The first arena event of the 2026 Counter-Strike 2 season has reached its final stage, with six teams vying for a chance to win the IEM Kraków 2026 trophy. 

Taking place in the Polish city’s TAURON Arena, the remaining six teams will compete for a share of its $1m (~£738,070) prize pool and all-important Valve Regional Standings (VRS) points as attention starts turning towards June’s IEM Cologne Major. 

With some of Counter-Strike’s biggest names still in contention to lift the trophy, the Kraków playoffs are set to be another showcase of world-class action. Esports Insider breaks down the Tier 1 event.

After breezing through Group B without conceding a single map, Team Vitality has a chance to cement its place among Counter-Strike’s all-time greatest rosters. Throughout 2025, the team made the playoffs in every single tournament it competed in, showcasing incredible levels of consistency at the highest level. 

This consistency has also placed Team Vitality in an excellent position to defend the ESL Grand Slam title it won last year. So far, it has won two ESL Pro Tour events, needing two more to take home the $1m prize. 

Matheiu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut continues to display phenomenal AWPing skill, with lightning-fast reactions and superior positioning, frequently making an impact in attacking and defensive scenarios. If ZywOo keeps finding form, Team Vitality will remain a force to be reckoned with as it looks to reclaim the VRS top spot.

The signing of Caner ‘soulfly’ Kesici in late 2025 has resulted in Aurora Gaming making its first playoff appearance since it won PGL Masters Bucharest in November 2025. The all-Turkish line-up successfully navigated its way past GamerLegion and paiN Gaming in the Play-Ins to earn a place in Group B. 

Aurora Gaming opened its Group Stage campaign with a strong showing against Team Falcons, scoring a 2-1 victory before sweeping aside MOUZ to lock in a place in the upper bracket final against Team Vitality. Despite suffering a 2-0 defeat to the French organisation, Aurora Gaming has demonstrated its capability against two powerhouse rosters that were expected to send it packing.

The road to the Kraków trophy doesn’t get easier for Aurora Gaming, as it faces off against FURIA in the opening quarter-final match. Throughout the tournament, the team has displayed excellent defensive strategy, which will prove crucial in shutting down a FURIA side that continues to top the VRS. 

FURIA heads into the quarter-finals after running the lower bracket gauntlet following a surprise defeat to FUT Esports in its first Group Stage match. Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato’s rifling skills kept the team in contention on several occasions, where it looked close to crumbling.

Aurora Gaming’s riflers have also shone on the server, setting up a tantalising battle against two teams that have yet to show their true potential. 

Winner: FURIA 2-1

Since its victory at BLAST Open London 2025, G2 Esports has continued grinding its way towards the top of the global Counter-Strike scene. The team came agonisingly close to besting Team Spirit in its Group A match, with small cracks in a solid defence making the difference. 

On the other side of the stage, MOUZ remains one of the world’s most consistent teams as it looks to lift its first trophy since February 2025. The pairing of Milan ‘Xertion’ Veeger and Ádám ‘torzsi Torzsás has hit its stride at the right time, with both players proving pivotal in a thrilling contest against Team Falcons to secure the final playoff place. 

With both teams demonstrating some incredible composure against top-tier opposition, this particular quarter-final is likely to require all three maps.

Winner: MOUZ 2-1

With FURIA theoretically advancing from the quarter-finals, the result sets up a tantalising clash against a Team Spirit side that has shown some weaknesses despite Danil ‘donk’ Kryskhovets continuing to excel with the rifle in hand. 

Team Spirit cannot afford another close contest against FURIA, a team no stranger to completing comebacks and clutching when it matters most. If both teams fire on all cylinders, expect an explosive contest that goes down to the wire. 

Winner: Team Spirit 2-1

MOUZ overcoming G2 Esports results in the international roster facing off against long-time rivals Team Vitality in the playoffs of another Tier 1 tournament. The two last competed against each other at IEM Chengdu 2025, with Team Vitality emerging victorious thanks to a Robin ‘ropz’ Kool masterclass. 

Both teams continue to prove why they’re some of the very best in the world. Taking Team Vitality’s superior win rate into account, MOUZ has it all to do if it wants to secure a place in the Grand Final. 

