February may be the shortest month on the calendar but in the world of esports it has been one of the busier months with major announcements, tournaments and more. With more titles starting up after the holiday break we saw lots of top LAN events take place, with some surprise winners, and records being broken.
Away from the big stages we got some major announcements that could have a major impact on the industry over the coming years. The Esports Nations Cup has revealed almost all of its inaugural games list, while the fighting game series EVO has a new owner and major expansion plans.
With so much going on in esports you’ll want to keep reading to make sure that you are fully up to date with everything that has gone on in February.
Industry News
Credit: Ubisoft
Esports Nations Cup Fills Out Its Inaugural Lineup
The Esports Nations Cup has filled out its roster of titles for the inaugural competition taking place this November, with 15 games confirmed and one mystery title still remaining. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Trackmania, Dota 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Chess, Honor of, Kings, CS2, EA FC, Rainbow Six, PUBG, Apex Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, League of Legends and PUBG Mobile have all been announced for the event, presenting a good mix of team and individual based competition.
EVO Announces Major 2027 Expansion
February was a big month for EVO, the fighting game tournament series. It was confirmed that the event is now fully owned by RTS, the esports firm from the Saudi Arabian megacity project Qiddiya, and some major expansion plans for 2027 were revealed. Starting next year EVO will add events in Singapore, Brazil, Morocco, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and China, as well as the launch of a new Fighting Game World Championship, although details on what exactly that will be remain scarce.
RLCS Boston Major Breaks Records
The RLCS Boston Major became the most watched Rocket League event ever according to stats from Esports Charts. The event peaked at 624,316 viewers, shattering the previous concurrent viewer record from the 2023 World Championship by more than 150,000, showing a massive increase of viewers for this landmark event. In other Rocket League news it was also announced that tyre manufacturer Michelin is becoming a sponsor of top level Rocket League events for 2026.
CS2 Major Gets A Format Update
Counter-Strike Majors are getting a major format upgrade, starting with the IEM Cologne Major this summer. All stage three matches, the stage where the teams that will advance to the playoffs are decided, will now be a best of three rather than best of ones. This is a welcome chance for CS fans, and brings a lot more action to the Major, so much so that an extra day has been added to the event.
Rainbow Six Reveals Major Locations
Following a successful Six Invitational, Ubisoft has revealed the format for the 26/27 Rainbow Six Siege competitive calendar. This year BLAST will host majors in Salt Lake City and Japan, while next year’s Six Invitational returns to Brazil. The Esports World Cup will also become a part of the official tournament structure, acting as a mid-season tournament. It was also announced that BLAST and Ubisoft have extended their agreement to run the Rainbow Six esports scene until at least the end of the 28/29 season.
Competitive Results
Credit: RLCS
Gentle Mates Win RLCS Boston Major
Gentle Mates took an impressive win at the RLCS Boston Major, taking down rival French organisation Team Vitality 4-2 in the Grand Final. The team went undefeated throughout the tournament, but had multiple close games, including more than a few impressive comebacks when their opposition was on match point. Their determination to never give up proved to be enough as they took home the title and $102,000 first place prize.
Team Vitality Claim Even More CS2 Trophies
Another month and another update on Team Vitality winning more CS2 trophies. Their dominant run at the top of CS continued this month as the organisation took home first place at both PGL Cluj Napoca and IEM Krakow. Vitality took a comfortable 3-0 win over Parivision in the PGL event, while they had a slightly tougher matchup against Furia in Krakow where they came out with a 3-1 victory. There is no sign of their dominant run coming to an end, so you can probably expect to read a few more similar updates in the coming months.
FaZe Clan Wins Six Invitational
The biggest event of the Rainbow Six calendar is always a highlight of every February in the world of esports, and this year’s Six Invitational was no different. Hosted in Paris, France, the event saw the Brazilian roster of FaZe Clan take home the trophy beating Team Secret 3-1 in the final. With the final two maps of the series going to overtime it was a much closer final than the score suggests, and was only bolstered by the ruckus crowd throwing their support behind Team Secret and French player Yanis “Mowwwgli” Dahmani.
Team Liquid Wins BLAST Slam
In the world of Dota 2, February was the month when top level LAN competition really kicked off in 2026, with BLAST Slam being the biggest event of the year so far. Team Liquid ended up taking the win, beating NAVI 3-1 in the grand final, and ending Tundra Esports run of four BLAST Slam titles in a row. Now the Dota season only gets busier with both PGL Wallachia and ESL One Birmingham both taking place in March.
Gentle Mates Win CDL Major 1
February was a successful month for Gentle Mates as the organisation also won the first Call of Duty League Major of the year. The French org took down Optic Texas 4-3 in one of the closest finals we have seen for a while. Even more impressive was the fact the event was hosted by Optic, with the crowd full of vocal fans, and that Gentle Mates had been dominated 3-0 in the upper bracket final by Optic just hours before the final.
And Finally…
Sim Racer Becomes Mercedes F1 Team Simulator Driver
James Baldwin, a highly successful sim racer who is currently racing for Max Verstappen’s Team Redline, has joined the Mercedes Formula 1 team as a driver for its simulator program. Baldwin will drive in the Mercedes state of the art simulator to provide data for the real world drivers throughout the F1 season, showing just how valuable sim racers can be for the biggest motorsport teams in the world.
