Virtus Pro reveals its second Dota 2 roster

Virtus Pro launched its second branch for competitive Dota 2 with a name, VP.Prodigy. The roster contains another full squad to operate under Virtus Pro’s banner. The organization is hoping for some drastic results from the new branch as the roster caught the attention during different other tournaments. The CEO of Virtus Pro also released a statement about the squad and how the organization expects from the team in the future. 

Former Team Generation 

The newly formed VP.Prodigy consists of the ESL One CIS Online Season 1 Open Qualifiers champions, Team Generation. The official squad of 5 members keeps playing together under a new banner now. The team has shown an amazing performance during the recent events. Therefore, the CEO of Virtus Pro signed the whole squad to stay together and play under his name. Very soon, we will witness the new squad competing in the competitive Dota. 

CEO’s Remarks

As the organization signed the new roster for its sub-branch, the CEO Sergey Glamazda expressed his excitement about the signing. According to his official statement, the CEO said that the organization had its eye on Team Generation for a while. The organization also helped the team by providing a coach and a Bootcamp for full support, during the summer of 2020. As the organization moved the whole former VP.Prodigy roster to its main branch, the sub-branch became vacant. He also said that the organization did not announce any official move earlier because it did not want any kind of pressure on the players. Also, he planned for the players to grow and play together in some competitive matches before going official. 

As the team managed to qualify for the Lower Division of ESL One CIS Online Season 1, the squad became ready for some public attention. At this moment, the organization made it official that the roster will represent VP.Prodigy in the future games. 

Lower Division of ESL One Season 1

The newly formed VP.Prodigy is all set to face some epic battles in the Lower Division of ESL One CIS Season 1. The team has to first take on HellRaisers in order to move forward. The match is due on the 21st of January, 15:00 CET. The organization is hoping for some positive results as the squad has shown earlier. 

VP.Prodigy’s Roster

The official new roster of VP.Pordigy consists of all former Team Generation players. This includes professionals like Denis ‘Larl’ Sigitov, Makism ‘Forcemajor’ Meretskii, Daniil ‘Schelk’ Shelkunov, Evgeniy ‘Noticed’ Ignatenko, Ilyas ‘Celebrity’ Gainullin, and Vladislav ‘DSA’ Shuvaev. 

We are just a few days away from witnessing the new roster of VP.Prodigy once again. The team has already played together for a long time now. However, this time, the team is officially playing under a new banner. The organization hopes for better results as the CEO of the company also expresses his thoughts about the new signing. We will get to know the current level of the form of VP.Prodigy on the 21st of January against HellRaisers. 

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Na’Vi’s player Alwayswannafly receives a ban from Twitch

Twitch has very strict streaming criteria that every gamer, regardless of his/her popularity, needs to follow. Recently, a professional from Dota 2, Alwayswannafly received a ban from Twitch for the first time in his streaming career. The support player in the official Natus Vincere squad, Andrey ‘Alwayswannafly’ Bondarenko is not allowed to stream at Twitch for the time being. The platform has still not released any further details about the ban, but soon we will get to know the reason behind it.

Six Hours of Dota 

Earlier today, the professional started his normal Twitch stream while playing Dota 2. The stream was around six-hour-long. During the stream, Alwayswannafly played Dota 2 most of the time. As the ban officially comes out, the Streaming platform has still not revealed the duration of the ban for the professional. Similarly, Alwayswannafly has not talked about this ban on his official social media accounts as well. This means that we are still lacking the reason behind the ban and also for how long it is going to stay. 

Alwayswannafly’s Dota History

Alwayswannafly is a Ukrainian professional Dota 2 player. The professional has played with multiple big teams and has achieved a lot during his competitive career. Alwayswannafly is still active in the competitive scene of Dota 2 and is currently playing as a Support for Na’Vi. He is also the captain of the team and has taken the squad towards multiple victories. The professional has been around the competitive Dota for almost 10 years. As clean as his Dota journey is, the professional has never received any sort of ban from Twitch before. 