Winner: Team Vitality 2-0

With Team Vitality and Team Spirit advancing from the semi-finals, a Grand Final between the two sides is on the cards in the inaugural IEM Kraków 2026 Grand Final. 

Team Spirit’s recent roster change has injected a breath of fresh air into the roster after a lapse in form towards the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Team Vitality remains the team to beat with consistent showings at any event it participates in. 

A best-of-five between two formidable squads has all the ingredients required for the Grand Final to be a hotly contested battle. While donk continues to shine, the rest of Team Spirit must step up to take on a Team Vitality side which rarely shows any weaknesses when competing on the big stage. 

IEM Kraków 2026 winner: Team Vitality 3-1

Data platform Stream Charts has reported that YouTube was the most-watched streaming platform of 2025, accounting for nearly 50% of the year’s viewership for hours watched.

Other platforms also attracted strong viewership, with TikTok rising to second place at nearly 30% of the total hours watched, and Twitch recorded as the third most popular platform at over 15%.

According to Stream Charts, YouTube saw a 2% growth year-over-year, accumulating over 56bn watch hours, 8.7bn of which came from YouTube Gaming. TikTok was second with 35bn, with Twitch falling by 10% year-over-year to 18 bn.

Streams Charts revealed that YouTube’s most-watched category is gaming, followed by entertainment, and news and politics. However, this isn’t reflected in its most-watched channels, as none of the top five creators listed focus on gaming content.

The blog post also lists the most popular gaming categories on TikTok, which also features popular mobile esports titles such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile. According to Stream Charts, 4% of TikTok’s total viewership in 2025 was dedicated to gaming.

On the other hand, gaming features more prominently on Twitch, which made up 11.5% of viewership in 2025. The most popular categories include esports titles such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and VALORANT. Among the most watched Twitch channels of 2025 is Marc ‘Caedrel‘ Lamont, who owns the Los Ratones League of Legends team.

Beyond the most popular platforms, smaller competitors such as SOOP, Steam, and CHZZK were also mentioned. SOOP Korea was the best performing platform out of the group, with its near 1.35bn viewership dwarfing the 15.9m hours watched on its international counterpart. CHZZK followed with just over 1.04bn hours watched.

Streams Charts is a website that provides data and analysis on the streaming ecosystem, covering trends on Twitch, YouTube, Kick and other platforms.

The brand has partnered with a number of organisations across multiple years. 2025 saw Streams Charts collaborate with streaming platform Kick to support the Kick Road Campaign, a competition promoting small streamers. In 2024, the data platform entered a partnership with esports and gaming company Enthusiast Gaming.

Valve’s as-yet-unreleased Deadlock has been hitting new heights thanks to the Old Gods, New Blood update. Alongside new content, visual and map polishing, and quality-of-life changes, this update introduced the fast-paced 4v4 mode, Street Brawl.

Street Brawl, Deadlock’s casual mode, is exactly what the game needed to onboard new players and retain burnt-out veterans with a stress-free mode. This modified version of Deadlock is all-fights with no filler, even including its exclusive hero balancing just for this ruleset.

Our Deadlock character tier list is only for the standard mode of the game. For a game mode with different rules and goals to win, this is a definitive ranking of the Deadlock hero tier list for Street Brawl in 2026.

Our Deadlock Street Brawl ranking is based on personal gameplay conducted during the current closed beta test, supplemented with data from third-party tracking sites. Heroes who are currently strong and overtuned will have a natural advantage in Street Brawl, but there are those who thrive within this one-late fight.

The best characters in Deadlock’s Street Brawl are those with impactful ultimates, who excel in teamfights, safely clear waves, and can sustain or heal up their teammates to prolong the battle. Another important trait is that they aren’t reliant on specific item builds, as they need to adapt to the random equipment and the occasional Deadlock Street Brawl legendary item.

On the contrary, heroes that are built for isolated fights or duelists will hardly find an opportunity in this mode. These are general rules to Street Brawl, but individual tuning and mastery still matter the most.

This Deadlock Street Brawl tier list will use the reliable SABC tier system. S-Tier characters are the defining and essential characters for the mode. All the way down to C-Tier, where these characters should be avoided for the mode.

In summary, the best heroes for Street Brawl Deadlock are Paige, Graves, and Victor. Their consistently high win rates are due to their kits, playstyle, and Street Brawl builds being perfect for the mode.

