Adhara Magazine

TenZ dominates F4Q, Sentinels breeze to 2-0 record at VCT

2021 Best LOGITECH Ch ristmas gi fts for th e gam e rs i n your li fe

2021 VALORANT CHAMPIONSHIPS

G FUEL And Disney Drop A “Flavor Bomb” Energy Drink Issue 356 November 2021

100 Thieves’ Valkyrae Skin Care Line Shuts Down Following Controversy

in this issue

03

Valkyrae’s RFLCT Skin Line

05 lOGITECH G502

07

BEHIND THE SCENES OF ARCANE

09 a LOOK INTO tenz

11

New valorant agent

13 15

Whats going on with valorant champions

19

2021 best gaming chritmas gifts

The gaming chair of the year

17

6 TIPS TO GET BETTER AT VALORANT

Valkyrae’s RFLCT Skin Care Line Shuts Down Following Controversy

After streamer Valkyrae’s RFLCT skin care products’ controversial claims of protecting against skin damage from blue light, the brand has shut down.

Not long after launch, YouTube streamer Valkyrae’s RFLCT skincare line has shut down following debate over its controversial blue-light claims. Rachell Hoftstetter (better known as Valkyrae) gained popularity streaming on Twitch, but Valkyrae signed an exclusive YouTube Gaming deal in January 2020.

In October, she promoted a new cosmetics brand called RFLCT to her large YouTube audience. The products were advertised as offering skin protection from damaging blue light, which is emitted by LED screens (among other sources). However,

Valkyrae and RFLCT faced extensive backlash immediately after the brand was unveiled.

The credibility of RFLCT was called into question due to insufficient evidence supporting its claim that blue light emitted from screens causes skin damage. Critics pointed out that blue light’s negative effects on skin hasn’t been fully proven and argued a skincare product with a formula protecting against this damage seemed unlikely. Valkyrae responded to RFLCT criticisms in a now-deleted voice recording uploaded to Twitter.

In the recording, she explained her sympathies with fans concerned by claims about the brand being a scam and expressed surprise that the RFLCT website did not cite scientific studies to back its blue light claims. She ended her recording by promising to go into more detail on this topic in the future.

Following this public backlash, Valkyrae’s RFLCT skincare line has shut down. On October 30, the official RFLCT official Twitter account (which has since been deleted) announced the discontinuation of its products, stating, “While we believe in the formulations created, after further reflection, have decided to move forward on new paths, effectively terminating the RFLCT brand.”

Visiting RFLCT’s official website provides the same message, and a search for the brand on Ulta Beauty’s website results in “No products found.”

Following this public backlash, Valkyrae’s RFLCT skincare line has shut down. On October 30, the official RFLCT official Twitter account (which has since been deleted) announced the discontinuation of its products, stating, “While we believe in the formulations created, after further reflection, have decided to move forward on new paths, effectively

terminating the RFLCT brand.” Visiting RFLCT’s official website provides the same message, and a search for the brand on Ulta Beauty’s website results in “No products found.”

Valkyrae was announced as co-owner of the 100 Thieves esports brand in April, so this isn’t her first entrepreneurial venture. With the RFLCT brand’s collapse, Valkyrae’s online reputation has likely taken a hit. Throughout the cosmetics controversy, both the brand and Valkyrae did not admit RFLCT’s claim of blue light skin protection was unproven. Valkyrae has since deleted her tweets of support for the product, but RFLCT has not walked back its claims.

Time will tell whether Valkyrae will directly address the discontinuation of RFLCT in coming days. It hasn’t been long since the brand’s official cancellation, so it’s possible official statements by either or both parties could be forthcoming. As a public figure, online comments previously pressured Valkyrae to play less GTA RP, and she and her team have likely been receiving an influx of negative engagement since the RFLCT controversy began.

BY CAITLIN DINUNZIO

PUBLISHED 17 HOURS AGO

Editors Lawrence Gan and Ernesto Matamoros Discuss Arcane What led you to become editors?

Lawrence Gan: Editing is where the movie ultimately gets made. It’s when all the different parts finally come together to form what audiences will actually see on screen.

And while this is true in live-action, this is even more the case in Animation where Editors are part of the story process right from the very beginning.

Ernesto Matamoros: As creatives, Lawrence and I were drawn to editing by this aspect. In animation, we have the opportunity to affect the film as early as script and story. This creative process continues as we shepherd the movie through the various stages of production, including talent voice recordings, animation, lighting, and sound design.

What was it about Arcane that made you want to work on it?

Gan: We’ve both worked on a great deal of animated projects. Everything from How to Train Your Dragon to Space Jam 2. And in all our years, we have never seen an animated show that challenges the animation medium in the way that Arcane does. It’s a show that doesn’t adhere to the traditional animation genre boundaries of family-friendly animation or adult comedy animation. This is something else entirely.

