Asian esports event organiser Hero Esports has revealed the prize pool of its new multi-title tournament, the Asian Champions League (ACL).

According to a social media post on the official ACL page, the total prize pool of the competition will be 15m RMB (~£1.67m). The prize pool split between game titles is yet to be confirmed.

Additionally, the tournament organiser has confirmed Crossfire and Delta Force as participating game titles for the first edition of the ACL. It will join the likes of CS2, Street Fighter, League of Legends, Honor of Kings and PUBG.

Announced in September 2024, Hero Esports aims to make the ACL a yearly tournament with a six-month-long season, covering seven to 10 game titles at launch. The 2025 edition will take place at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, in conjunction with the debut of DreamHack Shanghai.

The ACL will be run by a newly founded body called the Asia Champions League Foundation, which will have its own management structure. VSPO’s Co-founders Jonny Wang and Xie Fan will become the Chief Executive and President of the ACL, respectively.

Founded in 2016, Hero Esports (previously known as VSPO) is one of the biggest tournament operators in Asia. The company made headlines in 2023 when it received a $265m (~£219m) investment from Savvy Games Group, a Saudi Arabian investment group launched and owned by the government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Headquartered in Shanghai, Hero Esports has worked closely with esports competitions such as the Olympic Esports Week, the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games and the Esports World Cup (EWC).

In particular, the ACL has also been announced as a partner of the EWC with the two parties discussing how the multi-title esports tournament can be integrated into global EWC qualifications this year.

Cloud9 has announced that car brand Kia America will be a naming rights partner for the North American esports organisation’s League of Legends team.

Now called Cloud9 Kia, the new branding will debut at the start of the League of the Americas (LTA) season. The expanded partnership will also feature a series of co-branded activations, including content series, live events and more.

The partnership between Cloud9 and Kia America was first locked in prior to the 2023 League of Legends World Championship and continued throughout 2024.

According to a post by Cloud9 on Linkedin, the announcement comes as a ‘natural progression following a year of growth and resilience,’ showcasing a strong alignment of values in performance and innovation.

The length of Cloud9 and Kia America’s new partnership has not been revealed.

“We are proud to extend and expand our partnership with Kia as they become our League of Legends team’s entitlement partner,” said Jack Etienne, CEO and Co-Founder of Cloud9.

“Kia has been instrumental in supporting our team’s journey, and their commitment to innovation and excellence perfectly mirrors our philosophy. Together, as Cloud9 Kia, we look forward to continuing to raise the bar in esports performance and fan engagement.”

Founded in 2013, Cloud9 is one of North America’s leading esports organisations. Based in Los Angeles, California, the organisation competes in various esports titles such as League of Legends, VALORANT and Apex Legends.

The company has developed a strong portfolio of partners throughout the years, with its latest partner being NVIDIA in September 2024. Aside from the hardware and technology company, Cloud9 with eyewear solution Zenni Optical, gaming chair brand Secretlab, and egg roll brand PAGODA Snacks.

Kia has been heavily investing in the gaming and esports space over the past few years, having collaborated with several League of Legends competitions across Riot’s competitive ecosystem. It recently extended its deal with the LEC (League of Legends EMEA Championship) until 2026 and has been a name sponsor for the South Korean esports team Dplus KIA since 2021.

ESL FACEIT Group has announced the debut of DreamHack Shanghai in 2025, bringing the gaming festival to China for the first time.

The event’s debut will coincide with Hero Esports’ Asian Champions League, which is set to take place in the same city on the same weekend.

According to the announcement, the two events will feature top-tier competitions, guest influencers and include DreamHack staples such as the expo floor, Artist Alley and Community Playground.

Dreamhack is one of ESL FACEIT Group’s largest event brands, having built a strong legacy across North America and Europe. Late last year, the company confirmed that it will host DreamHack Dallas in May 2025.

It’s not surprising to see DreamHack expand to China, with the country heavily investing in hosting esports events as of late.

Last year, Chengdu became a host city for major esports international competitions such as Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and League of Legends’ Mid-Season Invitational. Moreover, both Counter-Strike 2 and League of Legends will return in 2025, the latter of which is for the League of Legends World Championship.

Just like DreamHack, the Asian Champions League (ACL) will also make its debut this year.

Taking place at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, the new multi-title tournament aims to be the region’s ‘most diverse, and accessible esports event to date’. In a trailer announcing the event last year, titles such as Street Fighter, League of Legends and PUBG were highlighted.

