ESTNN Daily: Esports News Recap 2/21

Welcome to the ESTNN Daily, where we put together an esports news recap for all of the biggest esports titles! We've got this all in video format, or feel free to read the article below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlO8kQoZNFI

League of Legends

In League news, Riot is reportedly considering a full ranked reset of the ladder. Ranked matches right now are full of stories about large rank differences between players, making some matches downright unfair. Riot developer Ed “SapMagic” Altofer confirmed that Riot is considering a full rank reset in a tweet yesterday.

Wow high praise. No promises about a reset but it’s one of the things we are considering. Currently doing a deep dive on the actual issues and size of them. Each region is a bit different.

— Sapmagic (Ed Altorfer) (@RiotSapmagic) February 21, 2019

In other news, Altofer told the League community just how large the Challenger divisions will be for each region today. Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Russia, and the Oceania regions will have 50 slots. Latin America South, North, EU Nordic and East, each Chinese server, Brazil, Taiwan, and Turkey will have 200. Finally, Korea, NA, EU West, Vietnam, and the Philippians will have 300 Challenger slots that players can compete for.

We didn't clearly message our changes to the number of Challenger slots in each region. Basically, we grouped regions of similar size and assigned slots accordingly to optimize for competition. Sizes are 50, 200, and 300. Full breakdown below.#ranked2019 #loldev pic.twitter.com/epnmFKWVT5

— Sapmagic (Ed Altorfer) (@RiotSapmagic) February 21, 2019

DOTA 2

We’ve got some Hero news for DOTA 2 today! Wykrhm Reddy, someone who has correctly predicted Valve updates in the past, is reporting that Valve may release a new DOTA 2 hero at the end of February or early March. During last years Invitational, Valve released a trailer debuting Mars and Grimstroke, two brand new heroes for DOTA 2. Grimstroke was immediately released during the Invitational, and Valve promised to release Mars sometime in “Winter.” If true, we could be seeing Mars sooner rather than later.

#Dota2 pic.twitter.com/YfvPw3YbLk

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) January 25, 2019

Overwatch

For today's esports news recap, we've got some awesome Overwatch news. In a tweet from Blizzard, fans may have gotten a peek at Overwatch’s 30th hero. Blizzard tweeted out a cryptic tease featuring the Talon Logo, and a lore post in the official Blizzard Blog referenced a few new characters. The post details a Talon raid to Tortuga, which could be a new map, and two names: Captain Cuerva and Jean-Baptiste Augustin. Could one of these two be a new hero? We probably won’t know for a while, but I’m sure people would welcome some new heroes that might break up the constant GOATS we’ve been seeing in OW for what seems like ages.

⚠️ Unauthorized Access Detected…

> TALON FIREWALL… Bypassed
> Accessing file… [CLASSIFIED] Communications Record of Captain Cuerva, D.

📂 🔎 https://t.co/BsA5OherBz pic.twitter.com/hqmknCo9HB

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) February 21, 2019

CounterStrike: Global Offensive

We’ve got our first confirmed Legends at the IEM Katowice Major, with Astralis and Team Liquid going 3-0. Both teams are now confirmed for the playoffs and are both favorites for the eventual grand final. Astralis defeated Renegades 2-1. Team Liquid, for their part, won their matchup against Na’Vi, 2-0. With the first two teams moving forward, the Major also said goodbye to two teams today. Both Berlin International Gaming and NRG went 0-3 in the Legends stage. Esports doesn't get more intense then this, so make sure to tune in this weekend to see who takes home the championship!

CoD

Activision seems to have gone back on its word to not include loot boxes in Black Ops 4. The game’s grand heist update added “Reserve Crates,” hiding some of the update’s best cosmetics inside a $2.00 case. Additionally, Blackout’s best characters are stuck inside these boxes despite the Lead Designer, David Vonderhaar, assuring players that Blackout characters would never be stuck behind a paywall. Looks like Activision is trying to steal the “Worst Company in America” name from EA.

Fortnite

For all of our Fortnite players out there, Epic has just released the super-rare K-Pop skin today. Unfortunately for almost everyone, the only way you can get it is by preordering the $1,000 Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus. So, if you really, really want the K-pop skin for Fortnite, you better be willing to shell out a lot of money for the honor.

That’s all for the ESTNN Brief for Tuesday, February 19. Make sure to head on over to ESTNN.com to catch up on all of the latest news, and check back here tomorrow for another Episode of The Brief!

That's a wrap on the ESTNN Daily Brief for February 21st! Make sure to check back tomorrow for the next ESTNN Daily, the best place for esports news recap!