With the Halloween event over, the next unconfirmed (as of yet) event on Overwatch’s calendar is the Christmas (or Holiday) event.
Dataminers have discovered that there are 4 new map files coming to Overwatch. One of them appears to be a holiday event similar to Junkenstein’s Revenge, while there will be at least one Christmas/holiday-themed map. There might be up to three, but it’s unclear because of the way the key is coded.
According to the datamine, everyone will be getting a holiday-themed spray, voice line, and victory pose just like in Halloween.
Widowmaker, Reinhardt, Mercy, Symmetra, Reaper, Sombra, Roadhog, D. Va, Ana, Soldier: 76, and Lucio have been mined to get either a costume, emote, or a highlight intro.
And then these characters will have two of either a costume, emote, and highlight intro: Winston, McCree, Mei, Pharah, Zarya, Tracer, and Zenyatta.
Lastly, Torbjorn is getting all three of an emote, costume, and a highlight intro – which suggests the earlier rumors of Santabjorn being true.
The speculation of the dataminer is that the event will kick off on December 13th, which will give the community 3 weeks to enjoy the event.
Update: We’ve found new information that suggests Santabjorn is on the way.
NeoGAF poster mieumieu translated statements from a Foxconn sketch artist about the specs relating to the Nintendo NX. Included are details of its hardware, comparative performances (it does NOT match the PS4, in case you were wondering, much less the PS4 Pro), and the details regarding the expected handheld screen.
As was previously reported, it’s a “mobile hybrid.” You can play it on the go, or you plug it into an HDMI port on your TV.
I can translate the original post here (brackets are my comments.)
“NX is a console-handheld hybrid. It is detachable. It contains the console itself, performance module, and the handheld/gamepad.
The console (I think it is supposed to be a dock. I’ll call it a dock from now on) contains HDD, cartridge slot and various other interfaces. It supports TV output (but no CPU/GPU).
The performance module is a portable device that provides power supply. It contains a Li-Ion battery. CPU/GPU also is contained inside. It supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and wired connections. You plug the dock inside and it becomes a PS4/Xbone like console, but you can also transfer the signals to the handheld (like Remote Play?)
There are two candidate SoC for it: Pascal SoC from nVidia or AMD R9 SoC.
The handheld part is a 6 inch 720p screen and has a low-TDP SoC, which can satisfy basic operations with lower quality graphics when the performance module is not connected. But it can also display game graphics from the performance module which can provide a console-level graphics. A bit like nVidia Shield streaming. You can bring the performance module with you portable (since it has its own battery).
Additional info: whatever the solution will be, the computing power it has falls far behind a PS4, let alone a PS4 Pro. Don’t have high hopes for that. The selling point for it is high portability and hybrid providing rich gameplay possibilities.
If details don’t get revealed in Oct then maybe wait for the beginning of next year. I welcome you guys to necrobump this post. Period.”
UPDATE: Tweets including pictures have floated up.
So far, Nintendo has only revealed that the new Switch console will be launching sometime in March. But according to Laura Kate Dale’s Twitter, the system’s debut maybe March 17th.
Dale has been known to offer tidbits of industry-related info in the past, and in previous instances, has been fairly accurate. You may recall that she is the same individual who correctly guessed when Nintendo Switch trailer would debut, based upon her own private sources.
Weeks ago, it was speculated that the Nintendo Switch could be region-free, a major point which Dale predicts might still be kept intact for the system’s launch.
Another vital tidbit that is bound to create a lot of buzz suggests that Nintendo is working on multiple Nintendo Switch bundles. A separate source claims that the company has plans to release a Rhythm Heaven game with Nintendo characters. Further, the Switch bundles will start out at $260 for a basic bundle, $300 for a Mario bundle, and $340 for a Zelda bundle that includes the Pro Controller.
While these particular details are interesting, we’re still waiting to hear more. Gamers are eager to know more about the system’s specs, battery life, RAM, and overall graphic performance. Until the conference gets underway (or new leaks emerge), we’ll just need to sit tight and take these new kernels of info with a grain of salt.
UPDATE: Sourcing and information about Rhythm Heaven and related titles updated.
