Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) is celebrating its ninth anniversary with a special event, 9th to Meet You, offering exclusive hero skins and rewards.

A dedicated hub for the event, called Anniversary Venue, will be introduced, where players will be able to find all related information.

In order to earn rewards, players simply need to play matches and complete missions to secure Anniversary Points and Energy. The hub will feature various sections offering a range of rewards, with the final one being Fanny’s brand-new Epic girl group skin.

Starting on October 17th, the next major reward up for grabs will be Lolita’s new superfan skin, which can be claimed by completing a limited-time event. As players complete the puzzle, they will also earn additional anniversary rewards.

Moonton will also add a permanent reward system called Stardust Vault, where fans will be able to exchange unclaimed progress with Stardust Crystals that they can use to purchase in-game skins. 

“As MLBB enters its next decade, it remains committed to innovation and cultural relevance, while staying true to the community of players who made nine years of unforgettable battles possible,” the publisher shared in a press release.

Ever since Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was released, the game has seen tremendous growth with every passing year, particularly in Southeast Asia. In esports, specifically, the mobile MOBA title has established its dominance against giants such as League of Legends and Dota 2.

According to Esports Charts, in 2025 alone, MLBB achieved the highest peak esports viewership of 4.1m in the second quarter. League of Legends was the second most popular esports title, reaching roughly half that figure at 1.9m.

The Mid Season Cup 2025 also surpassed a peak viewership count of 3m during the Esports World Cup, accumulating over 50m watch hours worldwide.

Reaper Actual, the upcoming PC title from veteran game developer John Smedley, has entered its ‘Foundation Alpha’ testing phase. Developed by his studio, Distinct Possibility Studios, the alpha is available through tiered early access packages.

Smedley, known for his work on EverQuest and H1Z1, has positioned Reaper Actual as a ‘skills-based shooter first,’ emphasising that its blockchain elements are entirely optional for players.

The Foundation Alpha version allows players to provide direct feedback as the studio refines gameplay through community testing. 

Three early-access tiers priced at $29.99 (£24.50), $49.99 (£40.80), and $74.99 (£61.25) offer combinations of ‘Reaper’ characters and defensive bases, including the top-tier Stygian Oath Edition, which provides four characters and two base types.

Developed by Distinct Possibility Studios, the PC-based title invites players to build, defend, and attack customisable bases on the war-torn island of Marova, a map reportedly larger than any previous first-person shooter.

Built on Tezos’ Etherlink, the game introduces tradeable in-game assets such as characters, bases, and cosmetics via a decentralised marketplace. Players can choose to play entirely through traditional platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store or use the studio’s native marketplace to own and exchange digital items.

The project is backed by significant funding, with Distinct Possibility Studios having secured £24.8 million from investors such as Bitkraft Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital earlier this year.

Unlike other crypto-enabled titles such as Off the Grid, which restricted early access with NDAs, Reaper Actual encourages open streaming and discussion across Discord and social media, echoing Web3 gaming’s ‘build-in-public’ ethos.

EA Sports has teamed up with NFL to announce that it will debut the Madden NFL 26 International: Madrid Challenge in Madrid, Spain.

The esports competition will conclude with an in-person finale on November 15th, right before the 2025 NFL Madrid game between the Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins.

“Playing on an international stage – even being there is insane,” said NFL esports player Jonathan ‘Jonbeast‘ Marquez. “But being on the stage in a great venue, with great energy from everyone was amazing. It’s motivated me now that I’ve seen what it’s like to play football esports outside of America.”

Competitors have two paths to qualify for the Madrid Challenge: the PlayStation tournaments and Challengermode.

Eligible Madden NFL 26 players from Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom can compete in a $10,000 (~£7,447) online competition, hosted through PlayStation tournaments from October 6th to 16th.

Competitors from the United States, Canada and Mexico can play in a $50,000 (~£37,235) qualifier hosted on the Challengermode esports platform. 