“Pairing the first-ever Asian Champions League with the debut of DreamHack Shanghai sets a new standard for esports and gaming experiences in Asia,” commented Jonny (Xinyi) Wang, ACL Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Hero Esports.

“With China as a global hub for gaming and home to hundreds of millions of passionate players, taking over Shanghai with both events creates an unmissable moment for the community. This is a celebration where fans of every genre can unite to celebrate their love for gaming—on the stage, on the show floor, and create lifelong memories together.”

With the LCK 2025 season officially starting on January 15th, here is everything you need to know about the LCK Cup 2025 and what it entails for the Korean League of Legends esports ecosystem.

The LCK Cup is the latest kickoff tournament added to League of Legends’ calendar and it serves as a gateway to the inaugural First Stand tournament. With all major regions across the League of Legends ecosystem expanding to a three-split structure, the LCK Cup is the first competition for South Korea’s 2025 LoL season.

Compared to previous years where teams played a double round-robin regular split, the LCK Cup will see teams split into two groups of five. Interestingly, teams will not face those in their own groups, but will compete against all opponents from the opposing group in a best-of-three (BO3) single round-robin format.

All matches will implement the newest Fearless Draft mode, which prevents teams from playing a champion that has already been used once during their series.

After the end of the round-robin, the group with more series wins will be the Winners Group, while the other one will be the Losers Group. The top three teams from the Winners Group will advance directly to playoffs. Meanwhile, the remaining two compete against the top four teams from the Losers Group in the play-in stage.

The play-in stage features a double-elimination bracket to determine the last three playoff teams. All matches will be BO3, aside from the deciding series which will be a best-of-five (BO5).

Once the top six teams are confirmed, they will once again play a double-elimination bracket in playoffs, similar to how LCK playoffs were the previous years. The winner will represent the LCK at the First Stand tournament.

You can catch all the LCK action on the official Twitch or YouTube channel, with both Korean and English commentary available. You can also watch the games on AfreecaTV.

The group stage will start on January 15th and end on February 2nd, with matches taking place from Wednesday through Sunday. The first match of the day will start at 8 AM GMT.

The play-ins stage will last three days from February 7th to February 9th, while playoffs will kick off on February 12th until the finals on February 23rd.

The LCK received major headlines during the off-season when former T1 top laner Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je left the organisation after winning back-to-back World Championships to join Hanwha Life Esports. The series of events saw Choi ‘Doran’ Hyeon-joon replace Zeus on T1.

While there have been other major roster changes, including the return of legendary ADC Park ‘Ruler’ Jae-hyuk to Gen.G, the LCK’s top teams should continue to dominate the competition. T1, Gen.G and HLE are expected to be the front runners, with the other squads competing in the mid-pack. The new Fearless Draft mode, however, might shake up teams’ value more than before as coaches and other strategic aspects of the game will gain more importance in 2025.

The 2025 League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is set to get underway, with new teams, rosters and even a monster entering Summoner’s Rift.

Ahead of the 2025 LEC Winter Split, Esports Insider has created a run-through of all the major changes that have occurred — both in and out of the game — ahead of the split’s first game on January 18th. 

The most notable in-game change that will affect all of League of Legends’ competitive leagues is the introduction of a new monster called Atakhan. Ushered in for the new season, Atakham features two forms. Which one will present itself depends on the number of kills that have happened by the time the 14th minute comes along. 

There’s also a new early-game reward system in the form of improved boots for the team that takes two out of three objectives: first blood, first tower or first monster. Plus, there’s been a rework of the jungle to make it more symmetrical.

Now that the in-game changes have been discussed, let’s look at the 2025 LEC Winter Split.

Format-wise, the LEC will continue to operate with three splits in 2025 (Winter, Spring and Summer), however, each one will now have a unique format.

The LEC Winter Split is the most similar to the LEC’s previous iteration last year — a 10-team best-of-one (BO1) round-robin group stage that leads to a double-elimination playoff bracket after three weeks. 

The main addition to the Winter Split will actually be the introduction of Fearless Draft, a system which bans players from selecting champions that have been previously played in their series. 

For example, if a best-of-five (BO5) series goes to the last game, players will be unable to select any champion used throughout the series. When you add in traditional bans, this means the fifth game will see 50 champions removed from that final match (40 Fearless Bans and 10 traditional bans).  

For the first three weeks of the LEC Winter Split, Fearless Draft will not be utilised. This is because all 10 LEC teams will compete in BO1s to decide playoff seeding, with the bottom two teams eliminated from the competition. 