Twitch’s Journey

The official stats website for Twitch, Sully Gnome has released some important data about the professional as the year ends. During the past 365 days, Alwayswannafly has streamed for around 616 hours. During all of these streams, the professional catered to around 1,554 viewers on average. Similarly, Sully Gnome has also released the number of hours watched during his past 365 days streams. According to the official data, Alwayswannafly has netted more than 1 million hours of watched time. This makes the professional a significant member of Twitch, but regardless of the popularity, Twitch just handovers the ban to the player. 

The news of Alwayswannafly’s ban comes as very shocking to the community. During his 10 years of professional Dota career, he has not been in any kind of scandal. Similarly, his streaming community is also strong enough to become a significant member of Twitch. Regardless of this fact, the platform restricts the professional to broadcast. The professional has not released any kind of statement on the recent ban from Twitch. Similarly, Twitch has also not released any remarks about the ban of the player. All we know is that he streamed for straight six hours in the end. There are high chances that the streamer said something offensive during this steam which led him towards the ban.

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Team Envy releases the roster after poor performance

One of the famous Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squads, Team Envy recently released its official roster to evaluate further options. All the former members of the team are now free to explore further opportunities. The major reason behind this step is the disappointing performance of the team during the last few events. Team Envy is one of the oldest names in the history of Esports. However, right now, the team is facing many troubles. 

https://twitter.com/ItsOfficialGII/status/1348928014806093825 

Former Squad

With the continuous poor performances, Team Envy releases all of its former members to look for other roster options. The former squad of the team had the in-game leader Noah ‘Nifty’ Francis, and the remaining members Michal ‘MICHU’ Muller, Bugra ‘Calyx’ Arkin, Thomas ‘Thomas’ Utting, and Nikola ‘LEGIJA’ Ninic. All of these professionals now look for a new home as the competitive scene of CSGO starts. 

Official Statement

Team Envy released an official statement about the release of the whole squad from the organization. According to the official post, the organization said that Team Envy is disbanding its current CSGO’s coaching and staff and the official roster. All the members are available for an immediate transfer as if any other team looks for them. Similarly, the organization is positive about the professionals looking for other opportunities. 

History of Team Envy

After mastering the competitive Call of Duty scene, Team Envy entered the CSGO scene as well. In the beginning, the team was just phenomenal with its drastic plays. Similarly, in 2015, the team acquired Team LDLC’s official roster including Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt and Richard ‘Shox’ Papillon. Also, during its early months in CSGO, the official squad of the team had professionals like Kenny ‘KennyS’ Schrub and Dan ‘Apex’ Madesclaire. 

The team also secured the trophy at its seventh CSGO major, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca. After this victory, Envy became an unstoppable force who would beat top tier teams in the competitive CSGO. 

The team had the best time with its 2015’s official squad. However, as the players left, the performance of the team started declining slowly. 

Owner’s remarks

As the organization decided to release its official roster, Mike Rufail, the owner of the company made his remarks as well. According to him, his CSGO investment has earned him a huge backlash. In another Twitter discussion, he also said that the organization has reserved a much bigger budget than it had for the past few years. As both of his statements conflicted, the community acted abnormally in response. Some of the members supported the owner, while others mocked him. 

Recently, the owner of the organization also said that Team Envy might hire another roster for its CSGO branch. However, the team will only consider players under its budget. The organization has a network around multiple games. As we know that Envy is making more profits in other games, there are fewer chances for Envy’s CSGO roster to come out soon. For now, Team Envy marks an end to its CSGO era.

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Auto Chess devs are making a new MOBA to rival Dota 2

Auto Chess is returning back to its root with a new MOBA in the market. It is the game that launched the auto battler genre in the first place. The return of the game does not take it back to the fan-made mode of Dota 2. However, it is getting its own MOBA game with several characters. The upcoming game was recently revealed through a trailer by the official publisher of Auto Chess, Dragonest.

