BC.Game have confirmed the loan signing of Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold from The MongolZ, bringing the Mongolian rifler in as the fourth member of the team’s active Counter-Strike 2 roster. Assistant coach Robin “ScrunK” Röpke will step in as the in-game leader for the team’s next two events while the organisation continues its search for a permanent captain.

Welcome @Senzucs to BC Game Esports 🤩@bcgame pic.twitter.com/evENqDHOgd

— BC Game Esports (@BCGameEsports) April 27, 2026

The move was announced on Sunday by BC.Game Esports, The MongolZ, and Senzu himself across their respective social channels. It marks the latest step in BC.Game’s roster overhaul following the recent departures of Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes and António “aragornN” Barbosa.

Senzu Joins BC.Game On Loan From The MongolZ

Senzu arrives at BC.Game on a loan deal that runs through the team’s upcoming tournament cycle. The 21-year-old had been playing on loan at Passion UA since February 2026, where he posted a team-high 1.21 rating but was unable to lift the Ukrainian side’s results. His final outing for Passion UA came at FRAG 20, where the squad finished third.

Senzu was ranked 13th on HLTV’s Top 20 Players of 2025 list, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest individual riflers to come out of the Asian region. His addition gives BC.Game a fourth core player to slot alongside Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, and Adones “krazy” Nobre.

ScrunK Steps In As IGL For IEM Atlanta And CS Asia Championship

With the in-game leader spot still vacant, BC.Game have turned to assistant coach ScrunK to call the shots in the short term. The German veteran will stand in as IGL for IEM Atlanta, which begins on 11 May, and the CS Asia Championship that follows shortly after in China.

BC.Game stated that the stand-in arrangement is strictly temporary. The organisation plans to sign a permanent IGL once the next Counter-Strike Major concludes, meaning ScrunK’s playing role is unlikely to extend beyond the team’s current commitments.

Read More: karrigan Joins Falcons From FaZe As kyxsan Benched Ahead Of IEM Cologne Major

Read More: nocries Joins BC.Game as Stand-In for IEM Atlanta 2026 Alongside s1mple

The Reasoning Behind BC.Game’s Restructure

The Senzu loan caps off a turbulent stretch for BC.Game. The organisation parted ways with MUTiRiS and aragornN earlier in the month after a sustained run of underwhelming results, including a group-stage exit at PGL Bucharest and a failed run at qualifying for the Cologne Major.

Bringing in Senzu signals that BC.Game are leaning into raw firepower while they sort out their leadership question. Pairing his rifling with the experience of s1mple and electroNic gives the team a high individual ceiling, but the roster’s success will hinge on how quickly ScrunK can stabilise the in-game calling.

BC.Game’s Updated Roster For Upcoming Events

Below is the BC.Game lineup that will compete at IEM Atlanta and CS Asia Championship.

What Comes Next For BC.Game

BC.Game’s next test arrives at IEM Atlanta on 11 May, where the new-look five will get its first competitive run together. The CS Asia Championship in China follows soon after, giving Senzu a return to home turf in front of regional fans.

The bigger question is what happens after the Major. BC.Game have made it clear that the IGL search is the priority once the dust settles, and the answer to that search will likely determine whether Senzu’s loan converts into something more permanent or whether he returns to The MongolZ at the end of the agreement.

The post BC.Game Loan Signs Senzu From The MongolZ As Fourth Player, ScrunK To Stand In As IGL appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Valve has finally locked in a release date and price for its long-teased Steam Controller, more than five months after the gamepad was first revealed. The new controller lands on Monday, 4 May 2026 at 10:00 AM PT, priced at US$99, with Valve confirming the details on its official Twitter account little more than a week ahead of launch.

Excited to announce our @Steam Controller arrives on Steam May 4th at 10 a.m. PT.

Learn more and wishlist here: https://t.co/X8cETMRY3N

— Valve (@valvesoftware) April 27, 2026

It is the first new gamepad from Valve since the original Steam Controller’s 2015 debut, and it is shipping ahead of the still-delayed Steam Machine and Steam Frame headset that were announced alongside it last November.

Release Date And Pricing By Region

The launch is global, with timing tied to North American business hours. For NZ buyers, that translates to a 5:00 AM Tuesday, 5 May (NZST) drop, well before the local working day starts. Valve has officially confirmed prices in the US and EU so far, with UK and other regional pricing yet to appear on the Steam Store at the time of writing.

Pre-orders are not part of the rollout. The missing queue system is flagged as a likely headache for launch day, given how much chatter the hardware has generated since its reveal in November 2025. Valve says it has built a significant quantity of stock for launch and can produce more if demand outpaces supply.

What Is Actually New In The Hardware

The headline change is the dual-trackpad layout, with each side of the controller pairing a thumbstick and a square trackpad. The pads are pressure-sensitive with configurable click strength and are designed to replicate mouse-style input for games traditionally locked to keyboard and mouse. Valve is pitching this as the way back in for FPS, strategy and simulation players who never warmed to gamepads.

The thumbsticks are magnetic TMR units with capacitive touch, the same drift-resistant tech that has become standard for premium third-party controllers in 2026. The capacitive layer lets the controller detect whether your thumb is resting on the stick, which Steam Input can use to switch motion-based aiming on and off automatically.

