DOTA 2 It has been a horrific week for myself personally and I was out of the loop for most of the past few days, however, this week around I’ll focus on only two things that have popped up in the scene.   Sexual harassment: There’s been some startling revelations on sexual harassments that women face, and many have come forward expressing their dreadful experiences on the said matter. Such unfortunate incidents are more normal in this world than what one may think and women are at the receiving end majority of the time. As a person of the so-called “masculine” gender, I strongly condemn such outrageous acts of vulgar and ungentlemanly behaviour. If a man cannot make a woman feel comfortable or secured, then the least he can do is not to make her feel uncomfortable. Simply put, you don’t have to be nice to someone, it is completely up to you, but that doesn’t give you the right to be a douche. Listen to the woes of our comrades, support and stand with them. CHANGE BEGINS WITHIN! To the uninitiated, this is what I am referring to https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/hdamf6/can_we_talk_about_the_sexual_harassment_that/. I, on behalf of the male community, would like to personally extend my profound apology to those who had to go through such extreme ordeals. We are standing with you.   Exploitation/Cheating by few artists in DOTA 2 Workshop: A few artists have been exploiting their sets (cosmetic in-game items) by going over the prescribed limit of the poly count set by Valve. To the uninformed, Valve has a specific set of guidelines on creating cosmetics in-game that have to be adhered to at all times. Apparently, what was thought to be a “bug” actually turned out to be a “feature” that was being exploited. The said feature access was given by Valve to artists who were under contract for special events such as the Collector’s Cache, Arcana’s, TI related treasures, etc -- which means that the poly count could be over the limit only in specific cases, and that too by Valve’s permission.   However, few chose to exploit the feature and submitted sets in the workshop, going over the prescribed limit thus giving their cosmetic items an edge over other workshop artists. For example, a higher poly count means that a cosmetic item is more visually appealing with sleek and attractive features as compared to others. In case of The International treasures or Collector’s Cache, artists whose sets have been selected can stand to make big bucks, equivalent to a year’s salary, in a short amount of time.   Valve was quick to respond and are currently looking into the matter. https://twitter.com/boom3D_/status/1272518507217879040?s=20   Overwatch After a tumultuous season, the Vancouver Titans showed a glimmer of hope with their 3-0 sweep of the Dallas Fuel. This was also Stefan "Onigod" Fiskerstrand debut with the team. However, notable starter Jang "Decay" Gui-un was said absent from the match. Head coach for the Dallas Fuel, Aaron “Aero” Atkins gave a statement to the league explaining that “ [...] Decay is taking some rest time and [Onigod] is getting worked into the rotation.” https://twitter.com/seanzcollins/status/1274500057987837952 The San Francisco Shock became the first team to sweep every time in the Overwatch League with their 3-0 win over the Paris Eternal. Lee "Twilight" Jooseok also debuted with the team after being let go from the Vancouver Titans earlier this year. In Eternal news, Jung "Xzi" Ki-hyo also announced his return to the starting lineup after being out with severe neck pain. https://twitter.com/SFShock/status/1273693975438712832 In Asia, the Hangzhou Spark upset the New York Excelsior, 3-2. After coming off a strong showing against a Seoul Dynasty squad that is still finding their sea legs, New York was easily the favorite coming into this match as new recruit, Park "Architect" Minho, would still have to be integrated into the roster. However, Architect put on a clinic and took home MVP of the match along with a much-needed win for the team going into the Summer Showdown. https://twitter.com/Hangzhou_Spark/status/1274367785884213251   League of Legends   Cloud9 have looked as dominant as ever, remaining undefeated for the beginning of Summer Split, going 4-0 in total. Team Liquid are looking really good as well, with a convincing win over 100 Thieves and a close win against Evil Geniuses. Both Immortals and Dignitas look downright awful as they continue their loss streak, both now 0-4. Eventually they have to face each other, so at least someone is going to get a win on the board. To top it all off, TSM’s game against FlyQuest became controversial due to the draft, with Doublelift piloting Syndra for his first time ever in a professional game. Historically Doublelift has been memed for his lack of ability on mage champions, so it’s no surprise that fans and analysts are in uproar over the draft.   Even more exciting than a last place match is the upcoming Friday match of C9 vs TL, this should be a banger and we’re going to see if TL’s new style of enabling Jensen can actually succeed against the best mid/jungle duo in the league.   Riot is in hot water again for their production woes, as several fans and community figures have been upset at the direction Riot is taking for the LCS presentation. Even Doublelift commented on the situation, calling it a “clown show”. With Riot’s insistence on having a fun-themed show for Friday, fans have voiced their sentiment, knowing that Riot might be trying to reach a different, younger audience, but it’s not passing over well with the hardcore Reddit fans. https://twitter.com/TSMDoublelift/status/1274191873440051200?s=20 https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/hcnjw0/dl_its_actually_impressive_how_it_was_possible/   Valorant: The Ignition Series will be one of the first Valorant esports competition series. Eight teams from 8 regions will take part in the event, divided into different teams. Each team's captains will be informed only one day before who their teammates have been. Winners get a $15,000 cash reward.   After two days of nail-biting competition, the first VALORANT Ignition series in Japan was won by the Absolute JUPITER at the RAGE Invitational. The team took home the 500,000 yen prize in a pretty amazing pro stage debut. Absolute JUPITER came from the Counter-Strike, where it had become the No. 1 team of Japan until they announced their switch to Valorant at the beginning of March.   The development team encourages players to submit questions about the game on Twitter one in a fortnight. Later, in the official 'Ask Valorant' blog article, developers discuss those chosen queries. Ian Fielding, the Senior Producer of Valorant, spoke in the same blog post about "Early Surrender." Fielding has stated in his response that the Valorant Surrender feature will be debuting with the 1.02 update.   The query of adding new weapons was also addressed by stating that for the time being the game has 17 weapons and the arsenal of Valorant is balanced. Hence, no guns will be added at the moment. They also mentioned that for professional and unrated matches Valorant has an equivalent matchmaking system.  They added, however, that they continuously monitor matchmaking quality in many ways, including match balance and disparity of skills. They said they didn't notice any massive balancing problems.   EIC’s take   If it’s not one thing, it’s another. We can hardly catch a break with everything going on in the esports and entertainment space, let alone the world issues at large affecting us.   I don’t want to be a negative nancy, though.  There’s a lot of things to be excited about as well. Tournament organizers are becoming a little better each day at providing an authentic high-production tournament experience online until LAN comes back - cheating concerns aside.   Thank you for reading and we’ll see you all next week.