A tweet about a Pokemon TCG tournament has gone viral thanks to the surprising performance of a mom named Pam (via ComicBook.com). The tweet thread from @CarolineDirectr tells the story of how she invited her mother Pam to join in on her weekend Pokemon tournament at Core TCG in Pasadena, CA -- a pre-release for the new Sword and Shield set. Pam sheepishly asked her daughter if it was okay for her to watch the Pokemon tournament, but Caroline went one further and taught her how to play so she could be a part of the competition. What Caroline likely didn't expect was for her mother to not only beat her when they were pitted against each other in the third round of the tournament but to continue doing well enough to finish in the Top 8. The tournament had upwards of 40 competitors. The final photo shows Pam alongside the other top finishers gleefully holding up her prizes. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=pam-the-pokemoms-pokemon-journey&captions=true"] The story is incredibly sweet in how it shows Pam as just a mom who wants to have fun joining in on her daughter’s game but isn’t too familiar with Pokemon -- “She was calling Raichu ‘Rikkuhchu’ and Salandit ‘Sizzle’ all while owning her opponents,” Caroline tweeted -- yet that didn’t stop her from stomping the competition and coming away from the tournament with a handful of booster packs. Clearly, Pam is a natural. The tweets caught on with Pokemon fans and earned Pam a heap of praise and admiration. Much was made of Pam’s smiling competitive game-face, the last thing her opponent’s saw before their ultimate defeat. The new Sword and Shield expansion is ushering in some big rules changes for the TCG, including the removal of Fairy typing from the game. The Sword and Shield video games are expanding with two DLC packs, which will bring numerous Pokemon to the Galar region. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/10/how-pokemon-sword-and-shield-dlc-affects-dexit-ign-now"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

Atari, the video game brand currently amid a comeback, has announced its latest venture: hotels. The video game company announced that it will begin development on a line of Atari-themed hotels, with the first one to start construction later this year. Atari announced that it is partnering with the strategy agency GSD Group and Phoenix, Arizona-based real estate developer True North Studio to begin development on a hotel themed after the video game brand. The plan is to combine a hotel with video game experiences. Atari is promising a “unique lodging experience combining the iconic brand with a one-of-a-kind video game-themed destination.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=atari-vcs&captions=true"] Plans include “the latest VR and AR” games as well as “state-of-the-art venues and studios to accommodate esports events,” at select venues. The first hotel location will be in Phoenix, Arizona while additional hotels are being planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose. Since 2017, Atari has been pursuing an aggressive branding operation. The company announced a new console called the Atari VCS which is not a retro console, but a new hardware system that the company says can play games in 4K resolution, HDR, and 60 fps. It has been described as a “less ambitious Steam Machine.” The Atari VCS has encountered some trouble including a delay and the departure of its lead console engineer in 2019. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/06/27/history-of-awesome-atari-vcs"] Another product Atari released is the Speaker Hat, a baseball cap with built-in Bluetooth speakers. This hat was released as part of its lifestyle line. So it seems that next to a new console and speaker hat, a hotel is the next logical step for the company. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. He owns an Atari Speaker Hat and you can reach him on Twitter.

Metro Exodus developers have announced that the Sam's Story expansion will release on February 11, 2020, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Stadia. After discovering Moscow wasn't the only city left standing after the war, Sam has dreams of finding his family alive. The new Metro Exodus expansion will continue Sam's journey as he attempts to find his way back to the United States. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=all-the-big-games-coming-in-2020&captions=true"] Sam must journey through the, "remains of Vladivostok’s tsunami ravaged harbors, ruined industrial buildings, and crumbling residential districts" and will be required to use, "every tactic he has learned so far to survive." The Metro Exodus Sam's Story will be free to those who own the Expansion Pass, which costs $25 and gives players access to The Two Colonel expansion as well. Additionally, Sam's Story will be the final Metro Exodus expansion. For those who just want to purchase the Sam's Story expansion, it is available for $8. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/13/metro-exodus-review"] The first Metro Exodus expansion was released in August 2019, and followed the story of Colonel Khlebnikov and provided more details about the fall of Novosibirsk. Metro Exodus was announced for Game Pass at E3 2019, so if you've yet to play, you can download it for free if you're a subscriber. While you wait for the Sam's Story DLC to drop, be sure to check out IGN's Metro Exodus review. You can also visit our official Metro Exodus wiki page to find information on how to defeat every enemy. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.

On Sunday, January 26, Basketball player Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash. As tributes continue to go up 2K Games is using its NBA 2K series to honor the basketball player as well. An update has gone live that makes it so that when players start up NBA 2K20, they’ll be greeted with a somber memorial to Kobe Bryant. It’s a simple black and white photo of Bryant, his name, and the years 1978 - 2020. Bryant was a cover athlete for NBA 2K10 and has been a playable player for even longer. It’s unknown for how long the tribute will appear upon start-up, but fans are welcoming the tribute online. Elsewhere in NBA 2K20, fans are hosting their own tributes to Bryant. In the online social spaces for NBA 2K20, players are wearing Bryant’s Lakers gear and gathering around the space as if in a virtual vigil.