The remaining eight teams will then compete in a double-elimination bracket with BO3s and BO5s to decide the 2025 LEC Winter Split Champion. The winner will go on to represent EMEA at Riot Games’ new international event, First Stand in South Korea. Similarly to the LEC Winter Split, First Stand will also utilise Fearless Draft throughout the international event. 

This year, matches in the LEC Winter Split will be played on the game’s latest patch except for the Playoffs. This stage will remain on one single patch (15.3 / 25.S1.3) to uphold competitive integrity. 

The LEC Winter Split will also entirely take place at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, Germany.

Being a franchised league, the LEC rarely sees teams come and go but this year there has been a name change. MAD Lions KOI is now Movistar KOI due to the completed acquisition of KOI and Movistar Riders by MAD Lions’ parent company OverActive Media.

The full list of teams are:

A lot has changed on the roster front following LEC’s performance at Worlds 2024. In fact, no team has stuck with the same roster from the previous LEC Summer split. 

Starting with Fnatic, the UK organisation made major changes to its bot lane, replacing  Oh ‘Noah’ Hyeon-taek with a returning Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp. Meanwhile, former G2 Esports player Mihael ‘Mikyx’ Mehle is the team’s new Support, taking over from Yoon ‘Jun’ Se-jun. 

G2 Esports changed its Jungler from Martin ‘Yike’ Sundelin to LEC debutant Rudy ‘SkewMond’ Semaan and Labros ‘Labrov’ Papoutsakis replaces Mickyx in the Support role.. 

GIANTX has also gone through some significant changes in the off-season. With four new players: Mid Laner Adam ‘Jackies’ Jeřábek is joined by Eren ‘Lot’ Yıldız, Can ‘Closer’ Çelik, and former Fnatic duo Noah and Jun.

Team Heretics followed a similar path to GIANTX with Bot Laner Victor ‘Flakked’ Lirola the only player to retain his role. Carl ‘Carlsen’ Carlsen (Top Lane), Théo ‘Sheo’ Borile (Jungle), Kamil ‘Kamiloo’ Haudegond (Mid) and Paul ‘Stend’ Lardin ( Support) join the new-look Heretics line-up. 

Karmine Corp made two high-profile changes to its roster for the 2025 Winter Split. Firstly, the French organisation enlisted the services of former G2 Jungler Yike to replace Closer. Moreover, Karmine Corp has promoted 18-year-old prospect Caliste ‘Caliste’ Henry-Hennebert to the team’s roster. 

Whilst Movistar KOI underwent a major name change, the team was the most conservative organisation in the LEC off-season. However, its one roster move made history with Mid Laner Joseph ‘Jojopyun’ Pyun becoming the first North American player to enter the LEC. 

Rogue has kept the services of Mid Laner Emil ‘Larssen’ Larsson, however, an entirely new roster surrounds him. Adam ‘Adam’ Maanane (Top) replaces Finn “Finn” Wieståland and Kim ‘Malrang’ Geun-seong takes Mark ‘Markoon’ van Woensel’s place in the Jungle. Patrik is the team’s new Bot Laner with Lee ‘Execute’ Jeong-hoon joining as Rogue’s Support. 

SK Gaming kept only two players — Ismaïl ‘Isma’ Boualem (Jungler) and Cho ‘Rahel’ Min-seong (Bot Laner) — while opting to put Janik ‘JNX’ Bartels in the top lane and Kim ‘Loopy’ Dong-hyeon in the Support role. Former MAD Lions Mid Laner Steven ‘Reeker’ Chen is also back in the LEC following a spell at Team BDS Academy (alongside JNX).

Following Team BDS Academy’s EMEA Master Summer Split victory, Team BDS has promoted its Support Polat ‘Parus’ Çiçek to the main roster. Moreover, the organisation made two other roster changes, bringing in Joel ‘Irrelevant’ Scharoll as its Top Laner and Doğukan ‘113’ Balcı as the team’s Jungler.

Finally, Team Vitality also decided to replace its Top Laner, going from Kyeong ‘Photon’ Gyu-tae to Kaan ‘Naak Nako’ Okan. Moreover, Mateusz ‘Czajek’ Czajka replaces Team Vitality’s former Mid Laner Vincent ‘Vetheo’ Berrié.

LEC Winter Split games will start at 6pm CET (5pm GMT) on competition days and there will always be a pre-show beforehand. 

The competition will pause for a week following the Group Stages to give teams time to reset and prepare for the Playoffs which will start on February 15th. The Playoffs will also be followed by another Break Week to allow the players a moment to recharge before the First Stand event which will begin on March 10th.