Matamoros: The risks Arcane takes are like none we’ve ever experienced before. It feels like you’re watching an episode of Game of Thrones sometimes, just when you think you’ve got it figured out…Surprise! Now you’re crying.

Gan: I remember meeting Christian Linke for the first time while interviewing for the show. He had a profound vision and his passion was infectious. And then he showed me an early version of the Silco drowning scene. It was dark and poetic – nothing like the comical and frenetic energy of your usual animated cartoon. I was immediately hooked.

What was the most challenging aspect of Arcane and how did you overcome that?

Gan: The team at Arcane set out to redefine the medium in the sense of animation, video game television series, and Hollywood’s approach to serial animated shows as a whole. But we ultimately rose to the challenge because of the team’s dedication, talent, and belief that the value of the show was more than the sum of its parts.

nally requested video, since ours was much funnier. It was the gift that kept on giving.

Pretty wild what you can create with Photoshop and a bit of creative editing.

In addition, the two of us always found it exciting when we got to go to France and work with the Fortiche team in person.

We would play with fight choreography, staging, acting, story, you name it. It was a great bonding experience every time. Plus, they know their wine!

Matamoros: Getting the story right was critical. Having the presence of mind and courage to see the challenges in the episodes and scrap ideas that didn’t serve themes or characters in fulfilling ways, was one of the primary focuses in story and editorial. Christian Linke and Alex Yee encouraged us all to voice creative ideas and opinions, it was a very collaborative environment that ran towards challenges as a team.

What were some of the things you learned from Arcane that you’re excited to apply to future endeavors?

Do you have any fun, behind-thescenes stories about the making of Arcane?

Matamoros: You mean besides continuing to work with Lawrence? You’re only as strong as the team you build around you. It might sound obvious, but it isn’t until you’ve experienced a project where every member is a big gun that you really appreciate the importance of having the right people in place. It can really make the difference.

Gan: Ernesto and I love the team at Arcane. We’re all just a bunch of goofball geeks who want to make cool things and have fun while doing it. One of my favorite memories came about when Ernesto and I were making a BTS video for our holiday party that year. Under the guise of “we’re doing interviews for an Arcane Blu-ray special”, we went around recording interviews with all the members of the Arcane team, only to surprise everyone with a mockumentary re-edit of “Making A Murder: Arcane Edition.” Truths were revealed. Reputations were destroyed. And a murderer in the homicide of Balloonicorn, the Arcane Team Mascot, was implicated.

That was a fun Christmas.

Matamoros: The title, if I recall, was actually “Making Arcane,” the intro was a cut for cut remake of the “Making A Murderer” Netflix documentary series intro. We never actually got around to making the origi-

Gan: Animation can be so much more than just family-friendly talking animals or late night adult animated sitcoms. It can be dramatic. It can be poignant. And it can reflect and comment on the human condition in ways that resonate with people of all walks and creeds.

Do you have any other projects coming up that you can share with us?

Gan: Ernesto and I are currently developing three animated series as well as a live-action sci-fi project that we would love to find a home and see on screen.

Te n Z dom i nates F4Q, Se nti n e ls bre eze to 2-0 record at VCT Maste rs Be rli n

A fantastic, superstar performance from Tyson “TenZ” Ngo paved the way for a Sentinels victory against F4Q today. The star duelist dominated on the first Breeze appearance of VCT Masters Three Berlin.

F4Q picked Split to start the series and the two VALORANT teams traded rounds back and forth. Sentinels had some trouble reacting to the hyper-aggressive Raze play from Bunny, though.

The former Overwatch pro was satchel-bouncing into sites and giving Sentinels all kinds of trouble.

The dominant NA side only held a 7-5 lead going into halftime. Bunny continued to be a problem, but it was nothing that Sentinels couldn’t eventually handle. They took F4Q’s map pick 13-9.

Sentinels picked Breeze, marking the map’s first appearance in Berlin.

TenZ had another impactful pistol round, picking up four kills to gift his team an early advantage. But Bunny continued to be a issue, shutting down both of Sentinels’ first attempts at trying to take A site. So the top team out of NA went back to

-B again successfully before TenZ woke up and dominated the rest of the first half with the Op, pushing the Sentinels’ lead to 8-4.

With such a lead heading into defense, Sentinels dominated the remainder of Breeze. TenZ provided even more playmaking and Sentinels swept the second half.

TenZ ended with 32 kills over just seven deaths.

TenZ’s performance was impressive, even by his ludicrous standards. The rest of his entire team had 36 kills on Breeze, only four more than their top fragger. He ended the series with 54 kills, 20 more than the next highest.

