Late last week, Valve announced that the popular video game would become free to play.

That news has sparked significant debate within the CS:GO community, as there are concerns that free play could attract cheats and hackers.

Others say the nature of Prime Status accounts should prevent malcontents from gaining a foothold.

The move has already seen a massive spike in activity, with CS:GO recording its highest participation numbers in over two years on Saturday, December 8.

Not all has gone to plan, however, with more than 14,000 negative reviews appearing on Steam from players who had already spent money on a game that is now free.

The other big news from Valve is the addition of a battle royale mode.

Danger Zone is a fast-paced version of CS:GO where up to 18 players fight to the finish.

Catering for solo play, duos and trios, the game offers a noted point of difference from battle royale favourites such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds where up to 100 players can duke it out.

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On patch 3.6, Fortnite: Battle Royale is introducing Clingers – the perfect mix of stickiness and damage. Stuck to a player, the Clingers make 100 damage. On structures, the damage goes up to 200. The delay time for the explosion is 2.5 seconds and multiple Clingers can get stuck on the same target.

Players can only find three Clingers at a time on the loots and the Stack Size is 10 Clingers.

These cannot explode midair as other explosive devices. However, if the Clingers get stuck to a structure and it goes down, the explosion will be immediate. Labeled as Uncommon items, Clingers can be found on supply drops, supply llamas, floor loots and treasure chests.

Patch 3.6 also brings news for the Save The World mode. Another new weapon, the Noble Launcher, gives players the power to fire waves of energy against their opponents.

The new Self-Service Cosmetic Return feature allows players to exchange outfits, harvesting tools, emotes and other cosmetic items. Battle Passes, Starters Packs and similar items cannot be exchanged on this new service.

The latest round of updates also includes changes to the Minigun. The accuracy and damage has gone up by 10% and two points respectively, while the frequency of Remote Explosives in Treasure Chests is down 40%.

Port-a-Fort changes include a new preview and a warning if the player aims too high.

Patch 3.6 is now live on Fortnite’s servers. The Noble Launcher will be available from 1am BST on April 26.

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The battle royale genre has won a massive following in 2018. Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) started the trend, while Fortnite: Battle Royale has taken it worldwide. Millions of players join those lobbies every day, so it is no surprise that more and more games are trying to cash in on the trend.

The word on the grapevine is that the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 release will not feature the classic single-player mode. That, in turn, has led to speculation that the franchise is planning a move into the lucrative battle royale market.

Activision, the company behind COD, is yet to confirm or deny the rumors.

Call of Duty is not the first gaming franchise to go chasing trends, and fans have reacted positively to the rumored changes. The big question is whether the game’s developers can bring something new to the table.

Every successful battle royale game has a standout feature. PUBG is the original, in Fortnite the players can destroy and build structures, while H1Z1 offers the innovative ‘auto-royale’ mode where players drive around in teams of four.

If COD does venture into battle royale, what will separate it from the pack?

Activision is set to hold a community reveal on May 17, when fans can expect to receive more details about Black Ops 4. The official release date is October 12.

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Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games, believes in giving players more and better in-game tools, the newest of which is the Light Machine Gun. The exact date of release is yet to be revealed, but many believe it will come with the next update.

True to form, Epic has released only a vague description of the new weapon. According to the in-game news section, the Light Machine Gun will have “fast rate of fire, large magazine and a slow reload time”.

The Fortnite community keeps speculating about the Light Machine Gun, especially about the accuracy. If the original announcement is anything to go by, this weapon will be classed as Uncommon or Rare.

The submachine guns (SMGs) already available in the game have a reload time between 2.2 and 2.5 seconds. All the weapons in this category hold either 30 or 35 bullets at once.

Those numbers and Epic’s brief description suggest the new Light Machine Gun could have a reload time between 2.7 and 3.0 seconds, while the magazine could hold between 50 and 100 shots.

Epic will be praying the new weapon receive better reviews than the ill-fated Guided Missile, which was removed from Fortnite this week after a buggy update left users fuming.

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For the first time, a battle royale game will have an esports league. The action kicks off on April 21 at Caesars Entertainment Studio in Las Vegas.

What is H1Z1?

H1Z1 is a free-to-play battle royale game that was released in February 2018. Developed by Daybreak Game Company, it is available on PC only. Other platforms are yet to be announced.

Each match features 150 players and the last survivor wins. Players can enter solo, in duos, or in teams of five.

The players parachute into the map from random locations. As they land they must find supplies to defend themselves. Hiding and waiting is not an option. A toxic gas advances, thus reducing the safe zone. Eventually the remaining players will have to meet and fight.

There are several objects available for the players to grab, like weapons and medical kits. Vehicles and the possibility of building weapons are some of the innovations on H1Z1.

While the game is not as popular as other titles in the genre, it is considered one of the best.

H1Z1 league format

The tournament will be divided into two splits with an off-season in between. Each split will last 10 weeks.

Each will feature 15 teams of five players each. This means that every match will have 75 players instead of the regular 150.

Teams will play twice a week for a total of 20 matches per split. Whichever side accrues the most match points over the course of the split will be crowned champion.

All matches will take place at the Caesars Entertainment Studio in Las Vegas. Those who cannot travel to Sin City for live matches can watch the stream on the H1Z1 Facebook page.

