Mobile eSports title Vainglory earnings released, PC version coming

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Since the release of Vainglory on both iOS and Android platforms, Super Evil Megacorp has earned more than $50 million USD. A PC version of the game announced with alpha test-builds now available for download.

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Famed Touchscreen eSport title Vainglory Announces Premier Partnership with Amazon Appstore

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Today, Vainglory’s developer Super Evil Mega Corp and Amazon have announced the title Vainglory will be supported by Amazon Appstore to support the 2016 eSports season in both North America and Europe. The season officially starts today and will run through September 11th, 2016. The top eight teams per region will compete in the Summer Live Champions in North America through September 2nd through September 5th, while the European Summer Live Championships will run from September 9th through the 11th. Additionally, as part of the program, Amazon will be hosting the championships, which are expected to set new records for both viewership and participation in the events.

In addition, the Amazon Appstore will be rewarding players throughout the season with discounts and bonus Amazon Coins, the digital currency that lets customers save up to 25 percent off in-app purchases. The season’s competitive structure and events are managed by Super Evil Megacorp and Twitch as part of their multi-year deal to enhance and grow Vainglory esports events.

We’ve been working closely with Amazon since our inaugural Autumn Season Championship, and their passion for and dedication to Vainglory is going to make our Summer season the biggest and best yet,” said Kristian Segerstrale, COO and executive director at Super Evil Megacorp. “Amazon’s support, along with the continued work from our friends at Twitch, will allow us to put on a top-notch season for Vainglory’s community of millions. We’re excited to kick off the Summer Season today in cooperation with the Amazon Appstore.

With Amazon’s Vainglory Summer Season beginning today with their new eSports Structure, Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp have announced their “The Evil Eight,”, which is a new tier of elite competition for both Europe and North America, which features only the top 8 teams from the regions. The teams will battle it out each weekend on twitch.tv/vainglory in eight-team tournaments, earning points in championship standings. Alongside will be a community-run “Challenger” tier of competition, with weekly Evil Eight challenger battles. The two-tiered new structure for competitions will bring forth more opportunities to broadcast the elite eight teams as they duke it out for number one. Among these matches you’ll see elite teams such as Team Solomid, G2 eSports, Team Secret, mousesports and SK Gaming, while giving up-and-coming teams a path to their own tournament victories and ultimately the seasonal championship. More details to be announced soon.

The Twitch community has shown a lot of love for Vainglory, making it the fastest-growing mobile game on our platform,” said Nick Allen, director of esports operations at Twitch. “Touchscreen esports has a lot of potential right now given the ratio of mobile devices to PCs, with Vainglory on track to really blow the doors wide open on this movement. Adding more momentum is the new Evil Eight competitive structure, which will make broadcasts of Vainglory even more engaging for viewers.

Summer season is poised to have 3-5 million viewers tune in to the action, doubling the number of viewers from the Winter 2015 event. The Season will culminate in the Vainglory Summer Season Championships taking place September 2-4 in North America and September 9-11 in Europe. In addition to hosting the live events, Amazon and Vainglory will be offering special Amazon Coins offers on ICE purchases and more.


About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Vainglory’s 1.18 Update is Huge

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As you may know we’ve been covering Vainglory quite a bit. It’s a MOBA that has been perfected to handhelds and is quite fun to take on the go. As with any update, there’s new features, but 1.18 definitely brings in a full blown swing with the massive amount of content it features. The biggest draw of it? The new hero, new skins, and the new quest chests that are featured to unlock skins, glory points, ICE (in-game real money currency), and even some boosters.

With any big update for Vainglory, we’re used to seeing a new hero and in turn we got one. This new update isn’t any different as it welcomes in the new roam hero named Lance. Lance is a powerful character who welcomes in as a tank with his polearm-and-shield play style. His ability to knock enemies away, snare them, and even role quickly into combat before blocking makes him a lethal adversary who can build crystal and utility to excel as a tank. In turn, he can also build for weapon power to bring in the pain during battle.

The update also features updated skins that will become available June 17th as Sky as she can unlock her Supersonic tier’s I and II now, with Tier 3 on the June date. In turn Tier III Celeste is coming soon with Blackfeather’s Tier I following right with it.

In addition to this update, New Quests and Chests have been added in to help with the rewarding system on Vainglory. Featuring in-game challenges on a daily/weekly basis, players can now earn new skin cards, boosters, Ice, and more by simply playing and leveling as well as being introduced to the game. More become available with players quickly fighting their way to account level 30 now. This means every level earned prior to this release? Gets its own chests even if you’ve earned those levels.