The rest of the feature set fills out the premium-controller checklist:

• Four HD haptic motors total, two under the trackpads for fine tactile feedback and two in the grips for traditional rumble
• A six-axis gyro paired with capacitive grip sensors in the handles, used to toggle motion controls only when the controller is being held
• Four programmable back buttons sitting under the middle and ring fingers
• A dedicated Steam button doubling as a power switch and a cascade shortcut into Steam, Big Picture mode and the Steam menu
• Infrared LEDs built into the controller for tracking by the Steam Frame headset’s cameras when it eventually ships
• An 8.39Wh lithium-ion battery, with Valve quoting up to 35 hours of gameplay

Connectivity is handled by a small puck attached to a 5-foot USB-C cable. The puck doubles as a magnetic charging dock and a 2.4GHz wireless receiver, can host up to four Steam Controllers at once, and snaps onto the back of the controller when not in use. There is also a USB-C port on the top of the controller for direct charging or wired play, plus Bluetooth for connecting to phones and tablets.

Compatibility Across The Steam Ecosystem

The 2015 Steam Controller leaned almost entirely on Steam itself, but the new model casts a wider net. Valve says it works with any device running Steam or the Steam Link app, which covers Windows, macOS and Linux, plus tablets and smartphones routed through Steam Link.

It is fully compatible with the Steam Deck in both docked and handheld modes, pairs directly with the upcoming Steam Machine, and can wake a Steam Machine remotely without needing the puck plugged in. All of this strongly suggests it is being designed as the default input for that hardware whenever it actually ships. Console support, on the other hand, is off the table. The controller does not pair with PS5 or Xbox systems, even over Bluetooth.

How The Price Stacks Up Against Other Controllers

At US$99, the Steam Controller sits in an awkward middle ground. It costs more than the standard first-party console gamepads, but well below most enthusiast PC controllers with comparable feature sets.

The dual haptic trackpads are what set the Steam Controller apart in that lineup. Cheaper TMR-based options match the drift-resistant sticks but lack the trackpads, while ultra-premium gamepads like the Asus ROG Raikiri II add features such as RGB lighting that drive the price up sharply without offering trackpads at all.

Speaking to IGN, Valve’s Steve Cardinali credited the US$99 figure to discipline about what features made the cut and what was left out, with the absence of RGB lighting falling into that bucket. Valve also told The Verge that the price is still higher than originally planned, pointing to global shipping costs and the broader memory and component crunch as the main drivers.

Steam Machine And Steam Frame Are Still Missing

The Steam Controller was announced last November alongside two other pieces of hardware, the Steam Machine console-style PC and the Steam Frame VR headset. Both remain unannounced for release, and the silence has only grown louder as the controller’s launch closes in.

In an interview with IGN, Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais said the team does not have an updated timeline for either product but described internal progress as broadly positive and indicated Valve expects to roll out news on both soon. He stopped short of committing to a 2026 release window for either device.

The most likely reason for the staggered rollout is the ongoing global memory shortage. Valve has said publicly that DRAM and storage prices are pushing the Steam Machine’s pricing and timing into uncertain territory, and the Steam Controller has been able to ship first because it does not use system RAM. Early estimates from outlets including IGN have put the Steam Machine somewhere between US$800 and US$1,500, although nothing has been confirmed by Valve.

What To Watch On Launch Day

With no pre-order pipeline to absorb early demand, May 4 is shaping up as a chaotic Monday morning for anyone hoping to grab a unit at 10:00 AM PT. Valve’s regional Steam Store pages are the only confirmed point of sale so far, and stock visibility there will be the main thing to track once the timer hits zero.

For NZ buyers, the early-Tuesday window means the rush will largely be over before most people are heading to work. Anyone wanting a closer look at the hardware before then can find IGN’s Steam Controller unboxing video and full review already live, with around two weeks of hands-on testing behind both.

The bigger story sits behind the launch itself, particularly whether Valve uses the controller’s reception as a runway to finally lock in firm dates for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.

The post Steam Controller Launches May 4 at US$99, Valve Confirms appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox is teaming up with Discord again, and this time the collaboration is tied directly to Game Pass. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the partnership on X on 22 April 2026, hinting that code could already be appearing in the wild for players to spot.

The tease landed just a day after Microsoft lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, adding another layer to what has quickly become a busy week for Xbox’s subscription service. Details are thin for now, but the direction is clear enough: Game Pass is being reshaped, and Discord is part of that plan.

What Asha Sharma Actually Said

Sharma’s post on X framed the collaboration as a continuation of the long-running relationship between Xbox and Discord, rather than a brand-new pairing. Her exact wording points to flexibility as the core goal.

Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy echoed the announcement in his own post, saying he’s “super excited to continue this journey” with Xbox and confirming the two companies are working together to make Game Pass more flexible. Neither executive has shared specifics on what the partnership will actually deliver, but the “code in the wild” line strongly suggests testing is already underway.

Super excited to continue this journey with @Xbox. We’ve built cool things for players together, and now we’re partnering to make Game Pass more flexible. Stay tuned! https://t.co/4DFig1g9o7

— Stanislav (@svishnevskiy) April 22, 2026

How Discord Nitro Could Fit Into Game Pass

The most obvious speculation so far is around Discord Nitro. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can currently claim a single month of Discord Nitro as a perk, and an expanded bundle feels like a natural next step. Options being floated by industry watchers include Nitro Basic being rolled directly into Ultimate, or select Nitro features becoming a standard part of certain Game Pass tiers.

This would slot neatly into a wider strategy Microsoft has been hinting at for months. Reporting earlier this year pointed to Microsoft actively exploring ways to bundle third-party services with Game Pass subscriptions, and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters previously mentioned to The Information that he and Sharma had “kicked around ideas” for subscription bundles between the two companies.

