Raidiant is a content and initiative platform focused on creating and celebrating opportunities for female gamers. The platform was created by Dignitas�� parent company, New Meta Entertainment, in November 2021.

The RCC is a new event series that will offer women competitive, influencer-driven, and pro-am tournaments across five popular game titles, including include Valorant, Rocket League, Fortnite, Overwatch 2, and League of Legends.

“As we continue to demonstrate that there��s a substantial appetite for more women��s esports programming,” Head of Raidiant Heather Garozzo said.

“I look forwards to expanding upon our events and working with even more brands to support the community and provide opportunities for the thousands of women participants, talent, producers, and gaming professionals who make all of this possible.”

Raidiant and Twitch also signed a co-sales agreement, placing the streaming platform as Raidiant Challenger Circuit��s exclusive sponsorship sales partner. Twitch will partner with multiple top brands in order to promote their event series and the events while supporting the community.

“We are thrilled to be part of the Raidiant Challenger Circuit. Our goal with this programme is to amplify the amazing work that Raidiant continues to do to provide a platform for women in gaming to compete at the highest level and inspire the next generation of women in esports,” Twitch��s global head of sponsorship sales, Lou Garate, said.

“Women have always been a part of gaming culture, and it��s important that we continue to celebrate and champion their impact.”

“By securing sponsors for the Raidiant Challenger Circuit, we want to support the continued growth of this fundamental sector of the gaming industry.”

The Raidiant Heroes Major will be the first event in the year-long programme. The competition is part of Blizzard��s Calling All Heroes initiative to lend a hand to marginalised groups in Overwatch 2.

The tournament will kick off on April 21 and conclude on April 23. Other RCC events will be held from July 7 to 9, then from November 17 to 19, before ending on January 17 to 19, 2024, in a Last Chance Qualifier.

Besides the recent partnership with Twitch, the platform has also collaborated with brands like NYX Cosmetics, Nerdy St. Gamers, and Twitter.

Raidiant also recently hosted Psyonix��s Ally Women��s Open tournament for female Rocket League teams in North America and Europe.

?More esports news

“Counter-Strike. Everywhere. We are now non-exclusive and will be broadcasting all of our livestreams to both Twitch AND YouTube!” ESL Counter-Strike tweeted.

Prior to this development, ESL events were streamed only on Twitch. Now both Twitch and YouTube will be broadcasting CS:GO matches simultaneously. The first CS:GO event that will be streamed on YouTube is the 2023 Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, which is scheduled to take place this week.

In 2020, ESL and its brand DreamHack signed an exclusive three-year agreement with Twitch. Although the exclusivity did not apply in 2020, the remaining years, 2021 and 2022, were exclusive.

The CS:GO tournament organizer has had exclusivity deals with other platforms before, such as Facebook and YouTube. At the time of the agreement, fans expressed their dislike for the exclusivity agreement.

ESL bought into the idea of integrating YouTube because of the advantages it has over Twitch. With YouTube, fans can replay streams — a feature not available on Twitch. Another added advantage is that fans can watch YouTube through their smart TV — an option that is not always available to Twitch users.

ESL will be joining a few other CS:GO tournament organizers, like BLAST and PGL, that have since incorporated both Twitch and YouTube as their streaming platforms.

YouTube can now broadcast tournaments such as the ESL Pro League, ESL Pro Tour, and ESL National Championships.

According to the chief relationship officer and senior vice president of brand and media partnerships at ESL, Mark Cohen, the entire ESL team is delighted to be giving its supporters a better “viewing experience”.

“As we are creating worlds beyond gameplay, it is important to connect with the community where they are, be that on Twitch, YouTube, or any other platform,” Cohen said.

“Live-streaming our events on our own broadcast channels across multiple platforms adds to the reach our products have via our official Media Rights partners and allows us and our brand partners to grow and nurture the esports community and to better serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide.

“Building on our relationships with Twitch and YouTube, we have the opportunity to provide fans with a better viewing experience, and we are thrilled to have them on board on this journey.”

