Fortnite and content creator Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop have announced The CouRage Clash and CouRage Icon Cup to celebrate the launch of his Icon Series on December 17th.

The CouRage Clash will see Fortnite creators and professional players compete for a $100,000 (~£75,032) prize pool. Meanwhile, the CouRage Icon Cup will let fans grab the bundle early.

The announcement was made during his livestream on December 8th, where he revealed the Icon Series via a trailer.

The CouRage Clash will be a duos Fortnite tournament featuring notable content creators and players such as Ali ‘SypherPK’ Hassan, TheBurntPeanut, Cody ‘Clix’ Conrod, Rachell ‘Valkyrae’ Marie Hofstetter, and more. 

The event will run on December 12th from 2 PM (10 PM GMT) to 5 PM PST (December 13th, 1 AM GMT), and will consist of five games listed below:

The Fortnite Courage Icon Cup is open to players across Xbox, PlayStation, Mobile, PC, and Switch. The tournament will feature a single session, and the top performers will receive the CouRage Bundle before it hits the in-game shop.

Here is the complete schedule across all regions:

Moreover, players will also earn a 100 Thieves emoticon after securing eight points in the event, along with the CouRage Crusher item, which launches the player across the map.

Since CouRage is also a co-owner of 100 Thieves, the esports organisation has announced an exclusive CouRage Icon Series apparel collection. The capsule will feature a t-shirt, mousepad, and hoodie costing $44 (~£33), $48 (~£36), and $95 (~£71) respectively. 

The items are currently available for pre-order on the official 100 Thieves website; however, the hoodie has already sold out.

The CS2 skins market is described as Valve’s biggest revenue engine, a marketplace the developers quietly manage through skin drops, case releases, and occasional updates; however, while Valve owns the infrastructure, the company no longer controls the market or culture on it. The real power in the CS2 billion-dollar ecosystem is streamers. Their influence dictates everything from price to meta-defining trends.

These creators have become the market makers with the introduction of skinfluencers and popular names using particular skins on screen with 10s of thousands of people watching, a single unboxing session or a throw away coimment on skin patterns can ignite a speculative frenzy, the content they provide doesnt just entertain but shapes how the community perceive the game and redefine what players want to own, Valve may release the skins through CS2 Updates but the streamers decide whats worth paying for.

The CS2 economy on more than supply and demand; it runs on hype, unlike normal markets where the fundamentals drive the market and value. The CS2 skins market behaves like assets, where the worth rises and falls with community hype. It isn’t just the rarity of an item that dictates its worth; it’s also dependent on how much people want it. This is why we see “rare” skins in the same rarity group worth under €20 / $20 and some over €1,000 / $1,000. 

This is done through word of mouth, people talking about it, hyping it up, and manufacturers’ real-time fluctuations in the worth of these items, which can set long-term trends in pricing.

Hype is what can turn a new case release into a market even, CS2 streamers jumping on the hype immediately opening hundreds of cases and getting a rare pull turning a streamers clip into a price movement where its shared over multiple platforms and can cause a rise in how much this particular item is desired without this key aspect to new releases the skins become just cosmetic textures while with it they become status symbols or investment asset or viral moments where the player base feel compelled to be a part of it showing that CS2 hype isnt a byproduct of the market – it is the market. 

As CS2s economy exploded into a multi-billion dollar empire, a new type of content creator emerged at its centre, making “Skinfluencers”, making like the types of Mark “OhnePixel” Zimmermann and Edd “Sparkles” Stanton millionaires while also causing the skins they highlight to be worth thousands, making the CS2 marketing a viable job market for investors and content creators alike but these content creators become a primary gateway through most players and investors get all their information on the changes in the market and how others experience the upper tiers of the CS2 economy without the need to be focused on CS2 ranks or gameplay

The reason that these creators are so influential is that they have a direct line to traders and casual fans, traders acting on the markets, and the casual fans amplifying the hype. A single video can raise the price os a particular pattern on a knife or a certain wear on a skin. These make the investors’ inventory worth more and create a vacuum in the market where people flood to buy them, increasing the price overall. 

