Esports will make its medal debut at the Gay Games Valencia 2026, featuring Overwatch and EA Sports FC 26 in both individual and team tournaments. The competitions run on July 3rd in an open format that does not separate participants by gender, guaranteeing the first esports gold medal at the event. The Gay Games, now hosting 39 sports, partnered with Spanish festival Open World Now to run the esports segment. Registration costs $215 plus a $35 sports fee, with discounts for Valencia residents and Spanish citizens.
Saudi‑based Geekay Esports announced its return to the Rainbow Six Siege Europe MENA League as a BLAST affiliate for the 2026 season, after a dominant 2025 campaign in the Tier‑2 European circuit. The organization captured three Tier‑2 titles – Saudi eLeague...
Japanese esports powerhouse ZETA DIVISION announced the revival of its Apex Legends roster for the 2026 season, entering the APAC North region’s Online Open on February 28. The new line‑up features former Fnatic star YukaF, alongside veterans Mike and satuki,...
Choi “Lucid” Yong‑hyeok has re‑signed with Dplus KIA, extending his contract through the 2027 season. The renewal follows Dplus KIA’s dramatic reverse sweep of T1 in the LCK Cup playoffs, where Lucid earned series MVP honors. Lucid, a main‑roster jungler...
Supercell announced a new tiered reward system for the Brawl Stars Championship 2026, featuring Chaos Drops, Legendary Drops and exclusive LAN titles. Players earn Chaos Drops every third win in the Championship Challenge and through each round of the Monthly...
iRacing has opened time‑attack trials for the fourth‑season eNASCAR College iRacing Series, running February 24 to March 5 on the virtual Martinsville Speedway. The fastest collegiate racers will qualify for the Old Dominion Classic tournament, where 120 drivers compete for a share...
Sportradar’s 2025 Integrity in Action report monitored roughly 100,000 esports matches and flagged 34 as suspicious due to abnormal betting patterns, lowering the suspicion rate to 0.03%. This represents a 17% decline from 2024 and makes esports one of the...
Team Vitality announced it will exit the RENNSPORT R1 series and shift its sim‑racing focus to the upcoming ERL VCO championship while building a dedicated division. The French esports group retained R8G Esports as manager and added three drivers—Kaj de Bruin,...
National Student Esports (NSE) has named student‑accommodation provider Vita Student its headline partner for 2026. The partnership will back the British University Esports Championship and enable NSE to deliver more content, competitive events and enhanced player experiences throughout the academic...
Epic Games announced Rocket League Season 22 for March 11, 2026, and the teaser trailer displayed a potential boost‑timer UI that counts down pad respawns. The visual cue shows a pad shifting from white to gold with a ‘3, 2,...
Gigaverse introduced GIGABIT, a new in‑game currency that anchors its first‑generation ecosystem, Gigaverse 1.0. The token operates on a fixed 100 GIGABIT‑to‑$1 exchange rate, with a redemption value of 0.80 USDC, and allocates 0.15 USDC per transaction to a rewards pool. GIGABIT supports...
Professional Apex Legends player Miron "Effect" Novikov has transferred from Alliance to Aurora Gaming. He will compete in ALGS Year 6 events alongside former world champion Hiarka and returning player ojrein. Effect spent four years with Alliance, winning the 2024 Esports...
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has named VALORANT 2025 Champions MVP Brock “brawk” Somerhalder as its newest brand ambassador, positioning him to promote the ROG Ace esports hardware line. The move follows ROG’s earlier partnership with CS2 star ZywOo and...
Embark Studios announced a temporary halt to its outbound esports activities for The Finals after community concerns about player conduct surfaced. The studio said it consulted external legal counsel and concluded its actions were appropriate, but chose to pause to...
FC Online has been chosen as the sole title for the esports medal event at Korea’s 55th National Youth Sports Festival, scheduled for May 23‑24 at Busan Esports Stadium. This marks the first time esports will award medals at the...
South Korea’s Korea e‑Sports Association released a study quantifying the economic impact of esports events using its new Multi‑layered Esports Economic Impact (MEEI) model. The analysis shows the 2023 League of Legends World Championship generated a production inducement effect of...
Immutable has upgraded its $60,000 Weekly Rewards program with a dynamic tier system that recalculates player rankings each week based on quest completion and points earned. The new five‑tier structure—Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary—directly determines each participant's share of the...
The Esports World Cup Foundation announced that VALORANT will be part of the inaugural 2026 Esports Nations Cup, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from November 8‑15. The tournament will feature 32 national teams, with 16 receiving direct invitations through a new...
