Merry Christmas, everyone! Peace, goodwill and OP revolvers to all men, isn't that how the saying goes? Well, it's too early to call OP on the new Desert Eagle-slot R8, but Counter-Strike sure is sexing it up:

The R8 costs a mere $850 and a body shot will be enough to drop anyone, regardless of body armour. Presuming you can judge those lengthy trigger-pulls, that appears to be monstrous stopping power, but our best man is on the job so we'll have solid analysis for you soon.

Joining the R8 in the Winter Update is the Killer Replay feature, which allows you to relive your deaths from your opponent's perspective in Demolition and Casual modes. Given that this will force me to confront how many deaths are my own damn fault, I'm not entirely thrilled.

In competitive matchmaking, meanwhile, your team is now able to vote for a 60-second timeout if the stress is all getting a bit much for you.

Of course, all of this pales to insignificance against the news that chickens now have Christmas jumpers. The full patch notes are here.

Cache differs from most other maps in that it s rectangular with two distinct sides separated by the yard in the middle. What does this mean when you try to defend? Firstly, if you manage to maintain control over mid, the terrorists are a lot more limited in what they can do to get the bomb to one of the bomb sites. And secondly, if the terrorists manage to kill the defenders in mid, the counter-terrorists will have to move across the entire map to reach the other site. Needless to say, mid is a key area on Cache whether you re defending or attacking.

Before we move on to discuss how to defend different areas on the map, it s worth mentioning that there are a number of different ways to set up on Cache. There's no correct way. One method that I prefer is to have one defender on B, whose job it is to survive long enough to either get help from the rotation from mid or be able to call out the terrorists' positions for when the rest of their team attempts a retake. Two defenders on A, because that site allows for a number of cool strategies that two players can use if they work together. Finally, two players in mid. You can either rotate both mid players to one site if your enemies are rushing, or you can rotate one without giving up control over mid completely.

Dynamic duo on bombsite A

The most important thing to do when you defend A with someone is to communicate. You want to know what the other player intends to do so that you don t stay and peek the A-main entrance from car while your friend decides to go ham out of nowhere and rush them without your assistance.

One way you can set up is to have a player behind forklift. This spy can spot attacks from either door or A-main, but more importantly, they can hear the push from A-main before they arrive. When the warning arrives, use this flash from the corner. For good reasons, it's nicknamed after the French player NBK (Natural Born Killer).

If you notice that your enemies tend to go for mid control, you can use this smoke and flash in order to be able to safely boost up one guy on top of the boxes. The other player can then go either highway or balcony and hold door, until their assistance is needed in mid. Being flexible is everything on Cache.

This way the player on boxes can hopefully kill one or two enemies, should they push A despite your masterful read. Warning! If your mid defense falls, you have to drop down or else you ll be a sitting duck when the terrorists attack from highway.

On the next page: holding mid and bombsite B.

Almost-as-dynamic duo in mid

It s often good to have one guy close to garage, ready to pop vent and assist on B or sneak up behind soon-to-be-surprised terrorists and go for the backstab. To make this possible, you need one guy further back around white box, sandbags or connector to assist with flashbangs and other utility grenades. Maybe even an AWP. But make sure you sometimes play with two players further back. If the terrorists are able to read your aggressive play, they can put up a smoke wall in mid, walk out of garage and completely obliterate the poor guy below vent.

If you know that your fearless enemies have pushed out of garage, you can use this flash and hopefully pick up a kill or two. All enemies looking at white box will be flashed, regardless of the angle.

Sometimes one of the mid players can go for a cool play in vent, especially if you have an AWPer, who then can focus on boost and leave garage to the vent guy. We ll come back to this soon.

Solo B defense: the glorious hero of your team

The player on the B-site must be smart. They will need to both spot the attack in time and survive long enough for the rotation to move in. To do this they can dance with the terrorists using the site boxes. They might even be able to pick up a kill or two.