This expands to social media, even professional players who are given skins by creators to showcase them live, showing that the skinfluencers are not just participating in this but actively steering the economy, and not a CS2 developer. 

It’s not just “Skinfluencers” or content creators mentioning certain skins, but live unboxings have become one of the most volatile forces in the CS2 skin economy. When a popular creator opens hundreds or thousands of cases in front of their viewer base, which can also be in the tens of thousands, the market can react instantly to this. 

Just a single rare find like a knife of high float, rare pattern can cause a wave of viewers to buy similar items anticipating the price to rise in turn causing the rise themselves, even just the mention of a big unboxing can inflate the price of cases and skins, this exponentially increases as the CS2 player count increases having more hype to spread more quickly.

Some examples of these are like, recently where recently an update came in that allowed people to “Trade up” Red skins into knives which wasn’t possible before, caused a mass of YouTube videos where creators were flooding the market with new knives at the cost of Red tier skins this was one of the biggest hisotroic crashes in high end knives and gloves since the CS2 release date in 2023 which lost them up to 70% of their value in 24 hours as the supply of these rare items massively went up and red tier skins spiked at the same time.

Even in a game where these Items have no real competitive advantage the economy is far more volatile and influential than you’d expect, the CS2 economy continues to be steered by its content creators who have become the unofficial brokers for the skins via live unboxings and creating hype cycles giving their insight on rarity of skins and patterns and showcasing these skins off with CS2 gameplay on their streams and in pro play.

The line between entertainment and economics continues to blur. The CS2 Market continues to be more like a social marketplace than a traditional one, with no intervention from Valve in sight. It won’t stabilize and will continue to allow streamers to be the biggest market empire in CS2

New esports management simulation game Esports Manager 2026 has launched its first demo as part of the Steam Sports Fest.

Featuring several esports organisations from across the world, the demo aims to provide players with ‘an authentic look’ into the operations of an esports organisation.

According to a release, the demo allows players to experience one in-game month, including player recruitment, roster changes, and contract negotiations. Additionally, players can watch matches through a semi-3D match engine that details various elements, including utility usage and map picks.

Alongside featuring the likes of Eternal Fire, GamerLegion, and M80, Esports Manager 2026 also includes several notable personalities, including event host James Banks, Counter-Strike commentator Neo ‘Ne0kai‘ Caine, and Counter-Strike coach Bruno ‘BIT‘ Lima.

Esports Manager 2026 has been developed by Neurona Games, in partnership with developer-focused platform indie.io. Founded in 2019 by Andrii Chupyr and Bhodan Buiak, Neurona Games is no stranger to creating management sim titles inspired by esports. In 2021, the developer launched Esports Manager Simulator, a mobile title featuring 28 organisations competing in Counter-Strike and Dota 2

“Our goal is to capture what really happens behind the scenes in esports: the pressure, strategy, conversations, and tough calls that define a season,” said Andril Chupyr, CEO of Neurona Games. “The demo gives players a genuine taste of that experience, and we can’t wait to see the organisations they build or blow up.”

With games inspired by the first-person shooter title Counter-Strike, Esports Manager 2026 features an extensive database of players, including Mathieu ‘ZywOo‘ Herbaut and Oleksandr ‘s1mple‘ Kostyliev.

The demo provides players with a small slice of the full title, which is set to be released at a later date. Neurona Games has yet to confirm a release for Esports Manager 2026 as it continues gathering feedback through regular playtesting.

Esports Manager 2026 is the latest management sim title to use the esports industry as a base for its release. On December 8th, The Brain Trust launched Esports Team Manager, a title that takes inspiration from the MOBA genre to manage the operations of an esports organisation.

The rise of esports management sim titles is another way brands are engaging with the industry. Instead of creating a new title designed for esports competition, fans can experience running their own organisations or their favourite teams.