Gen.G Esports has secured 15‑year‑old prodigy Jung “Xiesta” Si‑hwan on a historic four‑year contract, the longest the South Korean organization has ever signed with a player. Xiesta, a Radiant‑ranked VALORANT talent currently 31st in APAC, earned his reputation through the...
Patch 26.4 is Riot Games’ final balance update before the First Stand international event, aiming to smooth the competitive meta. The patch tones down burst and late‑game scaling on dominant picks such as Aphelios, Gwen, and Syndra while giving modest...
France has enacted a three‑year experimental decree authorising games with monetisable digital objects (JONUM) under the oversight of the Autorité Nationale des Jeux. The framework mandates full identity verification, weekly spending and playtime caps, and mandatory self‑exclusion tools. It also...
The Australian Esports League has teamed up with the Australian Grand Prix Corporation to launch the Victorian Virtual Grand Prix, a student‑focused esports tournament. Primary school pupils will race in‑person on February 28 at Kingsville Primary, while secondary students compete online...
BLAST has released the opening schedule for BLAST Open Rotterdam, kicking off on March 18 and running through March 29. The first eight matches feature MOUZ versus The MongolZ on March 19, alongside matchups such as Team Falcons vs NRG...
Fnatic issued a public statement reaffirming its zero‑tolerance stance toward online abuse targeting its players, after a spike in personal attacks and death threats. The organization unveiled an action plan that includes reporting threats to authorities and imposing bans on...
Riot Games unveiled the inaugural League of Legends Americas Cup, slated for March 4‑8 in São Paulo. The tournament pits the second‑ and third‑place teams from the LCS Lock‑In and CBLOL Cup in a double‑elimination bracket, with opening best‑of‑three matches followed by...
French Counter‑Strike star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut will appear on the February 18 cover of L’Équipe, marking the first CS2 player to headline the nation’s historic sports newspaper. The 25‑year‑old AWPer, a three‑Major winner with Team Vitality, has helped his squad...
PGL has released the invitation list for its Bucharest 2026 Counter‑Strike tournament, scheduled for April 4‑11. FaZe Clan and Parivision headline a 12‑team main event, while several top‑ten VRS teams declined to prioritize IEM Rio 2026. Their spots were filled...
Saudi‑based Twisted Minds captured the Overwatch Champions Series 2026 Pre‑Season Bootcamp in Seoul, defeating Crazy Raccoon 4‑1 in the final and pocketing $15,000 of the $25,000 pool. The victory follows their Stage 3 EMEA win and the 2025 OWCS World Finals...
French squad 3DMAX and Brazilian organization paiN Gaming were the first teams knocked out of the PGL Cluj‑Napoca 2026 CS2 tournament after failing to earn three group‑stage victories. 3DMAX lost all three best‑of‑three matches, dropping 2‑0 to Team Falcons, 2‑0...
BC.Game announced it will not field its roster at the BC.Game Masters Counter‑Strike 2 tournament, a Tier 2 event scheduled for March 24‑26, after Valve enforced its conflict‑of‑interest policy. The rule prohibits any team from competing when the team’s title sponsor also funds...
Gaming furniture maker Blacklyte has been announced as the official desk and chair sponsor for the Six Invitational 2026, the world championship for Rainbow Six Siege X. Its Athena Pro gaming chair and Atlas Lite desk will be featured on‑stage...

South Korean organization Nongshim RedForce secured the Pacific region’s first seed for VALORANT Masters Santiago by defeating Indonesia’s RRQ 3‑2 in the VCT Kickoff Upper Finals. The victory marks the second Ascension team ever to win a VCT Kickoff event,...
South Korean esports powerhouse T1 has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Korea Navy’s Power Analysis and Evaluation Team to boost the navy’s cognitive and analytical capabilities using gaming‑derived technology. The agreement will drive joint research on...
South Korea’s Ministry of Education awarded the DRX Esports Academy, marking the first time an esports team has received the honor. The award, signed by Minister Cho Kyo‑jin on Dec. 31, 2025, recognizes the academy’s community‑linked career experience programmes. DRX highlighted...
Roblox’s Twitch Rivals event, Bloxfest, will reward casual players with exclusive in‑game items. Participants can join the RB Battles × Twitch Hub, predict the winning streamer’s team to earn the Twitch Crown, and collect four time‑released badges to unlock the Glitch Helmet...
North American esports organization TSM unveiled osu.ai, an AI‑powered Minecraft building app that lets players generate and construct structures via text prompts, also offering world and character re‑texturing for the Java edition. The tool launched on February 12 and immediately...