It s true that it s much easier to hold B with two players, but as long as you have a rotation ready you can enjoy the benefits of having two players in both mid and on A without paying too high a price.

Remember that vent play I mentioned earlier? The mid player will need the glorious hero on B to boost them into vents. The B player can use this smoke and possibly a flashbang as well before boosting.

You might feel quite lonely at times when you play B, but you have to stay there until you're certain the terrorists will attack A. I have lost a lot of rounds because I rotated too early from B.

What if the terrorists manage to control mid round after round?

It is believed that Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you notice that you continuously fail to hold mid, don't contest it. Place an AWP behind quad to defend highway, like this:

One player will remain hidden inside connector so that they can hear steps in mid. If they come close, they can use this flash and go for a kill.

If you choose this approach you can either have three players on A or two players on B.

GLHF!

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The return of ESL One Cologne, one of the biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments around, should surprise precisely no one, but now we have details on dates, places and gigantic cash prizes.

The tournament will take place from July 8-10 in Cologne's LANXESS arena, where Counter-Strike aficionados will shoot it out over a prize pool of $250,000.

Tickets will be sold on Eventim from Wednesday, December 9, and could run you up some 2,999 if you have a burning desire to be part of the 'Global Elite Experience' and no budget to speak of. For those of us still aspiring to the rank of Counter-Strike high-roller, tickets start from 40.

If this all seems a terribly long way off, here's Evan's highlight from this year's rumble to keep you occupied for the next 29 seconds.

Last week we had a look at how to defend on Inferno. This time around you get to be the naughty boys. Your objective is to get C4 explosives to one of the two gas pipelines in the village, and you'll have to use every trick in the book to pull it off.

Inferno is a map that's all about time management. The counter-terrorists will use their smokes, flashes and incendiaries in an attempt to delay your attack. As a result you should generally split up in the beginning of the round and show some aggression towards both middle and banana. This way you will force your opponents to use their precious smoke grenades early on. If you manage to do so, their brick walls will turn into demolition sites as the round draws closer to the end. At that point it will be a lot easier for you to pick a bomb site and execute your meticulously planned operation.

First, though, let's have a look at the pistol round.

Pistol round

If you manage to win the pistol round it'll be much easier for you to ride the economy wave and pick up the following rounds as well. There are an infinite number of pistol round strategies, but this is one that I like to use.

You need one guy to buy armor. He will be crucial for this strategy to work. No matter what happens, there's no way this player will let counter-terrorists push banana. In the beginning of the round, his job is to survive and create some space for the rest of the team.

The support player will buy a smoke grenade and two flashbangs and the rest of the team can buy whatever they prefer to use. These four guys will be the main squad. They will go through second mid up to mid.

Once they're in position, the support player will use this smoke and these flashes to prevent the defenders from pushing through the smoke screen.

After the flashes he will join his sidekick in banana while the rest of the team rush through CT-spawn. Now your dumbstruck opponents on B will have to defend against attacks from both sides.

On the next page: an effective way to take B.

Simple but effective B-take

For this round you will need at least two smokes (if you buy more you can use them in mid to fake A or save them to buy more time after the bomb plant). Don't forget to pick up a few flashbangs. A molotov can be really useful to clear sandbags in banana. Either you're gonna toast the enemy hiding there or he's going to look down the barrels of your AK47s, say a quick prayer and embrace the afterlife.

Once you have taken control over banana you will smoke off CT-spawn and spools.

Flash over the roof and towards CT-spawn before you push. The first guy to go in will clear first, second and new box and eventually shadows, like this:

Assign one or two players to make sure the defenders can't attack through the smokes. The bomb carrier will plant the bomb on the grill since you have control over the banana side of the site. This way, any counter-terrorist trying to defuse the bomb will be a sitting duck when you take the peek from any angle, including banana.

On the next page: taking A with sturdy chipmunks.

