Every woman counts in esports. And here are just a few of the really heavy-hitters. Read more.


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1/THE WOMEN WHO SHAPED ESPORTS IN 2019

In an industry that is infamously hostile to women, there are many notable figures that have been able to craft successful careers in esports. Riot Games recently settled on a lawsuit filed by female employees claiming gender discrimination. There are many other struggles to note over the course of 2019, but let’s focus on the women that have made waves.

Tina “TINARAES” Perez
TINARAES was the first player signed to Gen.G’s Fortnite team in 2018, which eventually rebranded to the Gen.G Bumble female Fortnite team. After a year of working things out with access to resources like a new L.A. facility, private chefs, coaching, she placed first at TwitchCon 2019 with her teammates… it’s been a good time for her.

Xiaomeng “VKLiooon” Li
Not only was Liooon the first woman to qualify for the Hearthstone Global Championship, but she was also the first woman to win it as well. She played with incredible finesse, eventually reaching the final and clinching the victory at 3-0.

Saira Mueller
In 2018, Mueller founded Women of Esports to provide support and resources for women in the industry seeking opportunities. The mentorship group has more than 450 members and offers numerous opportunities to learn from mentors in the industry.

These are just a few examples of the numerous women who’ve made an impression on the esports industry this last year. Check out more females who made a difference in 2019 esports.

2/GROWTH IS SHOWING ACROSS THE BOARD FOR STREAMING PLATFORMS

December 2019 showed an overall growth increase of 12 percent over hours watched in 2018. Many contenders contributed to the overall increase, though Facebook Gaming and YouTube saw the most impressive growth. Twitch had 727 million hours watched, up from 716 million in 2018, an overall mediocre change.

Big growth: Facebook Gaming, on the other hand, went up to 102 million hours watched, up from just 33 million in December 2018. Then YouTube went up to 332.9 million hours, up from 293 million.

The rest of them: Mixer also saw a year-over-year increase in hours watched, up to 31 million hours over the 24.4 million from the previous year. This change was largely attributed to the move of two streamers to the platform, Ninja and shroud.

3/RIOT GAMES RELEASES CINEMATIC ENTITLED “WARRIORS”

Riot Games posted their very own rendition of Imagine Dragons’ 2014 song, “Warriors.” This three-minute-long cinematic gives a visual feast with appearances from armor-clad Garen, quick-footed Kai’Sa, a ferocious-looking Urgot, and a giant Galio.

What happens: The cover of the popular song was first performed at the Worlds 2014 finals in Seoul, South Korea. But in this cinematic, it takes a more slow and melancholic feel and choruses of harmony rather than the pop-rock of Imagine Dragons. As the song progresses, the heroes of League class in an epic brawl and all-out war. Victory is declared to the light.

Why it rocked: The visuals of the video are on a completely different level from the usual cinematics used. This video demonstrated a significant improvement to the realism of expressions and movement. This is paving the way for League’s upcoming animated series, Arcane, expected to release later in the year.


We just had our latest MAINGEAR gaming backpack giveaway drawing! The lucky winner is Mark from Miami. 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!

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Image via Riot Games

/TYLER1 SNAGS A QUADRA KILL IN EPIC 2-V-4 BASE DEFENSE

With upcoming events like Twitch Rivals’ first League of Legends tournament, folks are trying to get in some practice. But then there’s folks like Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp who may be operating at a different play level entirely.

The play in question: During his Twitch broadcast recently, Tyler1 with former pro Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera, they were left to defend the Nexus. Four enemies with Baron buff stormed the gates, which made things immediately grim. The game was as good as over. Or was it?

More of the play: In a quick team play, Dom fired off Yassuo’s Syndra and Tyler finished the mage with a couple quick hits. Miss Fortune went down in a few hits as well. By the time support had been taken out, Tyler’s health dropped as low as 44. But with the lifestealing Mercurial Scimitar, it helped keep him going long enough to land the quardra kill and save the Nexus.

/MORE GAMING NEWS

  • Competitive gaming organization High School Esports League (HSEL) has announced the winning teams of the HSEL Fall Majors national gaming tournament.

Image via PC World

/RAZER’S TOMAHAWK N1 MODULAR GAMING PC IS PLAIN SIMPLE

Razer first announced the Tomahawk N1 at CES in Las Vegas as a mini-PC concept with the ability to fit full-sized GPUs. Enter now the prototype, which does effectively give you greater control over your graphics. Want to slip in a Compute Element into a PCIe slot and then add an RTX 2080 GPU into another PCIe slot? Go for it. They just slip right into place without any fiddling.

While the concept behind this modular PC does take some of the fun out of DIY PC building, the intent behind the Tomahawk N1 still shines through. There is no firm announcement regarding pricing or availability. But it will likely be in the first half of 2020.

/AHUTCHI3

What are your social media links?
Twitter and Twitch.

What games do you normally stream?
I Stream a lot of games 🙂 But my main ones are Mario Kart and Puyo 🙂

What made you take up streaming?
I always saw a lot of my Friends Streaming each day and it made me really curious to see what it was like. So far it’s been a good experience.

What is your favorite part about streaming?
My favorite Part about Streaming is definitely interacting with Friends and New People 🙂

Any other comments you’d like to leave us with?
Always do your best in whatever it is you wanna achieve! Also never give up on your goals 🙂 Y’all are a really Great Group of People 🙂

Also, what’s your secret with dominating all of our SlashShout Mario Kart tournaments?
Hmmm haha I wouldn’t really say there is a Secret haha xD xD I used to practice a lot by Time Trialing which would help improve my Lines 🙂 I started playing MK8 in Early 2016 and wasn’t really that great Starting out but when I practiced TTing, it really helped me understand each track in the Game 🙂 Now it’s mainly Muscle Memory for me 🙂

Congratulations again to Mark from Miami for winning our backpack drawing!

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

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