CEO’s Remarks

The CEO of Dragonest, Loring Lee said that as Wong Kar-Wei said in the Grandmaster ‘never give up faith’, and making a MOBA game is our faith. The CEO also said that we launched our first mobile MOBA in 2015, Fight for Freedom, and that was just the beginning. The organization did not have its last laugh and it will release the new game very soon. 

The Auto Chess MOBA 

The Auto Chess MOBA looks similar to all the other mobile games with the same genre. Similarly, the game has a top-down view on the screen with the movement wheel attached on the left side of the screen. The skills mapped buttons are placed on the right side of the screen for better use. What makes the game unique is its day-night feature. During the game, the map witnesses multiple times of the day, where players in the night go through the fog of war. The game will feature the same items and heroes present in the Auto Chess title. 

Availability of Auto Chess

The game is available on multiple platforms. The Android and Apple users can download the game free of cost from their App Stores. Similarly, PC users can download the game from the EPIC Games Store.  The developers also launched the game on the PlayStation 4 and 5. However, the game had a price tag of $9.99 for its console branch. Auto Chess is not available for Xbox and Nintendo users, but it seems like they will have access to the game too in the future.

Origin of Auto Chess

Auto Chess actually came out from Drodo Studio’s Dota Auto Chess. In 2019, Valve launched a user-made mode in Dota that caught hype in the year. After multiple success times with Dota 2, multiple publishers reached out to Drodo Studio to make a standalone game for the Auto Chess mode. At first, the developers of the game agreed to create a mobile game in the collaboration of Dragonest and Dota 2 items. The game also used the hero models from Dota 2 for the lookalike characters. 

Drodo was the company that initially helped Valve to develop Dota and come up with the team fight tactics. Later on, Riot Games jumped in the competition and released League of Legends, which became one of the most famous games. However, now, the organization is planning to release its own MOBA and fans are desperately waiting for it.

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Dignitas are the champions of the RLCS: The Grid Week 3

With every passing week, the RLCS (Rocket League Championship Series): The Grid witnesses its new champion. With the third week in the tournament, Dignitas took the title. During the tournament, 16 teams battled against each other for the championship. With a lot of ups and downs, Dignitas proved to be the most reliable team of the week by defeating every other world-class team. 

Grid Week 3

During the Grid Week 3 tournament, 16 teams participated for the championship title of the week. The teams had to play multiple rounds during the group stages to move to the playoffs. The top few members of the group reached the playoffs, where the competition rose to an immense level. After several days of hard battling, Dignitas proved victorious in the finals to win the $15,000 prize pool. The team took the biggest chunk of this prize pool with the title in hand. Along with the money and the title, Dignitas also secured the highest number of Grid points for future placements in the tournament. With winning the grand finals of the tournament, Dignitas has made its appearance sure in the future series. 

Dignitas’ Tournament Run

During week 3 of the Grid tournament, Dignitas had a pretty solid run against some of the world-class teams. The team finished in the second spot in the group stages. During the group stages, Dignitas won two matches and lost one, which led the team to secure the second position with a 2-1 record. The team only faced defeat in a couple of matches against a very strong Rocket League professional team, Top Blokes. 

After this defeat, it seemed like Dignitas owned the tournament. Without dropping a single match, the team made it to the finals of the tournament. The team wiped the grand finals as well to win the title, money, and the official points. 

The next Grid

As the third week of the Grid tournament comes to an end, the community is looking forward to the next series. According to the official news about the tournament, the next Grid is all set to start from the 21st of January 2021. It seems like Dignitas will come in a stronger form once again to mark a consecutive victory. However, it is still a prediction about the team, and no one knows if the organization can pull off such a victory or not. 

We can only make a solid prediction about the team, once it comes back on the tour with a significant form.

