Category: General

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General League of Legends

G2 Esports Enters Historic Deal with Ralph Lauren

High fashion and esports collided today as G2 Esports announced a landmark deal with fashion label Ralph Lauren. The new partnership was announced across social media and in a promotional video on June 21.

In a detailed post on their website, G2 outlined the partnership. Describing it as a collaboration, both brands explained that they’d be launching a series of digital-first activations across Twitch and TikTok. 

They went on to outline some of these collaborations: “One such campaign is the Ralph Lauren Wimbledon campaign, which celebrates Ralph Lauren’s 16th year anniversary as the official outfitter of The Championships, and sees our League of Legends star, Martin’ Rekkles’ Larsson, feature among some of the biggest global athletes.”

G2’s A=announcement video of the Ralph Lauren partnership

Higher-ups from both G2 and Ralph Lauren weighed in on the deal. Carlos “Ocelot” Rodriguez, former League of Legends pro player and founder and CEO of G2, shared his thoughts: “Today is one of the most special days in my life and G2’s history. A brand I have loved for many years is now part of the G2 family. Ralph Lauren has entered the world of gaming in partnership with G2, and nothing makes us happier and prouder than to be able to execute on their strategy while doing our thing.”

Covering New Ground

Fashion and esports haven’t always gone hand in hand, with the average esports team putting out nothing more than a series of hoodies and polyester team shirts. However, some organizations have transitioned into creating more stylish offerings, such as 100 Thieves clothing drops. 

With G2’s partnership with Ralph Lauren, perhaps the couture will start making more of an impact in esports. It’s fun to imagine scenes of pro players walking from buses in stylish suits or collecting trophies dressed to impress. Maybe we’ll see some of those energy drink fridges on streams traded in for tie racks and coat hangers.

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

Categories
Call of Duty General

Seven Call of Duty pros make the Top Ten Esports Players of 2020

The Top 10 Esports Players of 2020 have been listed by The Esports Observer with seven of them being Call of Duty professionals.

An impressive amount of Call of Duty League players made the cut this year. Additionally, two Call of Duty teams, Dallas Empire and Atlanta FaZe, made it on The Top 10 Esports Teams of 2020.

These lists are ranked entirely by prize winnings from all competitions and are not voted for.

Whilst the usual top ten is often flooded with Dota 2 players, this year’s list looks a little bit different as there was no Dota 2 The International Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Top 10 Esports Players of 2020

If 2020 couldn’t get any stranger, the highest earning esports player was a chess professional, Sven Magnus Carlsen.

Many believe that chess should not be considered an esport, however, the board game took Twitch by storm as all competition moved online during the summer.

The rise of chess is clearly no laughing matter as Carlsen took home nearly $500,000 this year and many players have even been signed to esports teams such as Team Solo Mid.

Numbers two to six consist of Call of Duty League players: Clayster, Crimsix, iLLeY, Shotzzy and Huke – the former Dallas Empire roster.

With Dallas Empire crowned champions of the inaugural 2020 Call of Duty League season, it is no shock to see their roster on this list.

As there have been multiple Warzone events and other independent tournaments throughout the year, not all of their prize money totals are even. Clayster takes the top spot as the highest earning Call of Duty pro of 2020 with $373,330.

In seventh place is Magic: The Gathering world champion PVDDR who took home $300,000 this year. The old card game has quickly become a popular esport in recent years.

With another chess player in eighth place, two more Call of Duty pros finish off the list in ninth and tenth. Cellium and Simp both competed under Atlanta FaZe last year who came second in the CDL Championship.

Whilst the pandemic remains an ongoing issue, we may well see another peculiar list of players in next year’s top ten.

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

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 “GM Hikaru” Nakaru to its lineup of talent.

However, this isn’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. 

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
General

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout takes the gaming world by storm

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is the talk of the town in the gaming universe. Millions worldwide are addicted to this newly-released party game and it’s not hard to see why.

With its bizarre characters, bright colours and surprisingly simple controls, Fall Guys brings a whole new meaning to the battle royale genre.

The game is extremely popular on streaming services such as Twitch. What’s more, it has already racked up over two million sales on PC alone.

Fall Guys is available on PS4 and Steam and is currently free for PlayStation Plus members this month only.

https://twitter.com/FallGuysGame/status/1291010160153042944

How to play Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

In this game show-style battle royale, up to 60 players compete in various obstacle courses with the aim of being the last one standing.

Each level or course has a different method of completion. Whether it’s balancing on a spinning beam, avoiding huge swinging balls or racing to the finish line, you must do it better than the other players or you’ll be eliminated.

To control your character, all you need to do is jump, dive and grab. Although the controls are simple, winning is anything but easy which makes the game so addictive.

The best way to improve in Fall Guys is simply to keep practising. Take your time and work with others to get as far as possible in this chaotic and compelling party game.

Collaborations are on the cards

Fall Guys developers, Mediatonic, have already collaborated with Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami with an exclusive costume based on the game.

Due to the sheer popularity and love of Fall Guys, many gaming companies and studios have publicly stated their openness for collaboration with the hit game.

KFC Gaming, Cyberpunk 2077 and Hitman are just three of many that have indicated a possibility for collaboration.

Cheaters have been exposed

To become victorious in Fall Guys takes both a mixture of luck and skill. Sadly, some players have discovered hacks which give themselves a distinct advantage over others.

These hacks have seen people speed through the map and warp through objects which is no fun for anyone.

Mediatonic have acknowledged these hackers and say that they are “working on it”.

There’s always some that spoil the fun for the rest of us!

Some streamers have caught these hackers red-handed and exposed them on stream. Popular streamer, FaZe Cizzorz, encountered this hacker who made it plainly obvious why these people need to cheat to win:

Despite some server issues that occurred due to the games’ unexpected popularity, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has truly taken over the gaming world.

What are you waiting for? Grab a drink, call some friends and hop on Fall Guys for some inevitable laughing fits and light-hearted fun.

Let us know what you think. Follow Dartfrog for all the latest gaming and esports news on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch.

Featured Image: PlayStation