Being over 25 years old is considered ancient in the esports ecosystem — unless you’re Bruce ‘GamerBee’ Hsiang. The 46-year-old pro was just signed to Flash Wolves after decades of competing in Street Fighter.

Flash Wolves is a Taiwanese esports organisation that has teams competing in Arena of Valor, Hearthstone and League of Legends: Wild Rift. The addition of GamerBee has allowed Flash Wolves to dive deeper into the growing FGC scene in 2025.

On social media, GamerBee commented: “Their [Flash Wolves] professionalism and resources in esports are undeniable. I believe that with their support, I can focus more on training and competition and strive for even greater goals!”

Despite the Taiwanese government frowning upon video games in the 1980s and 1990s, GamerBee fell in love with competitive fighting games. After a childhood filled with passion for Street Fighter and Tekken, GamerBee went to Evo 2010, flying from Taiwan to Las Vegas. He took 5th place at his first large, overseas tournament, beating out top pros in the scene.

GamerBee became a legend in Taiwan almost instantly, appearing on news reports and being celebrated by supporters who even showed up to the airport to greet him when he returned. He was later Taiwan’s first pro fighting game player after signing with AVerMedia, eventually becoming the top Adon player in Street Fighter 4.

GamerBee noted in an interview with Evo that the arcade scene in Taiwan was starting to die out — but the good netcode for Street Fighter 4 allowed him to start grinding and competing against players around the world. He said: “Without netcode, I won’t be able to compete or practice with so many good players online and become the GamerBee after.”

When GamerBee returned to Evo in 2012, he placed second. He remained consistent for years to come, even making it to the Grand Finals in 2015 after fighting against Daigo, Tokido, Nemo and many other iconic Street Fighter pros. Outside of Evo, GamerBee was getting great results at EGX, Japan Cup and many other tourneys across the world.

On top of competing, GamerBee has also been a long-time streamer — he took on this part of the esports ecosystem early on. He was Taiwan’s Partnerships Development Lead at Twitch by 2015, allowing him to promote Taiwanese streamers to audiences around the world. He also used this opportunity to promote Street Fighter esports, which he felt had too small a playerbase to find a larger audience like League of Legends and Dota 2.

After winning 18 international championships and helping build the Street Fighter scene over the past few decades, GamerBee is still competing. He placed in the Top 100 at Evo 2024, and consistently places in the Top 20 in online tournaments across Asia.

At 46 years old, GamerBee is not slowing down when it comes to his passion and dedication. Signing with Flash Wolves is another step towards growing the FGC scene in Taiwan and beyond.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has announced a partnership with Hull-based esports and sports hub Federation of Sport.

The deal between the Belgium shot-stopper and the facility marks the first UK-based venture for Courtois. However, the player has previously invested in the esports industry.

Federation of Sport, located in Hull’s Old Town, includes dedicated gaming booths containing Xbox and PlayStation consoles in addition to state-of-the-art sim racing rigs providing virtual single-seater and GT experiences.

In addition to its gaming offerings, the facility also includes an indoor golf simulator and interactive darts experiences.

“As someone who’s passionate about sim sports and esports, I see this as an opportunity to inspire young people to connect, compete, and collaborate in a positive environment,” Courtois told the Hull Daily Mail.

“It’s about getting them out of their rooms and into a space where they can share their love for gaming with others.”

While the collaboration is Courtois’ first partnership based in the UK, the goalkeeper is no stranger to the esports industry. In November 2024, he launched TC Esports, an esports organisation currently fielding sim racing drivers.

Alongside its virtual motorsport efforts, the organisation also competes in the Prodigy Racing League, a series aiming to provide sim racing drivers an opportunity to embark on a career in real-life racing.

After exploding in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of sim racing and the stakeholders getting involved show no signs of slowing down.

In addition to Courtois, the likes of four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen and his team, Oracle Red Bull Racing, often participate in various championships and initiatives.

Sim racing will also feature at the 2025 Esports World Cup with RENNSPORT R1 hosting a tournament as part of the multi-title event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The unprecedented expansion of Brazil’s growing betting market hit a major setback last week as the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) was forced to suspend four major gambling operators.

Among the four was Pixbet, one of the country’s most popular platforms and which is perhaps best known for its lucrative partnerships with Brazilian football clubs, including Flamengo and Corinthians.

