Category: news

Psyonix , the developer of the most popular racing-football themed game, Rocket league , has announced that they will be launching the mobile version of the game. The game is titled ‘Rocket League Sideswipe’ and is coming to Android and iOS devices for free later this year.

The developer has also announced that there will be some changes in the mobile version like 1v1 and 2v2 matches. The developer also shared some alpha gameplay footage giving an early look at the game.

The game is currently going through a limited-time regional alpha test on Android via Play Store for players in Australia and New Zealand region. You can access it with a Epic Games account to participate in the alpha test program. If you’re not seeing the Play Store listing despite living in Australia or New Zealand, that’s because the alpha program may have already hit user capacity. The company has also planned to conduct more beta programs in other regions over the upcoming months.

According to the specifications mentioned in Rocket League’s support page, you will need an Android device running 6.0 or newer with at least 2 GB of RAM to run Rocket League Sideswipe. The alpha testing program will start on March 25 and will last till March 30. Your account progress will be erased after the alpha test ends and you won’t be able to play that version of the game outside the test period.

Skyesports is back with another major Valorant tournament in India. After the successful edition of SkyEsports League 2020 , Skyesports has now announced that they’ll be hosting the second edition of Skyesports League for 2021 with a whopping prize pool of 15 Lakh Rupees or $20,700 US Dollars.
This esports tournament will be based on city vs city model, similar to the format of Valorant Sky Showdown and the first edition of Skyesports League 2020.Earlier in February, Skyesports have released a teaser for the sequel of their successful Valorant series named Skyesports Valorant League. The 2021 edition is all set to go live on April 9, 2021 according to their Instagram teaser and will feature the same team owners from the previous edition. This also means that the old players can also be retained.
They have also said that this edition will be a LAN event , with the Finals set to be held offline. Valorant has so far, not had a LAN final in India, with the fact that the game was released in the middle of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The last season was won by Team Hyderabad, who were represented by the squad of Team Mahi, then known as VLT or Velocity Gaming. They dominated over the Grand Finals of the event against Team Rajasthan.

GameEon, the popular game Game Development company has announced that they will venture into the esports world by launching GameEon esports on the 20th of March. They have also announced that they will be hosting esports tournaments for games like CS:GO and Valorant.

GameEon’s founder , Nikhil Malankar stated that this is the first time they are hosting an esports tournament. He added, “We have seen that the esports trend is catching up in the west as well with the prize pool worth millions of dollars. Because of that we have figured out that it is an esteemed opportunity, therefore we have aimed to host the tournament and simply build a community of gamers, we want to reach out to the target audience and gain an experience that promotes gaming in India.”

The tournament features a total prize pool of Rs 3.5 lakhs and the amount will be equally divided for two games Rs 1.75 lakhs respectively for both the games where Rs 1.25 lakhs will be paid as cash and goodies worth Rs 50k will be provided to the winners.

They have initially partnered with Noctua. Apart from that they have stated that they will be partnering with a few more brands for the tournament and can’t disclose their names since it is in the process. Viewers can catch the live stream of the tournament on GameEon’s official new channel – GameEon esports.

The tournament will follow 5V5 format. Players will have to participate in teams of five and the industry guidelines of the tournament will be followed by the rules. Players can register on their official website for free. Initially, they will start with CS: GO tournament from 20 March followed by the finals of the same which is set for 15 or 16 April and later on they will be announcing the date for the Valorant tournament and will commence the line-up for it.

Ubisoft Australia has confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege Oceanic Nationals 2021 will kick off later this month. The Oceanic Nationals tournament will begin two days before the Rainbow Six Siege Oceanic Challenger League on the 21st of March.
“Both tournaments will feature eight teams per league playing across seven online playdays in a single round robin format BO1 series with overtime,” Ubisoft said. “A regular win will reward teams with three points, while the losing team receives zero points. In the case that a series goes to overtime, the winner is rewarded with two points, while the losing team receives one point.”
The teams participating in Oceanic Nationals Tournament are : Elevate, LFO, OkamiLFO, Pittsburgh Knights, Rhythm, Roflcopter, Team Bliss and Wildcard. A Massive prize pool of $100,000 Dollars will be offered throughout the season. Winners of each Stage for the season finals will be awarded a prize of $25,000 Dollars.
Ubisoft Australia has once again announced that they will be partnering with LIVIN during the Esports tournament to raise awareness and the importance of mental health. This partnership will offer Siege fans the opportunity to save 15% at the LIVIN store by using the discount code OCN15 at checkout.
“LIVIN is incredibly excited to be continuing our partnership with Ubisoft Australia,” said Casey Lyons, CEO and cofounder of LIVIN. “We are so grateful for the platform that Ubisoft provides to reach their community and share our message ‘It Ain’t Weak to Speak’ and break the stigma of mental health”.

