Esports: 100 Thieves Keyboard Vest & CSGO Sabotaged By Streamer.
Esports: 100 Thieves Keyboard Vest & CSGO Sabotaged By Streamer.
Read till the end for Goth Target like you've never seen it before.
Outsiders, a Russian team who were ranked 17th in the world a month before the tournament, won ESL Rio (one of Counter-Strike’s two yearly majors). The magical final was elevated by drums, football songs, and an incredible atmosphere that fans brought all tournament.
From HLTV’s coverage: “Every tournament helped me win this major and realize I’m not a failure” “The Major in Photos” “CSGO is at it’s most competitive right now”
Also in Rio:
Brazilian streamer Gaules was accused of sabotaging the tournament (dextero) after ESL moved his co-stream and fans left the stadium to follow. This only days after fan favorite caster Sadokist (freshly rehabilitated from saying the n-word in 2018 (PCGamer)) was fired for allegedly assaulting Brazilian streamer Gaules (Dust2.us).
In Gaming News:
Pokemon Scarlet is a step backwards, writes Polygon. Hasbro stock is down (IGN) after publishing too many Magic: The Gathering cards, Bank of America says (CNBC). Co-Op shooter Warhammer 40,000: Darktide enters open beta. You can play World of Warcraft Geoguesser, or Genshin Impact Geoguesser depending on your age.
Activision-Blizzard-King's consumption by Microsoft in the ongoing Mortal Engines-esque consolidation of game development has hit a snag after British, American, and European regulators all open separate investigations into the deal (Ars Technica, Axios, TechCrunch). For their part, Microsoft's Phil Spencer says Sony is being unfair, none of this matters anyway, and implies PlayStation won't exist soon (EsportsTj).
The Bethesda vs. Mick Gordon saga continues as Bethesda claims the composer of Doom and Doom Eternal “distorted the truth” in his viral post about working conditions on Eternal (Eurogamer).
Super Smash Brothers director Masahiro Sakurai takes a break from posting game development tutorials on his new youtube channel to post a two and a half minute vlog about his cat, Fukurashi (Masahiro Sakurai). Not willing to be outdone, Sonic The Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka was arrested for insider trading.
Esports Leagues:
The NBA 2kLeague continues to expand with the addition of NBL Oz Gaming. No one I know watches this esport but, 2k sold 5 Million copies of this year's game, so maybe it’s working as a loss leader? (SBJ)
Complexity became a Halo Championship Series partnered team heading into season 2 of the league (SBJ). 143,000 concurrent viewers watched last seasons grand final, placing the game at approximately 1/3 the viewership of Overwatch League and just 760,011 viewers away from the peak viewership of PUBG: Mobile.
This also puts the game just a few thousand viewers ahead of Dead by Daylight. If you're thinking “Dead by Daylight's esports can't be that big” I'll have you know that Dead by Daylight had a total prize pool of $28.5k last year. Halo for comparison totaled $2,541,000 and a seasonal league. Halo is the 29th most viewed esport behind Trackmania, Fifa, Fall Guys.
Which isn't me saying HCS is bad. I watched the show before I wrote this. It was a good show. I just don't understand how the numbers make sense here.
The LCS changed the name of their Academy League to Challengers League (win.gg). This, alongside a bevy of changes seem to be aimed at making it easier for LCS teams to cultivate younger home grown talent. TSM reacted to the news by leaking their import of veteran Korean jungler Bugi (Dextero).
Related:
“We do not hold any cryptocurrency on our balance sheet currently.” explains one strangely specific TSM FTX spokesperson after Web3 giant FTX collapses following the revelation that all it's money is tied up in a form of fake money they made up. Industry experts expected them to hold more fake money that other people made up. The collapse may destroy the entire crypto economy but probably not. The Washington Post reports that TSM is out $210 Million. A bad sign for their DOTA 2 team who The Washington Post reports TSM picked up to please FTX.
Tiktok star Addison Rae says she’s always been a fan of Final Fantasy after Addison Rae and her signature crop top are added to War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius or WotV:FFBE for short (Polygon). Visit Goth Target in the Metaverse. This is Walmart like you've never seen it before. .swoosh is the home for Nike's virtual creations. And finally 100Thieves’ new peripheral company Higround will sell what I can only describe as a tactical keyboard vest:
I want to try and do at least one of these every week but, as stated previously, I make no promises. Please consider sharing the newsletter if you enjoyed it, or giving me your email if you’re new. Yours intermittently,
Tj