to protect our team, staff, fans, and players.” Now, they’ve suspended their partnership, which was worth a reported $210 million. TSM suspends partnership with FTX Following that November 13 statement, the North American esports org put out another statement on November 16 confirming the suspension of the partnership. “After monitoring the evolving situation and discussing internally, TSM is suspending our partnership with FTX effective immediately. This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team, and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys. This process may take some time to complete as some social platforms have made changes to their product features,” they said. “TSM is a strong, profitable, and stable organization. We forecast profitability this year, next year, and beyond. The current situation with FTX does not affect any part of TSM’s operating plan, which was set earlier this year.” The FTX branding has already been removed from the team’s Facebook profiles and website, but they cannot yet change their Twitter display name following the changes made to the platform’s verification process.

TSM taking legal action after PUBG player is poached TSMTop esports organization TSM has promised to take legal action against an Indian org after it announced the signing of a TSM PUBG Mobile player — without ever negotiating with TSM themselves. TSM has established itself as one of the premier organizations in esports, especially prevalent in North American League of Legends, where they have won multiple domestic trophies alongside the likes of Team Liquid and Cloud9. As such, they’ve seen the growth of esports from a grassroots scene to the highly professional, financially enticing industry it is today. That’s why they were stunned when they saw PUBG Mobile player Arjun ‘SHADOW’ Mandhalkar announced by another team, called GodLike Esports, without ever being contacted. Now, they’re looking to take action. “A team just announced a new player for their BGMI (PUBG Mobile) starting roster, that is still contracted to TSM, without talking to TSM,” said TSM’s head of global social and community, Duncan Cox. TSM’s mobile director Jeff ‘SuiJeneris’ Chau responded by saying that “Krafton India Esports has not responded for over a week regarding this issue when TSM India reached out.” Agree, sets a bad example for India esports Krafton India Esports has not responded for over a week regarding this issue when TSM India reached out Why hasn’t Krafton India gotten back to us? @Anuj_Tandon @hisohn Can you please help? — Jeff “”SuiJeneris”” Chau (@SJeneris) June 19, 2022 SuiJeneris then confirmed that they are “taking action” against the org, and will have an update about the process in the future. We are taking action and will have an update in the future for the India gaming community — Jeff “”SuiJeneris”” Chau (@SJeneris) June 19, 2022 He then also posted a series of screenshots of a conversation between TSM and Shadow, which show the player asking to be transferred to another team and TSM even offering a free loan so that he can play elsewhere. As it transpired, though, they brought him into the fold without holding any conversations with TSM — despite Chau’s insistence that the organizations must come to an agreement on his transfer. Feel bad for Shadow as it seems he is being used…? He just wants to play LAN 😔 Poaching/tampering is a dangerous and dishonest practice—it harms players, orgs, and turns good fans on each other Also, adults know that public relations is an integral part of legal strategy 🫡 pic.twitter.com/2YJgUcp88P — Jeff “”SuiJeneris”” Chau (@SJeneris) June 20, 2022 The Indian org didn’t take kindly to the comments made online by TSM’s execs. They posted two separate statements on Twitter, denying any accusations and saying that everything they did was fair and legal — and even saying they’re going to take legal action against TSM. “We, at GodLike, followed all the legal and ethical procedures while engaging with Shadow, as he was not bound by any agreement in existence,” they said. “However, Shadow’s erstwhile organisation started defaming Shadow as well as GodLike by releasing his personal chats on social media platforms, which is a violation of privacy and punishable under Indian law. “Due to constant slandering on media portals and news channels, we are constrained to make this statement that we are in the process of filing a criminal as well as civil case against the people who are releasing private chats and making defamatory statements against GodLike and also against one of the players who is openly abusing Shadow and GodLike on social media platforms.” We don’t take threats lightly.#WeAreGodLike#DilSeGodLike pic.twitter.com/FSPdxlYcOa — GodLike Esports (@GodLike_in) June 21, 2022 With TSM undergoing legal action against GodLike, it’s unclear what the outcome of this situation will be, so it’s well worth keeping an eye out on whether Shadow makes an appearance for GodLike any time soon.

TSM set to sign Huni and SwordArt for their LCS roster Riot GamesTSM are reportedly set to sign top laner Heo ‘Huni’ Seung-hoon and support Hu ‘SwordArt’ Shuo-Chieh for their 2021 LCS starting roster. The 2020 World Championship was disappointing for TSM fans as the organization once again failed to make it out of groups. The team didn’t win a single game at the competition, finishing with a record of 0-6 in their group. Of course, this led to questions from fans on what roster changes needed to be made during the offseason. The organization has never been afraid of making significant shifts in their roster in a bid for success. However, no one expected the retirement of star midlaner Soren ‘Bjergsen’ Bjerg, a player that has been at the forefront of TSM’s brand since 2013. His position is set to be filled by Flyquest midlaner Tristan ‘PowerOfEvil’ Schrage. It appears the organization will not settle with a single change and is reportedly set to sign Huni and is in talks with Worlds finalist SwordArt. TSM set to sign Huni and SwordArt for 2021 season According to a report from Jacob Wolf, TSM is finalizing a buyout from Evil Geniuses for domestic toplaner Huni. As reported on the show: @TSM are finalizing a buyout agreement with @EvilGeniuses for top laner @Huni, sources told me. Huni will replace Broken Blade as the top laner of the dynastic North American franchise. — Jacob Wolf 🐝 (@JacobWolf) November 17, 2020 Huni will replace toplaner Sergen ‘Broken Blade’ Celik, who is rumored to be heading to the LEC to join Schalke 04. Huni’s value as an LCS toplaner has risen significantly this year as he now acquired NA residency. By signing Huni, TSM opens up a second import slot for another position. According to a report by Pablo Suarez or ‘BloopGG’, TSM is attempting to acquire support SwordArt for their second import slot. Will cover myself here a bit: As @JacobWolf said on the Free Agency show, both parts want the deal to happen, but there is some immigration stuff that can frustate the signing. pic.twitter.com/2Vfu0UStcq — Pablo (@BloopGG) November 17, 2020 If the signing is secured, SwordArt will replace Vincent ‘Biofrost’ Wang as TSM’s support. It is worth noting that the SwordArt move is not guaranteed. As Jacob Wolf states, there are a number of hurdles that need to be navigated by TSM including immigration policy and payments. Overall, it’s clear TSM is making significant changes in the offseason to secure a team that can achieve both domestic and international success. With a fully revamped roster, it’ll be exciting to see what the team can achieve in the 2021 season.

LoL: TSM suffer shocking loss to Clutch Gaming in LCS Worlds Qualifier Riot GamesClutch Gaming have handed a stunning loss Team SoloMid in the LCS 2019 Regional Finals, qualifying for their first League of Legends World Championship. After going down 0-2 to one of North America’s most recognizable League teams in Team Solomid, Clutch Gaming won three in a row to make it to Worlds. It will be the organization’s first appearance at the end-of-season tournament, set to be held in Europe in October. Off the back of a late-season resurgence, Clutch Gaming stormed home through the Regional Qualifier Gauntlet to face off against TSM for the final spot at Worlds. The experienced roster was expected to qualify for their eighth Worlds after missing out in 2018, but the rising stars rose up to the occasion. Veterans Sun ‘Cody Sun’ Li-Yu and Heo ‘Huni’ Seung-hoon shone for the Dignitas-affiliated team throughout the postseason. Read more: Damonte explains why TSM “f*cked up” – In the final series on their run to Worlds, Cody Sun’s Ezreal and Kog’Maw proved to be a nuisance for TSM, drawing multiple bans. This freed up the map to allow Huni to shine on some signature picks like Gnar and Irelia, with jungler Nam ‘Lira’ Tae-yoo helping keep the pressure up across the map. The LCS tweeted out the final moments of the five-game series, saying “They’ve done it! @ClutchGaming reverse sweep @TSM and qualify for the 2019 World Championship!” THEY’VE DONE IT! @ClutchGaming REVERSE SWEEP @TSM AND QUALIFY FOR THE 2019 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP! #CGWIN #LCS #Worlds2019 pic.twitter.com/zGHvcM0cm7 — LCS (@LCSOfficial) September 9, 2019 Mid laner Tanner ‘Damonte’ Damonte was left speechless after the upset in an on-stage interview with Ovilee May. Read more: First look at Nike LoL jerseys – “Holy shit. This is surreal. I feel like this split there’s been so much shit that us as a team has had to go through, so much shit I’ve had to go through, and this feels crazy,” he said. Damonte was able to match star mid laner Søren ‘Bjersen’ Bjerg, negating his influence across the final three games. Clutch played 27 games across both the LCS Summer 2019 Playoffs and the Regional Finals to make the run to Worlds. After finishing the Spring Split in ninth, the team changed the way they approached the game, allowing for a miracle run like Cloud 9’s last year. For TSM though, the loss is the end of a bitterly disappointing 2019 season. They lost to Team Liquid in the Spring Playoffs in a reverse sweep and missed out on MSI, while they didn’t make it past the quarters in Summer. Clutch will join Team Liquid and Cloud 9 as North America’s hopefuls at the tournament. North America have never won a world championship, but Cloud 9 got to the semi-finals in 2018, while Team Liquid lost to Europe’s G2 Esports in the final of this year’s Mid-Season Invitational. You can keep up with who has qualified for Worlds via our League Worlds 2019 hub.

TSM reveals inside look at luxury $50 million esports center TSMTeam SoloMid has given fans a look inside of their new, $50,000,000 esports center in Los Angeles, which they claim is the “most expensive” in the world and the “largest ever created in North America.” Since being founded in 2009, TSM has become one of the most popular North American-based esports organizations of the last decade, and it seems they’ve decided to build a facility to match. Fortnite pro Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani and TSM president of esports Leena Xu walked us through the massive facility filled with anything a professional gamer could ever want or need. According to Xu, the facility is set to open in “Spring 2020,” which means this video was probably filmed well in advance of its April release date. From the very beginning, Myth seemed incredibly pumped about the 25,000 sq. foot building, which is the biggest esports-focused facility in the western hemisphere, according to TSM. The center space of the building is where the over 60 employees who make everything TSM happen will work, but there’s going to be much more than just office space in their massive new HQ. For fans in Southern California, there will be a special watch party room where they can gather and watch all of TSM’s games, which will also double as a film room for players during the week. There’s one thing inside of TSM’s massive new facility that no other esports center in the world has though, and that’s a sensory deprivation tank. If you don’t know, sensory deprivation tanks are small pools of salt water you float in that cut off all light, sounds and other stimuli from the outside world. They’re supposed to be incredibly trippy, and great for relaxing and meditation. The idea for the tank actually came from TSM’s League of Legends midlaner Søren “Bjergsen“ Bjerg, but Xu told Myth he was more than welcome to use it as well, since they wouldn’t be getting a swimming pool as the Fortnite pro had requested. Players will also get their own area, the “Lenovo Legion Lounge” (try saying that five times fast), where they can practice and prep for matches and tournaments. They’ll also have access to a full-size gym, kitchen and everything else a pro gamer or content creator could need. All of this means players could theoretically never have to leave the facility, which would make a “How long can I live at the TSM HQ without getting kicked out!?” video some great content. You can have that idea for free, Myth.

TSM FTX releases NFT collection and here’s how to get one TSM FTXGlobal esports organization TSM FTX has released a brand-new NFT (Non-fungible token) collection designed by Aurory. TSM FTX have just recently partnered, bringing the cryptocurrency space to esports in a meaningful way. Continuing to trailblaze, the esports organization has just announced a new NFT collection, another feat that no major player in the space has attempted thus far. The tokens are unique, featuring a few different designs that fans will have the opportunity to get their hands on in the near future. TSM FTX NFT Design The collection, as seen in the official news post, is made up of four uniquely designed avatars designed by Aurory, a blockchain-based game and NFT ecosystem. The tokens, called “Aurorians,” each sport a unique piece of TSM gear, with one even wearing the 2017 LCS championship jersey. How to get a TSM FTX NFT Fans can enter to win one of the avatars, one will be auctioned off to benefit an unannounced charity, and the other two will remain in the TSM FTX wallet for the time being. The auction is set to take place in the coming months, while fans only have one week to enter into the giveaway. This is the first collaboration of its kind in esports, so it will be interesting to follow and see just how much bidders will be willing to pay for a personalized TSM avatar. We will continue to provide updates on the status of these NFT’s and if any more in the collection are made available.

TSM under fire for insensitive tweet after LCS and VCT losses TSMHistoric NA esports organization TSM is under fire after they posted an insensitive and highly controversial tweet following the team’s back-to-back losses in both the LCS and the Valorant Champions Tour. TSM were criticized for posting a tweet making reference to suicide after the team took two heavy losses in LCS Spring 2021 and VCT Challengers 3. The tweet, which was captioned “Sadge,” featured the “are you winning, son” meme format, with one of the depicted characters hanging from the ceiling. The tweet was liked nearly a thousand times by the organization’s 2.1 million followers. It was deleted within five minutes of posting. TSM social media manager Duncan ‘Dunc’ Cox apologized on Twitter shortly after deleting the tweet from his personal account. Read More: How to watch LCS Spring 2021 – “Just want to apologize for using the wrong image for a sad meme. I completely misjudged the template until it was pointed out. Amateur mistake and I won’t let it happen again,” he said. “I’m truly sorry to those that I may have offended. I really did not mean to cause offense. It was a straight copy and paste in a quick action. I thought the guy was walking away from the chair and he kicked it over in frustration. I really hope you can forgive me.” “I’ve been a big outspoken voice for mental health, suicide and everything that comes with it. I wouldn’t joke, have never joked, and did not mean to have it come out as a joke.” TSM has since issued a statement, citing an internal review found no malicious wrongdoing. “We have reviewed the situation with the person who posted the tweet and we understand that while this was not his intention, he knows that this was a huge mistake. Moving forward, processes are now in place to prevent something like this from happening again,” they said in a Twitlonger. “We strive to build a positive community around something that we all are very passionate about. We will learn from this mistake but please refrain from personal attacks and threats.” It comes after TSM’s League of Legends squad lost to Dignitas in a big comeback. The organization’s Valorant team also lost 0-2 to 100 Thieves shortly after, knocking them out of contention for VCT Masters 1. 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).

TSM fans blast “weak” statement as org lays out plans for future in esports Stefan Wisnoski/Riot GamesTSM fans have ripped into the company after it tried to reaffirm its commitment to esports in a Reddit post. TSM, like many esports organizations, have been impacted by the esports winter and the greater gaming industry downturn. However, as one of the biggest esports brands in North America, many assumed it would bounce back after a time. That does not seem to be the case so far in 2024 as TSM laid off its global head of social media on January 29. The worker revealed in his farewell post that the esports org was down to less than 10 employees after his departure. TSM took to Reddit the next day to lay out its plans for esports to its fans, however, the fans have not been receptive. TSM fans unforgiving toward esports org In the Reddit post, TSM said it had seen the fan frustration and wanted to showcase what it plans to do in esports in 2024. “Although we cannot share many of the finer details of our plans for the future, we can confirm that we are actively looking to participate in multiple Tier 1 esports including League of Legends, VALORANT, and Call of Duty. We are diligently working towards our goal of acquiring a League of Legends franchise slot in a Tier 1 region by the end of 2024,” the company’s statement said. TSM also highlighted its recent reentrance into Rocket League esports. Fans, however, do not seem receptive to the news and many said the post seemed weak and too late. “This is a pretty weak ass update, essentially no actual information at least go into a bit about why you failed to secure a spot in 2024 as promised previously or maybe what’s going on with your 8-person company. I think fans would have a lot more sympathy if there was any level of transparency,” one fan said. “I find this statement so hard to take at face value somehow,” another fan wrote. TSM was once considered the most valuable esports company in the world, but with the collapse of its big crypto sponsorship, layoffs, and CEO scandal it has lost a lot of its luster in the eyes of fans.

TSM FTX exec explains Japan expansion: “We are trying to build up a global presence” TSM FTXAs viewership for esports grows, so too does the desire for organizations to better tap into the increasing number of fans, as they look to solidify their revenue streams and become sustainable businesses away from venture capital. TSM FTX, a North American organization, are one of few companies at the forefront of the ‘global expansion’ wave the industry is witnessing. It seems like every week an organization cites their ambitions for a “global expansion” as a means of cementing a partnership, entering an additional game, or making a new hire. Esports is pretty well-suited to being a global sport after all, with remote work not being out of the ordinary, esports leagues and initiatives cropping up in every continent, and tournament viewership being available to spectate on a small selection of well-established streaming platforms. While some esports companies are looking locally to strengthen their relationship with their fans — just look at the city-based approach of both the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League — there are some orgs that are investing significantly to accommodate prospective fans outside of their home nation, casting a wider net in hopes of a deeper return on investment in the future. One of those orgs that are providing localized experiences for fans but on an international basis are TSM, now known as TSM FTX through a $210m 10-year naming sponsorship with the crypto exchange, but they’re being sensible in approach. Dexerto spoke with Walter Wang, the org’s vice president of operations, to gain insight on their approach to their global strategy, particularly in Japan. TSM FTX take on Japan TSM FTX’s Japanese-speaking Twitter account was launched on August 10, 2021, with the goal of amassing 10,000 followers within a month. It gained 27,000 followers in 12 hours. Less than two months later and it’s close to eclipsing 50,000, executing a strategy led by global head of social and community Duncan Cox. What’s impressive is that the org hasn’t signed any creators or players within this timeframe. Instead, this following comprises of new and existing Japanese-speaking fans of a team that’s not (yet) competing in any of their leagues or utilizing Japanese players. “The thesis is that esports is the most global sport in the world,” Wang told Dexerto. “We have TSM fans all over the world and we really want to reach them. We’ve taken initiative to expand globally over the past year, setting up an office in Shanghai and picking up teams in Brazil and India. We want to make sure that we have a strong social presence that can speak the language that is localized to that country. We’ve tried to expand into basically every region — it’s quite an upfront investment cost, I must say, because it’s hard to monetize globally. “Our expansion into Japan was very interesting because we knew from the data that Apex Legends is really popular there. We have one of the most popular Apex teams in the world and we wanted to be able to reach out to those Japanese fans, even the players wanted to expand their brands there too.” Why Japan? Why specifically translate and tailor Apex Legends content for a Japanese audience? The Asian country is the second-largest market for EA and Respawn’s battle royale title — boosted by its launch on Nintendo Switch, as well as the popularity of VTubers. Seriously. Apex Legends’ status in Japan has been this way for quite some time now. It was the most-watched game in Japan back in October 2020 and their viewership is nothing to scoff at. According to Statista, an estimate of 6.9m people made up the Japanese esports audience in 2020, and it’s projected to grow in excess of 14.6 viewers by 2024. TSM FTX, as well as fellow orgs like Fnatic, are moving into emerging markets like Japan and India now, as opposed to trying to get in when they’re more developed in the years to come, not only to enjoy the relatively cheap operational costs (especially when compared to North America) but to be well-established as major players in the country as more eyeballs and wallets flock to the industry. Wanted to hit 10k within a month of launching @TSM_JP. Kinda shocked that we hit 30k in less than 20 hours with no team, streamers, or influencer announcement. It’s a lot of fun creating region specific communities. https://t.co/t1TogyFK47 — DUNC (@followdunc) August 10, 2021 “If you take a look at our demographic data on our native social platforms, you can see the regions,” Wang explained. “We experimented, like seeing if Apex Legends videos with Japanese subtitles would receive more views. It worked, so we allocated the resources to hire somebody dedicated to Japanese socials.” It’s not as simple as picking a location on a map and then simply launching social channels. Each region, each country, even each community has its own nuances; there are cultural and societal norms that vary wildly when you look at two different markets and that needs to be considered. Background research and finding the right personnel for the job is imperative but no light tasks. Sourcing supporting staff is one thing, but finding the right players to combine and generate success is a mysterious, ever-changing formula that orgs need to work towards understanding too. Expanding scope to monitor Japan closely should open TSM FTX up to a whole new pool of players but careful consideration needs to be employed throughout the process. “You have to be able to localize yourself, so finding the right people has been the most interesting part,” Wang told Dexerto. “There’s a lot of internet lingo and social trends in specific regions so hiring people that understand esports and TSM and can speak both languages is always a challenge. Operating a global company poses its own challenges from HR to timezones, it’s harder logistically. “We source talent globally but it depends on the game. Mechanical skill trumps teamplay in certain games but in a game like League of Legends, there’s so much communication and teamplay involved that language barriers can be a big thing. Looking into the future, every esports team will be sourcing talent globally and maybe developing a language program to help with communication.” Local commercialization “We will have specific teams in different regions — like Free Fire in Brazil — where we will want specific Brazilian partners for that team. CPMs are much lower so the dollar values may not make sense for our League of Legends team but could with our Brazilian team. That’s potentially the biggest challenge: what do we do with these fans? How do we get partners and value from those fans? Doing global sales in certain regions is very difficult.” Read More: Immortals CEO on revitalizing the brand: “I’ve always been attracted to comeback stories” – TSM FTX were the most valuable esports organization of 2020, if Forbes are to be believed at least, and a lot of their revenue is sourced from sponsorship — as is the norm in the industry. This has never been more evident when you consider their record-breaking $210m deal with FTX, but these agreements vary to drastic degrees based on the markets they target. Organically and effectively engaging the Japanese market could work wonders for the organization in regards to accessing even more advertising dollars, as local companies could well view them as a viable means of promoting their product or service. Wang already explained that a lot of investment has gone into TSM FTX’s forays into Brazil, India, and Japan, so offsetting this spend with localized sponsorships (and eventually aiming for profit) seems a sensible goal to work towards. “There are certain partners are global and some are U.S. only,” he explained. “[The deal with] FTX, for example, is global because they serve the U.S. and the rest of the world. The same with Logitech. Though certain deals like GEICO are North American as that’s where they offer their services.” Franchising in the future Considering TSM FTX are casting a wide a net as possible when it comes to fan acquisition and, they hope, customer acquisition, you shouldn’t expect to see them in any geolocated league in the near future. The Los Angeles TSM will not appear in Call of Duty or Overwatch as, Wang believes, it’s not sustainable for the business in the current climate. “Short-term, I don’t think localization is in the cards for us,” he said. “Traditional sports make a lot of money from localization and that’s the majority of revenue for many major teams out there, but it’s really a real estate business because they’re building stadiums. Imagine if TSM tried to compete in this regard, especially in say Los Angeles. It would cost tens of millions of dollars. “It makes sense in other regions. Look at LPL teams building stadiums in China. For us, for now, we won’t commit to any localization plays unless it makes complete sense.” It’s early days when it comes to TSM FTX truly becoming a global phenomenon — where they can cash in on a number of markets through product sales, advertising brand partners, and event-related sales — but they’re clearly putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to esports’ new buzzing phrase: the global expansion.

TSM drop League import Keaiduo after mid-Spring benching TSMTSM have parted ways with Zhu ‘Keaiduo’ Xiong, a young Chinese mid laner that headlined their 2021 offseason signings, after benching the player in the middle of the spring split. TSM is breaking away from its 2021 signing class which includes its Chinese mid laner Keaiduo, the company announced on May 2. The young star was signed in December 2021 as a part of TSM’s new look roster which included Wei ‘Shenyi’ Zi-Jie, another young Chinese player from the region’s developmental league, and a new head coach in Wong ‘Chawy’ Xing Lei. The team is also reportedly departing with Shenyi as well, marking an end to a dysfunctional split that saw the team go through multiple controversies. Keaiduo played nine games for the main TSM team in the League of Legends Championship Series before going to the bench, and the Academy league, for the rest of the split. Shenyi also saw time on the bench, but made his way back to the starting roster after a short stint in LCS Academy. TSM split with Keaiduo after controversy-packed spring split Today we part ways with @Keaiduo7Keaiduo. Due to the upsurge in COVID cases in China, Keaiduo will stay in NA until it is safe to return home. During that time he will continue to train with us while also receiving pay and housing. Thank you & good luck in your future, Keaiduo. pic.twitter.com/81lZ3XBERC — TSM Report (@tsmreport) May 2, 2022 According to TSM, Keaiduo’s benching was not the result of his performance, TSM went 1-8 in his time as a starter, but more for his attitude outside of the game. In an article for Upcomer, Chawy said that the young mid laner was benched because he locked in a champion on stage without talking to the team or coaches and when confronted about it, was “negative and disrespectful” towards the staff. Keaiduo was also on the Academy team when his coach at the time, Zhang ‘Peter Zhang’ Yi, fled the country after allegedly acting as an agent for the Chinese and Taiwanese players he recruited for TSM, which Keaiduo may have been a part of, and took a cut of their salary among other dubious financial operations. TSM recorded its worst split in the history of their LCS tenure in spring 2022, finishing outside of the playoffs for the first time and ending with a 5-13 record in ninth place.

