This Week in Esports: Shanghai lands CS2 Major, VALORANT’s teabagging ban, and more

Wasif Ahmed Published September 17, 2026

We are back with another edition of our This Week in Esports newsletter, covering all the biggest news between September 11 and 17 across Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, VALORANT, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

Standout Story of the Week

A highlight over the past week was that Perfect World has confirmed that the second Valve-backed Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2027 will be held in Shanghai. We say confirmed because it had already been suspected since the bids were awarded in March that the Major was returning to China.

With Buenos Aires hosting the first Major courtesy of Latin tournament operator FiReSports, 2027 will mark the first year in the history of the CS2 Majors that none of them will take place in Europe.

For the first time since 2013, no Valve Major will happen in a European city during a calendar year.

The only exception to this was in 2020, which would have been the first non-European year for Majors, but ESL One: Rio was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Image credit: Perfect World

However, with a new operator in FiReSports and new regions, it does show a more global outlook from Valve when it comes to CS2 esports.

While European fans may be disappointed, they have plenty to look forward to. Next year will bring the BLAST Bounty Winter, PGL Bucharest, PGL Cluj-Napoca, IEM Krakow, and more Tier 1 events to the continent.

CS2

Moving on, we get the CS2 headlines, besides the Major’s location announcement.

The StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 has kicked off in Barcelona, Spain, as eight teams compete for the title and a share of the $500,000 prize pool.

The Thunderpick World Championship 2026 has also locked in its eight contestants for the LAN Finals in Malta. Falcons, 9z Team, FURIA, BetBoom, Aurora, Virtus Pro, Legacy, and Aurora will be competing from October 14 to 18. The event could be one of the last to rack up crucial VRS points for the Singapore Major.

Lastly, the Esports Foundation has announced additional information for the Esports World Cup – CS2, 2027, and the schedule for the EWC 2028. This is in line with Valve’s tournament operation requirements for Tier 1 events, where the event should be announced 22 months before its official start.

Additional information, which includes the schedule, format, and invited teams, needs to be announced 10 months prior. The EWC 2026 will happen from July 20 to August 1 in Saudi Arabia.

The 2028 edition will “tentatively” happen from July 14 to 30.

VALORANT

Next up, we have VALORANT, where a lot is happening leading up to VALORANT Champions and the new rule changes for 2027.

Riot Games has revealed a slew of talents and creators set to open the VALORANT Champions Shanghai event, including Pop Mart, Hai Di Lao, DOE, Artist Alley, and the VALORANT Concept PC Bang.

Image credit: Riot Games

The publisher also announced the 2026 Champions Bundle, named Frag or Die. It features a Phantom skin, knife skin, a skin finisher, and gun buddy, all themed around Chinese dragons.

League of Legends

In League of Legends, we have crowned our LPL and LCK champions.

Anyone’s Legend won in China, securing a spot at Worlds. They will be joined by Bilibili Gaming and one more Chinese team set to be determined in the Regional Finals between Top Esports and Invictus Gaming.

In the LCK, Gen G came first, over Hanwha Life Esports. The top four teams, which include T1 and Dplus, have qualified for Worlds.

Lastly, the Asian Games 2026 has revealed the groups for the League of Legends tournament.

Image credit: EsportsBetting.com

Dota 2

We covered Falcons disbanding Dota 2 in our previous edition of This Week in Esports. Now, one of the core players from the roster, Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, has joined Team Yandex as their new offlaner.

The next news is the PGL Wallachia Season 9, which has officially kicked off as the first post-TI15 tournament. The Tier 2 tournament didn’t have any qualifiers, and the invited team list was announced just three days before the official event.

Dota 2 also released its first post-TI patch, 7.41f which brought hero nerfs, and some item changes. You can read all about it here.

MLBB

In MLBB, the Asian Games 2026 group draw has been revealed as 11 teams compete for the title.

Image credit: EsportsBetting.com

Over in the MPLs, Team Liquid PH has continued its strong form, finishing first at the halfway mark of the Filipino league with a 6-1 match record.

Industry voice of the week

For our industry voice of the week, we go back to VALORANT Champions. With the rulebook published, a user on X pointed out that shooting dead bodies and teabagging are prohibited in the Shanghai event.

The post quickly racked up over 2.6 million views, leading to Leo Faria, the global head for VALORANT esports, officially replying to it, saying that it is a one-time change.

“This is a one-time change due to cultural sensitivities. We’re not going to oversanitize the sport and suck the fun out of it. Shooting bodies and teabagging is fine. Spice is good. That said, do it at your own peril.”

Faria added that since it’s against the rules, they will follow the traditional protocol of a warning for players who do it, which could increase to penalties or fines for subsequent violations.

Image credit: X

That has made it clear, though, that players could do it once without any major repercussions—from Riot, of course, not the community.