According to the official rules, the Madrid Challenge will see players first compete in an open phase, playing in up to five days of online ladder play. The top 544 players will move on to a single elimination bracket for up to two days to decide the two top players for the live finals.

Both qualifiers offer not only prize money, but will also give away MUT packs for participating in the challenge.

The top performers will earn a trip to Madrid, Spain, to compete in the championship finals and watch the NFL game in person. Furthermore, the top two players will also qualify for the Madden Championship Series Last Chance Qualifier, fighting for a place in the Madden Bowl.

The finals will take place at the Real Madrid Club Shop, located within the Bernabéu stadium. Viewers can also tune into the live broadcast from the official EA Madden NFL Twitch and YouTube channel.

The challenge arrives during the ongoing Madden Championship Series’ 26th season, which features three challenge events and a Last Chance Qualifier, all leading up to the international Madden Bowl with a $1.5m (~£1.17m) prize pool.

The announcement comes as the Most Feared challenge is underway, with the finals in Madrid taking place alongside the Zero Chill challenge.

The released version of Battlefield 6 will certainly get future updates and new content. But it’s not the version of the game that gamers who took part in the open beta playtests will have seen. The Battlefield 6 available on launch day will be slightly, but intentionally different, and EA will be hoping that, after player feedback, it will be for the better.

There are now 200 confirmed day-one changes, so we can’t cover them all. However, below, we’ll go through the key changes you need to know about, and some you may have missed. We’ll also look at what we may see in the near future as Battlefield 6 hits its stride. We know the BF6 devs are weighing up player thoughts and feedback, too, which is great.

As confirmed in an official October 6 Battlefield Community update, at release, all launch maps will be available across playlists. Additionally, available playlists will be both single-mode (e.g, just Breakthrough) and combined (mixed-mode) playlists. So Conquest and Escalation will be together, as will Breakthrough and Rush. 

The devs’ thinking is that by placing similar modes in a single playlist, gamers are less likely to leave matchmaking. However, specific modes can still be found via the Custom Search option and the Server Browser. This seems to make a good amount of sense, offering the best of both worlds for player interest and devs keeping players moving match-to-match.

There’s even some news here for closed weapons fans. Briefly, at launch, the playlist rotation will include:

There’s additional news for custom experiences, too. Battlefield Portal will now be referred to as “Community” in the main menu. It’s here that you’ll find the Server Browser, and the devs say the browser will be “easier to find and use.” Also, in the Server Browser, Breakthrough, Conquest, and Rush will be “verified modes, allowing official Hardcore experiences.”

A lot of the open beta feedback was around player movement, with some criticism that movement was “too CoD-like”. This was initially addressed in an August 21 community update: It was stated that a “penalty for consecutive jumps” would lower jump height, slide momentum would be reduced, and firing while jumping/sliding would produce greater inaccuracy. 

What’s clear is that player movement is an ongoing area of focus and balance. According to the latest October community post, the Battlefield 6 release date patch will make player movement feel “more responsive”, thanks to changes to pacing and tweaks to movement issues. We’ll have to see how this one plays out and whether further changes are planned. 

Another significant area for feedback during the open beta tests, the devs haven’t stated any changes have been made to TTK (time to kill), but recoil, tap-firing, and burst-firing mechanics are tweaked. For launch, recoil has been “rebalanced” for automatic weapons, so long-range firing is more rewarding with tap firing and burst control.

Another change, which may be divisive depending on your view, is that the M87A1 shotgun will require more pellets to put down an enemy. During the BF6 closed beta, some players felt the gun was overpowered, but the other view is that…well, it’s a shotgun. This change was confirmed quickly after the beta and will be retained on launch. 

The following changes are listed in bullet points by the Battlefield 6 devs for gadgets. Each of these makes sense given that smooth and immersive gameplay is key. Anything breaking the immersion isn’t exactly ideal, and reducing spawn beacon use here feels right:

You may have missed it, but after player feedback from the open beta, there was a big discussion around Rush. In previous BF titles, Rush could be a large-scale war (64 or 128 players). The early feedback from the devs was that these “intense, fast-paced moments” also brought overwhelming defences, stalled frontlines, plus games ending in the first sector.