For some players, taunting can be an effective means to gain a tactical advantage and frustrate an opponent. Check out some recent sets between NuckleDu taking on XiaoHai, and it’s apparent that even high-level players can get tilted.
Taunting isn’t limited just to Street Fighter though. Recently the Killer Instinct community event organizers have been looking to put a strict mandate over “teabagging.” The ruling was exercised during last year’s Killer Instinct World Cup, which prohibits any players from performing this specific taunt.
The act may sound innocent and harmless, since the taunts are usually expressed in-game, but they don’t always stay within the parameters of the virtual arena. KI event facilitator Rotendo Camarena stepped in after a heated discussion erupted over social media. We reached out to Camarena to give us some context.
“It started about Shadow Jago and later talked about [a particular player] using his taunt,” Camarena explains. “Then someone got salty about losing and expressed their opinion about taunts/tea bagging — then made a threat about physical violence towards someone if they were to see them in-person at a tournament.”
The thread was shut down to put a “time out” on the situation. It was later reopened so that KI World Cup administrator Brandon Alexander could announce teabagging is prohibited at KI World Cup. In addition, the player who issued threats was told to openly apologize or they would be banned from all KI World Cup events indefinitely.
In an effort to create a safe environment and minimize any drama, an executive decision was made to keep the ruling in place another year.
Camarena says he plans to carry out some taunting antics of his own at the upcoming Frosty Faustings event. Killer Instinct dev Adam ‘Keits’ Hart also gave thoughts on the matter over Twitter:
.@Angelx911 the thing is though, it already has a gameplay purpose because it can inflict psychological damage
While some players see this as a form of censorship, it’s important to understand the tournament brand is looking to maintain a positive image. Reports of violence certainly isn’t a good look when you have professional companies supporting your game. “I can relate to the reason behind the ban, in that we don’t want to see something escalate [to the point of violence],” says Camarena. “But then again, I understand the psychology behind the taunts/teabagging as a strategy.”
Update: Ultra Arcade Owner Brandon Alexander has reversed the ruling, calling it a “troll” (despite statements given to PVP Live above) in a statement given to Yahoo Esports’ Michael Martin.
Teabagging may be on, but there is still a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and threats. He also confirmed the original player is “being dealt with.”
Oh, this is going to disappoint a lot of shippers. The upcoming Overwatch Valentine’s Day update seems to be sealing the deal on a romantic link between a certain doctor and her patient. As collected by Redditor /u/akhanubis:
Listen, if the doctor that managed to keep you out of death’s door and gave you a brand-spankin’ new toned-to-hell sexy cyborg body wants Swiss chocolates, order them from Amazon. Or she might start healing your brother instead…
Also, speaking of brothers: the ongoing drama between the Shimada siblings gets expanded upon. The good news: hey, at least they’re on speaking terms!
Hanzo might be feeling a tad lonely there with that first retort.
There are two things that are nigh-impossible to do when writing about Riot Games’ esports operations. First, to get anybody to speak ill of its direct player relations and league operations representatives. The employees directly involved in the day-to-day conduct seem to get along well with the players and teams – team owners, whether at the LCS or Challenger Series level, are quick to praise the people assigned to oversee their concerns and work with them.
The second thing, under normal circumstances, is to have them publicly dissent against Riot leadership’s policies. But the current circumstances, with both sponsors and team owners publicly demanding changes to the esports ecosystem, is merely the surface-level symptom of a deep schism within the company itself.
Whether it be current or previous employees or team staff past and present, it’s become very hard to find anybody to defend esports director Whalen Rozelle – even Rozelle himself, as Riot has not responded to requests for statements.
According to sources, “politics at Riot became increasingly insane” since the start of the LCS. Three League Ops leaders have left in three years, despite the position nominally being one of the most prestigious on the scene. A rift exists between Rozelle and esports business development director Jarred Kennedy – one implicated as a critical reason as to why there’s been no leadership or guidance in the development of a sustainable ecosystem for the teams.
Yes, Rioters are aware there’s a huge problem. They just haven’t been able to convince their bosses to sign off on the solutions.