Read More: Xbox Games Showcase 2026 Set for June 7, Followed by Gears of War: E-Day Direct

Read More: Xbox Game Pass April 2026 Wave 2 – Vampire Crawlers, Aphelion, Final Fantasy V And Every New Game

The “Pick Your Own Plan” Game Pass Is Taking Shape

The Discord tease is arriving alongside reports that Microsoft is working toward a “pick your own plan” structure for Game Pass, a significant shift from the current rigid tier setup. Two internal tier experiments have been mentioned in recent reporting.

Triton Tier

A reported lower-cost tier focused on first-party Xbox titles only. This would give players access to Microsoft-published games without the full third-party library, likely aimed at subscribers who mainly want day-one Halo, Forza, and Bethesda releases.

Duet Tier

A bundled tier that could pair Game Pass with Netflix, giving subscribers both services under a single subscription. A Discord-flavoured equivalent would sit comfortably in this same bundling logic, pairing Game Pass with Nitro as a single flexible package.

None of these tiers have been officially confirmed by Microsoft, and the Discord partnership itself has not been tied explicitly to any of them. The common thread is the same: Game Pass moving away from a one-size-fits-all model toward something more modular.

A Partnership Built On Years Of Integration

Xbox and Discord first started working together in 2018, when Microsoft enabled linking between Xbox Live profiles and Discord accounts. That relationship deepened in 2022 with Discord voice chat arriving natively on Xbox consoles, letting players drop into Discord servers without needing a phone or PC nearby.

The most recent layer came in 2024, when Xbox added the ability to stream to Discord and watch Discord streams directly from a console. Each step has pushed Discord further into the Xbox dashboard, and a Game Pass tie-in would extend that presence from the console itself into the subscription that underpins most Xbox players’ libraries.

What The Timing Tells Us

The announcement landing one day after a Game Pass price cut is not a coincidence worth ignoring. Game Pass has faced ongoing criticism over price increases in recent tiers, and adding perks through partnerships is a fairly clean way to boost perceived value without reversing course on pricing strategy.

Competition in the subscription space is also sharpening. PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, and various publisher-specific services are all jockeying for the same wallet share, and a Game Pass that bundles streaming, communication, and community tools under one subscription starts to look less like a games library and more like a full entertainment platform.

Whether that future includes a proper Nitro bundle, a lightweight perk upgrade, or something entirely different will come down to what that “code in the wild” actually reveals. For now, players hunting for easter eggs in the Xbox app or Discord client might be the first to find out.

The post Xbox Confirms New Discord Partnership To Make Game Pass More Flexible appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

A small indie game called Scarlet Skips has become the most talked-about release on gaming this week, and the reasons are not especially subtle. Developer Yerk introduced the one-button jump rope roguelike on 20 April 2026, and within a day a single repost of the trailer had pulled in roughly 4.1 million views, with most of the attention pointed squarely at the protagonist’s chest physics rather than the gameplay loop.

The game itself is a genuinely clever take on score-chasing roguelikes, built around a single button and stackable upgrades. But the conversation online has split cleanly in two, with one crowd dissecting the mechanics and a much larger crowd making the same joke over and over. The Steam page is now live for wishlisting, and whether that traffic converts into actual sales will be one of the more interesting indie case studies of the year.

How Scarlet Skips Actually Plays

Underneath the memes, Scarlet Skips is a tightly designed arcade roguelike. The entire game runs on press, hold, and release inputs of one button, with the hold duration controlling jump height and rope swing timing. Nail the release and Scarlet keeps skipping, mistime it and the run ends.

The roguelike layer sits on top of that core loop. Each level-up offers a choice of three random power-ups pulled from a pool the developer describes as more than a dozen possible upgrades, ranging from increased jump height to adding a jump rope, to setting the rope on fire. The upgrades stack and combine, which opens up what Yerk pitches as a virtually infinite number of build configurations for players chasing optimised runs.

The premise framing is lightly self-aware. The Steam description frames the game as helping Scarlet break out of her funk by touching grass, with the tagline noting that life can be hard but you can take it one jump at a time. It is a simple elevator pitch for a simple game, which is part of why it has spread so easily.

Why The Trailer Blew Up

The game went viral through a repost from indie curator account IndieGameJoe, which framed Scarlet Skips with a straight description of its mechanics and asked whether people would play it. That tweet hit around 4.1 million views, and the replies quickly made clear that a lot of the audience was not primarily interested in roguelike build theory.

This indie dev is making a game where all you do is skip rope… with one button.

– Time your jumps perfectly
– Roguelike upgrades every run
– Try to survive as long as possible

It’s called Scarlet Skips. Would you play this? pic.twitter.com/yyKYd8TiRa

— Indie Game Joe (@IndieGameJoe) April 20, 2026

One reply noted that the developer had put their focus on “the physics” in a jumping game, to which IndieGameJoe replied that the idea is actually cool though. Another account replied that they play it “purely” for the roguelike mechanics, which earned a simple “ffs” from the curator. The running joke across quote tweets was that the character’s proportions and bounce animations were doing more marketing work than the trailer itself.

A secondary observation that has picked up traction is that Scarlet bears a clear visual resemblance to Princess Daisy from the Mario series, with red hair, a blue top, and a pose-heavy animation style.

Read More: Now You Can Run GameCube and Wii Games on Switch Without Android

Read More: Xbox Game Pass Price Drops by $7, But Call of Duty Loses Day One Access

The Animation System Yerk Is Actually Selling

The uncomfortable irony for the developer is that Scarlet’s animation system is the feature they seem genuinely proud of, and it is the reason the physics look the way they do. The Steam page specifically highlights that the team pushed the animation system to be as dynamic, expressive, and adorable as possible, using Unreal Engine animation tools to combine dozens of candid animations with logic-driven procedural movement.

