Anya Vodotiec

FACEIT is an esports platform founded in London in 2012. The company has administered leagues for games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Rocket League, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2.

In 2022, it was announced that FACEIT and esports company ESL were being acquired by Savvy Gaming Group (SGG), a holding company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. As part of the acquisition, the two companies are set to merge and form the ESL FaceIt Group.

In April 2016, FACEIT announced the launch of their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, known as the Esports Championship Series (ECS). In April 2017, the company partnered with the video sharing platform YouTube for the series. ECS was one of the two premier Counter-Strike leagues, along with ESL Pro League.

The series was discontinued in 2020, replaced by a franchise-based league called Flashpoint. It features 12 teams and a US$2,000,000 buy in spot, and offers co-ownership and revenue sharing to competing teams.

On 22 February 2018 Valve, the developers and owners of the Counter-Strike, announced that FACEIT would host the thirteenth Global Offensive major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018. London 2018 began in mid-September and concluded on 23 September 2018. It was the first Major hosted by FACEIT and the first Major hosted in the United Kingdom. It had a US$1,000,000 prize pool and the playoff stage was held in Wembley Arena. In the finals, Astralis defeated Natus Vincere to win its second Major title.

Forza Horizon is a 2012 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2012. The game is the fifth instalment of the Forza series, having spun-off from the elder Forza Motorsport series.

Taking place during the fictitious Horizon Festival, a street racing event set in the state of Colorado, the aim is to progress via winning races, while also increasing the popularity level by performing stunts. Players can drive off-road in select areas while others are limited by guardrails or other means.

Forza Horizon was released to critical acclaim and has since spawned its own series, with four additional sequels to date: Forza Horizon 2 in 2014, Forza Horizon 3 in 2016, Forza Horizon 4 in 2018, and Forza Horizon 5 in 2021.

Forza Horizon focuses specifically on casual street racing, rather than professionally on race tracks, as it takes place on a map of temporarily closed public roads. It features multiple types of races, from drift to rally and point-to-point races. The roads feature both AI traffic and when playing online, other festival drivers. Players may challenge the other racers they encounter in a one-on-one race to a given location. The races start at the current location, and finish at a randomly generated way-point, usually more than 500 metres away from the player and their opponent. A skill system is implemented in the game; players earn popularity during races by driving aggressively. Acts such as drifting, jumping over obstacles and getting a car on two wheels all contribute to the player's popularity level. These can be chained together in a combo, which in turn affects the money players are paid at the end of a given race. Cred also affects a player's popularity level in the game. As a player's popularity level increases new special events are unlocked, such as races against helicopters and planes.

In an interview with Turn 10's creative director Dan Greenawalt, he stated the game was developed in close relation to real music festivals—namely Coachella—and that he envisioned a more relaxed game-play experience than other games in the Forza series, while keeping a more realistic handling style. Being the main theme of the game, a large focus of the game is on the festival itself and activities surrounding it, rather than just racing.

Speed traps are present in the game, and players can challenge each other for the top speed in a given area. Cameras record player times, which can then be shared among rivals. Those rivals can then attempt to beat the shared time. A photography mode is also included. In addition to races, the map is scattered with barn find cars, rare classical vehicles that can be restored and added to the players garage.

Other aspects of game-play include an auto-show, in which the player can buy or sell cars; a garage, in which the player can manually or automatically upgrade their cars, and a paint shop, in which players can create custom paints, liveries, and paint presets for their vehicles. When free-roaming, the player may encounter discount signs which, when smashed, give a price reduction on all upgrades from that point forwards.

The game's soundtrack contains several dubstep tracks, with a demonstration showing a variation of Avicii's "Levels" remixed by American music producer Skrillex. Three fictional radio stations are featured, all catering to different styles and genres of music. Some featured songs are from highly popular producers, while some are from lesser-known artists, and multiple Australian artists, such as Cut Copy and Empire of the Sun. Playground Games also worked with Bestival founder and DJ Rob da Bank. He curated the featured songs and design of the festival, giving a more authentic experience. In an interview with DJMag, he said, "I was brought on board right at the start as a sort of creative consultant. Not just overseeing the music soundtrack, but also the design of the festival within the game, how the radio stations work in the car, and loads of other bits — including how you never put toilets near the food areas.

Uno (/ˈuːnoʊ/; from Spanish and Italian for 'one'; stylized as UNO) is an American shedding-type card game that is played with a specially printed deck. The game's general principles put it into the crazy eights family of card games, and it is similar to the traditional European game mau-mau.

It has been a Mattel brand since 1992.

The game was originally developed in 1971 by Merle Robbins in Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. When his family and friends began to play more and more, he spent $8,000 to have 5,000 copies of the game made. He sold it from his barbershop at first, and local businesses began to sell it as well. Robbins later sold the rights to Uno to a group of friends headed by Robert Tezak, a funeral parlor owner in Joliet, Illinois, for $50,000 plus royalties of 10 cents per game. Tezak formed International Games, Inc., to market Uno, with offices behind his funeral parlor. The games were produced by Lewis Saltzman of Saltzman Printers in Maywood, Illinois.

In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel family of companies.