Author: Rob Sterling

Discord has banned a server called “The Donald,” a pro-Trump community linked to banned subreddit r/The_Donald and TheDonald.win. The news was first reported by Platformer writer (and Verge contributor) Casey Newton. The ban comes two days after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, encouraged by President Trump, though Discord says that it has no evidence that the server was used to organize the riots. In STILL OTHER news, @Discord says it has banned server The Donald, which was connected to TheDonald dot Win and the Donald subreddit. Made decision “due to its overt connection to an online forum used…

This weekend we return to amateur Call of Duty action with the third Challengers cup, here’s everything you need to know. After the Scouting Series just before the Holidays, we’ve been without competitive Call of Duty events for a few weeks now. However, this weekend is the third Challengers Cup, so here’s everything you need to know before the event gets underway. What is the Challengers Cup? The Challengers Cup is an amateur Call of Duty League tournament. This is an open tournament where teams play 4v4, CDL rules matches, winning pro points and $2K for placing 1st. What Teams…

The streaming and video platform saw a huge increase in gaming content. With 100 billion watch hours and over 40M active gaming channels producing said content. The information comes from the YouTube yearly “Look Back” blog, in which YouTube Gaming takes a look back at some of the key stats for the year. The most-watched game was Minecraft at over 200 billion views, with Roblox (75 billion), Garena Free Fire (72 billion), Grand Theft Auto IV (70 billion), and Fortnite (67 billion) rounding out the top five. For live streaming, it was a similar story, though Roblox did not make…

The EU and CIS decider tournaments start soon, here’s what you need to know. As you may already know, this year’s Dota 2 Pro Circuit will run on an entirely new format. Instead of having loads of Minor events, Valve decided to completely remove them from the DPC. Now, each of the six regions has a unique, new regional league that will take place between each of the two Majors. Read more: Valve Announce New 2021 DPC Seasons These regional leagues last for six weeks and will determine which teams advance to the Majors. Following the announcements that took place…

A hotfix from earlier today could be positive for Fortnite players on Apple devices. Five months ago, Fortnite developer Epic Games challenged Apple Inc’s “outrageous” commission grab on in-app purchases by offering players an option to bypass those fees. The North Carolina-based company implemented a “direct payment” feature, meaning all purchases would funnel directly into their pockets. Epic kept the standard Apple App Store purchase option in place, but it didn’t matter. Apple responded swiftly by removing the popular Battle Royale title from the iOS Store without skipping a beat. What ensued over the last half-year was a nasty antitrust…

Similar to every other Dota 2 region, the NA DPC Regional Qualifiers will start in just a few days. 2020 was a really bad year for the North American Dota 2 scene because there were hardly any tournaments. As a result, some of the best teams from the region were forced to compete in other regions, such as Europe. One of those teams is Evil Geniuses, a team among the best Dota 2 teams in the last couple of years. Luckily, the team decided to return to NA, which is why it is no surprise they received a direct invitation…

Mushi, who is one of the most legendary SEA Dota 2 players, joined a new SEA Dota 2 team. Last year was not the best for the SEA Dota 2 scene. Even though there were a few interesting online tournaments, most teams were unable to compete in some of the biggest events of the year. Luckily, 2021 looks like it will be an amazing year. Besides the upcoming DPC, we’ve also learned that there is a new SEA Dota 2 team, Team SMG. It was created by JJ Lin, who is a famous Singaporean singer. New Team We are proud…

ESTNN analyzes some ultra-aggressive NPCs that should not be in competitive Fortnite. Epic Games has had a strange history of occasionally listening to the competitive Fortnite scene and sometimes the exact opposite. A perfect example of the former occurred in Chapter 2 – Season 2 when grenade exploits were running rampant in competitive matches. Epic recognized the issue and removed grenades from Arena Mode and tournaments. Grenades have not returned since, which was a refreshing development, considering the developer’s shaky past. Unfortunately, some specific in-game mechanics have remained in competitions, much to players’ dismay. Loot Sharks and Marauders from Chapter…

Valve have finally broken the radio silence surrounding the fate of TI and the DPC. 2020 was a crazy year and it wasn’t any less crazy in the world of Dota 2. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, all DPC Major and Minors were cancelled. While the DPC’s yearly main event, The International 10, was postponed. Today Valve made an announcement regarding TI10 and the future of the DPC on their blog. And while a lot of our questions have been answered, there are still a few blanks to fill in. The Dota Pro Circuit 2021…

Ticketmaster has agreed to pay $10 million for breaking into a competitors’ network. The company and its parent Live Nation admitted to hiring a former employee from rival ticket seller CrowdSurge, then using his knowledge — including old usernames and passwords — to learn CrowdSurge’s inner workings and “cut [the company] off at the knees.” “Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” said acting US attorney Seth DuCharme. “Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the…