Brazilian esports organisation MIBR has extended the contract of its star duelist Erick ‘aspas’ Santos until the end of 2027.

Often regarded as the ‘final boss’ of VALORANT esports, aspas is the first player confirmed to be a part of the team’s 2026 VCT roster.

“We haven’t done enough yet, our story GOATinues,” MIBR posted on X (Twitter).

Aspas joined MIBR in November 2024 and has helped elevate the team’s performance drastically. The organisation not only secured a third place in both the 2025 VCT Americas Kickoff and Stage 1, but also qualified for its first-ever VALORANT Champions event. 

The roster closed out the season with an impressive top-five finish at Champions Paris, with aspas standing out as the highest-rated player in the entire tournament.

Most recently, he was also presented with both Player of the Year and Duelist of the Year awards in VCT Americas for the third VCT season in a row. 

The Brazilian player previously lifted the 2022 Champions trophy with LOUD, where he was also crowned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament. Moreover, he also has two VCT Americas titles under his belt.

With one of the most decorated players in the Americas on the roster, MIBR will be looking to build a team around aspas to further assert dominance on both regional and international stages.

MIBR is yet to reveal its complete lineup for the 2026 VCT season; however, according to a report by Sheep Esports, the organisation will retain its young IGL and initiator Andrew ‘Verno’ Maust as well. 

In addition to this, the publication’s reports also claim that Sentinels’ former duelist Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone and KRÜ Esports’ Roberto ‘Mazino’ Rivas will also be a part of the active roster. 

MIBR already confirmed the transfer of Gabriel ‘cortezia’ Cortez to Sentinels back in November and fans should expect further announcements in the coming days.

December 7, 2025, marked the end of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ second closed beta on PlayStation 5, which again made a big impression on players. Developer Arc System Works announced the period in September as a way of showing fans how the title now plays, thanks to the feedback given from the first beta session. 

For those unaware, Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls is a fighting game that works on a 3v3 tag-team system, featuring a hand-drawn art style as well as mechanics like auto combos and throws that are similar to Arc System Works’ other title, 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. In a PlayStation Blog post, Kazuto Sekine, Game Director and Lead Battle Designer at Arc System Works, revealed how there have been plenty of improvements made this time.

ESI has been playing the second Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta during these three days, and we’ve come away impressed, despite experiencing some small issues.

The first Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta, held from September 5 to September 7, introduced players to the gameplay mechanics, the art style, and more. But as the period was broken up into segments, it was hard for players to get into a rhythm with Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. 

This second Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls beta was a huge improvement, mainly because it ran uninterrupted for the full 72 hours. This meant that anyone who was able to play the game could get used to all eight characters in their own time during the three days. The newest character, Ghost Rider, is a welcome addition this time. 

The character may be familiar to those who watched actor Nicholas Cage play him in the 2007 movie. But here, Ghost Rider is fully redeemed as a terrorising close-quarters fighter with some powerful special attacks that can be great as a finisher in many matches.

Other characters who were in the first Marvel Tōkon beta, such as Captain America, Storm, and Iron Man, all still control as well as they did before. What makes Fighting Souls work so well is how much its system can work with three characters at once. Arc System Works has clearly got the system nailed from 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ. Everything felt tighter in this second beta, with moves dealing fairer damage and counters working well in most cases.

However, there were a couple of issues that were new in this second closed beta. There were times when it felt like the game wasn’t registering my inputs. I would attempt a combo with Spider-Man, but Dr. Doom would pummel me, leaving me no room to counter or block in time. It’s something I didn’t experience much of in the first beta, but here, it was one in every three matches I played.

Overall, though, I came away impressed once again. Arc System Works knows how the tag-team fighting genre works, and Marvel Tōkon is a great example of that. At this point, it feels like the game could be released as Early Access, much like Riot Games’ 2XKO currently is.

But it seems that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ developers want to take their time in getting every mechanic and character tight, and you can’t help but respect that approach.

