The FGC title FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves will hold a demo trial featuring Street Fighter’s iconic character, Chun-Li, during the SNK World Championship 2025.

The demo will be playable during the international FGC event in DreamHack Atlanta, which runs from October 31st to November 2nd, 2025.

Fans attending the SNK World Championship will be able to get hands-on experience with the DLC Street Fighter character from November 1st in a 20-minute demo. Participants will also receive an exclusive mini-sticker for playing, though there will be a limited supply.

Previously, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves featured Street Fighter’s Ken through a playable demo during Evo 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Alongside news of the Chun-Li demo, additional details were also revealed for the SNK World Championship.

The SNK World Championship will hold a Last Chance Qualifier on October 31st, and will offer exclusive gifts on a first-come, first-serve basis. The entry for the event ends on October 26th, and requires a three day ticket for DreamHack Atlanta, with a $1 (~£0.75) registration fee per title. A cap, tote bag, stickers, lanyard, and wristband will be awarded to the first 400 participants, while an exclusive T-shirt will be handed out to the first 250.

There will also be a guest appearance by President and CEO of Studio G-1NEO, Masami Obari, known for his work on SNK titles. He will appear in a Meet & Greet on November 1st between 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM. He will also speak alongside other SNK developers on the Special Stage Show, running on November 1st from 5:00 PM to 5:30 PM, where the first 30 attendees can receive an art board for signing.

The SNK World Championship is an international tournament where the top players compete for a combined $4.1m (~£3.04m) prize pool across four different FGC titles: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, The King of Fighters XV, Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting 3. It is taking place in DreamHack Atlanta, a festival hosting various gaming and esports events.

Turkish jungler Enes ‘Rhilech’ Uçan has officially joined Ukrainian esports organisation Natus Vincere (NAVI) ahead of the 2026 League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) season.

The organisation announced the move in a post on X (formerly Twitter), describing Rhilech as ‘the first piece of the puzzle’ in its ongoing roster rebuild.

“Now to make it official, welcome Rhilech to the team ahead of the 2026 season,” NAVI League of Legends posted.

The signing marks Rhilech’s first appearance in Europe’s premier League of Legends competition, following a steady rise through regional leagues across Turkey, Italy and France.

Uçan began his career in 2020, first competing in the Turkish Academy League under SuperMassive Blaze Academy and Aurora Academy. He quickly established himself as a solid jungler before securing promotion to Italy’s Proving Grounds circuit with DSYRE Esports in 2022.

Over the next two years, Rhilech’s consistency saw him feature across multiple European Regional Leagues (ERLs), including the PG Nationals and the Ligue Française de League of Legends (LFL).

During the 2024–2025 season, Rhilech achieved notable results with BK ROG Esports, capturing the LFL 2025 Spring Playoffs title and placing within the top four at the EMEA Masters Spring 2025. His strong performances earned him MVP recognition and placed him among the top emerging junglers in the region.

Speaking in NAVI’s player profile video, Rhilech reflected on his journey from the Turkish circuit to the LEC: “From TC Academy to LEC, the only reason I got here is me being disciplined.

“I can’t wait for people to watch me at LEC.”

Natus Vincere entered the LEC in late 2025 after acquiring Rogue’s franchise slot — marking its first appearance at the top level of League of Legends esports since disbanding its roster in 2017.

The organisation began competition in the 2025 Summer Split, fielding a roster featuring Adam ‘Adam’ Maanane, Francisco ‘Thayger’ Mazo, Emil ‘Larssen’ Larsson, Lee ‘Hans SamD’ Jae-hoon, and Kim ‘Malrang’ Geun-seong. NAVI struggled in its debut split, finishing fifth in Group A with a 0–4 series record.

Following the split, NAVI confirmed that Francisco ‘Thayger’ Mazo Sánchez, its first-ever LEC jungler, will be allowed to explore options, stating in a post on X: “A huge thank you to Thayger for being part of our first-ever LEC split and giving his all every step of the way. As we begin our roster rebuild, he’s open to exploring new opportunities for the upcoming season.”

Uçan’s signing represents the first step in that rebuild as the organisation looks to stabilise its League of Legends project in 2026.

Founded in 2009, NAVI remains one of the most decorated organisations in esports history, having lifted numerous major trophies across its divisions.

FragPunk developer, Bad Guitar Studios, has announced that it will be holding the Punk Clash Cup public competition during the Twitchcon event in San Diego, California, US.