The 2023 IEM Katowice play-in stage is scheduled to commence on Wednesday, February 1.

?More esports news

According to Stream Charts, Valorant, the first-person shooter game developed and published by Riot Games, was the most successful shooting game on Twitch in terms of viewership this year. It garnered more viewership on the purple platform than other FPS games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Fortnite.

From January to December 18th, the tactical first-person shooter game generated a staggering 1.126 billion total hours watched, nearly double the amount of the second-highest viewed FPS game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which had around 685 million total hours watched. Valorant’s strong performance on Twitch highlights its popularity and success in the FPS genre.

“Since its release in 2020, Valorant took the shooter genre by storm. A well-polished game that quickly gained a big fan base, it��s now one of the biggest titles in the genre,” Streams Charts said.

“Its esports scene also grew quickly, and this year it cemented itself as one of the most popular around the world. With Valorant winning the best esports game of the year award at the 2022 Game Awards, and captivating millions from all around the world, it’s no surprise the game sits at the top of this list. With an astonishing 1.1 billion Hours Watched, Valorant is this year’s most popular shooter.

“Coming in second place, we have Valorant biggest rival, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The game is already a classic of the shooter genre. It was released in 2012, and for many years it was the most popular shooter game, with no title coming close to it.

“It has one of the oldest, and biggest esports scenes in the industry. Despite being released 10 years ago, it still captivates the hearts of millions of players from all around the globe. In 2022, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was watched for 684 million hours.”

Right next to CS:GO is Apex Legends, which has become a popular choice among players for its battle royale gameplay. The game has consistently gained in popularity over the years and has even become a strong competitor to Fortnite, widely considered to be the most successful battle royale game to date.

Apex Legends has a thriving esports scene, and it is expected to continue growing in popularity. In terms of Twitch viewership, Apex Legends has achieved 640 million total hours watched, securing it the third spot on the list.

Although Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) had the highest peak viewership of any shooting game with 1.6 million viewers. On the other hand, Fortnite, developed by Epic Games, managed to beat out Valorant for the second-highest peak viewership. Valorant, a popular tactical first-person shooter game, still performed well in terms of peak viewership, coming in behind Fortnite.

Two of the most popular games on Twitch, CS:GO and VALORANT, also happen to have some of the most-watched streamers on the platform.

First on the list is Alexandre “gAuLeS” Borba, a Brazilian streamer who primarily streams Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and is a major player in the shooting game streaming category. He is extremely popular in Brazil and has the broadcast rights to some of the biggest tournaments for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

His channel is also the official watch party for Portuguese-language viewers, providing a unique viewing experience for Brazilian fans. In 2022, Gaules’ viewers tuned in to watch him stream shooter games for a total of 126 million hours. His popularity and access to top tournaments make him one of the most sought-after streamers for shooting games.

Tarik, a popular Valorant streamer on Twitch, often referred to as the “king of watch parties” for his coverage of the game’s biggest events comes in second. Many viewers choose to watch Tarik’s streams for his deep understanding of Valorant and its professional scene, as well as his unique perspective and valuable analysis.

In addition to his knowledge of the game, Tarik is also a skilled player, with a Radiant rank, the highest level in the game. His streams often feature him playing with and against top professional players in North America.

Over the course of 69.4 million hours watched, viewers have gained a wealth of knowledge and entertainment from Tarik’s Valorant streams. These streams have helped to increase the overall viewership of Valorant on Twitch.

Since its release in June 2020, Valorant has gained increasing popularity and has become a lucrative platform for content creation in the FPS genre. Despite its success, Valorant has yet to surpass Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), one of the most popular esports of all time, in terms of peak viewership. However, Valorant’s strong performance in other areas, such as average viewership and overall popularity, suggests that it has the potential to eventually surpass CS:GO and become one of the top FPS games in the industry.

The competitive scene of Valorant will return for the 2023 VCT (Valorant Champions Tour) season, along with new content for the game to be introduced by Riot Games. Fans can look forward to more exciting gameplay and updates in the upcoming year.