EWar Games has announced that , they will be hosting its first Free Fire Premier League season in India. The tournament will be played in a staged manner, in which a large number of players from across six Indian states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal are taking part in. The tournament will follow a similar format to the popular sports series “IPL”. The tournament started on March 5 and will go on until March 15.
The first Free Fire Premier League season will be held for 15 days , from March 5 to March 15, 2021. The tournament is also offering prizes of up to Rs 1 lakh for the winning team, while first and second runner-up teams will be awarded Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000. There is also a prize for the best Underdog team , worth Rs 10,000.

A total of nine matches will be held on daily throughout the first season of the tournament, which will be followed by a league ranking system instead of a knockout system which is similar to that of IPL. The league will the progress into 45 qualifiers’ matches with 540 teams, 18 quarter-final matches with 90 teams, and 16 semi-final matches with 24 teams.
In the semi-finals , all of the six state owners will take part in a virtual auction for the 12 top ‘invited teams’. Here each owner will be purchasing two teams each. Team owners include Nimish Raut, Fnatic India Head, Rushindra Sinha, Founder of Global Esports and many more. The invited teams includes Total Gaming, TSG, Lokesh Gamer, Nonstop Gaming, Nayeem Aalam, Villian Gaming, Techno Banda, Enigma Gaming and Jigs Official. After the bidding, all of the invited teams will go up against the qualified underdog teams.

Yuvin Esports has finally announced that they will be organising an international esports tournament named “Yuvin Community Cup”. After two successful seasons YCC is back with their third season .  Teams will be participating from South Asia and SouthEast Asia region across two game titles. More than 100 teams will be competing across Valorant and Free Fire. It comes with a prize pool grossing over Rs. 4.5 lakhs ( or $6200 approx ) . 
The vision behin6 the Yuvin Community Cup is to engage with esports communities across South Asia and SouthEast Asian regions and provide opportunities to the players and serve Indian audiences with global esports engagement. 
The third edition of YCC is sponsored by a premium clothing  brand, ONN by Lux. With this, ONN has entered the world of esports for the first time. With ONN’s focus on millennials and Gen Z young generation, esports is the most obvious choice.
Lux Industries president, Saket Todi, shared an announcement to engage with an esports brand for the first time. He mentioned, “The Yuvin Community Cup Season 3 was a much-awaited tournament among the youth. It’s a one-of-its-kind esports festival between multiple gaming communities that has driven huge engagements in its last two seasons. ONN, being a youth-centric brand can resonate with the brand connect of the Yuvin Community Cup. Just as Yuvin Community Cup focuses on churning out leaders, likely, ONN as a brand is focusing on reaching out to a greater mass, understating the consumer sentiments and requirements. By supporting this tournament, we aim to make the products meet the desires and aspirations of the youth. This goes without saying, that both the brands enjoy a high youth appeal and are set to emerge as the most favourite of the new generation.” 
YCC Season 3 will be starting from the twenty second of March. This time combo of PC and mobile major esports titles , Valorant and Free Fire Mobile are included. 

Europe’s CSGO Pinnacle Cup has successfully kicked off yesterday and will end on the 4th of April. The event has a massive prize pool of $100,000 US Dollars. A total of thirty two teams from the European region will battle it out for a grand prize of $80,000 US Dollars. This event was launched by the online betting and gaming operator in collaboration with GRID, Relog Media and Trustly.

In this event, Pinnacle’s leading esports betting product will be supported by data from GRID and the high-production value provided by Relog, with an online payment platform provided by Trustly on board as an ancillary sponsor. Due to the Global COVID-19 Pandemic Situation , this event is held online and broadcasted on Twitch. It features top tier CS:GO teams based in Europe. It will be taking place throughout March before culminating with the final in early April.