A-split

In this strategy you want two players to help each other to take control over apartments. They are the Chip and Dale of your team. Dale, being the wild one, will jump up to window room, clear bedroom and then peek down boiler stairs.

Chip, the patient one, will make sure no one can backstab Dale in window room. As soon as Dale peeks down boiler stairs, Chip will have his time to shine. Now it's his job to try to kill the potential counter-terrorist in halls.

While your sturdy chipmunks do their thing, two players will wait just below the top of middle. If you manage to find a kill in apartments you should smoke off arch side and push as fast as possible. If, on the other hand, you don't find a counter-terrorist in apartments you can smoke and flash truck side instead. This will make it easier to either take the site fast from truck side or split push from arch side and apartments. Remember that you have to go fast. Don't let the rotation get to the site in time.

The fifth player will make sure that no one pushes down banana, but as soon as it's time to go he'll join the main squad in middle.

Pay attention!

You have tried to execute these strategies a couple of times, but every time you find yourselves getting caught off guard by a fast rotation. If this is the case you can use it to your advantage. A team that rotates early is especially vulnerable to fakes. Try to get a kill and use utility grenades on one site before you fall back and attack the other one.

If you notice that your opponents are particularly weak on one site—abuse that fact! Either they'll adapt, in which case you attack the other site, or you will cash in round after another. Good luck out there and remember, show no mercy!

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Since writing yesterday's article about the violent altercation between CS:GO panelist Richard Lewis and Dota 2 pro player Jonathan 'Loda' Berg at DreamHack Winter 2015, I've been contacted by DreamHack offering further comment.

"We can confirm that an incident did occur between both parties" writes DreamHack's Michael Van Driel "and that at Loda's request we contacted the police so an official report could be filed."

"We had two staff members who witnessed the altercation between Richard Lewis and Jonathan Berg. Lewis and Kelly Milkies [Ong Xiao Wei] had been in an argument, Kelly had left the scene extremely upset and our staff were explaining to Richard Lewis how these types of yelling matches are not appropriate behaviour for our events. At this time then Jonathan Berg aggressively approached Richard Lewis and the two began to yell at one another, until Richard grabbed Jonathan's neck and began to strangle it, and then our staff intervened to end the physical confrontation."

DreamHack's witnesses do not believe that Berg touched Lewis before Lewis grabbed him. Van Driel writes:

"From what we witnessed it was Richard who initiated physical contact. Loda could be described as 'in his face' but did not initiate physical contact."

This account differs from what Lewis said on Twitter at the time and what he told me via e-mail yesterday. When asked to clarify exactly what Loda did, Lewis wrote:

Backstage Loda's girlfriend had come over first and was berating me and I told her in blunt terms to go away and that if her boyfriend approached me I'd tell him the same. I then informed DreamHack about what was happening on Twitter and was talking about the veiled threats of I'll come and see you or whatever. He walked over in the middle of that conversation shouting what joke did you make about my girlfriend and came and stood as close to me as possible. No one intervened. He moved his head towards me until it was touching my face, so I grabbed him.

Van Driel states that DreamHack's response was "to separate both individuals and do a full investigation of what occurred and involve both DreamHack security crew, and police. After long discussions and considerations of a lot of different options, our response for the event was going to be that both parties would be asked to leave the event, however both Jonathan and Richard were able to speak to one another and shake hands, in which case it was decided against removing both parties for the time being."

Nonetheless, DreamHack will not be working with Richard Lewis again. "Moving forward DreamHack's very quickly reached the conclusion that we will no longer be hiring or working with Richard Lewis indefinitely," Van Driel writes. "We cannot condone violent behaviour at our events. Jonathan will be welcome at all events in the future, however we would like to reiterate that aggressive behaviour is not acceptable."

Update: around the same time this article was published, DreamHack's Christian Lord posted the following statement on Twitter.