TSM CEO responds to report of esports exit & confirms CSGO team still coming Riot GamesFollowing reports that TSM would be selling its LCS spot and ceasing other esports investments, founder and CEO TSM Reginald claimed the org still plans to invest in CS:GO later this year. With the announcement of Counter Strike 2 in March, excitement for the series and its competitive scene saw a tangible boost. With the sequel garnering hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch and the original CS:GO breaking its all-time player record, the beta window proved that CS2 can be a worthy successor. However, with the beta came the announcement that Valve would be focusing more on Counter Strike 2’s competitive scene, with the CS:GO Fall Major being canceled due to the transition. As such, esports orgs have had to adjust to the changing landscape. TSM is one org that has undergone significant changes recently, with high-profile employees leaving during a company downsize. TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh claimed the company had “expanded too quickly,” which resulted in the wave of layoffs. Now, Reginald has responded to a report that TSM could sell its LCS spot in addition to pausing some other esports operations. Seemingly confirming the report, Reginald reassured fans that TSM is committed to esports and had news to share about the company’s focus. TSM to make large investment in CS:GO In late 2022, TSM’s former VP of Esports Operation Dominic Kallas revealed that the org wanted to return to competitive CS:GO. However, several months have passed since then, and Valve’s CS2 announcements left fans wondering if that was still on the table. TSM Reginald took to Twitter on April 1, 2023, in response to recent reports and to give an update on the organization’s future in Counter-Strike. “TSM is committed to esports,” he wrote. “We’re planning to enter CS:GO sometime later this year which is a larger investment than all of the games we’ve left combined.” He went on to reassure fans, and stated that TSM is always evaluating which games are the best to invest in, and that they will continue to enter and exit games as the ecosystems change. If Kallas’ words hold true, TSM plans to have a roster of players ready to go some time this year. He originally stated there was a chance for the lineup to be ready before the BLAST Major qualifiers, but that wasn’t the case. Regardless, TSM Reginald has reassured the CS:GO community that Team Solo Mid is coming to compete later this year.

TSM COO announces departure from esports organization LinkedIn: Walter WangWalter Wang announced his departure from TSM as the COO of the esports and gaming company on Twitter after six working at the organization. Wang said via Twitter that he made the decision to leave TSM “a couple of weeks ago” and announced his departure as COO on March 17. Wang joined TSM in 2017 as an advisor and worked his way up to COO of the company by 2021, according to his LinkedIn. In his announcement, Wang thanked his colleagues and the fans of the organization while also commenting on his time with TSM. “My time at TSM has been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, but it has taught me invaluable lessons about resilience, perseverance, and teamwork. I am incredibly grateful for the unwavering commitment of our team in rising up to every challenge that came our way,” he said. TSM has also lost its Vice President of Esports Operations, Dominic Kallas, this month. Kallas announced his departure on March 1 after about a year with the company. TSM loses COO as esports winter continues While Wang was with TSM, the esports organization rose to prominence in Apex Legends, DOTA 2 and Rainbow Six while also jumping into Valorant esports. Wang also oversaw TSM’s entry into markets outside of the United States, like Japan and India, while with the company. Wang was also with TSM as the company’s CEO, Andy “Reginald” Dinh, was investigated by Riot Games and The Washington Post for bullying his employees. Dinh was ultimately put on probation by the Valorant and League of Legends developer and TSM was fined $75,000. His tenure also included the decision for TSM to sell its naming rights to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX. TSM has tried to distance itself from the company since its collapse.

Why streaming platform Trovo support mobile and grassroots esports so strongly Nova Esports There are plenty of live streaming platforms in the market but Trovo are differentiating themselves in a few ways — one of which is supporting grassroots and emerging esports titles. While not related to their core business, it’s a smart and generous move. Trovo is described as an “interactive live streaming platform” that is centered around community. Live streaming sees people broadcast themselves, effectively sharing their experience with people who have similar gaming interests in what can be seen as a major act of community-building. While there are indeed other platforms that house gaming streams, Trovo are showing just how serious they are about community in other ways. Mobile esports is a heavily-debated topic, not only in terms of their popularity but even their legitimacy, but the streaming platform is helping to solidify and support this corner of competitive video gaming. Not only do they allow titles such as PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, and Call of Duty: Mobile to be streamed effortlessly on their site, they go as far as to sponsor and actively support players and teams in the space. #TrovoNova remains unbeaten on @MobileMayhemGG @wildrift event and wins the close battle against @TribeGaming ! What a dive by @Vex190 to close the 3rd game!#NOVAxTROVO #MobileMayhem @trovolive pic.twitter.com/XcbSg6jDpD — Nova Esports (@NovaEsportsTeam) March 6, 2021 Whether its sponsoring major Hong Kong-based mobile esports organization Nova Esports or co-hosting a Fortnite tournament with Italian organization QLASH, Trovo are cementing their status as champions of grassroots, amateur, and emerging esports. It’s good marketing for the platform, of course, but it proves that they are serious about growing, and advocating for, an industry that millions of people love. One of the many activities the platform is engaging in outside of streaming is supporting PUBG Mobile team, and now world champions, Nova Esports. While PUBG on PC is the most prominent version of the title in the West, there’s no doubt that PUBG Mobile is a hit across Asia and South America. That said, there’s a long way to go before mobile esports is at a financial and infrastructural on par with the likes of League of Legends. Sponsoring Nova Esports’ team in the popular mobile title, Trovo’s support no doubt helped to ensure their situation on the road to becoming world champions. Across all levels of competitive gaming there’s an element of risk — one that will be present until effective monetization is achieved across the board. This means that sponsorships are foundational to the operation of organizations and the overall experience of their players. “We believe in the future of mobile esports and were looking for an organization with a strong history of mobile gaming competition,” said Allen Chan, Trovo’s senior operations manager. “Nova Esports not only represented this but has been a strong supporter in helping Trovo pioneer mobile gaming.” A Fornite event aimed at European players may seem entirely unrelated to an Asian mobile esports team, but it still made sense for Trovo to get one off the ground with QLASH. The streaming platform’s core business allows gamers to monetize themselves, build an audience, and increase discoverability — these elements ring true in an event aimed at amateur and budding professional players too. Considering the shared benefits of these features, it’s safe to expect many more community-driven initiatives from Trovo throughout 2021. Read More: Envy Gaming raises $40 million investment – “Trovo has a strong European community, many of which stream and watch Fortnite,” said Chan. “Hosting events like this is a great way to support our streamers with unique content opportunities and increase discoverability. We will be launching more events this year and will have more details about our event calendar in April.” The Wild Rift Asia Brawl is another example of Trovo’s forward-thinking. While the game is cementing itself in the fabric of esports, they hosted an event and broadcasted it live on their platform to give an early look into the future of the title in a competitive lens. Tournament operators are also lucky recipients of Trovo’s support, too, but in unique ways. In Call of Duty: Mobile, a fairly new entry to the mobile market, event organizers Mobile Mayhem launched their very first team alongside Trovo. The squad aims to “breathe life into mobile esports” by “creating content that keeps you on the edge of the seat,” “making merch that you actually want to wear,” and teams people truly support. This isn’t a normal sponsorship activation, but that’s exciting. “Trovo has more than 2000 daily Call of Duty: Mobile live channels streaming on the platform and has become the number one streaming platform with largest viewership and watch hours worldwide,” Chan said of the decision to invest further into the game. “Mobile Mayhem is one the top leagues that has helped foster the competitive scene for CoD: Mobile and has supported the growth of Trovo since its inception.” Mobile Mayhem is excited to join forces with @trovolive to announce its first official @PlayCODMobile roster – Trovo Mayhem!🔥@NoahFromTweeter@RealGodzly@_Tectonic_@LittleB_inV@Axrith@imVaguee@bnatesgamer Analyst: @path_exe Watch them tonight at 7PM EST!#MaskUp😷 pic.twitter.com/2sntR9HvEs — CauseMayhem🔥 (@MobileMayhemGG) January 19, 2021 While supporting up-and-coming players and competitions is vital in Trovo’s plans, they’re proving that they can sit alongside major legacy online broadcasters. In February 2021, they were named as an official broadcast partner of the LEC — the premier European competition for Riot Games’ League of Legends. While this may seem counterintuitive to other moves made by the platform, it actually makes all the sense in the world. “Our European community has become one of the largest groups on the platform and acquiring the broadcast rights to the LEC provides the synergy to supplement the growing needs of the community,” Chan explained. Attention is being fought for every waking moment in esports, with events across dozens of games taking place each day, it’s becoming both easier and harder to succeed. Easier in that people are searching for a community to become a part of, but harder because the barrier to entry is lowering often. Trovo are using what could perhaps be seen as unconventional methods to advertise themselves, but they’re truly building up several communities in the process — communities that may well stand among the top titles across the entirety of competitive gaming for years to come.

Trovo Titans: $250,000 community tournament series for Valorant, Warzone & more Trovo Live streaming platform Trovo has announced that they will be running a series of community tournaments called Trovo Titans, with $250,000 up for grabs across multiple titles. The series will run throughout 2021 across North America, Latin America and Europe, featuring over 100 events and 280 days of competition through weekly matches and monthly tournaments. The Trovo Titans program will include tournaments across a wide variety of game genres and titles customized for each region. In addition to prize pools for each event, players will have the chance to win cash and prizes by accumulating Titan Points, which can be earned through event participation, tournament placement, and engagement on the Trovo platform and Trovo Titans Discord. To mark their first anniversary in May, Trovo say that “the best way to celebrate is to provide more opportunities to play, compete, win and share that experience with our community across the globe.” “With a variety of games to play and an engaging esports format, Trovo Titans provides something for everyone in the gaming community, and I look forward to watching this amazing entertainment platform grow all year long,” Allen Chan, Senior Operations Manager for Trovo, said of the innovative tournament series. When is Trovo Titans? Trovo Titans kicks off with the Trovo Titans Birthday Bash covering four weekends in May and starting with the following community tournaments: North America: May 7-9, League of Legends – Prize Pool: $5,000 – Latin America: May 7-9, League of Legends – Prize Pool: $2,500 – Europe: May 8-14, League of Legends – Prize Pool: €5,000 – The full schedules for the Trovo Titans Birthday Bash in May for each region can be found on TrovoTitans.live. Game feeds will be observed and broadcasted live on the Trovo Titans channel, with opportunities for community casters to stream the games on their Trovo channels with professional production by Allied Esports. Viewership rewards will be given out throughout the year on Trovo. For more information about Trovo Titans, including updated schedules, tournament registration, Titan Points and community casting opportunities, visit trovotitans.live and follow Trovo Titans on Twitter.

Triumph Esports receive investment from former NBA MVP Kevin Garnett Turner SportsNewly formed Triumph Esports have received an investment from Kevin Garnett, a 15-time all-star of the NBA and founder of experiential company Big Ticket Events LLC. Following Garnett’s retirement from a well-decorated career as a power forward in the NBA, he founded Big Ticket LLC — a sports events management and production company. On August 12, it was confirmed that Big Ticket LLC will invest into Triumph Esports, a ‘full-service esports company’ comprised of two divisions: Rivalcade (an esports event management company) and Triumph Gaming (a professional esports team responsible for player development). Please welcome the newest member to Triumph: NBA Legend Kevin Garnett. Read here: https://t.co/9coXcTlpw3#TogetherWeTriumph | @KevinGarnett5KG pic.twitter.com/Am7Q2MfQbe — Triumph (@TriumphGamingGG) August 12, 2019 Founded in the late part of 2018, Triumph Gaming currently has rosters in Apex Legends, Teamfight Tactics and Overwatch; with their Overwatch team competing for a playoff position in the North American (West) division of the Overwatch Contenders Trials. Alongside the investment into the gaming branch of the holding company, a USP of this partnership could see a merge of both sports and esports events, tailored to fans of all elements of competition. “Our relationship with Triumph Esports is a natural fit as we look to showcase and elevate shared lifestyle experiences through competition, content, and live events. Our vision is to create unique experiences that impact our fans across a variety of passion points” said Garnett in a press release. Founder of Rivalcade and CEO of Triumph Esports, Scott O’Leary, added: “We look forward to working together to engage our fans and players in new, collaborative and creative ways” — a vision that is shared with Garnett’s hands-on approach to experiential sporting events. While founder of Triumph Gaming and COO of Triumph Esports, Jake Laumann, expressed the positive influence having someone like Kevin can have on those affiliated with the brand: “Having a world-class competitor like Kevin as a partner validates and reinforces our dedication to creating a platform for players and staff to learn what it takes to play, compete, and perform at the highest level.” With big names showing a proactive involvement in esports, such as Steph Curry becoming a part of TSM’s latest round of funding back in April 2019, Garnett now adds his name to the ever expanding list of celebrities to invest in esports.

Tournament organizer UnifiedEA accused of incompetence, missing payments, mistreating staff Twitter @UnifiedEAA bastion of the NA amateur scenes for LoL and Valorant, Unified has recently come under scrutiny from the community for repeated delays in paying talent and participating teams. Note: a previous version of this article included incorrect information about casting rates for Unified’s Proving Grounds Qualifiers. Multiple former Unified employees have since come forward to share the correct rates for the event, and the information has been amended. Making money in esports is a difficult business. Across the world, we’re seeing organizations scale back their employee numbers and post shocking financial losses as the boom in esports investment during the global health crisis drives to a screeching halt. And if things are bad at the top of the food chain, then they’re only going to get worse the further down you go. Recently, North American amateur tournament organizer UnifiedEA has come under heavy scrutiny from the NA League of Legends community for alleged outstanding payments to freelance staff and teams, with some saying they’ve waited up to four months and are yet to receive tournament winnings and wages for event work. The issue spans multiple titles and has given way to testimonies of a disorganized, uncommunicative workplace environment and unfair dismissals from Unified’s staff. We spoke to multiple members of the NA amateur community to find out just what’s been going on with Unified and how one of the region’s most prolific and well-loved community bastions failed players and staff through mismanagement and poor communication from its senior leadership. Who are UnifiedEA? From humble beginnings as Midwest Esports, the brainchild of a few college students based out of Wichita, Kansas, UnifiedEA grew to become one of the premier amateur tournament organizers in North America. Between 2020 and 2021, they acquired two TOs, Upsurge and Challengers Uprising, to become the premier amateur tournament entity in the region. In 2021, they also worked directly with Riot Games to host and broadcast the Unified Grand Prix, a qualifier to Riot’s Proving Grounds tournament that gave amateur teams the chance to play against LCS Academy rosters. After the success of the Unified Grand Prix, which ran alongside tournaments from multiple other amateur TOs during the Proving Grounds qualification process, Unified acquired the sole rights to run Proving Grounds qualifiers for 2022. In addition to the Proving Grounds events, Unified runs pay-to-enter, cash prize online tournaments, bracketed by in-game rank. Leagues are split up into community, collegiate, and premier, with prize pools scaling from around $1,000 for community events to up to $29,000 for premier events. The company runs on a subscription basis for the large majority of its events; for a $25 monthly fee, subscribers get one ‘League pass’, which allows them access to one of Unified’s tournaments, and the potential to claim part of its extensive prize pools. Transitioning from LAN to online In the beginning, one of the key areas of Unified’s business was their in-person events. They would set up LANs at conventions all across the midwest, with former employees stating that they’d often be attending a convention every weekend. But the global health crisis hit the company hard, as they (like many other areas of esports) were forced to transition to a wholly-online model after having spent a large part of their early days generating profit through LAN events. Despite this, though, the company maintained a positive external image — continuing to pay out tournament winnings on time, although they were reportedly late in paying multiple contractors, including casters and observers for League and Valorant tournaments. Valorant caster Jesse ‘JAG’ Goodman explained that, while he’s not currently owed any money by Unified, the TO would “usually be late with payments” and that in working with the company he was making “only half of what could be made elsewhere”. In the spring of 2022, the prize pool for Unified’s Premier League Valorant tournament was doubled from $2,500 to $5,000 total — but casters for the event were kept on a flat rate of $37.50 for a best-of-three series, with Goodman explaining that the average industry rate for in the amateur scene can range anywhere from $75-$125. Failure to pay prize winnings from UPL Spring 2022 On July 11, Lane ‘Lipolane’ Sorell, co-owner of amateur organization Return of the Middlesticks, posted a Twitlonger in which he outlined that Middlesticks (along with multiple other amateur organizations) were owed $1,000 in prize money for their participation in Unified’s Premier League LoL tournament. The payment had been promised to arrive within 2-4 weeks of the tournament’s completion — but with the tournament finishing in April, it had been almost three months and no participating organizations had seen any sign of payment. Middlesticks were not the only team to not receive payment, and League was not the only esports title for which Unified was apparently unable to make their payouts. Elton ‘XT’ Moc, manager for amateur League team No Team, told Dexerto how, after repeated failures to pay out their Spring 2 Proving Grounds qualifier winnings, he was forced to pay around $4,000 out of his own pocket to players, many of whom were relying on the winnings as a source of income. XT has only just received reimbursement for these winnings, four months after the initial win in March. A Valorant team manager, who has asked to remain anonymous due to potential repercussions on other teams within their organization, told Dexerto that their organization was owed upwards of $7,000 total from multiple tournaments throughout 2022. Although Sorell has now received the money owed by Unified, there are multiple other participants who, at the time of this article, still have not received payment. Not a new problem for Unified But according to contractors who have worked with Unified in the past, having to chase up the organization for money isn’t a new problem. One caster (who requested they remain anonymous) who had worked with the company since 2019 on multiple tournaments, explained how much of a battle it had always been to ensure payment on time — even though Unified has consistently offered some of the lowest rates in the amateur scene. This caster also explained how Unified’s rates had consistently dropped since they began their tenure with the TO. “My day rates also began at $200/$300 when I first started working with them, and now I’m having to fight to get like $140 per day.” This contractor went on to explain that they had signed multiple net 30 contracts with Unified during their tenure working with the company, very few of which had been honored. A net 30 contract essentially states that a client has 30 calendar days to make a payment after the initial billing — which this contractor states was violated multiple times throughout their three years of experience working with the company. “It’s been like this from the beginning. This is just what they’ve done — Unified has been infamous for delaying payments consistently and just having you really, really fight for your money.” They claim they’re currently owed over $1000 by Unified. How were things from an insider perspective? It would be easy to think that these delayed payments to both contractors and tournament winners came from financial struggles due to COVID. But according to former Unified employee David Robbins, it was mostly “just incompetence.” “Ramsey (Unified’s CEO Ramsey Jamoul) was always just like this — he’d need to be reminded two or three times a week just to get the payments done.” Another former employee shared a similar sentiment, telling Dexerto that “because there’s no senior leadership, the buck just gets passed around constantly. And it’s not that people at the operations level don’t want to pick up slack, but it felt like if we did, we’d be admonished by Jamoul for doing the wrong thing, and our initiative wouldn’t be matched by the senior leadership team. “It was just us running around like headless chickens, not really understanding what the expectations on us were.” Former social media manager and contracted cosplayer Soph ‘OhMySophii’ Donnay told Dexerto how she’d felt consistently overworked and undervalued by the company’s upper management, who rarely communicated with employees. Donnay began working with Unified back when they still operated under the name Midwest Esports, during the summer of 2019. She was brought on as a contractor to run the company’s social media, and after a few months with the company, she was promoted to a full-time member of staff in the company’s marketing department. While Donnay explains that the environment at Unified was initially a welcoming one, in which the company looked to “build an open, inclusive esports culture in Wichita, Kansas”, repeated new hires to the leadership team led to a “corporate and cold” atmosphere that Donnay claims was far removed from the “homegrown and passionate” beginnings. Donnay describes how, during 2020, problems began to arise with teams, venues, and event guests going unpaid. Donnay was put in charge of contracting cosplay guests for the 2020 Wichita Esports Convention, and reached out to cosplayer April Gloria to appear for three days as a cosplayer, panelist, and judge of the event’s cosplay contest. The agreed-upon fee was $200, but according to Donnay that fee was never paid. Dexerto reached out to April but she was unavailable for comment. Donnay also described how she and April had appeared as cosplayers at Unified events in 2018 and 2019 and had not been paid for their appearances. Further complaints from staff members Dexerto were also supplied with a HR complaint that was filed against a member of the senior leadership of Unified who is no longer with the company. The complaint states that he repeatedly asked employees to work during furlough “with no compensation of time or wages”, and that he “used vulgar language to belittle, and shame previous and current employees”. Multiple former members of staff told Dexerto that they believed they were the victims of unfair dismissals, with one former staff member saying that they were supposedly let go for a failure to meet quarterly targets despite only having joined the company halfway through the quarter. “I directly called out that we needed more leadership, and within the next week and a half I was out of the company,” the former member staff member said. “And when they explained why I’d been let go, it was because I hadn’t met the metrics of my monthly scorecard (a performance review system at Unified). “A scorecard I never had a meeting about, was never given a warning on, and that was measuring me against a full quarter’s worth of metrics when I’d only come into the company halfway through that quarter.” Another former staff member claims that Jamoul repeatedly made nepotistic hires and consistently showed favoritism and leniency to family members within the business in comparison with other employees. However, a current employee of the company, who asked to remain anonymous, did tell Dexerto that there are slow fixes being made to Unified’s company culture. They explained that, although the company “offloading a lot of work onto people and asking a lot of them is an issue”, those who spoke out against overwork were not ignored. “If you say that it’s too much work or raise your concerns, they will be accommodating and try to help find a way to get things done without overworking people,” the employee said. Unified’s response In a statement published in response to the recent complaints of non-payment from organizations involved with Unified, CEO Ramsey Jamoul acknowledged that Unified had “failed to deliver” on their promises to the amateur esports community. The statement promised transparency, with Jamoul explaining that the late payments were a result of “missing revenue goals” that had put the company behind on their accounts payable. Although he stated he was unable to “hard commit to a date” by which amateur organizations would start receiving their Spring winnings, organizations involved have told Dexerto that they’ve begun to receive their payment from Unified’s Spring events — four to five months after the initial payments were promised. Multiple former employees have told Dexerto that the continual late payments to contractors and organizations were the result of a lack of communication and managerial structure in Unified’s C-suite. In his response, Jamoul told Dexerto that he could “understand how some may feel that way”, but the company had a “clear accountability chart and documentation” for the chain of command within its upper management. He did admit, however , that accountability was much harder in practise than on paper. What happens now? In response to a request for comment to Dexerto, Jamoul did not have any particular explanation for how Unified planned to address these issues going forward. He simply explained that Unified’s focus for the future would be “to hone in what we do best and provide the most value in that area for the community”. As of July 29, multiple teams have confirmed that they’ve received the money owed to them by Unified — but many more are yet to be paid. Unified have confirmed that they’ll continue operating their Summer Premier events as planned. In an email to Lane Sorell, the author of the initial Twitlonger, Jamoul stated that funding had been accepted from “outside sources” in order to pay off the outstanding balances on tournament winnings, and that he “expected to have everyone paid within the normal net 30 window for the Summer season”. It remains to be seen whether Unified will be able to deliver on these promises. Their Summer season is currently in full swing, with the Unified Premier League playoffs already underway. But only time will tell when the winners of those playoff series will see their money.