?More esports news

OpTic Gaming emerged as the winner of the tournament, but despite the team��s amazing feat, the viewership number of the World Championship was not impressive.

The future of Halo esports was put under question after the tournament��s viewership numbers were calculated. According to Esports Charts, the accumulated hours for all matches in the Halo World Championship 2022 was 1.9 million hours, with 34 hours of airtime. The HCS Kickoff Major and the HCS Anaheim surpassed the tournament in this category with 4.2 million and 2 million views, respectively.

The World Championship recorded 55.7K average viewers and a peak viewership of 143,585. The grand finals on Playoffs Day 2 saw OpTic Gaming and Cloud9 face off and reeled in the most views of the event. The match brought in most of the hours watched in the accumulated number.

Although the number is commendable, the grand final of the 2022 Kickoff Major recorded a peak viewership of 267,279. Call of Duty also brought in a much higher viewer count and more hours watched than the Halo World Championship 2022.

The esport title, which is Halo��s regional console shooter opponent, held its CDL 2022 playoffs in August this year and brought in more than 3.2 million hours watched. The competition��s grand finals also recorded 275,000 in peak viewership despite having a few hours less runtime than the Halo tournament and streaming exclusively on YouTube.

For the Halo World Championship 2022, more than 97% of its viewers watched English broadcasts of the event, while the other 2.7% were in Spanish. Regarding platforms, more than 91% of the hours watched were from Twitch and 9% from YouTube.

During the tournament, Halo Infinity reached a peak of 130,000 viewers on Twitch, which is the highest in 2022. HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021 was the only event that brought more views.

Besides the official Halo Twitch channels and Halo Esports on YouTube, other community casters like Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro also covered the tournament. The Call of Duty pro player brought in the largest audience of the tournament.

The Halo World Championship 2022 had 20 teams participate, and 16 moved past the tournament’s play-in to the main event. OpTic Gaming, who won the tournament, faced off and defeated Native Gaming Red, Gamers First, and Sentinels before facing Cloud9 in the event��s grand finals.

The North American squad took home $400,000 out of the $1,000,000 prize pool, while Cloud9 got $220,000.

In most cases, the World Championship, which symbolizes the end of the season, usually brings in the most hours watched and the highest peak viewership of the year. This applies to esports like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Valorant, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rocket League, R6 Siege, and others.

The Halo World Championship 2022��s inability to beat the viewership and hours watched of previous tournaments made esports the only major competition to fall behind.

Some esports fans previously lost interest in the tournament when 343 Industries announced the changes made to its crowdfunded prize pool. The HCS 2023 in the Halo Infinite era will get into full gear with the Kickoff Major. The event will be held in Charlotte from February 24 to 26.
?More esports news

?The page, which is an automated account that follows up and supplies the ban history of partnered streamers on Twitch, did not give any information concerning the reason for the ban in its Sunday post. The account only revealed that the ban was Crayator��s first and might last only a few days for this reason.?

?After the news of the ban circulated for a few hours, the Fortnite streamer took to his Twitter to post a parody video about the situation. Instead of talking about the strike in a regular tweet, Crayator assembled a performance based on Death Note, a Japanese manga.? ?

The video was captioned “my time has come” and saw the streamer place the logo of the purple platform on the main character��s face while writing down his name in a notebook. The book was Crayator��s version of the Death Note, the death-dealing notebook in the popular manga. The next scene saw the YouTuber fall into a pool, Crayator��s apparent reaction to his name being written on the notepad.? ?

The Twitch streamer further showed that he was not necessarily bothered by the ban by posting a video asking his followers to join his Discord server to find out the reason for the sudden ban. The post was captioned, “Omg want the reason we are banned?�� Join Discord for drama.”? ?He also posted a screenshot of his ban news on Google, seemingly amused by the outcome, and captioned it, “Look, mumma! I made the news!”?