Additionally, the eSports Championship kick off for the Spring Season starts on June 3rd in Hollywood, CA, and June 10th in Berlin, Germany. For those of you interested in tuning in by checking out the action live, you can head over to both the North American Championship attendee sign-up here or the European Championship sign-up here. Fans can also tune into twitch.tv/vaingloryleague starting on those dates to see what it takes to be Vainglory Champions. Stay tuned as we plan on covering these Championships.

For more details on Vainglory update 1.18 check out the update notes here. Trust us, you’ll want to read up on these huge notes.


About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Vainglory to have First-Ever Collegiate Exhibition at PAX East

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As many of you know and have read time and time again, I’ve been a gigantic supporter and fan of Vainglory. It’s been a title that has held a soft spot in my heart for quite sometime and continues to do so to this day. As a part of this news, the guys at Super Evil Mega Corp and College StarLeague (CSL) are hosting the first and largest collegiate gaming organization to date so college players will find it easier and more rewarding to play Vainglory.

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With this announcement, CSL will be hosting this tournament which features teams from Boston University, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell and Westfield State University. The schools will competing in a single elimination bracket this Sunday, April 24th, starting at 1:30pm on the Twitch STage during PAX East at the Boston Convention Center. If you aren’t attending you can head over to twitch.tv/twitch to watch. The CSL has handed out more than $250,000 in scholarship money to collegiate champions and community figures in the past six years. As a part of this, teams from League of Legends, Dota 2 and Hearthstone have participated in the league. For more info about the league visit cstarleague.com.


About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Super Evil Mega Corp and Twitch Team Up

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Remember that favored MOBA by the name of Vainglory. It has been a title that has driven me to purchasing a tablet for both it, college, and the simple satisfaction that my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 has been just enough to keep me happy. However, with news of Twitch and Super Evil Mega Corp teaming up to make the eSports structure for the game even bigger, they have today inked a three-year partnership in North America and Europe for the official Vainglory Championships and supporting eSports structuring. This means that with this collaboration, it has included a multi-million dollar invesment for each company and brings forth a program that stems across sales, promotions, broadcasts and even live events.

As one of the fastest growing games in the mobile industry as well as mobile titles on Twitch last year, the game has accrued more than 150 million minutes watched. As the first major touchscreen eSport title, Vainglory is renowned for the largest prize pool ever in a 350,000 USD pool that brings professional teams like TSM, SK Gaming, Team Secret, and G2 Esports together in the fray of battle. This also brings forth teams to participate in the Red Bull eSports Studio at Santa Monica, California.

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As part of the Twitch partnership Super Evil Mega Corp plans on bringing more fans and players int heir already large group of millions of players and viewers. With eSports Teams and robust exhibits, Twitch looks to bring more into Vainglory as it helps to expand and grow the title.

The esports industry has been dominated by PC and console titles, but Vainglory is ushering in a new mobile games movement,” said Nick Allen, Director of Esports Operations at Twitch. “The incredible engagement Vainglory has garnered on our platform is testament that our community welcomes the convergence of esports and mobile gaming.

Starting today, teams of three players hopeful to win the Spring Championship can register at VaingloryLeague.com. The three-month season kicks off with open qualifiers and will have a total prize pool of $80,000 USD.

We’ve been working closely with Twitch since even before the global launch of Vainglory, and their massive, wildly passionate gaming community has helped our game develop a loyal and growing following,” said Kristian Segerstrale, COO and executive director at Super Evil Megacorp. “By working with Twitch in this new and expanded capacity, we’re going to be able to bring our esports programming to the next level and provide better and more frequent coverage to fans.”

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As part of the new seasons, Vainglory has officially kicked off a new season that features a new game mode (in beta) titled Battle Royale as well as the new hero we know as “Alpha” a new map skin, and a massive “Halcyon Days” event that includes new skins for Fortress. As part of the on going evolution of the game, Battle Royale brings in a draft mode where the game selects heroes for each player, and each hero starts out already leveled up. As opposed to starting from level one and building up like in normal matches.

With the matches already having draft mode from the original take and even boosters, Vainglory has become a game that anyone can truly come to enjoy, and participate in as they wish. If you haven’t checked it out, you can see our review here, which will be updated soon to reflect ont he new changes.

As always, stay tuned for our constant coverage over Vainglory and many other titles.


About the Writers:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Cheap @$$ Gamer: Gaming isn’t just for PC or Consoles. Pick Up That Tablet!

I’ve reported a few times about my passion for free-to-play games, how to save money, and even what to do if you just don’t have the money in general. Today I’ve decided to take a look at one of my passion’s that some of the hardcore of the hardcore don’t consider a part of the gaming genre; tablet gaming on Android and iOS. This passion of mine has come around recently as it has become easily accessible to almost anyone. By anyone I mean literally almost everyone that has a smart phone or a tablet. Heck even Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 have implemented a decent amount of mobile games to their operating systems.

