Asian Champions League to return with $150,000 event in 2026

12-7-2025 14:29

The Hero Esports ACL will return for a second edition, taking place in the first 2026 season.

TYLOO won the first Hero Esports ACL in May

Hero Esports have announced the second edition of the Asian Champions League tournament in Counter-Strike 2, in which top Asian teams will face off for a $150,000 prize.

The offline portion of the tournament will take place in China and begin with a closed qualifier from April 29-May 3, followed by the playoffs from May 11-17. A total of 16 teams will be invited through the Asian VRS to the LAN portion.

Open qualifiers will be organized in China, Oceania & Southeast Asia, and rest of Asia in January to March, feeding 11 teams into the closed qualifier.

The last iteration, which took place this May, boasted some of the best teams in the region, such as TYLOO, Lynn Vision, FlyQuest and The Huns, and saw Dongkai "⁠Jee⁠" Ji and company come out on top to claim the $100,000 first-place prize and a spot at the Esports World Cup.

Next year's edition may have a more difficult time attracting the best teams from the region, as the event clashes with two tier-one tournaments on the calendar that could well already feature some of them: PGL Astana (May 9-17) and IEM USA (May 11-17).

15 Champions leagues Real Madrid

2025-07-12 14:31

1 reply

Still lost to Arsenal lol.

2025-07-12 18:21

nice! that did wonders for the VRS of TYLOO, LV and RA My dream is that the Asian region revives with teams from Japan, Korea, SEA and whatnot but that's probably too far fetched at that point...

14 replies

That dream will gone when more fake Russian team abuse all Asian qualifier in any event in Asia.

2025-07-12 14:40

5 replies

wdym

2025-07-12 14:45

2025-07-12 15:05

2025-07-12 15:12

most of Russia is in Asia buddy. they should be allowed to play if they live in that region.

2025-07-12 15:25

you need to increase your dosage

2025-07-12 16:00

Japan and Korea have been taken by Val for now. Until riot fucks up badly (which with what NA contenders has become is possible) all talent (like meiy) will always go to Val or Apex

2025-07-12 15:36

The only time I saw CS somewhat big in Japan was like 2000-2003 and even then, they didn't have any actual top team.

2025-07-12 21:39

League is too widespread here in Korea. If people dont play league, they play Val. I checked my PC Cafe stats and only 0.43% of attendees played CS2, compared to the 41% for LoL and 30% for Val.

2025-07-12 16:55

I lived in Korea and Japan both for a few years total and never heard anyone mention CS. I’m only friends with one Japanese guy who follows CS esports scene

2025-07-12 18:14

2 replies

Yeah but there was a scene there (albeit, a small one) before COVID. Even on countries like Myanmar and Brunei. Now nothing.

2025-07-12 18:55

think it was at its biggest 2000-2003 somehow. A lot of local lan tournaments then. Even had CPL qualifiers. Never really caught on after that. From like 1.0-1.5 CS.

2025-07-12 21:49

I mean, its possible to get like 1 or 2 players from those countries which they would end on asian mix teams. But in general, the scene will slowly grow, not much, but it will

2025-07-12 18:47

it wont grow, because tier 2 russian teams (who can and have played tier 3 online EU tournaments btw) will steal the one single slot that asians have of qualifying for a tournament. The scene will slowly die because no one can afford to be a pro because no tournaments while the russians will go back to being tier 2 in EU

2025-07-12 22:49

Fake Russia team shout allow participate.

2025-07-12 14:33

cry is free, my russophobic friend

2025-07-12 15:29

Hope it does well

2025-07-12 14:34

W, ACL this year was great

2025-07-12 15:41

Maybe the Philippines will have a relevant team again? (probably not tho)

2025-07-12 17:06

need some Extremeland type of event where each countries representative compete. it can work as a wildcard event type or I think even as a normal tier 2 event where there are qualifiers from each asian countries.

2025-07-12 17:38