Graves is one of the newest heroes to arrive with the update, and her kit is already ideally suited to Deadlock’s Street Brawl. Focused on area denial, her abilities are perfect for breaking up the already tight space of the single lane through the use of Grasping Hands to cc and Jar of Dead for damage.

Graves’ ultimate, Borrowed Decree, can easily win the first two rounds on her own. Once deployed, the tombstone will pressure the enemy defenders and Guardians with a wave of exploding zombies.

Paige’s zone-control abilities excel in the clumped-up, tight teamfights present in Street Brawl. She’s a solid backliner who can control the fight with a lingering damage zone, reliable barriers for her frontliners, and a cc tool that can catch out overextended enemies. The one-lane battleground also means that her global ultimate will get the full empowered effect based on distance, which can guarantee a teamfight.

Victor is already a problematic character in a standard game of Deadlock, yet his weak early-mid game was controlled through macro play. But in Street Brawl, he gets stronger with items every round, and there isn’t anything teams can do about that. The enhanced and legendary items in Street Brawl also make him an even bigger threat in this mode.

Street Brawl highlights the importance of the roles in Deadlock, even if they aren’t formally assigned or categorised. Some of the best heroes in Deadlock’s Street Brawl are frontliners and initiators. Without them, there will be no one to decisively start the fight or hold back the heroes from approaching the Guardian or Walker.

If you’re looking for Deadlock Street Brawl tips, it’s a good idea to put time into heroes like Lash, Dynamo, Billy, Shiv, and Mo & Krill. Balance tuning may move the Street Brawl tier list around, but heroes who can take the heat or set up their team will always be relevant.

Ivy, Lady Geist, and McGinnis share the same strength, where they can shove waves quickly with their abilities. This is an important win condition for Street Brawl, as the ultimate goal of each round is to take out the opposing Guardian or Walker.

The Street Brawl B-tier is home to characters that are devastating with specialists who truly understand the strengths of their characters. Much like standard Deadlock, many of these characters in this tier are powerful but have skewed win rates due to their difficulty and complexity. 

Street Brawl is the ideal place to live-test these heroes, as long as you mentally prepare to lose a few fights because of a bad Kelvin ult, whiffing Sinclair’s weird skillshots, or mismanaging Mina’s cooldowns and immediately blowing up from her low health pool.

Characters like Haze, Drifter, and Calico are known for their single-target damage, but good players know exactly when to break away from the main fight to chase down the backline. For example, Drifter’s ultimate can block out vision for the team, which lets him dive into the more fragile targets.

Then the other category of heroes here are those that need a cohesive item path, which means they aren’t the most reliable heroes when dealing with Street Brawls items. Heroes like Yamato, Infernus, and Wraith are hindered in this mode because of it. 

The C-tier heroes in Deadlock’s Street Brawl are characters who are undertuned in the current patch or whose kits just don’t work well within the game modes’ ruleset.

Doorman is one of the best MOBA characters ever created, yet his tricky kit doesn’t have the space to shine in Street Brawl. With the whole team grouped up, he’ll have a miserable time looking for opportunities to use his signature door portal and his ultimate. 

Likewise, this is also the reason why heroes like Vyper, Paradox, and Holliday aren’t doing their best work in Street Brawl. These heroes have kits for roaming and pouncing on a target, or duelling isolated targets.

Vindicta and Mirage suffer the most from the randomised items in Street Brawl. These heroes have a specific build path that mixes both gun and spirit damage, which isn’t guaranteed in the mode. Additionally, these heroes don’t have the full potential of their ultimate, as Vindicta can’t gain bonus souls on execute, while Mirage doesn’t have a reason to teleport.

The introduction of Deadlock’s Street Brawl mode makes it the perfect time to jump in. As the game is still in an invite-only phase, you’ll need to ask a Steam friend for an invite.

If you don’t know anyone playing in the closed beta, you can find helpful people on the Deadlock invite megathread and Deadlock Discord for invites.

Deadlock’s Street Brawl rule set shakes up the usual tier list from the standard mode. The emphasis on grouped up teamfighting and sieging means you’ll need heroes like Graves or Paige for your backline, and heroes like Abrams and Victor to soak up the damage.

