GamerLegion will attend ESL Challenger Atlanta with Andreas “aNdu” Maasing as a stand-in for Sebastian “volt” Malo?. While this isn’t necessarily a big blow quality-wise, the last-minute change definitely won’t benefit them.

Apeks have their full roster ready for Atlanta, where they will chase their first tournament title since Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. While Apeks haven’t won any tournaments in six months, they placed second at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 at the start of December.

With GamerLegion winning only one of their last five matches, Counter-Strike betting sites have Apeks priced as $1.40 favourites. However, Apeks have produced some stinkers recently, with defeats against 3DMAX and FORZE, making it though to trust them at the offered price.

Monte having been making some noice in recent months. They ran top four in both ESL Pro League Season 18 and Thunderpick World Championship 2023, finished second at Roobet Cup 2023, and won ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023. The only concern heading to Atlanta is that Monte haven’t played a game in three weeks.

Since BESTIA came together in February, they have mainly competed in regional tournaments. They placed second at Copa BetBoom 2023 last month and then made the semifinals of the CBCS Invitational 2023. However, BESTIA have not beaten a team ranked in the top 10 this season, and they will have to play this event with two stand-ins — Roberto “reversive” Themtham and Nicolás “NikoM” Miozzi.

While the outsiders are bound to struggle, this is a best-of-one series and the round line is set at a 7.5, which is an absurd number. As weak as BESTIA might seem, they should be good for six rounds.

M80 have recently found momentum with four straight event victories, including ESEA Cash Cup North America Autumn 2023 #6 and ESL Challenger League Season 46 North America. While those weren’t big tournaments, M80 travel to Georgia World Congress Center in impressive form with just one defeat over their last 21 games.

Virtus.pro broke into the top 10 in the Counter-Strike world rankings following a stretch of impressive tournament runs. They placed second at Dunav Party LAN in August, added a gold medal from Roobet Cup 2023 at the start of November, and have since placed second at Thunderpick World Championship 2023 and BetBoom Dacha.

While Virtus.pro’s win percentage isn’t as high as M80’s, they have won nine of their last 13 series — mainly bouts against top-20 squads. VP rarely lose against weaker opponents, so backing them to cover the round line is a solid play.

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The victory comes two years after French star, Depraz’s last major appearance in the tournament, with his performance showing he remains the top dog in Magic: The Gathering.

Meanwhile, Simon Nielsen edged out the competition to be crowned Player of the Year, after an exceptionally consistent 2023.

The grand finale unfolded in the Standard format, showcasing an eclectic range of decks among the top eight contenders. In a single-elimination, best-of-five series, players had the option to incorporate sideboards after the second game.

The esports tournament, the largest Magic gathering of the year, not only conferred Nielsen with Player of the Year but also marked the initiation of phase two in the improvement of the Standard format. Depraz, piloting his Esper Legends deck, eventually secured the much-coveted World Championship title.

Esper Midrange emerged as the most popular deck, competing alongside other formidable decks like Domain Ramp and Esper Legends. Despite strong performances by Hall of Famer Reid Duke and Willy Edel, both players fell during the quarterfinals, paving the way for the final clash between Depraz’s Esper Legends and Kazune Kosaka’s Esper Midrange.

Depraz, who previously finished as runner-up in the 2020-2021 MTG World Championship, entered the final match with palpable determination. He commanded the first two games, sweeping Kosaka with a 3-0 match-win to clinch his first Worlds title.

Nielsen, who made it to the top eight on the second day, took the rest of the day to prepare for the critical matchups ahead. The competition for Player of the Year had narrowed down to Nielsen and Duke by the final day.

Nielsen’s quarterfinal match against Lorenzo Terlizzi was anticipated to be a challenging one. However, he benefited significantly from playing the first game, sealing his win when Terlizzi couldn’t find his footing. A victory in this pivotal game paved the way for Nielsen to be named Player of the Year, especially following Duke’s own quarterfinal loss.

Depraz, as part of his prize for winning, will have the unique honour of being featured on an MTG card next year.

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This license will enable bet365 to offer online and mobile esports betting services in Arizona.

Bet365 is one of the top esports betting sites in the world, boasting a customer base of over 60 million globally.

Bet365, which is privately owned, has been active in the United States since 2020 and has quickly become popular with esports betting fans.

Presently, bet365 provides sports betting opportunities in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The entry of bet365 into the Arizona esports betting market is anticipated to intensify competition and result in better prices and conditions for consumers.

With 16 licensed betting sites already present, Arizona stands as one of the most competitive sports betting markets across the United States.