That procedural layer is what allows Scarlet to respond dynamically to in-game conditions rather than cycling through pre-baked animation clips. It is a legitimately interesting technical pitch, and in a different viral cycle it might have been the headline feature. In this one, it is the reason everything jiggles.

Where To Play Scarlet Skips

Scarlet Skips is listed on Steam with a wishlist button live, though no firm release date or price has been confirmed on the store page at the time of writing. Yerk has not indicated platforms beyond PC, and given the scope and one-button design, a mobile port would be an obvious fit if the current momentum holds.

Whether the viral wave translates into actual wishlists and eventual sales will tell a broader story about how indie games break through in 2026. The attention is real, but a lot of it is ironic, and the gap between a million impressions and a paying customer is wide. If Scarlet Skips lands well mechanically when it launches, it has a genuine shot at converting the joke traffic into a real audience. If not, it will be remembered as a meme trailer that briefly owned a weekend.

The post Jump Rope Roguelike Scarlet Skips Is Going Viral, And Its Jiggle Physics Are Doing The Heavy Lifting appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

ESL has officially locked in the rosters for all 32 teams heading to the IEM Cologne Major 2026, with most squads choosing to bring either a coach, a benched player, or an academy prospect as their listed substitute. The lineup confirmation sets the stage for the first Counter-Strike Major of the year, though a few unresolved stand-in situations still hang over the event.

For most of the field, the substitute slot is more of a formality than a plan. A handful of teams, however, are walking into Cologne with stand-ins who will play from the first map, not the bench, which meaningfully changes the competitive picture going in.

Teams Playing With Stand-Ins From Day One

Falcons will field Finn “karrigan” Andersen at the Major, with the veteran in-game leader slotting in rather than sitting as a backup option. It is the kind of situation where the “substitute” label on paper does not match the reality on the server.

MOUZ are in a similar position. Adrian “xelex” Vincze is stepping in for Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo, and the event will be Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin’s last with the team. That is a significant moment for one of the more consistent young cores in Counter-Strike over the past couple of years, and it will be playing out under the brightest lights the game has to offer.

Gaimin Gladiators are rolling with Fernando “fer” Alvarenga as part of their starting five rather than as a reserve. The Brazilian veteran’s inclusion gives the roster a different competitive identity than the one listed on the official sheet.

The BetBoom Situation Remains Unresolved

The biggest question mark hanging over the locked rosters is BetBoom. The organisation has not confirmed who will actually take the server for them in Cologne, telling HLTV that they cannot share information yet and need to wait for official announcements.

BetBoom qualified for the Major using stand-ins Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko and Timur “FL4MUS” Marev. Zorte then joined the team properly, replacing Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov, but the picture has not fully settled since. Daniil “d1Ledez” Kustov’s availability is clouded by visa issues, while FL4MUS’s loan from Virtus.pro ended after the qualifier run concluded. The listed roster on the official sheet names FL4MUS and d1Ledez, but neither is a certainty to play.

Read More: Vitality Launches CS Academy Roster With ‘Project H’ Five

Read More: CS2 Finally Feels Like CSGO Again After AnimGraph 2 Goes Live

Read More: MOUZ Set for Major Overhaul as xelex Is Promoted and jL Joins on Loan

Stage 1 Rosters

Stage 2 Rosters

Stage 3 Rosters

The Picture Going Into Cologne

With rosters locked, the storylines heading into the Cathedral of Counter-Strike are starting to crystallise. Brollan’s farewell run with MOUZ, Falcons relying on karrigan’s in-game leadership, and BetBoom’s scramble to confirm a usable five are the situations most likely to shape the early narrative of the event. The rest of the field looks largely as expected, which puts more pressure on the teams dealing with disruption to prove they can still make a deep run.

The post IEM Cologne Major 2026 Rosters Locked as BetBoom Uncertainty Lingers appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Team Vitality has officially unveiled its long-awaited Counter-Strike academy, bringing the five players previously known as “Project H” under the black and yellow banner as Vitality Academy. The announcement lands eight years after the French organisation entered Counter-Strike, and arrives while the main roster sits on top of the world as back-to-back Grand Slam winners.

You’ve asked for it
Now it’s here

INTRODUCING THE VITALITY ACADEMY pic.twitter.com/P5djPYfLJ3

— Team Vitality CS (@TeamVitalityCS) April 22, 2026

The inaugural academy lineup pulls together young talent from across Europe, with ages ranging from 16 to 19. The group has already been playing together for months under the Project H codename, and they come in with competitive results to show for it.

The Vitality Academy Roster

The five-player lineup is anchored by 16-year-old AWPer Ulysse “katkame” Thiebault, who has been openly backed by Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut as one of the most promising French prospects in the scene. Katkame was ZywOo’s bold prediction pick back in 2025, and he is also managed by the world number one’s own Prodigy Agency, which ties him closely to the Vitality ecosystem before he has even played a Tier 1 match.

Alongside him is Luca-Adrian “lucaZ” Gavrilut, a 17-year-old Romanian who came through NAVI Junior and built a reputation on FACEIT as one of Europe’s standout young riflers. Estonian talent Aleks “Reqqen” Frolov, also 16, rounds out the younger core with what Vitality describes as explosive mechanical upside.

The structural backbone comes from 19-year-old Ukrainian in-game leader Kirill “Dafra1D” Polieiko, who has already been tested in higher-tier environments. Slovakian rifler Patrick “patrenzo” Hauer, 17, completes the five.

