The Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025 is the final event in Free Fire’s competitive year and the culmination of everything the season has been building up to. The Global Finals is the largest tournament Free Fire has to offer, and thus offers its esports scene’s biggest prize.

The Global Finals 2025 will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia, a change in venue from Rio de Janeiro in 2024. These Garena Free Fire season-ending events represent the apex of what esports tournaments have to offer, and the 2025 edition promises to continue this trend.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025, including its schedule, participating teams, structure, prize pool, and how to watch the event. 

As a season-ending event, the Free Fire World Series 2025 takes place at the end of the year, starting on Halloween. The event begins on October 31 with its knockout stage, which ends on November 9.

The Grand Finals ends the event on November 15, meaning the tournament is spread roughly over two weeks.

The Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025 will feature 18 teams fighting to be number one. These 18 teams qualify for the tournament based on performance in the leagues or tournaments they compete in. Certain leagues and tournaments offer more places than others, depending on the quality of the league and the seeding of those in the tournament. For instance, only the champions of the Esports World Cup 2025 receive a place at the Global Finals.

The teams and how they qualified:

The 18 teams competing in the Free Fire World Series 2025 are split into two events: The Battle Royale and Clash Squad Mode. All play in the Battle Royale mode, and only those who perform well in the initial stages have the chance to earn extra cash in the Clash Squad Mode.

The teams are divided into three groups of six, with 36 matches being played across six match days. Each team will play 24 matches, with a ‘week’ consisting of three match days. The top eight teams after week one qualify for the Clash Squad Mode, while the top 12 after the full knockout stage qualify for the Grand Finals.

The Clash Squad Mode is further split into three sections: the Swiss Stage, from November 5-6, semi-finals, and its own Grand Finals, on November 14. The Grand Finals of the Battle Royale then occur on November 15 with the top 12 teams using the Champion Rush format.

During the Grand Finals, the 12 teams play for points, reaching a threshold of 80 to become Champion Rush Eligible. Teams that are Champion Rush Eligible must achieve a ‘Booyah!’ in their next match to be crowned champions, but if no team has achieved a ‘Booyah!’ after 10 matches, the team with the highest points tally becomes champion.

This format is new to Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025, replacing 2024’s Point Rush format. 

The Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025 will be broadcast for free on YouTube and Twitch via official channels. For YouTube, it will be shown on the Free Fire Esports Official channel, while Twitch will broadcast it on the Garena Free Fire channel.

As the pinnacle of Free Fire’s esports circuit, the Global Finals 2025 has an impressive prize pool of $1,000,000, the same as the 2024 edition. This $1,000,000 is split into two sections: tournament placement and award bonuses.

The tournament placement prize money and award bonuses are distributed as follows:

Those who advance to the Clash Squad stage benefit from an additional prize pool totalling $150,000, which also includes a bonus for the MVP, and is distributed as follows:

The Free Fire World Series Global Finals 2025 promises to be a massive event in esports, and a monumental climax to the end of the 2025 FFWS season. With new rules, Garena is doing its best to keep the event fresh each year, and this is a must-watch for Free Fire fans around the world.

The 12 teams competing in the Overwatch Champion Series (OWCS) World Finals have been decided following the results of Stage 3.

Rosters from across the regions, including Asia, China, North America, and EMEA will compete at DreamHack Stockholm from November 26th to 30th, 2025, to decide this season’s champion.

Esports Insider takes a look at all the teams competing in the OWCS World Finals, all of which have qualified through Stage 3.

Three teams have qualified through OWCS Asia Korea are Crazy Raccoon, Team Falcons, and T1. Stage 3 was ultimately won by Crazy Raccoon, which defeated Team Falcons through a 4-3 comeback victory.

Korea is shaping up to be one of the strongest regions heading into the World Finals. Both the Mid Season Champions, Team Falcons, and the Champions Clash victors, Crazy Raccoon, are among the favourites to win.

Only one qualification spot was afforded to the Japan/Pacific region, as well-known teams faced off against non-organisation-backed rosters.

Four teams from Japan and Pacific Stage 3 competed for a place in the World Finals. However, VARREL proved to be the best team in Stage 3 after defeating Nosebleed Esports 4-1 in the Grand Finals.

The competition heated up in OWCS North America Stage 3 as eight teams competed for the lion’s share of its $100,000 (~£75,000) prize pool.

Three American teams have qualified for the World Finals, including the winners Team Liquid, runner-up Spacestation Gaming, and third-place team Geekay Esports.

EMEA Stage 3 saw Twisted Minds steal the spotlight. After placing third in the Regular Season, Twisted Minds clawed its way to the Grand Finals, defeating Virtus.pro in the Upper Bracket Semi Finals and Al Qadsiah 4-1 in the Grand Finals.

Al Qadsiah and Team Peps will also head to the World Finals. However, well-known organisations Gen.G Esports and Virtus.pro will miss out on the international tournament.

China was one of the first regions to finish Stage 3, declaring Weibo Gaming and Team CC as the two qualifying teams on October 12th.