I was advised to be silent but I can't stand it anymore. @RLewisReports strangled @LodaBerg and I was the (cont) https://t.co/M6e5dN9uFH

— Hellspawn (@Hellspawnlord) December 1, 2015

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Update: since publishing this story, we've been contacted by DreamHack offering comment. Find it here.

Police were called to Dreamhack Winter this weekend over an altercation between CS:GO panel host Richard Lewis and Jonathan 'Loda' Berg, the captain of Dota 2 team Alliance.

In a tweet, Berg claimed to have been strangled by Lewis. In response, Lewis said that he had been provoked when the pro player "pushed his forehead into his face". I spoke to a spokesperson for the J nk ping police department this morning. They were not able to confirm the official details of the incident at this early stage but did recall an assault being reported on Saturday.

The argument between the two began with this tweet by Lewis:

Can someone tell the groupie I kicked out of bed this morning that she left her sign. pic.twitter.com/xbZnpVd2Vx

— Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) November 28, 2015

Lewis claims to have found the sign discarded the night before and tweeted the photo as a joke at the expense of Team Liquid CS:GO player Hiko. The sign had, however, been made by Kelly Ong Xiao Wei, the manager (and self-described 'mom') of Alliance. "I was having a bit of fun between myself and Hiko and had no idea who created the sign" Lewis later told me via e-mail.

She challenged Lewis about the joke on Twitter, as did her partner, Berg. Berg then asked Lewis if they could meet up to talk about it. It was while meeting backstage at the event that the alleged assault took place and the police were called.

This incident has resulted in fallout on Twitter and in the CS:GO and Dota 2 communities, as might be expected. Berg has been quiet about the issue since Saturday, but Lewis has been more vocal, contending with those who have criticised him and stating yesterday that "the way dreamhack handled things and what they asked of me makes it difficult to want to do an event for them again moving forward".

I ve reached out to all three parties involved, but at present only Lewis has responded to my request for comment. His account of the incident is quoted below.

"Backstage Loda's girlfriend had come over first and was berating me and I told her in blunt terms to go away and if her boyfriend approached me I'd tell him the same" he writes. "I then informed DreamHack about what was happening on Twitter and was talking about the veiled threats of 'I'll come and see you' or whatever."

He is referring to two tweets by Loda. The assertion that these were veiled threats are Lewis' and hard to verify, given the nature of social media.

"He walked over in the middle of that conversation shouting 'what joke did you make about my girlfriend' and came and stood as close to me as possible" Lewis continues. "No one intervened. He moved his head towards me until it was touching my face, so I grabbed him."

"It's not my proudest moment but I had a split second to make a decision. I don't know this individual or what he is capable of. Had I not felt threatened I wouldn't have acted to defend myself. As it happens after the whole silliness of it all we spoke and apologised to each other. That really should have been the end of it."

Of his experience with the police, Lewis writes: "in regards to the police, the player called them as is his right if he felt he was the victim. They interviewed me very briefly, agreed that based on other eye-witness accounts that it was reasonable I might have felt threatened and recorded it as a matter of self defence. They took my details and said it was unlikely any further action would be taken. As I said, it's all a bit silly and it's a shame something so nonsensical as this has overshadowed a great event."

Lewis expands on his account of the incident by writing that he has felt threatened at events before. "For a journalist and pundit like myself it's not uncommon to be threatened by players who dislike things that I say about their performance" he states. "This has happened to me on several occasions. It wouldn't be the first time someone attacked me at an event. I felt it could spill over into a physical confrontation so I acted on instinct. I regret it obviously but I think it's fair to say there were failings on all sides."

With this in mind—and lacking comment from Loda, whose account of the event could easily be different—I asked Lewis if he regretted that initial Twitter post. After all, calling somebody a 'groupie' that he'd 'kicked out of bed' was always going to hurt somebody, even if it didn't hurt a public figure in the Dota community.