?Crayator is popular on Twitch for streaming Fortnite on his account and was previously a member of Click, a YouTube group of content creators. The streamer joined the group in July 2020 along with other YouTubers such as Muselk, Bazza Gazza, and Loserfruit.? ?The popular YouTubers lived together in the Click House until the group disbanded. Crayator eventually moved out of the house during the COVID-19 pandemic.? ?

The Fortnite player continued streaming on his Twitch channel after putting a hold on content creation operations. Crayator is still in contact with Bazza Gazza, whom he shares a house with in Melbourne, Australia. The duo occasionally collaborate on streams.?

?While Fortnite is not Crayator��s only streaming content, Epic Games’ battle royale is the streamer��s most well-known content. His other games include, but are not limited to, Overwatch and Minecraft. The streamer mostly plays Fortnite for his audience during streams and has been to a number of events like TwitchCon for IRL streams.?

?The streamer��s ban led to several questions from his fans, including inquiries about when Crayator would be back on his platform and what could have caused the sudden ban. While he is yet to identify what led to it, some fans tried to point out the possible reason for the strike.? ?

One thing that most comments had in common was the notion that the ban would not be long-term because it was Crayator��s first time getting a strike.

?More esports news

The live audience was restricted to only the elimination and grand finals due to COVID restrictions. For the decider, the venue sold out shortly before the VCT Masters began.? ?Jean-Baptiste Blot, Executive Producer and Creative Director with Riot Games, shared a video of a long line of fans trying to gain entrance into the stadium with the caption informing the public that the stadium has been sold out.? ?

The grand finals were a thrill for the audience, both live and online. The finalists were the best of the best as they traded map picks to force a fifth game in the best-of-five series.?

?The grand final attracted nearly 200,000 viewers across multiple streams on YouTube and Twitch. The YouTube stream attracted over 71,000 people, while some 121,000 people tuned in on Twitch via various channels.

The Valorant esports scene is attaining massive growth, particularly with the new partnered-teams format to take effect in 2023. To further grow the esports title, it is said to be imperative that more live events are organized to engage and reward participating players.

The grand finals ended in favor of FunPlus Phoenix as the franchise won the fifth map to edge Paper Rex. The Chinese organization clinched its first Masters after a superb lower-bracket run.?

?The final VCT event for the 2022 season is the Valorant Champions, which is scheduled to take place from September 2-19 in Istanbul, Turkey, with 16 participating teams.

?More esports news

The new anti-cheat software in Warzone called Ricochet is not flawless when it comes to constantly banning troll players and cheaters from the game. On PCs, it’s a kernel-level driver that monitors gaming and background processes for anti-cheating. These metrics help anti-cheat analysts assess if a player is utilizing improper third-party tools.

In this particular incident, Metaphor has been banned from the game more than once due to a needless shadow ban imposed by the anti-cheat system. In this ban, players are not prevented from playing Call of Duty: Warzone; rather, they are sent to separate lobbies that are different from the standard game mode.

A player will find that any lobby they play in after that is packed with other players who have also been identified by the anti-cheat system. Activision assures that all hackers and cheats are playing together with this approach, leaving the regular lobbies that are played by honest gamers to play with themselves.

In recent years, Metaphor has become one of the most well-liked content creators on Twitch. When the streamer first began his profession in 2011, he was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and posting footage of his gameplay to his channel on YouTube. After that, in 2015, he joined Twitch and began streaming himself playing League of Legends for an extended period of time. In the year 2020, however, Metaphor began broadcasting videos related to CoD in May of 2020, when Warzone was launched. This was the series that brought him his claim to fame.

Activision’s Call of Duty: Battle Royale has never lacked competent and authentic content creators since the game’s initial release in 2020 when Warzone was made available to players. Due to the fact that he masters the keyboard and mouse combination on PCs, Metaphor is revered among the highly followed creators on the internet.

For the past two years, Metaphor has focused all of his attention on his involvement in the game. Following the publication of a large number of gameplay videos on his channel, he has earned a reputation for possessing extraordinary abilities in the game. He has acknowledged earning about 500 kills every day on-stream and occasionally off-stream combined.