ON A ENFIN UNE ACADEMY SUR CS@Katkamee @_lucaZ_cs @Dafra1D @patrenzocs @alekscs2 @VdaK1NG (coach) https://t.co/nJphgWFux2 pic.twitter.com/5x4uUJRaH4

— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) April 22, 2026

Coaching Staff And Main Roster Link

Heading the coaching side is Pablo “VdaK1NG” Escobar, who joined Vitality as a data analyst in September 2025 before stepping into head coach duties for the Project H group. On X, he wrote that the dedicated head coach role was not originally part of his plan, but that the team had been gelling well enough for him to take it on and keep helping Vitality make history three years down the line.

Team management falls to Matthieu Péché, a former Olympic canoeing medalist who ran the Vitality Counter-Strike main roster from 2018 to 2025. His move across to the academy puts one of the organisation’s most experienced operators directly in charge of shaping how the next generation is developed day to day.

Vitality has built in direct connective tissue between the academy and the senior team. The academy will share practice sessions, feedback loops, and bootcamps with the main roster, and players are set to be exposed to LAN competition alongside the development schedule.

Read More: Team Vitality Win IEM Rio 2026, Make Counter-Strike History With Back-To-Back ESL Grand Slams

Read More: karrigan Joins Falcons From FaZe As kyxsan Benched Ahead Of IEM Cologne Major

Read More: IEM Cologne Major 2026 Rosters Locked

Project H Already Has Results On The Board

The Project H group is not arriving as an untested experiment. They have already qualified for the Season 56 Finals of ESEA and knocked off Metizport in the CCT Contenders qualifiers, which gives the academy a competitive floor to build on rather than a blank slate.

That matters for how the project is framed. Vitality is not using the academy to patch a talent problem on the main roster, which currently has none. Instead, the five are walking in with momentum and a coaching staff that has already seen them perform under pressure.

Where Vitality Academy Fits In The Wider Scene

Vitality is the latest major Counter-Strike organisation to formalise an academy, following the path laid by NAVI Junior, MOUZ, and Spirit Academy. Those programmes have produced some of the most recognisable names in the current Tier 1, including Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Drin “makazze” Shaqiri out of NAVI Junior, Dorian “xertioN” Berman from MOUZ, and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets through Spirit Academy.

The economic case has become harder to ignore in 2026. Player prices in Counter-Strike 2 have climbed to the point where roster stagnation is a genuine issue at the top, and academies double as both a direct revenue lever through player sales, as seen with Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin, and an indirect one by producing in-house replacements that sidestep the transfer market entirely.

For Vitality specifically, the angle is slightly different. The main roster is dominant and has no immediate need to churn. The academy becomes a long-horizon bet on embedding the organisation’s systems and protocols into young players early, so that when transitions eventually do happen, the replacements already speak the same tactical language as the staff that built the current dynasty.

Vitality’s Track Record With Academies

The Counter-Strike academy is not the organisation’s first crack at this model. Vitality already fields a League of Legends academy, Vitality.Bee, which competes in the LFL and has produced senior roster players including Kadir “Fleshy” Kemiksiz and Kaan “Naak Nako” Okan.

The organisation also ran a short-lived Valorant academy under the VIT.Revolution banner. That roster disbanded after VCL France Stage 2 in May 2025, but did successfully promote Ștefan “Sayonara” Mîtcu into the main Valorant lineup before winding down, showing that even a brief academy run can deliver a promotion if the pipeline is structured correctly.

What Comes Next For Vitality Academy

With a confirmed roster, a dedicated coach, and an experienced manager in place, Vitality Academy’s next visible checkpoint will be the ESEA Season 56 Finals and the continued CCT Contenders run, where Project H’s existing results were built. The longer-term measure will be whether any of the five eventually graduate to the main roster, or are sold on in the kind of high-value transfer that has defined the academy model at NAVI and Spirit over the last few years.

Vitality President Fabien “Neo” Devide framed the launch as a commitment to the ecosystem rather than a short-term play, saying the organisation wants to perform now while also building the champions of tomorrow and lifting the broader scene with it. The next three years, by VdaK1NG’s own timeline, are where that ambition gets tested.

The post Vitality Launches CS Academy Roster With ‘Project H’ Five appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Emulating GameCube and Wii games on the Nintendo Switch just got a whole lot less painful. A new release of Tico, a custom emulation frontend for the Switch, now lets you run Dolphin directly on the console’s native Horizon OS through custom firmware, cutting out the old Android or Linux dance entirely. The Tico v0.7.0 alpha dropped on 21 April 2026, and it marks the first time GameCube and Wii games have run natively on the Switch’s own operating system.

For anyone who has ever tried to get Dolphin working on a Switch, you already know what a faff it used to be. You had to install Switchroot, boot into a whole different OS, and hope the overhead did not tank your performance. Tico sidesteps all of that.

GameCube and Wii are now running on Nintendo Switch (without Android or Linux), for the first time ever.

tico alpha 0.7.0 is out. https://t.co/tpdPx7CNoK pic.twitter.com/k9JQYVVblS

— Dan (@danticoverse) April 21, 2026

What The Tico v0.7.0 Update Actually Does

Tico is not just another emulator launcher. It is a multi-platform emulation frontend built from the ground up in native C++, designed specifically for performance and portability on Switch hardware. The whole idea behind it is to strip away the configuration headaches that usually come with emulation on a handheld.

The headline change in v0.7.0 is an experimental Dolphin core, added through a new Experimental tab in the Settings menu. Dolphin has to be enabled from there before it shows up in the main Tico interface, and the core itself is distributed independently, meaning you install or update it from the Settings screen rather than bundling it with the base app.

