As online multiplayer phenomenon SpeedRunners passes $3.25 million in sales, the tinyBuild and DoubleDutch game is finally becoming an official ESL Gaming eSport.

tinyBuild has been pushing for SpeedRunners as an eSport for the last year, running dozens of events around the world on a weekly basis, and working with companies like Twitch, SteelSeries, Alienware to livestream prize tournaments.

Through talks with ESL, the oldest and largest eSports league in the world, SpeedRunners has now been signed up for ESL rotation alongside the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends.

SpeedRunners players are now invited to compete in official ESL cups and tournaments for prizes, with the first series commencing this Saturday in the SpeedRunners 1on1 Summer Series in Europe, and the first North America Series starting the following Saturday.

Prizes will include a custom ESL trail for the winning player that they can show off to other SpeedRunners during regular play online, trophies, and packs of tinyBuild games.

Sandwiched in between this, there will be an official Gamescom SpeedRunners Tournament that will be livestreamed from the Twitch stage next week at Gamescom, including a press-only tournament.

“SpeedRunners as an eSport just makes sense, and the velocity at which our community has rallied behind this important next step for the game has been incredible,” said tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik. “Our pro players can’t wait to get involved.”

Today, InnoGames released a new feature in its strategic city-building game Elvenar: Fellowships. Players can now band together with up to 25 companions and engage in activities that all members profit from, such as trading and enhancing production by visiting each other’s cities. Being in a fellowship also allows access to the ingame chat-function which grants seamless communication between members.

By founding a Fellowship, players become its Archmage, the guild leader. They can invite other players as well as assign Aspirants, initiates for the Fellowship. Proper members will be granted the titles of Fellow, Ambassador or Mage, each with their own privileges and rights within the fellowship.

Valiance Online has broken its silence this month with some pretty interesting pre-alpha server updates including a rather colorful character creation set-up, and now a look at the powers that will define your personalized super hero!

Part 1 of their discussion of powers points to a primary/secondary power set system in which players will acquire paths that define their archetype, while building a well-balanced character that acquires a secondary set of skills at a slower rate to balance their overall effectiveness on the battlefield.

Based on the preview, we see melee paths ranging from all out offense, to different tank styles, to full on support leader rolls. Ranged paths on the other hand seem focused on sniping down enemies before they’re seen, fully disabling them, or more standard healer support archetypes.

This is apparently just the tip of the iceberg though, as we won’t understand the full implications of the system until the hybrid power sets or archetype system is fully explained. Check out the full Director Blog here.

Plarium, one of the world’s fastest growing developers of social and mobile games, just announced the latest batch of updates for Nords: Heroes of the North, its hit MMO game currently available to play for free on Facebook.

Developed by a team of hardcore gamers, artists, and technical gurus, Nords includes 3D battle animations and a wide range of RPG features. With the fantasy title’s latest updates, Plarium continues to deliver more of the features hardcore players have been requesting and waiting for, such as tournaments, clan missions, raids and much more.

For the first time, players find themselves front and center in the legendary realm of Shingård. However, a wicked presence has recently descended over the snow-covered land and legions of undead are rampaging across the kingdom – it is up to the player, who can choose to be in a tribe of Orcs, Elves, or Nords – to unite for the common good in order to vanquish this evil presence.

The latest updates include:

Tournaments
There are two types: personal and clan tournaments. This update allows players to fight against each other and earn points that will give them rewards.

Clans and Clan Missions
Clan Missions are special tasks that require players to work with other Clan members to complete global objectives. New Clan Missions are randomly selected, and each Clan will have 24 hours to complete the objective. Every completed Clan Mission grants huge rewards.

The Gift of Giving
Players are now able to send and receive free gifts of Resources to and from friends. Resources sent as a free gift will not be subtracted from a players’ current resource stockpiles.

These free gifts have no expiration date and friends may accept them at any time. However, players may only send one free gift to each friend per day, and may receive a maximum of 10 free gifts.

Raid Quests
From now on, new Quests will include more military operations, such as engaging battlegrounds, destroying rival units, and other increased opportunities to show off your skills, with bigger, better and more diverse rewards.
Players can also earn rewards by raiding other players, but only through clever diplomacy, resource trading, and the forming of alliances.

Hot off the success of their previous Kickstarter, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Hairbrained Schemes has announced plans to launch a new Kickstarter campaign for BATTLETECH. Jordan Weisman, creator of BattleTech and MechWarrior, is excited to bring this mech franchise back to the turn-based PC genre for the first time in over two decades.

Steeped in the feudal political intrigue of the BattleTech universe, the game will feature an open-ended Mercenaries-style campaign that blends RPG ‘Mech and MechWarrior management with modern turn-based tactics.