Will sit here all day till they release kobe gear #ripkobe #NBA2K20 #XboxShare pic.twitter.com/Ur4uaR7mZS

— NADE XT (@NadeGrinds) January 26, 2020

On January 26, Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria, seven other individuals including the pilot, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Los Angeles. The group was on the way to a youth basketball practice in Thousand Oaks. Bryant, a former professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, retired in 2016. The Lakers retired Bryant’s number 8 and 24 jerseys. Since then there has been an outpour of tributes from fellow NBA players. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.  (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Project Resistance is not official Resident Evil canon, according to Capcom, despite its inclusion in the upcoming Resident Evil 3 remake. Events within the 4v1 multiplayer mode make it "impossible to fit in the actual timeline," Resident Evil 3 producer Peter Fabiano told Official PlayStation Magazine (via GamesRadar). Fabiano instead refers to Resistance as a "fun online experience with connections to the RE Universe," including "familiar enemies and characters like Mastermind." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=project-resistance-tgs-screenshots&captions=true"] The producer says Resistance and Resident Evil 3 share the thematic tie of characters trying to escape, and for that reason, Capcom bundled the two games together. "You’ll remember that the Japanese subtitle for RE3 was Last Escape," he said. "Both of these titles have characters that are trying to escape somewhere or something, so thematically it made sense." Following a couple teases and a leak, Resistance was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in September. The asymmetrical multiplayer mode sees four players trying to survive and escape from a player-controlled Mastermind. You can read IGN's Resident Evil: Resistance hands-on preview for more. Resident Evil 3 was "about 90%" completed as of early January, leading Capcom to declare it won't be delayed. The remake (and Project Resistance) will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on April 3. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/18/project-resistance-5-player-gameplay-in-4k"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.

The Witcher showrunner and executive producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich recently opened up about the deleted scenes that she wished she had kept in Season 1, both of which revolve around fan-favourite character Yennefer. In an interview with Pure Fandom, Hissrich admitted "so many scenes had to be cut from the final episodes", as she detailed two particular scenes that she regretted removing from the hit Netflix show - including one cut clip that championed female friendship through the women of Aretuza, and another that showed Yennefer meeting a young Triss Merigold for the first time. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/20/the-witcher-game-vs-netflix-scene-comparison"] "We had a lovely scene in Episode 103 [Betrayer Moon] where Yennefer, Fringilla, and Sabrina all discussed how they felt about their transformations, and looking back, I wish we could have kept it," she told the outlet. "It was such a gorgeous example of female friendship, and it also would have served to ground Fringilla a bit more before she joined Nilfgaard. "We also filmed a scene of Yen meeting a very young Triss, who'd just arrived at Aretuza; it served to show how far Yennefer had come in her years at Aretuza, and created a sense of mentorship between these two sorceresses. Looking ahead at some stories unfolding in Season 2, I wish we still had those scenes! But I'm proud of what we accomplished." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/21/the-witcher-season-1-ending-explained"] While Hissrich noted that the addition of these scenes may have helped viewers to understand some of the characters' motivations ahead of Season 2, it appears that the next chapter is already plotted out, as she revealed some of the fantasy elements we can expect to see in the upcoming season, including "a crop of new monsters, a new cost to magic, and new and unexpected pairings of our favourite characters." Hissrich previously revealed all the scripts for The Witcher Season 2 had already been written, though she told us that the pages are "living breathing things," which might go through some changes during pre-production. She also explained that the team are making sure they have "a lot of built-in cushion time" so they don't have to "cram anything in at the last minute," that's why we won't be catching up with Geralt and his comrades until 2021. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-witcher-season-1-images&captions=true"] For more on The Witcher, check out our review of the first season and episode ratings, read our round-up of IGN staff reviews for additional insight, and find out why Netflix decided to adapt the books and not the games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Former Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed that he once stopped Nintendo from having a graffiti logo.

Fils-Aime went on the Present Value Podcast and spoke about a time when Nintendo of America was trying to appeal to a broader, older audience. This involved trying out different looks for the Nintendo logo, including one styled as graffiti.

“When I joined Nintendo, there was a sense of almost shame that Nintendo appealed to young consumers, and the marketing team at Nintendo of America started doing things with the logo - that classic Nintendo logo in an oval - they would put it into graffiti style, or they’d do different things to try and age up the logo, and I put a stop to that because that is not our brand.”

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Fils-Aime joined Nintendo in 2003 and it seems he’s speaking of Nintendo at around that time. The reason he stepped in and put a stop to that marketing approach was because he felt it didn’t match “what the brand stood for.” He then encouraged Nintendo to try to reach an older audience without doing it in “some false way.”

“Systemically, we went through and cleaned up the presentation of the brand, but we also created messaging coupled with content that really broadened the reach, broadened the appeal, and set the stage for all of the great products we would launch like Wii, like Wii Fit, and eventually the Nintendo Switch,” Fils-Aime said.

Fils-Aime retired from Nintendo of America after 15 years with the company back in April 2019. The appropriately named Doug Bowser took over as the new president.