Tribe Gaming announce Ford as automotive sponsor YouTube: Tribe GamingTribe Gaming, a North American organization best known for mobile esports, have unveiled a sponsorship with automotive giants Ford. Helping Ford continue their push into gaming and esports, Tribe Gaming will produce content that heavily features Ford vehicles. This includes an episodic series where the org’s creators explore their “largest geographic communities.” The org’s players and creators will be provided with their own Tribe-branded vehicles from Ford, who will now serve as their exclusive automotive sponsor. As well as a heavy focus on content, Ford will have their logo emblazoned on Tribe’s jerseys and provide behind-the-scenes looks into the org on social media. The automotive company’s largest esports activation to date is Team Fordzilla, their own esports team that’s dedicated to simulated racing. Tribe Gaming raised investment from Spurts Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of NBA team San Antonio Spurs, in July 2021. They hold partnerships with the likes of Elgato, bag and accessories brand Incase, Discord, G FUEL, and Razer. “The excitement so many have for gaming is apparent and contagious, and as we reach out these younger, passionate gamers, Tribe’s dynamic and fun content can help bring the Ford brand to life for this new audience,” said Ford’s chief marketing officer, Suzy Deering. “Tribe is the perfect sponsor to help introduce Ford to their millions of 18–35-year-old followers, showing them how we can meet their needs, both on the road and off the field.”

Toronto Ultra & Toronto Defiant’s OverActive Media CEO steps down Toronto DefiantChris Overholt has stepped down as CEO of OverActive Media, the owner of the MAD Lions and the Toronto-based franchises in the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League, the company has announced. Overholt is stepping aside from the role to “pursue another opportunity”, according to OverActive Media, with co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Adam Adamou taking over as CEO on an interim basis. It remains unclear if Overholt will continue in the esports industry. The former CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee for eight years, he was hired by OverActive Media in October 2018 as the company’s founding CEO, overseeing operations as it expanded into other games and became listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange in 2021. “Under Chris’ leadership, OverActive has emerged as one of the world’s leading esports organizations,” said chairman Sheldon Pollack. “His experience, passion and vision for our potential has established a strong foundation on which we will continue building our business. “We are grateful to have had Chris leading our organization during such a pivotal time in our development.” OverActive Media is the owner of the Overwatch League Toronto Defiant and the Call of Duty League team Toronto Ultra. It also owns esports organization MAD Lions, which competes in League of Legends with a team in Europe’s LEC, and Valorant with an NA Challengers squad. The changes in OverActive Media’s leadership come amid a turbulent week for companies involved in the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League. Reports have suggested that Kroenke Sports & Entertainment is looking to sell its teams in the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty League after gutting several departments in its esports company, The Guard. This “could signal more exits to come among other franchise owners”, according to Sports Business Journal.

TotalBiscuit to be first non-player inducted into Esports Hall of Fame Red BullThe late John ‘TotalBisuit’ Bain, a legend in the esports community who sadly passed away earlier in 2018, is to be the first non-player inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame, ESL announced on October 19. TotalBiscuit, who also went by ‘Cynical Brit’, was a game critic, YouTuber, and professional esports caster, but retired in May of 2018 as he suffered from bowel cancer, first diagnosed in 2014. He began as caster for games such as Starcraft II and gained popularity through his YouTube channel, where he would play, review and discuss all manner of games, from AAA titles to small indie releases. His series “WTF is…?” was one of his most celebrated, where he would discuss new releases and explain his thoughts and first impressions – for example”WTF is League of Legends” or “WTF is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?” But before YouTube fame, his involvement in gaming largely revolved around casting and hosting at esports events, and remains one of the most influential figures in the esports industry. In recognition of his contribution and impact, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) will induct TotalBiscuit into the Esports Hall of Fame during ESL Hamburg 2018, at the end of October. John @Totalbiscuit Bain to be inducted into Esports Hall of Fame at #ESLOne Hamburg 2018 as first non-player. https://t.co/q35Ctxn6YW pic.twitter.com/U9NmMoST1r — ESL (@ESL) October 19, 2018 From forming WoW Radio to his numerous YouTube shows and podcasts, TotalBiscuit was widely respected for his vast influences across the gaming community and his prominence also shaped the esports scenes around him. While he was never a player himself, countless events were managed, sponsored, commentated and produced by this true supporter of the sport. Aside from driving people towards esports titles such as StarCraft 2 and Dota 2, he even formed a professional StarCraft 2 team himself – Axiom. […] His contributions to the industry are immeasurable and as such we are honored to induct him into the Esports Hall of Fame as the first non-player. His legacy will live on. TotalBiscuit passed on May 24, 2018, and is survived by his wife, fellow YouTube personality Genna Bain and step-son Orion. He and his wife would have celebrated their 11 year wedding anniversary on October 20, 2018. Source: ESL

Toronto Ultra owners OverActive Media record $27.2m net loss for 2022 Toronto UltraOverActive Media, whose esports properties include CDL franchise Toronto Ultra and Overwatch League team Toronto Defiant, recorded a net loss of CAD $36.9m (USD $27.2m) for the entirety of 2022. The figure was announced in the company’s end-of-year financial results and represents an increase over the CAD $19.4 million (USD $14.29m) net loss recorded in 2021. OverActive Media explained that the net loss figure includes “a non-cash impairment charge of [CAD] $34.2 million (USD $25.19m), while no impairment was recognized in the prior year.” An impairment charge is an accounting entry that does not involve any cash outflow. It is a term used to account for an asset that is no longer as valuable as it may have once been. “We have reviewed the carrying value of our intangible assets and reduced them to an amount that better represents fair value in the current environment,” Rikesh Shah, Chief Financial Officer at OverActive Media, said in a statement. “This has resulted in an impairment charge in the fourth quarter and fiscal 2022. These non-cash charges do not affect our continuing operations.” OverActive Media noted that, at the end of 2022, it had cash and cash equivalents of CAD $13.6 million (USD $10.01m), a decrease from the CAD $29.6 million (USD $21.80m) it had available a year earlier. The Canadian company also announced an adjusted EBITDA loss of CAD $8.8m (USD $6.48m), an increase over the CAD $7.0 million (USD $5.15m) for the full year of 2021 that was attributed to an investment in “team rosters, people, and products for future success.” On the positive side, OverActive Media announced CAD $14.2 million (USD $10.45m) in total revenue for 2022, the same amount as in 2021. This includes a 23 percent increase in business operations revenue year-over-year to CAD $8.2 million (USD $6.04m), a figure that was offset “by a decline in team operations revenue, mainly a reduction in the prize money awarded to our competitive teams,” according to the financial results. “As a co-founder of this company, I am pleased to say that the core aspects of our business thesis are coming to fruition,” said OverActive Media co-founder and interim CEO Adam Adamou, who replaced Chris Overholt at the helm of the organization in February. “Despite the economic downturn, we have grown our multi-year business operations revenue to record levels. “Our esports journey is driven by fundamentals that we believe are in place, including our ability to grow our business operations and the support we’re seeing from our league partners. We’re invested in the future of esports and are confident in the quality of our team and the successful execution of our business plan.” OverActive Media runs the Toronto Ultra franchise in the Call of Duty League and the Toronto Defiant team in the Overwatch League. It also operates MAD Lions, who compete in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC). Earlier this year, MAD Lions re-entered Valorant with a men’s roster competing in the NA Challengers league. More recently, it signed an all-women’s Spanish team, MAD Lions Laurë, to compete in EMEA Game Changers. OverActive Media added that it received franchise fee deferrals totaling almost CAD $10.1 million (USD $7.43m), with “payments pushed out between 12 to 24 months.” In 2022, independent reporter Jacob Wolf revealed that Activision Blizzard was still owed “between $390 and $420 million” in franchise fees from the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League after it deferred payments for two years because of the impact of the global health crisis.

Top Blokes Rocket League team rebrand under Semper Fortis ownership Semper Fortis EsportsEuropean Rocket League team Top Blokes are now competing under a new name that closer links them to their parent company, Semper Fortis Esports. One of the top Rocket League squads in the entirety of Psyonix’s title, Top Blokes were acquired by newly launched Semper Fortis Esports in March 2021. It was revealed that they would continue to compete under their independent banner after being purchased by the company, though they will now operate as SMPR to link them closer to their owners. As part of this move, future rosters acquired by the public organization will compete under the SMPR name. It’s currently unknown as to which other games the org are looking to enter. https://twitter.com/SMPR_esports/status/1419553320553705481 Semper Fortis raised £2.5 million and went public on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market in April 2021, allowing retail investors to purchase shares in the company. In perhaps the biggest move for the company since their launch earlier in 2021, they announced that England football players Harry Maguire and Dominic Calvert-Lewin had signed on to serve as ambassadors. “The name SMPR esports, abbreviated from Semper, gives our teams a new identity which is to define ourselves as ‘always esports’,” said Semper Fortis CEO Kevin Soltani. “Our newly defined identity is a statement of intent across our teams: we’re not just here for a good time, we are here to take over. Ultimately, the versatility of this new brand also allows us to create a more inclusive look to our teams as we grow and look to dominate the space.”

Toronto Ultra calls Hicksy up to CDL starting lineup in place of Standy Toronto UltraToronto Ultra was meant to be an elite team in the 2023 CDL season, but a top-six placing at Major 2 was enough for the team to call Challengers star Charlie ‘Hicksy’ Hicks up over Eli ‘Standy’ Bentz for the rest of the season. Toronto Ultra’s roster went through a major overhaul over the offseason. The organization parted ways with Call of Duty legend Ben Bance and star player Cameron ‘Cammy’ McKilligan as they welcomed upcoming stars Scrappy and Standy in their place. Now only two Major tournaments into the season, Standy has been moved to the substitute position and another new face joins the fray. Toronto Ultra bench Standy for Hicksy in surprise Major 3 qualifiers roster move The move was announced on February 18 and shocked the entire community. “As of today, we will be moving Standy to a substitute position and Hicksy will be moving to the starting roster,” the organization said. The squad had only played one match in the Major 3 qualifiers so far, a 1-3 loss to Boston Breach, in which Standy went -11 in terms of K/D, resulting in a 0.86 overall. After the news broke, Standy wasted no time in responding to the news. “Just gotta work on myself and become the player I know I’m capable of [being].” Hicksy has been part of the Toronto Ultra organization since 2022, first competing under the Toronto Ultra NA Challengers banner in February before eventually joining the squad as their substitute in October. Toronto Ultra returns to action Sunday, February 19, against Vegas Legion.

Top 20 highest earning esports pro players and organizations Collectively over $785 million has been dished out to professionals across all titles, but just how much have the top esports pros earned to-date? Esports is more lucrative than ever, with players earning more in a single tournament than some of the most successful sports athletes earn in the most profitable sporting events. Tournament prize money is directly reflecting the exponential growth and big-name investment that esports has received of late, with the most recent Dota 2 tournament (The International 2019) offering a prize pool in excess of $34 million to its competitors. OG took home the lion’s share ($15 million) after their TI9 triumph. Due to the impact of big money investment from global brands, esports athletes can now lift a single championship and immediately propel themselves into the list of highest earners. Most notably, Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf prevailed in the solos tournament at the first Fortnite World Cup, and walked away with $3 million in his back pocket. Read more: Top 20 highest earning Fortnite pros – However, the take-home from esports events has not always been so fruitful, with smaller-scale events taking precedence during the developmental stages; meaning most esports organizations would have to make ‘high risk, high reward’ moves to put their players in a position to compete at these events. apeX (previously OpTic) were among the first to fly across the pond, in a bid to make CoD esports international. Fast-forward to the current state-of-play and esports is no longer solely reliant on third party events, with developers such as Riot Games and Activision Blizzard Entertainment actively becoming involved in the competitive side of their titles. Read more: Top 20 highest earning Call of Duty pros – Developer participation in esports (such as the inclusion of franchised leagues) not only integrates esports directly into the title (which naturally drums up interest), but it also provides stability for organizations and investors alike, which in turn issues a sense of security for sponsorships — ultimately transforming esports into an attractive model that could yield long-term growth for its investors. The last decade of prize money won per year directly reflects the growth in esports. Big money investment has resulted in the ‘esports boom’ (elevated interest in the esports ecosystem, leading to both transient and long-term growth); causing a linear increase in the prize money being dished out. The net effect of offering huge sums of money is that it captivates interest, which eventually snowballs into more money plowed into the esports model and so on… the expression “money talks” most definitely comes to mind. Now that esports is more stable and profitable than ever, the amount of prize money offered by events is at an all-time high, with this calendar year set to surpass previous years by a considerable amount. Here are the top 20 highest paying esports events, filtered by prize pool offered. Read more: Top 20 highest earning Dota 2 pros – Top 20 highest paying esports events The ongoing developer support from Valve has been integral in the evolution of Dota 2 as an esport. But just how does Valve consistently offer such an enticing prize pool? The Compendium. Read more: Top 20 highest earning Dota 2 pros – Valve offers players a purchasable battle pass filled with content, which allows players to make predictions on the outcome of The International in exchange for cosmetic items; 25% of the funds generated by this system go directly towards The International prize pool. As the esports ecosystem goes from strength to strength, organizations are reaping the rewards that come with a long-term commitment to the model. Founded at the beginning of the millennium, Team Liquid are the quintessential esports giant; fielding world-class teams across multiple titles, they represent esports at its core values. Read more: Top 20 highest earning CS:GO pros. – As a by-product of their deep-rooted involvement in esports, they sit as the most winningest organization in the game. Naturally, with success comes exposure, which manifests into an enhanced stipend — as the global esports market is set to break the $1 billion mark for revenue generated (27% up on the previous year). Top 20 highest earning esports organizations Of course, none of the aforementioned success would be possible without the athletes who represent their respective teams. As a player, winning some of the largest prize pools makes you immediately more marketable to an organization. A prime example of this is the Dota 2 quintet from OG Esports (namely: N0tail, JerAx, ana, Ceb and Topson). Read more: Richest esports players ever – Now back-to-back champions of The International, the five have bumped themselves to the top of the list through their consecutive wins. Not only has this brought great financial success to the players, but the organization has soared to second on the list of highest-earning organizations, having only competed in just over 4% of the tournaments relative to Team Liquid. Read more: Top 20 highest earning Overwatch pros – Given the sizable prize pools offered by Valve for their flagship tournament, it’ll come as no surprise to see the list of top esports earners dominated by Dota players. Top 20 highest earning esports pros Interestingly, Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf is the only non-Dota player to make the top 20, off the back of his solos win at the Fortnite World Cup. Although, given the global scope of esports in this modern era, the list is comprised of athletes from all over the world, with no single nation taking precedence. Other notable mentions include: Fornite World Cup Solos runner up Harrison ‘psalm’ Chang, who now sits at 32nd, and World Cup Duos victor David ‘Aqua’ Wang, who finds himself at 35th. His World Cup partner, Emil ‘Nyhrox’ Pederson, sits at 52nd. From CS:GO, Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz and Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander all sit within the top 50, following their dominance with Astralis over the last two years, while Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, the most recent member of the squad, sits not far outside at 59th. League of Legends phenom and three-time world champion, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok makes the list at 65th, being the only LoL player to earn over $1 million. The highest placing console player is three time Call of Duty world champion Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow, who sits just outside the top 100 at 106th — highlighting the considerable distance between both PC and console prize pools. For access to the full list (and more), visit esportsearnings.com.

Top 5 players to watch at Valorant Champions 2022 Wojciech Wandzel/Riot GamesValorant Champions is set to kick off on August 31 with the top teams from around the world fighting for the trophy in Istanbul, Turkey. Out of those 16 teams, here are five players that fans should keep their eyes on throughout Valorant Champions for popoff plays. The 2022 edition of Valorant Champions features many new teams to the tournament and a few to the international stage. While there are stalwarts of international play this year like Paper Rex and OpTic Gaming, this list will cover top players that may have flown under the radar or should get more attention at the event. Team Liquid Dimasick Dmitriy ‘dimasick’ Matvienko joined Team Liquid for the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier. While not the flashiest player, he added some consistency and firepower that the team was missing from their fifth player spot. Before the former Counter-Strike player’s arrival, the team benched Travis ‘L1NK’ Mendoza and played Aurimas ‘Dreamas’ Zablockis as a substitute for much of Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2. dimasick previously played for FunPlus Phoenix for most of 2021 where he played mostly Duelists and Sentinels. His most played agent is Cypher. For Team Liquid, dimasick plays mainly supportive Agents like Brimstone, Omen, Sage and Sova. While not always lighting up the scoreboard, dimasick will be a big factor in Team Liquids success as he gains chemistry with the rest of the team and its stars like Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom 100 Thieves bang Sean ‘bang’ Bezerra is another player on this list that comes from a Last Chance Qualifier team in 100 Thieves. A rookie to the international stage, Bang has been a touted prospect in North America and is a part of a newly rebuilt squad that went on a lower bracket tear to make it to the event. Bang has played for TSM and Built By Gamers before coming to 100 Thieves on loan from TSM. The teenager is the team’s Controller player, and has the possibility to frag out from the smoker role. During the North American LCQ, bang ranked in the top five of the tournament in Kills/ Deaths ratio and top 10 in assists per round. There are many young and fresh faces on 100 Thieves, bang might be the most explosive player to grace the international server if he doesn’t get hit with first-time jitters. ZETA DIVISION Xdll ZETA DIVISION are also bringing along a new player to Valorant Champions in Yuto ‘Xdll’ Mizomori. Fans and analysts have yet to see what Xdll has to offer to the Japanese side as they have not played an official match since he joined. The loaned player will replace Tenta “TENNN” Asai who is currently on the bench recovering from a medical issue. Xdll mostly played supportive Agents like Initiators or Controllers for his teams, which means he could slot in to TENNN’s role, sans TENNN’s occasional Raze pickup. Xdll may be the weakest link on the team coming into an event with a lot of expectations on their shoulders based off of their run at Stage 1 Masters. Fans should look at Xdll as a measure of just how well the team has been able to prep and harmonize since his addition. Edward Gaming nobody China has been behind an iron curtain for most Valorant fans as the region has not been able to attend any international Masters or Champions events until 2022. Edward Gaming will represent the region for the first time and a player that fans should keep their eyes glued to during the tournament is Senxu ‘nobody’ Wang. The teenager has been around the Chinese Valorant scene since 2020 on RNG and Qing Jiu Club before joining EDG. For the white and black org nobody is an Initiator player and regularly sees playing time on the seven-man roster. While not the star of the team, their Duelist and Chamber player Yongkang ‘ZmjjKK’ Zheng has that title, nobody was hot in the Eastern Asia LCQ and could carry that over to Champions. EDG did not lose a map in the LCQ tournament and nobody was in the top five of almost all statistical categories including average combat score, K/D, average damage per round, kills per round and assists per round. Fnatic Alfajer Fnatic have been to every international event in 2022 and are coming into Champions with the same roster of players from Stage 2 Masters. Fnatic went through an overhaul in their team after Stage 1 Masters and added Emir Ali ‘Alfajer’ Beder to their squad for more fragging power. The teenager played up to his potential online and looked comfortable in a LAN setting after a few games were under his belt. Alfajer finished Stage 2 Masters in the top 10 in terms of headshot percentage and average combat score. On top of his continued success, the Turkish player is the only Valorant pro at Champions from the host country and will have hundreds of fans cheering him on if Fnatic make it to the Playoff Stage. Fans should pay attention to the newest Fnatic signee as he could become a true Valorant star alongside Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev if he plays up to his potential at the world championship. Fans can watch these players as they potentially battle their way to the top at Valorant Champions, which is set to begin on August 31 with the Group Stage in Istabul.

Top 10 most-watched esports orgs in 2021: Team Liquid, NaVi, T1, more PGL EsportsEsports viewership continues to grow year-on-year, and 2021 was no exception. The year saw a gradual return to live events for certain esports, with others remaining online. These were the top 10 most-watched esports orgs of the year. Esports has seen unprecedented growth in the past few years. Tournaments are bringing in more viewership than ever before, and the global phenomenon that is competitive gaming is showing no signs of slowing down. Viewership is on the up-and-up across all major esports, with perennial favorites like League of Legends and CS:GO continuing to attract consistently high viewership numbers. Esports organizations across multiple disciplines saw record viewership in 2021, in both established esports like League and CS, and newer titles like Valorant and Mobile Legends. A list of the most-watched esports organizations of 2021, compiled by EsportsCharts, saw the return of some famous faces alongside the arrival of some newcomers to the scene. Most watched esports orgs in 2021 Topping the list is Team Liquid, who host teams in top esports titles like League of Legends, CS:GO, Valorant, and DOTA. They accrued the most games played across all of the organization’s esports teams at 919 throughout the year, and racked up over 117 million hours watched. Other notable entries on the list include Korean org Damwon Kia, who lost to the LPL’s Edward Gaming in the 2021 League of Legends World Championship finals. It’s important to note that the list excludes data from Chinese streaming sites, perhaps explaining the lack of Chinese organizations in the top ten. The list also saw Mobile League Bang Bang teams ONIC Esports and Rex Regnum Qeon sneak in at tenth and seventh place respectively. Their matchup in the semifinals of the M3 World Championship attracted 3,191,404 viewers, earning both orgs a higher peak viewership than the most-watched org, Team Liquid.

Top 10 most viewed esports events of 2018 have been revealed The most popular esports events of 2018 have been revealed by the ESC (Esports Charts), with many old and established tournaments retaining strong interest despite the emergence of new games. The figures, which are based on hours watched on both YouTube and Twitch, show which competitive esports games are more popular than others right now in terms of viewers. League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dominate the most watched games chart according to these statistics, all boasting incredible numbers in various competitions. Unsurprisingly for some, the League of Legends World Championship was the biggest event of the year having attracted over 74.3 million viewers, which is 2.5 million more than last year’s iteration. Just behind that was Dota 2’s ‘The International’, which massively grew in popularity in the space of a year – recording 52.8 million views, seeing an increase of 9 million since 2017. In third place, CS:GO’s ELEAGUE Major which was watched by 49.5 million across the world. The full table of statistics can be found in the table below: Despite Epic Games’ attempts to raise the profile of Fortnite’s competitive events during the last 12 months, none of the game’s events made the list. The game’s popularity has not turned into huge success on the competitive scene yet, however, OpTic Gaming member Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter believes that the game is moving in another direction. “In my opinion, they’ve [Epic Games] realized that their game will never be the most competitive, but it can be the most entertaining. So, they’re sticking to their guns in that regard.”

Top 10 most valuable esports teams in 2020: 100 Thieves, FaZe, more LolesportsAccording to a new report from Forbes, the top 10 most valuable esports companies are worth a combined $2.4 billion, with some truly eyebrow-raising figures for teams like TSM, Cloud9 and FaZe Clan. Forbes has released an annual estimate of the most valuable esports companies since 2018. Their sources for the figures comprise of “Company executives, investors, investment advisors, public documents.” This does leave room for the organizations themselves to potentially inflate the figures somewhat, so should not be seen as an exact and accurate value. Rather, it is essentially an informed estimate. Some of the standout moves from 2019 include 100 Thieves jumping 5 spots up to 5th, as well as the disappearance of Immortals Gaming from the top 10. Top 10 most valuable esports companies TSM: $410 million (+3%) – Cloud9 $350 million (-13%) – Team Liquid: $310M (-3%) – FaZe Clan: $305M (+27%) – 100 Thieves: $190M (+27%) – GenG: $185M (-) – Enthusiast Gaming: $180M (-) – G2 Esports: $175M (+6%) – NRG Esports: $155M (+3%) – T1: $150M (-) – In their report, Forbes says that overall esports revenue fell $150 million, largely due to the cancellation of most LAN events. This is said to have had a “knock-on effect” on merchandising and sponsorships too. 100 Thieves COO John Robinson said “The modern battlefield in gaming is for larger social media and YouTube talent.” 100 Thieves specifically now have a large roster of content creators, including the likes of Valkyrae, BrookeAB, Neeko, Yassou, CouRage, Tommey and more. This has perhaps come at the expense of actual esports teams though. 100 Thieves pulled out of Counter-Strike, but have joined the Call of Duty League for the 2021 season. The company expects to make $16 million in revenue this year. Read More: Dexerto Awards 2020 nominees and how to vote – FaZe Clan are similar to 100 Thieves in their approach to signing the biggest talent in content creation, not just competitive players. FaZe CEO Lee Trink said “What you have seen in the last year is other esports companies are catching on to what has been our philosophy from day one, which is to explore the outer reaches of what gaming can be.” For Immortals, who dropped out of the top 10, are estimated to have sold the OpTic Gaming brand back to Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez for $10 million – significantly less than they bought it for. With the hope that esports will return to putting on live events in 2021, an even bigger jump in these estimations could be expected. Although, the first CSGO major of 2021, which was scheduled for May, has already been canceled. So too has the Fortnite World Cup.