With its recognised brand name bet365 is confident they will deliver an exceptional esports betting experience in Arizona.

Bet365 now has 180 days to launch in Arizona, as per their agreement with the Arizona Department of Gaming, although this could happen quickly given they already have much of the infrastructure in place in the USA.

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The court order will prevent both parties from reaching a final agreement before Friday, which is the expected deadline for the deal to close. The buyout would have been the biggest in video game history, as Activision Blizzard is the developer behind massively successful games like Call of Duty and the recently released Diablo IV.

In its filing, the FTC claimed that if completed, the agreement would provide Microsoft with the “ability and increased incentive to withhold or degrade Activision’s content in ways that substantially lessen competition”.

The commission stated that Microsoft would gain the ability to reduce the player experience of game quality on other consoles. This includes products like the PlayStation 5 from Sony, which has expressed its opposition to the deal, and Nintendo’s Switch.

The FTC also argued that Microsoft would be able to alter and manipulate the pricing and access to Activision Blizzard’s content.

The FTC made a previous attempt to stop the deal in December, citing antitrust reasons. Despite this, the European Commission approved the deal.

Brad Smith, Microsoft President, promised to take on the FTC in court.

In a bid to ease the concerns of its competitors and the rest of the industry, the company previously offered to sign a decree with the FTC. The deal provides Call of Duty to rival brands like Sony for 10 years.

Nintendo and technology firm Nvidia signed the 10-year agreements with Microsoft, which will go into effect after the Activision acquisition. On the other hand, Sony is still lobbying against the merger and is reportedly set on blocking it regardless of Microsoft’s concessions.

The recent move by the FTC is just the latest in the series of delays that have stopped the deal from progressing smoothly. Sony pushed back against the deal in September 2022, claiming it would limit competition.

The deal was also blocked by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority on April 26, which stated that it could “damage competition in the cloud gaming market”. Nevertheless, the European Union ultimately approved the merger on May 15.

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The first round of games recorded a peak viewership of 178,784, down from 243,217 viewers garnered in the 2022 LCS Spring opening weekend.

“Compared to the results of the first day of last year’s spring split, LCS Spring 2023 started much worse,” Esports Charts said.

“The league’s Hours Watched, Peak Viewers, and Average Viewers decreased by 18.6%, 12.6%, and 12%, respectively.”

The most watched match during the first week was between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves, but Evil Geniuses generated the most total viewing hours across the week, with their matches totaling about 337,000 hours of watch time.

The drop in viewership may be due to the significant changes to the LCS broadcast this year. Like many of Riot Games’ main leagues, the LCS was moved from the weekend to Thursday and Friday, which initially faced criticism from the community for its start time.

“In total, five matches of the first day of LCS Spring 2023 generated more than 775K Hours Watched and attracted 127.4K Average Viewers,” the data aggregator reported.

“The Peak Viewers mark was just under 178.8K viewers and was reached during Cloud9’s opening match against 100 Thieves.”

READ: Best League of Legends betting sites in 2023

Initially scheduled for 12pm PT (3pm ET), the league’s airing time caused complaints from North American viewers as it would take place during working hours. To resolve the issue, Riot Games altered the start time to 2pm PT (5pm ET).

During the broadcast, the commercial partners for the split were also announced, featuring notable brands such as Mastercard, Secret Lab, Alienware, Buffalo Wild Wings, and GrubHub.

The decrease in viewership is not unique to the LCS. The newly rebranded LoL EMEA Championship (LEC) saw a drop in peak viewership during its opening week, registering at 454,630 viewers.

The LoL Champions Korea (LCK) also had lower viewership in its first week; the Gen.G vs T1 match attracted 525,468 viewers, compared to the 675,389 from last year’s LCK Spring opener. But in week two, the T1 vs Dplus match had a higher peak viewership of 720,712, which partially made up for the dip.

It is worth noting that Esports Charts data does not include Chinese viewership figures, which can be difficult to measure.

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Bliss is a 17-year-old South Korean support player who started his pro career in mid-2019, when he represented the Gen.G academy roster before transcending to their pro Overwatch team.

In June 2022, Bliss cut ties with Gen.G and got signed by the Korean team O2 Blast. He has garnered approximately $50,820 in total winnings from Overwatch tournaments.

Career highlights for Bliss included being part of the Gen.G outfit that finished second at the 2020 Overwatch Contenders: The Gauntlet Asia. Despite coming close to winning the event, they lost the final 4:1.

Bliss also replicated his commendable gameplay while representing O2 Blast; the team and player bagged a back-to-back first place at the 2022 Overwatch Contenders Summer Series: Korea A-Side and B-Side event, the 2022 Run It Back: Korea, and lastly the Pacific Showdown, which was only played about two weeks ago.

