Category: E-Sport

Image credit: Valve The Esports World Cup (EWC) mega-event is well underway in Paris, boasting an eye-watering $75 million prize pool, spread across 25 tournaments and 24 titles. As one of the most significant remaining events, Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) runs from Aug. 12–23, with 32 of the best teams lighting up the servers. With hundreds, if not thousands, of heads about to get clicked, could the CS2 tournament set new EWC viewership records? Let’s explore just how realistic that is and what could push the tactical shooter to new heights. Editor’s Note: All viewership figures were sourced from Esports Charts…

Image credit: BLAST BLAST Premier returns to Portugal, but this time it’s breaking new ground. After three stops in Lisbon, BLAST Open Porto 2026 will take the world’s top Counter-Strike 2 teams to Porto for the first time – all fighting for a cut of a $1.1 million prize pool. Taking place right after the Esports World Cup 2026, teams barely have a chance to catch their breath before another stacked field hits the server. With powerhouses like Team Spirit, Falcons, Vitality, MOUZ, and NAVI all making the trip, expect nonstop action throughout. Here’s what you need to know. When…

Image Credit: BIG “We are not taking an esports product and placing it in a casino lobby,” Market Suchar, the co-founder and managing director at Oddin.gg says. “Casino has its own rules, audiences, and creative language,” Suchar added. “We are building for those realities from the ground up — but with the same conviction that technology should give our partners a genuine competitive advantage.”   More games, more money Oddin’s homepage, which for now focuses on its esports products, declares: “The more time lines are open, the more time bettors can bet, and the more money you can make.” The company…

Image Credit: Stephen Sylvanie/USA Today The fighting game community has a gatekeeping problem. When Evo attempted to bring in a mainstream gaming audience by inviting streamers to have showmatches at the large fighting game event, the FGC reacted with rage. The FGC wants things to be authentic, genuine, and passionate. They only want streamers at the event who actually care about the fighting game scene. And at the crux of it is an ongoing issue that the FGC won’t really say out loud: the streamers are not good at the game. They only respect those who can play at a…

Last week, Riot Games announced the suspension of Polish League of Legends player Jakub “Syzyf” Ruta. Riot announced a 12-month ban for the player, who allegedly allowed family members to bet on his matches.  The ban appears to be either too long or too short, depending on what bets the family member placed on Syzyf’s matches.  No evidence of match fixing “Riot Games did not find sufficient evidence to establish that Syzyf intentionally manipulated the outcome of any match,” a company statement read.  The investigation, launched with Sportradar, did indicate that “Syzyf may have enabled gambling activity involving a close…

Image Credit: GENESIS Esports is going in the wrong direction, if you ask me. And nobody has asked me. But all this focus on bravado, mainstream appeal, and flashiness won’t spell long-term success. To make esports viable, we need community. Wouter Sleijffers was the CEO of Fnatic from 2015 to 2019. He was there for many iconic moments for the team, including making it to the finals of the League of Legends World Championship in 2018. Despite Fnatic being pretty successful at tournaments during that time, Sleijffers told Esports Now that it’s not about that. In fact, even “top four…

Image Credit: RELLFGC / Supernova There is one frustrating downside to having too many hobbies: you miss things. I missed the massive Supernova Super Smash Bros. tournament last year for Monterey Car Week, and sadly won’t make it for the same reason this year. This has meant missing the Combo Contest, my favorite event of all time. And this year, I was just informed that the Combo Contest would have the two GOATs of the esport: Hunter “Huntsman” Cummings and Prince. Despite being the top Combo Contest competitors of all time, neither has competed against the other. Until now. It…

Image Credit: Esports World Cup The benefit of winning matches comes with the glory of playing more high-stakes matches and the opportunity to grow. In 2025, Gaimin Gladiators became the first North American team to make it to the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang international final at the Esports World Cup Women’s Invitational. The team featured four American players – Ashley “Ashlay” Ann, Cindy “Panda” Zhou, Jessica Qi-Yao “Sayori” Cao, and Nicole “Nicholette” Huang – making it a fantastic feat for a game that is underrepresented in the country. The catch-22 of MLBB in North America Imagine waiting an entire year…

Image credit: LCK This week, as ever, there were more developments in the legal battles against prediction markets. But data released from Riot Games and GRID suggest they are fighting a losing battle. Fans want to predict the outcome of events and will undoubtedly find a way to do just that.  More than 1.7 million players engaged with Crystal Ball and Pick ‘Ems during the recent MSI, according to data released by GRID and Riot.  The tournament marked the first time Riot used GRID’s official live esports data to power Crystal Ball.  “At Riot, esports fans have always been at…

Image Credit: Natalia Martinez / Red Bull Content Pool Let’s be uncomfortably honest for a minute. There’s definitely a kind of person that pops into your head when you hear “top Tekken player.” And that person may not look like Jeannail “Cuddle_Core” Carter. But that’s okay, she isn’t here to cater to anybody nor seek their validation. And stream. And host. And coach. And who knows what else? For Cuddle_Core, being in the FGC scene is more than just competing. It’s a lifestyle for her, but it’s taken a lot to get there. She started competing in 2015 in small…