The developers have flagged this as the most demanding core Tico has run on Horizon OS so far, which is why it is sitting in alpha. Instability is expected at this stage, and a compatibility list is being put together to track which titles behave themselves. If a game crashes on launch, the dev notes suggest simply running it again, as it often starts correctly on the second attempt once shaders start caching.

You will also need to drop your GameCube and Wii dumps into specific folders for Tico to pick them up: sdmc:/tico/roms/gc for GameCube and sdmc:/tico/roms/wii for Wii.

Boost Mode, Clock Speeds, And Why Temperature Matters

To keep things running during heavier scenes, the Dolphin core automatically flips on boost mode, pushing the Tegra X1 chip to 1,785 MHz on the CPU and 768 MHz on the GPU. The developers say these limits are within safe territory, but they are also clear that they will not be held responsible for hardware damage, so keeping an eye on your device temperature during longer sessions is a good shout.

If you would rather run at lower clocks, you can override the default values using sys-clk. The trade-off is that some games will not behave properly at reduced speeds. Luigi’s Mansion, for instance, reportedly will not boot past the first cutscene unless the clocks are cranked back up.

How Tico Differs From Previous Switch Emulation Methods

There is an important distinction to make here. When people say GameCube and Wii games are running “natively” on the Switch, they do not mean the Switch hardware is running GameCube code as if it were a first-party title. The games are still being emulated. The word “natively” refers to the operating system.

Previously, getting Dolphin onto a Switch meant installing Switchroot to run Android or Linux, then launching the emulator from there. That extra OS layer ate into performance and meant rebooting your console every time you wanted to switch between a Switch game and a GameCube one.

With Tico, Dolphin runs straight on Horizon OS via custom firmware. No second operating system, no reboots, no overhead from running a whole Android environment in the background. It is a much cleaner setup, and that alone should translate to better real-world performance even in an alpha build.

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The Features That Make Tico Worth Using

Beyond the Dolphin support, Tico has a few quality-of-life touches that matter for handheld use. The interface is controller-first, so you can navigate the whole thing with a Joy-Con or Pro Controller in either handheld or docked mode. You are not fighting with a mouse-driven UI that was never meant to live on a console.

It also handles automatic game library management, so you do not need to sit there renaming ROM files to get them recognised. Drop your files in and Tico sorts them out. The developers describe it as a “zero configuration” setup, and for anyone who has wrestled with other emulation frontends, that is a genuinely appealing pitch.

What You Need To Run Tico On Your Switch

Tico will not run on a stock Nintendo Switch. You need custom firmware (CFW) installed, which is what lets you run homebrew apps, custom themes, and anything else outside Nintendo’s walled garden. Whether you can install CFW depends on which Switch model you own.

Once CFW is sorted, you grab the Tico v0.7.0 alpha release from GitHub, install it, and add your own legally obtained GameCube and Wii ROMs. From there, everything runs through Tico’s frontend without needing to reboot or juggle operating systems.

GameCube Games Tested On Tico v0.7.0

The dev has put out a proper compatibility list for this release, and the GameCube side is looking healthier than you might expect for a first alpha. Shader compilation causes early stutter in most titles, which is normal for Dolphin and smooths out once cached.

Wii Games Tested On Tico v0.7.0

The Wii compatibility list is shorter but cleaner, with most tested titles running without major issues. Only one outright failure has been logged so far.

Other Changes In The v0.7.0 Release

Dolphin is the main event, but it is not the only thing in this update. The Sega Saturn core (Yabasanshiro) has picked up a simulated BIOS option, which lets you skip the Saturn BIOS entirely if you would rather not deal with it. The dev has also flagged that fixes and updates for other cores will be rolling out throughout the week, pullable from the Updater in the Settings screen whenever you are ready.

Where Switch Emulation Goes From Here

If you have not upgraded to a Switch 2 yet, this is a solid reason to hang onto your original console. The original Switch was already a capable emulation machine for older systems, and pulling GameCube and Wii into the mix through Horizon OS turns it into something much closer to a proper retro handheld, without the performance hit of running Android in the background.

There is still work to be done before Tico’s Dolphin core hits the polish of running the same games on PC or a Steam Deck, but the direction is clear. As the alpha matures and the compatibility list fills out, the Switch is shaping up to be one of the most convenient ways to play through your GameCube and Wii libraries on the go.

The post Now You Can Run GameCube and Wii Games on Switch Without Android appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Esports Integrity Commission has handed Maurizio “MAUschine” Weber a lifetime ban from every ESIC member event globally, escalating the punishment for the on-stage punch he threw at CAGGTUS Leipzig earlier this week. The ruling, issued via a formal Notice of Charge, permanently blocks the German Counter-Strike 2 player from participating in any ESIC-affiliated competition in any capacity.

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has issued a lifetime ban to Maurizio “MAUschine” Weber following an on-stage assault at the CAGGTUS LEIPZIG Event.

The incident, widely circulated and clearly documented, involved physical violence against another participant in a live… pic.twitter.com/PoYTL7iOQf

— ESIC (@ESIC_Official) April 21, 2026

The sanction lands on top of the 10-year ban already issued by tournament organiser DACH CS Masters, and a separate 10-year ban from Fragster that surfaced alongside ESIC’s ruling. Between the three, MAUschine’s path back into competitive Counter-Strike 2 is effectively closed.