Top 10 Moments from CDL Stage 1 Major: Simp & aBeZy destroy 2021’s first CDL Major certainly lived up to the hype, with Atlanta FaZe showcasing tip-top performance after carrying over their momentum from an impeccable Group Stage & Super Week. Coming out on top and taking home the lion’s share of $500,000, FaZe took down both LA Guerrillas and Dallas Empire, with the latter being thrashed 8-2 between the Winners Final and the Grand Final. Though many dreams of a win were ultimately quashed, plenty of players turned up the heat and showcased their incredible talent as they clawed their way through the ranks hoping for the crown. Players like Brandon ‘Dashy’ Otell proved just who they really were against New York Subliners, closing the map with a whopping total of 35 kills. It wasn’t all down and out for NYSL, though, as Conor ‘Diamondcon’ Johst proved himself time and time again in a reverse sweep against Florida Mutineers. Of course, Tyler ‘ABeZy’ Pharris shone in Search & Destroy, obliterating all four of Empire’s team to secure a map point during the winner’s final with incredible ease. Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr also prevented Empire from any hopes of redemption in the best of 9 Grand Final, showcasing a phenomenal 12-kill S&D, which bagged Atlanta FaZe their first major win. To find out where all the players rank on our list, be sure to check out the full video above. For all Call of Duty news and events, be sure to stay tuned over at our dedicated main page.

Top 10 esports organizations of the decade Riot GamesAs the decade comes to a close, we’re looking at the top 10 esports organizations of the 2010s, and the accomplishments and achievements that helped them stand out above the rest. The growth of esports has been incredible in 2010, and as the scene has grown, so too has the number of companies looking to leave their mark on this rising industry. Some orgs have fallen off and disappeared, while others are doing just fine, but some have risen to unimaginable heights in the past 10 years. Here are the 10 orgs who have set the standard for esports, whether it be in CSGO, Call of Duty, League of Legends or even a variety of games. 10. T1 (formerly SK Telecom T1) When it comes to League of Legends and Starcraft, no organization has quite dominated Korea, and perhaps the world, like T1. Prior to finalizing their rebrand this year, SK Telecom T1 have been the shining example of LoL dominance this decade. In their five Worlds appearances, the worst finish they posted was 3rd/4th in 2019, and they won three over four years between 2013-2016. While many star players have donned that jersey, none have shone brighter than the iconic and unflinching Faker. T1’s Starcraft players have been winning events since the beginning of the decade, even as the scene shifted from Starcraft I to II. While they no longer compete in Starcraft, the T1 organization is already setting its sights on new scenes to dominate, including Dota 2, Apex Legends, and Fortnite. 9. Natus Vincere Natus Vincere have been a shining example of esports excellence in the CIS region. In the early years of the decade, during the Counter-Strike 1.6 era, the Ukrainian roster representing Na’Vi was one of the world’s best, and dominated 2010. Since then, they’ve expanded their operations and built a winning culture around prolific stars across multiple esports titles. In CSGO, that star is s1mple and, although a Major eludes them (they came close at FACEIT London 2018), he has led Na’Vi to multiple championships, Earlier in the decade, their Dota 2 roster claimed the very first International, and appeared in the grand finals of the next two behind the iconic Dendi. They also took home the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League Season 10 championship to close out the decade. 8. Astralis The other teams in this list have achieved success across multiple esports titles, and while Astralis have only ever competed in Counter-Strike since 2016, their dominance in that scene is so spectacular that they can’t be denied a spot in this list. Astralis were formed from the core of the Team SoloMid CSGO roster, which they acquired from Dignitas. After adding in-game leader gla1ve and rounding out the roster with magisk, the familiar trio of dupreeh, xyp9x, and dev1ce emerged as a dominant force in Counter-Strike. Astralis hold the record for most CSGO major victories at four, and have won the last three. They cruised to the first-ever Intel Grand Slam, and have become widely regarded as the best Counter-Strike team of all time. 7. Envy (formerly EnVyUs) The Envy organization is known for its success in shooters, and they are maintaining their presence as franchising takes over. Prior to moving its operations to North America, Envy’s French CSGO team had an impressive run in the middle part of the decade, when they were known as EnVyUs. From 2015 to 2017 they claimed titles at multiple events, and appeared in two straight Major grand finals in 2015, winning the second one at Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca. Envy have been a mainstay in Call of Duty, Halo, and Overwatch. Their pre-OWL Overwatch team emerged as one of the scene’s best under the leadership of the late, great INTERNETHULK, before joining the league as the Dallas Fuel. They won multiple titles across numerous versions of Call of Duty as well, including a World Championship in 2016. They are still going, too, having joined the upcoming CDL as Dallas Empire. 6. OpTic Gaming While today’s OpTic looks drastically different from the one that was on top of the world, the impact of this legendary organization can’t be denied. OpTic was synonymous with the Call of Duty scene, and for good reason. They built stars within Call of Duty, not just by providing them an environment to win multiple championships, but by creating content around them that turned pro gamers into superstars. OpTic’s ability to compete in various shooter games, including Halo, CSGO, and Overwatch, and make good content around those rosters, was unparalleled. While their lofty plans for expansion would backfire, what OpTic accomplished in CoD and other esports is more than enough to earn a spot on this list. 5. FaZe Clan The FaZe organization has built one of, if not the most impressive brands in all of esports. What started as essentially a YouTube channel dedicated to Call of Duty highlights has transformed into a global brand that is as much a lifestyle as it is a competitive esports organization. FaZe Clan have been competitive as well. They’ve won multiple events in Call of Duty since they began competing in 2012, and will participate in the inaugural Call of Duty League as Atlanta FaZe. Their success has branched out into other titles as well. Their CSGO roster has won numerous trophies since joining the scene in 2017, and their current roster looks like it could be one of the world’s best in the next decade, too. They also house one of the biggest and most impressive Fortnite rosters in the world. 4. G2 Esports G2 are well known for having championship pedigree in a variety of esports. They’ve won championships across Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege during the past decade, and have been consistent across those scenes as well as others. Their CSGO division has been competitive since its 2015 inception, having won multiple events with various forms of mostly French rosters. They signed a Rainbow Six Siege team in 2018, and that roster immediately started chaining together trophy wins, resulting in a world championship at the Six Invitational 2019. Their LoL squad has dominated the recent history of European League of Legends. They’ve won six of the past eight EU LCS/LEC splits, and have performed better and better at each Worlds. Their 2019 roster was considered one of the best rosters ever, and, having won both regional splits and MSI, they were one Worlds series win away from the perfect year. 3. Team Liquid In a recent piece posted to the Player’s Lobby, Liquid owner Steve ‘Liquid112′ Archanet said he has always done things “the Liquid Way”. Plenty of teams should consider adopting that way for themselves, as the North American organization has racked up multiple championships across various esports. Liquid began as a Starcraft clan and community site, and from humble beginnings, rose to global status through expansions and mergers. They also set high expectations for their pro players across all the esports they compete in. Liquid have fielded championship-caliber rosters and players in an unprecedented number of different esports – League of Legends, CSGO, Dota 2, Starcraft, Super Smash Bros., and more. 2. Fnatic Fnatic were founded in the UK, but they are a global brand which has enjoyed great success in League of Legends and CSGO this decade. They entered League of Legends in 2011, and have been a big name in the European scene since, claiming seven European LCS splits and making history as the first-ever winners of Worlds in 2011. Fnatic made their name with an all-Swedish roster in Counter-Strike, starting with Source in 2004, before moving onto 1.6. However, they became truly dominant in CSGO this decade, winning their first major in 2013 and following it up with victories at ESL One Katowice and ESL One Cologne. After a temporary lull, it looks like Fnatic are resurgent again in CSGO, winning Dreamhack Masters Malmo in 2019 and finishing second at ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals. Fnatic fields teams and players across multiple titles to this day, but it was the championship pedigree that they established in Counter-Strike and LoL that was essential to building one of the biggest esports brands in Europe. 1. Cloud9 Like many of the great North American brands, C9 got their start in League of Legends, when former TSM manager Jack Etienne became owner of the organization and reacquired the former NomNom roster from Quantic Gaming. The roster of Balls, Meteos, Hai, Sneaky, and LemonNation became the foundation of a beloved American esports franchise, and the Sneaky Lemon Balls trio became the kind of meme material that Cloud 9 would become famous for. Cloud 9 have appeared at every LoL Worlds since their inception, and have won two LCS splits and four North American Regional Finals. They’ve also won titles in numerous other esports, including a CSGO Major and an Overwatch League title via subsidiary London Spitfire. Honorable mentions It was tremendously difficult to narrow a list down to 10, so these organizations unfortunately just missed the cut, but are still worthy of an honorable mention. Team SoloMid – A staple of North American League of Legends with a collection of NA LCS titles in their cabinet. – Virtus.Pro – A Polish powerhouse of an esports organization that has fielded legendary rosters in CSGO and Dota 2. – Evil Geniuses – A legendary North American organization synonymous with success in Dota 2 and R6 Siege. Ended 2019 on a high note with a long-awaited return to both LoL and CSGO. – NRG Esports – Ended the decade with an absolutely stellar 2019. Semi-finals at the CSGO Berlin Major, Overwatch League Season 2 champions with SF Shock, and a Rocket League World Championship along with plenty of other accomplishments. –

Thorin Questions the Authenticity of Esports Viewership Numbers The legitimacy of esports is no longer a debate, with millions of dollars in prizes and major network broadcasts becoming commonplace. However, the amount of people actually watching these events is still unclear. With massive numbers coming out for the esports events in July, some are questioning the accuracy of the data. The Overwatch League had close to 1.5 million peak viewers for their playoffs, while some estimates had the PUBG Invitational at almost 40 million. Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields, an esports journalist and analyst for CS:GO, is among those that have doubts on the gaudy viewership numbers being released by publishers and organizers. “”Our esports event had 1.5 million peak viewers”” “”Well ours had 20 million”” Outsider: “”Any way for these figures to be verified?”” pic.twitter.com/zB3KSaABS6 — Thorin (@Thooorin) July 30, 2018 The Overwatch League Grand Finals peaked around 320,000 on Twitch, while the PUBG invitational was a little over 500,000. The disparity between the visible data during the events and the final numbers released seems to give legitimacy to Thorin’s argument. The viewer count Twitch displays for active watchers is usually significantly lower than the final numbers that are released, but major events are now available through multiple forms of media and some countries do not use Twitch. Thorin also argues that publishers and PR departments try to legitimize their viewership numbers by pointing out the active player base of their game. “”Well ours are plausible cos our game has XX million monthly active accounts”” “”Where is that verified and by whom?”” pic.twitter.com/BjBE9gPf4E — Thorin (@Thooorin) July 30, 2018 Once again, a player base is something that is not possible to accurately verify since the active numbers are only available to the developers and publishers of the game. Thorin is likely bringing up the viewership subject in response to the impressive numbers displayed by PUBG, which beat out other events by a significant margin. Although esports viewership numbers are near-impossible to track reliably, the monetary value of pro organizations and increasingly mainstream access to events shows the popularity of video games as a competition is undoubtedly increasing.

Top 10 biggest scandals in CSGO history: Cheating, match fixing Counter-Strike has had its fair share of controversies along the way. Be it game-breaking exploits or outright hacking, there are many littered in CSGO’s history books. With some of these exploits even ending in a career-ending ban hammer, the scene is peppered with some juicy moments. Because of CSGO’s size, any of these that pop up usually send shockwaves across other esports scenes, further shining a spotlight on the dramas that come to light. We’ve taken a look back at all the major scene scandals, and ranked them in a top-10 standoff. The infamous, and shambolic, Gaming Paradise event saw organizations and teams such as NAVI, Kinguin, and Virtus.pro head to a coastal town in Slovenia promising sun, competition, and live music. With long delays, laggy streams, and passports being held by police – this is one event that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Also on our list is the fondly memed ‘word.exe’ which saw OpTic India’s Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat attempting to cheat with a file stored on their computer. Playing against RevolutionVN, the stream was delayed for 20 minutes while the event investigated, and found, the now infamous cheat file. Of course, our list wouldn’t be complete without iBUYPOWER’s 2015 match-fixing scandal, which saw the team throwing a match where they were overwhelming favorites. Make sure to check out the full video above for all 10 of our controversies. For all CSGO news and events, stay tuned over at our dedicated main page.

The witch-hunt of LeTigress exposes esports fans’ coddled mentality again Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesDexerto’s Richard Lewis takes a look at the controversy involving Gabriella ‘LeTigress’ Devia-Allen’s TSM segment and explains why it is illustrative of an industry that focuses on optics over principles and keeps pandering to toxic fanbases. It’s quite telling about how awful the gaming industry is that a regular part of my output is reporting on a horrific example of harassment. Social media has enabled the emotionally stunted to verbally abuse anyone in the world in real-time, and in many ways, that is the thing it’s the most successful at. If it stopped there it’d still be bad enough but because American “optics culture” now dominates every aspect of business, every fake furor and manufactured outrage has to be met with apologies and actions. Every day we now see an enactment of Stewart Lee’s “The values of the Carphone Warehouse” bit and nobody views it as absurd. The truly ridiculous part is that the recipients don’t even care and they won’t remember the incident they claim to be so upset about just as soon as they can latch themselves on to the next daily dunking. I’ve been writing about the awful things fanbases do to public figures for years. The only thing that has changed in that time is the level with which the industry will pander to them. No more will the corporate approach be “kill it with silence” because the all-consuming need for profit makes the prospect of a sincere boycott terrifying. Indeed, the wrong response could set off a chain reaction of corporate responses so wide-reaching that even companies two or three times removed from the initial incident could lose their sponsors or investors for simply ignoring a drama they thought they were far enough from. This attitude is especially hilarious in an industry like esports, where the fans simply don’t spend money. Just know that when the mob comes, you will be absolutely on your own. In the end, you’ll be offered up by the people you thought cared about you, either a company you elevated with your work or friends terrified of guilt by association. It goes without saying there are types of behavior that should make someone a pariah, but it’s hard to imagine what exactly that would be when it comes to sharing opinions or creating content around the pursuit of competitive video games. You could maybe forgive a deranged fandom for swarming someone that said something unfair or overly critical although I never would… Yet what this latest example demonstrates is now the demand is that you fawn over the same things the fans do. Positive feedback only and never deviate from the consensus. Deviations from this will be punished. For some reason, we all just acknowledge this is a perfectly normal thing. Someone expresses an unpopular opinion or criticizes someone who just so happens to have a higher number of obsessive fans than the person doing the criticizing. We watch from the sidelines as people are beaten into submission for having a “bad take” because no one can recognize informed, valid conflicting opinions anymore. “My team good, you bad, you must be punished”. It can be a 16-year-old player falsely accused of cheating by the world’s biggest streamer, it can be someone having a mental health crisis that is “no excuse”, or it can be something as gruesome as a crowd-sourced suicide. I’ve covered selective outrage when it comes to racially insensitive comments and social media mobs demanding people be fired and getting their way. The specifics are largely irrelevant because the trajectory of these stories is all the same and while it’s considered weak to admit it, the reality is being the victim of an internet dogpile is psychologically damaging. The vilification of LeTigress The latest such example involved Gabriella ‘LeTigress’ Devia-Allen, a colleague of mine that I’ve worked with at esports events in the past and certainly someone I could never have believed would be an internet villain for a day. Her great crime was to script and deliver a monologue about why League of Legends player Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng’s upcoming encounter against TSM would be something of a grudge match. Delivered as part of the LCS broadcast, the monologue made reference to the public spat between Doublelift and TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh, who had recently been fined and sanctioned after an investigation into bullying and abusive treatment of staff. As Doublelift had been a player for the organization at that time, along with his partner, Leena Xu, who served as President for the period relating to the complaints, he had been vocal about Reginald’s behavior, which even prompted a legal response from the TSM organization. All in all, it’s the exact kind of thing that well-balanced, adult esports fans would discuss, especially given Riot Games’ penchant for sweeping any and all negative stories associated with their esports ecosystem under the rug. As an aside, anyone saying an official broadcast shouldn’t touch on these issues because it’s inappropriate to do so and that it would never happen in real sports is unequivocally a moron. Controversies that might affect the on-field play or make a compelling narrative are a standard component of almost any televised sports broadcast. Some examples… When Cleveland Browns running back Kareem Hunt attacked a woman in public, the reason for his eight-game suspension was explicitly stated in the game. The NFL’s own website and league discussion show not only talked about the incident at length, but they also brought back another player who had been kicked out of the league years earlier for domestic violence to reflect on his own transgressions. When UFC fighter Conor McGregor lost his mind and threw a dolly through a bus window in a bid to start a fight with one of his opponent’s entourage, it was one of the most shocking things to have ever happened in combat sports. He ended up injuring several fighters, some of whom withdrew from their upcoming fights as a result. The UFC ended up using the footage of the incident in the promotional material. The fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov remains the largest pay-per-view event in the UFC’s history. During a protracted dispute between Cristiano Ronaldo, one of football’s ‘GOAT’ contenders, and his Manchester United manager, the player employed all manner of dirty media tactics to get a move away from the club. The Sky Sports broadcast of the match featured two of his ex-teammates tearing strips off each other arguing about whether he was in the right or not. Inarguably, the problem isn’t the content, it’s that esports fans are and always were coddled babies. Anyway, what should have been just another piece of narrative content delivered as part of an esports broadcast was quickly being denounced as one of the most egregiously insensitive things ever to air. If that sounds utterly insane on the face of it let me show you how we got to that point. Initially, it was posted without commentary to the TSM subreddit. All esports fandoms suck, but TSM’s is one of those ones you could compare to K-pop stans or The Barbz. You see, even though Riot ignored their own previously set precedents to enable Reginald to still work within the League of Legends domain, TSM fans seem to think they were dealt with harshly. Even though Reginald’s behavior is reprehensible, the TSM fans believe that’s all relative. Certainly, they believe that there is no benefit to mentioning any transgression from their organization at any moment in time. They believe anyone critical of TSM in any way is simply a jealous hater who deserves to be harassed into submission. And so it didn’t take long for the comments to subvert the topic at hand to be about LeTigress and her suitability for her job. “Holy f***ing sh*t. This is awful and I can’t even bring myself to finish watching,” one user said as if the segment was akin to a LiveLeak video. “The fake scripted incompetence is really hard to watch. What is this?” read another world salad. “BuzzFeed quality segment with the BuzzFeed host,” decried another. “Le trigress (sic) is and always has been trash tier. It’s only fitting she does something this cringe and unprofessional. Who in their right mind gave this segment the green light?” Austin ‘SmaK’ Haggett, a senior team manager at TSM, was seemingly more than happy to encourage the resulting harassment. He posted the following. “I don’t comment on Reddit much anymore, but I work in team management with TSM across multiple teams. Anyone that knows me can tell you I’m a big advocate for our players across all games. I was one once myself. This is the primary reason I was shocked and saddened by this segment. We have a team of great players who put their heart into their work and just want to play the game. They did nothing to deserve to be disrespected like this right before one of their most important matches. It’s an important topic that should be discussed anywhere else. Let the players play the game.” Now, to be absolutely blunt about it, I find it hard to believe he even watched the segment. At no point were the players on the TSM roster disrespected. In fact, the segment actually ended up pointing out the new line-up and how hard they had been working. It’s also not clear how this would impact the players’ ability to play the upcoming game at all, given they wouldn’t see the segment as it aired. It’s also not exactly clear why the segment would have to be a puff piece about how great the players are, to begin with. Why does everyone have vocally fellate every esports competitor? And most crucially of all, if you don’t want your players to be distracted by content about your CEO’s antics, then remove your CEO instead of demanding everyone else have to tiptoe around his bullsh*t. So that comment was cheap manipulation, a practice that never fails in our industry, so by the time the segment was posted to the main League of Legends subreddit, the descriptor “unprofessional” had been added to it. The greatest minds assembled from far and wide to explain exactly why it was so bad. “TSM is Riot’s partner. That’s what franchising is. Why are they actively trying to harm the reputation of their partner?” one genius said. “The players don’t deserve this shit right before their game” chimed in another. “Absolutely horrid… This is PROFESSIONAL esports, and it’s being delivered like it’s a show made exclusively for pre-pubescent teens with high school drama hit pieces and arts & crafts segments,” another said. The jokes write themselves so I won’t inflate my word count by doing it. What formed in the middle of this was the notion that because the segment referenced the harassment and bullying Reginald was punished for within the context of why Doublelift might be especially fired up for the game, it was somehow making light of harassment and bullying. This is of course an unbelievably uncharitable interpretation, one that ignores the fact that it is Reginald’s continued employment that is the thing that truly makes light of workplace bullying, but the mob was dialed in with laser focus at this point. One of the things social media does that few people talk about is it empowers halfwits with talking points they could never arrive at themselves, effectively providing a list of talking points for every idiot to use in order to justify what is simply irrational anger born from boredom. And so the mob, thus equipped, proceeded to spam and harass a woman on the internet who had only recently suffered a bereavement in the family to make a point about how wrong it is to make light of bullying. Classic esports. Right on cue came the apology, which is basically the social media equivalent of tapping while in a guillotine choke. In it, she also said she was “horrified by the harassment and vitriol” she had received, which is a fair point to make. Pointing out that this had happened to her was now another crime that the internet had to take her to task over, and so once again it went back to Reddit. “[I] always like to see when the person takes the smallest amount of blame possible, then shift most onto something else and finish it off by making themselves the victim. what a classic response.” “Why is she apologizing to TSM? Apologize to the people Regi abused for making a joke out of their abuse.” “This isn’t how you apologize. The backlash/harassment victimization should be a separate post not included with the apology.” It’s never enough, is it? Then Doublelift, a man seemingly so dense light cannot escape his surface, decided to chime in as well. A vocal anti-fan of LeTigress’s work (he’s given her the almost inexplicably sh*t nickname ‘Le Cringetress’) he made the demand that she “Apologize to everyone who experienced verbal abuse and workplace harassment” and “then remove the useless strawman where you still see yourself as the victim” because it’s 2023 and he still doesn’t know what a strawman is. As a popular player and streamer with a significant fanbase, this only made things worse for her and in my opinion, it’s most likely this was the intention from the outset. After all, Doublelift only became publicly vocal about what was happening once he left TSM and he didn’t seem to have any issues with representing the organization when he re-signed for them from Team Liquid in 2020. Relevant because many examples of Reginald’s inappropriate conduct were public long before then. If you thought Riot might have stepped in to act as a lightning rod for one of their talent, you’d be wrong about that. Jackie Felling, the head of League of Legends esports for North America, posted an apology in the thread that didn’t so much jump on the grenade but rather kicked it towards the only person it was going to blow up. Saying you “really appreciate the feedback” during a witch-hunt that isn’t coming your way may as well read “keep dunking that witch, she’ll confess eventually.” A hilarious response to this was, “Not intended to be disparaging? You literally allowed Le Tigress to blast TSM live. TSM fans are already struggling and this is just beating a dead horse.” Won’t somebody think of the poor TSM fans? In the end, LeTigress “decided” it would be best if she took some time off, citing mental health as the reason for it. Another Reddit thread, this time though, it was reflecting on just how it’d got so far. How indeed. A history of attacking female esports talent I’m more than aware that everyone gets it on the internet. I’ve been at the bottom of so many dogpiles you’d think I was permanently in heat. I’m also one of the few journalists that kept it real during the great Gamergate grift. It remains true that, according to research, men receive the majority of online abuse, but that comes with the additional caveats that it isn’t gender fixated and rarely is it sexually aggressive. For instance, I’ve only ever been sent an unwanted photograph of someone’s genitals a handful of times whereas that is an experience my female colleagues endure almost daily. There’s definitely a dynamic at play and when it comes to the esports industry I’ve been in it too long now not to notice those same female colleagues all have a similar origin story. Establishing yourself as a woman in esports at times resembles being “jumped in” by a gang; they kick the sh*t out of you but if you can handle it eventually you’re part of the family. At that moment, the people who were doing the kicking swear that they loved you the whole time and that anyone referencing the abuse is lying. The reality is that the internet loves a good witch-hunt and if the witch just so happens to be a woman then it’s a bonus. What else explains harassing a pregnant woman for asking a perfectly fine interview question? Or attacking a host for making a throwaway joke to the point she felt it necessary to publicly apologize? Or driving an award-winning commentator out of an entire scene because morons can’t differentiate between ability and personal preference? Or throwing years of sexist comments at a female commentator and streamer for simply not being an elite-level competitor? Or pinning the entire fall of an already failing company on one woman simply for expressing an opinion that was considered too woke? The list goes on and on. But whatever, I guess. There’s actually no preventing any of this as long as we have an industry that focuses on optics over principles and a business model that requires everyone that participates to pander to the lowest common denominator. Those two things together disproportionately empower those that engage in recreational outrage. Working in such an environment means you’re even encouraged to pick up a torch and join the mob, even though there’s a very real chance you’re the next to be put to the flame. Until that changes, and with the upcoming esports winter, it’s absolutely not going to any time soon, you might want to consider how much you want to commit to a “community” that will give you little back except abuse.

