Pro-Players | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 29 Aug 2016 07:50:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Pro-Players | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Chinese state curfew forces fans to miss LoL qualifier https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/chinese-state-curfew-forces-fans-to-miss-lol-qualifier/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/chinese-state-curfew-forces-fans-to-miss-lol-qualifier/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2016 07:50:04 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=304439 The regional qualifiers for China's top League of Legends team came to a surprising end over the weekend, with the last game in the tournament between Snake eSports and Team World Elite, having no audience to play in front of. Thanks to the local region's curfew, the entire crowd was sent home when the show ran …

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The regional qualifiers for China's top League of Legends team came to a surprising end over the weekend, with the last game in the tournament between Snake eSports and Team World Elite, having no audience to play in front of. Thanks to the local region's curfew, the entire crowd was sent home when the show ran late.

By all accounts the games were good too, with the two teams going back and forth and the potential for either to take home the top spot which would help them advance towards the end goal of a LoL World Championship run. Ultimately Team World Elite was able to defeat their opponents, but the moment must have been somewhat anti-climactic without the crowd cheering them on.

It sounds like the problem stemmed from two of the main games in the event running to a best of five, and long games at that, which pushed the broadcast past its allotted time. Once the clocks ticked past 10:20 local time, the organisers were forced to send the crowds home, leaving the gamers playing in-front of stream viewers alone. Granted there was still a solid fan base there, but it must be quite different performing in an arena that echoes to the sound of your mouse clicks.

Perhaps the subdued victory for Team World Elite didn't give the players enough of a boost to continue, as when it came to the regional finals against I May, they fell short, sending one of the newest pro teams on to their first World Championship.

KitGuru Says: It's that age old proverb isn't it? If a League game goes down in an empty arena with no one to see it, did they really use their Ult at the right moment?

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The machines are winning: AI beats master at Go https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/the-machines-are-winning-ai-beats-master-at-go/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/development/jon-martindale/the-machines-are-winning-ai-beats-master-at-go/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2016 10:53:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=282285 A computer algorithm put together by Google's DeepMind engineers, has managed to beat a human champion of the ancient game of Go. This is the first time in history that an AI was able to defeat a person without a severe handicap. Although it still has to face a world champion, the software can now join …

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A computer algorithm put together by Google's DeepMind engineers, has managed to beat a human champion of the ancient game of Go. This is the first time in history that an AI was able to defeat a person without a severe handicap. Although it still has to face a world champion, the software can now join the likes of chess and backgammon AIs as capable of defeating some of the world's best human players.

Go is a game that has been around for over 2,500 years. Originating in China, its complexity and number of potential moves have made it difficult for AI developers to make an algorithm that is competitive enough to go head to head with high-level players; unlike chess backgammon and draughts, where software, even running on lower end hardware has been shown capable of defeating grand masters.

go

While it has been possible in the past to have AI defeat Go players, it has only ever been with a severe handicap. With DeepMind's new AlfaGo program however, that's no longer necessary. It defeated European Go champion Fan Hui back in October last year, though the results have only just been published in Nature.

What's interesting about Go and the development of an AI that could play it effectively, is that it has so many permutations and potential moves, that traditional “brute force” programming wouldn't work as well as it would in other games, which means that the clever chaps at DeepMind had to think up a different method for developing it.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-dKXOlsf98′]

For AlfaGo there are two “neural networks” under the hood. The first, is termed the policy network, which attempts to cut down the potential move choices for the computer to a much more manageable size. The second network, known as the value network, actually restricts how deep the AI goes in predicting moves. It looks a few moves ahead instead of several hundred, and evaluates that position before moving on.

That way the system is able to act more akin to a human and in many ways it makes it more imaginative, rather than predictive.

It was that system of dual neural networks which took down Fan Hui, five games to nothing. Now the challenge will be to take on Korean Lee Sedol, considered by many as the greatest Go player alive, with a match set to take place in March. Although it's not certain that AlfaGo will win, it seems likely that given enough time, it can be refined to the point where it could easily dominate human players, as chess computers have in the past.

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KitGuru Says: It's both thrilling and sad when computers beat human gamers. It makes us seem ever more redundant, but creating something that can be so competent is an amazing achievement.

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LoL pro warns of shady managers https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/lol-pro-warns-of-shady-managers/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/lol-pro-warns-of-shady-managers/#comments Mon, 08 Jul 2013 11:33:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=141115 League of Legends is exploding in the world of esports. In just a few short years, it's easily eclipsed its Warcraft III map inspiration and has become not only the most popular esports title, but one of the highest earning games for professional players the world over. Unfortunately though, when big money gets involved, not …

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League of Legends is exploding in the world of esports. In just a few short years, it's easily eclipsed its Warcraft III map inspiration and has become not only the most popular esports title, but one of the highest earning games for professional players the world over. Unfortunately though, when big money gets involved, not everyone is going to be a nice guy. That's what one pro player has been speaking out against in a recent statement, saying how he believes unscrupulous managers are the new bad guys of the LoL esports scene.

Patrick “MegaZero” Glinsman, said that managers were one of the biggest flaws in esports at the moment, pointing at his ex-team's (MRN) manager Martin “Marn” Phan, as one such example. According to Glinsman, the man took home three times as much as the highest paid player and held far too much power. He controlled the roster, the team's PR, everything – which might sound like the sort of thing you would want a manager to handle, but Glinsman believes there needs to be more democracy involved, especially in younger teams.

He described how often, newer players, “don't take managers seriously and usually just hire a friend or a popular player. I'm not saying every team does this, but because the manager role isn't like a real sport yet, you put these young players in a situation where their career can be totally ruined just because there's someone that controls their fate.”

manager

Riot Games understands the issue to some extent, and does have some safeguards in place to make sure that managers don't get too power hungry. One example in the Season three rules, says that players are entitled to a minimum compensation of $12,500 – stressing the “minimum” part.

Glinsman however, wants to take things a step further and implement a voting system. He believes that major decisions affecting a team, such a change in roster – or even selling the team – should only be given the go ahead by a majority vote among the team's players. He also suggested a vetting procedure for manager roles, including background checks and references – though the latter part of that sounds more like a common sense thing for the players to do before officially hiring on a manager.

In-fact, since there isn't much of a legal precedent for this sort of thing, until there is, most of MegaZero's advice should be taken as he says, for younger and newer players just coming up in the game.

However, while Glinsman might have cited his previous manager as someone you don't want running your team, the man himself didn't take long to reply to the Reddit thread (thanks PCGamesN) via his Twitter. He said that there was always two sides to the story and that he would write a response on his blog. In a later tweet, he suggested to one commenter that in-fact, the players were trying to get rent money from him.

KitGuru Says: A lot of this seems like common sense in hindsight, but it's probably understandable why players would get caught out early in the life cycle of a competitive and money earning game. We've had a few ex-pro players comment to us before about Esports. Did any of you run into managerial problems?

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