The Alienware Awesome Cup Qualifiers kick off today! If you are in the qualifiers make sure to check in before registration ends (today 16:45 CET)! You can follow a nifty guide on how that works here: http://www.awesome-cup.com/news/29400-how-to-operate-the-check-in-and-the-bracket

For those who aren't in there, don't worry you can still join in on the fun! Today at 19:00 CET there will be an epic live show over at http://www.twitch.tv/ronimogames hosted by FourCourtJester and Slow Wolf, where they will be discussing the highlights of today's qualifier matches for you!

The Alienware Awesome Cup Qualifiers kick off today! If you are in the qualifiers make sure to check in before registration ends (today 16:45 CET)! You can follow a nifty guide on how that works here: http://www.awesome-cup.com/news/29400-how-to-operate-the-check-in-and-the-bracket

For those who aren't in there, don't worry you can still join in on the fun! Today at 19:00 CET there will be an epic live show over at http://www.twitch.tv/ronimogames hosted by FourCourtJester and Slow Wolf, where they will be discussing the highlights of today's qualifier matches for you!

NEW Premium skin: Loninator (Sheriff Lonestar)

NEW announcer: Coco

NEW announcer: Wildlife documentary

NEW song: Sirens Before The Storm

NEW language: Russian

NEW: Global chat
Looking for a Deathmatch custom game, discussing the newest trending tactics, speculating about items in Voltar’s Vault, it’s all possible in-game with Patch 2.8! With various chat rooms such as General Chat, Gnaw’s Spam Bukkit and Looking For Game to help you find the right people to talk to about whatever you want! The upcoming patch will bring the first version of the Global Chat system, with updates and changes coming in the future.

NEW: Background main menu
We changed the background to something more festive, merry Christmas to all!

AI modding Tools
Added settings to allow bots to aim more like a human to the ActionAimStickAtTarget block.

NEW: added more bots made by the community
If you encounter any issues with these, please report them in their respective topics!
-Derpl by TheMesp
-Penny Fox by Flawlesshair
-Raelynn by Veanko (The previous Raelynn bot has been replaced by this new, better one. A fix for the irritating perfect aiming she currently has will also come during the beta but is not in this version yet.)
-Scoop by Nailcliper
-Sentry by Ignotis
-Skølldir by HarryButchers and hurleybird
-Yuri by Ignotis

NEW features
-Naut icons visible on the minimap, know exactly who’s where at a glance.
-Healthbar and name are now hidden from enemy players in hide areas
-The scoreboard now shows a timer for players that are dead. This timer does not include the droppod time.
-Added option for auto camera in replays to follow only one team instead of both teams (accessible by clicking the autocam button again)
-Split up SFX volume into voices, announcer and other sfx in options menu

NEW achievements
We added 8 new achievements. We also added some character specific achievements to make sure you get a taste of all the Awesomenauts. We are hoping to create more character specific achievements in the future. Can you guess all the cartoon references? :)
-Bouncing bear juice - Become AWESOME.
-Snorkle pipe boost - Kill the Solar boss before the 2:10 minute mark.
-Clunk: No might can stop this oil can! - Get the maximum possible health with Clunk (3800).
-Clunk: Part robot, part human. Mostly robot. - Kill Ted Mc Pain as Clunk.
-Coco: Swiftly through the forest - Race from Solar Drill to Solar Drill in less than 12 seconds on Sorona.
-Coco: Befriending a red bat - Win a game together with Skree.
-Gnaw: Wrecking Wilson's garden - Feed the weedlings to the worm 10 times.
-Gnaw: Attack of the botanic army! - Place 100 weedlings.

Colourblind improvements
-There is now a colourblind functionality setting that will turn healthbars red and blue. Neutral creeps will retain their original green colour when this setting is turned on.
-Changed DoT (now purple) and Damaged (now off-white) colours on the healthbar to be better compatible with newly implemented colourblind functionality

General improvements
-Gnaw, Raelynn and Ayla are now available right from the start and don’t have to be unlocked any more (only relevant to new players or players who had not unlocked them yet).
-Fixed that things like grenades and anchor collided with the sides of glass platforms
-Fixed that damage increase icon (sword) was still visible when in stealth
-Added a visual countdown for the Eye of Aiguillon invisibility buff
-The Core’s damage state had a date with Nicola Tesla for a more shocking visual effect.
-Capped profile name in main menu to 16 characters
-Improved anti-aliasing on text for better readability, and making it less pixely
-Added a visual indicator on the HUD for the following skills with a secondary press interaction: Coco’s Ball Lightning, Raelynn’s Snipe, Derpl’s Nuke, Swiggins’ Anchor Drop, Sentry’s Black Hole Sun, Skree’s Saw blade.
-Improved the auto camera feature in replays to better choose the coolest moments (improvements around kills by droids, the start of the match and large amounts of damage).
-The bot for Genji has been removed from the game. Its win percentage was well below that of other bots so getting him in your team was too big of a disadvantage. If the community can create a better Genji bot he might be brought back later on.
-Fixed a freeze issue some users were experiencing during startup and game quit
-Added language setting to ingame options menu
-Fixed that AFK timers had accidentally been set back to 90 and 150 seconds in patch 2.6. These were increased to 120 and 180 seconds in patch 2.5.6 and were supposed to still be that way.