This writer is biased, because I absolutely loved large-scale Rush and, to quote the devs, trying to “arm the M-COM while more than 20 opponents are defending”. For launch, both Rush and the larger-scale Breakthrough mode have been “revised”. The aim is a better balance of attack and defence, as large-scale Rush may be a custom Community creation.

We’re bundling a few things in here before we move on, with the devs having looked at “updated overlays, animated pings, and new minimap options” for a clearer and more useful UI and HUD, plus more easily usable loadout and deployment screens. We didn’t spot any glaring issues in beta, but more clarity and usefulness sound sensible.

Among a selection of settings changes, “sprint bob reduction” and “camera roll toggle” will have sliders for improved accessibility, which is ideal for gamers wanting further control. Additional refinements across platforms include the addition of voiceover sliders. Audio should be cleaner, too, from pings to weapon sound effects and vehicles. 

Finally, for players who experienced network issues, there may be help on launch day. Netcode improvements have been made to help reduce desync, address “invisible damage”, and to hopefully make TTD (time-to-death) feel fairer. This seemed pretty quick in the beta for some, so improvement could be a real positive.

We know that a new Traverser 2 ATV is arriving as part of the Season 1 Roadmap on October 28, but there is a hint that Battlefield 6 may get further vehicles moving forward, even if not at launch. The Battlefield 6 devs have referred to calls for a “certain fan-favourite little helicopter”, and we’d love to see something other than an Attack Helicopter in the skies. 

It’s possible we may even see boats in the future. After all, Battlefield 4 was known for its Attack Boats, and according to the October 6 community update, “requests for naval warfare have not gone unnoticed”. While making the launch-day version of Battlefield 6 great is ideal, such future additions could help to build the idea of a greater conflict if done well. 

Another honourable mention in the October 6 community update was platoons. Present in Battlefield 3, 4, 1, and V, community calls for the feature remind us that BF games can be social as much as they can be chaotic and immersive. Platoons can add an extra sense of belonging or genuine connectedness, where players feel more tightly knit. 

While Platoons definitely won’t be available at launch, that’s not a huge issue, as they could be added later. However, with up to 100-150 players inside platoons for older BF games, matches featuring more coordinated ‘factions’ versus random players may cause issues. I’m on the fence about whether I’d like to see it, but I understand the desire.

This one is just on my ‘hoped-for’ list, because having seen the Season 1 Roadmap, the initial focus seems to be on smaller game modes. Hopefully, this will be balanced by new or limited larger game modes or a focus on newer large-scale experiences. I suppose that Community creations and the BF6 Battle Royale will help here, though. 

Battlefield 6’s development teams have clearly been busy since the open beta, attempting to improve, balance, and tweak the title for launch. That work no doubt continues, with post-launch feedback hopefully benefiting the game in a (fingers-crossed) similar way to the confirmed changes coming at launch. 

There’s plenty of potential for future changes beyond balance, UI, and technical aspects, though. Hopefully, content and community-focused elements will be well-implemented and well-received, helping Battlefield 6 become the most enjoyable BF title yet. That’s a rather large wish, but here’s hoping the launch-day changes set the standard. 

Toronto Ultra has unveiled its roster ahead of the 2026 Call of Duty League (CDL) season.

The roster features three of the four players who represented the franchise during the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 season.

The trio of Tobias ‘CleanX‘ Juul Jønsson, Joseph ‘JoeDeceives‘ Romero and Jamie ‘Insight‘ Craven returns for another season, with former Miami Heretics player José ‘ReaaL‘ Manuel Fernández completing the roster.

ReaaL joins following allegations of breaking a verbal agreement with his former team. Miami Heretics claimed that the player verbally agreed to represent the organisation in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The Spaniard and his agency denied any breach of agreement.

Insight returns to Toronto after announcing his unrestricted free agency on August 12th, 2025. On October 8th, the franchise unveiled its starting line-up.