Leadership
“To be good at politics at Riot, or to get anything done, there are three options,” said a source. “One, be a loud overbearing bully in the room. Two, you could be somebody that constantly went to the top of the food chain and had some sort of rapport with a key leader at the company.” To the credit of Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck, they’d made themselves highly accessible to Rioters in general, but there were human-level drawbacks with this policy – in that they were human as well. “One of the flaws was, if they liked you, they’d listen to your feedback and take your word as gospel. There wasn’t anything like a vetting process.”
The third method is pretty common to group dynamics – especially with company cultures that lean toward the young. “[Riot] was a very young company, very fraternal – many beers Fridays, a lot of alcohol flowing around the company. I’m not saying it was all booze and drugs, but it’s a young environment – if you cozy up to people, your peers, regardless if your ideas were good, you could win popularity contests.”
In Rozelle’s case, he was originally brought on board for mobile and web development, due to his prior career with Curse. But he made a strong appeal for his involvement in esports, thanks to his fandom of the Giants and Golden State Warriors. It was intended for him to focus more on broadcast quality and creating LoLesports – he had no experience running tournaments, or with league management or event management. He ultimately ended up in directorship, not because he made up for that gap in knowledge, but due to his close working relationship with Dustin Beck, brother of founder Brandon Beck.
The source was blunt: “Whalen’s not a partier. He’s a pretty straight-edged guy; I don’t think there was anything illicit or weird about his dealings – but he sucked up hard to Dustin Beck.”
Null Data
Beck, known to the community as Redbeard, was assigned early on to oversee esports development – no screening was involved, despite the responsibilities of the role, and his original assignation was to finance instead. He had no applicable skill or knowledge sets for competitive development, and it was demonstrated in his leadership over the department. Arguments over the esports program’s direction were based on whether or not “Dustin didn’t grasp it, or showed hesitancy towards it.”
“I think, at times, Dustin felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new information he was given – he never worked in esports. Technical design decisions – he never worked in gaming, he’s never been a designer, never run a tournament.” When Beck felt threatened by the complexities of the esports program, Rozelle would then build capital with him by agreeing and validating his concerns – even over the protests of other managers and directors.
Through securing Beck’s trust, Rozelle was handpicked for the directorship, alongside Jarred Kennedy. It’s been very hard to find anybody to speak positively of Rozelle’s capabilities in that role.
Said another source: “A lot of the issues, in my estimation, comes from Whalen being unequipped to deal with all the issues, and few people with true ecosystem operations background to solve the issues. They’ve never had consultations from the NBA or NFL to bring in, the League Ops department has been understaffed, and the people in it has been incompetent.” They back up the claim that Rozelle has no prior experience with league ops or sports ecosystems, outside of the viewpoint of a standard sports fan. And he has, specifically, done nothing to set up the sustainable ecosystem everybody has recently been demanding for.
Sustainability
There have been notably very little monetization of the esports broadcast since the inception of the LCS, and this probably has a lot to do that very little has been done to establish a staff that can do so. There used to be three marketing and sales representatives – it’s since been shaved down to a single ex-Activision employee with no formal background in sports advertising or broadcast rights distributions.
And, yes, it’s SNAFU for the team owners. “The owners are basically treading water or losing money on this in a lot of cases, for an incredibly unstable industry. Cloud 9, TSM, Liquid – outside of them, I doubt anyone in NA is profitable. And [if they are] it’s not because of League – it’s because they are now multi-gaming organizations with huge brand presence.” To back that up: earlier statements by Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh, owner of Team Solomid, claims that League operations are sustained by website revenue and players of other games fulfilling sponsorship obligations on their behalf. The advertising restrictions imposed by Riot Esports has hindered even sponsorship revenue, upon which the teams are almost exclusively reliant upon.
“Riot really doesn’t like people pulling back the curtain,” said the source. “The community judgments about public decisions are problem enough. If they saw what a mess the department was, and how clueless they were about the future, they would be more surprised.” There are, they claim, no five to 10-year plans. The department is barely able to plan one or two years ahead. Riot esports is “just kind of woefully unprepared for the type of ecosystem they were creating with the LCS and the consequences of the restrictions they put on the market.”
Rozelle claimed over Reddit that he was in regular communication with team owners and esports stakeholders about the challenges facing the scene. The extent of those communications may be overstated. Said a source within the LCS: “In my time, I had an owner conference. One conference call. That is the only communication I had with him in six months.”
