Cologne proved once again that it’s the cathedral of counter-strike, DOTA2 has even more money being thrown at it and we welcome two teams to the pack!

The International prize pool got bigger… again!

Another year and another record broken, The International has shattered its own crowdfunding record and will have a prize pool exceeding $25.7 million. Amazingly, only $1.6 million of this comes from the base prize pool offered by valve, the rest is all made up of crowdfunding. Last year’s record reached $25,532,177, with this year’s total still rising its very clear that there will be more than just a few more dollars up for grabs.

Players are able to add to the prize pool by purchasing the T19 Battle Pass in game, players can then additionally purchase extras such as XP for more rewards or themed loot boxes. 25% of all the revenue from these go towards the competition’s prize pool, meaning 75% goes in valve’s back pocket (capitalism wins again).

The grand final is scheduled for August 25th, meaning you still have plenty of time to add to the pool, with that long left we wouldn’t be surprised if it surpasses $30 million.

Team Liquid are the best CSGO team on the planet

Once again, Team Liquid have made it very clear that they are best team in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive by winning ESL One Cologne 2019. Twistzz, NAF, EliGE, Stewie2k and Nitr0 took out Vitality in a 3-1 ass-whooping, to win their fourth consecutive major tournament as well as the Intel Grand Slam and a hefty $1 million.

The finals began on the team-reliant Overpass, leading Liquid to a strong start with a 16-6 victory, in quick response however, Vitality took Dust II into overtime and a 19-17 win. Could this be the beginning of the end for Liquid?… No, they were fine. Map three brought Inferno to the cathedral of Counter-strike where Liquid built up a strong lead on CT-side before picking up another W, 16-10 Liquid. To put the finals to bed, the North Americans took Mirage with a 16-8 win, claiming the championship and the Intel Grand Slam.

Rift rivals was a thing…

It was no shock to see that Europe destroyed North America in the 2019 edition of Rift Rivals. With the top teams from the LCS, Team Liquid, Cloud9 and TSM facing off against the LEC’s G2 Esports, Origen and Fnatic. The only NA team that seemed remotely in contention with the EU were Team Liquid, TSM and Cloud9 simply could not handle the might of EU.

North America only won 4 games in the entire series, three of which came from Liquid. This clearly shows Team Liquid as the super team that are holding the North American reputation together. Superstar ADC Doublelift may be the name that sticks out of the TL lineup but Xmithie, Impact, Jensen and CoreJJ on top of that are really what make the team stand out.

As for the competition itself, sadly it felt like there was no interest or traction going into the event at all. besides the minute prize pool there really is nothing of any note to play when it comes to rift rivals. For most professional players, they would give a pass in mentioning rift rivals when concerning their aspirations. Even for the fans, few would even remember to mention outside the few weeks leading up to the event. It’s not quite the Ryder Cup, that’s all I’m saying…

Dota Underlords has its first open

What was DOTA2 Auto Chess, the highly popular community-made mod for the base game DOTA2 has now been made into a full fledge product known as DOTA Underlords. Furthermore, WePlay! Esports has announce its first open tournament for the game, with $15,000 to play for. The online tournament will feature both European and North American open qualifiers before the final that will be taking place at the beginning of August. The open will see competitors play three games, scoring based on their final standing in each of the games, with the top four players moving on to the next round. This announcement comes just as ESL has announced they will be hosting a DOTA Underlord competition during ESL One Hamburg event in October 2019. But, on the horizon is Riot Games’ Teamfight Tactics…

Teamfight Tactics has taken off

The game has only been out for a month but Riot have already announced the first tournament for the League of Legends game mode, being held form July 17th -18th. Twitch Rivals will host a tournament featuring 64 Twitch streamers and a $125k prize pool. You will be able to view the entire competition on Twitch both via the Twitch Rivals channel and each individual streamer. Since open beta began in June, Teamfight Tactics has racked up more than 2 million hours of watch time every day, and has attracted popular influencers from rival games Hearthstone and Auto Chess. Looks to me as if Riot is about to get a stranglehold on yet another game genre!

ODEE and Dignitas went their own ways

Dignitas have announced that they have mutually parted within Michael “ODEE” O’Dell. ODEE is seen as one of the founding fathers of eSports, and paved the way for what eSports is today. The organisation has additionally announced that they will be appointing a new General Manager in the coming weeks (get them CVs in boys and girls). His reason for departure is still unknown but we think it could be down to the recent acquisitions by Clutch Gaming.

Lupus Ignis now have a CS:GO and Apex Legends team

That’s right! We have two teams up and running now, only took forever! Our Apex Legends team got underway last week in the ESPN EXP Qualifiers, putting a strong performance. The results aren’t out yet but we’ve already proceeded to banter the other teams about being better than them (we wouldn’t have it any other way)

Our CS:GO team also got underway this weekend in the second season of ESN. With a 16 – 4 loss to Genetexe it wasn’t exactly the start we had hoped for but it gets the ball rolling. The boys will be in action every Sunday for the next 5 weeks so be sure to tune into our Twitch channel to watch them play! We’ll also be doing some more in-depth profiles on our CS:GO roster throughout this week.