Polished sound
-Lonestar’s gun has a new more awesome sound
-Added impact sounds for whenever someone is hit by anything. We already had pain sounds for hits but there is now also a sound that represents the hit itself. This sound differs with whether the character is a metal or flesh character.
-The SUSI announcer got some extra voice lines.

Polished attack graphics
-Skølldir’s earthquake now looks approximately 3.14 times cooler
-Froggy G’s Fish Gun impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Lonestar’s Blaster impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Lonestar’s Blaster bullet graphic now slightly scales bigger for each tier of Eagle Bullets and Crystal eagle bullets.
-Lonestar’s and Derpl’s rocket impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved.
-Leon’s Sword attack now shows an impact graphic on enemies you hit.
-Voltar’s Healing wave charge-up graphic has been slightly improved
-Derpl’s Turret attack impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved.
-Derpl’s Turret attack bullet graphic now slightly scales bigger for each tier of Hollow point bullets.
-Clunk’s Missiles bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Added anti-aliasing to skill icons (in the skill dock at the bottom of the screen during gameplay) to make them look better on lower resolutions
-Added a small lightning spark to Ayla’s rage ability
-Improved teamcolour on Sentry’s shot and abilities.
-Added fidelity to the heal aura on Voltar’s healpod ability.
-Healpod visual has been scaled down.
-Sentry’s abilities and auto attack shots have improved teamcolour.
-Improved teamcolour on Ted’s Airstrike.
-Froggy’s Dash and Whirlwind have improved teamcolour.
-Coco’s Ball Lightning has improved visuals and teamcolour.

Wraith Stone
We realized the item we created to replace Solar Tree wasn’t used by many players. We are trying to find a useful yet balanced solution. During the beta we tested out a new upgrade called Zork’s Barrier. From the feedback we got we found out that some players prefer Wraithstone (+heal from critters) and some others

NEW Premium skin: Loninator (Sheriff Lonestar)

NEW announcer: Coco

NEW announcer: Wildlife documentary

NEW song: Sirens Before The Storm

NEW language: Russian

NEW: Global chat
Looking for a Deathmatch custom game, discussing the newest trending tactics, speculating about items in Voltar’s Vault, it’s all possible in-game with Patch 2.8! With various chat rooms such as General Chat, Gnaw’s Spam Bukkit and Looking For Game to help you find the right people to talk to about whatever you want! The upcoming patch will bring the first version of the Global Chat system, with updates and changes coming in the future.

NEW: Background main menu
We changed the background to something more festive, merry Christmas to all!

AI modding Tools
Added settings to allow bots to aim more like a human to the ActionAimStickAtTarget block.

NEW: added more bots made by the community
If you encounter any issues with these, please report them in their respective topics!
-Derpl by TheMesp
-Penny Fox by Flawlesshair
-Raelynn by Veanko (The previous Raelynn bot has been replaced by this new, better one. A fix for the irritating perfect aiming she currently has will also come during the beta but is not in this version yet.)
-Scoop by Nailcliper
-Sentry by Ignotis
-Skølldir by HarryButchers and hurleybird
-Yuri by Ignotis

NEW features
-Naut icons visible on the minimap, know exactly who’s where at a glance.
-Healthbar and name are now hidden from enemy players in hide areas
-The scoreboard now shows a timer for players that are dead. This timer does not include the droppod time.
-Added option for auto camera in replays to follow only one team instead of both teams (accessible by clicking the autocam button again)
-Split up SFX volume into voices, announcer and other sfx in options menu

NEW achievements
We added 8 new achievements. We also added some character specific achievements to make sure you get a taste of all the Awesomenauts. We are hoping to create more character specific achievements in the future. Can you guess all the cartoon references? :)
-Bouncing bear juice - Become AWESOME.
-Snorkle pipe boost - Kill the Solar boss before the 2:10 minute mark.
-Clunk: No might can stop this oil can! - Get the maximum possible health with Clunk (3800).
-Clunk: Part robot, part human. Mostly robot. - Kill Ted Mc Pain as Clunk.
-Coco: Swiftly through the forest - Race from Solar Drill to Solar Drill in less than 12 seconds on Sorona.
-Coco: Befriending a red bat - Win a game together with Skree.
-Gnaw: Wrecking Wilson's garden - Feed the weedlings to the worm 10 times.
-Gnaw: Attack of the botanic army! - Place 100 weedlings.