What ESIC Has Ruled

ESIC confirmed that its investigation found Weber committed a physical assault against a participant from an opposing team on stage following a match at the CAGGTUS Leipzig LAN Party on 20 April 2026. The watchdog framed the conduct as a flagrant breach of its Code of Conduct, citing violations relating to violence, participant safety, and the obligation to act with integrity and respect.

The ban applies to every ESIC member event, not just Counter-Strike 2, and not just tournaments run inside Germany. Because ESIC’s membership extends across publishers, leagues, and organisers in multiple titles, the practical effect is a global competitive shutout.

While ESIC does not adjudicate matters based on public reaction, the visibility of the conduct only reinforces the importance of decisive action. ESIC will not allow behaviour of this nature to be normalised, minimised, or excused under any circumstances.

How The Three Bans Stack

MAUschine is now carrying punishments from three separate bodies, each with a different scope. The ESIC ruling is the broadest and the most consequential for his career, but the earlier suspensions from DACH CS Masters and Fragster still apply independently within their own ecosystems.

The “any capacity” language in the ESIC ruling is the clause that closes the remaining doors. It rules out a future return as a coach, analyst, caster, or team staffer at any ESIC member event, not just a return as a player.

Image Credit:
@hobshy on X

Why ESIC Went Straight To A Lifetime Ban

ESIC’s statement leans heavily on the idea that a live esports event is a professional sporting environment, and that on-stage physical aggression is a category of offence that sits apart from the usual conduct cases it reviews. The commission described the punch as a serious integrity violation rather than a lapse in judgement, and pointed to the safety of players, officials, and the credibility of competition itself as the interests being protected.

The watchdog also addressed the viral circulation of the clip directly, noting that while public reaction does not drive its rulings, the visibility of the incident reinforced the case for a decisive response. In plain terms, ESIC wanted to remove any ambiguity about where the line sits for anyone watching.

A counter strike player known as MAUschine has been handed a 10 year ban after sucker punching a member of the winning team pic.twitter.com/1GEmvv85m2

— hobshy (@hobshy) April 19, 2026

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What This Means For MAUschine’s Career

ESIC’s membership covers a broad slice of the competitive Counter-Strike 2 landscape, and its sanctions are typically recognised by member organisers even when the original offence occurred at a different event. With DACH CS Masters and Fragster already shut off, and ESIC now closing the rest of the member circuit, there is no realistic route back into tiered or semi-professional CS2 competition.

Non-member grassroots events and unaffiliated online cups technically remain outside the ruling, but those sit well below the level MAUschine was competing at before the ban. Streaming and content work are separate from ESIC’s jurisdiction, so his ability to broadcast is not directly affected by this ruling.

Wider Signal To The German And Global CS2 Scene

Three sanctioning bodies moving within roughly 48 hours of the incident is unusual for Counter-Strike 2 at this tier. Physical altercations at LAN events are rare to begin with, and the combined response from DACH CS Masters, Fragster, and ESIC sets a clear benchmark for how organisers are expected to respond when one does occur.

ESIC closed its statement by reiterating that violence is incompatible with participation in professional esports and that player safety is non-negotiable. The ruling gives organisers at every level a precedent to point to the next time a similar incident lands on their desk.

The post CS2 Player MAUschine Hit With ESIC Lifetime Ban Over On-Stage Assault at CAGGTUS Leipzig appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Microsoft has cut the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 per month, effective immediately, reversing a chunk of the steep increase that angered subscribers last year. PC Game Pass also drops from $16.49 to $13.99 per month. The trade-off, and there is one, is that new Call of Duty games will no longer land on Game Pass at launch starting this year.

The announcement came via a blog post on Xbox Wire from Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, who stepped into the role after Phil Spencer retired in February. It is the first major consumer-facing move of her tenure, and it directly addresses feedback that Game Pass had simply become too expensive.

What Is Changing With Game Pass Pricing

The new pricing applies globally, although Microsoft notes figures may vary by region. Both reductions are live now, so existing subscribers should see the lower rate reflected on their next billing cycle.

For context, Microsoft pushed Ultimate up by $10 to $29.99 in October, a roughly 50% hike that landed badly with the community. The new $22.99 price still sits above the pre-October rate, but it claws back most of the gap.

Call Of Duty Is No Longer A Day-One Perk

The catch is tucked into the same announcement. Starting with this year’s release, new Call of Duty titles will not be included on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. Instead, they will be added roughly a year later, during the following holiday season.

Any Call of Duty titles currently in the Game Pass library are unaffected and remain playable for subscribers. If you want to play the newest entry on day one, you will need to buy it outright, presumably at the standard $69.99 price point.

That shift is significant because day-one Call of Duty access was one of the main selling points Microsoft leaned on after the Activision Blizzard acquisition closed in 2023. Removing it reshapes what Game Pass Ultimate actually offers at the top tier.

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Why Microsoft Is Pulling This Lever Now

The move lines up with internal messaging that leaked earlier this month. Sharma reportedly told Xbox staff in a memo that Game Pass had become too expensive for players, and that the team needed a better value equation. The same reporting flagged that leadership was weighing removing Call of Duty from day-one availability, which is exactly what has now happened.

It is also a response to the shape of Microsoft’s gaming business. Gaming made up 7% of total revenue in the company’s fourth quarter, and that unit’s revenue was down around 10% year over year while other divisions like Azure and Microsoft 365 grew by double digits. Hardware sales fell 32%, and the broader Xbox content and services line came in below internal projections. CFO Amy Hood also flagged an unspecified impairment charge tied to the gaming business on the earnings call.

In her blog post, Sharma framed the decision around player feedback rather than financials:

Our players cover a wide breadth of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far. We’ll continue to listen and learn.