The cel-shaded art style is nothing new from Arc System Works. Its past library has taken full advantage of it, such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear: Strive, Granblue Fantasy: Versus Rising, and more. But that’s not to say the graphical style has become tiresome – it’s the opposite.

Indeed, Marvel Tōkon looks fantastic when still, and even better when everything is going on. 2XKO also has a similar style, but everything looks like a pastel drawing, with no vibrant colors taking over the screen. Not so with Arc System Works’ latest, as everything pops, with smooth animations that make everything look like you’re watching a comic book in motion.

The anime designs of everyone, especially Iron Man, look incredible, and are a big testament to honouring the source material but giving it a twist that makes every character look like they’ve always been in this style. With just eight characters announced for the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls roster so far, it does make us wonder who else is going to get this style, especially whoever ends up being the final boss.

The tag-team fighting game genre is back, thanks to Riot Games’ 2XKO, and the surprising return of Dragon Ball FighterZ, thanks to a fresh patch available, as well as a new DLC character coming soon.

But it does seem that, once Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls releases in 2026 for PlayStation 5 and PC, it’ll be set to be the definitive game to go to in the genre. Its gameplay mechanics are full of depth, replayability, and quick-thinking that it’ll give players that ‘just one more go’ feeling, similar to what Dragon Ball FighterZ still evokes, all these years later.

Granted, there are some new issues from this second closed beta test. Some attacks are unblockable, and others don’t seem to register correctly. But this is why Arc System Works is still holding these testing sessions, to quash these issues before the game’s 2026 release. For now, though, the game is playing and looking great, and we’ll be sure to go in-depth on the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls game once the full version is made available.

Stage 3 of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 peaked at over 950,000 viewers as teams competed for a chance to qualify for the playoffs.

According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the final Swiss Stage of the Counter-Strike 2 tournament hit a peak of 970,598 viewers during a match between G2 Esports and Team Falcons.

Alongside a high viewership peak, Stage 3 of the tournament also recorded an average viewing figure of 552,748. This is currently a 17% decrease compared to the Stage 3 BLAST.TV Austin Major, which recorded an average of 667,705. Neverthless, the likelihood of this figure increasing during the playoffs is high.

Moreover, the Budapest Major has seen significant growth in Portuguese and Mongolian viewing figures. The Portuguese peak is already up 22% from the Austin Major’s third stage, peaking at 283,380 viewers, while the Mongolian broadcasts peaked at 86,634 viewers, a 65% increase from the entire Austin Major.

The Portuguese peak comes as a result of three Brazilian teams competing in Stage 3. While paiN Gaming and Imperial Esports didn’t qualify for playoffs, FURIA‘s 3-0 record saw the team become one of the first teams to book its place at the MVM Dome.

Compared to Stage 2 of the event, the Budapest Major’s peak viewership increased by over 300,000 as the battle for playoff spots intensified.

Despite several viewership categories declining compared to Stage 3 of the Austin Major, the Budapest Major is StarLadder’s most-watched esports event in the company’s history. The peak viewing figure from Stage 2 has already eclipsed the peak of 2019’s Berlin Major, which peaked at 836,306 during the Grand Final between Astralis and AVANGAR.

With Stage 3 almost eclipsing one million viewers, the playoffs have a strong chance of raising the peak further, as eight of the world’s best Counter-Strike teams compete for a chance to become a Major champion.

Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that it is delaying the first season of the Battlefield REDSEC Open Series to 2026.

The gaming giant shared that the delay was due to an ‘in-game specific issue’ that would affect the amateur tournament series. The Elite Series, Battlefield REDSEC’s professional ecosystem, has not been affected.

“While we intended to launch the Elite and Open Series together,” EA wrote on social media. “We’ve identified an in-game issue specific to Open Series competition that requires us to move its start to next year. We know this may be disappointing for participants and fans.”

Following the announcement, the REDSEC community competition will no longer begin on December 12th, 2025. However, EA reassured fans that it will post updates in the new year regarding when the inaugural matches will begin.