"Friendly trash talking is part of the camaraderie in Counter-Strike" Lewis writes. "The difference between joking with people you know and strangers obviously changes context. I will never be overly concerned about causing offence when I express myself and we use humour a lot in what we do for entertainment purposes. Some jokes land, some don't, some upset people, some give everyone a laugh. Knowing where the line is isn't exactly cut and dry."

"Speaking of persona, I didn't come into this to end up living a double life. I remain true to myself in my work and social media presence. I'm a very 'what you see is what you get' kind of person and always speak my mind. Some people will like it and approve, obviously others don't. What I won't ever accept is that I have to bow down to an internet mob and change who I am, especially when the furore is based on half-truths and misinformation. The reaction has been massively over the top and it's amusing to me that so many, condemning me for alleged use of violence, would actually threaten me with violence without seeing the hypocrisy of that."

At present, no official action has been taken either by DreamHack or by the Swedish authorities. I've reached out to DreamHack for comment but not heard back from them at the time of writing. We'll update this story should they respond.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

This weekend is all about DreamHack Winter, which is happening right now in J nk ping, Sweden. There's top-quality Dota 2, CS:GO, Hearthstone, and more to be watched: so much that you'll have a hard time keeping track of them. Don't worry, though! Thanks to the magic of 'doing lots of esports in the same building', you can listen to a bit of CS:GO casting while watching Dota.

Here's what's happening.

Dota 2: ASUS ROG DreamLeague Season 4 Playoffs

A spread of international Dota 2 talent compete for a share of $150,000 at DreamHack. Frankfurt Major champions OG are taking part, as are ESL One New York winners Vega Squadron. The majority of this bracket is taking place today, Friday the 27th—but the lower bracket finals and grand finals are both taking place tomorrow. Play starts at 14:00 CET (13:00 GMT/05:00 PST) and you can watch it all on Twitch.

It is guaranteed to be very Dota: but will it be as Dota as 2013, when the finals took place during a Darude concert?

No. That is impossible.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: FACEIT 2015 Stage 3 Finals

$250,000 on the line in a single day. After Thursday's group stages, four surviving top-flight CS:GO teams will play the semi-finals and finals on Saturday. Between Team SoloMid, Virtus.pro, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas there's a huge amount of talent on display here. Play starts 14:00 CET (13:00 GMT/05:00 PST) and you'll find the livestream here (and also in the background of the Dota stream.)

Hearthstone: DreamHack NVidia Grand Prix

Running throughout the weekend, this is an open tournament with a $40,000 prize pool. It'll start with a Swiss format (no eliminations, players earn points to determine standing) followed by an elimination bracket. Anybody can enter, but they'll be up against some of the best players in the world—including Worlds champion Ostkaka. Watch on the official streaming site.

StarCraft II: DreamHack ROCCAT LotV Championship

The competitive scene is still developing around the changes brought in by Legacy of the Void, so this tournament is one of your best opportunities to see new strats in action. Rob Zacny wrote  this article earlier in the week about changes you're likely to see, but find out for sure this weekend as a roster of European players (plus invited Korean greats) click on stuff really quickly for $50,000. Play is ongoing, with the remaining matches taking place tomorrow from, you guessed it, 14.00 CET (13.00 GMT/05:00 PST). Once again, the place to be is the official streaming site.

Ultra Street Fighter IV: Capcom Pro Tour

Dreamhack is a premier stop for the Capcom Pro Tour as it continues its journey around the world. A share of $250,000 is on the line, with 32 players in contention from all around the world. A great opportunity to see some top-quality Street Fighter—and get excited for next year's SF V. Group stage play begins on Saturday at 11:00 CET (10:00 GMT/02:00 PST) and continues until the end of the day. Watch it here.