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Fils-Aime now teaches at Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in New York, which involves meeting students and discussing “leadership, conscious capitalism, and service” with them.

If you want more from the man then it’s worth reading IGN’s interview with Fils-Aime from October 2019, in which he talks about how he steered Nintendo over the years. IGN also has the eight best Reggie Fils-Aime moments for anyone who needs it.

Originally reported by VG247.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Update, 2/4: Disney has confirmed that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will premiere in August, announcing the news during their February 4 investor earnings call.  Disney+ launched a first look at its upcoming Marvel Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki in a recent Super Bowl spot, which you can watch below. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/03/marvel-studios-disney-plus-big-game-spot"] Disney also confirmed a December 2020 launch date for WandaVision, and an October release for Season 2 of The Mandalorian. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvel-cinematic-universe-every-upcoming-movie-and-tv-show&captions=true"] Original story continues below. [poilib element="accentDivider"] The release of Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ has reportedly been moved up to August of this year. According to a recent Deadline report, the highly anticipated miniseries is now expected to hit the streamer towards the end of the summer, slightly ahead of its original Fall 2020 debut, though Disney has yet to officially confirm this schedule shift. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/25/falcon-isnt-captain-america-in-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier"] As it stands, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set to be the first MCU spinoff series on the Disney+ release calendar. The Phase 4 production started filming towards the end of last year, with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their roles as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes respectively, alongside Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Desmond Chiam, Wyatt Russell, and Miki Ishikawa. The new report shares that Noah Mills has also recently signed on in an undisclosed role. If confirmed, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier's new premiere date would be the second shake-up to the Disney+ streaming schedule, as the House of Mouse previously revealed the release of Marvel's WandaVision had been moved up to 2020, ahead of its originally planned Spring 2021 debut. It is now possible that the sitcom-style show will take the newly-opened Fall 2020 slot in order to stagger the two new shows, though exact release dates have yet to be announced. For more on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, read our explainer on Falcon's tenure as Captain America, check out the concept art for the new costumes, and take a closer look at Sam and Bucky's new looks in the first poster. Alternatively, find out more about every upcoming MCU movie and TV show that has been announced so far. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

The top League of Legends tournament has been delayed to ensure the safety of all its attendees in China from the coronavirus outbreak.

The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) was due to return for its second week of matches in China on February 5, 2020. However, the LPL’s English Twitter account has now announced that the tournament has been postponed with no new date for its return currently set.

We have decided to postpone week 2 of the LPL until we can ensure the safety and health of our players and fans.

To our fans, we sincerely apologize that it has come to this and we will share any and all info as soon as we can. Stay Safe and thank you all for your support! — LPL (@lplenglish) January 26, 2020

The reason for the delay is the outbreak of the highly contagious coronavirus in mainland China. The LPL is one of many professional sporting events held in China that have either been delayed until March 2020 or moved to another country due to the virus.

It was announced last week that 70,000 Chinese movie theatres were also being closed for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.

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The coronavirus has been confirmed to be deadly. The BBC reports that it has killed over 80 people, with nearly 3000 more people confirmed to have caught the virus. It has spread to South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, Nepal, and as far as the USA, Canada, and France.

Since the coronavirus spread, sales of the strategy simulation game Plague Inc. soared, due to it being a game about containing a deadly pathogen. This caused developer Ndemic Creations to release a statement saying that the game is “not a scientific model” for how disease spreads.

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Ndemic Creations added that people should visit the World Health Organization’s website to get a real idea of how viruses like the coronavirus spread and how to best avoid catching them.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

This contains spoilers for the Doctor Who episode "Fugitive of the Judoon." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Let's just jump right into the good stuff: Captain Jack Harkness is back! The last time we saw Jack on Doctor Who, he was leaving the T.A.R.D.I.S. after "Journey's End," the Season 4 finale. Jack was also the main character on Torchwood, a Doctor Who spinoff series which ran for four seasons. Jack was his usual flirty self and actor John Barrowman did not miss a single beat. He came with a message, "Beware the lone Cyberman. Don't give it what it wants at all costs." [caption id="attachment_2293174" align="alignnone" width="720"] John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness[/caption] The other big moment that happened in this episode was the introduction of a second Doctor, played by Jo Martin. Ruth, a local tour guide, was living a normal life on Earth, when in fact, she was actually The Doctor. So, is this Ruth a future version of The Doctor? According to her, she's not. So who is she? Is she a fake Doctor? Is she a Doctor from another universe? Our money's on that option. [caption id="attachment_229317" align="alignnone" width="720"] Jo Martin as The Doctor[/caption] So, let's see what Twitter had to say about the return of Jack Harkness and the introduction of this new Doctor!

Twitter Reacts

What did you think of Jack's return? Do you have any theories about this new Doctor? Let us know! Doctor Who airs on BBC America in the US, Sundays at 8PM. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-most-essential-doctor-who-episodes&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Lauren Gallaway is a Social Media Coordinator for IGN. She loves the Doctor with both of her hearts. Find her tweeting at @LaurenGallaway and streaming at Glimpse Entertainment on Twitch.