What Intel's Bringing to its Fierce $500,000 Gaming Competition
The longest-running global pro-gaming circuit in the world makes its way back to California this weekend, where gamers will be going head to head for the $500,000 prize. As the eSports industry picks up, Intel is looking to be a major player. John Bonini, vice president of VR, gaming & e-Sports at Intel joined us to preview the big event.
Intel Extreme Masters returns to Oakland for 2 days of eSports action. It will feature two days of "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" and "PlayersUnknown's Battlegrounds". The first VR eSports circuit created by Intel, Oculus, and ESL will make its IEM debut.
Bonini also hits on the emergence of collegiate eSports, which is creating scholarship opportunities for star gamers. There is so much growth in eSports, it's easy to see colleges creating their own tournaments and leagues.
However, he says it not the same system as leagues like the NBA. Bonini points out that many of the best players are 16 or 17 years old and sometimes skip college in order to go straight to the pros.
The chief suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has admitted he beat the young Alabama woman to death on a beach in Aruba after she refused his advances. New details in the killing emerged Wednesday as Joran Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting Holloway's mother, resolving a case that has captivated the public’s attention for nearly 20 years.
The trial of a Fugees rapper, who was convicted this year in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies, stretched across the worlds of politics and entertainment — and now the case is touching on the tech world with arguments that his defense attorney bungled the case, in part, by using an artificial intelligence program to write his closing arguments.
Israel said Wednesday that it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the first crack in a 10-day siege on the territory. Palestinians reeled from a massive blast at a Gaza City hospital that killed hundreds the day before and grew increasingly desperate as food and water supplies ran out.
A 4000-year-old slab of rock is being dubbed a treasure map for archaeologists. The rock was found in 1900 at the site of an ancient tomb in northwestern France and it was declared Europe's oldest known map in 2021.
Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil honoring a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed to death over the weekend by his family's landlord in an apparent hate crime.