But given the latest incident with Activision, it would appear that he is being treated poorly by the developers in reference to the ban. Metaphor has been an essential part of the Warzone community for a considerable amount of time at this point. Since the video was published, the Activision software team has not provided a response to any of this information. Therefore, it is possible that it will be some time before he is unbanned.

In the initial video he posted about the ban, he expressed surprise and dismay at how little assistance he received from the game’s developers in his quest to get unbanned. He said he was stunned by the situation.

A Twitter post by him read: “atleast whenever i get shadow banned I get a free banger on yt, sucks that @Activision has terrible employees and a worthless reporting system though. hopefully they can fix something soon because im not the only one getting shadowed, and im definitely not cheating.?”
?
?More esports news

She is the latest top streamer to make the switch as YouTube begins to gain some skin in the steaming war against Twitch. Her decision comes only after a few months away from when her good friend Thomas ��Sykkuno�� ported to YouTube.

LilyPichu made the announcement on her Twitter page via a video post she titled, ��my big decision��, which depicted the Matrix ��blue�� or ��red�� illustration. In front of her were two buttons – red (1) and purple (1), which represented YouTube (red) and Twitch (purple).

Thank you for supporting me ;_; I had so much fun on twitch, I can't wait to have just as much fun on youtube!!!

(my first stream will be in a hotel room in Japan it will be very janky)

— Lily (@LilyPichu) July 7, 2022

The OfflineTV member was unable to make the big decision so she resorted to having her pet choose. Her dog gestured closer to the red bowl which contained a YouTube logo design cake. She seem to agree with the decision as she was heard saying ��good decision.��

She looks to make her debut on July 8 on her dedicated YouTube channel, but the announcement did not bear details as to the time she would be live. A few days ago using her Twitter page, LilyPichu seemed to be itching to make some sort of announcement. She was seen counting down to something as she prepared, setting up some suspense for her big reveal.

2 hours ish!!!!

— Lily (@LilyPichu) July 7, 2022

She had garnered total watch hours of 2.9 million on Twitch as reported by Streams Charts. She had attained a peak of 32,137 viewers this year, with an average of about 5,508 viewers this year. While she covers a large range of content on the purple platform, her most played game is Valorant, which garnered a total of 145.6 hours spent.

LilyPichu to go live on Youtube OTV Japan stream

LilyPichu joins the likes of Valkyrae, DrLupo, TimTheTatman, and CouRage in signing an exclusive contract with YouTube Gaming. Although Dr. Disrespect streams exclusively on YouTube. This was attained due to an indefinite suspension he suffered on Twitch for reasons unknown to the public.

Her announcement was met with much fanfare by her fans and colleagues likewise, as she was congratulated for the move. Her switch was done ahead of the OTV Japan stream as she gears to make her first stream on YouTube on July 8.

WE��RE GOING TO JAPAN!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/KeI0fpDSn0

— OfflineTV (@OfflineTV) July 7, 2022

Her decade-long union with Twitch comes to an end as she looks to chart a new course with YouTube. Like Imane ��Pokimane�� Anys and William ��Scarra�� Li, LilyPichu is an original member of OfflineTV. While she is known for her gaming streams, she is also a musician.

While she frequently plays competitive esports titles like Valorant and League of Legends. Her most popular posts have always been her laid-back collab streams with Pokimane, Sykkuno, Jeremy ��Disguised Toast�� Wang and her boyfriend Michael Reeves. She also shares content that borders on art and music on her channel.

She received tons of well wishes from YouTube streamers, including Valkyrae, Sykkuno, and TimTheTatman. They wished her a smooth transition to her new platform, with her being used to Twitch. Even Twitch took to Twitter to bid her farewell and thanked her for her time with the brand.

��From art to music, to gaming, you did it all with a voice and style that’s unmistakably you,�� Twitch’s official Twitter account tweeted.

��Good luck, keep growing, and thanks for sharing so many memories with us.��

?More esports news

In May, the former?professional Counter-Strike player garnered 28.83 million hours viewed, which was?four million far beyond F��lix “xQc” Lengyel, who had been on top ever since the?start of the year. However, throughout the month, the French-Canadian star had streamed for significantly fewer hours than Gaules.

