AGO have revealed their full lineup for 2021, announcing the signing of Karol “⁠rallen⁠” Rodowicz. The former Kinguin and ARCY player joins the team alongside Michał “⁠snatchie⁠” Rudzki and Paweł “⁠reatz⁠” Jańczak, finishing a big overhaul for the Polish organization.

In addition to their five main players, AGO will also keep Eryk “⁠leman⁠” Kocęba as the sixth player of the squad, looking to follow the model used by Vitality when they brought in Nabil “⁠Nivera⁠” Benrlitom at the end of 2020.

AGO bolster their ranks with rallen

Dominik “⁠GruBy⁠” Swiderski, Brajan “⁠DGL⁠” Lemecha, and Patryk “⁠Sidney⁠” Korab were deemed surplus by AGO at the start of the year, with “The Hawks” deciding to upgrade their lineup during the winter break. snatchie joined on a free transfer after parting ways with Sprout, while reatz moved over from Illuminar, who benched their whole roster ahead of the New Year.

The final move, adding rallen, confirmed the recent rumors about AGO. The 26-year-old rifler joins after a year in which he stood in for c0ntact, Secret, and Illuminar, but his last team was the Wiktor “⁠TaZ⁠” Wojtas-led ARCY (Aristocracy), which disbanded in January of 2020.

AGO also revealed some that the 23-year-old leman will be staying on board as the sixth member. Initially expected to make way for the new signings, he will practice with the first team on specific maps and help them out in officials as well, akin to how Vitality eased Nivera into action.

Additionally, AGO still have Miłosz “⁠mhL⁠” Knasiak contracted. The 18-year-old AWP star, that was featured in our “One for the future” series, was benched in September of last year at his request after struggling to handle his academic commitments while practicing with the team.

AGO are now:

Damian “⁠Furlan⁠” Kislowski
Maciej “⁠F1KU⁠” Miklas
Michał “⁠snatchie⁠” Rudzki
Paweł “⁠reatz⁠” Jańczak
Karol “⁠rallen⁠” Rodowicz

Eryk “⁠leman⁠” Kocęba (sixth player)

Mikołaj “⁠miNirox⁠” Michałków (coach)

Miłosz “⁠mhL⁠” Knasiak (benched)

Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/30995/rallen-completes-ago-roster

Winstrike have sealed the double signing of Vladislav “⁠Krad⁠” Kravchenko and Igor “⁠Forester⁠” Bezotecheskiy, the Russian organisation confirmed on Saturday. The pair join the team on free transfers following the expiry of their contracts with Hard Legion.

The two new players, who were part of the DreamEaters lineup that reached the New Legends Stage of the StarLadder Major, will take the spots vacated by Vladyslav “⁠bondik⁠” Nechyporchuk and Aidyn “⁠KrizzeN⁠” Turlybekov, who were released on December 31.

Krad joins Winstrike together with Forester

In a statement, Winstrike manager Pavel “Dart” Chuvashev explained that the organisation had agreements in place with the players in December but had to wait until their Hard Legion contracts expired before landing the pair.

“I am very glad that we managed to sign Vlad and Igor,” team coach Dmitry “⁠hooch⁠” Bogdanov said. “I followed their successes in DreamEaters and HardLegion, where they proved themselves as very good players who can take the most challenging tasks. We have a lot of work ahead and I am looking forward to the start of the new season with a renewed roster!”

Winstrike will make their first appearance with the new roster in the Snow Sweet Snow Cup 1, which will kick off on January 18. They have been placed in the CIS 1 group, alongside HellRaisers, Trident and Project X, from which the top two teams will progress to the regional swiss stage of the $100,000 competition.

With these changes, Winstrike now have:

Alexey “⁠NickelBack⁠” Trofimov
Aleksey “⁠El1an⁠” Gusev
Viktor “⁠Lack1⁠” Boldyrev
Vladislav “⁠Krad⁠” Kravchenko
Igor “⁠Forester⁠” Bezotecheskiy

Dmitry “⁠hooch⁠” Bogdanov (coach)

Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/30994/winstrike-add-krad-forester

Two of the LCS’ most popular teams debuted new rosters in the LCS Lock In today, and neither came out with a win.

Cloud9 and TSM, the two most recent LCS split champions, began the group stage of the preseason tournament with losses. C9, who acquired Perkz from G2 in the offseason, fell to Evil Geniuses, a team debuting some new pieces as well.

Related: LCS 2021 roster tracker

While C9 prolonged its loss in a nearly 45-minute battle, the new-look TSM were steamrolled by 100 Thieves in the first match of the tournament in fewer than 30 minutes. Without LCS legends Bjergsen and Doublelift, who both retired after failing to win a game at Worlds 2020, TSM secured only one kill and zero towers.

Fans of either team should not panic, though, as both have plenty of chances to figure things out before the matches count toward the LCS title and qualifying for Worlds. The Spring Split begins Feb. 5 and the teams will at least have three more games in the Lock In to see how they stack up in the region.

Related: How to watch the LCS 2021 Lock In: Format, schedule, and more

While two historic juggernauts struggled on the first day, Dignitas, the eighth-place team from the Summer Split, defeated FlyQuest to grab a share of the Group B lead with EG. In Group A, 100 Thieves and Team Liquid are tied for first place with Golden Guardians, who had to replace its entire roster in the offseason.

Matches continue tomorrow at 3pm CT, when Immortals make their debut against EG. Group play will conclude Jan. 22 before quarterfinals begin Jan. 23.

Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more esports news and analysis.

Source: https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/cloud9-tsm-lose-to-open-group-stage-at-lcs-lock-in-2021

Call of Duty: Mobile’s first season of 2021 will launch later this month, but to the surprise of fans, Activision announced in a community update today that it will not be called season 14. Instead, the company is refreshing the seasonal count and will call it season one. 

Activision releases a new season into Call of Duty: Mobile every month. The reason behind the move could be for simplifying the seasonal count. The company has said that it will be unveiling the season next week along with a few teasers dropping around that time. 

Related: Attack of the Undead 20 is coming to Call of Duty: Mobile

The community update also confirmed that two new weapons will be coming with the new season. Only one of these will be an assault rifle. 

While an exact release date for the season hasn’t been revealed, it will likely kick off on Jan. 26 at 6pm CT. The 13th season will conclude 24 hours before this.

Earlier this week, Activision also released a public test build for CODM. The build was used for some “tech-based” tests but also revealed a new mode, The Attack of the Undead 20, which could be coming next season.

A new map called Rebirth may also make its way to the game with the upcoming season. It was present in the public test build that was released in December 2020 but wasn’t released in season 13.

Source: https://dotesports.com/news/activision-is-refreshing-call-of-duty-mobiles-seasonal-count