This tournament is based on Play-in, Swiss Stage, and Playoffs format. The Play-in is a single-elimination bracket with Bo1 opening matches. All other matches are Bo3. The Swiss Stage comes with Bo3 matches and the top 8 teams will proceed on to the Playoffs. The last part of the tournament comes with a single-elimination bracket and Bo3 matches.

Pinnacle CEO, Paris Smith said: “Pinnacle’s drive to be at the forefront of esports has allowed us to partner with some of the best people in the market. We are really excited to be working with GRID, Relog Media, and Trustly and can’t wait to deliver something special for our customers and esports fans around the world.”
“We have shown through previous partnerships that we are committed to giving back to the esports community and helping the industry develop. It’s yet another big step forward for Pinnacle as we continue to strengthen our connection with esports fans. Launching a Pinnacle-branded event on this scale is a huge moment for us as a company and one we hope will be a real game changer for the industry. We can’t wait to begin the event and crown our first Pinnacle Cup champions!”

Epic Games has acquired Tonic Games Group, the company that owns Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout studio Mediatonic. The announcement came via joint post on the Epic Games blog, the purchase is light on details , but it also states that Fall Guys’ “gameplay isn’t changing.” The plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch and Xbox will continue as previously announced.
“Beyond the shared vision among our teams, we see tremendous potential in combining forces with Epic,” says Paul Croft, Tonic Games Group’s co-founder and Chief Games Officer, from Epic’s blog post. “Whether it’s about making our own games the best they can be or empowering other game developers to take their content from a kernel of an idea to commercial success, we know that together we will be able to reach greater heights.”

Tonic Games Group is an organization encompassing multiple studios, including other small companies like The Irregular Corporation, a publisher of indie titles like PC Building Simulator and Touch Type Tale and Fortitude Games, a U.K studio that has not yet announced its first project yet.

Interestingly, Fall Guys is built by using the Unity game engine,the rival of Epic’s Unreal engine platform. Despite that, the companies say they hope to bring Fortnite-style features like crossplay to Fall Guys in the future.

Documents for an upcoming meeting of the Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Board was released and the  E3 event was included in the list as a “Cancelled live event in 2021”.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2021 will be the 26th Electronic Entertainment Expo, in which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry will present new and upcoming products to the audience.

It was mentioned as a cancelled event in the agenda of LA City notes. While the agenda doesn’t confirm exactly why the event is cancelled, it’s almost certainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

E3 2020 event was cancelled last year due to the Global Covid-19 pandemic, and while the ESA looked for ways to replace it with an “online event”, in the end nothing came out of it. Earlier this year the ESA said that, “we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we’re bringing the global video game communiy together” and the above document also contains the note, “Working with production team on broadcast options at LA Live/LACC”. It’s certainly possible to expect this year’s E3 as an “Online event” . Before the pandemic,  Sony had left the responsibility of hosting events E3 .
The Convention and Tourism Development Board document notes stated that they are, “Working on 2022 and 2023 license”, but there’s a chance that if things don’t come together this year , we won’t be able to see E3 as a LAN event.

Garena, the developer and publisher of the World’s One of the most popular Battle Royale titles “Free fire” has revealed it’s roadmap for the International esports tournaments this year.
According to their press release, the previously held Free Fire World Series is going to make a comeback this year with two editions, One in April and another in November. Garena also said that they’ll be hosting a new event this year and it’s titled as Free Fire All Stars battle.
The Free Fire World Series was not held in 2020. It was replaced by Free Fire Continenta Series. However, the series is set to make it’s return this April with teams across 13 regions set to compete for Free Fire’s largest prize pool of $2 Million US Dollars.
The Free Fire World Series will kick off  on April 24th, with the competition’s Finals to be held on the 1st of May. More details on the competition’s format and the participating regions will be revealed in the coming weeks.
As I said earlier , Garena also came up with the Free Fire All Stars event. Top influencers and professional players from all over the world will compete  against each other. The event is scheduled to take place in July, with more details to be unveiled in the coming months