The super fan who became the future of OpTic Gaming YouTube: Dexerto OriginalsIn the latest episode of Dexerto Originals, the team met up with longtime OpTic Gaming and Team Summertime member Davis ‘Hitch’ Edwards to discuss everything from his childhood, joining OpTic, and his plans for the future. After becoming a passionate fan of competitive Call of Duty, and in particular names like Scump and Nadeshot, Hitch had a mission to get involved. What was previously a dream turned into reality as he became one of the most celebrated esports videographers, all while under the OpTic banner. Things took an unexpected turn throughout OpTic‘s various ownership changes, prompting Hitch to take his side project, Team Summertime, more seriously, securing a sponsorship with Elgato. Now back under the OpTic banner, Hitch is determined to help return the iconic organization back to its pole position in esports.

The untold stories of esports pros escaping war in Ukraine StarladderThe shockwaves of the current humanitarian crisis in Ukraine have been felt across the world. The testimonies from the country are harrowing, but there are those working tirelessly to provide hope and relief to those affected. Esports players and organizations have also been caught in the storm. Ukrainian CS:GO professional Yaroslav ‘isk’ Issakov was at home in Kyiv on February 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine after weeks of posturing at the country’s borders. When the first bombs hit, the shockwaves were so strong that the doors of that house shook on their hinges, and a quick check of social media confirmed to him that the invasion had begun in earnest. “Instantly, I knew it was a blast wave from an explosion, and I checked my phone to see other people saying they’d heard the explosion too.” The decision to leave Kyiv was almost instantaneous, and he set off with his family on February 25. Despite living in Ukraine, Isk is a British passport holder, and therefore was exempt from the general mobilization decree that prohibits men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. If not for that passport, he’d likely still be in Ukraine now. Their destination was Poland, with a brief stay in the border city of Lviv for one night with some family friends. Securing passage out of the country wasn’t too difficult – Isk’s family had a car, and although the roads were busy, it wasn’t impossible to make the over 300-mile journey from Kyiv to Lviv in a day. The problem lay in where they would go next. While they were traveling, Isk was communicating with player agent Jérôme Coupez via Whatsapp. Coupez, the founder of Prodigy Agency, was able to secure them a spot at the Kinguin Esports player facility in Warsaw, a training center for bootcamping esports pros. All Isk and his family had to do was get there. The drive from Lviv to Warsaw was around another 250 miles. Combined with a seven-hour wait at the Ukrainian/Polish border, it was a tense and arduous journey, but Isk and his family were finally able to reach the Kinguin center, where they were welcomed with open arms. His family only stayed there one night before heading on to more permanent accommodation in Germany, but Isk remains in Warsaw. Throughout everything, being able to continue competing was his top priority. Previously the AWPer for UK org Into the Breach, he was benched on March 16 and is actively seeking new opportunities while still playing from the Kinguin center. A ten-hour train from Kyiv to Lviv Aidyn ‘KrizzeN’ Turlybekov, a professional CS:GO player from Khazakstan, moved to Kyiv five years ago fresh out of high school alongside his former CS:GO team AVANGAR, the core of which now plays under Virtus.pro. As he watched the Russian President’s speech announcing imminent invasion, and heard the bombs fall not far from his house, he knew it was time to leave. “After we heard the explosions we went straight to the train station, but there were already a lot of people there. We were standing in line for a bus, but we heard the sirens and we decided to go to my girlfriend’s grandmother’s village for a while.” The pair had left their house so fast they’d had no time to pack clothes. After a week staying in a tiny village near Kyiv, they returned to the city to attempt to catch a train to Lviv, where they knew easier passage out of the country could be secured. Уехал из Украины в Польшу. Немного стыдно, что убегаю из страны, но не думаю, что находясь в Киеве сделал бы больше, чем отсюда. Не знаю, что буду делать в будущем, но мне максимально не хотелось уезжать. Я понял, что мой дом – это квартира в Киеве, хоть и съемная. — Aidyn Turlybekov (@krizzencsgo) March 5, 2022 The train journey KrizzeN described from Kyiv to Lviv is a harrowing one. He recounted how the carriages were full of women and children, and how “kids were screaming, and everybody was thirsty.” Where a normal journey from Kyiv to Lviv would take around five hours by train, he and his girlfriend spent over ten hours cramped into a train car. Once the pair arrived in Lviv, they were able to secure passage on another train bound for Poland, another leg of an already arduous journey. In Kyiv, he’d been given Jérôme Coupez’s contact details by a friend, who’d told him that Coupez had helped him secure accommodation in Poland. Much like Isk, KrizzeN contacted Coupez, who helped him secure a spot for both himself and his girlfriend at the Kinguin center, where they currently remain. But the solution isn’t permanent. The two have been at the center for over two weeks already, and their next plans involve another long journey, this time to Germany. Both he and his partner have family currently living in Germany, and their plan is to stay with family until they can find a more permanent solution. Up until a week ago, KrizzeN was casting CS:GO with Maincast, a studio that provides Russian coverage of some of the world’s biggest CS:GO and DOTA tournaments. But with continued sanctions being placed on Russian businesses, the security of that job is in jeopardy. The facilitator On Thursday 24, player agent Jérôme Coupez tweeted that he was arranging accommodation for players unable to re-enter Ukraine. He’d been at IEM Katowice on the day of the invasion, supporting G2’s Audric ‘JACKZ’ Jug, who is represented by Prodigy Agency, of which Coupez is the founder. If any player/ or anyone needs a place to stay or to play from because you can’t go back to Ukraine, do not hesitate to send me a message. I will do my very best for us to welcome you and provide everything needed in our facilities or with our partners. Stay safe everyone 🙏 — Jérôme Coupez (@Jerome_Coupez) February 24, 2022 The response was instantaneous, with people across the esports world sharing the message and offering what little they could to assist in the efforts. Later that same day, Coupez sent out another tweet, this time looking for people able to provide transport from the Ukrainian/Polish border near Lviv to Warsaw. There, the Kinguin Esports Performance Center had opened its doors, free of charge, to provide housing and support for displaced Ukrainian players and their families. For KrizzeN, the departure from Ukraine was so sudden that he was unable to bring any of his peripherals with him to continue playing and practicing. Peripherals manufacturers Logitech, Xtrfy, and Razer all stepped up, and provided free equipment to all the displaced players at the center so that they could continue competing or practicing, and have some sense of normalcy in the middle of the chaos. I really want to cherish everyone who helps us support the players during this difficult time. An immense thank you to @Xtrfy @LogitechGFrance & @Razer for providing the people we helped relocate with all the peripherals they needed, it means a lot♥ Kudos to @Xavier_Roussac👊 pic.twitter.com/hfpQxJAWH5 — Jérôme Coupez (@Jerome_Coupez) March 15, 2022 According to Coupez, the decision to offer aid was a “no-brainer”. “It’s a war, and I was in Poland when it started, very close to Ukraine… we have players and collaborators in the country, people that I really care about and that I think of as family. I’m aware I have no leverage or power over the political situation, but I knew I wanted to find ways to help as much as I could.” “That’s why I created a player agency in the first place – to help.” The power of Esports in Europe Esports is by no means a perfect industry. But the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has shown that it’s an industry that looks out for its own, and one that has a great capacity for kindness. Coupez agrees, and attributes this kindness to the fact that esports is still such a small ecosystem. “We all know each other,” he explained, “and most people in esports will know people in Ukraine or the surrounding region.” Offers of support and solidarity for Ukrainian players were instantaneous and widespread throughout the esports community. Not just from Coupez and the team at Prodigy, but from organizations and individuals all across the globe. We are heartbroken by what’s happening in Ukraine. This morning, we received a request from a non-Liquid player stuck in another country who could not travel home. We will open our Netherlands apartments for him and any of our friends or colleagues in a similar situation. — Victor Goossens (@LiquidNazgul) February 24, 2022 Team Liquid offered housing for any and all stranded Ukrainian players in their esports facilities in the Netherlands. EXCEL Esports created a limited run of “STOP THE WAR” hoodies, from which all proceeds will go towards the Disasters Emergency Committee to help displaced refugees. FaZe Clan also created a limited edition blue and yellow hoodie, with 100% of the proceeds being donated to help refugees. SK Gaming set up a charity League tournament featuring players and casters from across Europe, and raised €3000 for multiple charities providing on-the-ground aid. Innumerable esports teams sported blue and yellow versions of their logos on Twitter in solidarity with Ukraine, and community fundraising events have been widespread. However small, the esports community is doing what it can to ease the lives of those forced to flee the war in Ukraine – whether it be through direct offers of aid and accommodation or donations to relevant charities. It’s undeniable that this conflict will fundamentally change the face of esports in Europe. Multiple Russian-based organizations have been barred from tournaments following sanctions placed on Russian businesses by the European Union. On March 11, Gambit Esports and Virtus.pro announced that they would allow their CS:GO rosters to compete in the ESL Pro League under a neutral name. The organizations were barred from the tournament due to ties with sanctioned Russian businesses. On March 14, Gambit announced that their Valorant roster would follow suit for the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour. But despite sanctions, tensions, and tournament shutdowns, esports has provided a respite for European players. A sense of normalcy in the midst of one of the scariest and most unforeseen circumstances in recent history. As Ukrainian esports legend Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev stated in his speech to the crowds at IEM Katowice, esports can “show an example” to the rest of the world in this darkest of times. The acts of kindness by people like Coupez, and the determination and drive to compete in the face of tragedy by players like Isk and KrizzeN, exemplify the very best of the esports community.

The Guard owners reportedly planning to sell CDL & OWL teams LA Guerrillas & Gladiators Robert Paul for Blizzard EntertainmentKroenke Sports & Entertainment is looking to sell its teams in the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty League, according to reports from The Esports Advocate and Sports Business Journal. LA Guerrillas and LA Gladiators will reportedly remain operational until either a buyer is found for the teams or the franchise slots, or until the end of the season in each league. Sports Business Journal added that an alternative to an outright sale would be a partnership deal that “would give operational control of the teams to another entity.” If a solution cannot be found by the end of the season, the teams could be shut down, the reports added. The reports come just hours after it was revealed that Kroenke Sports & Entertainment had slashed jobs across multiple departments in its esports arm, The Guard. Several employees took to Twitter to talk about the layoffs, which allegedly gutted the company’s content, social, talent and creative teams. According to The Esports Advocate, many executive positions are also being cut as part of this round of layoffs. Neither report made any mention of The Guard’s Valorant and Apex Legends teams, whose future remains unclear. The Valorant team is currently competing in NA Challengers, while the Apex Legends roster is slated to participate in the NA division of ALGS Split 2 Pro League, next month. Beau ‘RamBeau’ Sheidy, who plays for The Guard’s Apex Legends team, said on his stream. that the organization wants to keep the players. However, he added that they are “allowed to look around” for other options. A report from Dot Esports said that the Valorant team will remain under the organization for the time being, though “the most likely outcome is that The Guard will attempt to sell the players in the future.” Kroenke Sports & Entertainment spent $20 million in August 2017 to enter the Overwatch League with the LA Gladiators, Los Angeles’ second franchise in this league. In 2019, it spent $25 million to participate in the Call of Duty League with LA Guerrillas. In November 2021, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment rebranded its esports operations, putting both franchise teams and a Valorant roster under The Guard’s umbrella. The organization fielded a Halo roster for a brief period in late 2021 and expanded into Apex Legends in October 2022. LA Guerrillas head coach Mark ‘MarkyB’ Bryceland seemingly confirmed the reports. “I cannot put into words how devasted I am,” he wrote on Twitter. “I moved to LAG because of the organization, the people behind the scenes. That’s all gone now. “All I know for a fact is that the squad is going to put everything into the rest of this season.” According to Sports Business Journal, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s decision to leave esports “could signal more exits to come among other franchise owners.” Kroenke Sports & Entertainment owns major sports teams, including the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, and Arsenal Football Club.

Misfits launch agency to help brands connect with esports audiences MisfitsFlorida-based esports company Misfits Gaming Group have announced the launch of The Misfits Agency, a new vertical aimed at helping brands tap into esports and gaming audiences. The organization already owns and operates Misfits Gaming, Call of Duty franchise Florida Mutineers, and Overwatch franchise Florida Mayhem. Now, they’ve set their sights on the content space. With Emmy-nominated creator Amy Palmer at the helm, The Misfits Agency claim to be “bridging the gap between generational audiences” through content creation for social media and “building valuable intellectual property.” The agency will help clients create content for platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to help them reach the many segmented audiences that inhabit the esports industry. To kick things off at launch, Misfits Gaming Group will be working with an existing partner in finance company SoFi as well as toy and board game giants Hasbro. SoFi have tapped the agency to create an annual content slate that’s focused on targeting the gaming community and the fans that inhabit it. With Hasbro, Misfits will create and produce a content campaign featuring influencers such as Sceptic and Sushibae. “Creating our own agency within Misfits Gaming Group marks the evolution of where our industry is heading,” said Misfits CEO Ben Spoont. “Offering brands and companies the opportunity to reach the most loyal audience in the world through authentic content and campaigns creates value for the esports and content creator ecosystem, and brands who want the next-generation messaging.” Disclaimer: Dexerto has partnered with Misfits Gaming Group to create and package branded content across its platforms.

The Guard lays off staff across multiple departments in massive round of cuts The GuardEsports giant The Guard has just slashed various positions in their creative division with an uncertain future for their teams as the organization takes a massive hit. 2023 was predicted to be a rough year for the gaming and esports industries. And so far, it has shown itself to be incredibly rocky, with 10,000 employees left without a job across Microsoft-owned studios to esports giants 100 Thieves and OpTic laying off dozens of staff members. The Guard has followed suit as multiple ex-employees of the esports org have announced they were laid off. Many of the employees let go were part of their creative and production teams, generally in charge of the behind-the-scenes work that we don’t see. It is unsure if the layoffs will affect their teams. The Guard lays off multiple staff members in shocking blow Currently, The Guard is represented by a Valorant team in NA Challengers and by an Apex Legends roster, which finished 17th at the recent ALGS Split 1 Playoffs. The organization also owns the Los Angeles Gladiators in the Overwatch League and the Los Angeles Guerrillas in the Call of Duty League. The Guard producer Hunter was part of the round of layoffs. He announced on his Twitter that the org had just laid off their entire content, social, talent and creative teams, even posting a selfie with the entire team right before they were given the news. Apparel designer Carlie Kay was one of the first people to announce that The Guard were laying off multiple staff members. “As of today, everyone’s position at The Guard has been eliminated,” she wrote on Twitter. The org could be seen hiring people until recently, with Mavriq announcing joining The Guard as a short-form producer on February 12, only to be laid off in the recent wave. Similarly, Ariel Ben-Abraham, who had moved to Los Angeles just to work for the org, was also laid off. The layoffs have taken everyone in the esports industry by surprise as the org is backed by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, one of the largest sports companies in the world. The Guard is yet to address the layoffs publicly, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated here with any changes in the coming hours.

The Esports Iron Curtain: The unreasonable demand for dissent Antor Adam/ESL Gaming via ESPATIn his latest opinion piece, Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large Richard Lewis explains why we, from a position of comfort and privilege, have no right to demand that Russian players and esports workers take an anti-war stance. At the time of writing this, we have now gone past 150 days of the invasion in Ukraine. It is a conflict that political scientists have said is on course to be one of the bloodiest in modern history and that will significantly change the global landscape for decades to come. That time frame assumes a world where a successor to Vladimir Putin has a drastically different approach to foreign policy, which many Kremlin critics will tell you is a pipe dream. The ramifications of the war have bled into all aspects of global existence and so, of course, esports were not immune. Maybe in the past, a conflict such as this wouldn’t have impacted esports as international competitions were limited to a few titles and, in truth, even fewer nations were relevant within them. The esports world was smaller and much more fractured back then, limited by technology as much as anything else. And so, despite all the many conflicts that have transpired globally since those formative years, it is probably no exaggeration to say the war that had the most profound impact on our industry until now was America’s “War on Terror.” That is what limited travel, snatched away visas and paperwork, fundamentally changed the way the world worked and its ripples of course reached us. Still, the changes it inflicted were nothing compared to the seismic collapse inflicted by the 2008 recession, which should tell you all you really need to know about its significance. Some of the changes aren’t always apparent. For example, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the industry had become increasingly reliant on padding its statistics thanks to the viewership from Ukraine and the CIS region. An organization like NAVI being in your grand final was usually an indicator you were about to break viewership records, especially during the pandemic, when esports were making significant gains in the attention economy. Now a number of factors, such as sanctions, retaliatory government fines, and tournaments feeling less inclined to offer Russian-speaking broadcasts, have seen those once reliable numbers decline. Losing that audience has been one of the largely unspoken reasons why there’s a sudden desire to expand into the Middle East, an untapped reservoir of new esports fans where the governments will actually underwrite costs to serve up the product. So in order to condemn warmongers, we got into bed with tyrants. It will be remembered at best as a strange time in our industry’s history, and by the time we are ready to revisit it, the chances are I will no longer be around to participate in a sober retrospective. These articles have been an attempt to at least leave something behind for that moment, whenever it might be, but they’ve also been an attempt to try and make people aware of many of the moral issues our industry lets lurk in its collective blindspot. A few days after the invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas region, I wrote about how the greatest CS:GO player in the world, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, had been thrust into an uneasy spotlight, trying to spread a message of peace that would largely fall on deaf ears. I wrote about how any grandstanding about the horrors of war was largely moot when we allow war criminals to advertise on our broadcasts. I covered how international sanctions were going to force our once connected international landscape to fracture and return us to days gone by and how huge esports operations were having to relocate to get out from under the pressure of Putin. Of course, it was impossible to ignore the wild inconsistencies in how we applied our own sanctions to competitors and the fact they felt like poorly thought out kneejerk reactions that completely went against our “esports is for everyone” mantra. And once you’re down that rabbit hole, you’re probably also going to ask some questions about why all wars and invasions are not treated equally, so I did that, too, by taking a look at how esports have issued zero sanctions to the Saudi Arabian-owned ESL or their business partner organizations that can be viewed as supportive of the continual airstrikes against civilians in Yemen. Important happenings require a look from as many angles as possible, but there was still one that I felt many had neglected, and that was speaking to Russian esports workers. Imagine if you will one day your nationality goes from being just another flag in the constellation of participants to that of international pariahs and you didn’t have anything to do with it. You don’t support the war, you don’t support Putin, you’re just a Russian who until this moment was pursuing their career without wishing harm on anyone. Now you find yourself forced to make public statements on government policies you couldn’t influence, your salary cannot be processed due to international sanctions, and you are told you must relocate to the Balkan region in order to keep your job. Even then you will be abused by both sides, a quantum state of being where you are simultaneously a Putin shill and a traitor to your own country. People won’t want to hear it, but I’ll tell you where I’ve seen this exact same thing before. It was in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, when peaceful American Muslims were suddenly assumed to be some type of enemy within. Suspicion, endless demands to publicly condemn the atrocity, mob retaliation fuelled by a US president that used rhetoric such as “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists” and evoking Christian vs Muslim sentiment by calling the war on terror a “crusade”. It was ugly and unfair then. Why do we not think so now? As we do for almost everything these days, shortly after the invasion occurred we quickly got down to the all-important matter of sorting people into who was on the right and wrong sides. The sentiment was that if you were one of the “good” Russians, you should come out and say so by making a public statement against the war and quite possibly against Putin’s government. This was so widely agreed upon it became a talking point among fans and industry people alike when making a decision about whether or not to support things such as a player’s ability to compete, the signing of a Russian player to an organization, or whether or not a sponsorship deal could go ahead without objection. The readiness with which this was adopted truly does tell you about how exaggerated the supposed backslide into authoritarianism in the West actually is because from our vantage point it seems the most natural thing in the world to be able to criticize the government. Many of the people passing judgment now about the appropriate way to handle the response to this conflict proudly did that, almost endlessly, between 2016-2021, during the US presidential campaign and Donald Trump’s tenure in office. Crucially, they did it without any consequences and in fact, they were mostly lauded for doing it. This would never be the experience of the average Russian citizen under Putin’s government. The state updated and introduced a number of measures to be taken against political dissidents with a view to making sure these laws encompassed anything relating to Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Relevant to the matter of speaking out are the following: Criminal Code Article 207.3. “Public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the exercise by state bodies of the Russian Federation of their powers” This law is specifically aimed at stopping the media from using non-Russian sources as the informational basis for their broadcast and stopping personalities and influencers from sharing any news the Russian media deems to be “fake.” The penalty for violation of this law is a fine of 3-5 million rubles ($49,200 – $82,000), a prison sentence of three to five years, or a forced labor sentence of up to five years, circumstances depending. If the sharing of information led to what the state deems to be “grave consequences” the sentence is increased to 10-15 years imprisonment and the inability to work certain types of job or engage in certain types of activity for up to five years. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation Article 20.2. “Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing” Updated as recently as July 25, this law means that anyone attending a rally that wasn’t applied for and agreed upon by the state in advance, will face either a fine of up to 50,000 rubles ($820), a compulsory labor order of up to 100 hours or up to 15 days imprisonment. Even holding up a supportive sign can result in a fine of 20,000-30,000 rubles ($328-492$) and, of course, place you squarely on the state’s radar. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Article 275. “High treason” The most terrifying potential charge that can be leveled at any citizen of a totalitarian country. In Russia, the standard to meet “high treason” is relatively broad. They characterize it, in part, as “going over to the side of the enemy or providing financial, logistical, consulting or other assistance to a foreign state, international or foreign organization or their representatives in activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.” The penalty for this is 12-20 years imprisonment. This has left many Russians who would wish to support Ukraine scared to do so as they fear even a donation to a charity, should it be noticed, could be squeezed to meet this standard. It would almost certainly be applied to any large Russian personality that used their platform to raise money, aid, or even promote awareness about the war crimes thus far committed by the Russian state. These fears seem to be well founded. The initial weekend of the invasion saw thousands of peaceful protestors arrested and imprisoned. This included arresting children who took peace signs and flowers to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. Long-standing Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was arrested for speaking out about the invasion in April and then held long enough for the state to trump up more charges against him. He now faces 10 years in prison under the aforementioned “fake news” law. Even those in local government will not be spared as Aleksei Gorinov found out. The Municipal Councillor of the Krasnoselsky district was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for calling the invasion “illegal”. Incidentally, even wealth and status will not save you. So far seven Russian oligarchs, including former oil company executives, have died in mysterious circumstances since the conflict in Ukraine began. The most recent, Alexander Subbotin, a former Lukoil executive who supposedly died after taking toad poison to cure a hangover. Don’t think about it too much. It’s just oligarch things. The impact on Russian esports workers Against a backdrop such as this, it isn’t hyperbole to say it is immoral that you make demands of Russian residents to speak out publicly against the war. What right does any of us have to demand compelled speech that places people in financial peril at best or physical harm at worst? And to what end? So we, who exist in countries that allow us to criticize both domestic and foreign governments and policies, know who shares our beliefs? Where should we draw the line in the future? Should we insist that North Koreans speak out against Kim Jong-Un? Should we request that Saudi Arabian apostates make themselves known? Of course, you absolutely would not demand these things, and so, for the life of me, I cannot fathom why we have placed such expectations on the Russian people either. Strangely, all of what I’ve just said is a deeply unpopular sentiment. People who have expressed this belief have been filed away as pro-Putin or anti-Ukraine or some other such label. But I have always been hugely skeptical about the numbers supposedly coming out of Russia stating that over 75% of Russian people support the war. I see no reason for any Russian citizen to ever answer such a survey with their honest thoughts. There is no upside to honesty and, of course, many Russians share a dread of ever being on the wrong side of the government. It was only last year they were taking a leaf out of the Chinese playbook and announcing they had developed software that monitors social media for “deviant” behavior. I am sure many do earnestly support the war, but I am also certain there are many who do not that have to keep that belief private. Certainly in the esports industry, where the age skews younger, I’ve yet to speak to a Russian who is for this war. Having interviewed a number of Russian esports workers for the next article in this series, there was a lot of experiential overlap. They were all anti-war but not in a financially secure enough position to risk saying so. Most had encountered some type of nationality-based hatred aimed at them, either publicly or privately. Some even had Ukrainian co-workers or colleagues who had demanded they speak out in public so they could be sure they were on their side. A handful had found themselves victim to a new type of esports witch-hunt, one where their livelihood was being threatened or taken away for a refusal to speak out. I wrote this primer to try and encourage everyone to be more empathetic and avoid jumping to ridiculous conclusions. There’s too much of that right now. When you have prominent journalists publicly claiming meaningless squiggles are signs of pro players supporting Putin without even basic research, we’re close to mass hysteria. Doing and saying the “right” thing always comes at a cost, and for those who live under authoritarianism, it is often a price that cannot be understood by those who enjoy more, although not absolute, freedom. There are people like us on the other side of that iron curtain as well, and we should be supporting them.