Remember that this is considered a casual mode, which means this is the best time for practice and experimenting against real players. Use Street Brawl to shake off the fear of fighting; gain confidence as a player and in mastering your hero, before jumping into the standard mode.

This year’s edition of the Call of Duty League (CDL) Championship will feature a $2m (~£1.4m) prize pool.

Taking place from July 16th to 19th at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, eight of the 12 franchises will compete at the season-ending event for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

The $2m prize pool is the same amount that was up for grabs at 2025’s CDL Championship, which saw OpTic Texas emerge victorious in the Grand Final, winning $800,000 (~£591,408) along with the CDL trophy.

In addition to revealing the prize pool, the CDL revealed this year’s edition of Champs is jointly operated by ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) and FaZe Esports. EFG is no stranger to the Call of Duty esports scene, having operated a range of events before and during the CDL era.

This year’s CDL season has started on the front foot, with Paris Gentle Mates winning the opening Major of the year in Dallas, Texas. Major 1 also recorded impressive viewing figures, recording a viewership peak of over 350,000 when Paris Gentle Mates faced off against OpTic Texas in the Grand Final.

Major 1 becomes the second most-watched CDL event in its history, narrowly missing out on the top spot. The most-watched CDL event remains 2025’s CDL Championship, which recorded 353,525 viewers.

Following a successful Major 1, the attention of the CDL community turns to the Major 2 qualifiers beginning on February 13th. The six weeks of online matches will determine the ten teams that will head to DreamHack Birmingham from March 27th to 29th.

Before the action gets underway, one franchise has already opted to overhaul its roster in a bid to avoid another disappointing performance. After scoring a last-place finish at Major 1, Cloud9 New York has parted ways with its entire roster and looks to recruit a new lineup before the deadline on February 9th.

League of Legends player Rudy ‘SkewMond’ Semaan has extended its contract with G2 Esports for two additional seasons.

As noted in the LoL Global Contract Database earlier today, SkewMond’s contract end date was changed from November 16th, 2026, to November 20th, 2028.

SkewMond has been competing in the European League of Legends esports scene since 2021. Prior to joining G2 Esports, the jungler played for BDS’s academy team, where he won the LFL 2024 Summer split as well as the EMEA Masters 2024 Summer tournament.

SkewMond signed with G2 Esports ahead of the 2025 LEC season to compete in the region’s tier-one circuit for the first time. During his first year with G2, SkewMond won the LEC Summer split. The team also qualified for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and last year’s World Championship.

G2 Esports is currently competing in the LEC 2026 Versus tournament, which offers one slot for First Stand, the first global League of Legends event of the year. With a 5-4 match score so far, G2 still has two Regular Season games to secure a spot in the LEC Versus Playoffs bracket.

As a veteran within League of Legends esports, G2 Esports has fielded competitive rosters since 2014.  G2’s biggest competitive achievements include winning MSI in 2019 and a second-place finish at the 2019 World Championship.

For the ongoing 2026 season, the team continued with the same roster as last year:

This year, though, G2 recently welcomed back former players Marcin ‘Jankos‘ Jankowski and Maya ‘Caltys’ Henckel as content creators.

Interestingly, the organisation has yet to publicly announce SkewMond’s contract extension. Moreover, BrokenBlade, Hans Sama, Labrov, as well as Assistant Coach Jonas ‘Memento’ Elmarghichi, will reach the end of their contract with G2 at the end of the 2026 season.

It remains unclear whether these roster members will re-sign with G2 for another season.

Overwatch Spotlight revealed Blizzard’s plans for its hero shooter in 2026, and the plans are ambitious. This includes a rebranding, with Overwatch 2 dropping the 2, marking the end of an era for the title. Season 20 will thus lead into Season 1 of the new Overwatch, with the game taking a stronger, story-driven direction.

Overwatch will have 10 new heroes, five of which have been revealed, and it all feels like the direction that was originally intended almost three and a half years ago. Some have stated that the success of Marvel Rivals has forced Blizzard’s hand and this new direction. Either way, it’s good to see Overwatch kick into a new gear to start off 2026.

So, let’s have a look at everything that was announced at the Overwatch Spotlight, including all the new heroes, the rebrand, and the roadmap going forward.