Dignitas secured the biggest chunk of the $15,000 prize pool after winning the third-week Grid tournament. The team looked unstoppable after its first defeat during the event. During the group stages, it did not seem like Dignitas would make it to the grand finals. However, the team did not lose a single match during the playoffs to make it to the grand finals. With the upcoming week Grid Series, let’s see what Dignitas brings for the fans.

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Valve changes the estimated date for The International 10

In the recent updates, Valve has revealed some insights about the changes of The International 10 dates. Along with the future plans of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021, the organization has shared the projected dates for the biggest esports tournament. The good news for the Dota fans is that the event might occur sooner than the previously projected dates.

The Future Projections

Valve previously projected the official dates for The International 10 to be around September 2021. In the recent post by Valve, the organization shared the entire 2021 Dota Pro Circuit schedule. However, there are no exact dates available for the TI10. According to the official blog post, the final Major of the 2021 season is expected to run from 2nd June to 13th. This means that the International might begin from August 2021. 

Valve also did not include any clear plans about the current situation of the world due to the Coronavirus pandemic. If the situation lingers, the dates might move. According to the organization, if the current situation remained the same during 2021, the DPC season might get extended. 

Scandinavian fans

The Scandinavian fans are probably the biggest beneficiaries of the news about TI10. Last year, Valve planned to organize The International during August in Stockholm, Sweden. However, due to the world crises related to the plague, Valve had to delay the event. It felt like Stockholm would miss the chance to host a TI. However, Valve has given another chance to the venue as the upcoming TI10 will take place in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Another Battle Pass?

The International 10 Battle Pass generated around $130 million for Valve, in which the organization marked $40 million for the prize pool of the biggest event of esports. Valve has pushed TI far enough that a new Battle Pass will most likely arrive this year. However, nobody knows what will happen to the money TI10 Battle Pass generated in 2020. 

Analysts Thoughts

According to some of the biggest insiders of Dota 2, Valve will most probably distribute the money earned through TI10 Battle Pass in 2020, among several major tournaments of the game. This will improve the quality of all the league tournaments throughout the year for Dota 2. Similarly, the community will also feel good for playing a role in the betterment of the major leagues in Dota 2. 

With Valve sharing the next year’s Dota 2 competitive schedule, fans are excited about all the major events. The organization also shared the expected dates for the biggest tournament of esports. Valve claims that if the situation gets better, the tournament might happen sooner. Similarly, Valve also confirms that if the situation remained the same, they might have to delay the event furthermore. With this year bringing the competitive Dota back, Battle Pass 2021 might come out for the fans. Valve has already set the prize pool for the TI10 through the previous Battle Pass. However, this Battle Pass might help in several low-level tournaments.

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Valve announces the 2021 DPC Seasons

2020 proved to be a crazy year, and equally for the world of Dota 2. Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, Valve had to cancel all the Dota Pro Circuit Majors and Minors. Similarly, the organization also delayed the biggest and main event of the DPC year, The International. In a blog post by Valve, the organization has finally revealed the future of the DPC and made an announcement about the TI10. Valve finally responded to a lot of questions by the community, through a blog post. 

Regional Leagues 2021

The 2021 DPC will comprise competitive leagues based in the geographical regions. In the new season, there are no new regions in the game. However, a big change is announced in the game, and that is the removal of the Minors from the scene. Similarly, Valve has divided the DPC season into two. In these two seasons, a Major will occur. All the teams in a specific region will compete to secure the top spots in their region, to secure a slot in the Major. 

Slots in the Majors

With the new slot system in the Majors, every region has received some slots in which teams can place themselves. EU and China take the highest number of slots, as both regions have produced a massive amount of Dota in the previous decade. Similarly, it came out as a surprise for the SEA and SA fans, after looking at the high number of slots available for them as well. EU and China lead the slot game with each region having 4 Major slots. The CIS and SEA get 3 Major slots each. Similarly, the NA and SA regions get 2 Major slots each. 

The International 10?