MCD, on the other hand, is a 25-year-old former support player for the North American team Boston Uprising. The player first made his Overwatch debut with Talon Esports in 2018 and since then has played with the likes of Foxes and Element Mystic.

Dallas Fuel’s roster, which recently won the Overwatch League Playoffs, currently includes Tank Choi “Hanbin” Han-been, Kim “SP9RK1E” Yeong-han and Kim “Edison” Tae-hoon.

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The German-based company has also broadened its partnership with online gambling firm bet365. It will officially supply the bookmakers with licensed esports live data upon its entry into the markets of the two mentioned states. The partnership will also build on bet365’s tech stack in New Jersey and Colorado.

The recent development has made Bayes Esports the first registered supplier in the country to make use of official esports live data from a game publisher directly. The partnership will also aid Bayes Esports in supporting the future generation’s experience in online betting.

Betting operators will likely have a hard time ensuring that their entire betting value chain is appropriately licensed on a state, sport, and event basis due to the differing regulations among the states. The operators may also incur heavy fines in a situation and be red-listed in a state if they offer unlicensed services or make use of unofficial data offerings.

Due to the usage of official live game data and its importance in protecting the integrity of sports betting, the US betting industry’s integrity has been placed on a new standard. Bayes Esports has also created a gateway for future esports betting sites to participate in the US market easily.

The company is currently leading the charge to ensure that the US legislation allows live online betting in 31 states and esports betting in nine states. Bayes Esports is reportedly working hand in hand with the relevant legislative powers and governing bodies, including the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The regulators have to approve Nevada sportsbooks offering esports bets in order for them to operate. The company is working with the regulators to determine how legislation can be created to ensure esports betting and live online betting will be offered responsibly and legally.

Bayes Esports also revealed that it was aware of the challenges states who are opening to online sports betting faced. Operators usually face issues when ensuring that their betting value chain is sufficiently licensed.

As a licensed operator, the company noted its position nullified any illegitimacy worries concerning the sports betting data it supplies.

The COO and Managing Director of Bayes Esports, Amir Mirzaee, revealed that the US betting market was rapidly changing despite being behind Europe’s market. Colorado and New Jersey were also noted as the most progressive states in the country, with others to follow suit soon.

“Back in May, when we announced the closing of our financing round, we stated that we were looking to expand into the US market and that we were looking to become a licensed betting supplier. Today, just a couple of months later, we have kept our promise,” Mirzaee said.

“The betting market in the US is changing, and while it is still lagging behind its European counterpart, it without a doubt will be one of the biggest and most relevant markets soon. Out of all the states, New Jersey and Colorado happened to be the most progressive and open to innovation, but we expect others to follow suit very shortly.”

Besides its reputation as an esports data provider for tournament organizers, Bayes Esports is a game publisher and betting platform developer. The German-based company is partnered with Riot Games, ESL Gaming, OGA, Beyond the Summit, BETER, and several other notable names in the esports industry.

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The 24-year old will return as the sixth man in the new starting line-up after spending five months on the bench.? ?The North American franchise had earlier teased that they would not be fielding a sixth man in their lineup ahead of the VCT 2023 season.

This left some fans wondering why the franchise had resorted to such a decision, while others reinstated their confidence in the five-man roster, stating that a sixth man is not needed.?

?“Competitive Update: We will not be fielding a 6th man on our roster for the upcoming VCT 2023 season,” the teaser update read.? ?

An hour later, they proceeded to announce the return of SicK in an official update as the “SicKth” man.? ?

“We’re gonna have a SICKTH man,” the official release read.?

?“The secret weapon returns @SicK_cs.”?

?The Sentinels underwent a full team rebuild around their superstar Valorant player TenZ after a poor outing in the 2022 VCT season.

Despite fielding some surprising stand-in performances from Michael “shroud” Grzesiek and Jordan “Zellis” Montemurro, the franchise failed to make it out of the VCT 2022: North America Last Chance Qualifier and, as such, were absent at the VALORANT Champions 2022.? ?

In the course of their rebuild, the franchise were forced to part ways with Eric “Kanpeki” Xu and proceeded to move Michael “dapr” Gulino and?Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan to the inactive roster as they have no intention of renewing their contracts.? ?

They parted ways with head coach Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty and signed on Don “SyykoNT” Muir from XSET as his replacement. The Sentinels also recruited Ghost Gaming coach Adam “kaplan” Kaplan as the team’s strategic coach.? ?

