This Week in Esports (Sept. 24): 3-minute delay led to Asian Games medal loss, Complexity’s closure, & more

Wasif Ahmed Published September 24, 2026

In this edition of This Week in Esports, we take a look at the recent Asian Games esports fiasco where a three-minute delay led to a medal loss, the biggest headlines in CS2, VALORANT, League of Legends, and MLBB, along with some of the industry stories you should know about.

India’s Asian Games hopes end over a three-minute delay

India had arrived at the Asian Games with a squad of Danial Patel and Chinmay Sahoo for the eFOOTBALL esports event. Patel was the winner of the FIFAe Continental Championship Asia 2026, making him a serious contender for gold at the Asian Games.

The country was in a group featuring Mongolia and Uzbekistan, with only the winner making it through. India and Uzbekistan drew in their first match, before the latter went on to thrash Mongolia in two games, 6-3 and 12-0.

Danial Patel at a past tournament.

Therefore, India needed a goal difference of +15 when it faced Mongolia. But as they prepared to face off, the Mongolian team arrived at the event a mere three minutes late, with organizers denying them the chance to compete, handing India a forfeit win with a score of 0-0.

Furthermore, this strict time adherence came even as the eFOOTBALL esports competition at the Asian Games faced some scheduling challenges. Uzbekistan vs India was postponed due to technical issues, per a report by TalkEsport, while five other group stage matches were delayed too.

CS2

Next up, we have Counter-Strike 2. On September 20, Vitality won the StarSeries Fall in Barcelona, defeating Aurora 3–1 in the grand final, with ZywOo being crowned as the MVP.

An interesting stat from this tournament was that KICK accounted for 52 percent of the total watch time, per Esports Charts. The tournament recorded a peak viewership of 315,170.

Valve also brought in a new update on September 22, where you could even pet chickens, but the biggest change from it, which would affect esports too, was utility limits. As a part of this, players can only buy up to four grenades per round in CS2.

Earlier, players used to buy extra and drop them at spawn for later use. Now, that will not be the case, making players more cautious about their usage.

Dota 2

In Dota 2, the biggest headline of the week was that two-time TI winner Topson has reunited with the org that earned him that accolade. That’s right, the veteran mid laner is back at OG for the 2026-2027 Dota 2 season.

Image credit: OG Esports

The ongoing Dota 2 tournament is currently the PGL Wallachia Season 9. After an intense Swiss stage, the top eight have made it to the playoffs. They will be competing this weekend at the PGL Studio in Bucharest, Romania, for a share of the $1 million prize pool.

League of Legends

The biggest headline for League of Legends is that Versus will not return in 2027. This tournament, similar to VALORANT’s KICK//OFF, officially marked the beginning of the competitive season. With Riot Games trying to involve and give opportunities to more third-party tournament organizers, it will not bring the event back.

Next up, the LPL 2026 is seeing a decline in global (non-China) viewership, data from Esports Charts show. The recently concluded Split 3 saw a peak viewership of 177,274, which is a 7.77 percent deduction from last year.

The average viewership, a better indication of audience retention and popularity, declined 23 percent. This figure doesn’t include Chinese streaming platforms.

MLBB

Image credit: MOONTON

In MLBB, the big headline for the week is that Visa has committed to three M Series World Championships as the global payment partner. This means that Visa cardholders could get cheaper tickets from the upcoming M8 in Turkey all through the M10 in 2029 / 2030.

Over at the MPLs, which are nearing the end of their regular season, we are seeing teams confirm their playoff berths. The table toppers currently are:

• Team Liquid PH: MPL PH
• Selangor Red Giants: MPL MY
• Team Liquid ID: MPL ID

It’s a good time to be a Team Liquid fan for MLBB players.

Industry news

Beyond this, here are a couple of industry headlines you need to pay attention to:

• RLCS announces $2.5 million Club Championship: Rocket League esports is set to get a major tournament series with the Club Championship. It will feature 20 invited teams and four more qualified ones and will begin in London from December 9 to 13 before heading to more regions in 2027.
• Thunderpick has become the presenting partner for the Esports Awards. The partnership will last for 12 months beginning with the next Esports Awards show in Miami on November 17.
• Razer x BLAST Premier: The gaming peripherals brand has signed a multi-year partnership with BLAST Premier. It will now be the official headset partner for the event series. The partnership begins with the BLAST Premier Rivals Hong Kong from Nov. 11 to 15.
• Indonesia to host IESF World Championship: For the third time, the IESF’s World Esports Championship (WEC) is heading to Indonesia. The event will take place from December 15 to 20 with CS2, Dota 2, MLBB, PUBG Mobile, and eFOOTBALL as the featured game titles.
• Microsoft’s Xbox also announced that it was handing the Halo franchise to Activision and announced layoffs.

Industry voice of the week

This week, we feature Complexity founder Jason Lake, who announced the organization’s closure on September 23 after 23 years in esports.

“So for the first time in 23 years, myself and my core team of coworkers are no longer a part of Complexity,” Lake said in a video on X.

Context: The decision was made at the end of 2025 after Complexity struggled to raise capital to repay debt from Lake’s 2024 buyback. The brand’s intellectual property has returned to GameSquare.

For North American esports, it marks the loss of one of its longest-standing organizations. Lake, however, says he isn’t retiring.

Featured image credit: Complexity

Related to:

OG

Team Liquid ID

Team Liquid PH

Selangor Red Giants

Complexity

Vitality StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 Playoffs