A few of the games that we’re going to talk about might be free-to-play or even come at a small cost. There’s even a few that cost almost the same price as their console or PC counterparts, but they’re still worth a go if you’d rather have them on the go. Granted the tablet versions may not just cut it in the end. Luckily for us, tablet gaming is rather inexpensive and easily enjoyable by anyone.

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When looking at tablet gaming there’s always the question about App Permissions, memory use, and well performance as tablets are beginning to get the power treatment for gaming and usability. For many of the games listed the tablet used was a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2.  As mentioned in our review, the Tab S2 is a powerful, powerful tablet, but it’s not anywhere near the Nvidia Shield, which is something we’ve been tempting to get our hands on for several years now. One of these days we will if we’re lucky enough to hear from Nvidia or even get a chance to have one that we come across in the wild. Till then bare with us as the S2 is a powerhouse and does quite well.

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On the first of the list is Vainglory. For many MOBA fans, the title brings an interesting aspect to the well known genre. One that has offered a unique blind of both touch and the subtly of high paced action. With characters ranging from Guardian, Assassin, Jungler, Support, and Warrior, the game offers a unique blend of familiar mechanics on a one lane map with objectives off to the sides. Luckily the game offers out some unique twists at every corner as all characters can be earned by simple gameplay. For those wanting a character that’s not accessible instantly, a few dollars (around 7 USD a character) can purchase a single character. While this alternative is there, it’s advised to save this for unique skins that get posted from time to time or even Early Access characters that may fit your preferred play style.

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Next up on the list is a tower defense game I’ve found myself enjoying quite a bit when on the go. It has worked great on both my HTC One M9 as well as the Galaxy Tab S2. The game is called Epic War TD 2. TD standing for Tower Defense. The game idea is simple. A war has broken out. Your objective is to play turrets in a precise fashion in order to keep enemy forces at bay so you can defend your territory, but all this is not as easy as it sounds. The game requires patience, a quick mind, and the ability to swap out turrets faster than they can be placed. This means tactical thinking is a must for those wanting to spend a decent .99 cents or rather 1 USD. The game is gorgeous for being a tablet game and stands with a very simple and streamlined HUD for those looking to play. The game can be found on iOS and Android much like the previously mentioned Vainglory.

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Next up on the list is Implosion – Never Lose Hope. The unique thing about this game isn’t that it’s just beautiful, but it plays extremely well for being on a tablet. With a rather chunky analog stick and a nice implementation of action command buttons, Implosion – Never Lose Hope is a game that does what most haven’t done on tablets quite well. It’s unique blend of high action AAA like graphics and mechanics keep it alive even though maps can get rather repetitive, but not enough to make you want to quit. Instead its blend of in-app purchases to gameplay don’t take away from the overall experience. While it’d been nice to see the game come to life on say the PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS we can’t be disappointed at what the game has to offer. The boss fights are unique, tough, and will ground players down in the post-apocalyptic setting the game has aimed for. However, it’s not quite like our next game that’ll rip at the hearts of fans as it has already been doing on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for quite some time now.

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This War of Mine is a breathtaking experience. For 4.99 USD on Google Play or 3.99 on the Apple App Store, we’ve been able to play this game for some time on both console and PC. This War of Mine takes place in the fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia where a group of survivors find themselves hiding together in order to survive the ongoing war. With a ceasefire seeming to be no where in sight, fans must take to this strategically challenging survival game by building up their house, going out at night to find supplies, and somehow managing their survival so that their characters don’t die. This includes making use of limited supplies, surviving break-in’s that will cause loss of food, and even surviving hostile enemies when going out at night. Here character traits do matter as does the characters back-packs as these will determine the supplies they can carry back on their adventure outside of the house. If that doesn’t sound like fun, the next title we have coming up might seem all-to-familiar to some while others may find themselves scratching their heads.

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Blizzard Entertainment has been known for their massively successful franchises such as Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, their Upcoming title named Overwatch, but also their famed card game by the name of Hearthstone. Originally launched a few years back on P.C., Hearthstone has taken the world by storm since it allows a TCG like experience on mobile platform and PC. Luckily the game allows fans to go from PC to handheld quite easily as the account that you use will be your Battle.net account so that you can migrate your progress seamlessly without any hassle. Much like any free-to-play, Hearthstone does have in-app purchases that allow players to buy the raids at full cost with real money or save up gold via playing in order to unlock them. This also goes for booster packs as well, which means the free-to-play portion may take newcomers a bit longer to build up to the builds that veteran players have.

