“It wasn’t God who gave me this face! It was you, setting the timers for three minutes instead of six.”
IN THE NEWS
Swinging by San Diego Comic-Con? The Entertainment Software Association is throwing a free party Saturday, July 22, that’s looking to be a pretty good time. Nika Nour, ESA director of federal government affairs, told TheDW, “Come grab a cold one on us and meet Congressman Darrell Issa and Scott Peters this Saturday. Door open at 3pm!” It’ll be held on WeWork San Diego’s office rooftop at 600 B Street San Diego, CA 92101. You can RSVP here.
A well-known PUBG streamer has been temporarily banned, Dot Esports’ Scott Duwe reports. Dr DisRespect was banned for killing a teammate who was randomly paired with himself, Grimmmz and Anthony_Kongphan. The three popular Twitch streamers were playing PUBG matches together. The random player got on “the last seat in a three-person motorcycle,” and Dr DisRespect consequently killed him. Killing a teammate is against PUBG’s code of conduct, and he has now been banned for an unknown amount of time.
On top of that, “Brendan ‘PlayerUnknown’ Greene himself addressed the situation on Twitter, leading to a series of tweets about the subject between The Doc and himself.” You can see the exchange below, which was less than amicable.
Interestingly, plenty of the replies to Greene’s tweet were critical of PUBG’s ruleset, which can be found here. Greene went on to retweet Dr DisRespect’s “roundhouse kick” tweet, adding this, “Suggesting violence is the best way to solve a disagreement is just wrong, even if you are playing a character…”
Again, Twitter users didn’t seem to be on Greene’s side. They chastised him for “taking a joke serious.” The saga ended with Greene writing a more in-depth response on TwitLonger. You can read the full thing here, and read a portion here: “I was told that I should have taken The Docs threat of violence as a joke. So now I will try explaining why I took this tweet seriously and tweeted out the response I did…” TheDW reached out to both Brendan Green and Dr DisRespect for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Modern Times Group has high hopes for its esports and gaming group, MTGx. “MTGx is expected to post its first ever quarterly profit in the fourth quarter of this year,” Telecompaper reports. “The company expects more than 40 percent organic sales growth in electronic sports in the second half of the year, given the significant weighting of the e-sports events calendar to the coming six months and the signing of new commercial agreements.”
Welcome back, Casey Hudson. Hudson has returned to BioWare to be its general manager after leaving in 2014. He’s replacing Aaryn Flynn. Flynn’s departure post can be found here, and Hudson’s arrival post can be found here. Hudson “is known widely for serving as director of the first three Mass Effect games,” GameSpot’s Tamoor Hussain reports. “Flynn’s departure and Hudson’s return comes amidst reports that BioWare is putting the Mass Effect series on ‘hiatus,’ following the somewhat underwhelming response to Mass Effect: Andromeda.”
Dragon Ball FighterZ’s roster now includes Piccolo and Krillin.
The Evil Within is releasing new news at some point today. We’re not sure when, but they sent a tweet Tuesday saying, “Keep your eyes peeled for something new from #TheEvilWithin2 tomorrow.”
The Wolf Among Us won’t get an explainer for its cliffhanger ending, and Tales from the Borderlands “is now back in the hands of Gearbox to choose whether the stories of Tales’ characters are continued,” Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips reports.
Pre-orders are open for a SNES history book that accompanies Nintendo’s upcoming release of the SNES Classic mini. You can pre-order it here.
Heads up. If you pre-order Total War: Warhammer II you’ll get a new playable race, “the monster-hunting Norscans,” Game Informer’s Douglas DeLong writes.
Hearthstone is hyping its newest expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, by having the Lich King himself hand out deliciously frightening ice cream cones at Comic-Con International: San Diego tomorrow through July 23. Residing in the terrifying Ice Cream Citadel, the Lich King will be helped by his minions in giving out the sweet treats.
What comes up must also come down. Cryptocurrency farmers — the ones turning GPU availability into a desert — are now dumping them on eBay after cryptocurrency Ethereum’s value tanked. “With the way things are now, miners are less motivated to stock up on GPUs and mine Ethereum,” Paul Lilly at PC Gamer reports.
Goodness gracious, put those cheeks away! ESPN made Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue change Cammy’s skin during the Street Fighter V finals at Evo 2017 because her outfit was too revealing. “Kazunoko managed to play one finals match with Cammy in her default costume” before the fun was stopped, Kotaku’s Maddy Myers report.
LEAGUE LAND
Team Liquid CEO Steve Arhancet thinks LoL’s decision to franchise teams was the first moment that esports became legitimate. “It’s the first time when esports is a real fucking sport. In terms of the revenue and business infrastructure that is needed for sustainability, it’s a hallmark moment in history. People will go back and read wikis and look at the first moment an esports league was born and they are going to remember June 1st, 2017,” Arhancet told Polygon’s Austen Goslin.