League of Legends: 2015 International Wildcard All-Stars

Believe it or not, there's something happening this weekend that isn't happening in Sweden. Melbourne, Australia will host LoL's first-ever Wildcard tournament in order to determine which teams represent the Wildcard regions at the All-Star Event in a couple of weeks. The format is pretty unusual: each region's All-Star team is assembled by player vote and play will take place across multiple mode, including standard 5 vs. 5 Summoner's Rift, 1 vs 1, and a player-voted mode. Play started on Thursday and runs through to the end of Saturday. Here's the stream.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Inferno can be a tricky map to defend unless you understand it. To that end, start by learning the call-outs —the names used to describe each part of the map. This guide by Froosh and collaborators is a very useful resource to bookmark. Keep the Inferno image open in a tab as you work through the rest of this article.

There are two major chokepoints that you want to control: middle and top of banana. If you manage to keep the terrorists from pushing past these points until the end of the round you are likely to have gathered enough information to be ready for the final aggression.

At first glance this may seem simple, but if you have played a couple of games on Inferno you know that this isn't the case. One reason for this is the long rotations between the two bomb sites. As a consequence, you will have to slow down the terrorists.

Having identified the problem, it's time to defuse it. In order to have a successful CT half you have to make the most of your utility grenades: don't throw away a flashbang for no reason.

Bombsite A

You want two guys to cover mid. Preferably one on arch side and one truck side. These guys will be your impenetrable wall. They will use their smoke grenades to ensure the terrorists won't be able to take over mid (at least not without begging for mercy when the rotation from B joins the party.)

You can use a flashbang to let your teammate peek and maybe even get a kill. If that player finds terrorists about to push mid he mustn't panic. Instead, you should just put down a smoke screen. Generally the player on the arch side should use his smoke first. That way you will still have smokes left on A if the arch player has to rotate to B.

The third player on A will make sure your opponents don't take control over apartments. This guy will be the James Bond of your team: the secret agent whose aim is to go for sneaky plays and catch the terrorists off-guard. If you have a smoke up in mid, the truck side player can support him from boiler stairs and let him hide in bedroom.

On the next page: control bombsite B, plus when to buy an AWP.

Bombsite B

On this site I like to have one highly confident player go a little more aggressive and peek angles. The other person gets to be the annoying devil who will make sure the attackers are so flashbanged they couldn't find a crater on the moon.

The first player can take a peek from the corner at the top of banana and try to spot terrorists. If they go for a fast push he can call for a smoke from the support player. If, on the other hand, he can hear them further down in banana or just wants to take a more aggressive peek, his ally can either flash over the roof or in front of the car as shown below.

If the guys on A need help it's best if the support player rotates if he has used his smoke already. Remember, clever use of utility grenades is what wins you rounds.

When the terrorists decide to commit to B they will almost always smoke off CT spawn. By this time it's likely that one of you will find yourself behind the grey cloud of death, but have no fear! Now you have two options. Either that player rotates around the construction site to spools or you can go for the ballsy play and flash pool so that the player from CT side can push the smoke and catch the enemies with their pants down.

AWP on Inferno

You have won a couple of rounds in a row and you find yourself with an abundance of cash. It's tempting to go back to the hotel and have a drink or two. Maybe buy something nice for you and your friends after a long day of combat. But no, now is not the time. There's still a war to be won. Instead you pick up the AWP.

Let's say your AWP player decides to peek banana and he ends up getting a kill. Then he can fall back towards CT spawn, lay down a smoke screen and switch positions with the guy on arch side on A. Often the terrorists will opt out and rotate back to mid, just to find themselves getting killed once again by the same AWPer. Note that this is a risky play and you should only use it once or twice.

Mix it up

Even though nothing can replace good communication and smart positioning you will have to mix it up a bit every now and then. After all, you don't want your opponents to read you like an open book. This is the time to use the card up your sleeve.

This flash from inside the corner on arch side is one of my favorite flashes in the entire game. Simply line up your crosshair with the line on the wall, flash, wait, and pick up some free kills.

Another high risk, high reward play is to let your support player hide behind sandbags. Peek banana from your usual corner and when you see a terrorist, just back off, call for a flash and then the two of you can spray them down.