What Subscribers Still Get At The New Price

Even with Call of Duty pulled back from day-one, Ultimate keeps the rest of its feature set intact. That includes hundreds of games across Xbox console and PC, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming, and major day-one releases from other first-party and third-party studios.

Game Pass had 34 million subscribers based on the last figure Microsoft shared in 2024, and the service still spans four tiers: Ultimate, Premium, Essential, and PC Game Pass. Only Ultimate and PC Game Pass have been repriced in this round.

Sharma’s Early Direction For Xbox

This is not Sharma‘s first visible course correction. Since taking over from Spencer, she has already wound down the “This is an Xbox” advertising campaign, saying it did not feel like Xbox. The Game Pass price cut pushes in the same direction, trying to rebuild goodwill with the core player base after a bruising year for the brand.

The Call of Duty trade-off is the part that will define how this announcement ages. For players who subscribed mainly to play the new Call of Duty on day one, the maths has changed. For everyone else, Ultimate just got cheaper without losing anything they already had access to.

Whether this brings lapsed subscribers back, or whether the holiday-season Call of Duty additions feel like enough of a headline draw a year from now, is the next thing worth watching. Microsoft has signalled it is willing to listen, and the pricing itself is clearly still a moving target.

The post Xbox Game Pass Price Drops by $7, But Call of Duty Loses Day One Access appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Cyberpunk fans finally have a proper deep dive into the city that defines the franchise. R. Talsorian Games has officially revealed Night City 2045, a 312-page sourcebook for the Cyberpunk RED tabletop RPG that serves as a prequel to Cyberpunk 2077, set 32 years before the events of the video game. Pre-orders are live now, with the physical release locked in for June 2026.

Developed in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, the book is being billed as the definitive guide to Night City during the Time of the Red, covering everything from the city’s 24 districts to its gangs, criminal outfits, and corporate power brokers. For anyone who has ever wanted to understand how Night City actually works under the hood, this is the closest thing to a full tabletop simulation of the setting that’s ever been produced.

What Night City 2045 Actually Contains

Night City 2045 is a gazetteer in the truest sense. The book lays out a complete history of the city up to its 2045 “present day,” along with breakdowns of geography, government, citizenship, laws, transportation, utilities, services, and media. It’s a structural look at how the city functions, not just a collection of flavour text.

The faction coverage is where it gets particularly dense. The book details 44 gangs, 6 criminal organisations, and 23 private security providers, the latter of which blur the line between contracted muscle and organised crime. Every one of Night City’s 24 districts gets its own dedicated breakdown, complete with information on who runs it, who lives there, and what’s currently making headlines in the area.

Location coverage is the other big draw. More than 600 specific sites are catalogued, ranging from stores and clinics to gang headquarters, corporate fortresses, and megabuildings. All of it is illustrated with new maps designed to make the city feel navigable rather than abstract. For game masters, there are also 99 stat blocks covering everything from low-level gang members to corporate enforcers and civilians.

The Time Of The Red Setting

The 2045 timeframe places the book squarely in the Time of the Red, the era that defines Cyberpunk RED as a tabletop system. This is the period following the Fourth Corporate War, which ended with a nuclear detonation in Night City. The fallout stained the skies red for years and produced the infamous “blood rains,” a crimson slime that fell from the atmosphere.

That setting places Night City 2045 more than three decades before V’s story in Cyberpunk 2077, which takes place in 2077 itself. The aftermath of Johnny Silverhand’s attack on Arasaka Tower, a moment Cyberpunk 2077 players relive through flashback sequences, is recent history in this book rather than distant legend.

How Night City 2045 Compares To Previous Sourcebooks

The original 2020 Night City Sourcebook, a staple reference for Cyberpunk 2020 players, focused primarily on the downtown district. Night City 2045 widens the scope significantly by covering the entire city at a point 25 years later in the timeline, which reflects both the in-fiction changes after the Fourth Corporate War and the expanded mapping work CD Projekt Red has done since Cyberpunk 2077 launched.

Announced originally at Gen Con 2024, the book has been in development for roughly two years before this formal reveal. The long runway matches the scope. A 312-page volume covering every district, hundreds of locations, and dozens of factions is closer to a city bible than a traditional supplement.

Release Date, Pricing, And Pre-Orders

Physical copies of Night City 2045 will officially launch at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, which runs from 17 to 21 June 2026. Attendees who pre-order in person can pick up their copies early at the event. For everyone else, pre-orders start shipping on 24 June 2026.

The digital PDF is already available for purchase right now, ahead of the physical release. Pricing and platforms are set up to reward buyers who commit to both formats.

There’s also a smaller perk for digital buyers going through Demiplane. Anyone who pre-orders the PDF via that platform gets free access to Roll20’s Map Pin feature, which is useful for GMs running the book as an active campaign setting rather than a reference.

Why This Matters For Cyberpunk 2077 Fans

Night City 2045 isn’t a video game expansion, and it won’t change anything about how Cyberpunk 2077 plays. What it does offer is a canon-aligned reference work for the city that the game is set in, produced with CD Projekt Red’s direct involvement. For players who have wondered who actually controls Watson, what happened in each district before V arrived, or how the city’s utilities and media landscape function, this is the book that answers those questions in detail.

It also lands at a moment when the Cyberpunk franchise is between major video game releases, with the sequel known internally as Project Orion still years away. A 312-page lore drop covering the setting’s infrastructure and history gives the fanbase something substantial to chew on while CD Projekt Red’s next title takes shape.

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Prequel Night City 2045 Revealed, Launches June 2026 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.