H1Z1 teams

The H1Z1 esports league will have 15 teams competing for the title:

– Alliance
– Cloud9
– Counter Logic Gaming
– Echo Fox
– Epsilon Esports
– Gankstars
– Impact Gaming
– Luminosity Gaming
– Noble Esports
– Obey Alliance
– Rogue
– SetToDestroyX
– Team SoloMid
– Team Vitality
– Tempo Storm

The H1Z1 Pro League (H1PL) will have a combination of new and experienced organizations. Teams from North America and Europe will participate in the first edition, with names like Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming and Cloud9 standing out.

These sides have in common their presence in games like CS:GO, Call of Duty and League of Legends. This latest venture makes them pioneers of the battle royale genre, which enjoys massive popularity in the online gaming community.

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Boss Key is the latest studio to jump into the race, although it has a lot of ground to make up thanks to the failure of its last title, Lawbreakers. The company is hoping for a different outcome with Radical Heights, its first foray into the battle royale genre.

The year is 2023 and Radical Heights is the most popular game show on TV. The competitors are there to win fame and glory in a 1980s-themed world. The map is divided into blocks and as the game progress, those blocks cease to be safe. The last man standing will take it all.

In-game the players cannot build, there are few loots and the buildings are grey blocks without any details.

The early access version redefines what “early access” means, and not in a good way. Boss Key released a product they worked on for only five months. The attractive point would be the aesthetic, but that was not finished when the demo went live.

There are several confusing elements, such as the BMX races and the vending machines. Also, spinning wheels are falling from the sky. The general consensus is that Radical Heights is the result of an interesting concept poorly executed.

Before it went live, players could purchase a Founders Package. Players with that package would receive higher rewards in-game, which made it something of a ‘pay to win’ scenario. The studio has since removed that advantage to make it fair for all players.

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Fortnite is currently the most played game on the Twitch platform and despite the multiple imitations, the game remains as the preferred option for streamers, celebrities and pro-players alike.

Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, is trying to keep the momentum going with new items and updates.

They first teased the Port-a-Fort grenade on the in-game news tab. Then they showed how it worked with a short video on their social media.

Epic Games finally introduced the item with patch 3.5 on April 10. Simply put, it is a portable three-story fort made of metal. Upon impact, the building sprouts and gives a tactical advantage to the player. It could be considered a defense item with offense utility.

Streamers immediately showed how to take advantage of the grenade. It is possible to build multiple Port-a-Fort one on top of the other. Combined with the first shot accuracy, it is a guaranteed win.

This item could be a life saver for players that don’t know how to build efficiently. Building is the ability that differentiates Fortnite from other battle royale games.

At the moment, the Port-a-Fort grenade is overpowered just like the Guided Missile, an item introduced on a previous patch. Epic Games is known for the attention they pay to the Fortnite community. The studio will certainly nerf both items in futures updates.

After the success of the Port-a-Fort and vending machines, Epic Games announced they will keep adding content without major updates.

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Trusted Reviews has reportedly received leaked developer notes and promotional documents on Red Dead Redemption 2 that reveal a planned ‘Battle Royale’ mode for the game’s online component.

While the papers did not elaborate on how the mode will run, it is assumed it will follow the general template of other last-man-standing style multiplayer titles like Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, both which have recorded some of the highest concurrent playerbases and viewership counts last year and spurned high demand for official esports leagues.

Two other online game modes for RDR 2 were also leaked. ‘Money Grab’ pits two teams against each other to secure bags of money and bring them back to their base without getting robbed, while ‘Revive and Survive’ features two teams battling it out in a single elimination death match setting, with limited time to revive wounded teammates.

The open world nature of the game coupled with many other proposed multiplayer features – you can barter and talk with NPCs, own and upgrade tents to show off your wealth to other players and engage in spontaneous treasure hunts and other activities seamlessly in between competitive gameplay – is already exciting a very vocal fanbase eager for a new large-scale battle royale mode.

If you don’t understand what all the battle royale fuss is about, start paying attention.

Last year, esports numbers cruncher Superdata reported PUBG had a total of 202 million unique viewers on Twitch from May to October 2017, with 10 concurrent million players on Steam.

PUBG also beat out League of Legends in raw viewership numbers in some months and with its viewership significantly higher than its actual player-base, there’s a massive audience just waiting to watch hundreds of players battle on the same map at the same time and compete on a professional level.

For those unfamiliar with the series (blasphemy!), Red Dead Redemption 2 is an upcoming Western-themed action-adventure video game and a prequel to the original award-winning 2010 release.

RDR2 is developed by Rockstar Games, one of the most popular triple A developers in the video game space and one of the only studios who have yet to enter the esports circuit.

With stellar open-world environments and several mods adding battle-royale style gameplay to other Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto V, it’s only natural to hope the leaks are true and we can get our Western-themed last-man-standing fix.

Where can I bet on battle royale esports?

While we wait for RDR 2 to release and the battle royale rumours to come to fruition, we recommend checking out several esports betting sites if you want to place a bet on similar games like Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

While both games are yet to have an official esport league, many top-ranking online sportsbooks are taking bets on third-party organized tournaments for PUBG, and offer betting markets on the most popular esports like CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and StarCraft II.

If you are interested in betting on your favourite battle royale esports in the lead-up to RDR2’s release, we recommend checking out BetOnline to our readers from United States based on licensing, security, betting options and payment methods.

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