Month: August 2020

Categories
League of Legends

LEC/LCS Veteran Kold Announces Retirement, departs Origen

Itโ€™s always sad when seemingly young proโ€™s call it quits. However, today’s announcement that Jonas “Kold” Andersen would be retiring takes the cake. Kold announced his retirement today on social media, accompanied by a longer explanation on TwitLonger.

In his post, Kold describes the issues that had plagued him during the 2019 Summer Split – problems which eventually caused him to step down from Origen. The star Danish jungler had been under tremendous amounts of stress which had manifested into physical symptoms. In light of the threat to his health, Kold took a break from the competitive scene.

Now, just over 12 months later, Kold has officially announced his retirement. Heโ€™s not completely leaving the scene though. The talented former-player now looks to put his skills to work as a coach in either the LEC or LCS.

Any team that picks up Kold would benefit from his years of competitive experience, dating back to 2013 and the foundation of the modern LoL pro-scene. First rising to prominence on the now defunct Cloud9 Eclipse, a European branch of the NA organisation, Koldโ€™s biggest break would come as part of H2k-Gaming.

Kold would later move regions to NA, playing on Enemy eSports, before returning to Europe. Here he found one of his most successful seasons with Splyce. However, despite their seeming mastery of Macro play, Splyce would find themselves eliminated in the group stage. Following this, Kold played on European teams including Unicorns of Love and finally Origen.

He departs his pro career with a legacy that includes international competition, a Rift Rivals victory, and several LEC runners up prizes.


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Categories
Dota 2

OMEGA League Europe – Alliance survived, the server crashed, and more

We have many an epic series ahead of us, and yesterday was an interesting day for the OMEGA League Europe Immortal Divison. Initially, the day would include two amazing battles between some of the best teams in the world. We got to witness one of them, the second one was postponed.

Sadly, there was some sort of issue in the Dota 2 servers. Needless to say, this didn’t allow the teams to compete (Team Liquid vs 5MEN). As a result, the tournament organizers decided to postpone the match for Tuesday. This means that we will be able to watch it tomorrow.

Here are a few of the things that happened in the match between Alliance and FlyToMoon.

FlyToMoon played well, but it was not enough

Before this series started, everyone thought that Alliance were going to be the winners. Even though they succeeded, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. In fact, it seemed that the European powerhouse had underestimated their enemies, especially in game one.

Although they had the better pick, the CIS team completely outplayed its enemies and managed to win with little to no effort. Alliance relied heavily on Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov and his Slark. Sadly, the Bulgarian superstar was unable to shine because FTM were all over the map.

After seeing what happened in the first game of the series, the CIS team picked the same heroes, thinking that Alliance didn’t have an answer. However, little did they know, the mighty TI 2 champions learned pretty quickly how to cope with FTM’s draft.

As a result, they’ve won the laning stage easily and pushed the series into a final game three. Considering the fact they had the momentum on their side, Alliance was able to dominate the third game as well. They had the better draft and thanks to Gustav “s4” Magnusson, they won a few teams fights in a row. This game them the needed advantage to deliver their knock-out punch, which sent FTM to the Divine division.

Don’t forget to watch the series between Team Liquid and 5MEN tomorrow. Feel free to follow DartFrog on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch for the latest Dota 2 news.

Categories
Call of Duty

Call of Duty League announces a shock return to 4v4

Only one day after the first CDL champions were crowned, the league has revealed a huge change for next year. Roster sizes will be changed from five players a team back to the traditional four and it has caused mixed reactions.

The Call of Duty League posted a tweet with the caption “Season 2 Intel”. It begins with the new CoD title ‘Black Ops: Cold War’ and goes on to reveal the new roster sizes for next year.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300479714306519041

This information was also shared on the CDL’s website with an explanation on how the change came about.

The league’s comissioner, Johanna Faries, said: “With a new season comes new announcements across many fronts.

“Today we shared that we will be transitioning to starting roster sizes of four players per team for Season 2, marking a kind of โ€˜return to our rootsโ€™. This decision was made in close collaboration with our teams and players, and it was not made lightly. “

Call of Duty professionals and other personalities had a lot to say about the new change.

Now three-time world champion, Clayster, was positive about the change but feels that the changes before the first season began.

Other pros took a slightly less analytical approach and just simply let their excitement out. Seattle Surge’s Slacked has “never been so excited”.

Former pro player, Legal, couldn’t help but “feel bad” for the teams that will have to make the tough decision of dropping a teammate.