The Open Series is Battlefield RESEC’s amateur scene, where players of all skill levels compete for a chance to participate in the Elite Series next season. The series is open in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions, each offering $10,000 (~£7,500) in prize funds to the top Season Finals squads. Players can register or create a team on Register.gg.

The Elite Series is the premier destination of Battlefield REDSEC’s esports scene, featuring professional players competing at the highest level. While the Open Series has been delayed, the Elite Series will still proceed on December 10th, 2025.

The competition is comprised of 50 team captains who will draft their own teams, hoping to become one of the top 25 squads to reach the Season Finals for each region and earn a share of its $1m (~£750,000) prize pool.

The gaming giant has also shared details for scheduling and scoring for the Elite Series.

Match days will run on December 10th, 11th and 16th, with the Season Finals beginning on December 18th, 2025, though starting times will vary between regions.

Each match day will have a two-stage format. Stage One features six battle royale matches with two groups of 25 teams. The competing squad will strive to climb the leaderboards by out-surviving the rest of the lobby and securing eliminations.

The top four teams from each group will advance to Stage Two, which is comprised of a single game of Gauntlet. REDSEC’s Gauntlet is a round-based elimination mode where players complete missions, and the bottom two teams are eliminated per round until only one squad remains.

The Season Finals will see the top 25 teams compete in a single battle royale lobby, and the top eight squads will proceed to the Gauntlet. Final standings for the Seasonal Finals will be decided by the finishing positions in the Gauntlet mode finals, where the last surviving team will be crowned this season’s champion.

After three weeks of intense Counter-Strike 2 matches, 32 teams have been whittled down to eight for the final playoffs. The final Swiss stage was brutal as it reaffirmed who the top dogs of CS2 were this past year. Hopefuls and underdogs that had built up hype in the past stages were quickly eliminated from the tournament.

In the end, it’s the usual suspects that advance to the Budapest Major playoffs. But before we move on to the last phase of the tournament, here’s how the final Swiss gauntlet unfolded, showing how the best teams in CS2 keep making it to the main stage again and again.

Team Spirit and FURIA soared through Stage 3 of the Budapest Major, qualifying for the playoffs with a clean three-win record. 

The last time Team Spirit saw success deserving of its skill was two wins in August (IEM Cologne and BLAST Bounty Fall). Ever since then, they’ve suffered from middling results and early knockouts. As expected from the team, its results largely depended on whether its superstar, donk, performed.

Donk was on such a generational hot streak that it made his MVP run in Shanghai look like a warm-up. First, he scores a 2.38 rating against Liquid, then a 1.86 rating in their beatdown against FaZe, and throws an ace against both teams on top of that. Afterwards, Spirit goes on to 2-1 against MOUZ, losing one map on Train when donk performs like an average player.

The hype for Spirit is strong, but these results aren’t anything new from what they’ve done in recent tournaments. Donk and sh1ro may be able to carry them through Stage 3, but it’s up to the rest of their squad to pick up the pace, especially zweih.

Meanwhile, FURIA is hot off the recent wins in the second half of the year and cruised through the stage, proving that they deserve to be the number one team in the world. They beat down NAVI 13-2 with a flawless CT side, 13-5 Imperial, and then 2-0 G2 to punch their ticket to the next stage.

FURIA’s strength is that they function cohesively as a unit (much ado to veteran IGL Fallen), while also having no weak links when it comes to firepower. If FURIA continues their win streak with the same performance, both KSCERATO and molodoy are in tight contention for MVP.

Vitality, Mouz, and MongolZ also qualified for the CS2 Budapest Major playoffs with a 3-1 record.

Vitality’s opening match was an unpredictable loss against FaZe, owing to frozen and jcobbb’s incredible performances and reliable clutches. After that loss, it’s business as usual for the team that defined the first half of the year. Vitality would go on to 13-4 3DMAX, 13-2 B8, and 2-0 NAVI, preventing the close second game from going into overtime.