After a tough series win against G2 Esports to open their Berlin play, this dominant win over F4Q pushes Sentinels to a 2-0 record, all but assuring them a spot in the playoffs.

H e re are all of t Cham be r, VAL weapon-sa VALORANT’s new agent is a welldressed, well-armed weapons designer who leverages his custom-made arsenal to hold the line and pick off enemies from afar.

Chamber, a French sentinel agent, takes inspiration from the archetype of the “gentleman assassin,” according to Riot. His gameplay revolves around “highly lethal, pinpoint accuracy” that makes use of an array of weapons and gadgets, including a pistol and a great big golden sniper rifle.

H e re are all of Ch C - Trade mark Place a trap that scans for enemies. When a visible enemy comes in range, the trap counts down and then destabilizes the terrain around them, creating a lingering field that slows players caught inside of it.

Q - H eadhunte r Activate to equip a heavy pistol. Alt fire with the pistol equipped to aim down sights.

(The ability costs 100 per bullet)

th e abi liti es for LORANT's n ew avvy age nt “That feeling was the core of his thematic: the idea that the distance of the shot, the breeze in the wind, the type of powder in the ammo, all these fine details must be taken into account to land the perfect hit,” Riot said.

Chamber will make his debut in Patch 3.10 on Nov. 16, two weeks after VALORANT Episode Three, Act Three hits the live servers.

As a character, he’s a perfectionist—a person who cares about the finer things in life from the cut of his vest to the color of his threading.

ham be r's abi liti es.

E - Re n dezvous

Ulti mate - Tour de Force

Place two teleport anchors. While on the ground and in range of an anchor, reactivate to quickly teleport to the other anchor.

Anchors can be picked up to be redeployed.

Activate to summon a powerful, custom sniper rifle that will kill an enemy with any direct hit. Killing an enemy creates a lingering field that slows players caught inside it.

New League of Legends Champion gaming chairs include Akali, Ahri, Yasuo, KDA styles If you’re a League of Legends fan and also in the market for something new to park your backside on while you dig into all of the biggest and best PC games around, you are in luck. Gaming chair company Secret Lab has just announced a brand-new collaboration with LoL developer Riot Games, which means four new styles themed around three of the best League of Legends Champions, and one of the MOBA game’s biggest tie-in bands, K/DA. “Immerse yourself in League of Legends with the world’s first official League of Legends Champions

Collection, part of a new creative collaboration between Secret Lab and Riot Games,” an announcement on Twitter says. As you can see in the clip below, three of Ionia’s greatest Champs have got their own styles reflected, with themed chairs for Akali, Ahri, and Yasuo.

Yasuo’s reflects his combat style, with a katana featured on the chair, as well as a stylised clouds motif on the back, while Ahri’s incorporates The NineTailed Fox’s, well, nine tailed-fox. You can see a circular fox emblem on the backrest and some of its tails swirling round on to the chair’s back.

Akali’s version, similarly, draws on The Rogue Assassin’s combat style and theme, with her dual weapons and a fire-breathing dragon with a green, black, and white colour scheme portrayed.

Last up, K/DA’s gaming chair reflects the LoL tiein group – which debuted with the tune ‘Pop/Stars’ back in 2018 and an ingame lineup of Ahri, Akali, Kai’Sa, and Evelynn – with the band’s logo, a purple, gold, and black colour scheme, and dragon motif on the back. Take a look: As reflected on the Secret Lab site, the chairs come in two different sizes (the small/medium ‘Omega’ and large ‘Titan’) and are available for pre-order. The direct pricing of the each of the Omega size chairs is listed as £329 / $389, and £379 / $429 for the Titan size versions.

If you’re a League fan, do be sure to take a look at the upcoming changes headed to the live game with our LoL patch 10.18 notes. There wasn’t a LoL patch 10.17, in case you were wondering, as Riot’s taking “a week off” and skipping it, but there are already some goodies up to eyeball on the PBE, which will hit the game later this month.

Edited by Carrie Talbota

Se nti n e ls adds Rawkus from FaZe Clan as h ead coach ah ead of Cham pions FaZe Clan and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty have parted ways as he now heads to Sentinels as their new VALORANT head coach. Sentinels rampaged through their VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) campaign this year without an official head coach, so fans will be excited to see what kind of an impact Rawkus can have on the team. Sentinels will be headed to compete on the global stage, representing North America at VCT Champions Berlin.

The team dropped the coaching announcement on Twitter on Monday, saying “Adding brainpower to our firepower. We’re ready for Berlin. Let’s get to work.”

FaZe Clan and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty have parted ways as he now heads to Sentinels as their new VALORANT head coach. Sentinels rampaged through their VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) campaign this year without an official head coach, so fans will be excited to see what kind of an impact Rawkus can have on the team. Sentinels will be headed to compete on the global stage, representing North America at VCT Champions Berlin.