Colourblind improvements
-There is now a colourblind functionality setting that will turn healthbars red and blue. Neutral creeps will retain their original green colour when this setting is turned on.
-Changed DoT (now purple) and Damaged (now off-white) colours on the healthbar to be better compatible with newly implemented colourblind functionality

General improvements
-Gnaw, Raelynn and Ayla are now available right from the start and don’t have to be unlocked any more (only relevant to new players or players who had not unlocked them yet).
-Fixed that things like grenades and anchor collided with the sides of glass platforms
-Fixed that damage increase icon (sword) was still visible when in stealth
-Added a visual countdown for the Eye of Aiguillon invisibility buff
-The Core’s damage state had a date with Nicola Tesla for a more shocking visual effect.
-Capped profile name in main menu to 16 characters
-Improved anti-aliasing on text for better readability, and making it less pixely
-Added a visual indicator on the HUD for the following skills with a secondary press interaction: Coco’s Ball Lightning, Raelynn’s Snipe, Derpl’s Nuke, Swiggins’ Anchor Drop, Sentry’s Black Hole Sun, Skree’s Saw blade.
-Improved the auto camera feature in replays to better choose the coolest moments (improvements around kills by droids, the start of the match and large amounts of damage).
-The bot for Genji has been removed from the game. Its win percentage was well below that of other bots so getting him in your team was too big of a disadvantage. If the community can create a better Genji bot he might be brought back later on.
-Fixed a freeze issue some users were experiencing during startup and game quit
-Added language setting to ingame options menu
-Fixed that AFK timers had accidentally been set back to 90 and 150 seconds in patch 2.6. These were increased to 120 and 180 seconds in patch 2.5.6 and were supposed to still be that way.

Polished sound
-Lonestar’s gun has a new more awesome sound
-Added impact sounds for whenever someone is hit by anything. We already had pain sounds for hits but there is now also a sound that represents the hit itself. This sound differs with whether the character is a metal or flesh character.
-The SUSI announcer got some extra voice lines.

Polished attack graphics
-Skølldir’s earthquake now looks approximately 3.14 times cooler
-Froggy G’s Fish Gun impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Lonestar’s Blaster impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Lonestar’s Blaster bullet graphic now slightly scales bigger for each tier of Eagle Bullets and Crystal eagle bullets.
-Lonestar’s and Derpl’s rocket impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved.
-Leon’s Sword attack now shows an impact graphic on enemies you hit.
-Voltar’s Healing wave charge-up graphic has been slightly improved
-Derpl’s Turret attack impact and bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved.
-Derpl’s Turret attack bullet graphic now slightly scales bigger for each tier of Hollow point bullets.
-Clunk’s Missiles bullet graphic effects have been slightly improved
-Added anti-aliasing to skill icons (in the skill dock at the bottom of the screen during gameplay) to make them look better on lower resolutions
-Added a small lightning spark to Ayla’s rage ability
-Improved teamcolour on Sentry’s shot and abilities.
-Added fidelity to the heal aura on Voltar’s healpod ability.
-Healpod visual has been scaled down.
-Sentry’s abilities and auto attack shots have improved teamcolour.
-Improved teamcolour on Ted’s Airstrike.
-Froggy’s Dash and Whirlwind have improved teamcolour.
-Coco’s Ball Lightning has improved visuals and teamcolour.

Wraith Stone
We realized the item we created to replace Solar Tree wasn’t used by many players. We are trying to find a useful yet balanced solution. During the beta we tested out a new upgrade called Zork’s Barrier. From the feedback we got we found out that some players prefer Wraithstone (+heal from critters) and some others

Patch 2.8 is now live, featuring in-menu global chat and a new Lonestar skin, 2 new announcers, a new song, Russian language support and a whole batch of polish and balance changes! There's also 9 new achievements and a colourblind setting!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/333170
http://store.steampowered.com/app/333160
http://store.steampowered.com/app/333150

Patch 2.8 is now live, featuring in-menu global chat and a new Lonestar skin, 2 new announcers, a new song, Russian language support and a whole batch of polish and balance changes! There's also 9 new achievements and a colourblind setting!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/333170
http://store.steampowered.com/app/333160
http://store.steampowered.com/app/333150

An all new announcer is coming with Patch 2.8: Contact! Coco Nebulon takes the mic as she tries to stay focused on the battle at hand. She will probably be distracted all the time though by all the shiny lights and her girlfriends calling her on her cell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91qLErTgPg

An all new announcer is coming with Patch 2.8: Contact! Coco Nebulon takes the mic as she tries to stay focused on the battle at hand. She will probably be distracted all the time though by all the shiny lights and her girlfriends calling her on her cell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I91qLErTgPg

We've partnered with Alienware and Gosugamers.net to bring you a real treat: The Alienware Awesome cup! With over 4000$ in cash and prizes, this will be by far the biggest Awesomenauts competitive tournament to date! We are gathering the best Awesomenauts players and you could be joining them. Compete for cash prizes, the Alienware Alpha and most importantly - bragging rights!

http://www.awesome-cup.com

We've partnered with Alienware and Gosugamers.net to bring you a real treat: The Alienware Awesome cup! With over 4000$ in cash and prizes, this will be by far the biggest Awesomenauts competitive tournament to date! We are gathering the best Awesomenauts players and you could be joining them. Compete for cash prizes, the Alienware Alpha and most importantly - bragging rights!

http://www.awesome-cup.com