Two days after joining Sentinels, SyykoNT brought in zekken and more recently added dephh to the roster. Both players being former members of his successful work at XSET reassures fans that the Sentinels could go all the way in the upcoming season.

The team also procured the services of World Champions with the inclusion of two of LOUD’s players, Sacy and pANcada.? ?

SicK will join Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, Zachary “zekken” Patrone, Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi, Bryan “pANcada” Luna, and in-game leader Rory “dephh” Jackson in the capacity of the primary substitute role.

With SicK back in the line-up, he becomes the last player from the original Sentinels roster from the summer of 2020.? ?Although he was part of the Sentinels’ roster upon their entry into the Valorant scene in 2020, SicK was on the sidelines for most of the 2022 season.

Due to a family emergency, SicK was subbed out of a VCT match and a month later announced that he would be taking a break in a bid to protect his mental health.? ?

His return has fans in a frenzy as they look forward to the new Sentinels roster’s performance in the VCT 2023 Kickoff event set to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil in February.

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?The RMR tournament was organized to filter teams participating in the IEM CS:GO Major and will take place simultaneously in three separate regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

While the Americas RMR tournament was initially organized to be held in either North or South America, ESL reportedly switched to Sweden after considering a number of factors.?

ESL Senior Vice President of Product Ulrich Schulze revealed the decision to use Sweden as the tournament venue was related to visa issues.

In previous events, the problem of delayed visas or full-on non-issuance of visas has caused several teams to drop out of games and organizations to make last-minute changes to their plans.? ?

After being quizzed on Twitter concerning ESL’s decision, Schulze said: “We had planned to host it in the US until a few weeks ago but had to move it when it became clear that due to current waiting times for visa appointments, many SA players would not get visa in time, so we had to resort to a location that would work on short notice.”?

?The ESL executive also revealed they were fully aware of how important it was to conduct events in the regions where the teams were located, and they initially planned to do so.

“But ultimately, it is more important that all teams can qualify for the Major and are not hindered by visa issues,” he said.

https://twitter.com/theflyingdj/status/1562370672420163584?t=GWzLtaxJdBgqYR3u_s4INA&s=19? ?

The RMR events in the different regions will reportedly run from October 4 to October 9, contrary to the concluded PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major that ran sequentially.

Electronic Sports Leaguer also revealed the locations and dates for each event on August 23.?

?The events across the regions will reportedly host over 50 CS:GO teams vying for the 24 spots in the IEM Rio Major.

Malta and Australia were chosen as the venues for the European and Asia-Pacific RMR events, respectively.

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FURIA, which is well known for its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, previously made its intention of global expansion known and this move brings the company a step towards achieving its goal. The location will begin operations in October or November this year and occupies around 5200 square feet.

The new establishment would be in the Wynwood neighborhood located in northern Miami. The location will be in accordance with FURIA’s intention of morphing into a cultural trend due to the area’s reputation as a global center for street art.

André Akkari, FURIA’s co-founder, talked about the company’s efforts to connect to fans physically and give them a chance to interact with the team.

He said, “We don’t want to connect with fans and people who engage with FURIA only through digital means or through opportunities in big events. We want to have physical contact with them somehow; we want them to visit us, interact with the team, and talk with influencers, athletes, and even the staff. It creates a different heat around the brand.”

Akkari further revealed that while the public could enter the establishment for free, the other areas in the new venue would bring in revenue. The clothing shop, the LAN house as well as the events area for hosting occasions with activating sponsors would generate income for the company.

The co-founder also explained that the major reason FURIA decided to open a venue such as this in the US, despite its Brazilian heritage, was a result of the real estate opportunity in the area. Wynwood reportedly provided an opportunity that aligned with the organization’s business model.

The company has Brazil as the next location for the “FURIA Experience”, and preparations will reportedly kick off next year. S?o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are both being considered to build an establishment even bigger than the one in the US. If the Brazilian venue is opened according to plan and thrives, FURIA revealed that they would move on to establish several other locations in Europe.

Akkari said, “Our objective is to have one of those [facilities] in each of the biggest cities in the world.”

The co-founder revealed that a total of US$1 million was set aside for the Wynwood project, with an estimate of around $700,000 and $850,000 being spent on the venue. The company was entirely responsible for the investments; however, other brands involved in the project include PokerStars, AOC, the monitor brand, and FTX.

PokerStars is a poker card room that conducts operations online while FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange company. Each company will provide its products and services for the upcoming venue; for instance, AOC would supply the monitors needed for the establishment. Besides their Miami project, FURIA also has another outlet in US – an operational office in Boca Raton, also in Florida.

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