According to the recent blog post by Valve, the organization is planning for the event to occur in Stockholm, Sweden, during August 2021. However, this news is still not confirmed by the organization, as Valve claims that the event will only occur if the world’s situation becomes any better. Similarly, it depends on government regulations about large gatherings in Sweden. With the Coronavirus vaccine on its way, Valve is hoping that the situation will be under control by August 2021. However, with Sweden recording deaths every day due to the plague, the happening of the event is still uncertain. 

The Previous Prize Pool?

With the delay in The International 10, there is still uncertainty with the prize pool generated by the Battle Pass 10. Last year’s Battle Pass generated more than $40 million for the prize pool of the event. Many fans are calling Valve to distribute last year’s prize money into the T2/T3 Dota events, for finding new talent in the game. Similarly, some fans are expecting that Valve might distribute the money in the regional leagues. With all the rush going on on Reddit and other platforms, Valve has not revealed its official plan yet. We can only know the fate of the $40 million when Valve makes a decision.

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Resolut1on becomes the part of team HellRaisers

HellRaisers is currently filling in its members to complete the official roster of the team. In just the last two months, the team has moved on from three of its professional Dota 2 players. However, today, the organization has signed the deal with Roman ‘Resolut1on’ Fominok. The professional will start his journey with HellRaisers, as the DPC begins in the middle of January 2021. 

Resolut1on finds a new home

Resolut1on previously played for Virtus Pro for a long time. Later on, the official roster of Virtus Pro got benched in favor of VP.Prodigy players. All the former members of Virtus Pro moved to other teams to continue playing Dota 2. However, Resolut1on came out of the former squad and could not find a new home in Dota 2. Finally, the professional has found a new place to begin his new year. 

HellRaisers Positioning

HellRaisers is currently looking towards strengthening its Dota 2 squad. The signing of Resolut1on is definitely a plus point for the team as the CIS region of the game is getting stronger. Speaking of the region, multiple other teams like Na’Vi and VP are also taking part in keeping the standard high in the region. Resolut1on moves back to position one in the team for the first time after returning to Europe. The professional is playing along with the captain Alexander ‘Nix’ Levin and the CIS veteran Ilya ‘Lil’ Ilyuk. 

Resolut1on’s Past

Resolut1on has been around in the competitive scene of Dota 2, since 2013. The professional has played Dota 2 through multiple teams in the scene. Similarly, he has also participated many times in the biggest tournament of the game, The International. During The International 6, Resolut1on scored the biggest achievement of his Dota career. His most legendary run is considered to finish second at the TI6 alongside Martin ‘Saksa’ Sazdov and Aliwi ‘W33’ Omar. The team lost to Wings Gaming but won hearts at the main stage. 

HellRaisers remaining Members

HellRaisers is still down two professionals to complete the official squad. The team is currently in the search of the remaining members of the team. It seems like, the organization will announce the remaining two members in the upcoming weeks. Before the DPC begins, the team would definitely include the missing members to start its new year with a strong roster. 

With the DPC coming closer, HellRaisers announce their third member in the official squad. Resolut1on finally finds a home after leaving Virtus Pro and moves from playing Offlane to Carry in the game. The professional will definitely bring multiple successes to the team in this new year. It is still unknown which two members will join HellRaisers before the DPC officially begins. We can only look at the complete roster of HellRaisers once the team finds the remaining two members. The official date for the beginning of DPC is the 18th of January 2021. Looks like in the next few weeks, we will definitely know which two players join HellRaisers.

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Warzone removes Rebirth Island Trios

Despite the high popularity of the Rebirth Island, Call of Duty: Warzone has removed the trio feature in it. The users of the game-mode have shown their anger through different platforms. The famous game-mode of Battle Royale does not offer three players playing together in a squad. This is not the first time Call of Duty has removed a famous playlist from the game. Millions of fans have already complained about it in the past. However, it seems like the developers have ignored these complaints.