Final words

Some of these things are easy to do and will help you win more games, whereas some things will take more time to master. Watch your replays (take a look to the right for instructions) and pay attention to what the enemy team did. Should you have rotated earlier? Later? Just remember, practice makes perfect: if at first you don't succeed, buy a defuse kit and try again.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

It s another stacked weekend in the world of being incredibly good at computer games for money. Coming up tomorrow we ve got high-level Dota 2, Smite, CS:GO, and League of Legends. With the majority of the year s World Championships now done, this is the beginning of the next year of regular season play. If you needed proof that competitive gaming is only getting bigger and bigger, consider that the amount of money on the line this weekend would have set a world record just two years ago.

Dota 2: The Frankfurt Major

Saturday will see the final stages of this official $3m Dota tournament play out in Germany. The lower bracket final will begin at 10:30 local time (09:30 GMT/01:30 PST) to be followed by the grand final at 14:30 CET (13:30 GMT/05:30 PST). At the time of writing, either Team Secret or Evil Geniuses will snag the upper bracket grand final slot. The loser of their match will face either EHOME or OG for the final place. This has been an amazing tournament so far, with lots of different regions and playstyles represented at the very top. You can watch the games on Twitch or on the official Dota 2 streaming site. Don t miss it.

Smite Super Regional

This weekend, the world s best Smite teams will battle for a chance to compete in January s World Championship. The North American and European Championships are running alongside one another, with the third place and wildcard matches taking place on Saturday and the two grand finals on Sunday. This is a young and dynamic competitive scene and a really exciting game to watch: thoroughly recommend checking it out, even if you only tune in for the finals. The show begins at 10.30 EST (15.30 GMT/07:30 PST) on both days, and you ll find the Twitch stream right here.

Counter-Strike: GO at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose

Seven international invited teams plus one qualifier (from last week s iBUYPOWER Cup) take part in a brutal two-day single-elimination bracket. This promises to be top-flight CS:GO with a healthy prize pool, and a good opportunity for US fans to watch games on their own time for the first time since, er, last week. But it s normally less common, honest. Play begins at 19.40 PST on both days, which is 22.40 EST. This creates a bit of an issue for European viewers: Saturday s games will begin at 03.40 GMT/04.40 CET on Sunday and Sunday s at the same time on Monday. That s only fair, mind. Watch the action here.

League of Legends at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose.

As Worlds 2015 fades into memory, rekindle your enthusiasm for competitive League this weekend. As with CS:GO, this is a single-elimination bracket: but unlike CS:GO, the teams ere assembled through a vote in China, Europe and North America plus a single invited KeSPA team, Jin Air Green Wings. The tournament runs concurrently with the CS:GO, so see above for times. Click here for the Twitch stream.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Pistol rounds are among the most important rounds in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Winning your pistol rounds gives you an economic advantage that makes it much easier to take the following two rounds as well. In a game where the first team to get to 16 rounds wins, winning four rounds cheaply gives you a huge advantage. It s also important to learn to use pistols so that you can take advantage of an eco round . Your opponent have just won a round and now you re out of money. You can t afford a complete loadout but you don t want to throw a round away. This is the time to buy a pistol, some armor and be the John Wayne you know you can be!

Counter Terrorist pistol choices

Choosing the correct pistol is just as important as knowing how to use it, so let s get started with the buy phase. In the first round of either half you start off with $800. Currently, most professional players choose to use that money to buy kevlar with their default pistol. While I don t think all professional strategies work in matchmaking, this way of starting the CT side is hard to argue with. The accuracy of the USPS-S makes up for the shortage of bullets and having kevlar removes the aimpunch,making it a great pistol setup. If you re using the p2000 instead of the USP-s you ll have enough bullets to keep your enemies at a distance, allowing your team to rotate to your bombsite. Make sure someone in the team buys a defuse kit!