This change to 4v4 will see great rosters like champions Dallas Empire, Atlanta FaZe and Chicago Huntsmen all have to split up. Rostermania will be one of the most exciting ones yet heading into the new season.

With all the new free agents that will become available, it is only sensible to believe that the CDL will be expanding next year with potentially more teams.

Despite the season coming to a close, it is not yet finished. The CDL All Star Weekend will take place on 12-13th September.

September 14th will mark the official beginning of the 2021 Call of Duty League season.

What do you think about the change in roster sizes?

Let us know!

Follow Dartfrog for all the latest Call of Duty news and analysis on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Categories
Call of Duty

Dallas Empire win the 2020 Call of Duty League Championship

After seven months of matches, Dallas Empire have been crowned the first Call of Duty League champions.

It was a rollercoaster of a year for the inaugural CDL season. Despite moving to an online format midway through the year, the league and players persevered to finish off the season in style.

Many were sceptical about the amount of money at stake for an online format at the Call of Duty Championship. However, there is no doubt that the best teams shone through and Dallas Empire thoroughly deserved the win.

After finishing second in the CDL standings, Dallas Empire were certainly favourites heading into the Championship Weekend.

Top seed, Atlanta FaZe, were simply overwhelmed by a dominant Dallas roster in the grand final.

Both Clayster and Crimsix now join Karma with three rings to their name. Huke, Shotzzy and iLLeY bag their first championship win and they did it in impressive fashion.

The 2020 Call of Duty League Championship was the most viewed CoD event in history. The event peaked at over 330,000 viewers.

Grand Final: Dallas Empire vs Atlanta FaZe

Dallas Empire started the best-of-nine series with a 1-0 lead as they came through winners bracket. The boys of Empire came out hot and swiftly extended that lead to 2-0 after taking the Azhir Cave Hardpoint.

This then turned into a 3-0 lead as Dallas took the third map and looked to be in the driver’s seat.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300171420039884804

A second half comeback in the Domination sealed the fourth map for Dallas, putting them one map away from victory.

However, Atlanta were not backing down easily as they took their first map of the series making it 4-1.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300180626797142019

Dallas did not want to hang around and closed out the series 5-1, crowning themselves champions.

https://twitter.com/CODLeague/status/1300186244908044291

Final Call of Duty League placings and prize money

Here is the final look at how each CDL team finished the year:

– 1st DALLAS EMPIRE ($1.5 million)

– 2nd ATLANTA FAZE ($900,000)

– 3rd CHICAGO HUNTSMEN ($600,000)

– 4th LONDON ROYAL RAVENS ($450,000)

– 5/6th OPTIC LA & TORONTO ULTRA ($300,000)

– 7/8th FLORIDA MUTINEERS & NEW YORK SUBLINERS ($175,000)

– 9/10th MINNESOTA ROKKR & PARIS LEGION ($100,000)

– 11/12th LA GUERILLAS & SEATTLE SURGE

Did you enjoy that performance from Dallas Empire?

Let us know!

Follow Dartfrog for all the latest Call of Duty news and analysis onour Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Categories
FIFA

Hashtag Tom wins the ePremier League 2019/2020

Pro FIFA player, Hashtag Tom, brought home the title for Watford as he was crowned ePL champion on Thursday.

A total of 40 players from PlayStation and Xbox battled it out in a group stage and single elimination format.

The tournament was originally planned for earlier in the year but was moved online due to the current pandemic.

With ยฃ40,000 on the line, we break down Hashtag Tom’s path to victory.

Hashtag Tom wins for Watford

The tournament began with all 40 players split into four groups of five in their respective console. Hashtag Tom was placed in group A alongside Fredo, MHaywxrd, Kingrowll and LiamCuthyy.

Tom showed from the outset that he meant business and put on an impressive display. He ended the group stages in first place with a 7-2 score total.

He then found his way to the semi-final where he would face Callumitty.

It was a devastating 5-0 win for Hashtag Tom in the semi-final and he looked in peak form.

There was more of the same in the console final as Tom faced Chelsea’s Kyle Hammond. He won 5-1 and seemed almost unstoppable as the goals continued to flow.

Over in the Xbox final, tournament favourite Tekkz faced a huge upset as he lost 5-3 to Bournemouth’s MarcMarleyyy.

The grand final was then set between Watford’s Hashtag Tom and Bournemouth’s MarcMarleyyy.

The grand final match was extremely back-and-forth as both players had their eyes set on the prize.

Tom put himself in the lead after an early strike from Roberto Firmino and seemed to be in the driver’s seat. His lead was then extended to two after Paul Pogba netted in the 38th minute.