The greatest champions of the World Cyber Games In 2019 one of esports’ most classic events, the World Cyber Games, is set for a return. Unlike other major esports events, which typically focus on a single title or at least keep different tournaments distinct, the World Cyber Games aspired to be something akin to an esports Olympics, with countries fielding representatives in a variety of different titles. The WCG originally ran from 2000 to 2013, during which time it hosted some of esports’ greatest players across a number of games. As the World Cyber Games is set for a return in 2019, here’s a look at some of the most iconic competitors that already count themselves as WCG gold medallists. Fatal1ty – Quake III Fatal1ty wins the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) World Tour in 2005. There’s a space like no other carved out in esports history for Johnathon ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel. Unlike most legends of the industry, Fatal1ty was a gaming polymath, a champion across not only multiple titles, but multiple different franchises. Fatal1ty broke new ground not only as a competitor, but also as an icon, a precursor to the celebrity that the esports stars of today enjoy. In a world before social media, Fatal1ty nevertheless built a reputation that saw him not only respected in the world of competitive gaming, but even featured in mainstream publications and shows long before Though Fatal1ty competed and won in a variety of games, he was best known for his career in Quake, and it was in this franchise – specifically Quake III – that he won his WCG title, in the very first World Cyber Games event in 2000. BoxeR – StarCraft: Brood War BoxeR is among the earliest esports superstars. Few figures in esports boast a legacy comparable to that of Lim ‘BoxeR’ Yo-hwan. More than a decade and a half after his original reign as The Emperor of StarCraft: Brood War, he’s still remembered as one of the greatest and most iconic players the game ever saw, and one of the rare esports stars whose reputation transcends the game in which it was built. While later players may have surpassed BoxeR’s accomplishments, few approach the degree of reverence with which BoxeR is remembered. He was the first true king as the rise of esports in South Korea began around StarCraft. At the World Cyber Games BoxeR reigned supreme in both 2001 and 2002, on the latter occasion beating major rival Hong ‘YellOw’ Jin-ho for gold. He remained not only the sole StarCraft player to claim the title back-to-back, but the only one to win more than once at all. NEO – Counter-Strike 1.6 NEO is considered by many to be the greatest CS 1.6 player of all time and was part of the legendary Polish Virtus.Pro line-up in CS:GO. Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski is considered by most one of the greatest Counter-Strike players of all time, and within Counter-Strike 1.6 specifically, Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg remains his lone competition for that title. While there will likely never be a clear consensus as to which was really the greater player, in the context of the World Cyber Games, NEO dominated the battle. Having already claimed his first WCG victory in 2006, NEO went on to defeat f0rest’s Fnatic to claim a second in 2009, and beat f0rest again, who was this time playing for SK Gaming, in 2011 to earn a third. In fact, with three WCG titles to his name NEO compares favorably to any other star in any game, with even the titans of other titles maxing out at two gold medals. While NEO may be the stand-out star, Counter-Strike is still a team game and several other players also boast these titles. Perhaps most notably for fans of the legendary Virtus.Pro line-up of CS:GO, Wiktor ‘TaZ’ Wojtas played alongside Neo in all three WCG victories, as did Mariusz ‘Loord’ Cybulski and Jakub ‘kuben’ Gurcyznski. Lukas ‘LUq’ Wnek collected two, but by 2011 had been replaced by Jaroslaw ‘pasha’ Jarzaboski. The Ogre Twins – Halo 2 Ogre 1 and Ogre 2 are among Halo’s most iconic players. When it comes to Halo, there’s no more iconic duo than twins Dan ‘Ogre 1’ Ryan and Tom ‘Ogre 2’ Ryan. The pair were not only among the most individually skilled players to ever grace the franchise, but also formed the core of several of its most successful teams, most notably the legendary Final Boss. While the 4v4 aspect of Halo is at the forefront of the franchise’s competitive scene, it’s by no means the only element of the game’s history. In Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, events would routinely run free-for-all and 2v2 tournaments as well, with the best players competing across all of these disciplines. For an iconic duo like the Ogres, there’s perhaps no better format than two versus two. Paired together they were practically unstoppable – although they would often choose instead to separate, and on such occasions usually met in the final to face off for the title. For the Halo 2 event at the World Cyber Games in 2005, however, the twins were fighting side by side, and collected the title without dropping a single map. Grubby – Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Grubby is one of Europe’s most successful Warcraft III players. Warcraft III was a staple game of WCG for most of its history, being featured at every iteration from 2003 to 2013. One of the first Warcraft III players to claim gold at WCG was Manuel ‘Grubby’ Schenkhuizen, Orc player for the legendary 4Kings WC3 team, who took the title in his first appearance at the event in 2004. In 2008, he claimed a second victory, this time defeating rival Jang ‘MOON’ Jae-ho in the final. Grubby returned to the final in 2010, earning the opportunity to become the first player to win three WCG titles, but fell to Kim ‘ReMinD’ Sung-sik, leaving him tied with Li ‘Sky’ Xiaofeng with two gold finishes. While many classic esports franchises have survived to – and for the likes of Counter-Strike, even thrive in – the modern day, Warcraft III has, unfortunately, largely fallen by the wayside outside of its own dedicated community. When the World Cyber Games returns in 2019, however, it will feature Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne as one of the competitive titles. Fortunately for fans of the title – and of Grubby, who is still playing Warcraft III, although he’s retired as a pro competitor – Blizzard are currently working on a remaster of the game, called Warcraft III Reforged, which is due for release in 2019, and may offer a chance at breathing new life into its competitive scene. Flash – StarCraft: Brood War Flash is considered by many to be the greatest StarCraft player of all time. Considered by many the greatest StarCraft: Brood War player of all time, ‘Flash’ didn’t actually collect a WCG victory until the very last time Brood War was featured in 2010. The title came as part of the season that Flash is perhaps best remembered for, an epic year in which he appeared in the finals of every tournament he attended, winning five of the eight. His dominance was such that this season earned him the nickname simply of “God.” Flash was one of just four winners of the Golden Mouse – an award for winning three OSL titles – and tied with Lee ‘NaDa’ Yoon-yeol for the most combined wins of OSL and MSL, the two most prestigious tournaments in StarCraft: Brood War, at six. Jaedong – StarCraft: Brood War Jaedong, a legendary StarCraft player in his own right, was also known for his epic rivalry with Flash. Often referred to by his nickname “The Tyrant” and the other half of one of what is arguably StarCraft’s most legendary rivalry, Lee ‘Jaedong’ Jae-dong was often the force that prevented Flash’s dominion from being absolute. Jaedong actually beat Flash to claiming a WCG title, taking gold in 2009, but fell to Flash in the semi-finals in 2010 and ultimately finished third. Another winner of the Golden Mouse and boasting five individual titles across the OSL and MSL leagues, Jaedong was also one of four players included in the TaekBangLeeSsang, a Korean term referring to himself, Flash, Kim ‘Bisu’ Taek-yong and Song ‘Stork’ Byung-goo, the four most dominant players between 2007 and 2012. Ambition – League of Legends Ambition finally won the League of Legends World Championship with Samsung Galaxy in 2017. While more modern League of Legends fans will recognize Ambition as a jungler, it was in the mid lane that he made his name. In the early seasons of OGN’s Champions tournaments, which would later become the LCK, Ambition was considered among the very best mid-laners in Korea. By the time Ambition attended WCG in December 2013, that title had been firmly claimed by the rise of Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, but it was Ambition’s CJ Blaze squad that were able to claim the South Korean spot at the World Cyber Games and ultimately took the title, defeating China’s OMG in the final. At the end of 2014, Ambition moved to the jungle in what would become arguably the most successful role-swap in League of Legends history. In 2016 he reached the final of the World Championship with Samsung Galaxy only to be cut down by Faker’s SK Telecom yet again, but in 2017, Ambition’s squad was able to take revenge in the rematch, becoming World Champions. At the end of the 2018 season, Ambition announced his retirement from professional play, but having firmly earned his place in the League of Legends hall of fame. Flame – League of Legends Flame has made a spectacular return to the LCK with DamWon Gaming after two years competing in North America’s LCS. League of Legends is a team game, and so Ambition wasn’t the only member of the CJ Blaze team that won in 2013. Perhaps most notable of his team-mates was Lee ‘Flame’ Ho-jong, legendary top-laner and the only member of the line-up still competing today. One of the most renowned carry top-laners in League of Legends history, Flame was so dominant in lane that he spawned the term “Flame horizon”, which is still used to denote when one player hits a 100 CS lead over their opponent. Having spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons in North America with only one second-place finish to highlight an otherwise unremarkable record, Flame’s pro career appeared to be dwindling, especially when he did not join a team ahead of the 2019 season. After being signed by DamWon Gaming in the middle of LCK Spring, however, Flame seems to have been rejuvenated, not just surviving but thriving back in what has historically been the most competitive league in the world. Whether it’s a stunning swansong or full-blown regeneration will only be revealed with time, but right now Flame is once again a player worth watching out for.

The Esports Iron Curtain: From Workers to Pariahs BLASTIn his latest opinion piece, Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large Richard Lewis highlights how some in the esports industry and the CIS region are struggling to return to normal with insight from some industry members who are affected. Despite the continued war in Ukraine, you could be fooled into thinking that the world of esports is largely returning to normal. Translation: collectively people are running out of the steam required to keep up righteous indignation for the more than 150 days of the conflict. What started out as good intentions have led us to a strange place indeed. The decision to mirror international sports and issue sanctions against many Russian organizations and competitors seemed to make sense initially but in there here and now have come to seem almost absurd. ESL continues to be sponsored by the Russian ran gambling site 1xbet despite having demanded that Russian organizations censor their brands in their competitions. This sponsor is especially egregious as the company was banned in Ukraine for supposedly “acting in the interests” of the Russian state. North American organizations, despite international business sanctions, continue to plunder beleaguered Russian organizations for talent without any public criticism. This is happening against a backdrop of Saudi Arabia increasing their esports position on a daily basis without anyone ever calling for boycotts and blacklists despite their foreign policy leading us into the largest humanitarian crisis in history. Apparently, there’s just nothing that can be done about these things. And, of course, the permanent alterations to the esports landscape brought about by both our own and geopolitical decisions continue to play out. The CIS region’s esports infrastructure is decimated with many tournament operators and games developers excluding competitors on the basis of nationality alone. Increasingly a coalition of CIS states and China looking to build something to counteract this exclusion is mounting, a huge blow to the global mission statement that esports has often trumpeted down the years. Of course, Ukraine esports representatives are also facing quandaries almost impossible to process within an esports context. Destruction of buildings, economic collapse, competitors unable to return home lest they be conscripted into a brutal guerilla war and an uncertain future. The tone of discourse around these issues has been erratic and confusing at the best of times. Initially, the messaging was that the Russian people would be exempt from penalty, that rather the focus would be on the brands, the sponsors, the owners, in simple terms the money that it was believed would flow back to the Kremlin in one capacity or another. At the other end of the spectrum, Kyiv-based organization Na’Vi couldn’t have made their views clearer. In an interview in the Washington Post their CEO, Yevhen Zolotarov, stated that they would no longer house anyone who pays tax in Russia, making it impossible for them to employ anyone living in that country. “We are not going to work with people who live in Russia and who pay taxes to the Russian Federation,” he said. “We have a lot of Russians who have played for NAVI for years, and they understand that everything that is happening on Russian TV is bullshit. I mean, they understand that because they spend a lot of time in Ukraine. They boot camp here. They know us. However, there are legislative issues. If you’re Russian, it is super difficult to even have a post right now to express your thoughts or the attitude to this war. I mean, you can be put in prison! However, we won’t be able to work with players who will live there and will pay taxes there. So, we are ready to help relocate players who don’t share the Russian Federation’s politics.” Despite Zolotarov’s proclamations that he understood the situation facing potential Russian protestors, Na’Vi continued to purge their ranks of Russian representatives, even ones that didn’t comply with the above logical standard. For example, their junior and youth academy teams contained multiple Russians on the roster most of whom still lived with their parents and whose salaried status reportedly varied. It’s not clear what contribution 16 and 17-year-olds make to the Russian state but they were not spared and had their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity taken from them in the interests of cruel consistency. Na’Vi were so determined to have as few Russians associated with the brand as possible that they even removed Russian admins from their FACEIT hub. Yet that consistency seems to have only gone so far. While the two Russian players left on their main CS:GO roster agreed to relocate in June, according to sources familiar with the situation, that has been on hiatus. The original plan was reputedly for them to head to Serbia but for multiple reasons, including geopolitical within that country, this has been placed on hold and so those players are still operating as before, contrary to the express statements of their management. The Na’Vi CEO has also placed his star player Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev in a difficult position. While Kostyliev made a point of talking up the prospects of peace and unity in a difficult time. While Zolotarov has talked about the need to force Russian players into relocating, The founder of the org, Oleksandr “ZeroGravity” Kokhanovskyi instead made it clear he would never forgive himself if he didn’t go to the frontlines. The organization since also used the naming of his women’s team, called the Javelins after the anti-tank missile being sold to the Ukrainian armed forces by the United States, to make a defiant statement. It’s hard to imagine that this backdrop hasn’t hugely contributed to the volume of hate Kostyliev has had to publicly face, being called a traitor and a coward by esports fans who demand he follows in his CEO’s footsteps. As one Na’Vi staff member I interviewed put it “S1mple did things on twitter, to stop hate against Russians. He stuck his neck out. It was thoughtless. From this moment on he became the enemy for Ukraine in their eyes because he didn’t support the hate.” So it comes to pass that we can exist in a time where even Ukraine’s greatest esports representative can be considered an enemy to his own people for wanting a greater understanding of the separation between government and citizens, as well as not wanting to put himself in harms way in the same manner some of Ukraine’s other sporting heroes have. There is little appreciation for a conscientious objector in this conflict it seems. There are some wounds it feels like not even time can heal and certainly, the latest round of Russian aggression against Ukraine not only brutally inflicted a fresh one but it reopened several that were nowhere near to fully closing. Any illusion about esports being somehow insulated from the results of this were shattered months ago. The collective reaction has been mixed, sometimes successful as it has with charity and aid drives, sometimes misguided. Increasingly though the distaste for Putin’s actions has trickled down and splashed on those who do not deserve it, leaving many Russian contributors to esports between a rock and a hard place. I spoke with many different esports workers (all of whom requested anonymity for what should be obvious reasons) from Russia at this time and the story is largely the same for all of them. They do not support the invasion of Ukraine and are sympathetic with not only the Ukrainian people but their many Ukrainian friends and colleagues who work in the esports industry. Na’Vi, a Ukrainian-based organization, enjoy a huge following in Russia and up until recently included many Russian representatives both as competitors and staff. Starladder, a tournament operator that has run some of the most prestigious in CS:GO history, is based in Kyiv. Maincast, a studio that was an offshoot of RuHub created by Ukrainian esports talent, has been the de facto place to watch Dota 2 broadcasts for that region. Now, with tensions only increasing between the two nations, increasingly Russian workers are being turned away from these operations irrespective of their individual political leanings or past contributions. This has created a knock-on effect. As many former esports staffers are now having to return to jobs outside of the industry something that makes condemning Putin’s actions publicly even more of a risk. Since the invasion new aggressive anti-protest measurements have been deployed by the Russian government making it an even more authoritarian regime than before. It is has been made clear though that in all but a few exceptions the door will remain closed to Russian esports workers wanting to return to the industry should they not protest now. For these people, the tonal difference between what they have encountered in their work and their everyday life has been jarring. At home, there is a quiet understanding about the situation in Ukraine, one that families feel powerless to do anything about. I spoke with a staff member currently holding on to a job at a large esports organization about their situation. They had shown me evidence of threats, verbal abuse and had even had their payments withheld while it was determined, for want of a better phrase, which side they were on. “Nobody hates anybody here because my region has had many refugees from there since 2014. People here just always help each other. In my school, there were people from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc and nobody hates anybody. There are people from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Africa, Iraq, Iran, and more in my University and nobody hates anybody. When we are online groups like Maincast and some Ukrainian fans have been very aggressive. We [Russian esports workers] are being told to do illegal things and they just insult everyone they see on the internet. We are just tired of it all… Regular people can do nothing about it and do nothing to deserve this hate.” To be clear about the laws people are facing for speaking out against Putin they confirmed my earlier reporting about this in their own words. The same staffer added that they were more than aware of the risks. “The media can’t tell information from unofficial Russian sources or they could be Arrested for 5 years and have problems in the future and problems for their families. People can’t go to a rally, which wasn’t agreed by the government. If you do a fine and administrative detention of 15 days as well as many problems in the future. You could also be accused of High treason, which includes helping any Ukrainian people. You could be arrested and imprisoned for 12 or even 20 years. Who wants to risk this to have an esports job?” There has been an increasing trend of esports organizations in the region withholding money from their Russian workforce. Sometimes this is simply unavoidable. As part of the international sanctions against Russia SWIFT halted its services in the region. Then Visa and Mastercard suspended activities in Russia which effectively stopped all cards issued in Russia from working and all cards issued outside of Russia from working with Russian merchants. Next in line was Paypal and even some cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase blocked a significant amount of wallets. However, for others, it has been stated that their salaries are being held back for the rationale that the resultant taxes would fund the Russian war machine. I talked to one worker who hadn’t been paid for three months despite the fact they were still being expected to complete their duties. “Many people just hear things like ‘oh, your money goes to the Russian army and you should take responsibility for this’” they explained. “Nobody asked us, nobody cared. Everybody knows protests from a small group like esports will do nothing and now there are things like you will be arrested because [your employer] asked you to do some illegal thing? This is a bad situation.” Another told me that they had been labeled a terrorist and that the subsequent abuse had made them feel like leaving Russia was both an impossibility and not safe. “Today is a day when everybody in Russia feels the world’s hate” they said. “From this moment I understand I really wouldn’t move anywhere, because I’m the enemy. I’m Russian.” This culture of fear has spread among the rank and file of organizations either based in Ukraine or Russian organizations who have elected to move their operations abroad in order to ensure they are allowed to participate in international events. This has been enhanced by a number of high-profile incidents where Russian competitors have been placed in the impossible position low profile workers dread – to speak out against the state or to speak out against the influencers in the region. For example, two days after the invasion Ukrainian Starcraft commentator Oleksii “Alex007” Trushliakov went on to a public Discord and asked which Russian players supported their country. Discord is a public platform that is certainly capable of being monitored and so regardless of how they felt – and I cannot profess to know one way or the other – players either said nothing or yes. Trushliakov then posted this publicly on Twitter and stated he would never work at a tournament allowing the players that answered in the affirmative to compete. It also ensured that hostility, appropriately or not, would be directed their way. By September Trushliakov had been appointed as the Senior Product Manager for the Starcraft 2 Pro Tour at ESL. One of the most prominent esports organizations in Europe, fnatic, suspended a Andrey “BraveAF” Gorchakov, a Russian Valorant player after private messages between him and a Ukrainian girl were leaked. The messages took place literally just a few hours after the invasion occurred and he said they were motivated from concern for her. In the messages, he said that the West “have achieved the collapse of the USSR” and now “want the collapse of the CIS.” He also added “isn’t a full scale war” and that it’s “not about civilians,” which would of course be erroneous in light of several atrocities perpetrated against Ukrainian settlements. Once the messages were seized upon by Ukrainian CS:GO commentator Aleksei “yXo” Maletskyi, his position was untenable. The general consensus at the time was that this was proportionate. And in one of the most strange examples of all Ukraine’s most popular commentator Vitalii “v1lat” Volochai, demanded that a Russian player publicly apologize for drawing the pro-war symbol of a letter “Z” on the minimap of a Dota 2 match. The player’s organization, Virtus Pro, immediately terminated the player’s contract and made the player publicly apologize. At this point, Volochai tweeted to his almost 200,000 followers that in denouncing the Russian state the player should be reported to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the FSB. As established earlier the apology itself could come with a prison sentence of anything from weeks to years. For many repulsed by Putin’s actions this is all fair game and maybe that’s a reasonable viewpoint. However, a blind eye has certainly been turned to some of the inarguably repellant actions done in the name of weeding out Putin sympathizers. Volochai, the loudest of the group, has publicly expressed support for a nazi group and, as I have seen personally, runs a Telegram account where he has vowed that he will bring about “the end” of anyone who works in esports and remains silent on the issue. He has publicly declared that all Russians will “burn in hell.” Regardless of money, the Russian esports workers I spoke to were just as fearful of being brought into the spotlight and placed in a situation where they could be in danger. Many stated they had received their first death threats since the invasion began and they come from all sides. “I am not even known,” a Russian administrative worker at one organization told me “but I got a message from a Ukrainian fan that said ‘you should die like we all are dying here’ and in my opinion, there is only thing you can do – just accept everything, delete negative things, ban people and be positive with people’s hate. You just try to stay human and do things you always do and don’t spread hate back.” Predictably though the esports world is increasingly shutting its doors to Russian people irrespective of politics and beliefs. The invasion of Ukraine began while ESL hosted one of the larger tournaments on its calendar, Intel Extreme Masters Katowice. There, with the world in shock, many speeches were made mid-tournament about how the external forces of war wouldn’t alter the unity within our space and it felt real for a moment when a majority Polish crowd applauded the efforts of Russian players representing Gambit and Na’Vi. As of this month, Poland followed up its suspension of visas being issued to Russians with a law stating that even Russian citizens with a Schengen-approved visa will be banned from entering the country. With the next event in Katowice due to take place in January, one would have to assume there won’t be any Russian competitors present. This is the sign of the times. There are reports for the upcoming CS:GO Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events that, after the decision was taken to merge Europe, Ukraine, and CIS into one competitive region (grimly unfortunate in retrospect), many of the qualified Russian teams cannot get their players and staff into the countries the tournaments are taking place in. Some can’t get into Malta. Another was denied a French visa supposedly on the basis he might not return home to Russia. This is only going to get worse and the inevitable outcome is that those Russian teams without the means and the desire to relocate will no longer be part of the international esports community. They will have to turn their attention to domestic and Asian competitions. Many are likely to simply stop operations altogether, leaving many staff with backpay they are unlikely to ever see and no real options to continue in the world of esports. Some of the workers I interviewed are already moving on. Esports is an uncertain future at the best of times but with large institutions no longer hiring Russians, payment problems, unemployment looming on the horizon, and increasingly limited opportunities to travel internationally, it just doesn’t make sense to keep trying. For the men, there is even the prospect of being called up to the military as Ukraine continues to defy Putin’s efforts. They expressed a genuine concern that they wouldn’t even be able to get out of their country as they weren’t sure who would grant them asylum. Better to find one of the jobs that would render them exempt if such an opportunity came along. The main contributor among the interviewees already had one foot out the door even though they never wanted to quit. “I’ve started working for a site in the Russian news media… A new set of problems but it should be OK. Just follow Russian laws. One of my good friends lost his job and now should work as a cafe courier. Overall, the situation there is stable. Now we have exams season at schools/colleges/universities. Jobs are available for those leaving esports.” Editors Note: This article was started before recent developments in Russia that has seen the state implement conscription.

