TikTok Goes Dark

Also, Envy Gaming returns, and 12/35 for those who are following along…

TikTok Goes Dark

On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that the ban on the U.S. division of short-form video platform TikTok could go forward and on late-Saturday evening the service went offline on Apple and Android-based devices. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle wanted it (obviously) and passed a law dictating that the platform could not operate in the United States until China-based parent company ByteDance divested its U.S operations to a U.S. company. The U.S. government has long held (and failed to prove in Federal Court) that TikTok is sharing U.S. consumer data with the Communist government of China—People's Republic of China (PRC).

"We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” TikTok wrote in a message to U.S. users.

President-elect Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social: “Save TikTok,” later promising an executive order after his inauguration that will give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban…

Whether Trump provides a 90-day delay or not— this ban could end up taking revenue away from millions of content creators if a satisfactory deal isn’t made and hundreds of millions of dollars out of the U.S. economy, at least in the short-term. It may also open the door to actions against other companies, platforms, IPs, and brands with ties to entities in China such as Tencent, Riot, NetEase, miHoYo Games, etc. Also, ByteDance owns Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer MOONTON Games and owns Marvel Snap (Marvel Snap is offline, as of this writing).

We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops.

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The Return of Envy Gaming

Mike "Hastr0" Rufail announced this week that he has reacquired Envy Gaming and its team brands Dallas Fuel and Dallas Empire. He also announced that he no longer has any ties to OpTic Gaming.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed publicly.

It is unclear what his plans are for the company brands he has acquired and whether Dallas Fuel will return to Overwatch 2 esports in the Overwatch Championship Series or if former Call of Duty League franchised team Dallas Empire will be able to make a return or attempt to somehow acquire a slot in 2025 or beyond.

In case you are not familiar with the Rufail, he began his career as a professional Call of Duty player on Major League Gaming’s Pro Circuit 2007, and four years later served as an esports advisor to Activision Blizzard on the popular Call of Duty series as well as a consultant for Epic Games and NVIDIA. In 2009, he founded Envy Gaming and served as its CEO until 2020. In November 2021, Envy merged with OpTic Gaming, and Rufail remained a co-owner and served in the role chief gaming officer until his exit in August 2024. In September 2024 he joined crypto trading game platform TradeOff Financial Corp. as its CEO.

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News From Around the World

😇 Riot Games details in-game fundraisers for California Wildfire victims…

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🔮 PGL Esports reveals the first Counter-Strike 2 event of 2027.

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📢 Saudi General Entertainment Authority launches its third startup accelerator…

🤔 The National Olympic Committee of Kenya officially recognizes KESF.

🍿 Front row seats to Nintendo Switch 2 on sale.

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😷 12/35 😷

I am at the phase in treatment where I am starting to feel the effects on my throat; I am losing my voice, it is proving to be a challenge to swallow, and I’m pretty tired during the week. I am continuing to eat real food whenever I can so I can avoid having a feeding tube put in and i’m doing all the throat exercises my doctors say I need to do in order to maintain strength. There’s not really too much else to say - I have had 12 out of the 35 prescribed treatments and by the end of this coming week I will have hit the halfway mark. I can’t wait until this is over.

Thank you for continuing to follow my progress and reading these updates. You're the real ones. - James