It was then too late for MarcMarleyyy as he got one back but the full-time whistle blew for Hashtag Tom.

This was Tom’s first major trophy and he was ecstatic to say the least. The England and Watford representative took to Twitter to express his joy:

Final placings

  • 1st – Hashtag Tom (ยฃ20,000)
  • 2nd – MarcMarleyyy (ยฃ10,000)
  • 3rd/4th – Hamm-nd & Tekkz (ยฃ5,000 each)
  • 5th-8th – Callumitty, Tass, Jamboo, Shawrey

Did you enjoy Hashtag Tom’s performance in the ePremier League?

Let us know!

For all the latest competitive FIFA news and analysis follow Dart Frog on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Featured Image: Premier League

Categories
General

TSM Chess? TSM Signs Grandmaster Hikaru Nakumura

Team SoloMid has always positioned itself at the cutting edge of esports, but their latest signing may still surprise you. The storied esports organisation yesterday (August 27) announced the addition of the prodigious chess player Hikaru โ€œGM Hikaruโ€ Nakaru to its lineup of talent.

However, this isnโ€™t the start of a TSM chess division. Instead, the acquisition is a move to acquire one of the most popular and recognisable figures in a rapidly expanding field of streamed entertainment. Chess has seen a huge surge in popularity in the past 12 months, especially on YouTube and Twitch.

In June, Chess.com, one of the largest online chess websites hosted the PogChamps tournament on Twitch. Instead of Grandmasters and chess pros though, the tournament featured popular streamers and YouTube personalities. As a result, the level of play was much more accessible and understandable for a wider audience, making the event a huge success.ย 

GM Hikaru featured as one of the commentators for that event, even if some moves by the competitors left him baffled.

What GM Hikaru brings to TSM, besides his chess legacy (a 15 year old prodigy who became the youngest American to earn the Grandmaster title, and a five-time US Champion), is a more modern attitude to the game of Chess. This new wave of popularity is less focused on the highest levels of play, and instead on personality and entertainment. 

It aims to make chess more accessible, separating it from the elitism that has traditionally run through its core. GM Hikaru is a perfect match for this new perspective on one of the oldest games in the world.


You can catch GM Hikaru streaming on his official Twitch channel. And make sure to follow Dartfrog for all the latest gaming and esports news on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA – Who made it out?

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA is through to the playoffs. Four teams from the eight teams in the event have made it to the playoffs. The remaining four teams are competing for pieces of the ESL Pro Tour points, cash prize and RMR points for the Rio Major. Let’s take a look at the teams that made it to the playoffs.

Group A

ESL One Cologne 2020 NA works a little different to their European counterpart. With way fewer teams, the event uses a GSL format. Teams that win two series qualify for the playoffs, while the losing two series eliminate you. In Group A, Chaos surprised the scene with a standout win over FURIA in their opening match 2-0. Nuke went to Chaos 16-11 with Inferno won on 22-19. They then met 100 Thieves in the Winners match. The Aussies were upset too, as they lost 2-1, with Chaos taking Nuke 16-10, losing Inferno 16-6, and taking Mirage 16-13.

leaf with the amazing clutch to the win the round.

Meanwhile, FURIA redeemed themselves after their first-round loss to Chaos. FURIA had a close call with Gen.G beating them 16-14 on Train and 16-10 on Inferno. Moving on, Furia took down 100T in the decider match 2-1. FURIA battered 100T on Inferno 16-1 but lost Mirage 16-13, but FURIA took the series on Vertigo 16-7. The two big dogs of Group A had been taken down by the rising stars in the FURIA and Chaos.

Group B

Group B had no major surprise for their results. Both Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses dominated their group. Evil Geniuses showed the skill gap in NA clearly. They beat Triumph easily with a 16-6 victory on Overpass and a 16-5 win on Inferno. Moving on, they battered Team Liquid in the winners final 16-7 on Mirage and 16-9 on Nuke. Evil Geniuses new coach seems to be keeping the fire under EG’s feet, which we first witnessed during the CS_Summit 6 event.

A fun fact for all those North American CS:GO fans.

On the other hand, Team Liquid had to fight for their storyline. TL recently signed Jason “moses” O’Toole as the coach and Michael “Grim” Wince as their new 5th over Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella who retired to compete in Valorant. The team needs more time to gel, so it’s isn’t a surprise to see them be a bit rusty. Their first match against Cloud 9 quite long, going 2-1 to Team Liquid. C9 won the first map on Overpass 19-17, with TL taking Vertigo 16-8 and Nuke 16-10. Moving on they got battered by EG as already mentioned, facing the decider match once again against C9. Here TL had a much better time against C9, beating them 2-0. Overpass did go into overtime with a 19-15 win, while Vertigo was a 16-11 victory.