The suspensions, issued on April 10, were the direct result of all four firm’s non-compliance with Ordinance No. 2, 104, which requires operators to submit their key technical certifications to regulators.

The companies targeted with the suspensions were TQJ-PAR Participações, 7MBR LTDA, Caixa Lotteries SA, and Pixbet Technological Solutions, which were all accused of failing to meet these mandatory obligations.

As a result of the ruling, the SPA effectively banned all four platforms from operating for up to 90 days, stipulating that the platforms must remain accessible to their user bases in order to allow them to withdraw any existing funds.

Of the four banned firms, Pixbet reacted the quickest, challenging the ruling immediately before winning a legal reprieve from a federal court judge, who agreed that the suspension was unjust.

Pixbet had a strong legal case behind it, stating it had submitted three of the four technical certifications in February and had issued the fourth the day before the suspension was issued.

Siding with Pixbet, the judge ordered their licence be immediately reinstated, citing that not doing so would inflict “disproportionate harm” on the firm.

The speed at which the decision was reversed was critical for both Pixbet and Flamengo, Brazil’s largest football club, which had just launched its new co-branded FlaBet platform together.

The consequence of a ban would have meant Flamengo would have been forced to strip all Pixbet branding ahead of its unveiling on Monday, April 14.

With 43 licensed gaming companies now operating in Brazil’s ever-evolving regulated betting landscape, the SPA’s swift non-compliance crackdown will undoubtedly have sent a clear message to everyone involved.

For now, the remaining three operators remain suspended and are unlikely to challenge the ruling until they each complete the required certifications.

The PUBG Global Series 7 & 8 is set to commence on April 28th, and details surrounding the PUBG Global Series Group Stage have finally been revealed.

Here’s everything you need to know about the PUBG Global Series Group Stage, including groups, map schedule and more.

The news was shared through a blog post on the official PUBG Esports website. This is the distribution of teams for PUBG Global Series Group Stage.

In total, 10 teams were invited as global partners, while the rest were promoted based on their performance in their regional qualifiers.

Here is the global distribution of all participating organisations, including partners and qualified teams:

AMERICAS – PUBG Americas Series

EMEA – PUBG EMEA Championship

APAC – PGS APAC Qualifier

CHINA – PUBG CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

KOREA – PUBG WEEKLY SERIES

According to an in-depth overview of the tournament on the official site, the Group Stages will see three days of competition, each of which will host six matches.

This is the map schedule for the PUBG Global Series Group Stage from April 28th-30th (7), and May 12th-14th (8).

All 24 teams will battle it out across four main maps, earning points to secure a spot in the final stage. Following the group stage, the remaining 16 teams will battle it out over three days to be crowned champion and claim the largest share of its $300,000 (~£226,000) prize pool.

North American esports organisation ENVY is eyeing up a return to Counter-Strike esports.

The development comes after the organisation’s owner, Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail, revealed ENVY has started looking at opportunities to field a roster in Valve’s first-person shooter title.

In a social media post on April 15th, Rufail confirmed ENVY has started to ‘explore all opportunities and will jump on the right one’ when it becomes available.

Team Envy is no stranger to the world of Counter-Strike. The organisation first fielded a roster in 2015 during the Global Offensive era, notably winning the DreamHack Cluj-Napoca Major in the same year.

The organisation fielded a roster until January 2021 when the team disbanded following the decision to put its Counter-Strike operations on hold.

Four years later, Rufail re-acquired the ENVY brand from OpTic Gaming to relaunch the organisation he founded back in 2007. In addition to teasing a return to Counter-Strike, ENVY has expanded into several titles including Apex Legends, Super Smash Bros. and Marvel Rivals.

In March, the organisation announced a merger with fellow organisation Native Gaming resulting in Dean Duro becoming a co-owner of ENVY alongside Rufail.

In the months following Rufail’s re-acquisition of the ENVY brand, the organisation has returned to one of the most prominent names within North American esports.

With plans to return to Counter-Strike in the works, there’s a high chance the organisation continues to expand into other esports titles after unveiling rosters across multiple genres.

Following Team Falcon’s multi-million-dollar acquisition of Ilya’ m0NESY’ Osipov, the door to acquire some notable free agents is open.

After earning the MVP award at PGL Bucharest, Abdulkhalik ‘degster’ Gasanov is looking for a new home along with several other names that would act as solid foundations of a team capable of competing in international tournaments.