Game stats are going bye bye, according to Riot’s updated data policies. Redditor DrProfessorPhD writes that “On the 24th Riot will be deprecating part of the API that provides data on normal games. Well, the data will still be there but the part that links game participants to summoner names will be removed. Riot also updated their data policies to prohibit the tracking players’ normal game data. So sites like op.gg will not be able to provide any information or your normal games by this time next week or risk losing access to the API.”
New chromas are out for Pool Party Lulu, Graves and Fiora. You can also now buy individual chromas.
Interviews: Team EnVyUs AD Apollo “Apollo” Price.
Yesterday’s PBE updates include Pentakill Olaf changes and balance changes to Cho’Gath, Kayn, Lee Sin and Rek’Sai.
The 2017 EU and NA LCS Summer Splits are ongoing.
Tickets are on sale for the EU LCS Finals. Get them here.
Return of the Legends starts Aug. 4.
Champion and skin sale July 18-21: Bird of Prey Anivia, Mafia Graves, Dark Crystal Ryze and Arctic Ops Varus. Vi, Rengar, Urgot and Rumble.
Weekly free champions: Braum, Caitlyn, Karma, Lux, Nocturne, Ryze, Swain, Tryndamere, Udyr and Vayne.
OVER/UNDER WATCH
Doomfist’s full bio and gameplay pages are up on playoverwatch.com! Check them out here — especially the bio page, which sheds some interesting new light on Doomfist’s younger years and the fact that he, uh, apparently could have escaped prison whenever he wanted to. He’ll be out July 27.
Terry Crews is holding out hope he’ll be able to partner with Blizzard down the line. Many speculated — and Crews fueled the fire — that he would be the voice actor for Doomfist. That didn’t pan out, but here’s what Crews told PC Gamer’s Joe Donnelly:
“When I saw that Doomfist was created, that they’d went with another guy, the whole thing, it’s actually quite perfect, it’s absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that they made a move that’s better for the game, which is what they’re about. I know people were upset but I’m not … If I ever do do anything with Blizzard, you watch: it’ll be perfect. With those guys, we’re all friends, we’re all good. I think there will be something coming down the line.”
Team USA jerseys will be on sale at some point, Redditor Armablo confirmed. There’s no information on when or how much.
Drama: Meta Athena manager Hyeong Soo posted a somewhat lengthy explainer on Inven going over what has been happening with the team and clarified some speculation about drama involving teammate Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung Woo.
Interviews: LW Blue’s Park “Saebyeolbe” Jong Yeol and FNRGFE tank Austin “Muma” Wilmot.
OUT: Mikael “mkL” Skjønhaug is no longer with Talon and actively “Looking for a new team as Coach, Analyst or other roles.”
Luis “Lui” Olivares is technically still with FaZe Clan, but is openly searching for new options.
Afreeca Freecs Red has officially disbanded, and posted a piece on over.gg explaining what happened.
Overwatch Chicago Season 3 League will be Aug. 10-Aug. 31. The entry fee is $25.
The TESPA Summer Series is ongoing through Aug. 20.
The Collegiate Star League is ongoing through Aug. 26.
Overwatch World Cup tickets are on sale for Australia (7/21-7/23) and Poland (8/4-8/6), but not America (8/11-8/13).
We’ve got the official Sydney Group Stage preview from Blizzard. Check it out here.
OGN Overwatch APEX Challengers Season 3’s Grand Final will be held in Busan Haeundae Beach, South Korea, July 29, between Lunatic-Hai and Kongdoo Panthera.
DOTA-THON
Dota 2 is getting a 4-part series on TBS every Friday in August put on by ELEAGUE. Mashable’s Kellen Beck writes that the mini-series, called “Road to the International Dota 2 Championships,” “is going behind the scenes of the professional Dota 2 scene to follow professional players and teams (including CompLexity Gaming) as they prepare for and compete in the $21 million (and rising) tournament.” Check out a teaser video from the series interviewing Jimmy “Demon” Ho.
Fans are NOT happy with WeLoveFine, a merchandiser Valve works with. Multiple threads complaining about the company have been posted on the /r/Dota2 subreddit. Redditor jkaos92 compiled multiple examples of what they say is horrific customer support and egregiously high shipping costs. It’s unclear if anything will change, however, because players have apparently been complaining about WeLoveFine for a long time.
Speaking of bad press, observer and producer Jonathan “PimpmuckL” Liebig took to TwitLonger to explain why he’s phasing out being an observer. He insisted he has no ill will toward Valve for not inviting him to The International 2017. PimpmuckL won’t observe anymore because the time commitment to payment balance is too off for it to be worthwhile. Read the full post here.
Evil Geniuses held a video AMA they posted to YouTube yesterday. Check it out here.
Drama: Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen took to Twitter to throw some serious shade at an unnamed team (or teams) going to The International 2017: “If you’re a team playing in a tournament for $20M and you’re not willing to pay for your analyst’s accommodation – then honestly fuck you.”