Insight and CleanX are one of the longest-standing duos in Call of Duty history, having competed under the Toronto Ultra banner since October 2020.

For CleanX, 2026 will mark seven years of representing the franchise, having joined Toronto Ultra in October 2019. This follows the creation of the franchise, which is owned and operated by OverActive Media.

Throughout the Black Ops 6 season, Toronto Ultra was one of several franchises in contention to score victories at the Majors. Top three finishes at Major 2 and Major 3 combined with top-six placements at Major 1 and Major 4 cemented the team’s place at the season-ending CDL Championship.

Champs started off with plenty of promise following a 3-1 win over the Carolina Royal Ravens, but 3-0 defeats to eventual winners OpTic Texas and runners-up Vancouver Surge, sent the team home with another top-six finish.

Heading into Black Ops 7, Toronto Ultra has assembled a roster packed with plenty of slaying power and experience required to compete at the pinnacle of Call of Duty esports.

Riot Games has announced that Estral Esports top-laner Park ‘Summit‘ Woo-tae has been disqualified from the LTA North Promotion tournament.

Following an investigation, Summit breached Riot Games’ Esports Global Code of Conduct and will no longer be eligible to compete in the event.

The disqualification follows the initial suspension of Summit on October 7th, 2025, following allegations of cheating during the LTA North Promotion match between Estral Esports and Disguised.

In a competitive ruling published on October 9th, Riot Games confirmed that Summit breached Article 4.3 of the Esports Global Code of Conduct after watching a VOD of a previous play during a delay. Riot Games stated that a comprehensive disciplinary ruling will be published at a later date.

“Cheating is defined as the use of any in- or out-of-game method, technique, or technology that affects the outcome of a game that gives a personal or team unfair advantage,” according to Riot Games’ Code of Conduct.

As a result of Summit’s disqualification from the tournament, Estral Esports will field Alejandro ‘Shintalx‘ Quintanilla as his replacement for the remainder of the event, which concludes on October 14th.

Following Summit’s sanction, Estral Esports has revealed that it has filed a formal appeal with the league and “continue to advocate for fair treatment” of its players and “for a more humane standard in event management.”

While Summit has to sit out the remainder of the LTA North Promotion tournament, Estral Esports still has a chance of earning a place in the 2026 LCS season.

Following the loss to Disguised in the upper bracket, the team takes on SDM Tigres in the first lower bracket round in a best-of-five series. The winner of the match advances to the next round, where Luminosity Gaming awaits, while the loser is eliminated.

Multi-title esports competition, the Esports World Cup, has unveiled the first 20 titles that will feature at its 2026 edition.

Organised by the Saudi Arabian government-backed Esports World Cup Foundation, the event will seemingly feature a total of 24 titles, with CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and VALORANT announced for the competition.

Notably, all 20 of the titles announced featured at the Esports World Cup 2025. The four remaining titles that will feature at next year’s event have yet to be revealed.

The Esports World Cup 2026 is the third edition of the event, which debuted in 2024 as a replacement for the now-defunct Gamers8 tournament. Thanks to its wide variety of titles and partnership initiatives, the tournament attracts the biggest esports organisations in the world to Riyadh. Saudi Arabia.

Chess is also among the 20 titles confirmed for 2026’s event. In August, Magnus Carlsen partnered with Chess.com to launch a weekly tournament that will serve as a qualification path to the Esports World Cup.

The announcement doesn’t feature any new titles appearing at the Esports World Cup 2026, but does include several fighting games, first-person shooters, and MOBA titles.

Below is the full list of confirmed titles appearing at the Esports World Cup 2026:

A notable absence from the first title announcement is the sim racing title Rennsport. For the past two years, it has held its R1 LAN events at the Esports World Cup, with Team Redline emerging victorious on both occasions.

Riot Games has announced that it has launched an investigation into players competing under Forsaken at EMEA Masters 2025 Summer, one of League of Legends’ biggest tier two events.