The team dropped the coaching announcement on Twitter on Monday, saying “Adding brainpower to our firepower. We’re ready for Berlin. Let’s get to work.”

Prior to Rawkus’ arrival from FaZe Clan, Sen-

tinels had been competing through the entire VCT stages without any coach, strategic or otherwise.

Instead, they relied on the leadership of in-game shotcaller Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan, and simply prepared for matches the way they knew and believed to be best.

This setup did appear to work for them extremely well. Although the VALORANT pro scene has not been around for too long (this is the first year of VCT), Sentinels have already made their mark, absolutely tearing through NA. Back in the first stage of VCT, Sentinels and FaZe Clan went head to head thrice—including the grand finals round of Masters One in NA—and Sentinels came out on top every time. The team didn’t even drop a map to FaZe. They went on through the next stage of VCT, capping off an unbeaten Masters Reykjavik campaign to secure a spot at Champions.

On the contrary, FaZe has experienced a tumultuous season. Rawkus had played as a Sova main for them, though previously he was also a pro player for Overwatch League team Houston Outlaws. It will be interesting to see the dynamic of the Sentinels squad with Rawkus at the helm and how their strategies unfold going into Champions.

By

By Erinne Erinne Ong Ong

6 ti ps for i m provi ng your ai m i n Valorant

1. Learn Counter Strafing If you’re not sure what counter strafing is, it’s simple. If you’re moving in one direction and you suddenly see someone, counter strafing is pressing the opposite direction key in order to stop moving immediately and achieve the most precise first shot possible. For example, you’re moving left with an A key, you see someone, you immediately press D and then start shooting. Many players don’t use this because in lower ranks it’s not that necessary, however, as you climb and duels become increasingly harder and sweaty, you will need to start practicing counter-strafing.

2. Be More Aggressive When Enemies Know Your Position

3. There are essentially three types of aim.

Valorant, just like many other FPS games, has a so-called “peeker’s advantage” which means that the game favors the aggressor and not the one holding the angle. Therefore, when enemies know where you are, for example hiding in a corner, they have an advantage over you if they aggressively push your corner by utilizing counter strafing. This also works if you’re holding a corner that’s a well-known corner and enemies will aggressively check it when pushing.

If you’re holding such an angle and you know they’re coming, it’s often not a good idea to just sit like a sitting duck.

Flicking Aim / Tracking Aim / Pre-Aiming Most players focus on the flicking aim because it’s the coolest looking one, flicking someone into a headshot is dope, yeah. But the game itself doesn’t include that much flicking, it’s mostly all about pre-aiming and minor tracking aim, flicking aim is the sugar on the top.

4. Stop Crouching All The Time First of all, crouching when shooting is a good thing, sometimes... especially against players who know their pre-aim game as explained in tip #3, however, against worse players who do not aim for the head, crouching will only set-up easier headshots for the enemies because they aimed for your body. When crouching is actually good is when you’re in a long spray fight when you didn’t pick up a kill in the first few bullets, crouching will help you be more precise. Otherwise, instantly crouching is just a bad habit many players have.

5. Learn When To Reset And When To Spray Essentially, when you start spraying and the guy just isn’t dying, there are two things you can do, stop firing to reset spray and hope you don’t die or control your spray. Sprays aren’t fully controllable, there’s an RNG component in every spray but you can try to make the most of it. In order to decide whether you’re going to keep spraying or try to reset, it usually depends on the range and how much damage you’ve done. If it’s a really long-range fight and you’ve done very little damage to the enemy, it’s best to try and reset, if the enemy is close to dying, whether, by your damage or prior damage by your teammates, it’s better to spray and pray.

6. Do Not Hold Close Angles Let’s say you planted the spike and you hold an angle that’s very close to the enemy’s location and they need to move through you to get to the spike. If they’re any good like you are after reading #6, they will aggressively check those close angles and kill you. This is why it’s best to be as far away from their route and kill them from the distance instead of a close gunfight where they have a peeker’s advantage. An alternative is to hold an angle where they have to check both left and right and gamble a 50/50 on where you are giving you a little more advantage

2021 Best LOGITECH Ch ristmas gi fts for th e gam e rs i n your li fe

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Logitech g733 - $129.99

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Wireless G305 LIGHTSPEED, now in fresh new colors, features a classic shape for long-lasting comfort. With an amazing battery life of up to 9 months of typical use G305 can take you from work to play and back again with ease

Logitech g915 tkl $179.99

Made of premium materials and designed to stun. G915 TKL is compact and wireless with a sleek and clean look. The unique and modern low profile design takes gaming keyboards to the next dimension.

The all new

Secretlab 2021 series