eSports News Update 23.12.2016

2016 is coming to an end – but eSports remain in our focus. Our VIP-bet eSports News Update provides you with valuable information about the most recent eSports events, tournaments, and everything else that has happened in the past week in eSports.

DotA 2 eSports News Update

Dota 2’s Boston Major closed with a surprising note. After OG had lifted the Eaglesong trophy, an amazing trailer rolled, announcing the imminent release of the 7.00 patch to the Dota 2 test client. To say this was a shock would be an understatement. While Valve initially stated that the event would be followed by the release of a presumed 6.89 patch, jumping directly into 7.00 (which comes nearly 12 years after the release of 6.00) was a twist few saw coming.

And that the update would drop less than 24 hours after the event ended? Well, that certainly didn’t make things more predictable. What wasn’t a surprise, though, is that the version sees significant overhauls to the whole of Dota 2, from the UI, to the HUD, to the meta-game. The full patch notes can be found on the official Dota 2 blog, but here are some of the highlights:

• New addition to the level-up system, the “Talent Tree.” Players have the option between different stat boosts at levels 10, 15, 20, and 25 (for example, at level 10, Terrorblade has the choice between +6 Health Regen OR +15 Attack Speed).
• Heavy changes to stats that scale over time (experience, gold bounties, re-spawn timer, etc.).
• Changes to map including the new Roshan location, new ancient neutrals locations, new jungle-based “shrine” buildings that offer various effects, new rune locations, and more.
• Extensive changes to the UI and in-game HUD.
• New inventory slots for support items (specifically, wards).
• Major changes to a multitude of characters ranging from small to complete reworks. Reworked characters include Lycanthrope, Necrophos, Techies, and Treant Protector.
• Monkey King, the all-new character announced at TI6, was detailed. Included in his release is an arcana, announcer pack, and lore.
• New models for Slardar, Viper, and Enigma.

League of Legends – eSports News Update

The updates for League of Legends are also one their way, for the welcoming of Season 7 already has some previews of the changes and newer Champion skins for Vi, Garen, and Azir. However, these Champions are not only getting these skins but also Quinn and Lucian, which comes in the Heartseeker outfits.

Other than these updates set to be released next year, a ward skin is also included to match the Heartseeker skins that are a called a Love Dove ward. The amazing effects from skill shots and usage is a whole new spectacle to watch, especially Garen that has a dragon circling around when he uses his turning blade skill. For today, Riot Games has released a new League of Legends Camille Champion Spotlight to introduce the latest wall-diving addition to the bolstering roster. The Steel Shadow was unveiled last month and will finally be released for everyone later today.

In other news, the weekend’s League of Legends All-Star 2016 event was marred when a pair of Latin American broadcasters made racist remarks during the official broadcast. Former player Diego “Vendetta” Ramirez and caster Bastian Guzman mocked Chinese speech patterns while discussing former SK Telecom T1 jungler Bae “Bengi” Seong-woong.

Riot Games did not tolerate their actions, as the pair was immediately removed for the remainder of the League of Legends All-Star 2016 event.

In the competition, Team Ice came out on top. China’s LPL, the European LCS, and Taiwan’s LMS finished with a combined 1050 points over Team Fire, which collected 750 points from Korea’s LCK, the North American LCS, and the GPL of South East Asia.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – eSports News Update

Valve has decided to address an audio inaccuracy in CS:GO with the release of the latest patch for the game, 1.35.6.0. In addition to holiday changes, the patch introduced a Head-Related Transfer Function option in the audio settings, which drastically increases directional audio.

In other news, the North American team has signed two new players to the team, Ronnie “ryx” Bylicki and Taylor “Drone” Johnson. The team had been down to only three players since mid-November when Splyce decided to let go of David “DAVEY” Stafford and Enkhtaivan “Machinegun” Lkhagva.

Also, Beyond the Summit, a tournament organizer best known for their relaxed format, have announced this week a $100,000 prize pool CS:GO event that will feature eight of the world’s best teams. The event is scheduled to take place in April 2017 on the 19th – 23rd, hosted in the beautiful Los Angeles, California, United States, at a private residence.

Chinese officials have recently announced that beginning in May of next year, game developers will be required to be fully transparent regarding the drop rates of in-game items in loot boxes that are purchased with actual currency.

Overwatch – eSports News Update

Following a leak which suggested Overwatch would receive some sort of Christmas/holiday-themed update, Blizzard all but announced the event today. In a tweet this afternoon, Blizzard said “You’re invited!” along with an animated gif. It shows a snow-capped version of the map King’s Row, suggesting part of the update will include modified versions of existing maps.

This is accompanied by the date December 13, which is apparently when the update will go live. It seems safe to assume part of this event will also include themed loot boxes and new items, as was the case with the Halloween and Olympics updates. Data miners discovered the existence of a Christmas jingle in the game’s files recently, pointing to a new event. Blizzard has not been shy about the fact that it plans to offer more of these events, so a Christmas one comes as no surprise.

We hope you enjoyed our weekly eSports News Update!

If you are interested in additional eSports strategy, game reviews, and other interesting eSports content, please make sure to visit our VIP-bet eSports area.

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