With that mentioned, North America now moves into the semi-finals of ESL Once Cologne 2020 NA. Chaos and Team Liquid will go one on one against Chaos, with EG facing off against FURIA. The North America Finals will conclude on Saturday, 29th August.

Read More: Who made it out of ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe Groups?

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL.

Categories
CS:GO

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe – Who made it out?

ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe is now halfway through with the Group Stages concluding 26th August 2020. The event has had a long group sage, with two groups going through a losers bracket round for 16 teams. With the dust settled, only eight teams remain heading into the playoffs. Let’s take a look at the story so far.

Group A Upper Bracket

Despite ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe being online, the magic of the event still exists. In a twist of fate, Sprout was surprisingly the first team to make it out of Group A. They beat teams like BIG, and OG to make it out of the group in the Upper Bracket. In both situations, Sprout was definitely the underdog in those scenarios. They somehow manage to compete against the world number 1 in BIG really close, winning 16-12 on Mirage then 19-16 on Nuke. The OG series was much closer, beating OG 16-9 on Train, then losing 16-13 on Mirage before winning 16-3 on Nuke. This is exactly the magic events like these can bring out in teams.

Read More: BIG exit ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe in joint last place.

On the other hand, Complexity had a great showing. This is a team that has been growing ever more slowly throughout the year, and this Group is a sign of their success. They began the event with a swift 2-0 over MAD Lions winning Overpass 16-3 then going 22-20 on Nuke. Then the surprise came against Natus Vincere, were they won 16-9 on Dust II and 16-8 on Nuke.

blameF showing how good Complexity are in 2020

Group A Lower Bracket

Moving into the Lower Bracket, Ninjas in Pyjamas had a storyline to follow. They too managed to beat BIG in the first round of the Lower Bracket and Na’Vi in the second round of the Lower Bracket. The big series finished 2-1, and NiP had to play catch up for most of the series. BIG won the first map on Vertigo 16-5, so NiP gave it their all on Nuke to win 28-26. Finally, NiP won Mirage 16-7. But the real surprise came from Na’Vi. NiP beat Na’Vi on Overpass 16-9 followed by a thrashing on Train 16-3. Both of these results are quite surprising, considering the talent in Na’Vi. Either way, congrats to NiP for making it through a difficult Lower Bracket.

NiP had a stunning performance against Natus Vincere.

OG had a relatively short run in the Lower Bracket after only fighting through one round against MAD Lions. As expected, OG mad quick work of MAD Lions with 16-10 victory on Nuke and 16-9 on Dust II.

Group B Upper Bracket

Astralis has come into ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe with an almost brand-new team. The roster has two stand-ins with Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen and Patrick “es3tag” Hansen temporarily standing in for sickness and leave. Considering the previous stand-in results for Astralis, these two players have put in work so far. Astralis dismantled Fnatic 16-5 on Nuke and 19-17 on Train. Moving on, they trashed Vitality 16-8 on Nuke and 16-7 on Dust II. Astralis has new life with their upcoming stars on their roster.

In the closest Upper Bracket Round yet, G2 Esports pulled through. G2 Esports warmup was against MiBR who they put to bed instantly. G2 won Vertigo 16-2 and Inferno 16-4. Their real challenge was against Heroic, which brought them to the edge. Heroic won Nuke 16-7, with G2 Esports winning Vertigo 16-7 and Mirage 19-17. Heroic was in the lead for the most part of Mirage but G2 pulled through (we think KennyS really wanted to watch the PSG Champions League Final match).

AmaNEK with the insane clutch to get G2 the round.

Group B Lower Bracket

The Group B Lower Bracket has the same level of excitement and disappointment as Group A. Heroic popped a NiP here by taking down Fnatic 2-0. Both Vertigo and Overpass went to Heroic 16-11. This is rather disappointing, especially with Fnatic being as good as they were at the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Vitality and FaZe had yet another amazing series against each other. Vitality managed to pull through 2-0 in the series, but the results were super close. Vitality won Dust II 19-16, and won Nuke 16-14. This is exactly the high stakes action we want from ESL Once Cologne 2020 Europe

Team Vitality had some great T side Nuke rounds.

With the Group Stages done, ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe continues with the playoffs. The remaining teams are competing in the playoffs from Thursday 27th August to championship Sunday on 30th August.

Stay tuned to Dartfrog for all the latest news and analysis on CS:GO and follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. Image via ESL.