League of Legends game developer Riot Games has unveiled the planned gameplay changes for the upcoming Season 2, which will revolve around Ionia.

The major updates, which are expected to be released in the upcoming Patch 25.09, include a visually enhanced Summoner’s Rift, a rework of neutral objectives such as Atakhan and Void Grubs, tweaks to bounty mechanics and more.

With Spirit Blossom and Ionia taking centre stage in the new season, Riot Games will introduce the Spirit Blossom Rift. The map, however, will not alter gameplay terrain, maintaining consistency with the previous iterations.

The major changes come from the reworks of neutral objectives. In particular, Atakhan will now only appear as Atakhan of the Thorns, granting the killing team all roses on the map and giving an extra 25% boost in stats. Additionally, the monster will give a team-wide buff called Spiritual Purification, which deals area damage upon kills and will trigger slows.

Void Grubs and Rift Herald are also on the changelist. The former will only spawn once, reducing the reliance on team-wide coordination to capture multiple objectives. Rift Herald will be easier to take down as the damage reduction from champions hitting it will be removed. Moreover, it will have more strategic value, making it more worthwhile for teams to take down.

Riot Games has also announced changes to prevent unfair snowballing from bounties. Going forward, the latter will only appear when a team is clearly ahead, instead of being based on individual kill score. The champion gold will scale with levels, slightly rewarding losing teams in case they are playing well from behind.

Jungle and support roles will now receive their respective items automatically, reducing potential mistakes and discouraging players from intentionally griefing games. To avoid roles being wrongfully assigned, Riot will allow players to swap their roles during champion select.

Lane-swapping, which dominated the early parts of the season, is getting further nerfed down, with new penalties targeting off-meta support movements. Additionally, the game developer will also bring a few quality-of-life changes, including an updated death recap screen and multi-kill sound effects.

While the patch of the new season is yet to be released, the changes to bounties and neutral objectives are expected to have major repercussions on the meta.

First of all, there is already an increased dragon priority since the anti-lane swap changes were introduced. Pushing back the initial timer on the first void grubs means teams will likely be looking to contest dragons more often, since there would be no other objective between minute five and minute eight.

On the other hand, however, Void Grubs will now no longer be taken to trade an objective on the map, but will more likely be contested between the teams. This should lead to even more skirmish-heavy games where macro coordination will be key. For Atakhan, the changes shouldn’t really change how the neutral objective is perceived, although it should reward teams that are in the lead and help them open up a wider gap to close out games.

All Season 2 changes will be released on Patch 25.09, which is expected to be released on April 30th, 2025, according to Riot’s official schedule. On the same day of the new season announcement, the game developer also unveiled a new game mode, Brawl, which is expected to be live in Patch 25.10.

Fortnite has a very expansive esports scene, and it’s only growing by the year. Iconic players, like Bugha and Mongraal, have captured the attention of video game fans over the past decade, but new Fortnite pro players are always emerging. 

The best Fortnite players are different now than in 2019, but the feats of their predecessors are still inspiring to this day.

We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 Fortnite players in esports, both in the past and present. There are many Fortnite players who have earned the title of best athlete in their region, but only around a dozen have risen to the legendary ranks. This best Fortnite players list will help you better understand the competitive world.

A key member of Team Falcons, Peter “Peterbot” Kata is only 17 but has quickly risen through the ranks in the past three years. He finished first in the FNCS 2024 Global Championship, earning notoriety in the esports community. In April 2025, Peterbot’s team finished a match of the FNCS Opens with 56 eliminations, though feats like this are not uncommon for the young athlete.

Peterbot’s impressive Fortnite skills, in addition to his age, have made him a living legend in the esports community. It’s unclear exactly where Peterbot will go from here, but one thing’s for sure – he’s easily one of the best players in history, and he may even be the greatest Fortnite player of all time.

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf is one of the most famous fortnite players ever, among both new and old fans. His claim to fame is winning the Fortnite World Cup in 2019, during which he was only 16. Bugha has quick reflexes and building skills, which have stayed sharp to this day.

Love him or hate him, Bugha is an important member of the Fortnite community and has the commendations to prove it. Though Bugha isn’t the number one Fortnite player in 2025, there was a time when he was the best of the best, and he’ll always be remembered as an exceptionally talented esports competitor.

Yet another Fortnite player who rose through the ranks in his teenage years, Vanyak3kk is now 20 years old. Vanyak3kk is a Ukrainian player who placed high among a range of different competitions, including a claim to first place in the POW3R Cup 2.0.

Vanyak3kk’s biggest accomplishment was placing first in the FNCS 2024 – Major 2: Europe Grand Finals. This competition shook the esports world and solidified Vanyak3kk as one of the most talented esports athletes in Europe. Like most top Fortnite players, Vanyak3kk entered the game young and impressed the audience with his advanced talent on the virtual battlefield. Consistent ranking throughout many competitions has kept Vanyak3kk relevant since 2023, though he’s switched teams many times.

Initially, a dedicated member of Team Secret, Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson rose through the ranks of notable Fortnite players at just 13. He recently signed with Red Bull and will now be competing alongside other famous esports athletes in the UK.

Mongraal was singled out for his impressive aim and sharp reflexes, winning multiple titles in the Fortnite Champion Series throughout the years. It looks like Mongraal is making a comeback in 2025, so it’ll be interesting to see his competitive strength as the athlete transitions into his twenties.

Miguel “Pollo” Moreno is only 16 years old in 2025, but he’s one of the most talented players in modern Fortnite. He’s joined forces with other popular athletes, like Peterbot, so he’s well-known in the larger esports community, too. Pollo has been part of many teams since 2021, but he is currently signed with Gentle Mates.

Alongside Peterbot, Pollo managed to claim victory in the FNCS 2024 Global Championship, and he’s gearing up to be a threat in 2025 as well. It seems to be a trend that the best Fortnite players are often on the younger side, usually achieving their peak between the ages of 16 and 18. Pollo’s career is only just getting started, as he has years ahead of him in the esports scene if he continues to compete.

David “Aqua” Wang is an Australian Fortnite pro who began his esports career as a teenager. In 2019, Aqua managed to secure his status as a living legend by winning the Fortnite World Cup Finals for duos. His exceptional ability to work alongside Nyhrox allowed the pair to claim $3 million in prize money.

In 2022, Aqua made a comeback by winning the FNCS Grand Finals for Europe. Since then, he hasn’t been quite as active in esports, but his three-year streak proved how fierce of a competitor he can truly be. There’s no denying Aqua’s impact on the Fortnite community, plus his strategy of utilizing the high ground gave him an entertaining edge.

Matthew “Mero” Faitel is a Canadian Fortnite player who has paired with big names like Bugha and Cooper to pull in victory after victory. Mero gained fame upon winning the FNCS Global Championship in 2023, though he had placed first in many other FNCS competitions beforehand.

The aspect of Mero’s skill set that truly stands out is his ability to consistently perform with a controller, as most athletes use a keyboard and mouse. Without a doubt, Mero is one of the best controller players in Fortnite. Unfortunately, Mero isn’t a major player in the 2025 esports scene for Fortnite, but he’s only 20, so there’s room for a second wind. 

Martin “MrSavage” Anderson has been a focal athlete in the Fortnite community for years, and there’s no denying that he has had an impact on the wider esports scene. As a well-balanced player with a calm demeanor, MrSavage dominated the Fortnite stage throughout many Twitch Rivals and FNCS tournaments.

BenjyFishy and MrSavage had a long-standing partnership, though he’s also paired with big names like Kami and Vicens. MrSavage currently focuses on content creation, so although he’s not as involved with esports now, he remains among the best Fortnite players of all time.

Currently on the roster for Dignitas, Abdullah “Acorn” Akhras has won hundreds of thousands throughout his esports career. At only 20 years of age, Acorn has placed first in many Fortnite competitions, plus he earned the seventh spot during the FNCS Global Championship in 2023.

The Dignitas athlete formed numerous alliances with other esports players, including Cold, which has allowed him to improve his skills further. As a prominent Fortnite player with shocking build battle talent, Acorn is one of the best Canadian competitors without a doubt.

Like Mongraal, Benjy “BenjyFishy” Fish is one of the most talented Fortnite players in the UK. Last paired with notable teams like NRG, he’s no stranger to the big leagues. Most of BenjyFishy’s Fortnite feats took place in 2019, as he eventually retired from the Battle Royale to focus on VALORANT.

Benjy was particularly impressive due to his fast-paced building style, allowing him to outmaneuver his opponents at record speeds. He teamed up with world-renowned players like Mongraal and Mitr0, but decided that pursuing a long-term Fortnite career wasn’t the direction for him. However, his effect on build battles can still be felt today.