The investigation follows a video that surfaced online two weeks prior, where members of Forsaken streamed an inappropriate celebration, broadcast during Jakub ‘Cinkrof‘ Rokicki’s livestream (around 3-hour 33-minute mark).

In accordance with the developer’s disciplinary procedures, Forsaken is still allowed to compete in the EMEA Masters tournament. Following the statement, Forsaken qualified for the EMEA Masters Playoffs after defeating Bushido Wildcats to end the Swiss Stage 4-3.

In its statement, Riot Games said: “We are aware of reports concerning a recent video involving Forsaken players. Riot Games takes these matters seriously and have initiated a review in line with our internal investigative processes.”

The investigation follows a public feud between the players and communities of both Forsaken and Bushido Wildcats.

First raised by Bushido Wildcats, Forsaken players were allegedly seen performing an inappropriate celebration on stream following a victory against Rich Gang Esports during EMEA Masters’ Last Chance Qualifier.

Since the video surfaced, various public arguments have been held online involving both organisations and the teams’ players.

Forsaken has yet to publish a full statement on the situation, but has released a post in response to Riot Games’ announcement.

The investigation by Riot Games has not caused any delays within the EMEA Masters 2025 Summer Split, and so the next round of matches that conclude the Swiss Stage run for several teams have gone ahead.

After the Swiss Stage ends, the top 16 teams will compete in the Playoffs to be crowned EMEA champion. All playoff matches can be viewed live through the official EMEA Masters Twitch and YouTube channels.

The League of Legends Worlds 2025 Anthem will be shared three days after its planned release date, as Riot Games has announced last-minute changes to the music video.

Fans had been eagerly awaiting the song and music video since the artist announcement, expecting another cinematic and emotional celebration of the global competition. However, Riot has confirmed that the delay came after last-minute edits to remove a player originally featured in the video.

The change stems from the decision to remove Gabriël ‘Bwipo‘ Rau from the original cut of the video following his controversial public comments last month. The player was originally chosen to represent FlyQuest and the Americas region, and his removal supposedly required some reworking of scenes in the video. This resulted in the region no longer appearing in this year’s anthem. 

“This was not part of any sanction or competitive ruling, but a decision about how we represent our sport and community on a global stage,” Riot emphasised in its statement.

The announcement has sparked mixed reactions across the community. Many fans supported Riot’s choice to uphold values of respect and inclusivity, but others criticised the move as inconsistent, questioning why an entire region should be affected by one player’s actions.

Some also pointed out perceived double standards given Riot’s partnerships with the Esports World Cup, an event backed by Saudi Arabian funding that has faced criticism over the country’s human rights record and involvement in global esports. 

It’s not unusual for Riot Games to select players to represent each region in the Worlds Anthems. These choices often celebrate the diversity and pride of the global League of Legends community, while connecting the music video to the storylines of its top competitors. For 2025, Bwipo was chosen to represent the Americas.

For more than a decade, Bwipo has recorded a successful career, with standout performances for Fnatic in the LEC, and later Team Liquid and FlyQuest in the LCS, earning him recognition as one of the most versatile and outspoken figures in the scene. Recently, however, Bwipo made a series of controversial remarks on social media and during a livestream that prompted FlyQuest to bench him and receive significant backlash. 

“There is a time in the month where you should not be f***ing playing competitive games as a woman” he said.

Though he later clarified that he did not intend to be sexist, the comments were widely criticised by fans and community figures alike. These comments — and the following backlash — prompted Riot’s decision to edit him out of the video as “it wouldn’t be right to showcase him in a piece that represents LoL Esports, pro players, and fans.”

Riot Games reiterated that this action was a conscious choice about how to portray League of Legends Esports to a global audience. In other words, Riot was not required to remove Bwipo — it was a voluntary decision made in alignment with the company’s values and public image.

While the delay has disappointed some fans, the Worlds 2025 Anthem remains one of the most anticipated moments of the competitive season. When it finally releases on October 13th, it will stand as both a celebration of the tournament’s 15-year milestone and a reminder of the complex balance between community values, player conduct, and global representation of esports.