Said another: “No one from the LCS has reached out to me at all.” When linked to Rozelle’s statement, specifically “we have regular meetings with owners on a broader basis to talk about issues beyond the ones discussed here,” the owner said, “he must mean NA.”
Trust Debt
“Riot Esports sees themselves as a ‘premier brand,’” said a source. Riot’s intended advertising partners are Coca Cola and Intel – not, as it were, Razer and AMD. In fact, the overall company direction is negative towards a hard push at monetizing its esports initiatives – the main goal is to monetize the game itself, and it overshadows any attempt at bringing in sponsors in line with the LCS’s values, especially in North America.
This creates a conflict, because the demographic for esports interests is still effectively limited to a small (if growing) enthusiast’s demographic. “Brands who have the big bucks for Riot’s aspirations don’t necessarily see value in buying in, but Riot doesn’t want to work with the ones that do.”
It also creates a conflict in incentives with their leadership. “League of Legends is making so much money – when [esports’] goal isn’t money, it’s really hard to make improvements to the product. What’s your measuring stick? How do you make improvements when you’re the most played game in the world? How do you convince a guy like Dustin or Whalen they could do better?”
The source claims that it’s possible Riot just doesn’t see enough value in doing so – even if the department could make the company an extra $20 million, “Honestly, I don’t know if that sum of money even matters [to Riot].” A commissioner of a sports organization like the NFL has their performance tied directly to the economic welfare of the system – they’re answerable to team owners and their constituency. That incentive doesn’t exist within Riot. “What interest does Riot have in going that extra mile? Who’s going to benefit – yeah, the teams will benefit, but I think Riot’s going to say ‘aren’t they benefiting enough?’”
Their skepticism seems warranted in light of Merrill’s earlier statements, which triggered the brunt of the recent drama. Claimed Marc Merrill, over Reginald’s criticism of the status quo: “we’ve done a lot historically to help support the bottom end of the ecosystem to help minimize the scenarios where bad teams/owners can exploit players, and we look forward to continuing to do more to help at the other ends of the spectrum too, such as for stars.”
There was research done early on to discover what level of support would be needed to help an organization of, say, Team MRN’s caliber. Rozelle was not involved in those discoveries; they have not expanded under his leadership, even as even the Challenger Series scene found itself burdened by investor-inflated player salaries.
Forced March
There have been two particular incidents under Rozelle’s leadership that have cast him under a petty light. The first, as described by an LCS source: “when new casters were being interviewed, and this was back in early 2015, late 2014, they were asked a question: ‘who is the better analyst, Jatt or MonteCristo?’ If you answered Monte, Whalen stopped the interview to explain to you why you were wrong.”
The oft-contentious relationship between the English LCK caster and Riot seems to stem directly from Rozelle’s office. According to sources close to the deal, the sale of EU team Renegades Banditos was thrust upon its owners in the 11th hour: four different offers were submitted to Rozelle, from private investors to current team managers. There is suspicion that the sale was forced upon Badawi and Mykles in order to benefit parties that Rozelle had prior business relations with, but this has not been adequately substantiated – sources close to the team deny problems in the ownership – through the fact that they were forced to accept a unilateral decision plagues the propriety of Rozelle’s actions.
The latest drama, stemming from team owners and HTC, maybe the ten-ton feather upon the camel’s back. “I know that there is a good chance of there being a large shakeup in regards to who exactly will run the league, and it comes from Tencent,” said a source.
Said another: “To my knowledge, Tencent has not had time to decide yet, since they only had meetings this past week [mid-August]. But very powerful people outside of Riot have been flying to China to meet with the Tencent board on the issue.”
Esports leadership has been reluctant to make changes to the status quo. The future of the LCS may no longer be in their hands.
Disclosure
It’s necessary to note that the author of this piece has worked extensively for Riot before in a freelance capacity as a contributor to LoLesports. I’ve many close friends within its ranks, my writing career thus far has relied extensively upon the scene, I’ve applied multiple times over the last few years for jobs with the company, and that is exactly why I’ve taken such close personal interest with issues affecting the overall ecosystem’s health and integrity.
As you can imagine: I am very nervous to have written this, as I know many bridges will be burned in the process.
The community has traditionally treated esports journalism with extreme skepticism, undue or otherwise. The use of anonymous sources may be traditional and standard in the conventional sports press but is not the norm for enthusiasts press like with gaming. When it does happen, it’s seen as an attack on the identity and welfare of parties that the community has emotional attachments and personal bonds with. And maybe that is so, to some extent – but I would assert that it’s even more so for me than most, given that my connections to it are a lot more than hypothetical. I unabashedly want esports to succeed, for more than the simple fact that it gives me something to write about – like Grantland Rice saw something heroic and mythical in Jack Dempsey smashing faces inward, or the high-level tactical elegance of warfare in a football play, I believe esports to have the same potentiality for culture-defining inspiration.
If it can survive its own errors.
Hopefully, my career can survive this. I’m not done writing League stories yet. Not sated yet with cheering on the Flash Wolves. Not yet.
What does Cloud9, EnVyUs, and NRG have to do with the recent Nintendo Direct? More than what’s immediately obvious, it seems.
The Nintendo Switch trailer had two particularly interesting and speculation-causing traits: one, the seemingly total absence of anybody under the age of 18. The actors and environments shown were more appropriately that of the everyday young adult, living in their own apartment, taking care of their own dog, and having their own roof parties (though that’s probably the least-believable bit nowadays: being able to afford such a nice place with such a view at that age).
That plays into the second: a massive Splatoon esports tournament at the end in classic League of Legends or DOTA 2 style, complete with cheering crowds, technicolored lights, and sponsor-decked uniforms. Was Nintendo finally moving into the hardcore esports space after entire literal generations of relentlessly protecting their family-friendly image?
Said a source intimate with esports team management: yes.
“I know Splatoon was a test run for a competitive game, so they’re either gonna flesh the current game out or do something for the Switch,” they claimed. Organizations heavily identified with esports have been in contact with Nintendo at least as far back as Dreamhack Austin, around early July, but the discussions didn’t just include American organizations. European and Japanese competitive teams were in contact as well. Smash Bros and Pokken were also named as titles being explored in the esports space.
This claim was corroborated by a source close to Nintendo itself. Teams named included TSM, Team Liquid, and Immortals from North America, among many others. G2, SK, Fnatic, and NaVi were listed as European contacts, also as a non-comprehensive list.
The organizations involved have, as expected, declined to comment or ignored requests for comments entirely.
Collaboration
“From what it sounds like, they aren’t looking to make an LoL, CS, or Overwatch,” claimed a source. “They don’t want to be a frontrunner; they just want to be a part of it.”
Ostensibly, hints of this might have shown up as recently as this week. Nintendo America had advertised a Splatoon tournament that looked, for all intents and purposes, to be a third-party event:
While a far, far cry from the financially significant pot bonus support provided by Capcom and other publishers to an event like EVO, it is suggestive as an exploratory tendril into the esports gold rush. Along with their ESL program, with the Nintendo Switch itself as a prize, it seems as if the grassroots competitive Nintendo community, players and tournament organizers alike, can expect some love in 2017.
Professional play in Overwatch is still in its infancy compared to other esports, but that shouldn’t mean that its players should also act like toddlers. Toronto Esports player Matt ‘Dellor’ Vaughn, a 28-year-old Overwatch pro, was fired for a “breach of contract” involving a racist rant in a ranked game.
Unfortunately for Dellor, it seems someone was recording the match, which saw Dellor go into a racist-fueled rant, screaming the n-word for 26 uninterrupted seconds while his teammates sat in stunned silence.
Note that the volume is loud on this video, and contains the aforementioned profanity:
“Toronto Esports is an organization built on inclusivity, and we have always had a zero-tolerance policy for any forms of discrimination,” said Toronto Esports President Ryan Pallett. “Immediately upon learning of the incident, the player was interviewed, admitted to the offense, and was notified that his contract with the organization was being terminated.”
While Dellor seems apologetic in his response, it’s not exactly the most mature reasoning, either:
I fucked up and deserve to be dropped from Toronto Esports, I won’t try to argue or make an excuse, I don’t have any. I just want people to know what happened. I was having a really bad day. Didn’t get much sleep, twitch wouldn’t work for 2 hours after I woke up, and once it finally did, my internet was lagging. So I was pretty upset from the moment I woke up.