Shadowrun Hong Kong is set to launch on August 20, 2015. BattleTech will begin its Kickstarter campaign sometime in the fall.

Developer Obsidian Entertainment and publisher My.com have announced that the multiplayer tank combat game, Armored Warfare, will hold its fourth Early Access Test on August 13-30 with 24/7 access for the first time. The next phase of Early Access testing includes content updates with new vehicles, maps, enhanced rebalancing and as a major feature update – Retrofits, an expansive vehicle upgrade system.

The Retrofit system is a series of upgrades for existing vehicles which allows players to customize various attributes of their tanks which the use most during battle. Some examples of retrofit elements can be found in the following table.

Due to multiple updates, including dealer tree changes and significant rebalances to the vehicles, a reset of players’ progression will be performed. All in-game currencies accumulated by players over the course of Early Access testing will be reimbursed to the player accounts in the form of free reputation and unspent credits close to what was previously earned, including the unspent locked reputation as well. The reset will also allow players to allocate earned reputation and credits in a different way to test and play as through alternate dealer trees and try out new vehicles.

As mentioned above, Early Access 4 will be the first Armored Warfare test with 24 hour access to the game seven days a week. To provide stable 24/7 matchmaking for Early Access players, a merging of North American and European servers will be performed. Players’ accounts will be copied to the unified server.

Features and updates for the Armored Warfare Early Access 4 include:

• A new Retrofit system
  
• A reworked Spotting system
  
• Advanced artillery support shells
  
• Several new vehicles (T-54, M48 Patton, Object 430, Centauro 120, FV721, Begleitpanzer 57, T-72A) with Centauro 155 removed from the dealer tree for rebalance
  
• Game economy overhaul
  
• Significant increase in the PvE rewards, new PvE missions
  

The Early Access Tests in Armored Warfare are in place to improve, balance and refine the gameplay experience and do not represent the finished product. A complete list of changes can be found at the Armored Warfare website here.

KOG Games has released new content to the North American servers of Elsword to give players some truly tough content to sink their teeth into, and level in up to the new cap of 80! Venture further into the mysterious fiery lands of Lanox as you enter Phantasmal Geyser and Volcanic Flame Entrance.

In addition to the two new dungeons, there’s plenty of limited time events going on to reward you for getting back in to the game right away. Stay logged in to claim the I Like Fish and Hiking King limited titles to gain a huge advantage when tackling the new dungeons! One day Diorama costume sets can also be earned this way.

Fore more details, catch the VOD of GM Crow and Sonata’s reveal of the new dungeons on the official Twitch channel.

In last week’s “Half a Year with Dying Light” video, Techland teased drivable all-terrain dirt buggies for Dying Light. Today Techland has confirmed that it is indeed working on Dying Light: The Following – a feature-heavy, story-based expansion pack.

“For Dying Light: The Following we’re adding a number of bold game-changers to create one massive expansion. Something big that will give the game a brand-new flavor. The new map alone is the same size as all the previous maps from Dying Light combined, so there is a lot we’re packing in here.

We also kept a close eye on player feedback to help tailor what we’ve created here. Hopefully people will see that this new expansion is first and foremost, for the fans.” 
– Tymon Smektala, producer, Dying Light: The Following

Techland announced that Dying Light: The Following will be available for purchase separately but will also be made free to all Season Pass holders. The expansion pack is set to be showcased behind closed doors at Gamescom next month, with a full public reveal following shortly after.

Ankama and gumi Inc. are proud to announce that their collaborative mobile game project WAKFU Raiders is now available on the App Store for iOS devices and Google Play for Android devices. This mobile RPG is developed and distributed by gumi Inc. using the rich WAKFU universe created by Ankama.

In WAKFU Raiders, players gather powerful warriors and creatures to fight opposing forces using a unique combo battle system utilizing real-time combat strategies. As emissaries of the master Yakusha, players are tasked to investigate anomalies appearing all over the fantastical and colorful world of Twelve.

Features of the game include:

• Unique Fast-Paced Real-Time Combat System: Players can strategically combo their attacks for maximum damage and trigger Ultimate Skills to unleash awesome cool moves!
• Epic Characters & Adorable Monsters: Collect and evolve 30 unique characters from the colorful WAKFU universe. Do battle with epic bosses, each with their own custom abilities.
• High Quality Audio & Visual: Experience immersive battle animations & effects, as well as trademark WAKFU visuals and sound bites.
• Competitive Tournaments & PVP Arena: Create the best party possible and outshine the competition.
• So Much To Do, So Little Time: Create new weapons of war with the Crafting System, participate in Daily Events for exclusive loot, and stay ahead online with the VIP System. More features to come post-launch.

Players are invited to download WAKFU Raiders today:
App Store: http://apple.co/1Oyuml9
Google Play: https://goo.gl/rXtisz