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Now we do have a few MOBA’s on here, but there is another worthwhile mentioning as it is quite fun, but at the same time different from my favored go-to mobile MOBA Vianglory. This one is called Ace of Arenas. Ace of Arenas uses the well known hack-‘n-slash mechanics we’ve gotten used to with many Android and iOS based RPG’s and Shooter genres. What this game does differently, however, is take the idea and has gone MOBA with it. With graphics being slightly lower that of games like Vainglory or even Implosion, the game still offers a wide array of characters and player matches allowing for a fun if-not challenging time. The game does feature a free-rotation as well as a unique use of a gem system, which many may seem slightly familiar with thanks to MOBA’s like League of Legends.

While it’s hard to say there aren’t other games out there, there is a hard-time finding games that we know a majority of you will like since there are other genres out there. We’ve seen Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, and a numerous amount of other games out there. We’ve played so many of them to even bring this article it’s been hard to choose what ones we know would be best for gaming on a budget. Because a majority of games on Android are free-to-play, we decided to grab a few of the hardcore games out there just to show you what is there, and what you can enjoy for free or at a cheap cost, and on-the-go.

Till next week, here’s your Cheap @$$ Gaming article.


About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory Named “Best Mobile Game” at 2016 GLOMO Awards

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Editor’s Note: Before we begin, we here at B.A.T.G.R., want to congratulate Super Evil Mega Corp on their new title. As someone who plays Vainglory a lot in my free time, the game has taken a soft spot to my heart, and one that indeed shares the same thoughts about Vainglory being crowned “Best Mobile Game” by the GSMA and Gamelab Mobile at the 2016 GLOMO Awards in Barcelona.

If you are anyone that plays mobile games or even tablet games on either iDevice or Android, you aren’t going to want to miss out on the title “Vainglory”. This game is the world’s leading touchscreen eSport title that finds itself in the MOBA genre. During the 2016 GLOMO Awards, GSMA and Gamelab Mobile crowned Vainglory as the “Best Mobile Game”. The awards ceremony, held at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona recognizes the best of the best in mobile games. This includes the most innovated, immersive, thrilling and even sophisticated games from 2015. This includes Vainglory.

For the GLOMO Competition this award recognition isn’t any small feat as there were more than 930 entries received by the GSMA. Over 285 nominees that were shortlisted for over 40 awards in over eight categories. This amount of competition can become nailbiting for those watching and attending the event. If that’s not some tough competition, we don’t know what is, but this is definitely a challenge for many competitors attempting to be crowned victor. Judged by independent experts, analysts, journalists, academics, and even mobile operator representatives; the GLOMO Awards hosts some of the top names in the industry to help determine the winners.

It is an honor for Vainglory to be recognized as the ‘Best Mobile Game’ by the GSMA,” said Kristian Segerstrale, COO and Executive Director of Super Evil Megacorp. “The rate at which the Vainglory community has grown and the eSports competition has increased throughout 2015 has been incredible, and we can not thank our players enough for their dedication across the globe. We are still early and have a lot to do in 2016, but we are very excited about progress so far!

His statement? One that stands true as a faithful Vainglory player. We can’t wait to see what is coming in the terms of the game, but also as an official eSport title that continues to grow to this day.

For those unfamiliar with Vainglory, the game puts players amidst a battle of two teams, both being played by three real life players. These players will control a singular hero in attempts to take out enemy players, destroying turrets, and gaining ground control of the Halcyon Fold. The team that is able to destroy the enemy’s Vain wins the match. Something that we here at B.A.T.G.R. have done multiple times, and even found it as one of our favorite mobile games of 2015. The title is even one of the fastest growing mobile games on Twitch in 2015.

After a very successful Live Autumn Season Championship, Vainglory kicked off the Winter eSports Season in January while boasting a Lunar New Year-themed map skin including fireworks and other rather beautiful graphical effects in the Halcyon Fold. The Winter Championships for North America will be held at the Red Bull eSports Studio in Santa Monica, CA starting March 11th through March 13th. In turn, the European Event will be held in London at the Gfinity Arena from March 18th through the 20th. If you want to attend the events, they are now available and can be purchased for $12 USD at http://vainglorywinterna.eventbrite.com and http://vainglorywintereu.eventbrite.com. We know we’ll be watching and cheering on the teams as they attempt to take the victory title for Winter Season. If you want to give Vainglory a try, head on to the Apple App Store here or over at Google Play here.

You can also check out our review for Vainglory to see what we thought of the game.


About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on TwitterGoogle+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.