MOUZ’s road to the playoffs was tougher, but they managed to pull through to qualify in the end. They started with a rough overtime win against PARIVISION off the back of Spinx’s ace; then, they’d take an easier 13-6 win against B8. 

However, after falling to Spirit, they head to face the second-best team in the world, the Falcons, to advance. The three-match series had many memorable moments, particularly decisive clutches from m0nesy and kyousuke. But overall, they were outmatched in all games, especially after torzsi and Spinx woke up after their first loss.

Meanwhile, MongolZ struggled with an overtime loss against Imperial, but bounced back into top form for the rest of the stage. The team won 13-9 against Liquid with an ace from newcomer controlez, won 13-7 against FaZe thanks to 910, and eliminated G2 2-0 without any resistance to qualify.

One of the reasons fans love watching a Major is that every stage is a chance for an upset. Although NAVI, FaZe, and Falcons making it to the playoffs was an expected result in hindsight, their road to get there was turbulent and full of surprises.

FaZe Clan had the roughest journey to the playoffs. They were almost eliminated in the first stage, aced Stage 2 of the Budapest Major, and then clawed its way to a 3-2 record with a tough bracket. 

FaZe started strong by defeating Vitality, but couldn’t keep up against Spirit and MongolZ. While it can go either way against the best teams, FaZe won’t lose to anything but the best, having eliminated 3DMAX and PASSION UA to get to the playoffs. 

NAVI qualified with a perfect standing from the previous stage, but was immediately humbled by FURIA in its opening match. After that, the team would take wins from PARIVISION, paiN Gaming, and B8. Wonderful was their best asset during this stage, but iM, b1t, and makazze showed up when needed.

The Falcons refused to be left out of the playoffs, unlike what happened in the Austin Major. Despite a shaky start to Stage 3 with its loss against B8, they reversed course and won against PASSION UA and Imperial. 

Under pressure, they lost the first series against MOUZ and had a final stand against G2, narrowly defeating them 2-1. M0nesy was unreal during this series, and showed off exactly why he’s considered the best sniper currently in CS2.

Eliminated: G2 Esports, B8, Passion UA, paiN, 3DMAX, Imperial, Liquid, PARIVISION. With only eight slots for the playoffs, it’s difficult to replace any of the finalists with the eliminated teams. 

All of the top eight teams were also in the playoffs at the Austin Major, except for paiN Gaming, which qualified instead of the Falcons. This time, paiN was only able to win one time in its opening match against 3DMAX, but was shut out by G2, NAVI, and B8.

While you could make an argument for G2, Imperial, and maybe PARIVISION, these teams had their chances, but couldn’t make the knockout blow to proceed to the playoffs. Especially, G2, a team that won its first two matches but lost three series in a row against FURIA, MongolZ, and Falcons.

One of the biggest disappointments for fans is that Team Liquid failed to win one match and exited the tournament with a 0-3 record, alongside PARIVISION. They came close to winning something against MongolZ and PASSION UA, but ultimately, bottom fragging in those games severely tanked their chances.

As the dust settles and teams prepare for the playoffs, let’s take a look at some of the best matches in Stage 3 of CS2’s Budapest Major:

Stage 3 of the CS2 Budapest Major proved unforgiving for anything less than the best performances. As only eight teams advanced to the playoffs, there was no room for errors, and flukes were settled in the final best-of-three series. 

In the end, we see the familiar faces and teams that aren’t one-off wonders, but have been consistently grinding it out for the top spot throughout the year. This year is Counter-Strike at its most competitive, and whoever wins out next year will be the final winner to punctuate this era.

DraftKings​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ has gotten the green light at the federal level to be able to go ahead with its DraftKings Predictions product in the United States.

The product, which operates under Gus III LLC, is now a part of the National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) registries as an introducing broker and an approved swap firm since December 4th.

