This Week in Esports (Sept. 10): VRS confusion, Team Falcons exit Dota 2, PGL and BLAST announce new partnerships

Wasif Ahmed Published September 10, 2026

Welcome to This Week in Esports, our weekly digest covering the biggest news headlines across the most prominent esports titles out there, including Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, VALORANT, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

We bring you the biggest esports stories from each of these titles, including more from beyond the esports industry.

Standout Story of the Week

Before we get into our headlines, the standout story of the week is that Valve has pulled the plug on trackers for CS2’s in-game chat logs.

This update, which was launched on September 9, followed a website’s report that used the data to create a ‘racism leaderboard.’

This update shuts down access for these trackers, but does raise concerns about potentially increasing toxic activities in the game, as players become more confident that what they are communicating is encrypted.

That being said, until before the report and minor update, many players didn’t even know that their chats were public information. Therefore, it shouldn’t change the in-game experience for anyone.

Reddit had a field day when the report was published, though, as players reacted with surprise, and some even posted screenshots of other chats. The general consensus was that most people didn’t care.

CS2

Getting into esports, the big story is that Team Spirit have continued their domination by winning the BLAST Open Fall in Porto. They took down MOUZ in the final, with donk emerging as the MVP.

Next up, we have the FISSURE Playground #3, as well as the StarLadder StarSeries Fall in Barcelona from September 17 to 20.

Dota 2

Dota 2 is officially in its off-season, which means one thing—rostermania. With the end of TI15 (congratulations, Team Spirit once again), we are witnessing a lot of roster changes.

The big one is that MOUZ has dismantled its entire roster to bring in fresh faces, while Xtreme Gaming has retained only Ame and let go of the others.

But beyond these headlines is the fact that TI14 champions, who failed to make it a two-peat in 2026, Team Falcons, have exited the game. This comes after veteran player Andreas “Cr1t-” announced an indefinite break from competitive play.

VALORANT

As the 2026 VALORANT esports season, which marks the end of the earlier closed partnership program, comes to an end, the attention shifts to VALORANT Champions Shanghai.

The tickets for the anticipated finale of Champions are set to go live on September 13, Riot Games has announced.

Riot has continued to tease details for the VCT 2027 open system. However, it will retain support for certain organizations like it did in the partnership program. A more refined roadmap can only be expected during or after VALORANT Champions.

League of Legends

Just like VALORANT, Riot’s MOBA title is also seeing its Worlds stage approaching. The regional leagues across the LEC, LCK, LPL, and CBLOL are approaching their finales as rosters get locked in for the League of Legends World Championship 2026.

Riot Games had also earlier inducted Rasmus “Caps” Winther into its Hall of Fame. Caps has become the first Western League of Legends pro to earn the accolade, joining Faker and Uzi. The Hall of Fame, launched in 2024, recognizes a player who had a lasting impact on the game.

MLBB

Finally, we have MLBB. Recent data from Esports Charts shows that the game was the most watched at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026, far ahead of other titles. The MSC 2026 had a peak viewership of 2.8 million, with 512,000 average viewers.

Image credit: MOONTON Games

Over the last week, MOONTON announced the MLBB Türkiye Championship Season 8. This tournament sets the stage for the region to host the M8 World Championship, set to happen in January 2027.

Industry news

• PGL x 1XBET: Tournament organizer PGL has announced that it has extended its partnership with betting company 1xBet through to 2029. 1XBET will be a partner for all PGL CS2 and Dota tournaments.
• BLAST X MESA: The Mongolian Esports Association (MESA) and BLAST have announced a partnership to bring “world-class arena esports” to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. The partnership will begin with the BLAST Premier Open Ulaanbaatar, taking place at Steppe Arena from May 10 to 23.
• Twisted Minds x Shikenso: The Saudi Arabia-based esports organization, Twisted Minds, has announced Shikenso as its measuring sponsor. The analytics company will empower the org with data to understand the value its partnerships create.
• GRID launches GRID Odds: GRID has announced a new Odds feature for CS2, Dota 2, VALORANT, and League of Legends. As a part of this, the company will provide live odds as a part of its esports data business.

Image credit: PGL and 1XBET

Industry voice of the week

For our first week, we feature Graham Pitt, the head of operations for 100Thieves’ CS2 roster. He posted on X, dated September 9th:

“I guess since VRS is now officially dead as Valve do not care for it, we can just get back to the partnership leagues.”

Context: For the first time since the launch of VRS (albeit with one exception in 2024), Valve missed the deadline to announce the new invitation rankings.

The developer has done this, punctually, on the first Monday of every new month. While this has been the case, Valve has never said that it’s a rule that it would launch it on this particular day.

Nonetheless, tournament organizers, who have been mandated to announce dates and invitation dates well in advance, depend on this consistency to plan out their events. In an already turbulent ecosystem, where many CS2 tournaments are getting cancelled, this isn’t a good look.

Certain upcoming events like the Stake Ranked Episode 5 and 1win Private Club Season 2 were affected by it. However, Valve has since released the new rankings.

Featured image credit: BLAST