Categories
FIFA

FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series: Who reigned supreme in each region?

The top players from around the globe competed in the FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series to be crowned their respective regional champion.

From July 17th to August 26th, six online FIFA 20 tournaments were hosted for six different regions of the world. The regions included Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Oceania and Middle East/Africa.

As spectator tournaments were a no-go this year, these online tournaments provided us with top FIFA gameplay from the comfort of our homes.

Here is a look at how all six events played out and who emerged victorious in each region.

Ollelito conquers Europe

The European Summer Cup Series event kicked off on July 17th. Twenty-four of the best European players went head-to-head for a prize pool of $78,000.

Big names like Tekkz, Gorilla and Ollelito were among the impressive competition and the matches, unsurprisingly, did not disappoint.

Despite the standard of opposition, Swedish national, Ollelito, proved too dominant. He remained unbeaten throughout the event and beat Hashtag Tom 11-6 (agg) in the grand final. This then secured him a respectable $15,000.

A-Nezer_ proves his worth in Oceania

Only eight players competed in the Oceania region from July 21st-23rd. Despite the lack of major talent in this region, the matches were still exciting to watch.

FUTWIZ’s Marko made it to the grand final and faced off against Nezer. The match went the way of Nezer and he took the lion’s share of the $30,000 prize pool.

South America couldn’t stop Paulo Neto

The South American event took place between July 24-26th. Eight of the best South American FIFA pros put it all on the line for $30,000.

As expected, the competition was an extremely high standard in this region. The likes of Zezinho and Paulo Neto took to the pitch with high intensity games each day.

After remaining unbeaten all tournament and even netting eight goals against Yago in winner’s finals, Paulo Neto was too good for the opposition. He claimed the win along with $10,000 prize money.

Agu amazes in Asia

Taking place on July 28th, the Asian event also had a prize pool of $30,000.

After two days of exhilarating matches, the grand final was the most exciting of them all. Agu faced Web Nasri in the final match of the event.

The pair played four matches which all ended in a draw resulting in two penalty shootouts which Agu claimed alongside $10,000.

Fiddle takes the North American title

The FIFA Summer Series Cup North America also had a prize pool of $30,000 with eight players in total. The matches were played from July 31st to August 2nd.

Two Americans ended up in the final with Fiddle taking on MaXe vip. Fiddle won both legs with a 5-3 scoreline total and took home the $10,000 prize.

MsDossary asserts his dominance in Middle East

Many call MsDossary the best FIFA player in the world. His performance at this event showed everyone why he deserves such a title.

MsDossary was the clear favourite in the event which took place on August 24th. He dominated all who were put in front of him and took home the $10,000 with ease.

This win also made him the first ever FIFA player to win four consecutive major events over four seasons.

What did you think of the FIFA 20 Summer Cup Series?

Let us know!

For all the latest competitive FIFA news and analysis follow Dart Frog on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Categories
Dota 2

OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division – The competition so far

The OMEGA League: Europe Immortal division is the hottest tournament of this summer. Due to COVID-19, Valve made the hard decision to postpone the DPC, as well as The International. As a result, instead of watching the best teams in the world playing against each other in Sweden, we have to focus on a few online events.

However, these are no ordinary online events. The OMEGA League features the best teams from Europe, CIS , Americas, and Asia. While it’s true that every region is pretty interesting, you can’t deny the fact that the European one stands out.

With that said, here is what happened so far.

Team Secret and OG dominate the competition

As expected, the two European giants are having the time of their life in the group stage of the event. Despite being in the same group, the two teams haven’t met each other yet. So far, both of them have won every series, which means that they have six points. It will be really interesting to see what will happen because the winner of this match will most likely win the entire group.

Team Liquid’s performance is dreadful

Team Liquid was one of the squads that many considered to be the hidden favourites. However, the ex-Alliance roster has been heavily underperforming. As a result, they are currently occupying the last spot in their group with 0 points.

We really hope that TL will be able to resolve its issues after this event is over because it’s just sad to see them like this. It’s very likely to see a lot of drastic roster changes, even though this team has been together for nearly two years now.

What’s next?

We still have two more days until the group stage is over. Although we already know the names of some of the teams that will certainly advance further in the event, there are some spectacular series ahead of us, such as the one between OG and Team Secret.

Of course, let’s also not forget the first one, where Virtus.Pro will meet Evil Geniuses. As you can imagine, this will be a breath-taking match because there is a lot of history between these two teams. Also, don’t forget that one of EG’s players Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev used to be a vital part of VP before.

Feel free to follow DartFrog on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch for the latest Dota 2 news.