DraftKings​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Predictions will operate under the US derivatives regulatory framework, SteelSports, having decided against filing as a traditional sportsbook, as per the new structure.

Simply put, the entity acts as an introducing broker, may take customer orders, but it cannot hold client funds. Instead, it will be a front-end layer that directs the customer activity to the appropriate contract markets and other licensed entities.

Additionally, Railbird will be DraftKings’ in-house designated contract market (DCM) following the company’s acquisition of the CFTC-licensed entity in October. However, despite being approved as a DCM, Railbird has yet to hit the US market.

The​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ two statuses of DraftKings Predictions as an introducing broker and a swap firm give it the possibility of offering event contracts via different exchanges other than Railbird. This is in line with the company’s earlier statements that it would distribute its prediction markets through several federally regulated venues.

Before the Gus III registration replaced the Gus II Holdings LLC filing in June 2025, DraftKings initially made its filing with the NFA under Gus II Holdings LLC in June 2024. CEO Jason Robins publicly confirmed in October that the company planned to enter prediction markets, which was his first indication after the announcement.

DraftKings communicated in November that it would provide sports event contracts in the regions where sports betting is not yet authorised. ​‍​

‌‍​‍DraftKings​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ is the latest in a long line of gaming and wagering operators to take the plunge into federally regulated prediction markets.

After receiving NFA approval as a futures commission merchant in September, PrizePicks launched operations the following month.

FanDuel is collaborating with CME Group, an approved designated contract market and futures commission merchant, and is planning to launch its product at the beginning of next year.

After the acquisition of Paragon Global Markets, Fanatics has unveiled a standalone prediction markets app, whereas Underdog, in partnership with CFTC-regulated operator Crypto.com, offers sports event ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌contracts.‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌

Despite​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ the fact that the company excluded that a public launch would be possible in the shortest time, DraftKings has not announced any date for the release of DraftKings Predictions.

DraftKings has left the American Gaming Association in anticipation of its prediction market launch and has also launched Spanish-language functionality, which is aimed, among other things, at users in big non-sports-betting states such as California and ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌Texas.

Mexican organisation LYON has officially announced Kim ‘Berserker‘ Min-cheol and Jonah ‘Isles‘ Rosario as its new bot lane duo for the LCS.

Announced on social media, the organisation has officially completed its lineup for the LCS 2026 season. The Korean ADC joins on a one-year contract, while Isles has signed until the end of 2027.

The two players will reunite once again after a short stint on Cloud9 back in 2022, when Isles was sharing the starting support position with Kim ‘Winsome‘ Dong-keon.

Berserker is returning to the North American scene after spending one year on DN Freecs in the LCK. The Korean team struggled last year and only managed to get five series wins in 48 official matches during the 2025 season. 

Raised from the T1 Academy programme, the 22-year-old played for Cloud9 between 2021 and 2024, during which he won an LCS Championship in 2022, including the Finals MVP, and the LCS Spring Split in the following year.

Isles, on the other hand, was the starting support for Dignitas over the past two seasons. The team, however, was often fighting in the bottom part of the league and finished in the bottom two of Split 3 of the LTA North, the last split before the rebrand.

With its bot lane officially signed, LYON has officially completed its roster and is hoping that the investments made during the offseason will pay off in 2026.

On top of Berserker and Isles, the organisation picked up former FlyQuest jungler Kacper ‘Inspired‘ Słoma, who was among the best players in 2025 and a key factor in FlyQuest’s results over the past two years.

The solo laners will be filled by Korean mid laner Kang ‘Saint‘ Sung-in, the only returning player from LYON’s 2025 lineup, and Canadian rookie Frankie ‘Zamudo‘ Lin, who will finally get his shot in the tier-one competitive scene.

Judging by the LCS rosters put together by organisations in the offseason, LYON can become a major playoff contender if the veteran core of Berserker and Inspired can deliver consistent performances.

The new LYON lineup will have its first official appearance at the start of the LCS Lock-In, which officially kicks off next year on January 24th.