Terrorist pistol choices

The terrorist side isn t much different than the counter terrorist side when it comes to pistols. Most players will want to simply buy armor and stick with their Glock-18. The Glock is a great weapon to run and gun with which is what you ll be doing a lot of the time as a terrorist. A popular strategy among both professional players and matchmakers is the raid boss setup. One person buys armor while another player provides him or her with a Tec-9. They themselves buy a flash and a smoke, giving the team some utility. This way you end up with 4 armored players, one of which has a very strong pistol.

Eco rounds

Eco round buys are often decided on the fly but there are some guidelines for you to follow as you decide what to go for. Because communication in matchmaking is often not much better than Twitch chat, your buys can be decided entirely by what the rest of your team is doing. If nobody buys, you re best off following the group and saving for the next round. However, if all the planets do align and you get to buy a pistol, it s up to you not to buy the wrong one. Buying a p250 is a cheap way to get a gun out of your opponent s hands: it s a great pistol for getting quick, close range kills. You can spam it quite rapidly or take your time and go for the single headshot.

The Five-Seven is a second option on the CT side that offers you nearly the same pistol with a few more bullets per clip and higher armor penetration. The CZ75-Auto is a good gun for standing around a corner, waiting for someone to walk by and emptying a clip into the back of their head. The pistol is expensive, however, and it lacks bullets.Unless you have the perfect position for it, I would always buy the Five-Seven over the CZ.

On the terrorist side, buying the Tec-9 feels like the obvious choice. Being able to empty a 24-bullet clip into your opponent as quickly as the Tec-9 allows can turn a round in your favour. Buying Dual Elites is almost always a mistake, which leaves us with the fan-favorite Desert Eagle. There is no better feeling in CS:GO than shooting someone in the head with a Desert Eagle using only your first shot. Taking out a player who has just invested $6000 in their loadout with a $700 pistol feels like killing an mammoth with a Super Soaker. Using the Desert Eagle is hard so for most players, however, that it s not a worthy investment—but if you re feeling lucky it won t hurt to try it once in a while.

Scoring kills

The counter terrorist s USP-s is freakishly accurate and will get you one-shot kills if you hit your helmet-less target in the head. The small clip size forces you to use your bullets carefullyso aim for the head and don t spam too much unless you re in a close range battle. The Glock-18 requires the opposite playstyle. This gun is perfect for running at your target, shouting obscenities and spamming your left mouse button. Only put the gun on burst mode (right click) if you re going to attempt jump shooting and keep your crosshair on your opponent s head at all times, only correcting for recoil.

The p250 and the Five-Seven are played nearly identically. Because both these pistols can get one-shot headshot kills on close range—even against opponents with kevlar and a helmet -it s a good idea to try to put yourself in 1v1 positions. You do this by standing around the corner from a choke location and aiming at head height.

The terrorists s Tec-9 is a strong pistol for running and gunning . This gun s recoil pattern is about as random as a best of one group stage so the best way to use the Tec-9 is by spamming it whenever you get close enough for your bullets to actually hit your target. When you do get close enough you have a very good chance of killing your opponent, regardless of which weapon they re using.

The Desert Eagle is less like a pistol and more like a tiny AWP. Wildly inaccurate when you re moving, the Deagle requires you to come to a complete stop before firing off bullets that will instantly kill a helmeted player with a headshot, even from a long distance. For short range kills you can spam your deagle but the more time you give the pistol to reset to its default position, the more accurate your shots will be.

Improving quickly

You don t get to play too many pistol rounds during a competitive CS:GO game so jumping into a pistol-only deathmatch server is a great way to improve your pistol play. Try only using the USP-s and aiming for the head and you ll feel yourself get better every time you play.

A good pistol player can hand their team two of the most important rounds of the game. A great pistol player can turn an entire game around and create some of the most beautiful moments we ve seen in Counter-Strike history:

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