Content Integration

Since the starting of the content integration between Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War, Rebirth-Island is famous for its fast-kill rate due to its small size. The respawning feature and making a team with people on the map have made it playable. Similarly, two highly overpowered guns that most people use now, the DMR and the MAC-10, have made the mode easy. As the issues in integration between the two games rose, Warzone decided to switch its tune once again. The players got used to playing in a similar style for a long time and Warzone made a change in the game. 

Change in Number of Players

With the recent update, Warzone has changed the number of players on a team on Rebirth Island. The former three-player team now requires an additional player, which means a team now consists of 4 members. The community has spoken against this new update by saying that increasing the number of members on a single team will only make the mode less fun. Similarly, the community also complained that it is already hard enough to find three members on a team, and adding another member, only makes it crazier. 

A famous Redditor with the username ‘u/kayra551’ made a list of problems in the new game mode. The Redditor said that the moment fans liked the game as it is, Warzone has flipped it over. A fan also commented on his post saying that Warzone previously did the same thing with Zombies Royale. The community liked the new change in the Zombies Royale where a player when dies, becomes a Zombie and hunts down other players to regain life. The community praised the mode, but Warzone took the update back. 

Trios to come back?

With so much going on on Social Media and Reddit, Warzone might take its decision back and put the trios back in Rebirth Island. However, considering the past, there is no guarantee that it would happen anytime soon. The developers of the game have not spoken about the recent update and the removal of trios. 

Right now, it literally feels like it was a casual decision by the developers. However, with the amount of hype and anger it has created among the fans, the developers might notice soon that they need to put the trios back into the game. One way or another, nobody can predict the future move by Warzone. 

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RNG wins Dota 2 Huya Winter Invitational

Royal Never Give Up ends the Huya Winter Invitational by beating Team Aster in the grand finals. The two-week Dota 2 action finally comes to an end as RNG puts a full stop to Aster’s unbeaten record. The team takes the largest chunk of the prize pool as well as the title. 

Team Aster’s Tournament run

Team Aster had a perfect grip over the Huya Winter Invitational. The team went completely unbeaten during the group stages of the event. However, the team dropped its first game in the early stages of the playoffs. After losing only one game, Team Aster made it to the grand finals by winning the rest of the games. This Huya Winter Invitational run by Team Aster is the strongest until now, by the squad. 

Royal Never Give Up Tournament run

RNG started its playoff in a poor form. The team lost in its first round and dropped down to the lower brackets. Similarly, RNG also lost to Team Aster during the group stages. In the lower brackets, the team performed extremely well and did not lose any other game. Eventually, the team made it to the grand finals and took the pending revenge over Team Aster. 

The Grand Finals

Although RNG had played a series against Neon Esports before facing Team Aster, the team didn’t look tired at all. RNG first eliminated Neon Esports from the tournament, and then looked towards Team Aster. RNG held on to an early game lead in game 1. This caused Aster to crumble and RNG forced Aster to call out GG.

The second game became the battlefield as both teams fought brutally. At first, it felt like RNG was going to take game 2 as well, but Aster fought back and took the game. RNG came out even stronger in game 3 where it left no space for Aster to survive. In game-4, RNG tried to end the series and win another, but Aster fought strongly and even the series by winning the second last game. 

The final game of the series started with RNG leading the scoreboard. The lineup of Team Aster looked a little weak against RNG. Aster tried its best to bounce back in the game, but RNG kept its lead alive. Eventually, Aster called out GG and gave the victory to RNG to close the Huya Winter Invitational with a 3-2 victory. 

What’s Next?

RNG started this year with a lack of consistency and performance. The team finished third in multiple tournaments and then went down the line in several series. However, Huya Winter Invitational has given RNG a big breakthrough as the team finished in 1st place. It is also better for Team Aster as finishing second and maintaining an unbeatable streak is a huge thing. Similarly, the Dota 2 season has ended and we are going to the next year with new events. This tournament is definitely going to uplift both team’s morale in the upcoming matches.

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