Gaules’ remarkable hours were accumulated after the Brazilian content creator co-streamed the PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major, which happens to be?one of the year’s greatest esports events thus far.

Numerous Brazilian teams competed in the competition, which almost certainly?helped the content creator?reach new heights last month. During the event, the 38-year-old?Gaules had the most-watched Twitch stream, which enabled him to create a new viewing record.

Even though Gaules was the most-viewed streamer in May, xQc still had a great month, coming in second with 24.29 million hours viewed. Meanwhile, Asmongold came in third with 19,57 million watched hours.?

The broadcast of the PGL Antwerp Major on the primary channel garnered 14.42 million hours of viewership and finished fifth in the ratings. Riot Games placed sixth with 12.39 million hours viewed after conducting the Mid-Season Invitational.

Ibai, a Spanish content creator and influencer, placed 10th with 7.68 million hours viewed, proving that there were other non-English speakers in the top 10 with?Gaules.

The Brazilian streamer had a major hit with his Twitch broadcasts during the PGL Antwerp CS:GO Major. According to EsportsCharts, he secured 18.37 million hours viewed?during the competition, making him the No.1 broadcast of the past Major.

Even when combined, Gaules greatly outperformed the official English broadcast given by PGL. PGL’s A stream received 14.61 million hours of viewing time, while the B stream garnered 3.13 million. Other notable significant?broadcasts were the official Russian broadcast?with 5.8 million hours viewed,?and the one from CS:Steam GO’s client, which garnered 6.64 million.

Official broadcasts, such as PGL and Gaules, were distinguished from those produced by community streamers by EsportsCharts. With 870,000 hours viewed, Argentinian streamer Goncho topped the rankings.

Gaules set a number of records during the PGL Antwerp Major. When Imperial, Brazil’s most popular CS:GO team, was facing Cloud9 to avoid elimination, his feed peaked at 707,600 viewers. He currently holds the all-time record for Portuguese-language streaming, surpassing Felipe Neto and Casimiro, two well-known Brazilian streamers.

Gaules announced during the Major playoffs that he had exceeded 100,000 Twitch subscribers. According to TwitchTracker data, he joined the ranks of Ludwig, Ninja, Ironmouse, Critical Role, Casimiro, RanbooLive, xQc, and Shroud.

In early 2018, the previous?coach and professional player started?streaming on Twitch and?swiftly became one of Brazil’s most popular streamers. In both 2020 and 2021, he received the Brazilian esports award (Pr��mio eSports Brasil) for best streamer.

?More esports news

??After the ban was lifted, the streamer took to his Twitter account saying that he would learn from his mistakes, while also referencing the comment that got him banned initially.??

��I have learned from my mistakes, am already unbanned, no more face sitting for me,” he wrote.

??The streaming society gave the reason for the ban to be an error from the Twitch algorithm and not the Twitch admins. Although this has been stated, some fans still believe that the popular streamer was banned as a result of his move from the Twitch streaming platform to YouTube, and they wasted no time airing their opinions under his tweet. ??

They banned you because u went to YouTube lol petty ass site

— Cells (@Yisx) May 15, 2022

Sounds like twitch vengeance for YouTube to me?!?

— Colwell (@pokercolwell) May 15, 2022

Some fans compared the situation to that of smaller streamers�� accounts that weren��t unbanned after the Twitch algorithm flagged down their accounts for similar reasons.??

The situation was stupid to begin with, but curious that it was fixed soo quickly. If only they had this type of speed when it came to smaller streamers

— FischLoco (@FischLoco) May 15, 2022

wow, the elite really do live by a different set of rules

— Danjitsu (@Danjitsu) May 15, 2022

Strimmer privilege strikes again smh my head

— GOOTS Enjoyer (@Franklinaire) May 15, 2022

DrLupo is very popular in the streaming community with a very active fanbase, hence the various reactions to his ban situation.

?More esports news