League of Legends professional player and esports legend Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok has collaborated with Wild Rift to teach new players his iconic champion Ryze.

Earlier today, Riot Games published a masterclass video with Faker on the official Wild Rift YouTube channel. In it, Faker discusses Ryze gameplay and explains the champion’s strength.

“In Wild Rift, the controls are intuitive, so you’ll adapt quickly. Plus, the game tempo is fast so you can scale fast and take over the Rift,” Faker explained at the start of the masterclass.

Ryze is notoriously known for being a strong late-game carry, thanks to his kit revolving around spamming abilities in quick rotation. In the desktop version of League of Legends, however, the champion often requires too much time to scale up, which is why he hasn’t been a meta champion throughout the years.

With the implementation of Fearless Draft, however, Ryze also made some appearances in professional play, with 40 picks recorded in the tier-one competitions, according to the data platform Games of Legends.

In Wild Rift, Ryze’s kit has been heavily changed compared to the PC version. The champion is great at farming thanks to his ability Spell Flux, which spreads damage across multiple targets.

The basic trading combo is Spell Flux, Rune Prison, Overload, Spell Flux and Overload. This allows you to maximize the champion’s damage output while ensuring you can land the skillshots on a rooted target with Rune Prison.

Additionally, Ryze’s Overload ability gives him extra movement speed when he chains spells, allowing him to kite better during trades and decisive teamfights.

The champion’s ultimate, Realm Warp, is similar to the traditional one but with an added effect. Upon landing, Ryze and teleported allies will all gain extra movement speed, making it perfect to execute ganks and team-coordinated plays.

“You can TP from mid to Dragon lane for a surprise gank or get a huge edge in split-pushing,” Faker added.

Overall, Ryze has immense potential, but this champion might be hard to master for newcomers due to the need for strong mechanical skills to pull off his combo trades. Faker reminded players of this aspect: “Ryze scales hard with skill, so the better you get, the stronger he becomes.”

Faker is currently competing with T1 in the LCK Rounds 1-2, which will determine the top two teams going to the Mid-Season Invitational. Last week, Faker broke an incredible milestone, playing his 1000th game in the LCK and further establishing his legacy in League of Legends and in the esports ecosystem.

The champion is set to appear in Wild Rift after Patch 6.1 drops, which is scheduled for April 17th. Ryze will be released alongside two other champions, Nocturne and Zilean.

The UK’s political betting markets have been rocked by a scandal that’s raising tough questions about integrity, privilege and the future of wagering on politics.

The Gambling Commission has charged 15 individuals, including former Conservative MP Craig Williams, senior party officials and a police officer, with offences under the Gambling Act 2005, following an explosive investigation into bets placed on the timing of the 2024 general election.

At the heart of the case is the allegation that these individuals used confidential, advanced knowledge of the election date, announced unexpectedly by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in May 2024, to gain an unfair edge in betting markets.

While it’s legal for politicians to place bets on elections, using insider information to do so is a criminal offence under Section 42 of the Gambling Act, carrying penalties of up to two years in prison or a hefty fine.

The investigation began after a flurry of suspiciously timed bets were placed just days before Sunak’s rain-soaked announcement of a July 4th election, a move that blindsided much of Westminster and the public, who had expected a fall poll.

Among those charged are not just Williams, who admitted to placing a £100 bet on a July election, but also Russell George, a Welsh Senedd member; Laura Saunders, a former candidate; her husband Tony Lee, the party’s campaign director; and Nick Mason, the Tories’ former chief data officer. Several other party staffers and a former police officer are also facing charges.

The fallout has been swift. The Conservative Party has suspended all staffers charged in the scandal, emphasizing a zero-tolerance stance on integrity breaches.

The case has reignited debate over whether political betting should be allowed at all, given the unique access to sensitive information enjoyed by insiders.

Here’s a list of all those charged:

All 15 accused are set to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 13. As the UK grapples with the implications, the scandal is sure to fuel calls for tighter regulation or even a ban on political betting, as the line between fair play and foul advantage grows ever blurrier.

A recent report from the Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen) has shed light on the growing prevalence of skin betting in Sweden, a practice that is increasingly popular among younger users and poses significant regulatory challenges.

Skin betting involves using virtual items, known as ‘skins’, as stakes or prizes in gambling activities. These items, often tied to online games, can hold real-world monetary value, making them a lucrative but controversial form of wagering.

The report reveals that skin betting accounted for 49% of traffic to unlicensed gambling sites in Sweden in 2023, dropping slightly to 41% in 2024. Alarmingly, six of the ten most-visited unlicensed gambling platforms in Sweden last year were skin betting sites.

These platforms often operate without proper gambling licenses and lack robust age verification measures, exposing minors to gambling risks.

Spelinspektionen noted that some unlicensed websites offering traditional casino games have started accepting skins as deposits, a move that blurs the lines between conventional online gambling and skin betting.

Many of these operators are based outside Sweden, including jurisdictions within the EU and offshore locations like Curacao, which account for a significant portion of unlicensed traffic.

The accessibility of these platforms has raised concerns about their impact on Swedish consumers, especially younger demographics.

Despite efforts by Spelinspektionen to block transactions and issue prohibition orders, skin betting sites continue to thrive, often leveraging influencers and streamers on platforms like Twitch to attract users.

The report calls for stricter regulations to combat the issue and suggests shifting from a direction-based model, focused on whether operators explicitly target Swedish consumers, to a participation-based framework that encompasses all gambling activity involving Swedish players.

As Sweden reviews its Gambling Act, policymakers face mounting pressure to address this growing black market trend and protect vulnerable users from its risks.

Krafton, the game developer behind PUBG, has unveiled a new system for its esports global rankings.

Developed in collaboration with data platform OP.GG, the new ranking system will be built around individual and team metrics, providing a more comprehensive measure of each participant. The updated ranking system will be revealed at a later date.

According to Krafton’s blog post, the new power rankings will integrate players’ own stats, such as kills, damage dealt and survival time, into the standings. This means that individual performances will directly affect team rankings. The level of complexity for the global power rankings will be more in-depth compared to the previous system, which only considered cumulative scores and placements in competitions.

Additionally, the game developer will account for different levels of competition across regions, recognising the importance of global and regional tournaments. This will be adjusted based on the schedules, meaning teams with extensive tournament schedules won’t be at a disadvantage compared to others.

The new PUBG Esports Global Power Rankings will also have a particular role in determining the teams invited PUBG Esports World Cup tournament that will take place later this summer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dates and format, as well as the prize pool, however, are yet to be announced.

The ranking system has been announced a few weeks prior to the start of the first major championship in the 2025 esports calendar, the PUBG Global Series (PGS) 7.

On top of the ten invited teams that are part of the PUBG Global Partner Team Programme, the PGS will feature 14 teams qualified through their respective leagues. Taking place offline in Shanghai starting on April 28, the teams will compete for a share of the $300,000 (~£227,000) prize pool.

After a one-week break, those same teams will compete once again in the PUBG Global Series (PGS) 8. Both events will give out crucial PGS Points, which will determine the teams competing in the year-end PUBG Global Championship, set to take place in December.