With Overwatch 2 dropping the 2, it is clear that Blizzard wants the world to know it is going in a new direction with the game after the Overwatch Spotlight. Since its release in 2022, OW2 has been cruising rather than forging ahead, and it’s safe to say that the game wasn’t what people were looking for, especially with the broken promises around the Story Mode that never was.

Thankfully, this Overwatch rebrand, starting with Season 1 on February 10, means Overwatch is heading in a story-driven direction, with Overwatch’s rival organisation being the focus, hence the name: The Reign of Talon. This sees the return of the Pixar-style animated shorts that were so beloved during Overwatch 1’s early reign.

Overwatch Season 1 comes with the Conquest Meta Event, a five-week event where players complete missions tied to the lore for either Overwatch or Talon. You will also get rewards for the event, which are as follows:

The menu UI has got a facelift too, with Blizzard stating that its old one was beginning to feel outdated. This also includes updates to the lobby, play cards, navigation, hero gallery, and social panel, as well as a new 3D lobby. 

There will also be a praise system in Overwatch Season 1, where players can provide accolades for specific jobs done well. This includes an MVP award and seems similar to the system that Blizzard used for Heroes of the Storm.

Season 1 also sees changes to the roles, splitting the classes into sub-classes for further classification. These sub-classes come with certain passive perks, too. Here is how every hero will be divided into these sub-classes:

TANK

DAMAGE

SUPPORT

There will, of course, be more skins. The headliner for Overwatch Season 1 will be the Hello Kitty and Friends collaboration, with Kiriko, Juno, Mercy, D.Va, Widowmaker, and Lucio all benefitting. 

On top of the Hello Kitty collab, there will also be some faction-tied skins for The Reign of Talon theme. Mei will get her first mythic skin in the mid-season, while Mercy and Juno will get a new mythic skin each.

Blizzard has announced that there will be 10 new Overwatch heroes over the year, almost as many as when Overwatch 2 started in 2022. It’s a big push, with five heroes being revealed and set to join the roster on February 10.

Here are the five Overwatch new heroes bound for a February 10 launch.

Domina is the heiress and vice president of Vishkar Industries, allying with Talon through a partnership with Vendetta. Her technology makes her a poke tank, similar to Sigma, and she is in charge of the same company that Symmetra works for, with some joking that she’s ‘Symmetra Pro Max’. 

Here are her abilities:

Emre was a former Overwatch Strike Team member who has defected to Talon. His cybernetic enhancements seem to put his mind in conflict, making him sometimes act as the man he used to be and other times act detached. 

He’s built for a run-and-gun playstyle, fast and furious, which his abilities reflect:

A member of the Talon-aligned Hashamoto clan, he has become a key member of his clan despite many believing he wasn’t suited for the life. As a support with damaging abilities, he’s billed as versatile, and while he’s currently pro-Talon, he could be a turncoat in the future.

His versatile kit has the following abilities:

Wuyang’s elder sister, Anran wields the power of fire, the opposite of her brother. She joined Overwatch with the hope of saving the world and keeping her brother out of trouble. She is pure damage, unlike Wuyang, which suits her element well. She will be available for early access from February 5.

Her fiery kit gives her the following abilities:

Jetpack Cat has been a long-awaited hero, and weirdly doesn’t have an actual name like the other animal characters, like Winston or Wrecking Ball. No one really knows what Jetpack Cat’s backstory is, other than that she randomly turned up in Gibraltar and is now an Overwatch member, wielding a jetpack.

Her abilities represent her feline nature well:

There is a lot to get excited about with the Overwatch roadmap. With new characters, UI fixes, even more collabs, and a story-driven focus that players have wanted since Overwatch 1 started pumping out cinematics, it’s clear that Blizzard Entertainment is kicking it up a notch with its Game of the Year-winning hero shooter.

The headline will, of course, be the 10 heroes coming to the Overwatch 2026 calendar, but there is so much more coming out. Dropping the 2 in Overwatch 2 might be the rebranding the game needs to regain the crown as the king of hero shooters.

Blizzard Entertainment has revealed its future plans for Overwatch through its showcase, bringing a major overhaul to the hero shooter.