Oh no, Invictus Gaming’s Ye “BoBoKa” Zhibiao’s visa application to the U.S. has been rejected. Team manager Zhili says BoBoKa is “preparing for a second [interview].”
Yesterday’s main client update includes compendium, tooltip and UI updates.
The Battle Pass is at $21.6 million for The International 2017.
DreamHack Atlanta 2017 is July 21-23.
Dota 2 is hosting a short film competition. Submissions are open through July 25.
There are 5 matches today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU CS:GO
PGL says it has some potential solutions to various problems players have been upset about during the PGL Major Krakow 2017. Diana Goncalves posted on Reddit that “We think we have a configuration that the players will prefer for tournament PCs. To avoid any disruption to the event we will spend as much time as it takes to test the new configuration. If all goes well we will be using it starting tomorrow. Thanks to Xyp9x and Astralis for their help in finding this possible solution.” Breaks between matches have also been reduced to 5 minutes.
Joona Leppänen had some serious words for competitive CS:GO players venting publicly on mediums like Twitter — specifically in regard to the Major. “Teams need to start educating their players on how to act on Social Media and the responsibility that comes with their increasing status,” he said in the first of 4 tweets. “You represent your team brand, your sponsors and the whole pro scene in the eyes of millions of people. That’s a lot of power in young hands … I can relate and understand the frustration when you have issues, but there are measures to fix them outside of keyboard warrioring … Today we had a gazillion people under false impression of BIG,of PGLs issues and other things. All due to venting frustration. Needs to stop.”
Sam “DaZeD” Marine shared his thoughts on the jump bug exploit.
OUT: Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså is no longer with Heroic/RFRSH and is looking for a new team.
DreamHack Atlanta is July 21.
PGL Major Krakow 2017 is July 21-23. The Group Stage had started. Reddit has an overview thread here.
Tuesday winners:
- Penta Sports beat Vega Squadron 16-14.
- FlipSid3 beat FaZe Clan 16-10.
- North beat Mousesports 19-15.
- Immortals beat Natus Vincere 16-10.
- G2 Esports beat Cloud 9 19-17.
- Astralis beat Fnatic 16-14.
- Gambit beat Virtus.pro 16-11.
- BIG beat SK Gaming 16-14.
DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017 is Aug. 30-Sept. 3.
ESL One New York 2017 is Sept. 15-16.
Intel Extreme Masters World Champions is Nov. 18-19 in Oakland, Calif.
BLAST Pro Series is Nov. 24 in Copenhagen. The prize pool is $250,000.
Mapcore and FACEIT have $10,000 for the top 4 bomb defusal and hostage-rescue maps CS:GO players can create. The contest entry deadline is Oct. 31, 2017, and winners will be chosen in December.
There are 0 matches today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WINS AND FAILS
It’s important to laugh. That’s why TheDW has compiled some of the best wins and fails of the last 24 hours, delivered to you in a convenient gif package.
- The contraptions only get weirder.
- My goodness what a rush of emotions.
- Oh noo! Wait, where’d he go?
Did you see something better? Shoot TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com with the subject line GIF. If we like it, we’ll throw it in tomorrow’s walkthrough!
SECRET UNLOCKED
Titanfall 2 now has 4-person co-op thanks to its latest free expansion, Operation Frontier Shield.
Nintendo Switchs are back in stock at GameStop! Certain stores will get “limited quantities” between yesterday and July 21.
UPCOMING RELEASES AND EVENTS
RELEASES
Archangel, Skydance Interactive’s first first VR game, is available on PlayStation VR. It’s out on HTC Vive and Oculus Aug. 2. AListDaily’s Manouk Akopyan describes the game as a “first-person shooter will bring players into the cockpit to pilot a six-story high war machine in a VR battle that travels across landscapes of a post-apocalyptic America in the year 2089.”
Aporia: The Valley Beyond is out today on PC.
What Remains of Edith Finch is out on Xbox One today for $20.
Superhot will be out in America July 21 for PlayStation 4.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2018’s online beta starts tomorrow for PlayStation 4 and goes through the 31st.
Gigantic will be available on Steam. It’s out tomorrow.
Destiny 2’s open beta is July 21-23 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The beta is now open for all pre-orders.
Fable Fortune has been delayed until July 25 for Xbox One and PC.
Namco Museum is out July 28 for $29.99 on the Nintendo Switch.
Secret World Legends is out July 31 on Steam.
StarCraft Remastered releases Aug. 14 for $15.
EVENTS
Tomorrow: San Diego Comic-Con International through July 23.
Rocket League Championship Series Season 4 starts in August.
Niantic is hosting Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago July 22.
Happy birthday to ROX Tigers top Park “Shy” Sang-myeon and Team SoloMid AD Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Miss the best moments from Evo 2017? Have no fear, Slingshot Esports’ Stephen Chu has you covered.
Nintendo released a launch trailer for its new 2DS XL, available July 28. Watch it here.
Congratulations to Doom on selling 2 million PC copies.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Whether you hate it, love it, miss it or want it, send TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com.
Thanks for reading!