Week 1: January 18th-20th (Patch 25.S1.1 / 15.1)

Week 2: January 25th-27th (Patch 25.S1.2 /  15.2)

Week 3: February 1st-3rd (Patch 25.S1.2 /  15.2)

Week 4: February 15th-17th (Patch 25.S1.3 /  15.3)

Week 5: February 22nd-24th (Patch 25.S1.3 / 15.3)

Week 6: February 28th-March 2nd (Patch 25.S1.3 / 15.3)

Multi-title mobile esports ecosystem Snapdragon Pro Series has announced the venue and location for its upcoming Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Mobile Masters Championship in April 2025.

The esports competition, delivered by ESL FACEIT Group and Qualcomm Technologies, will be held at the Tennis Indoor Stadium Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia. The mobile event sees the 12 best teams in the world compete for a share of its $200,000 (~£164,294) prize pool.

Among the 12 participating teams, 10 will qualify via their performance during MLBB’s Snapdragon Pro Series Season 6. The remaining two spots will be given to the winner of a Chinese MLBB qualifier, hosted by the game’s developer MOONTON Games, while the other will be awarded to Team Liquid ID as one of the nation’s hosting teams.

The group stage will kick off on April 7th and ends on April 9th, with six teams advancing to the Playoff stage on April 11th.

The final series will take place on April 13th. The competition will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube in several languages, including English and Bahasa Indonesia.

“This has been a momentous year for the Snapdragon Pro Series’s MLBB programme, and bringing the world championship to Indonesia is the perfect way to cap it off,” commented Sam Braithwaite, VP of Game Ecosystems, Mobile at ESL FACEIT Group

“Southeast Asia has been home to some of our most ambitious and most-watched events ever, and we’re looking forward to seeing that same energy during Mobile Masters.”

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has seen incredible growth over the past years, expanding its ecosystem to create dedicated competitions across Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, LATAM, MENA and China.

Despite its status as a third-party competition outside of MLBB’s main ecosystem, Snapdragon Pro Series’ MLBB division has proved to be very popular. According to data platform Esports Charts, over 830,000 fans tuned in to watch the latest Season 6 APAC – Open Finals, surpassing the peak record from the previous Challenge Finals.

The 2025 F1 Sim Racing World Championship is set to get underway with all 10 F1 teams creating rosters to compete on the virtual stage.

With three drivers lined up for every F1 squad, the 30 drivers will be competing for a share of the $750,000 (~£615,513) prize pool across three events and 12 rounds of racing action.

The F1 Sim Racing World Championship is F1’s official virtual esports competition which is cnetred around its flagship game franchise of the same name. The goal of the competition is to bring more engagement to Formula 1, especially during the winter break for the F1 squads.

The 2025 edition marks the eighth season of the programme and it will take place on F1 24, developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports.

Last year, the 2023/24 Driver Championship went to Frederik Rasmussen of Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing, who beat Kick F1 Sim Racing Team driver, Thomas Ronhaar, in the last round. Scuderia Ferrari Esports emerged as the World Constructors’ Champions.

The first event will kick off on January 14th, as the drivers will be racing 29 laps in Melbourne’s Albert Park Street Circuit, followed by three other races in the following two days.

The remaining eight races will be split into two separate events, the first one taking place from February 12th to February 14th, and the second from March 25th to March 27th.

The races will be broadcast live via the official F1 YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook channels, as well as the dedicated F1 Esports social media channels.

The F1 esports scene has undergone a major rise and fall over the few past years. The COVID-19 lockdown allowed the game title to thrive, reaching over 400,000 peak viewers at the F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series Vietnam back in 2020.

That being said, the competition wasn’t able to maintain the same level of engagement in the following years, with the 2023–24 Formula One Sim Racing World Championship left in a state of uncertainty following delays caused by a change of organisers and last-minute race cancellations.

The revamped F1 Sim Racing World Championship made the return in April 2024. Despite having much lower numbers than its peak, it still gathered a peak viewership of 42,877 in Event Two, according to Esports Charts, signalling that there is still an active community around the F1 esports scene.

Brazilian esports organisation w7M Esports has acquired the R6 Share 2025 spot from Fluxo.

As a result, w7m Esports will join the revenue-sharing programme for Rainbow Six esports, gaining the team access to additional financial opportunities.

The R6 Share programme provides esports organisations with opportunities to earn extra revenue by creating and selling in-game items. For the 2025 Rainbow Six Siege season, 20 teams have been selected by Ubisoft to be part of the initiative.