Running from October 19th, 2025 starting from 13:00 PM PST, the LAN party event is open to all attendees.

In the announcement online, the official FragPunk account stated: “Catch the chaos live on the floor at the LAN Party at TwitchCon San Diego, where the FragPunk community battles it out for glory.”

Matches will be played on the LAN area by fans attending the Twitchcon event; however, games will also be broadcast live on FragPunk’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.

Twitchcon is an annual event surrounding the streaming platform, Twitch, welcoming the community to its venue in San Diego, California. Running from October 17th to 19th, the event will also feature various activities, including the popular Twitch Rivals creator event featuring Marvel Rivals and Street Fighter 6.

FragPunk has held various events, including competitive esports tournaments, since its initial launch on PC and eventual release to consoles.

The free to play tactical shooter followed its console launch with the announcement of the FragPunk Global invitational, a $200,000  (~£150,373) prize pool tournament running from April 28th to June 7th, 2025. The tournament was won by non-organisation-backed roster, Imag1nator, which defeated Work In Silence 3-0 in the Grand Finals.

FragPunk also held a previous Twitch Rivals event in the form of a showmatch between former esports players and top streamers Michael ‘shroud‘ Grzesiekand and Tyson ‘TenZ‘ Van Ngo, won by the latter, held from March 13th to 14th, 2025.

Since it’s launch, FragPunk has posted regular updates for the tactical shooter, including new maps, lancers, and modes. It recently launched the ‘Invite Your Friends’ grand tournament incentive in a September update, an in-game challenge series where players compete for in-game rewards

The VALORANT Champions Tour has officially entered the VCT Off//Season after crowning NRG as the Champions Paris winner.

This year, the off-season includes multiple tournaments featuring Game Changers, VCT, and tier-two teams, serving as an excellent opportunity to test new rosters before the 2026 VCT season kicks off.

The chaos has begun, and here are all the VCT Off//Season events across every region before the start of VCT 2026 Kickoff in January.

Featuring some of the best players from Game Changers and VCT competing together in mixed rosters, the Spotlight Series Pacific will be a four-day LAN event taking place in Korea.

This event will also take place in Korea; however, it will consist of two VCT Pacific teams, one team each from the Americas or EMEA, and one from China.

Returning for its fifth edition, the Red Bull Home Ground World Final will be held in the USA in 2025, highlighting some of the best invited teams from VCT.

One of the most entertaining Off//Season events, the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational features unique formats and a fun broadcast as popular VCT and Challengers teams face each other off.

This tournament will bring together the best teams from SEA, China, and other regions, competing with their new rosters ahead of the 2026 VCT season.

Project Blender will cover the entire EMEA region, where teams from VRC, Premier, Challengers, Game Changers, and VCT EMEA will battle through multiple stages to lift the winner’s trophy.

Blender Spotlight, on the other hand, will be similar to the other Spotlight Series, featuring mixed-gender rosters. Additionally, the winner of Blender Spotlight will qualify directly for Project Blender Phase 3, while the next two teams will advance to Phase 2.

Taking place in December, the Americas Spotlight Series will see four mixed-gender rosters competing in a three-day LAN event.

Esports Insider will keep this page updated as more details get announced.

Esports data company GRID, in collaboration with Riot Games, have revealed a ‘match intelligence report’ from the 2025 VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) season that highlights player performance and a range of statistics.

The analysis, which covers VALORANT Masters Bangkok, VALORANT Masters Toronto, and VALORANT Champions 2025, reveals that the skill gap across each region is narrowing, resulting in more competitive matches.

According to GRID’s real-time data gathered across the events, an average of 21.7 rounds were played across each map, pointing towards close contests and a few overtime periods.

VALORANT Champions 2025 saw a slight decline in the number of eliminations scored in a round, dropping from 6.98 recorded in Masters Bangkok to 6.72.

While the decline is minimal, the closer margins indicate the skill gap between international teams continues to close, resulting in closer matches.

Notably, Champions 2025 recorded the same number of kills and deaths with 12,815 scored throughout the 1,907 rounds of VALORANT action.

VALORANT Champions 2025 also demonstrated balance among the title’s top teams, with the likes of eventual champions NRG, as well as MIBR, and Paper Rex ending the tournament with near-even kill-to-death ratios. The Brazilian esports organisation topped the charts with a K/D of 1.21, with NRG scored 1.08.

Alongside various K/D ratios and round statistics, GRID’s data also highlighted several notable performances from players across the entire VALORANT Champions Tour season.