The Esports Iron Curtain: How the war in Ukraine has changed esports Eric Ananmalay/ESL Gaming via ESPATThe ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are being felt across esports. This is a regression for an industry touted as global, and it will be a long time before things return to any semblance of normality. Another CS:GO Major is in the books, and despite the odds, the event has only one glaring asterisk next to it, one beyond anyone’s control and one that was mitigated as much as it could be. Even with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this event managed to see every team that qualified attend with their full line-ups, even though this seemed a pipe dream in the months leading up to it. It could have been very different of course. The initial Belgian response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was as stern as one would expect from the nation that houses the European Union headquarters. “Russia’s reckless attack forces us to be careful with Russians wishing to come to Belgium,” said Sammy Mahdi, Belgium’s junior minister for asylum and migration. “At the moment, Russians are not welcome here, a general visa ban for Russians should not be a taboo.” And while the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, hasn’t spoken up specifically on the matter of banning travel for Russians, he has made it clear he supports even stricter sanctions against Russia than the ones so far imposed. In May it was also announced that the European Union would be placing “increased scrutiny” on Schengen visa applications filed by Russian citizens, something that would likely lead to visas taking longer to process and increase the number of denials issued. “Given the current security situation, it is important that consulates thoroughly verify whether applicants could be considered to be a threat to public policy, internal security, or to the international relations of any of the Member States, in which case the visa should be refused,” read the official EU Commission communiqué. It seemed a reasonable expectation then that for this Major the Russian nationals might have trouble entering the country to compete. This was only avoided due to a concerted effort by PGL, the organizations, and local politicians in Antwerp. Recognizing the opportunity for the city of Antwerp, the mayor’s office and PGL staff worked from February up until the first official day of the tournament to ensure there would be no barriers for competing players. It was no coincidence that once the tournament made it to the stadium, the Mayor of the city turned up to smile for the cameras and the potential future voters. The fact that amid the current geopolitical landscape we were able to get a competition that was not ruined by immigration and travel laws in some way is a miracle. Sadly, I suspect it might be one of the last we will have for a while. With the invasion of Ukraine not showing any sign of stopping, the sanctions issued against Russia continue to come and bleed into everything. It is almost certainly the end result that Russia-based teams will no longer be welcome at international competitions in esports and that we will end up with two circuits on either side of an “iron curtain” style arrangement. Russia and Belarus-based teams will likely compete alongside Chinese teams — who currently find themselves subject to a number of laws from their government surrounding international travel — and rarely shall we see them internationally. For Russians, regardless of whether or not they adopt an anti-Putin stance, the world is currently shrinking. In March, shortly after the invasion took place, the Czech Republic announced it would no longer be accepting or processing visa applications from Russian nationals. Lithuania followed suit, as did Latvia, making an exception for humanitarian crises. In April, the Netherlands stopped issuing all visas to Russians after their diplomats were expelled. There’s no official EU ban on issuing new Russian visas, but official status is largely irrelevant if a Russian application comes with that aforementioned greater scrutiny. Even a request for further evidence can delay an application for long enough to make it impossible to compete, so the practicalities of employing Russian players outside of Russia is now a serious question. Almost all major international airlines have stopped direct flights to and from Russia, making travel much more inconvenient as you must connect from a nation with an airline not honoring these restrictions. So, for the teams that have not relocated to somewhere else in Europe, there will be significant extra costs for each journey to a tournament and when you get there maybe you can’t even promote your sponsors. As you can see, even relocation to somewhere else in Europe might not be enough for some countries to admit you. The immigration matter is one of the greatest issues esports has faced down the years despite many claiming to have solved it once and for all. For all the crowing about the size of the industry and how many people claim to have the ears of politicians, the reality remains underwhelming. We don’t have the lobbying power to hold the attention of the average politician who would much rather pander to other, wealthier groups in pretending that video games are some sort of destructive force within society. So when it comes to a situation like the one between Russia and Ukraine, which has seen the world of sports tie itself in knots, what chance does our thing really have? Outside of esports, our advocates are few and far between, and many major nations are not going to deviate from their politics for the small trifle that is esports. Take for example the issues surrounding the first event of the post-Major world, IEM Dallas. Despite being part of the Intel Grand Slam and the title sponsor having invested yet another $100 million into ESL tournaments, it will go down in history as one of the most shabby and meaningless tournaments ever played at the highest level. NAVI, a Ukraine-based org with Russian players, Entropiq, a Czech Republic-based org with Russian players, and Virtus.pro, a Russia-based org with Russian players, were not able to obtain the visas to compete in the United States. For good measure, there was also a raft of individuals denied access, but the common thread of these examples seems hard to ignore. Worth mentioning is that in addition to any suspected issues with admittance to the US as it relates to the conflict in Ukraine, there’s also the layer that the Russian Coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, isn’t currently recognized by the FDA or the WHO. This means that unless a Russian competitor has had two doses of vaccine from elsewhere in the world and has the requisite paperwork to prove it, they won’t be admitted into the country. The conflict in Ukraine likely means that any expedition of that process isn’t going to be forthcoming. With all this in mind, if you are a Russian player you are left with some stark choices. You either agree to not only relocate to a country that accepts you but also to adopt some aspect of their national identity for the purposes of travel. You accept that in doing so you might not be able to return home for a prolonged period of time and when you eventually do it could be the last. The weight that’s bearing down on you while making that decision is the economic reality that the Russian economy is going to be in decline for some time and so walking away from a relatively lucrative salary might make less sense than walking away from your family and friends. If you choose to remain in the country of your birth then not only are your economic opportunities greatly reduced, the level of competition you’re likely to be facing for the foreseeable future is, too. No small decisions for any professional player to have to make and all done under the spotlight of middle-class teenagers saying “just leave your country and family lol” — words that can only come from those who never had a parent on the oil rigs or the military. The same goes for the Russian organizations, too. Let’s be honest, when it comes to sports money in Russia, maybe all their money, in some way is going to be traceable back to Putin’s government or, at the very least, one of his cronies. Now you either have to obfuscate that reality or leave that money on a table somewhere, with all of the business and political ramifications that leads to. The investment you make into your players has fewer safety nets because Russian players, saddled with the above burdens, are now worth less, hence the incredible “smash and grab” from Cloud9 via the way of ULTI Agency, a Norwegian esports agency. Gambit lost one of the best teams in the world for a reputed $1 million, a price-tag unthinkable six months ago. Most likely now you will see a type of hibernation from the organizations lacking financial stability, maybe even closures. Those committed to the long-term will simply invest in Russian talent without designs on international competition. These realities are already starting to play out before our eyes. The revelation of the Major in Antwerp, Team Spirit, have had to bench their star player, Abdulkhalik ‘degster’ Gasanov, as he did not wish to relocate to Serbia. This was due to the fact players were expected to spend a minimum of nine months in that country for the purposes of facilitating competition. This represents one of the best players in that region likely to mostly waste his career through no particular fault of his own. Team Spirit will also suffer. They are now faced with paying a salary contribution to an inactive player or offloading him to a Russian organization for a fraction of his value. In the not too distant past that sale could have been to a North American organization for serious money. Whatever your opinion about that, it is inarguably a regression for an industry touted as being truly global and for everyone that for the first time in our young history, a war is starting to profoundly shape our future. This isn’t just going to affect CS:GO, a niche within a niche, but will be felt across our industry as a whole, and collectively we will be a hostage to the whims of the governments and the corporations that make decisions we all have to abide by. It begs the question why were we in such a rush to do anything at all instead of waiting to see how things played out. The first sanctions from esports organizations came down on March 1 and were wildly inconsistent at best. Almost all of those decisions are superseded by policies being enacted by entities we need to have partnerships with if we want to function. In short, esports can’t go “back to normal” until the world does. If you need to think about where we are right now you only need to look at what has happened to NAVI in the aftermath of the conflict. The bulk of two academy team rosters was cut, their CEO is making esports decisions while simultaneously being deployed in a militia and their flagship team is barely holding together. Two of their Russian players have agreed to relocate, but they have lost their in-game leader due to pro-Putin comments made by that player’s wife. The top-tier talent that they would like to acquire in his stead is likely tied to contracts that would require them to make a financial contribution to the Russian oligarchs that no one is supposed to be financing anymore so their replacement isn’t likely to be the best available. At the heart of it all is their talismanic player, Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, who, likely as a result of the emotional burnout due to the conflict and watching the team he personally approved fall apart, has repeatedly intimated he will need a break to recover. That break could entail anything from a well-deserved holiday to early retirement, to a less complicated streaming career, or to an opportunity in Valorant. It only took four months for CS:GO to be turned upside down into something unrecognizable by forces we couldn’t control. The events that started in February will resonate long beyond their end and increasingly, our global game is coming with caveats to what the word “global” actually means.

The Esports Integrity Coalition Responds to Supreme Court Decision on Sports Betting in the United States The Esports Integrity Coalition has responded to the Supreme Court decision to overturn the federal ban on sports betting within the United States. Following the enactment of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, regulated sports gambling was made illegal across the United States other than the state of Nevada. Although various states and organizations attempted to lobby for the law to be overturned so that citizens could place bets on different events in an authorized fashion, the decision held strong time and time again. More: Federal Ruling Gives States the Right to Legalize Online Sports Betting, Which Includes Esports – However, on Monday, May 14th, the Supreme Court decided to overturn the 1992 law, giving states the right and opportunity to potentially legalize sports gambling in the coming years, which generated a discussion between community members on both sides of the decision. The ruling will also allow for gambling in the world of esports – a practice which has already been seen in certain nations where sports gambling is legal, and regulated by their respective governments. When discussing the decision to allow federally regulated sports and esports gambling, the Esports Integrity Coalition, a group formed to fight against ‘issues of common interest’ such as match manipulation and betting fraud, mentioned how ‘well-enforced’ regulation is the proper way to handle gambling. There is no doubt that the availability of gambling in sports can be a threat to integrity, but good operators have as much to lose as anyone – betting will happen regardless, so good regulation well enforced is the only sensible option. Prohibition doesn’t work at all. — ESIC (@ESIC_Official) May 14, 2018 Now that the ruling is overturned, states will begin to decide if they want to allow regulated sports gambling, yet it may take multiple years before the law will come to fruition in some areas. We will continue to provide more coverage on the story as more information is made available, including its impact on popular ‘betting sites’ for games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The Esports Iron Curtain: A patchwork of confused inconsistency Michal Konkol/BLASTThe esports industry has not worked in lockstep on its response to the war in Ukraine. This has left us with a confusing mixture of sanctions against some Russian organizations and players that together make no coherent sense. Having established the impact of global sanctions against Russians and its contribution to shrinking the esports globe for the foreseeable future, let us now assess our own industry-wide reaction. It was uncharted territory, the first time I can think of that a war has had a profound impact on competition, discounting the war on terror, of course. Esports is downstream of culture, and so we knew we needed to do something even if it wasn’t clear what that would be. There certainly was a moral question being posed, but did we answer it correctly? Is that even possible in a space that now has all the same blood money flowing into it that every other major industry does? Now, it is the conventional wisdom that when you speak on matters relating to how these things affect esports you have to add a number of caveats, all of which underscore how unimportant we are by contrast. I’m becoming less inclined to play that linguistic game for two reasons. The first is that it is obvious that matters of life and death eclipse anything else when it comes to importance. The second is that our industry impacts the lives of millions, typically young people, all around the world. Sports and politics have intersected for decades. Either we matter and we’re important or we don’t and this is all a waste of time. There isn’t an intellectual no man’s land you can occupy on this issue. Indeed, there are no such qualifiers required when discussing these matters in sports because it is deemed important enough. Sports Illustrated ran a feature exploring the question that often gets you called a Putin sympathizer if you asked it before an esports audience. The question? To what degree is it fair to hold Russian sportspeople accountable for the invasion of Ukraine. Or as they put it, “Americans and Brits in favor of any blanket ban should ask themselves if they, too, would like to be held personally accountable for the actions of their own government.” In sports, the decisions taken were made swiftly and with little consideration to arguments around fairness. UEFA banned all Russian football teams from their competitions at all levels for the foreseeable future. FIFA also banned the Russian national team from competing in the European qualifiers, something that means they would miss the resulting World Cup 2022 held in the human rights violating hub of Qatar. Their federation attempted to fight both bans in court only to have their request thrown out, with a highly unlikely successful appeal being their only way back. Iconic tennis tournament Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian competitors, too, no small move since Daniil Medvedev is currently ranked number one in the world. Medvedev was not spared despite his choice to speak out against the invasion and the fact he lives in Monaco. Despite many saying this ban was too much, the organizers stuck to their guns and were stripped of ranking points, making the tournament basically an exhibition, as well as threatened with further action from the player associations. A not exhaustive list of the sanctions from the rest of the sporting world can be found here. It’s too much to go into, but you can split them into mostly two camps: one including examples such as the above, which advocate for total bans, and one which allows Russians to compete but without any open reference to their nationality. In esports, we have created a winding hotch-potch of “sanctions” against some Russian organizations and players that together make no coherent sense. ESL were the first that had decisions to make, their Katowice-based CS:GO tournament entering the playoff phase the day after the invasion took place. Initially, there was a strong uptake for the sentiment that esports doesn’t do politics, which of course is utterly nonsensical, especially coming from a company now owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and that openly advertise war criminals on their broadcasts. “I hope that esports this week will unite us and that we will not be divided by that shit that’s going on out there,” ESL VP Product Development Michal Blicharz said to the IEM Katowice crowd before adding: “The other players love and respect because that is the value of esports, that is the lesson of esports that we’ve learned.” Moments later, the Ukrainian organization had the world’s greatest player stand on the stage, side by side with his Russian teammates, and say that they were his brothers and friends, that in esports we were all equal and politics couldn’t change that. It was a fine speech, a standout moment in esports history, so much so that I wrote about its significance. It was also a moment of willful naivety on behalf of the esports community. There was no avoiding what would come next. BLAST, sensing they could earn the plaudits, acted in line with the rest of the sports world and just decided to end their Russian competitions and remove all Russia-based teams from their events. Because BLAST’s PR can and will consistently fuck up messaging even around the most basic of things, the statement was inherently contradictory, suiting the times. “Gaming and esports unite people from all races, countries and beliefs,” they said while making a decision that explicitly divided people. But a total ban on Russia-based players was always going to be a hard sell in esports. They are not traditional sports fans in that sense and will routinely follow players as they hop from organization to organization rather than stay loyal to something that is for the most part just a brand. So there’s a sentiment that it is players that earn the right to compete, not the companies that pay their salaries and enter them into the competitions, and anything that takes away their ability to play and earn prize money is generally viewed as a bad thing. BLAST haven’t walked back this decision and will be able to take comfort in the fact that the same type of ban was mirrored by EA’s esports divisions in FIFA and Apex Legends. ESL, having seen the reaction to BLAST’s response, were able to dilute their action in such a way that it stopped the brands from gaining the recognition but still allowed the players to compete, which most people in the esports community agreed was the way we should handle it. After all, it’s generally the agreed-upon standard that the average person has absolutely no influence over what their government does, especially when you’re being ruled over by a despot. If we shift that standard — and some are certainly trying —, we’re in for some very awkward conversations with our American friends somewhere down the road. Anyway, ESL agreed to allow the affected players to compete as long as they wore neutral jerseys and removed references to their employers from social media for the duration of the competition. “We recognize that players are not complicit with this situation, and we do not think it is in the spirit of esports to impose sanctions on individual players” they would say. As we would later find out, some of their Louvre Agreement partnered organizations did not feel this way, removing players from their rosters on the basis of things they or their spouses said. The spirit of esports be damned. Across the CS:GO landscape in particular there have been all manner of strange inconsistencies that really illustrate the issue of the space being so fractured. We cannot achieve any consistency when even those that operate tournaments for the same game refuse to agree with each other almost on a point of petty principle. The decision-making process around the whole CS:GO Major was a typical mess, with people not even being sure going into the competition whose approach PGL would mirror. Measures against Virtus.pro make sense if you think a stance should be taken at all. Owned by ESForce Holdings, a group that in turn is owned by VK, a company that used to be owned by Uzbeki billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a longtime supporter and orbiter of Vladimir Putin. In addition to this detail, ESForce and Virtus.pro themselves have repeatedly thrown kerosene on the raging bonfire of outrage about the invasion of Ukraine. RuHub, their content creation subsidiary, tweeted “RuHub, Epic Esports Events, Virtus.pro, and other units of [ESforce] holding support the decision to send troops to Ukraine” before deleting it and claiming they were hacked. Virtus.pro claimed they were threatened by a tournament organizer with fake COVID tests if they refused to release a public statement about Ukraine, later blamed the sanctions against them on “the cancel culture”, then one of their Dota 2 players, Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, drew the pro-war symbol ‘Z’ in an official Dota 2 Pro Circuit game against a Ukrainian team. Not long after these debacles, their Ukrainian CEO, Sergey Glamazda, left the company after two years in the role. So, OK, fuck those guys, right? But also among the sanctioned were Gambit Esports, an organization owned by Russian telecommunications company MTS. Their ties to Putin seem less clear and as a company, they haven’t been directly sanctioned despite several companies terminating their provider partnerships. Their parent company, Sistema, was headed up by a billionaire called Vladimir Evtushenkov, who also oversaw the development of the Orion drones used by the Russian military at another Sistema company called Kronshtadt. As a result of the international backlash, he ceded enough shares so he was no longer in control of Sistema, but his individual sanctions remain in place. One has to assume then, despite the many degrees of separation, this is the reason for Gambit’s sanctions, although we cannot be sure. . ESL’s statement on the matter simply said “organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government, including individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the conflict, will not be allowed to be represented” and never specified what those ties actually were. It’s all academic in the end. Sensing that the window in which to sell Russian players was closing, the organization offloaded their CS:GO squad quietly to a Norwegian talent agency, who then in turn sold them to North American powerhouse Cloud9. Strangely enough, no-one seemed to care that an organization that had been sanctioned had made money from selling its players, nor that an American organization that had expressed public support for Ukraine might have played a part in that. Perhaps that valid concern was obfuscated by the bizarre moral panic brought about by irresponsible journalists who made claims that one of their players, Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, had also snuck into his signature a pro-war symbol. Basic research revealed that the squiggle had been part of his signature prior to the invasion and was designed by a Ukrainian whose Twitter feed was filled with calls for peace. A bizarre episode that can be summed up by asking the McCarthesque question, ‘Is there a zed under your bed?’ So far, so inconsistent, but when you really start to look at it you see the full absurdity. For example, forZe competed at the CS:GO Major without being held to the same standard as Virtus.pro. This is a problem because the team is sponsored by Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, whose now former president, Vagit Alekperov, was a noted ally of Putin’s. Their other sponsor? Spartak Moscow, a team that has been expelled from all European club competitions by FIFA and UEFA and is owned by Leonid Fedun, a director at the same oil company. Both have given relatively milquetoast requests for Putin to halt the invasion, but their businesses are still entwined with the Russian state in ways we are told to disapprove of. Given the huge international debate around the purchasing of Russian oil, it does kind of feel that we probably should have had something to say about an organization literally funded by it. Team Spirit were the other Russian team in attendance in Antwerp and one of the standouts. Crucially, they relocated to Serbia, as is now the expectation for any Russian player that wants to continue to compete in the global Counter-Strike community. They also have implemented savvy PR, the complete opposite of Virtus.pro’s victimhood approach. For instance, at the same Dota tournament Virtus.pro complained about being blackmailed at, Spirit instead elected to wear jerseys with the word “PEACE” emblazoned across them, an act that if you were to do it on the streets of Moscow would likely come with a two-week jail sentence. By the same token, the organization’s CEO was quick to downplay any notion of them “representing” Russia when they were interviewed about the relocation to Serbia. “There are no national leagues or national teams culture in esports. This is the Internet space, and we gather players to build strong teams no matter the nationality and without a wish to carry any county’s flag. We associate ourselves with the whole Russian-speaking society and that will never change,” he said. It seems we are agreed then that this should be the standard that Russian organizations are now held to. Yet neither of these gestures prevented their major sponsor, Parimatch, the international bookmaker that was founded in Ukraine, from putting an end to their partnership citing “difficulties of operating during the war” as the primary reason. It should also raise a red flag or two that Team Spirit’s management have repeatedly refused to disclose who the owners of the organization are, with one publication declaring them to be “mysterious”. I’m probably something of an idealist but I think any team competing in any high-level sporting competition should have to be transparent about their ownership. How else can any conflict of interest be determined? With the current standard we’ve set, they should have to disclose it to the tournament operators whose competitions they participate in; otherwise, we might just be enabling the enrichment of an oligarch. Describing this as clumsy would be generous, but that is true to esports form; nominally good ideas devolve into inconsistency and playing favorites, all with the hope that eventually the issue will fade in the memories of an audience trained by social media to be easily distracted by the latest happening. What few are thinking about is what these precedents set for the industry moving forward. Will our landscape become as absurd as that of mainstream sports, where corruption and the resulting hypocrisy are just out in the open? Some might say we’re already there. I’ll be fair in my summary. There was no way to ace the test especially as it was being graded by the general public. The internet is so vast that it’s not only impossible to please everyone but it’s also highly likely the displeased can find each other and form an incredibly loud and vitriolic group. This reality has slowly turned esports now into an “optics first” culture. People rarely think about the consequences or the contradictions of a decision made in the heat of the moment when it is important to be seen to do something. But if we are saying to the world we are ready to weigh in on these political issues and act in accordance with global consensus, then it’s absolutely imperative that we are fair and consistent, even at times when entities bigger than us aren’t. And today can we say that we are?

