xsacklunch.com / Daily Trending
Tech, gaming and streaming news in my own words, with my take. By Travis, a Texas husband and father who streams PUBG on Kick.
Twisted Minds took the PUBG Global Series 12 title with 140 points over 15 maps, ahead of eArena and DN Freecs. It's the squad's fifth PGS win and was worth $103,000 from the $300,000 prize pool.
Travis's take: Five PGS titles. I've got five pans in my backpack and zero chicken dinners this week. We are not the same.
Rockstar previewed six of GTA 6's stations, from metal hub The Chamber 106.6 to classic country Back Country Radio and pop station Flash FM. The game also adds podcasts alongside music for the first time.
Travis's take: A country station in GTA? Finally a Texas dad can cruise Leonida at the speed limit with the windows down. Just kidding, I'll be in a ditch in four minutes.
Niftski wore a full Mario costume, mustache and voice included, for a Halloween stream and shaved 0.033 seconds off his own any% record, landing at 4:54.299. He said staying in character actually calmed his nerves.
Travis's take: So the secret to clutching is a glued-on mustache. I'm wearing one on stream tonight, and the crew is not allowed to laugh.
To celebrate 25 years of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, the Birdman went to film at LA's Pershing Square, the real spot behind the game's Los Angeles level. Security shooed him and his crew out partway through.
Travis's take: Tony Hawk getting told 'no skating' is the most relatable thing he's ever done. Every dad who ever got yelled at in a church parking lot salutes you.
A Streams Charts report says Kick hit 2.04 billion hours watched in the third quarter, a 30.7% jump, while Twitch rose 4% to 4.51 billion. Twitch now only pulls about 2.2 times Kick's watch hours, down from 2.8.
Travis's take: Kick's growing 30% a quarter and I'm growing about three followers a day. Same energy, smaller lunch bag. Come hang at kick.com/xsacklunch.
Deadlock's late-September update added six heroes and a reworked map, pushing the beta past 300,000 concurrent players at its peak. Players are still sharing memes and squad stories as it holds strong into November.
Travis's take: Three hundred thousand people playing a game that's technically still in beta. Valve releasing a finished game would honestly scare me more.
Creator Tubbo announced IRL MCSR Boxing, pairing Minecraft speedrun races with real boxing matches in Brighton on Dec 5. Tickets go on sale Nov 20, and all proceeds go to a children's charity through Jingle Jam.
Travis's take: Grown men boxing over a block game for a great cause. Honestly that's just my living room when the kids argue over the controller, minus the charity.
The Verge's first look says the $149 HomePod Mini 2 answers Siri in a couple of seconds thanks to a new chip and Wi-Fi 6E, and you can finally lock the touch controls. Its new 'default Mac speaker' feature wouldn't set up in testing.
Travis's take: A speaker that does what you ask without talking back? Apple, please make a version for teenagers.
Photos of the five-foot-tall, clog-billed birds loafing, yawning and stretching are winning people over online. The shoebill is listed as Vulnerable, with only a few thousand adults left in African swamps.
Travis's take: Five feet tall, stares at you without blinking, and stands still for hours. That's not a bird, that's me waiting on a PUBG match to load.
A tiny black cube keeps inching toward a glowing blue gap and resets right before it drops, thanks to clever camera tricks. Some viewers say they watched for minutes before catching on.
Travis's take: That cube is every blue zone I've ever outrun by one pixel. Almost there. Almost there. Knocked.
Travis's take: Original art, original lunch bag. No mustaches were harmed.
Summaries are written by me, not copied. Every item links to its source. Family-friendly picks only: no politics, no tragedies.