Among those was MIBR’s Erick ‘aspas‘ Santos, who recorded the largest K/D improvement from Master Toronto to VALORANT Champions with an increase of 1.13. His average damage per map also saw a significant increase in the final tournament of the year, moving from 1,309 to 2,743.

GRID has collaborated with Riot Games to collect VALORANT data since 2023, when the two parties joined forces to launch the VALORANT Data Portal.

In addition to VALORANT, the company has also partnered with several tournament organisers, including BLAST where it published a report revealing insights into CS2’s BLAST.tv Austin Major.

Data continues to play a pivotal role in various areas of the esports industry, enabling event organisers to add context to ongoing tournament storylines and to ensure integrity is being maintained.

At the time of writing, October 14, 2025, the League of Legends Worlds Championships have just started. With the best players in the world battling it out, now is a good time to consider which players are making a mark in the LoL esports scene in 2025. 

We’re going to take a look at five particularly noteworthy League of Legends players who have dominated the competitive scene this year. As well as wins, we’re also going to be looking at the earnings of each player and their individual rankings.

Keep in mind that the meta constantly shifts for esports games such as League of Legends, so the best players this year are likely to change. As of right now, though, these players are the best of the best when it comes to competitive League of Legends. The information in this list has been compiled utilising Liquipedia and EsportsEarnings.com.

Gen.G is a dominating force in the League of Legends competitive scene, and three members of the team have made it onto our list of the best LoL players in 2025. Jeong Ji Hoon a.k.a. “Chovy” is our number one pick this year. Let’s get into our list to see why we picked these players as the top LoL stars this year. 

Chovy is widely thought to be one of the best, if not the absolute best, League of Legends player in 2025. He is often considered the driving force behind Gen.G esports, leading them to multiple victories over the past year, including the Mid-Season Invitational 2025 Championship (MSI) and League of Legends Champions Korea 2025 (LCK).

Chovy has been recognised for his individual skill as well as his teamwork with the rest of the Gen.G team. He was named the Finals MVP in the aforementioned LCK 2025 and MS1 2025 Championships. He has also broken some significant records in LoL. In 2019, he became the very first Pro League player to obtain an impressive 100 KDA overall. There is no denying that Chovy is a dominating force in competitive LoL, who is making waves in 2025. 

Another member of the Gen.G team, Ruler, is a crucial part of the top-level esports group. He has been part of the epic victories that Gen.G has seen this year. 

Ruler became the first pro LoL player to win the MSI Championship as part of two different teams. He won alongside Gen.G this year, but he also won when he was a member of the JDG team in 2023. Ruler’s consistency and overall reliability make him a heavy hitter in pro League of Legends, performing well even with major shifts in the meta.

Kiin is the third and final Gen.G member on our list who is considered to be one of the best LoL top laners in esports. Kiin won MVP at the Esports World Cup 2025 thanks to his strong numbers and clear dominance among his fellow top laners. 

Kiin is a strong team player in Gen.G as a strategist who is able to easily maintain composure no matter what situation a game throws at him. He has also reached significant milestones recently, such as reaching 3,500 assists during the LCK (becoming the 17th player in the tournament’s history to do so). 

Knight has been a big part of the Bilibili Gaming esports team’s rise through the competitive LoL ranks, as well as being an impressive mid laner in his own right. Knight has become a stand-out in the esports LoL scene due to his strong strategising abilities and mechanical prowess. 

During his career, Knight has achieved a range of top-level placements, including LPL victories, various MVP wins, and a third-place position in the World Championship. 

When it comes to iconic League of Legends players, you don’t get much more renowned than Faker. Even in 2025, Faker remains one of the best LoL players in esports, even if he hasn’t had as many MVP awards or earned as much money. He continues to be a driving force in the pro scene in 2025. 

Faker reached several milestones in his career this year. He became the first player to achieve 200 international wins at MSI 2025, but he also became the first player to achieve 1,000 international kills. He also crossed the mark of 1,000 games and became the first player to reach 700 wins in LCK. 

These are just a few of the best League of Legends players who are dominating competitive LoL at the time of writing. As mentioned, shifting metas and team dynamics are likely to bring forth new top-tier players in time, but these guys are currently the best of the best. 

Some other great players in 2025 include Canyon, Bin, Kanavi, Viper, Tarzan, BDD, Zeus, Shanks, Oner and Keria. These are all players who have records of excellence in their respective LoL roles, but who have also been noted as ones to watch by esports experts and professionals.