The class of 2022: 3 rookies to watch in the LCS this year Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesNorth America has a poor reputation when it comes to developing talent. Here are three up-and-coming LCS rookies who are looking to change that narrative. Through a combination of importing talent and the longevity of veteran players, it’s always been considered much more difficult to make it as a rookie player in NA than EU. The lack of regional competition means that many NA amateurs have lacked opportunities to prove themselves in a tournament atmosphere. Steps were taken by Riot to rectify this in 2021. The LCS Academy system was restructured, and academy and amateur teams would now compete alongside each other in the Proving Grounds tournament. The change offered amateur players the opportunity to play in the same tournaments as LCS organizations and increased the number of eyes on the amateur scene. While NA’s grassroots circuit is still far from perfect, it’s making steps in the right direction. And we’re now starting to see the fruits of that labor blossom in the LCS, with two players coming into LCS starting spots this year who have made their way up through the amateur ecosystem to the main stage of North America. Alongside those amateur graduate hopefuls, North America has not given up on its age-old tactic of importing talent. But instead of going for ex-World Champions, the region has looked to the LPL’s developmental league, the LDL, for talent that can potentially be molded into the future stars of the LCS. Here are our picks for North America’s most exciting rookie prospects for 2022. Joseph ‘Jojopyun’ Joon Pyun- Mid laner for Evil Geniuses If there’s any rookie who’s going to give you the entertainment factor, it’s Jojopyun. Hailing from the Evil Geniuses’ development system, he’s played for the org pretty much since his competitive debut in 2020. He spent two months in the amateur scene before he was picked up by EG Academy in January 2021. The team’s performance in the academy league was mediocre, failing to find anything above a fourth-place finish throughout the 2021 season. Jojopyun’s most played in the Summer Split was Lulu, but don’t let that fool you – he’s a bloodthirsty, hard-carry player through and through. His career most-played champions are Sylas and Lucian, and EG Analyst Mike “Beora” Skriloff describes him as “incredibly explosive on the Rift.” “If you give him an inch, he’ll take a mile,” Beora told Dexerto. “He’s super aggressive and in your face as a player.” EG’s secret prodigy It’s been a while since a hyper-aggressive rookie has successfully debuted in North America, especially in the mid lane. There is a real possibility that Jojopyun has a rookie split on the level of European superstar mid laner Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther. NA Academy caster Matthew ‘Cubby’ Samuelson described him as a player who “commands a lot of respect” in the NA scene, despite being one of the youngest players in North America at just 17. “I know mid laners who’ve been more motivated to spam solo queue just because they want to run into Jojopyun and learn something from him,” Cubby said. Not only is he mechanically gifted and refreshingly aggressive, he’s got the experienced players around him to turn him into more than just a ‘good hands, no brain’ player. Paired up with World Champion top laner Jeong ‘Impact’ Eon and two-time Worlds attendees Kacper ‘Inspired’ Słoma and Philippe ‘Vulcan’ Laflamme, he’s got the experience around him to mold him into something truly special. EG are no strangers to fostering rookie talent. They’re one of the few LCS orgs to have an established path to pro through amateur investment, and they’ve proven they can handle the rookie talent that comes their way. EG AD Carry Kyle ‘Danny’ Sakamaki was one of the LCS’s most exciting talents in 2021, and he came up through the same talent development system as Jojopyun. If Evil Geniuses can bring up two consecutive, region-defining talents through their amateur pipeline, then it might just be the kick other orgs in the region need to increase their amateur investment. Wei ‘Shenyi’ Zi-Jie – Support for TSM While there are some truly impressive residential talents coming into North America this year, it would be remiss to ignore TSM’s offseason signings when discussing exciting rookies. North American organizations have been criticized in the past for their reliance on imported talent and the unwillingness to invest in development programs within their own regions. However, the free movement of talent has long been a cornerstone of League esports, and to say that a region should only rely on native players disregards the hard work of numerous imported talents to assimilate to and progress in their adoptive region. A new tactic for TSM Until recently, imported players have typically been established veterans in their regions looking to try their competitive luck elsewhere. However, we’re now starting to see a new trend in international player movement- importing rookie players who have not yet played in their region’s tier-one competitive environment. This is the case for TSM support Wei ‘Shenyi’ Zi-Jie. Pulled from the LPL’s developmental league by TSM alongside mid laner Zhu ‘Keaiduo’ Xiong, he’ll be paired up with AD Carry Edward ‘Tactical’ Ra to form TSM’s bot lane for 2022. He’s an aggressive support who’s not afraid to make the game-changing engages his team needs on champions like Nautilus and Rakan. He subbed in briefly for FunPlus Phoenix’s LPL team during his time on their academy roster, and performed well against LPL giants Top Esports. He’s definitely no stranger to high-pressure environments. He and Keaiduo present a unique challenge for TSM. Not only does the org have to help these players develop in their rookie split, they have to integrate two young players whose primary language isn’t English. TSM’s jungler Mingyi ‘Spica’ Lu speaks Mandarin, but TSM can’t rely on his translation skills alone to help them find success with their LDL rookies. Support in particular is a role that requires a huge amount of coordination with your lane partner and team as a whole, and TSM in 2022 will live and die by how well they are able to facilitate communication between Shenyi and the rest of the team. And although Shenyi comes to TSM from another region, he will require just as much development as any other rookie. He’s only been competing for a little over a year, and although he has experienced a brief stint on the LPL stage, that ‘experience’ totals out at five games played. To call him anything other than a rookie puts a weight of expectation on his shoulders that he does not deserve to bear. Visa issues and the continuing global pandemic mean that TSM will be fielding their academy roster for the Lock-In tournament. The org explained via Twitter that the team had not yet been able to practice together, and that Shenyi and Keaiduo were currently still in China and would not make it to LA in time for the start of the Lock-In. Fans won’t get their first glimpse of Shenyi until the beginning of the Spring split on February 5th. By then, the team will hopefully have had time to work on their synergy; otherwise, the org’s LDL gamble may blow up in their faces. Milan ‘Tenacity’ Oleksij- Top laner for 100 Thieves Tenacity, much like Jojopyun, is a product of growing investment in North America’s amateur scene. He was picked up by 100 Thieves’ talent growth pipeline in January of 2020 to join their amateur team, 100 Thieves Next. The 100 Next roster came second in the Challengers Uprising tournament in 2020, losing out to the now-disbanded Anew Esports. Tenacity was promoted to 100T’s academy roster at the start of 2021, and showed consistent performances throughout the 2021 seasons despite failing to win either the Proving Grounds or the Academy Summer playoffs. Tenacity belongs to the Kim ‘Ssumday’ Chan-ho school of bruiser top laners, favoring champions like Aatrox and Volibear – which is fitting, because he’ll be sharing stage time with Ssumday in his debut split. Sharing the spotlight Having players share a starting spot is an unconventional way of running a roster. It’s unclear what the rationale will be behind who plays week by week for 100 Thieves. Tenacity and Ssumday both play similar champions, with Ssumday having slightly more experience on tanks. In an interview with Dexerto, head coach Chris ‘PapaSmithy’ Smith explained that the team is coming into the LCS with “a really good idea of how we can make a six-man roster work for us”. The strategy has been notoriously tricky to get right, but 100 Thieves clearly feel that they’ve got the formula down for helping Tenacity’s development without hindering Ssumday’s growth. Cubby describes Tenacity as a “secret weapon” that the roster will bring out when they need a strong carry presence in the top lane. Ssumday is infinitely more flexible of a player due to his years of experience, but Tenacity’s Irelia is known to strike fear into the hearts of players all across the NA solo queue ladder. In fact, his proficiency on the champion was spotted by LEC caster Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont during his time in EU West solo queue for Worlds 2021. “There is going to be a great amount of joy in 100 Thieves when Tenacity finally gets to hit the stage,” explained Cubby, “because there has been a lot of effort put in by them into developing him as a player and a person.” Tenacity was part of 100 Thieves’ 2021 Worlds bootcamp in Europe and has been one of the organization’s highest-ranked solo queue players in multiple regions. He requires a fairly specific set of conditions to set him up for success (hence the shared starting spot), but if those conditions can be met, he’s one of the scariest top laners in North America right now.

The brackets for the SMITE and Paladins World Championships The Hi-Rez Expo at DreamHack Atlanta will see the best SMITE and Paladins teams in the world face off for the chance to be crowned World Champions. It’s the highlight of the Hi-Rez esports calendar, with the World Championships for both games taking place side-by-side at the Georgia World Congress Center on November 16-18. Both tournaments will feature an eight-team, single elimination bracket, so there will be no room for error for the teams that hope to take home trophies. Each event draws two teams from the NA and EU divisions of their respective Pro Leagues, while the final four teams in each secured their spots via an international qualifier. Smite This year’s SMITE World Championship sees reigning champions eUnited return to defend their title, after topping the Fall season of the NA SMITE Pro League with a 9-1 record. They’re joined by Splyce as the second team qualifying through SPL, while the European division sends Team Dignitas and NRG Esports There were no surprises in the international qualifiers for Smite. Obey Alliance, Team RivaL, Trifecta and Spacestation Gaming all entered the qualifier with top four seeds, and all made their way through the bracket to claim a spot at the main event. The bracket will play out as follows, with best-of-threes for the quarter-finals and best-of-sevens for the semi-finals and grand final. In the North American division, Team Envy were an equally dominant force, also going undefeated at 8-0 in the Fall split. They’re followed by G2 Esports, who finished with a 6-2 record. Unlike in SMITE, the international qualifiers for Paladins featured some notable upsets. First-seed Fnatic and fourth-seed Virtus Pro made it through, but the other two spots were taken by Kanga Esports and Spacestation Gaming, 9 and 10-seeds respectively, neither of whom competed in either the NA or EU Pro League. Best-of-five matches will be played in the quarter-finals, followed by best-of-sevens in the semi-finals and grand final.

‘The Church of LS’: Explaining the unorthodox style of Cloud9’s ex-coach Colin Young-Wolff for Riot GamesIf you’re in any way involved in competitive League of Legends, chances are you’ve seen the influence of Nick ‘LS’ De Cesare. He’s one of League’s most popular community figures, a streamer turned coach turned caster turned coach again. Perhaps most famous for his innovations in League drafting, he has been a vocal proponent of off-meta picks throughout his career. This innovative, inventive approach to the game has earned him a devout fanbase, nicknamed the ‘Church of LS’. The fanbase’s name came about due to LS’s constant references to ‘sinner’ champions during his time casting the LCK. A ‘sinner’ champion was one that could only function successfully in game if the enemy team made a mistake, or if it got sufficiently ahead that it could no longer be controlled by the enemy team. Without these advantages, which could never be guaranteed, sinner champions were, in LS’s eyes, useless. Campaigning against this ‘sin’ in professional games eventually earned LS’s game philosophies the moniker of the ‘Church of LS’, of which LS was the head. More recently, he was briefly the head coach for Cloud9 in the LCS, his first coaching stint since he famously left LCK challengers team BBQ Olivers back in 2019. The team only played four games with LS at the helm, before his departure was announced by the org five minutes before their first game of the third week of the LCS. LS has been released from Cloud9 and Max Waldo has been promoted to the LCS Head Coach position. We would like to thank LS for his contributions to the team and wish him the best. — Cloud9 (@Cloud9) February 20, 2022 The announcement that he would be leaving Cloud9 sent shockwaves through the League of Legends community, with fans and pro players alike expressing their disappointment that his innovative coaching style would be gone from the LCS. Even in his short tenure, LCS fans got a taste of LS’s unique flair, and Cloud9’s drafts were hailed as some of the most creative in the LCS. But what are some of the core teachings of the Church of LS, and why is everybody talking about Soraka top lane? Liandry’s over Morellonomicon This is perhaps the most famous teaching of the Church of LS, so much so that LS has been immortalized in League of Legends through these two items. Morellonomicon has been a fairly standard item on mages throughout League’s history. It began its life as a mana item that applied the anti-healing stat Grievous Wounds, and was one of the most popular starting items for mages in the game. The item was changed in Season 8 to no longer give mana, and became purely an anti-healing item. It remained an incredibly popular purchase on mages, to the point where it was being built into compositions with very little healing, making one of its stats functionally useless. Words fail me, I can’t explain what this means to me, thank you so much @riotgames @LeagueOfLegends pic.twitter.com/IZnEqzFkdz — H. Baker (@LSXYZ9) March 10, 2021 LS was one of the most outspoken opposers of this inefficiency. He instead suggested the less popular Liandry’s Torment as a replacement for Morellonomicon in the majority of AP builds. This earned him the nickname ‘Liandry’s Salesman’. His Morellonomicon/Liandry’s argument became so famous that he is now immortalized in the game through these two items. If you search ‘Last Shadow’ (the non-abbreviated form of LS’s handle) in League’s in-game shop, the results will come up as Morellonomicon and the reworked Liandry’s Anguish. The Moonstaff combo Much of LS’s drafting philosophy in League of Legends is based around the concept of scaling. How well any champion, any combination of items, will perform in the later stages of the game, and how can the risks of loss in the early game be minimized to reach this ‘optimized’ game state. One example of a scaling innovation from LS is the Moonstaff combo. This was one of LS’s more recent itemization campaigns, and a competitive menace at the start of 2021. Moonstone Renewer was one of the Mythic items to be released in the Season 11 item rework. It’s a support item that, alongside decent AP, Health, and Ability Haste, offers the Starlit Grace passive, which allows you to heal your lowest-health ally by affecting champions with your abilities during combat. Champions who can go MoonStaff and be giga oppressive at 15~16minutes in game and then scale insane: pic.twitter.com/UqBofjl4Up — H. Baker (@LSXYZ9) January 17, 2021 The combination of Moonstone Renewer and the legendary support item Staff of Flowing Water, affectionately referred to by the community as the Moonstaff combo, was one of the strongest and cheapest two-item power spikes in the game. It was most effective on champions with decent AP scalings in their kit, with Moonstaff Lilia being one of the most consistently popular junglers in pro play throughout spring 2021. The combination was nerfed in Patch 11.8, with Riot choosing to cut a massive chunk of healing out of the Starlit Grace passive in an attempt to bring the two items in line with the rest of the support item arsenal. The combo is still occasionally seen on enchanter supports, but gone are the days when junglers, mid laners, and top laners were utilizing it. Enchanter solo laners Janna top lane with smite terrorized solo queue and competitive play alike throughout the beginning of Season 12. But it’s not the first time enchanter supports have strayed from the bot lane. LS has been a famous proponent of solo lane enchanters throughout his career. He advocates for their utility outside of just the support role, often playing Ivern and Soraka in his own ranked games on stream. During LS’s time with C9 we saw Ivern and Soraka drafted for mid laner Ibrahim ‘Fudge’ Allami. The aim of these picks is mainly to facilitate high-damage carries in other roles, and to allow aggressive plays by teammates. This makes it the perfect pick to pair with C9’s jungler Robert ‘Blaber’ Huang, famous for his aggression on champions like Olaf, Gragas, and Lee Sin. You know a pick is good when it’s endorsed by the king of League esports himself, Lee ‘Faker’ Sanghyeok. After its competitive debut in the LCS, Faker played a few games of Soraka mid on his stream, with LS later revealing on a talk show that he’d discussed the pick with Faker in VOD reviews during his time with T1. These champions are both good examples of another tenet of the Church of LS: the ‘saints’. These champions don’t require massive advantages or opponent’s mistakes to be useful, and they offer a low-risk, high-reward way of playing competitive League. Cheater recalls High-level League is a game of seconds. Any advantage that can be gained, however seemingly insignificant, can be the difference between victory and defeat. Nothing exemplifies this better than another teaching of the Church of LS, the importance of the cheater recall. As with a lot of LS’s teachings, he did not actually invent the concept of a cheater recall. He is, however, responsible for bringing it to a much wider audience outside of competitive play through his live-viewing streams and public coaching sessions. Farming minions and gaining experience are a crucial part of the laning phase in League, allowing you to accrue levels and items that enhance your abilities and make you do more damage for the all-important late game team fights. However, because you have to return to base in order to buy items, it’s pretty much impossible for any player to last-hit every single enemy minion in their lane, every time. The cheater recall is one way in which laners can circumvent minions lost while basing for items. It involves preventing the enemy laner from last-hitting all of your minions, and building a huge wave of minions by the time your cannon minion reaches the lane. You can then recall, buy an early item, and walk back to lane before the enemy’s minions start being hit by your tower, meaning you miss almost no experience and gold, and don’t have to burn the Teleport summoner spell in order to gain this advantage. It may seem insignificant to gain a tiny advantage this early in the game, but if utilized correctly, this strategy can almost single-handedly win you the lane phase. It’s unclear what will happen with LS now. He’s had a storied past in the world of League, and many thought that this opportunity with Cloud9 would finally be a chance for him to make coaching work after multiple unsuccessful attempts. It’s possible he’ll return to streaming and content creation full-time. He also runs a Patreon page which offers subscribers access to champion tier lists, analysis of patch notes, and even coaching opportunities for higher-tier members. Whatever he chooses to do next, his congregation will follow him wherever he goes, and the Church of LS will live on in Soraka top lanes and cheater recalls across the world of competitive League.

Tfue and FaZe Clan reach settlement over contract lawsuit Tfue/FaZe ClanThe long saga of streaming star Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney’s lawsuit against FaZe Clan finally seems to have come to a close as both parties have said they’ve now settled outside of court. Back in May of 2019, Tfue stunned the internet when it was revealed that he was suing FaZe Clan for over an “oppressive contract” that allegedly restricted his business opportunities and claimed that the org took up to 80 percent of his earnings. Since then, the two parties went back and forth between cases in both California and New York. In July of 2020, a California judge dismissed several claims in the case and it seemed like we were destined to see a showdown between the two play out in New York courts. That is, until August 26, when according to an email sent to Dexerto, both Tfue and Faze have announced they’ve settled the lawsuit outside of court, putting the legal odyssey to an end and releasing the Fortnite star from the org. “Faze and Turner Tenney are pleased to announce they have resolved their disputes and settled their litigations,” the email from both sides legal teams read. “The parties wish one another the best of luck in future endeavors.” The details of how exactly the lawsuit was settled, including how much money might have changed hands, is unknown, but it must have been attractive enough an offer to both sides for them to drop the 15-month contract dispute. All eyes were on Tfue and FaZe, with the lawsuit being the first major one of its kind we’ve seen in esports, with a streamer/player taking on their sponsoring org over their piece of the pie, so to speak. Tenney’s might not have been the first, but he and FaZe Clan can definitely be considered two of the biggest names in Fortnite, which definitely made it the most publicized. Minus however much money either party received in the settlement, it’s pretty clear where FaZe Clan stands now that this is all over with Tenney no longer part of the organization. What’s less clear is what Tfue will do now that he’s finally free from FaZe. He’s continued to be a successful streamer and build his brand on Twitch the entire time lawyers were battling it out in court, but whether or not he’ll join another esports org in the future or continue to go it alone is unknown.

FaZe Clan’s Tfue Has Officially Moved Into the FaZe House FaZe Clan Fortnite pro player Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney has finally made the move into the FaZe team house in Los Angeles, California. The massive Twitch streamer will be joining fellow Fortnite pros of the FaZe Clan in a shared, multi-million dollar mansion. The eleven-room abode is settled in LA’s luxurious Hollywood Hills, neighboring the mansions of Team Clout and the FaZe team owners. News of Tfue’s official move was broken by fellow teammate FaZe Adapt in a vlog on September 5. In the vlog, Tfue, along with FaZe Clan CEO and founder Temperrr, perform the daring stunt of making an approximately 50-foot jump from the ‘Reservoir.’ Unfortunately, FaZe Adapt couldn’t stomach the jump, instead opting to slide down a rocky incline on top of a skateboard. The vlog also made another announcement. Adapt stated that Tfue would be streaming again ‘soon,’ which lined up with several other findings around the internet. Tfue himself made a Tweet on September 5 teasing his return to Twitch. “TOMORROW 12PM PST.” This information proved true, as Tfue’s Twitch channel is now active, and he has made his first return since the 14-day ban. His YouTube channel is likewise restored, after being hacked and all his content removed. He explained the incident in a YouTube video on September 6, where he stated that the Twitch ban was due to “stupid stuff.” Read More: Ninja Is Partering Up With Detroit Lions NFL Team to Host Special ‘Ninja Night’ Fan Event – He likewise announced that he would be making more content along with the rest of FaZe clan – so fans have a lot to look forward to in the near future.

Tfue and FaZe both request summary judgment in ongoing lawsuits FaZe Clan / Twitter: TfueFollowing the ruling from Judge Patricia Nieto that the California Talent Agencies Act would be binding in the case between Fortnite star Turner “Tfue” Tenney and influencer organisation FaZe, both parties are now requesting a New York court to declare a partial victory in their respective lawsuits. The California filing from Tenney’s legal team is currently on hiatus until the New York case was resolved. The fact that Judge Nieto had ruled that the Talent Agencies Act, a state law that required FaZe to have filed for a talent agency license to provide the services they did for Tenney, doesn’t bode well for FaZe in that case. The ruling essential shoots down their counter-argument that California law did not apply as the contract agreed to abide by the laws of New York. However, FaZe have refused to give up in regards to their filing in New York and are now arguing that there is enough evidence and precedent on the table for a summary judgment in their favour. They argue that they essentially handed Tenney his career by signing him to FaZe, “boosting” both his profile and income in the process. They pointed out that prior to his signing he hadn’t ben able to monetize his social media following, which they describe as “meager.” They also add that any claim they violated the Talent Agencies Act should be void because any alleged procurement on Tenney’s behalf was done outside of the state of California. In addition to this they argue that the judge should find in their favour for the allegations that they breached their fiduciary duty to their client and the claim they violated California law prohibiting Tenney from finding work with their clause that would have prevented him even streaming his own gameplay for six months after he left the organisation. FaZe also claimed that their contract provided them with an option to match any offers Tenney receives within three months and that this was never enacted. Another argument of note is the claim from FaZe’s attorneys that Tenney was in breach of the contract himself. They claim that the player retained 100% of in-game merchandise sales despite an agreement that the share would be 50 / 50 between player and organisation. They also add that even if there were FaZe employees and representatives that stated to the contrary in public, the contents of the contract supersede any of these statements. “Unable to seriously dispute that the plain language of the Gamer Agreement entitles FaZe Clan to receive 50% of the in-game merchandise from Epic,” the filing reads “Tenney will attempt to inject parol evidence to create confusion about this issue. Specifically, Tenney may point to social media statements, made around the time the California lawsuit, by gamers and other non-lawyers affiliated with FaZe Clan, to the effect that the Gamer Agreement did not cover in-game merchandise from Epic. Such statements are irrelevant parol evidence; they have no bearing on the Court’s interpretation of unambiguous terms in this integrated contract.” This filing from FaZe prompted Tenney’s legal team to respond with their own request for summary judgment. They point to a potential breach of contract due to FaZe failing to pay the player his $2000 salary for several months, violating the payment in a “timely fashion” promise component of the contract. They also argue that the contract was not automatically renewed as FaZe believe as they failed to comply with New York state laws about providing written notice for the renewal. The legal team also point to the claims that Tfue had misappropriated trade secrets from FaZe as risible, stating that none of their methods “come close to meeting the test of a trade secret.” It also points out that because the claimed trade secrets pertain to publicly released videos that “any technique that draws people to view their videos are therefore otherwise readily ascertainable.” Finally, they dispute the claims for intentional business advantage, commercial disparagement and unjust enrichment. These claims, they say, fail to meet the legal standard due to a lack of factual evidence supporting that Tenney encouraged other players to leave FaZe or that he interfered with brand relationships. Any public statements that players shouldn’t sign with organisation’s like FaZe, as expressed by Tenney, do not meet any legal standard as they are “pure opinion,” a legal definition protected by New York Law so they can never be considered defamatory. The preliminary date for the summary judgment has been set towards the end of March but given the amount of argumentation to consider this could be extended. If and when such a summary judgment is provided the case in California will be given a date to resume.