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After a hard-fought series of battles, Gen.G comes out as Global Champion of PUBG! It pays to have a full roster, something Dignitas could learn from. Read more below.

/ BIG 3

1/Gen.G wins the first PUBG Global Championship

The latest PUBG season led up to an impressive series of battles between North America, Europe, Korea, and other qualified winners. In the grand final between FaZe Clan and Gen.G, the latter managed to pull off a last-minute victory.

Plentiful points: Prior to the final match, both teams trailed Four Angry Men by a few points after the Chinese squad pulled out quickly and won the fifth match outright. Each team sat at 90 points, which turned into a race the second OGN Entus Ace got the boot.

Some “strategery”: FaZe was caught in some poor positioning and lost two players quickly, ultimately left in a bad spot. The circle continued to close and forced everyone to ever-smaller portions of the map where rotations became even more dangerous. While FaZe and Gen.G were both eliminated in the third and fourth games, they managed to secure precious kills along the way which allowed them to secure their positioning.

First place losers: Despite not having won a single round since opening day, Gen.G still managed to finish in first. It was ultimately their kill power and solid rotations that allowed them to pull 11 points ahead of FaZe. This then secured them the first-place trophy and the $2.3 million prize.

If losing were winning, we’d all be global champs.

2/Dignitas is struggling to sign players due to how much Huni cost

Dignitas just extended top-laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon’s contract for a reported $2.3 million, a third of their overall budget. Now they’re struggling to finalize their five-man roster. Due to Huni’s high salary, they now lack the resources needed to fund the rest of the roster.

One person does not make a team: While Huni is an exceptional player with years of experience under his belt, without a strong lineup to support him, his talent will be wasted. He saw success in 2015 in Europe’s Fnatic, winning two domestic titles and reaching the semifinals of Worlds. However, a lack of follow up successes led to his transfer back to North America.

Costly combinations: Dignitas spent $20 million to merge with Clutch Gaming earlier this year, thus allowing them to rejoin the North American league. But despite all their efforts at changing branding and investments, they may soon enter the 2020 season without a full lineup.

Rookies abound: The alternative is to sign rookie NA talent and risk falling to the bottom of the league. While the free agency period has only been underway for a week, many of the top players have already signed on with teams. The clock is ticking for one-man-team Dignitas…

We’ve always wondered how a 1v5 would go.

3/Teamfight Tactics to get a four-week tournament with weekly prizes

Entertainment platform Fandom has announced a weekly Teamfight Tactics tournament that will be in partnership with Riot Games and State Farm. It starts December 1 and runs for four weeks.

Weekly competition: Each week, 16 competitors will battle for a prize pool of $2,000. All participants will likewise have the chance to qualify for the State Farm Championship Finals. The Finals take place on December 21 and have a $5,000 prize pool.

Watch it: It’ll broadcast live on Twitch from the Fandom Studios in Culver City, Los Angeles each week on December 1, 5, 12, 19, and 21.

/ FREE STUFF WINNER

We just had our latest MAINGEAR gaming backpack giveaway drawing! The lucky winner is Caleb from Memphis. Congrats for winning and we’re grateful for everyone’s support!

Sad you missed out? Don’t worry. We’re doing more drawings every Tuesday! So if you aren’t a previous winner,you’ve already been thrown back into the drawing for our next backpack giveaway! Stay strong, your time will come!

/ THE BIZ

/Other Biz

/ TOURNEYS

/Other Tournament News

/ NERD OF THE WEEK

Following a successful League of Legends Worlds 2019 — in which viewership hours and average concurrent viewers increased 40% and 44% versus 2018, respectively Roundhill co-founder Will Hershey sat down with the Washington Post to discuss franchising in League and why he believes it is the premier esport to bet on.

LCS franchising offers team organizations a layer of safety when deciding which leagues to compete in. Not only does it mean the team’s slot in the league will persist, but it’s a signal from the developer that they plan on supporting the league into the future.  

However, asking prices for franchise slots across the major franchised esports leagues have been eye-popping. Whether these bets pay off will depend on how three main factors: 1) how well the leagues do, 2) the details of the revenue share agreements and 3) teams finding creative non-league revenue channels.

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. For a prospectus and holdings, click here. Foreside Fund Services, LLC, Distributor.

Roundhill believes that esports and video games are the future of live media, sports and entertainment. $NERD is the first pure-play Esports ETF (exchange-traded fund), offering exposure to 25 global esports and digital entertainment companies.

/ GAME ON

Image via Respawn Entertainment

/Apex players don’t like the current matchmaking system

The general fan base has had far from positive criticism about the game’s public matchmaking system. Much of this comes from high-ranked players getting matched with players “near their skill level” in public lobbies, getting in the way of “casual” match experiences.

Death for the decent: “If we wanted to play a skill-based mode, we would just play ranked,” one Reddit user said. Players who are at an above-average level of playing are more likely to be placed with top-tier players rather than newcomers, which basically equates to a slaughter. Couple this with cheaters that make their ways to the upper section of the skill curve, this also equates to a stressful environment for high-ranked players.

Safety for the noob: If anything, this matchmaking system was put in place to protect newcomers. It greatly reduces the chance of a casual player at a lower skill level from coming into contact with a skilled veteran who would mop the floor with the former.

/Other Gaming News

/ THERE IS NO “I” IN TEAM

Image via Riot Games

/More team roster changes in League of Legends

It’s still the time of the free agent and professional teams are all changing their rosters like crazy. Here’s the latest changes taking place with your favorite teams:

/Other Team News

/ HERE’S THE “I”

/Other Player News

  • Super Smash Bros.: Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma appeared in a new Campbell’s soup commercial on Twitch alongside his mother. Aww, how sweet…
  • League of Legends: Due to Bjergsen and Doublelift declining their invites, Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi will take their place at the All-Star Event in Las Vegas.

/ META

/More Meta

/ GAMING IN SCHOOL

/More School News

/ WIN FREE STUFF

Congratulations again to Caleb from Memphis for winning our latest gaming backpack!

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We’re giving away a free gaming backpack every Tuesday to people who sign up here.

To start, you’ll get three entries in the drawing. Want more? Then refer friends, follow us on social media, and more.