One of the main highlights from the Overwatch Spotlight was the removal of the “2” from the title, marking the end of the sequel saga that began in 2023 and the beginning of a new chapter for the game.

Starting from February 10th, five new heroes will release in Season 1, alongside introducing new content such as Subroles, esports loot boxes, and more that will impact both casual and professional scenes.

The biggest announcement headline from the Overwatch Spotlight was about the launch of five new heroes that will be playable at the beginning of Season 1.

These include Domina, a poke Tank capable of summoning a shield that only partially breaks from damage. Emre is a Damage character that brings classic FPS gameplay to Overwatch, with a Halo-style battle rifle, sidearm, and wall-bouncing grenades.

Mizuki is a new Support character with a healing aura, similar to Lucio, that grows stronger after using abilities and dealing damage. Anran is a Damage hero with an assassin playstyle and has access to two different ultimates depending on whether she is alive or downed.

Finally, Jetpack Cat is a support hero that can tether nearby allies to taxi them to the objective, or can use their ultimate to latch onto an enemy and drop them off the map.

Five additional characters are also planned to be released after Season 1, bringing the total number of new heroes in 2026 to 10. Additionally, developers shared that some of the older members of Overwatch’s playable roster will receive reworks throughout the year.

The previous Overwatch 2 Spotlight brought Hero Perks to the game, and this year has introduced a new gameplay element called Subroles.

When Season 1 launches, each of the three classes will be divided into 10 Subroles. Characters will be grouped together based on their general playstyle, and bring an additional passive to their kit.

Examples include Recon for Damage, which allows characters to see enemies below half-health through walls after damaging them, and Medics for Support, who receive self-heal when healing allies with their weapon.

A competitive reset is planned to take place with the start of Season 1, bringing a new Crimson Wolf weapon skin reward. Additionally, players who reach Diamond or higher will be rewarded with a Doomfist skin.

Competitive titles will also be divided into rarities, with the top 500 players earning dynamic titles for their accomplishments. These will be granted when the title update is added in Season 2. Additionally, Overwatch esports will award some of the highest scoring players in the top 500 with invitations to FaceIt events, depending on their Challenger score.

Blizzard Entertainment also shared what to expect from esports this year. Historic esports skins can also be acquired with the new in-game esports loot box. Additionally, details have been revealed for the Overwatch Champion Series (OWCS) 2026 season, alongside other circuits such as the revived Overwatch World Cup.

Various updates are also coming to Overwatch in 2026, from UI overhauls, graphic updates, a Nintendo Switch 2 version, and more.

Post-match accolades will return later this year, foregoing the previous cards in favour of featuring the heroes’ in-game models. The new system includes multi-endorsements to praise various teammates, and heroic endorsements to highlight a player’s key gameplay moment.

Stadium will also receive updates with the launch of Season 1, including a UI refresh to the in-game armoury and an expanded Hero Builder to provide recommended builds to new players throughout the rounds.

A variety of new skins will also drop with Season 1. Faction skins will be available to earn through the new in-game Conquest event, offering rewards depending on which side players choose to represent. Additionally, various bundles will also be released in the in-game store with themes such as Valentine’s Day. Finally, Overwatch’s next collaboration will be with Hello Kitty.

New mythic skins were also revealed in the Overwatch Spotlight, with Mercy’s Celestial Guardian skin and Juno’s Star Shooter weapon skin releasing at the start of Season 1, and Mei will receive her first mythic in the mid-season update. Future mythic skins are planned for Soldier: 76, Illari and Mauga, and mythic weapons skins are in the works for Genji, Hanzo and Sojourn.

A roadmap has also been shared by Overwatch socials, sharing upcoming content releasing in the next four seasons, including Stadium heroes, new maps, the 10th year anniversary celebration and more.

The earliest indicator for how professional teams will adapt to the upcoming changes is through the livestreamed pre-season tournament starting later this February, before the OWCS scene kicks off with Stage 1.

It remains to be seen whether the new heroes launching in Season 1 will shake up the meta in a meaningful way and whether any of them will overthrow some of the most popular picks in 2026.

Subroles will undoubtedly allow the best characters in the game to shine brighter, giving pro players an extra tool to dominate in upcoming competitions. With Overwatch now featuring both Hero Perks and Subroles, team compositions will become more vital than ever before.