Communication is key to any tactical shooter—and VALORANT is no exception. Hitting headshots is certainly important, but knowing the ins and outs of each of the game’s maps and communicating effectively should never be overlooked. You don’t need to be a headshot machine if you know how to take the upper ground, rotate, and outmaneuver your opponents. If you’re not up to scratch with your callouts, you’re missing out.

Noxcrew hit the ground running with season two of the Minecraft Championship (MCC). And for the second event of the new season, MCC will be celebrating and supporting Pride on June 26.  MCC Pride 2021 will be run in partnership with YouTube Gaming and The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth, as a special charity event.  🏳️‍🌈 MCC Pride: 2021 🏳️‍🌈 We're bringing you a very special MCC on Saturday 26th June!

In every new League of Legends patch, some champions get buffed while others get nerfed. Some of these adjustments are minor, but others can sometimes have a significant impact. Nevertheless, even a small change can shift the dynamic of a champion, especially when it comes to ARAM. We analyzed the champions with the highest win rates in ARAM across all regions to give you a better understanding of the game mode.

Despite TFT patch 11.13 making relatively minor adjustments to the balance of traits and champions, the meta became quite restrictive, seeing major vertical synergies like Redeemed and Dawnbringer continue to dominate in ranked games of all skill levels. The biggest changes this patch came in the form of buffs for Skirmishers and Rangers which now allows for these comps to be played in the meta. They still fall second fiddle to the Redeemed and Dawnbringer comps in most situations, however.

Mouse pads used to be the gray, necessary evil atop every PC owner’s desk. These days, gamers customize their setups from their CPU to the case size to the color of their keyboard’s cable. While mouse pads are much more customizable and come in different styles and designs, there are still only two main kinds of mouse pads: hard and soft.  Physical differences in hard and soft mouse pads are straightforward.

There are numerous ways that you can support a streamer on Twitch, including by donating and subscribing. But there’s one particularly unique way that Twitch lets viewers give to creators as well—Bits. Twitch’s “Bit” system is a way that viewers can spend little to no money and “cheer” in a channel’s chat with unique “Cheermotes.” For every one Bit that someone uses to cheer in a chat, that channel receives $0.

No matter how talented you are in VALORANT, odds are you’ll need your internet connection to be in top shape to climb the game’s ranked ladder. Packet loss and high ping can negatively affect players’ gameplay experience with stutters or delays. If you’re experiencing packet loss while playing VALORANT, you may unexpectedly find yourself taken down without even hearing a shot. Players with packet loss will always play at a disadvantage versus others with smooth connections, meaning it’s an issue you should fix to have a better time in VALORANT.

The PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller is a popular choice among PC players who don’t always abide by the mouse and keyboard life. But the DualSense doesn’t feature driver support from Sony and didn’t have the ability to update the controller’s firmware without a PS5 until now, that is. Updating your DualSense controller is a breeze and only requires a few steps instead of hunting down a PS5 console. You’ll just need to download a tool direct from Sony and have a compatible USB cable on hand to plug your controller into the PC.

A classic League of Legends skin is set to be expanded upon this year. Battle Bunny Riven will be receiving a modern update, as well as some companion skins in a new thematic skin line.  In today’s lengthy developer update, Riot Games confirmed that the original Battle Bunny Riven skin, which was released in 2012, will serve as the blueprint for a new thematic skin line called the “Anima Squad.”

Hunter “SicK” Mims is a 22-year-old VALORANT player for Sentinels who mainly plays Phoenix, Sage, and Sova. With decisive victories in the VCT 2021: North America Stage One Masters and Stage Two Challengers Two events, Sentinels are considered one of the best teams in the region. Prior to playing with Sentinels, Mims played CS:GO for numerous organizations, including TSM, Misfits, Rogue, and Complexity. SicK uses a Logitech G900 mouse and a HyperX Alloy FPS Pro keyboard.