Then I get into a game against a widowmaker who is blatantly cheating. Everything was whatever, I’ve dealt with cheaters before, but when him and his entire team, and MY entire team start talking shit, it gets to me. I snapped. This isn’t the first time this has happened. I have anger problems.
The only thing I can say is that despite me using that word, I am not a racist. I was extremely upset, and I was trying to make the person I was angry with upset as well, and so I said the most offensive thing that came to mind.
I fucked up, I have no excuse. Toronto Esports is a great organization and I am sorry to them for tarnishing their name. I’ve put my entire life into gaming/esports and this has been a massive wake up call.
In our eyes, this is less wake-up call and more career sabotage. The internet never forgets, especially once recorded and in press. All it will take is a Google search of Dellor’s name for this incident to come to light for any prospective team owner – and since esports is almost all about image and being presentable to sponsors, this likely won’t do Dellor any favors in the future.
Update: It seems this was a stream highlight from Dellor’s stream, which makes it even more confusing as to why Dellor exploded with this racist rant.
It looks like we can put a W in the column for online gamers around the world – and especially in Korea.
The South Korean parliament has passed an amendment to a law on promoting the gaming industry. Based on this law, manufacturing and distributing programs that are not allowed by the game company and its Terms of Service are now directly illegal.
That would include aimbotters, hacking programs, scripters, or anything not allowed by the TOS.
The punishment? A maximum of 5 years of jail time or $43,000 in fines (50 million KRW).
Now gaming companies won’t have to rely on ‘indirect’ laws in order to sue and accuse hack/script makers and distributors – which should make life immensely easier for Riot Korea and Blizzard Korea.
Overwatch, in particular, has seen hacking run rampant in South Korea with Blizzard fighting back with bans against players utilizing the hacks. While the bans have stopped some players from playing, it’s good to know that they will have the weapons they need to fight back with the backing of the Korean government.
This is also good for players on servers around the world, as many of these hacks originate in Korea – meaning we’re likely to see far fewer of them on the market. There were many reports of Korean users utilizing VPNs in Korean PC bangs to use aimbots without fear – they would simply buy a new account on the NA server if they got banned.
Valve will be implementing the next Operation and Source 2 engine for CS:GO this Summer. The information was revealed during the Counter-Strike: Global Offensivepresentation for China’s release.
We have reached out to Valve for an official comment, but have yet to receive a response.
The text translates:
Source 2 engine and Panoramic UI
The next big action [Operation?] — this Summer
CSGO Source 2
The Source 2 engine was speculated for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for some time, though it’s now becoming a reality this summer. With Source 2, CS:GO should not only look better, but also run smoother as it steps away from the original 32-bit Source engine.
The new system should optimize performance, though the “feel” of CS:GO may change slightly. While running on the original Source engine, CS:GO utilizes the Havok physics engine. Source 2, on the other hand, uses a new physics engine known as Rubikon.
When the switch to Rubikon occurs, you may feel minor changes to player movement and grenade physics due to the new engine. Rubikon may force players and teams to either adapt existing smoke-throws or create completely new ones. In addition, minor movement changes may not be felt by many, but has a significant impact on Competitive. Any miscalculated step can often lead to your death or a missed pick.
Valve previously increased player friction to lessen the “slippery” feel of movement just slightly, and the game felt new as a result. Source 2’s Rubikon might introduce a similar effect.
Lastly, the new technology also allows for a destructible environment, though I don’t see Valve implementing this feature into CSGO. Allowing players to blast through walls and objects would change Global Offensive’s gameplay entirely by creating undesigned routes or bypassing the map’s flow. If added, Valve would have essentially created a new game.
Here’s a side-by-side visual comparison of DOTA 2 after its transition from Source to Source 2.
CSGO’s Next Operation
It’s been over a year since Counter-Strike’s last operation and though we still have to wait a few months, at least we know a general timeline for its release. Though we’ve yet to receive a full announcement, the maps for CS: GO’s next operation have already been datamined in March and will include:
de_thrill
cs_agency
de_shipped
de_lite
de_blackgold
de_austria
cs_insertion
You can find more information about each of the maps here.
Summer of 2017 should be a big year for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as it implements the long-awaited Source 2 engine and next Operation.