Alongside w7m Esports, the likes of Fnatic, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Team Liquid and others are included.

Founded in 2017, w7m Esports is one of several Brazillian organisations that regularly compete in the Rainbow Six ecosystem. However, the team has recently risen in prominence following impressive performances over the last two years.

In 2024, w7m Esports won the Six Invitational and the BLAST R6 Major Montreal competitions, taking home a total of $1.2m (~£984,700). The team has also qualified for the 2025 Six Invitational where it aims to defend the title won last year.

Whether Fluxo — an organisation founded by popular Brazilian content creator Bruno Goes ‘Nobru’ dos Santos — will continue operating in Rainbow Six is unknown. The last time Fluxo competed in Rainbow Six was in November 2024 when it secured a top-four placement in Season 1 of Liga DBE, a domestic esports league operated by LBEE.

Alongside Rainbow Six, the organisation competes across a range of titles including Free Fire and Counter-Strike.

Only 18 of the 20 R6 Share 2025 partner teams were revealed last year, with the two remaining teams set to be announced at the 2025 Six Invitational taking place February 3rd to 16th.

Rainbow Six’s biggest event of the year will consist of the scene’s top 20 teams vying to compete for a share of its $3m (~£2.4m) prize pool and the opportunity to become world champions.

Ahead of the 2025 VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) season, Riot Games has announced details surrounding its anticipated 2025 Team Capsules, alongside other esports-focused cosmetics.

For 2025, the developer and publisher will release Team Capsules, a Champions Collection, and a Season Capsule which features a unique melee skin. More information on the Season Capusle will be shared later in the year.

Below is a breakdown of everything you need to know about the 2025 VCT Team Capsules.

A total of 48 VCT teams will have a Team Capsule to reflect their participation in the 2025 season.

All VCT Partner Teams — along with newly-promoted sides BOOM Esports, Nongshim RedForce, Apeks, XLG Esports and 2GAME Esports — will have their own Capsule available to purchase.

Each Team Capsule contains the following items:

Teams that have won VCT events will have their Classic skin equipped with a winner’s flair to mark their achievements.

A single VCT Team Capsule is priced at 2,344, VALORANT Points (~£22.28).

The cheapest way to obtain the points needed to acquire a Team Capsule involves spending £22.50 on 500 VALORANT Points and 1890 VALORANT Points.

Players can purchase Team Capsules from VALORANT’s dedicated in-game esports store where customers can examine each of the Capsules before purchasing.

The VCT Team Capsules are an integral part of the VALORANT esports ecosystem.

Alongside allowing fans to support their favourite teams, 50% of the net profits generated by sales are split across all VCT partner teams.

Riot Games says sales of the 2024 VCT Team Capsules and the Champions Collection generated ‘over $44m (~£36.3m)’ from the sale of digital goods.

The revenue sharing is designed to create a sustainable ecosystem where VCT partner teams benefit from the collective success of sales.

G2 Esports and Oxygen Esports are the last remaining teams to have qualified for Rainbow Six Siege’s biggest event of the year, the 2025 Six Invitational. 

Both organisations qualified for the event, which will take place in Boston, Massachusetts later this year, by winning their respective last-chance qualifiers. 

Qualifying through the Europe & MENA event, G2 Esports beat organisation-less team Asparagus 2-0 in the Grand Final. G2 Esports didn’t drop a single map in its last-chance qualifier run, beating MACKO Esports in the Upper Bracket Semifinals and Asparagus in the Upper Bracket Final.

Oxygen Esports, on the other hand, had a slightly harder path during their North American qualifier. After beating Loyalty Is Scarce in the Upper Bracket Semifinals, Oxygen Esports dropped to the lower bracket following a 2-1 loss to Wildcard. 

Following a victory against Team Cruelty, Oxygen Esports went on to topple Wildcard in the Grand Finals to secure their place at the 2025 Six Invitational. 

Following these victorious, G2 Esports and Oxygen Esports join Japan’s CAG Osaka and Brazil’s RazaH Company Academy as their respective region’s final representatives.

Overall, 20 teams will compete in Rainbow Six Siege’s world championship with 16 teams gaining entry through their place in the Global Standings. Overall, the competition’s prize pool sits at $3m (~£2.47m). 

One team of note that failed to qualify for this year’s Six Invitational is FEARX. The South Korean side is the only team to have qualified for both Majors in 2024 and not be featured in this year’s event.

The full list of 2025 Six Invitational participating teams are: