Let’s be uncomfortably honest for a minute. There’s definitely a kind of person that pops into your head when you hear “top Tekken player.” And that person may not look like Jeannail “Cuddle_Core” Carter. But that’s okay, she isn’t here to cater to anybody nor seek their validation.

She is here to play.

And stream. And host. And coach. And who knows what else? For Cuddle_Core, being in the FGC scene is more than just competing. It’s a lifestyle for her, but it’s taken a lot to get there. She started competing in 2015 in small local tournaments, but she has since achieved 60 Top 8 placements across huge Tekken tourneys, including Evo, Combo Breaker, and Ultimate FightingArena.

Esports Insider spoke with Cuddle_Core about the changes she’s seen in the FGC throughout the past decade, from grassroots and gatekeeping to a mainstream esports scene. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad, but nothing seems to really bring her down. In fact, she’s only looking forward.

ESI: My colleague recently wrote about the sexism and creepiness at Combo Breaker 2026, which seems to still be a big issue for the FGC. Do you feel it’s still a bigger issue in the FGC than other mainstream esports scenes even after the “Me Too” movement a few years ago?

Cuddle_Core: Yes, still struggles. It does. Sometimes it feels that, because there is no full regulation in these spaces, you’re kind of just left to deal with a lot of it on your own and your support group. There’s no official way that things are dealt with, like creeps and sexist things at tournaments. It’s somewhat better in terms of security, but it sometimes still feels like you’re left to deal with it on your own or with your group.

ESI: Why do you think it’s still so prominent in the FGC?

Cuddle_Core: I’m not exactly sure why it’s a problem that’s continuing. I always thought that there should be more rules put in place – like a code of conduct. It should be a no-brainer, I thought… If you’re assaulted, people should be able to go to some entity that helps you handle that. Because it happens probably a lot. I know it happens a lot. If you’re at a convention or event, that should always exist, but it doesn’t. I’m not exactly sure why.

ESI: We previously talked about the old-school mentality that still runs deep in the FGC. Do you think that causes a bit of gatekeeping in the scene, especially towards women?

Cuddle_Core: Sexism exists in the space, it does. Some of those mentalities are old-school. It’s an echo chamber with their own group since they haven’t really been around other groups, including women.

It’s a bit better now, because of the way the world is. I’m very grateful for that. Some of the older views on things have molded how things are now, but they are being unlearned and pushed out… The mindset of the younger players coming in; they’re from a world that is more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming.

ESI: Have you experienced any sexism yourself? Is there anything that you’ve encountered that you think people wouldn’t really expect?

Cuddle_Core: I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about that. I could be talking about all of my accomplishments instead. I have dealt with things, though, of course, but I have spent so much time on interviews speaking on those things. I hope you understand.

ESI: No, I totally get that! It’s like shining a spotlight on what makes you different, what sets you apart in the FGC, rather than talking about what you have actually accomplished. It could be reducing you to these instances.

Cuddle_Core: I couldn’t control those things that happened. Regardless, I became one of the best players in the world. I created my own space. That’s what matters to me. I have the proof of it all. People said I wasn’t that good. I dealt with all of that. But I surround myself with people who know my worth and value. I was protected, I was safe. That’s what keeps me going. That’s what matters to me.

ESI: And honestly, that’s the message people should be getting instead. Like hey, you shouldn’t care about these random weirdos. You should focus on yourself, your goals, and the people who truly have your back, who support your goals. Who cares about these freaks?

Cuddle_Core: It’s important to stand up for what you believe in and to use your voice. But there’s a fine line between helping others and then protecting yourself mentally by taking on that weight for everybody else. Especially as a public figure representing a minority in esports.

ESI: There has been a lot of talk about the FGC scene changing, going from grassroots to mainstream. Do you feel this is a good change for the scene? Is this the growth it needs?

Cuddle_Core: Grassroots was great for what it was. I experienced a lot of grassroots events, and I loved them. But I do think that, for there to be more discoverability for fighting games and career building, there has to be a shift, a pivot, to actual esports.

We’re trying to create something long-term and more professional. In that sense, it’s necessary. It’s unfortunate it has to happen this way. There’s a conflict that happens [with this kind of change]: part of the scene wants grassroots, but some say they need the opportunities… It’s a huge struggle. It was inevitable.

It’s unfortunate, because grassroots needs to exist. Those events I love are gone. Tournament organizers had to drop out. They have real lives. There’s also money. Affordability.

There are now seven Evos. and it’s owned by a new company. Now it has money. But where’s the space for grassroots events when that happens? This change slightly removes locals, too, and that’s scary. A lot of people got in because of those grassroots events.

ESI: You said that it’s unfortunate how the change happened. What do you think is the issue with how the FGC is going about growing?

Cuddle_Core: It feels like not everybody’s on the same page. It becomes an ongoing, recycled conversation about “we want grassroots, but we need…” But that’s the thing. It’s moving this direction, so how do we preserve it? What are we going to do? This conversation has been had for years. What are we going to do?

I don’t want to keep having conversations over again, debating this. I want to come up with a solution. Let’s actually do it. I’ve already embraced it, but the change is here. What do we do now?

From what I understand, Evo is providing support to local events. That’s good. That’s good! It doesn’t have to be this bad thing. It’s helping.

ESI: I think one argument is that the passion, the grit of the grassroots FGC scene is in jeopardy. Some feel it’s disappearing. Do you feel that moving to mainstream harms the authenticity of the FGC?

Cuddle_Core: Some of the authenticity, in terms of locals, grassroots events… Some of that authenticity is in danger. I was coming up at a time when I saw a lot of grassroots events no longer exist… Common ones I’d see all the time.

But authenticity is still there. Grassroots events may not be there, but the spirit of fighting game lovers is still present. Locals still do exist. New tournaments still get created. It’s still there. But maneuvering this new landscape. The spirit of it is still there. The community is still there. It’s just being redirected.

ESI: I love that way of looking at it. Like yes, the grassroots events are gone, but the same community is here. The same passionate players are here. Speaking of that, there was some drama with Evo inviting content creators into the space who weren’t necessarily hardcore FGC players.

It was clearly to get views, and the FGC was upset when Ludwig brought up how he won’t stream Street Fighter since it doesn’t get views. Do you feel this was harmful to the space? Or did you think it was good to have these outside content creators there?

Cuddle_Core: I love it! I love that big streamers who aren’t necessarily in the space came to our event. I personally love that. They bring new eyes to it. Some of them have a love for fighting games, but they’re not deep into the fighting game space. Some aren’t into it at all, but they find out they love it once they attend the event.

It helps with discoverability for fighting games. It creates a wider audience for it. That’s important for the longevity of the space. I love it!

It’s been interesting because it creates opportunities for networking. Not just with the streamers. Just more people seeing it. They see the talent, who is behind it, the players… You network the entire space with a wider audience and more companies, beyond just fighting games. It creates long-term careers for people because there’s no blueprint for how to build a career here.

ESI: There are a lot of new fighting games coming out. Do you think this will be good for the FGC or spread the playerbase too thin?

Cuddle_Core: New titles coming out every so often is good. If they want to play it, they’ll play it. There’s a fighting game for everybody. You don’t have to limit yourself to the top three 3D fighters… You know it’s a problem if there are only two existing overall. That’s it!?

And the games coming out, they look great. I think it’s good. I hope that they are around for a long time. Fighting games that come in, sometimes they don’t live up to the hype with the community and die quickly. But I want longevity with new titles – not just iconic three – so fighting games can continue.

ESI: With all these new games, do you see Tekken still having a space in the FGC? What makes it stand out?

Cuddle_Core: Tekken still has its place because of the fanbase. It’s the fanbase. They are so dedicated. Tekken is one of those games where it’s hard, the barrier to entry is high… You commit all that time – that’s a marriage! People are locked into Tekken. They are not gonna give that up, no matter how much they hate it.

And the new players that exist, they continue to love it. They create their own legacy. So, there are the older fans who still will support it, even if it’s not their favorite Tekken. And newer gen… It’s still standing up.

ESI: Tekken has seen fewer registrations at the last few majors, and there has been controversy with the recent updates. Do you think Tekken is in a good place right now?

Cuddle_Core: Tekken is in a very good place right now. Okay, in all transparency, Season 1 had a lot of aggressive changes. But I play any Tekken. I love it, I love it. I maneuver through anything. I love problem-solving. But it had a lot that needed to be worked through.

Season 2, they started balancing parts of it, but it was bloated. I still competed in it, but it still needed some work. Season 3, after the fans had been like, “Hey, no, you need to change this.” There was a lot of backlash. As there should have been. They added a bit too much. But for Season 3, they took the advice to heart, adjusted much of it, and a couple of patches have already been released…

People are a lot more satisfied. Not fully. But a lot more satisfied. We feel it as we play it. It’s in a good place. I love it.

ESI: What are your goals with Tekken right now?

Cuddle_Core: Continue to be a super consistent pro player. Continue to push past the goals I’ve had in the past. Continue to get Top 8 placements. Medals and trophies, continue to get them. I want even more. I have mental goals with competing as well. That’s a huge part of the game.

And I want to pour into my crafts – content creation, hosting, collaborating, sharing my love of fighting games. Feeding all those parts of my brand because they’re all me. That’s what I’ve been focusing on. That’s what I want.

ESI: That’s amazing that you were able to find other avenues in the FGC space. I feel there’s a lot of struggle in the FGC due to the lack of money, and it’s hard to make a full-time career out of it. But you did it.

Cuddle_Core: There is a struggle building a career in the fighting game space. I noticed that early on, when I first got signed to Equinox. I realized, when I worked with them, I had a lot of opportunities to do different things, not just focus on playing.

Playing is not enough. I love playing, but how can I diversify my brand? I can be a phenomenal player, but what else?

I became really good at commentating, public speaking, coaching… Letting those parts of my personality out. Showing those parts. You only get a certain part of me when I’m on the stage. You’ll see the fire, mm, the passion. But that’s not the only thing I want to be shown. I want that to exist outside of playing.

I’ve documented everything I’ve achieved – every part of it – on social media. I’ve built it up for eight years. Over time, I kept getting opportunities. I couldn’t rely on this space to do it for me. They have their own narrative about women, black women… I just want to create my own story of who I am and what this is. I’m a professional. Why wouldn’t you want to work with me? I built that narrative for myself.

You can’t expect the space to do that, to build me up, to hype you up. That’s how I learned as a businesswoman. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t pigeonhole yourself to one skill, one space.

ESI: It’s great to hear you talk about public speaking and other life-long skills you got from esports, since so many people are quick to dismiss it as not a real career, nothing more than a casual hobby.

Cuddle_Core: Yes, exactly. You get a lot of long-term skills. We were talking about grassroots earlier, and, as great as it was, I wanted more professionalism. I appreciate grassroots for what it is and support grassroots, but as a professional, I wanted to pivot my career towards esports. I wanted a career that sustained me.

ESI: Esports World Cup has been a bit of a controversial topic in the FGC. More titles are heading there and there are big prizes at stake. How do you feel about that being a new part of the scene?

Cuddle_Core: I never competed at EWC. But if I did, if the opportunity presented itself, I don’t know. I don’t know what that looks like. As a competitor, I would compete. I’m doing it for me. But I don’t know if that’s simple. I don’t have a full answer for you.

ESI: Yeah, it’s tough. Like, where do you draw the line? Because Evo is owned by a Saudi Arabian company, too. Where can you compete?

What do you have to say about your career, your goals, and anything else that’s on your mind after discussing the state of the FGC?

Cuddle_Core: My biggest advice to anybody trying to build a career in gaming, specifically a niche category like fighting games: Don’t wait for the validation of others. Know your self-worth. It’s what you think about yourself.

It’s not about the last win or loss you had. Those don’t define you. If you can respect yourself outside the game, I really think it carries you very far as a professional and as a person. Playing is great, but it’s not just about playing. It’s how you speak, carry yourself, treat others, and pour your passions into other things.

It makes you a well-rounded individual, and you’ll be surprised by the doors that open for you when you exist beyond the realm of being on stage.

This week, as ever, there were more developments in the legal battles against prediction markets. But data released from Riot Games and GRID suggest they are fighting a losing battle. Fans want to predict the outcome of events and will undoubtedly find a way to do just that. 

More than 1.7 million players engaged with Crystal Ball and Pick ‘Ems during the recent MSI, according to data released by GRID and Riot. 

The tournament marked the first time Riot used GRID’s official live esports data to power Crystal Ball. 

“At Riot, esports fans have always been at the center of what we do,” said Doug Watson, Head of Business Strategy for Global Esports at Riot Games in a press release. 

“Crystal Ball is a great example of what’s possible when you listen to the community and apply official data where fans are already engaged. The same data that has been used across integrity, broadcast innovation, and more, is now enhancing the experience for LoL fans in real time.”

Engagement with Crystal Ball demonstrates how predicting event outcomes can keep fans interested. 

“I spend way more time invested in the tournament than usual because of Crystal Ball,” wrote one Reddit user. “I’m watching every single match, tracking stats, hoping my picks are right, competing with my friends and trying to win the jackpot — every single ultimate skin in the game. It makes every game matter to me even when my favorite team is already out.”

The same can apply to using prediction markets or gambling sites. The rise in popularity of platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket has given fans more ways to have “skin in the game.”

GRID also partnered with Polymarket last month. On the deal, Ari Borod, President of Sports Business Development at Polymarket, stated: “Esports moves fast, and so should the markets built on it. GRID gives our users official data with lower latency and access to live streams in real time, all in one place. It’s a better, differentiated experience for traders and a bigger opportunity for the sport.” 

Kalshi has also ramped up its esports offerings, which are attracting growing trading volumes. Data from June showed CS2 dominates the markets, followed by League of Legends. 

Fans are showing they want to predict events, be that through Crystal Ball, wagering on prediction markets, or betting at sportsbooks. 

However, depending on the state you reside in, your opportunities to do so vary widely. Prediction markets had opened up nationwide, but the free market could be short-lived. It’s moving towards this rapidly.

Washington state appears poised to follow Nevada and Michigan in successfully banning Kalshi. The state issued a preliminary injunction against the company on Monday and could enforce a ban as soon as next month. Washington does not offer legal online esports betting, except if you are physically at one of the state’s licensed casinos. 

Esports betting is targeted for a wide range of reasons, but sometimes it comes down to a misunderstanding of gaming and its components by the older generation.

The argument against prediction markets is that they encourage younger users to effectively gamble. Most states set the legal gambling age at 21, but prediction markets allow 18-year-olds to “trade.”

Loot boxes in games have also been accused of sending gamers down the slippery path to becoming gambling addicts. 

A study released in Canada this week showed that users who purchase the random rewards are more likely to have all sorts of problems, including gambling addictions, mental health problems, and other compulsive behaviors. 

CS2’s new sticker system could shake up the loot box industry, which has been a huge money spinner. 

Fighting against the spread of online gambling in esports, LoL legend Faker announced that he was becoming an honorary member of the Korean police. 

The six-time world champion said he “will actively take part in ambassador activities, including widely publicizing to teenagers the dangers of online gambling.”

Gambling is heavily restricted in Korea, but estimates show the black market is worth over $80 billion. With esports immensely popular, the segment could be a large contributor to that figure. Police have shut down gaming cafes that offered teenagers the chance to bet on esports and other events. 

The police are hopeful that Faker’s presence will help clamp down on the illegal industry and “give courage to teenagers in need to report” anyone engaging in the activity “without hesitation”. 

Police said the fight against online gambling is “continuous,” as states in the US battling prediction markets can empathize with that.

The LEC returns today with the 2026 Summer Split getting underway in Paris, France. There will be a nine-week run between now and the finals in September, and from there, we’ll see which three European teams head to the League of Legends World Championships.

This week, we’re introducing something a bit different editorially. Inspired by years of reading Chris Sutton’s dubious Premier League predictions, I handed the opening-weekend LEC fixtures and an odds snapshot to three leading AI models — Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini — and asked each to build a $10 accumulator using the match odds presented (yes, the em dashes are for irony).

Given I can’t tell my Baron Nashor from a Dragon, I enlisted Craig Robinson, who’s a passionate League of Legends fan to represent humanity. So it’s like humans versus robots, which has fast become one of the internet’s favorite pastimes.

The hope and dreams of all humankind rest on the broad shoulders of one chap from somewhere North of Birmingham (UK).

The prompt I gave all three chatbots was identical: “I am giving you a fictional $10 to place a bet on this weekend’s LEC games. You can build an accumulator, or pick an outright. You can determine your risk profile. You will be competing against a human, plus two other AI chat bots.”

We’ll be running this each week, and keeping track of the score, so we can finally deliver the true verdict on whether or not artificial intelligence is taking over the world as we know it.

I have included the exact wording provided by each chat bot in response. Nothing has been edited, nor any potential hallucinations checked and corrected.

Speaking of hallucinations, it looks as if Craig is the one living in la-la-land. That, or the risk profile of a human is significantly higher than that of artificial intelligence. He’s opted for a five-fold at nearly 19/1, with ChatGPT the most conservative, picking a smaller bet at just over evens. In the first week of our experiment, both Claude and Gemini share a similar risk appetite.

Here’s my play for the weekend — a 4-leg accumulator, $10 stake, leaning on G2 and Karmine Corp as the two teams in the best form heading into Summer Split. Combined odds: 5.36 → $10 returns $53.60 (≈$43.60 profit) if all four land.

Why this shape:

G2 enter Summer Split as the team to beat — they won both LEC Versus and the Spring Split this year and are chasing a European grand slam, so backing them straight-up in both their Paris weekend matches (even against a Vitality side with home-crowd energy) is the low-variance core of the acca.

Karmine Corp had the stronger head-to-head record coming out of Spring and were the team that actually took a game off G2 in the Versus final — I like them to beat Vitality outright, and I’ve stretched a bit further by taking them -1.5 against Movistar KOI (i.e., backing a clean 2-0) rather than just the moneyline, since that’s where the real value sits (13/8 vs 4/9 just for the win).

I left out the Sunday matches (KOI–Vitality, G2–Karmine) since those two teams will already have played twice by then and form could flip — no point overloading the acca with legs I can’t currently price with confidence.

This is a moderate-risk build: three fairly comfortable favorites plus one slightly bolder handicap leg for a payout that’s actually worth chasing rather than just doubling my stake.

My $10 bet: G2 Esports to win all three matches

Combined odds: roughly 1.29/1
Potential return: approximately $22.87, including the $10 stake.

This is a medium-risk accumulator rather than chasing a wild handicap. G2 won the 2026 Spring title, beating Movistar KOI 3–2 and Karmine Corp 3–2 during the playoffs, before subsequently sweeping KC 3–0 in the EWC qualifier. Vitality are the weakest leg on paper after losing both of their Spring playoff series 3–0, while G2 enter this four-team Summer opener as the most dependable side across a full best-of-three.

The danger: KOI pushed G2 all the way to five games in Spring, so Friday is probably the leg most likely to ruin my weekend before it has properly begun.

To beat the competition, this 3-leg accumulator uses a moderate-high risk profile aimed at maximizing value over plain moneyline picks. Taking straight wins on heavy favorites like G2 and Karmine Corp against Team Vitality yields minimal returns. Instead, backing both top teams to complete clean 2-0 sweeps (-1.5 handicap) against an underperforming Vitality roster elevates the odds substantially while remaining logically sound based on form.

The final leg capitalizes on Sunday’s headline matchup between G2 Esports and Karmine Corp. Because these two teams stand as the premier contenders in the region, a one-sided 2-0 sweep is far less probable. Betting on Over 2.5 Total Maps expects a tight, competitive series that goes the distance, combining all three picks into a $68.76 potential payout off a $10 stake.

This looks much closer than the odds suggest. G2 arrive with genuine MSI momentum — they knocked out Top Esports and handed T1 their lowest international finish in history — but their Esports World Cup return under a new head coach fell well short of expectations. There’s been internal friction around their Masterminds strategist, who remains benched. G2 have also historically been messier in regular-split play than in international brackets, which makes the 2/5 price on them there feel like it’s vastly overselling current momentum.

MKOI had their own rough EWC, bombing out on bad meta reads, but they’ve beaten G2 in the regular split in every split so far this year. If Jojo hits form alongside Álvaro and Elyoya against a G2 side that looks shakier than the results suggest, I think there’s decent value in the underdog.

KC are heavy favorites at 1/4, and it’s hard to argue otherwise despite being a Vitality believer generally. This exact fixture opened last year’s split, too, and it was the only regular-split loss Vitality suffered all year. This time round, Vitality have also swapped in a new, untested midlaner, adding uncertainty to how the roster performs as a unit. The rest of the core is solid but prone to lapses.

KC, despite flunking at MSI, just finished runners-up at EWC in Paris, beating international opposition on home soil. They’re back on home turf again for the KC Roadshow and with their raucous fans behind them, the pressure sits with Vitality here.

This will be a pricey favourite, but a fair one. After the friction between these two in Madrid last split, it’s a genuinely spicy fixture. KC have home advantage again and showed at EWC they don’t rattle under hostile crowds. It was MKOI, in fact, who lost that Madrid rivalry match. With KC looking the sharper side in form right now and unbothered by pressure at home, they should take this series.

A tentative lean rather than a strong conviction pick, but it’ll pad the accumulator out nicely. I’d have this closer to 1-1 in a vacuum, and we’ll know more about Vitality’s new-look roster by the third day of action. History favors MKOI here regardless: they beat Vitality in both the playoffs and the EWC qualifier last time out. However, MKOI have also historically thrown away games against Vitality in the Spring regular split, so it’s not a lock. It’s worth watching whether Kaan “Naak Nako” Okan can repeat the kind of top-lane dominance over Myrwin seen in the EWC qualifier. KOI have ridden his pigtails to wins before, even in scrappy games.

This one hinges on how much stock you put in home crowd pressure versus G2’s current instability. G2 have form beating KC on home turf before. They reverse-swept KC in their last final meeting, and tend to perform well at LAN events generally, pressure or no pressure. But KC currently looks the more convincing side given G2’s off-stage disruption, and by the third day of the weekend, both teams should have properly found their rhythm.

I think KC clutches this out for a clean sweep of the weekend, though a 2-1 series wouldn’t be a surprise. For anyone wanting to reduce the overall risk, backing Over 2.5 total maps at 10/11 captures the likely competitiveness of the series without throwing your hat in the win market. I’m brave, though.

Sticking these all together provides a spicy accumulator at around 19/1.

To be updated after the weekend’s results.

Integrity in esports remains a hot topic of conversation among fans and industry stakeholders looking to ensure the world’s biggest events are contested on a level playing field. The world’s best teams frequently compete on stages surrounded by supporters cheering on their favorite players.

Despite the use of noise-canceling headsets and in-ear monitors to prevent players from hearing crowd noise, there have been several instances of fans alerting them to specific in-game actions that often determine the outcome of a round.

The solution? The return of the soundproof booths.

The topic of the crowd giving away specific plays during high-stakes matches reared its head at the 2026 Call of Duty League (CDL) Championship, where cheers alerted OpTic Texas to a potential FaZe Vegas bomb defuse in the Grand Final.

In a bid to emerge victorious, Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro said “the crowd will let us know” when the opposition was making a play.

Reliance on the OpTic-favoring crowd backfired, as Jordan “Abuzah” François used the crowd to his advantage, resulting in FaZe Vegas winning its first Champs trophy in five years.

With both teams using the crowd to varying degrees of success, audience behavior has prompted calls for the return of soundproof booths. Throughout the 2014 and 2015 Call of Duty esports seasons, player booths were a mainstay at high-profile tournaments and had the desired effect of preventing outside interference from affecting gameplay. 

It’s not just Call of Duty that has to deal with the crowd potentially ruining moments of matches that can swing in favor of one team or the other. For several years, Counter-Strike has tried to deal with fan actions, such as giving away opponents obscured by a smoke grenade or players hoping to use an off-angle to gain the upper hand.

2025’s FISSURE Playground 2 clash between FURIA and Team Falcons demonstrated the power of the crowd when rifler Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski found himself blocked off by a smoke. Thanks to Counter-Strike 2’s X-ray spectator feature, the crowd cheered when his crosshair moved over the position of an opponent. Even when the tournament organizer switched X-ray off, Kyxsan’s mouse movement still triggered a reaction to confirm the location of the incoming attackers.

Tournament organizers spend large sums to ensure that all tournament PCs are identical, the infrastructure is stable, and the rulebook is meticulously followed. Despite this, they do very little to control the behavior of 15,000 fans who are emotionally invested in the players competing on stage.   

Crowd behavior of this nature has no place in esports. Even when features designed to enhance the viewing experience are disabled to protect integrity, a few bad actors are enough to throw tournament integrity out the window.

Esports often focuses on introducing innovations aimed at enhancing the viewer experience rather than addressing issues that have plagued events over the last decade. The soundproof booths of yesteryear are no longer used in high-profile tournaments, but it’s now time to reuse a tried-and-tested method for blocking out the noise and preventing the crowd from influencing the outcome of rounds and matches.

The first title to fully embrace the concept was Dota 2. The MOBA has used booths for its tentpole tournament since the very first edition in 2011. Early versions resulted in a lack of ventilation for tournament PCs, leading to the implementation of air conditioning and multiple layers of glass. By TI5, booths ended up costing over $200,000, demonstrating Valve’s commitment to preventing outside interference.

Bringing back the booths doesn’t mean the return of ugly acrylic boxes plonked on the center of the stage. Over the past 10 years, technology has evolved significantly and offers organizers a chance to introduce booths with engineered acoustics and anti-reflective glass, providing players with conditions where outside distractions cannot impact gameplay.

For the CDL, the crowd interference during the Champs Grand Final couldn’t have come at a better time. With the league now in its off-season in preparation for the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, there’s ample time to prepare methods that stop the audience from giving away sneaky defuses or the location of opponents.

Whether it’s more vigilant crowd management or the return of the booths, integrity must be paramount as players compete for life-changing prize money.

Regarding Counter-Strike’s crowd problem, the tournament organizers have the final say on what’s required to prevent audience members from influencing player actions. The second half of 2026 is already in full swing, and with teams looking to secure qualification for the Singapore Major, integrity must be a top priority to avoid potential controversy with huge ramifications.

Team Vitality Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) player Vivi “Vivian” Indrawaty changed her life and her family’s by banking on her esports career. The Indonesian athlete comes from a rural household, where she struggled with insecurity and fear of judgment about her living situation throughout her childhood.

Vivian’s incredible MLBB success, however, allowed the player to buy a home for her mother.

Today, Vivian is one of the most decorated women in esports history, known as the “Mother of Tanks” among MLBB esports fans. Alongside her teammates at Team Vitality, she most recently defended the MLBB Women’s International (MWI) crown at the 2026 Esports World Cup.  

This marks the 27-year-old’s second back-to-back MWI trophy (2022-2023 and 2025-2026). Meanwhile, the 2026 edition became the most-watched MWI event to date with 565,483 peak viewers, according to esports viewership platform Esports Charts.

Vivian recently spoke to Esports Insider about her esports journey, her transition from Jungler to Roamer, and women’s esports.

ESI: Could you tell me a bit about your role and your journey to get there?

Vivian: I didn’t start off as a Roamer. I started playing as a Jungler, actually, like a damage dealer. But, eventually, as time [went by], I realized that I couldn’t fully execute that role properly. Then, after that, I transitioned to Roamer. And I realized that, [as] a Roamer, I know what the damage dealers want. 

From previously being a damage dealer and now focusing on the Roamer side, the first thing I did was expand my hero pool as a Roamer. Then, I executed my job by covering for the teammates or initiating for the team, and providing the team with as much information as I could as a Roamer.

ESI: What does a normal training day look like for you now, versus five years ago?

Vivian: Five years ago, training was mainly about gaining experience. We did not have the same resources, and I sometimes had to borrow a device just to practice. Most of the learning came from playing as much as possible and figuring things out on my own. 

We have a gaming house, good facilities, and reliable devices, so I can fully focus on training. Having a coach has also made a huge difference because I now receive clear guidance on what to work on and where I need to improve.

ESI: Given all your combined experience and accomplishments, do you still feel the nerves or the pressure of competing in a championship grand final?

Vivian: No, I didn’t feel nervous when stepping on the stage. But instead, I [had] a lot of thoughts on my mind about what I’ve achieved so far. Have I fulfilled my duties as a Roamer? Is there anything to take note of [when] stepping into the grand finals? That’s all.

ESI: You have won 34 regional and international titles throughout your competitive career so far. That is more than most male players in the scene. Do you think the industry still needs the label “women’s esports,” or are we past that?

Vivian: If you look at traditional sports, men’s and women’s categories each have an important place, and I believe the same is true in esports. The teams can have different communication styles, dynamics, and experiences. 

As the only all-women’s tournament at the Esports World Cup, MWI gives female athletes a vital global stage to compete, gain recognition, and inspire others. That visibility is essential to creating more opportunities and strengthening the women’s competitive scene.

ESI: You walked away from a stable graphics engineering career to go all-in on esports when women barely got a look in. If a young woman came to you today with that same choice, what would you tell her?

Vivian: I would tell her that if this is truly her dream, she should not let negative voices or discouragement stop her — but going all-in also means being fully committed. 

Start by competing in smaller community tournaments. They will give you valuable exposure, help you understand where you need to improve, and build the mental strength required to compete at a higher level. The journey will not always be easy, especially when people doubt you, but do not give up when things get difficult.

Keep believing in yourself, keep learning, and keep fighting for your dream.

ESI: Two years ago, you became the first MLBB women’s athlete to be showcased at The Sphere in Las Vegas, alongside former AP.Bren player David “FlapTzy” Canon. How did that feel?

Vivian: I was incredibly happy and surprised because I never expected to see myself on the Sphere. It was a real “wow” moment and honestly mind-blowing. 

Personally, it proved to me that all the hard work and struggles throughout my journey were worth it. I started as an ordinary person who simply loved playing MLBB, and I never imagined that one day my face would appear on such a global stage.

ESI: You’ve previously mentioned the shame your mother had. What would she say if she saw you compete today?

Vivian: She would probably say, “That’s my daughter — she’s amazing!”

ESI: What do you think it will take for the next Indonesian esports icon to emerge?

Vivian: It will take someone who can beat me. That’s when we’ll know the next global esports icon has arrived!

The Esports World Cup‘s third edition landed in Paris this year, following a last-minute relocation due to geopolitical tensions. The Esports Foundation faced an unenviable task: moving 25 tournaments, thousands of competitors, and all the infrastructure behind them to a new country and city in a matter of weeks. The tournament itself does not present as if it were cobbled together in such a short space of time, but behind the scenes, there’s undoubtedly been a lot of work to make it happen.

Esports Insider sat down with Hans Jagnow, Director of Club, National Team & Player Relations at the Esports Foundation, to talk through the relocation, why heads of state and A-list celebrities are now actively seeking (rather than running away) from esports and gaming, how the Club Championship is attempting to reshape fandom, and whether a competition built around club investment and partnership risks quashing the dreams of the bedroom-project clubs esports grew up with.

Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ESI: The Esports World Cup is still a fairly new event, and this year, there was a last-minute change of location due to a geopolitical situation. How much stress did that cause you?

Hans Jagnow (Esports Foundation): The most obvious factor here is that we had only a couple of weeks to transport and transfer an operation that involves thousands of people to a new city, a new country, and a new continent. Relocating this massive piece of the summer of esports to Paris was something I can only applaud the entire team for actually pulling off. That is something to recognize first and foremost.

Other than that, we are pretty happy that a lot of the concepts, a lot of the things that we’ve built over the last two years were transferable, and that is due to, number one, the trust that we had from our host country in Saudi Arabia. And then also the trust of this year’s host, which is the stakeholders here in Paris and the stakeholders in France that are equally excited about esports. I think that element of trust and excitement helped us build what we are building here and what we have successfully built over the last couple of weeks, to really deliver the biggest Esports World Cup we’ve ever had.

ESI: To put on an event of this magnitude, you’re engaging with governments and people at the very top, at the state level. Did you find any hurdles with this? How are those discussions going?

Jagnow: Yeah, first of all, what I think changed over the last 10-20 years is coming from an industry and a scene that needed to justify itself at all points of its existence. I come from a generation that had to answer numerous questions around gaming from my own parents — “Can’t you go out?” Right?

Interestingly enough, that leads up to where we are now. They’re now trying to understand why we’re talking to heads of state, why we’re talking to governments all over the world, and why we’re piquing the interest of mainstream audiences. That is the significant and fundamental change: a generation that grew up with esports is now in leadership positions and part of the decision-making. These are positions that actually help establish esports as a normal part of society, and I feel that is changing the entire narrative, with political leaders and celebrities actively wanting to be around us. In contrast, many in the older generation came from a place where they actively sought distance.

Now they want to be near; it’s part of their lifestyle, it’s part of their interest, it’s part of their excitement, and you see this with a couple of political stakeholders. If you look at Macron, who on his election day turned up at the beach in an esports hoodie with his wife, no one would have ever thought that would be possible. It’s such a small gesture that has such a big impact. This is an important part of what the world’s leaders are doing every day.

ESI: Something I’ve noticed with the Esports World Cup is the number of global ambassadors it boasts, Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, and the number of celebrities that come through in things like the Amazon Prime documentary. Part of that feels like it’s still about seeking legitimacy from a wider audience. 

What role do you see the Esports Foundation playing in fandom, and how does fandom work between clubs, publishers, and everyone else involved?

Jagnow: It’s a core part of our strategy to address fans from different backgrounds with the right channels and the right people, and spark the excitement. When we’re talking about clubs, they’re the beating heart of our ecosystem. This is where the core fans of esports actually resonate. They follow the players, they follow the clubs, they want to see the clubs succeed, and they want to learn more about every single step of the player and what they do every day.

We have this amazing club program that we’ve been running since 2023/2024, since the first edition of EWC, and have now expanded over the years. 40 clubs are our partners, with an investment of $20 million per year — a stipend to support not competitiveness, but sustainable marketing models beyond just prize money.

What we’re doing is working with our partners to reach the 300 million fans they collectively reach across the world, and, with the global population, we see markets like India or Indonesia as massive — a massive number of esports fans, massive viewership too. They’re all excited about the next stories that come out. That’s one part of the puzzle, and it’s a very significant part if you look at the 300 million fans compared to the 750 million viewers that the Esports World Cup had last year.

Then, looking at the ambassadors, we see that they connect and bridge different audiences around the world to expand the reach of esports today. These ambassadors and guests — the people who have access and whom we collaborate with around the Esports World Cup — always have a certain connection to gaming.

If we look at 2024, we talked about Neymar and his passion for Counter-Strike. Last year, it was Lando Norris, talking about how gaming is part of his routine and competitive preparation — part of the lifestyle. People are talking about needing to go to practice but wanting to finish their Call of Duty game first. All of this authentically reaches an audience already close to gaming culture. From the 3 billion gamers worldwide, some discover esports as a specific form of competition and entertainment within gaming.

ESI: In the Club Championship, Team Falcons have won twice in a row, and when I spoke to Nico Maurer of Vitality, he said it would take a monumental upset for them not to win it, given the investment they have and continue to make. Is that a design flaw? How do you see that leveling out, given that certain clubs — sending over one, maybe two rosters — are never going to compete at that level?

Jagnow: What makes the Esports World Cup so special is the idea of not only looking at one ecosystem, but bringing together these different games and proving that a really good esports club — the best esports club in the world — needs to deliver consistently. I think that’s the answer to the question as I understood it.

Firstly, over the last few years, we’ve seen Falcons twice in a row prove they’re able to produce high-quality output from their rosters consistently. They have something overarching across all their different games that allows them to consistently place top 8 or higher, which is the requirement even to collect Club Championship points.

Secondly, we also saw that Falcons last year had a really hard time fulfilling the second criterion — winning at least one game. Only then are you eligible for the Club Championship trophy. So it’s not only about the points, but it’s also about whether you’re a winner. They had this amazing run from a team that qualified through the last-chance qualifier, went all the way to first place, and not only secured their win in Overwatch but also secured the Falcons trophy.

This year, we have a very exciting race in front of us. We’re already two tournaments in [at the time of interview], and across the 25 different tournaments, Team Vitality is currently in the lead. They’ve secured two top-8 placements over the last couple of days, which makes them eligible for the Club Championship and puts them highest in points right now — I think 400 points, if I’m not mistaken — and obviously, the door is now wide open for whatever the next 23 tournaments will bring, in terms of both points and wins.

That said, in terms of qualified rosters, there are strong contenders across the board. Team Falcons have around 20 qualified rosters so far, with a few more chances to qualify. Team Vitality has around 17, All Gamers has 16. It’s quite an exciting race. Last year, Team Liquid collected 3,000 points alone through three wins in chess, MLBB, and EAFC. Winning those titles really boosts where you stand on the leaderboard; it gives you a unique 1,000-point swing that sets you apart from your competitors.

So winning the Club Championship comes down to the same thing for every competitor each year: you need a good performance across all the games you’re competing in. Winning individual games earns a significant number of points and also counts toward meeting the criteria for first place in the Club Championship overall.

ESI: Do you think esports fans care about clubs more broadly, or are they more focused on individual games? Are you seeing crossover and cross-pollination of fans between games — the kind you wouldn’t get without a tournament of this magnitude?

Jagnow: Firstly, I think with every new concept you introduce — and the Club Championship was a really ambitious concept — it takes time. It’s rooted in the ambition to bring 25 different tournaments, 24 games, into the same place in the same competitive format. We’re in our third year — time flies, sometimes it feels like we’ve been here for 10 or 20 years, but this is only the third Esports World Cup. Fans take time to develop an understanding of something that, at the beginning, was outside their comfort zone. They look at individual games and focus on the players in that specific ecosystem, based on what they play, what they know, and what they prefer.

Over the last few years, the Club Championship has helped professional clubs bind their fans much more closely to their brand by giving them a narrative that crosses all the different games. Suddenly, you’re not only looking at the Counter-Strike Majors, but you’re also looking at MLBB, because it influences how your favorite brand develops over the year. The Esports World Cup is the highlight of that development each year.

So what I see in social media, in comments, and what we’re also actively developing with our club partners, is that a lot of fans understand the storylines, understand the ambition, and understand the impact on sustainability that the Club Championship has for these clubs — and what opportunities open up once you’ve achieved a good placement on the leaderboard. To make it short, I think what we’ve incentivized is more fandom for the clubs, more storytelling throughout the year, and ultimately more opportunities to be involved in esports across different games.

Last but not least, the games themselves also profit from that. They see organizations moving into their ecosystems wanting to build something stable and sustainable — especially if they identify really good players they can work with, bring their philosophy to, and build good competitive results with. That becomes a long-term partnership that lets them compete well in the Club Championship, and that has real value to them.

ESI: Do you get any pressure from clubs to look at working with other games or publishers? You’ve got an array of titles from Fatal Fury to EA FC, but there are plenty of other games out there. Do clubs have a say in expanding the game ecosystem, and is 24 a hard cap on the number of games?

Jagnow: I don’t think we have one number in mind. It always needs to work across many different criteria, but I am very comfortable with the number of tournaments we have right now. It’s a good seven-week timeline — eight if you count the pre-weeks, wild card tournaments, and the two-week tournaments. What I think is much more important is the mix of games. What we want, in the end, is the best games, the best players, the best clubs — that’s our ambition. I feel very comfortable around 25 tournaments; I think that’s also a shared feeling, that this is very manageable and provides maximum value to our viewers, to the fans, and to everyone who follows esports.

What’s important is having the right diversity across game genres and the ecosystems that support them. As our Chief Games Officer, Fabian, puts it, we always look at this from three angles: first, what’s the overall recognition and viewership; second, what are the audience and fans like; and third, is there an existing ecosystem that ensures this happens year-round and makes it sustainable and exciting for fans. That’s how we decide which games are selected.

You saw only limited movement this year — two new games, TrackMania and Fortnite. They’re very different games, appealing to audiences very different from those of the others. What we want is a well-balanced mix that represents esports in the best way possible, as an entire community and industry.

ESI: Many teams are founded from a passion project in someone’s bedroom. Does the Club Championship, through its sheer size and the partnership scheme, risk quashing the dreams of these clubs? Could it cause more damage to the ecosystem than benefit? Is there a risk that certain teams become “whales” and create a massive imbalance?

Jagnow: We value openness a lot — openness in our ecosystem, openness in how you can qualify and participate across the different games, both for players and through the number of last-chance qualifiers we’re hosting across titles. There are thousands of players who can travel to EWC and just participate, and if they’re good enough, they make their way to the main tournament, the main stage, the main weeks. That’s very much how we look at many of the things we build within the EWC ecosystem.

We take the same approach with clubs. If you look at the club partner program, you’ll see there are all-time stars — the top 8 in the Club Championship get an automatic invite to next year’s partner program. Then we have several clubs we work with continuously because they’ve been such good partners, and some clubs we add or rotate over the years to address things we see as beneficial for the global development of esports.

Whether that’s regions we’re focusing on or the creativity an individual club brings. We have clubs you wouldn’t consider the biggest in the world, but that we still consider the best in specific areas. Even smaller clubs get a chance to build familiarity with the different ecosystems within EWC, and then build their competitiveness from there to participate in EWC. So we help with growth and development.

That’s an important part of what we do. The Club Championship is open to everyone. We see a lot of diversity in backgrounds — single-title clubs that are very good but don’t participate in the Club Championship, yet still win EWC and individual-game tournaments in some cases. We have very small, focused clubs that concentrate on two or three ecosystems and perform very well, putting them in the top 24 of the Club Championship and giving them additional funding through that prize money.

Then we have clubs dedicated to investing and growing over time. I’ll give you a few examples that I always see as good reference points for a strong strategy: Team Falcons, All Gamers, and Team Vitality are all similar in that they started by focusing on one region — Falcons in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, All Gamers in China, Vitality in France — but have since expanded internationally.

Falcons now field rosters from all over the world. All Gamers have been expanding outside China over the last two years to bring competitive excellence from around the world. Vitality invested heavily last year in Southeast Asia with the acquisition of Bigetron, upgrading its mobile gaming approach and reaching that region’s player and fan base.

That also teaches other up-and-coming clubs to build a local fan base and expand from there, because esports is global. I think that’s so integrated into the character and philosophy of esports — we are a global sport, and to be successful, you need to be global, cross borders, and seek competitive excellence all across the world.

Esports Insider’s travel and accommodation for the Esports World Cup in Paris were covered by the Esports Foundation. The organization had no editorial input into this piece.

There’s a lot of buzz in the Counter-Strike community right now, and it has to do with Major stickers. Valve recently changed how Major sticker sales work at IEM Cologne 2026, ditching the capsule system we’ve used for decades in favor of a token shop where you just buy the sticker you want for a set price. 

At first, this new system might sound like a W for people who just don’t want to gamble on unboxings – maybe you just want to buy your favorite player’s autograph and move on with your day. However, behind the scenes, this change is hitting the team’s revenue hard – really hard – and if things don’t improve, it could have severe implications for the scene’s future. 

For over a decade, Major stickers have always worked through capsules. They’re just like your typical weapon cases, except they only contain stickers. So, a capsule would have a predetermined set of team stickers or player autographs, then you’d crack one open and hope to get one you’re looking for. 

Then, revenue from those sales was split with teams, and we’re talking serious money. For example, according to HLTV.org, the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023 broke records, with teams reportedly earning an average of $4.5 million each. Of course, other Majors don’t reach that kind of spectacle, but teams at the StarLadder Budapest Major in 2025 were at least reportedly getting around $600,000 from the revenue split, which is still some very decent dough. 

It’s also worth noting that this money was still paid out regardless of how well a team performed at the Major itself. You can show up to the Major, win zero maps, get eliminated in last place, and still earn some serious cash.

This sticker revenue has been a huge deal for the smaller orgs – mainly Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams. Qualifying for the Major was basically a guaranteed payday – and a really big one. If you’re a Tier 1 team, your priority is winning a trophy – qualifying for a Major is already a given. For these guys, the goal is to just make it there, and you have two shots per year to do it.

Once you’ve actually made it there, the sticker money alone could fund the roster for months. 

The recent IEM Cologne Major was the first time things changed. Valve tore the capsule system entirely. Capsules are no longer a thing, and fans now purchase tokens and spend them directly on the specific stickers they want. The prices of each sticker fluctuate dynamically based on demand.

Back then, if you wanted a golden Danil “donk” Kryshkovets sticker, you’d have to open capsules or buy it from the market. But now, you can just buy tokens, then cop this sticker outright – no capsules required, though popularity drives the price up. 

Valve has also tweaked how the revenue split works. Of the 50% of sticker revenue shared with teams, tournament organizers now keep 5%, while the rest is allocated based on two factors:

So, teams that exit the tournament in Stage 1 will earn less money than those that get eliminated in Stage 2 or Stage 3. Teams in the lower half of the VRS rankings also get less money, so Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs end up with the smallest slice. Meanwhile, the likes of Vitality, Falcons, and NAVI, among the richest esports orgs, take home the largest share. 

I mean, sure, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and getting more money for being better makes total sense. But this isn’t really about who “deserves” more money – it’s about who actually needs the money the most, and that’s the lower-tier squads. 

According to HLTV.org’s report, an organization sent packing in Stage 1 only made around $60,000. But, we can consider it $120,000 if we’re counting the matching share that went to the players under the new 50/50 split. I’ll give Valve the benefit of the doubt and use $120,000 for the rest of this article. 

So, for teams that barely make it through qualification and exit early, we’re seeing at least a 5x decrease compared to previous Majors. It’s even potentially up to 10x or more, depending on how the org agrees to divide the money between players and all that. 

So, why exactly did revenue fall off this hard? There are a few possible reasons why. 

For starters, since you no longer have to “gamble” to get the specific sticker you want, there’s pretty much no reason left to keep spending on random pulls. Again, if you wanted a golden donk sticker back then, you might have to open hundreds of them before finally getting it. 

Valve (and the teams) pretty much made money on every single one of those failed attempts. But take away the gambling, and you take away a decent chunk of that extra spend that came from people missing what they actually wanted. 

There’s also the investment angle. A bunch of players would buy a crap ton of sticker capsules, not to open them, but to sit on them. Valve no longer sells capsules through the in-game shop after the Major ends, so you can only get them through other players who still have them. So, stockpiling them has become a popular investment opportunity, as you could resell them later on once the supply has dried up. 

But now, we no longer have people holding hundreds of sticker capsules. You can multiply that by the thousands of people who had the same idea. You can imagine how much sticker revenue just vanished into thin air. 

People always say, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” So, Valve probably had a good reason to make this huge change, right? Valve hasn’t officially stated why they abolished the sticker capsules, but we can make a pretty solid guess. 

The company has been under serious fire over lawsuits tied to gambling, specifically targeting its loot boxes. Last year, Valve rolled out a new Terminal system – you open it (without needing a case key), it shows you a skin, and you can decide whether or not you want to buy it. There’s no direct gambling involved in opening a case anymore, which looks like a pretty clear sign that Valve was already trying to get ahead of these lawsuits.

Sticker capsules pretty much worked the same way as weapon cases, meaning they’d fall under the same loot box umbrella regulators have been targeting. So, this is probably the reason Valve ditched the sticker capsule concept and tried their hand at this new token system instead. 

As you can probably guess, teams aren’t happy with this change, particularly Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs. These teams don’t have the luxury of Tier 1 teams with what feels like 20 different sponsors, and they’re obviously finding it harder to stay profitable. 

One of the best examples is SINNERS. This Czech org has been chasing that Major dream for years. They’ve been around since 2020, and those years of grinding finally paid off when they qualified for their first-ever Major at IEM Cologne. Huge. They got eliminated in Stage 1, but just qualifying for the tournament should have already been a massive win regardless. 

Back then, teams were already getting massive payouts, so they thought it was finally their time to get theirs. But boom – if the $120,000 for exiting Stage 1 is consistent, that’s pretty much how much they got. Thanks for playing. 

Let’s take another example. There’s this Russian org called CYBERSHOKE that fields a Tier 3 Counter-Strike roster. Just like others in this tier, their main goal isn’t to lift trophies at S-tier events – they just want to qualify for the Major. Last year, the team’s owner, Erik “Shoke” Shokov, revealed he’d spent around $950,000 on the team over 2.5 years. 

Of course, these costs are allocated to different items, but to keep things simple, let’s just say he spends around $31,667 a month on the team. Every Major cycle is six months, so that’s roughly $190,000. 

So, if CYBERSHOKE were to make it to a Major (they still haven’t), with previous sticker revenue counts in mind, Shoke would at least make a good amount of his money back for those six months. But now, if orgs are reportedly only getting around $120,000 before the player split, the numbers look rough. 

Even with the huge cut in revenue, Majors are still going to pay more than every other S-tier event on the calendar – there’s no doubt about that. Qualifying for one is still a big deal since the org and its players have their logo and names immortalized in the game.

But that’s not really the main point. Until this year, Majors used to give life-changing money. It could make or break an org’s entire year, and players could be earning months (or even years’ worth) of salaries. Now, it’s just… good. It’s a nice bonus, but nothing too crazy. 

From another perspective, that sticker money wasn’t just about breaking even or making money. Some teams can use it as reinvestment fuel. Let’s say a team makes it to the Major – they get $600,000 or whatever. Maybe the org can use some of that money to upgrade their roster and buy better players for the next season. 

Who knows, they might finally get good enough to compete with the tier above them. They might be a serious contender in the future. A $120,000 payout just doesn’t do that.

Now, there’s a real danger. Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs would take on the risk of chasing a Major slot because there’s a clear reward. If you reach the Major, you’ll probably get paid back with more to spare. But now that the reward is gone, the math stops mathing.

Qualifying for a Major is still really hard – it’s not guaranteed. With how qualification works through VRS points, orgs would have to send teams to compete in LAN tournaments and fund bootcamps, which add even more costs to the tally. 

So, if the payout from making it to the Major isn’t worth all this risk anymore, why would an org even continue bankrolling a team? It just doesn’t make much sense from a business perspective. They’d be fully dependent on sponsorships and other revenue streams, and we know that most esports orgs in general are struggling to make money. 

I personally don’t know what the fix is, but I’m pretty sure Valve needs to do something about this. Gaimin Gladiators exited CS2 last month, attributing “recent changes to the Major ecosystem and revenue structure” as one of the main reasons. If nothing changes, we might see more follow suit. 

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a second: the era of esports organizations begging mainstream corporate giants for a lifeline is getting a little tired.

For years, the industry playbook was simple: throw money at non-endemic brands, slap a Mastercard, Coinbase, or Mercedes-Benz logo on a jersey, and pray that a casual crypto customer suddenly decides to buy a $90 team hoodie or watch a match at an upcoming tournament. Or, vice versa, events like Evo promoted Chipotle everywhere (even providing a bus to a local Chipotle) since it took no time to create meaningful ways to make money aside from begging for mainstream sponsors. Who can forget the cringe Chipotle bundle in 2XKO?

This stuff just feels hammered in, desperate, and – esports fans’ worst fear – inauthentic.

We’ve watched teams churn through bizarre pitch decks trying to persuade middle management at insurance conglomerates that teenagers watching VALORANT streams are desperate to buy auto policies or sign up for the U.S. Army.

Meanwhile, as major sponsors pivot their budgets away from individual team deals and toward centralized mega-tournaments, esports organizations are facing a quiet reality check: you cannot build a sustainable business model by pleasing people who don’t actually care about gaming.

Enter Karmine Corp.

Instead of chasing another lukewarm corporate partnership, the French powerhouse just did something radical: they built a full-fledged, physical trading card game called Blue Rising. And in doing so, KC just handed the rest of the industry a masterclass in how to monetize a fanbase without selling your soul.

If you’ve been around esports for a while, your first thought might be, “Wait, haven’t teams tried cards before?”

You’d be right! Years ago, Team Liquid handed out collectible trading cards to fans at LCS events. It was a neat, fun bit of fan service — a cool keepsake to tuck into your wallet after grabbing a photo with your favorite mid-laner. I personally loved it, especially with their mascot, Blue, handing out the cards.

But Blue Rising isn’t a giveaway novelty or a cheap promotional gimmick. It’s a real and functional tactical collectible card game built from the ground up.

The genius part is that it’s not just a fully functioning card game. It takes players, moments, and gaming gear right from esports culture and makes it engaging and real. It allows fans to really connect with the card game and feel they have deep ball knowledge. It’s made for KC fans and other esports fans who can relate to the cards.

Imagine pulling a card that lets you clutch a losing round because it’s flavored after a famous French arena crowd chant or a historic comeback at an EMEA tournament. This is using thought, intention, and true passion to create authentic content and merch for actual fans rather than hoping to cash out on a lazy anime-themed sweater or make social media posts about a credit card company.

The core problem with the traditional esports playbook was its top-down structure. Teams tried to monetize like traditional broadcast sports before they had the local stadium infrastructure or TV deals to support it.

Blue Rising flips the script back to what gaming does best: tangible, community-driven mechanics.

Fans don’t want to buy an energy drink just because a streamer held it on camera for three seconds. Well, if they are over 13 years old. They don’t want to watch a boring YouTube video about a car they’ll never buy. They don’t want fast food logos slapped all over a broadcast.

Fans do want to collect rare display boxes, trade booster packs with friends at live watch parties, and crack open custom art sleeves featuring their favorite pro players.

By creating physical products that tap directly into tabletop gaming culture, Karmine Corp isn’t asking for a desperate, thoughtless handout. They’re offering genuine entertainment value. They are treating their fans like real gamers who love collecting, competing, and owning physical pieces of the culture. They are showing they understand gaming and esports.

While other organizations spend millions trying to translate general brand awareness into merch sales, KC has built an internal economy. They realized that 50,000 fanatical, deeply engaged fans who feel seen by their team will always be more valuable than 500,000 passive viewers who couldn’t name a single player on the roster. (One reason I will never believe that co-stream viewership counts, since most of those fans are only there for the influencer and won’t stick around.)

Blue Rising proves that the path forward for esports isn’t pretending to be a mainstream broadcast sport. It’s doubling down on the chaotic, passionate, lore-heavy subculture that made competitive gaming special in the first place. There has been proof for a while now that esports fans want raw, real, and fun.

It’s tactile, it’s tactical, and a relief. Esports needs to stop pretending it’s something it’s not if it wants to survive. Rather than daydreaming about some immense growth that will never last beyond whatever gimmick they wanted to exploit at the time, esports tournaments and organizations should focus on the dedicated fans and gamers who will actually buy products and stick around to watch every match. It may not bring immense riches, but it will allow esports to live on.

If you look at the top tier of competitive gaming, it feels like a total team sport monopoly. The biggest heavyweights in the industry pull in staggering numbers, and almost every single one of them relies on a full squad to get the job done.

Take a look at the viewership metrics. League of Legends racked up over 735 million hours watched in 2025 alone, while Counter-Strike 2 pushed past 584 million hours. The Cologne peaked at 2,752,353 viewers earlier this year, becoming the most-watched Counter-Strike tourney in history. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang casually dropped a massive peak of 5.6 million concurrent viewers during its championship cycle, and titles like VALORANT, Dota 2, and Rocket League regularly command massive broadcast footprints.

There is a very clear reason why team-based titles dominate the charts. They mimic traditional sports. You get to root for a club, buy into team rivalries, buy jersey merch, and watch insane five-man strategies come together in real time.

But in our obsession with team synergy, we are sleeping on the most raw, high-stakes form of competition in gaming: single-player esports.

When you step onto a stage in a 1v1 title or a solo speedrun, there is no safety net. There is no team captain to call a timeout, no teammate to trade a kill, and no bench player to swap in when you are having an off day.

It is just you, your opponent, and a screen.

That isolation creates an intensity that team games simply cannot replicate. Think about fighting games like Street Fighter, Tekken, or Super Smash Bros, or the high-stress world of competitive speedrunning.

Every single input is a high-wire act. When a player makes a mistake in a solo esport, they carry 100% of the blame. That single dropped combo or missed frame skip haunts them, and you can see the visible weight of it on their face in the player cam. That level of vulnerability makes the victories taste incredible and the defeats feel absolutely devastating.

While events like Evo and Combo Breaker showcase the passion and determination of these single player pros, I think of things like the Kemonomichi Legends LIVE that pitted Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II against Daigo Umehara. The Japanese fighting game fans took this very seriously, even comparing it to a sword fight to the death. Only one person comes out alive.

That is how serious the FGC gets. These two players trained for months before this, understanding the severity and importance of this first-to-ten event. During an interview, MenaRD told me: “It’s one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. At the end of the day, it was really important because I wanted to be at a level that would challenge him and be worth his time. He was also preparing. It made me really happy that it was worth it.”

This is a totally different vibe from what you get in League of Legends or Call of Duty, with smoke billowing as players march onto the stage together, while the commentators scream as if they’re in a soccer broadcast… It’s wild and fun, but it’s not a fight to the death. It’s likely why the FGC takes itself so seriously: there may not be as much money on the line, but they are still putting their souls on the stage, collapsing and crying at a loss, throwing a chair at a win…

Team rivalries are fun, but solo rivalries are pure narrative gold. In a team game, rosters change constantly. Players get traded, contracts expire, and by next season, the heated feud between two organizations feels like a corporate marketing campaign.

In single-player games, rivalries stay personal for years. You are staring directly across the stage at the exact person who knocked you out of the bracket six months ago. It is purely about proving who is better. There is no shifting the blame onto a bad support player or bad communication. That dynamic breeds a level of sweat, passion, and relentless self-improvement that makes for the best storylines in all of gaming.

The back-and-forth intensity between Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma and Joseph “Mang0” Marquez was next-level entertainment. It wasn’t just mindblowing to watch their faces as they competed on stage. They were taking jabs at each other online (and not funny sky messages and corny memes, like real heat). Reddit threads were dedicated to comparing them, bashing the other… It’s a level of intensity that would never be seen in Rocket League or VALORANT.

An old Reddit thread explained: “Mang0 Hbox is the most storied active rivalry. It’s actually so sick how long they have been going. At this point, I think their head-to-head record is the most important one in Melee history. When they are both retired, their H2H results will be poured over endlessly by the GOAT debate nerds.”

But there are so many more. I mean, Super Smash Bros. Melee is 20-plus years old. There has been plenty of time for incredible rivalries to form among OG players. Mang0 and Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman were constantly one-upping each other, a duel between the analytical mind of Mew2King and the hypeman Mang0. They both created their own playstyle and had that old-school, veteran feel that made the matchups iconic.

And even new gen competitors have incredible storylines thanks to the game’s long history and the intensity of the 1v1 interactions on stage.

“Zain vs Cody is my favorite rivalry,” noted one Reddit user. “Neither is my favorite player, but literally every set between them feels like peak competitive Melee. I love how they keep pushing each other further and consistently trade both matches and sets, which means things are never boring when they meet in a bracket; I feel like a lot of other rivalries lack the sheer gravitas this one brings to the table.”

You have these incredible, super-long rivalries and storylines you just won’t get in team games. There is really no truly intense stage matchups that I can think of. As an esports journalist, I even remember asking Overwatch and League of Legends players who their greatest rivals were and stuff back in the day, and they really didn’t have much to say on that topic. Probably because that same person could end up on their team the next season. Yawn.

Playing at a championship level on your own demands a completely different tier of mental fortitude. You have to handle all the game sense, mechanics, clutch factor, and emotional regulation strictly inside your own head.

And it’s even harder to do that time and time again. Think Tekken 8 GOAT Arslan Ash, the Gods of Melee, and the 30-plus-year-old fighting game players who have to keep those mechanics and emotions at their peak for years, decades.

A speedrunner attempting a world record run at a major event is fighting their own nervous system while executing frame-perfect inputs for hours. A fighting game pro has to parse subtle animations in milliseconds to bait out a whiff punish, all while knowing a single wrong guess loses the game. It is raw, unadulterated human skill pushed to its absolute limits.

“When you are at a high level, you feel alone,” Arslan Ash admitted after winning his eighth Evo championship. “My friends aren’t even here. Your family is the one that always supports you. Real support. At the top, you’re alone. There’s just you and your family.”

Team games will always have their place at the top of the broadcasting mountain, and that is fine. But if we want competitive gaming to reach its peak as a spectator sport, it is time to start giving more respect, more broadcast budget, and more main-stage energy to the solo warriors holding it down all by themselves.

I am going to say something that might get me kicked out of a few Discord servers, but somebody has to say it. The esports community has officially entered its witch hunt era when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Every single time a game developer or an esports organization posts an image, half the comment section immediately pulls out a magnifying glass. They are scrutinizing fingers, checking for blurry logos, and screaming at the top of their lungs if a single pixel looks suspiciously generated.

Yes, AI art can be weird and lazy, but the sheer level of outrage we are seeing over tiny, meaningless instances is getting a little absurd.

If you want to see how intense this reaction has gotten, just look at a couple of recent incidents that sent the internet into a tailspin.

First, Mobile Legends Bang Bang dropped a main menu background featuring the hero Layla. Immediately, fans noticed the weird lighting, soft textures, and anatomical quirks that practically screamed machine-generated image.

People lost their minds. MOONTON was quick to release a mini-patch, although the developers never admitted to possibly using generative AI.

Before that, SNK caught massive heat for a Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer update because sharp-eyed fans spotted what looked like AI-generated promotional graphics in the background. This caused a lot of backlash in the FGC, and even caused a well-known, long-time moderator to step down.

“This is against what I stand for,” she wrote.

Then you have esports teams themselves getting caught in the crossfire. The Carolina Royal Ravens posted a graphic on social media, and fans instantly torched them because the AI somehow messed up the team’s own logo.

Was it a little embarrassing? Sure. I’d even venture to say very embarrassing. And, the esports industry’s scariest word: Cringe. But was it a crime against humanity that warranted a full meltdown? Probably not.

Back when I wrote about this during my time at The Escapist, I pointed out that this witch-hunt mentality was already taking over game development. A studio would use a machine-learning tool during early development, accidentally leave a single placeholder poster on a wall in the final build, and the internet would treat it like a villainous conspiracy. Cough, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, cough.

The devs would quietly patch out the poster and replace it with human art, but the outrage machine had already moved on to the next target.

It feels like a lot of gaming fans are picking and choosing when to turn AI into a moral crusade. It is easy to rally the mob, jump on social media, and yell about a bad Mobile Legends menu background because it makes us feel like we are fighting the good fight.

But what are you truly doing? MOONTON did not replace someone with AI at the MLBB studio to create that menu art. In fact, an artist, clearly employed there, replaced it. If anything, artists at MOONTON are apparently using AI to get some stuff done faster, which could be seen as lazy or uncaring. But is it worth the X accusations and Reddit threads? What do you think it will do? Who are you trying to save?

And do you think the Carolina Royal Ravens has any money? Most esports organizations operate entirely in the red, even large ones. Do you really think they are going to pay top dollar for art every time they announce something?

They very likely paid a cheap artist who then used AI to make this. Or maybe, if they somehow have the money for it, they have a social media person on staff who doesn’t get paid enough to create graphics on top of all the other stuff they do and quickly made an AI image.

I’m not saying I love that they used AI, however it happened, but what are you expecting them to do? Why are we attacking a small esports organization with no money? What are you hoping to accomplish here?

Let me guess. You still use Claude to help summarize a boring book you were forced to read at school. You use the AI at the top of your Google search to prove a point in an argument. You use email spam filters and predictive texting on your phone. You have used an AI TikTok filter.

Let me take it even further. You own a phone made with child labor. You use Jeff Bezos’ Amazon to get two-day shipping. You bought a shirt on Shein. You drive a car that adds to the world’s pollution. You bought a dog from a backyard breeder. You read a Harry Potter book. You listen to Chris Brown or watch movies with Brad Pitt. You plan to play the Avatar fighting game even though a dev accused of sexual assault is working on it.

It’s never-ending. You are picking and choosing where to draw the line in an ineffective, flimsy way. If you think AI in esports is a bigger problem than everything I mentioned, okay. But most people are just jumping at a trending topic on social media.

I think AI is bad, too. I agree with you. But it’s sort of like hating any new technology, like our parents freaking out about texting, social media, and video games. There are a lot of bad people backing AI, and it has created a lot of bad side effects, but it’s inevitable. Nitpicking these tiny issues is not going to help at all. A struggling esports organization is not the villain here.

Here is the cold, hard reality of the situation. Esports organizations are notoriously broke right now. The entire industry is grinding through a massive economic winter where teams are struggling to keep the lights on, sponsors are pulling back, and most organizations are operating deep in the red.

I am not going to sit here and pretend AI is some magical savior. I think it is often lame, has real environmental drawbacks, and sucks when it replaces jobs of actual human artists in an industry that is already hurting.

But we are acting like an org using a cheap, flawed graphic to post an X update is the ultimate threat to competitive gaming.

Esports is facing massive player burnout, collapsing league structures, and dwindling venture capital. A slightly warped logo on a Tuesday morning tweet is at the very bottom of the priority list. In fact, it may even be the result of these issues.

If you don’t want more cringe AI, you gotta address these things.