Weibo Gaming achieved a flawless performance in the Regular Season, boasting a 7-0 win-loss ratio, and dominated the Regional Playoffs. It ended its run by defeating Team CC 4-2 in the Grand Finals.

The OWCS World Finals is the culmination of the Overwatch 2 2025 season, where the best teams from across the regions compete to be crowned this year’s champion.

The event will run as an offline LAN event in the Stockholmsmässan venue in Stockholm, Sweden, from November 26th to 30th, 2025.

Similar to previous years, the tournament’s format will feature a single-elimination bracket Group Stage and a double-elimination bracket Playoff, with a best-of-seven (BO7) Grand Final.

Other esports events outside of the OWCS World Finals will also be featured at DreamHack Stockholm, including The Finals’ inaugural major and the DreamHack Knockout qualifier for CS2’s ESL Pro League.

European esports organisation Team Vitality has unveiled Till Werdermann as its new Head of Esports Operations.

Werdermann joins the organisation after parting ways with OverActive Media, the parent company of Movistar KOI, at the end of September.

Announced on October 27th, 2025, Werdermann will oversee the organisation’s League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, and EA Sports FC divisions.

Werdermann previously held the position of Director of Team Operations at KOI, the League of Legends division of Canadian esports company OverActive Media.

“Excited to announce that I’ve joined Team Vitality as Head of Esports Operations,” said Werdermann on social media. “I’ve already been working with the teams across Berlin and Paris this October, and it’s been a pleasure to be at such a storied organisation.”

Werdermann’s arrival is the latest personnel change for the organisation. In July, Team Vitality’s former Director of Esports, Anne Banschbach, departed the organisation to join tournament organiser BLAST.

Outside of personnel updates, Team Vitality has continued to expand its presence in esports. In September, the organisation entered into a long-term partnership with PSG Esports, focusing on the EA Sports FC Pro circuit.

In addition to collaborating with other French esports organisations, Team Vitality continues to grow its partnership portfolio.

July saw the organisation score a seven-figure deal with online casino and sportsbook Stake, becoming the official betting partner of Team Vitality’s Counter-Strike 2 roster.

Its Counter-Strike 2 roster has dominated several Tier 1 tournaments throughout 2025, winning the BLAST.tv Austin Major, IEM Dallas 2025, and ESL Pro League Season 22.

Werdermann’s appointment has the potential to add even more expertise to Team Vitality’s backroom staff. With experience in League of Legends, his expertise could potentially help guide the organisation further up the LEC table, after ending LEC 2025 Summer with a top-six finish.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the latest title in the Call of Duty series, the 22nd mainline entry, and the eighth for the Black Ops series. Co-developed by Raven Software and Treyarch, many fans are looking forward to its November 14 release on PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox consoles, as well as PC.

Taking control of David “Section” Mason in the campaign across 11 missions, it looks to be a narrative that’s more in-depth and more engaging than what came before. But it’s the multiplayer and Zombie modes that players are looking forward to playing most. With this in mind, we’re laying out what we know about the release times and preload information for Black Ops 7 once it lands on November 14.

Although Activision has yet to confirm specific times for Black Ops 7’s release, some on Reddit may have stumbled upon it. On the game’s page via the PlayStation Network store, it lists a time of midnight on November 14 for when the title will be available. On the U.S. Store, there’s a time of ​​05:00 GMT, which lines up with the time difference for the UK.

This is the same as 2024’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, when the game was made available at midnight around the world. But for the PC version, it was slightly different. Below are the local times for the mentioned locations for when Black Ops 6 launched on PC:

It’s unclear why Black Ops 6 on PC didn’t launch at midnight like its console ports, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that Black Ops 7 will follow the same release rollout on November 14. However, as we’re expecting a preload to happen before release day, we recommend downloading Black Ops 7 as soon as it’s possible. This way, you can play the game on November 14 once it launches. Once we hear confirmation from Activision, we will update this article with the official times.

At the time of writing, Activision hasn’t confirmed what will be in the inevitable Black Ops 7 preload before its November 14 launch. But, looking at the launch of Black Ops 6, we imagine the preload will begin from the start of November.

For those unaware, preloading is a way of downloading a big chunk of a game before it’s officially made available to players. This way, a title can be playable on its release date instead of making it available to download. It’s essentially similar to buying a boxed game — you can play it straight away.

Looking at when preload occurred for last year’s Black Ops 6, the game’s release date was October 25, 2024, but players could download it from October 21. As Black Ops 7 launches on Friday, November 14, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the game’s preload will start from Monday, November 10.

But another aspect of a preload is the disk space it will take up on your PC or chosen console. Black Ops 6 was 102GB, and before that, 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was 51GB. With more detailed graphics this time and an even bigger focus on a campaign mode, we wouldn’t be surprised if Black Ops 7’s preload was around 150GB.

However, as Activision has yet to confirm when preload will happen this year, as well as the size of its download, we’ll update this article when they do.

Over 22 years since the first Call of Duty game debuted, there’s still a big appetite for the series. We’re weeks away from having Black Ops 7 available to play for consoles and PC, and Treyarch is already refining the Multiplayer mode, thanks to the recent Open Beta, held between October 6-9. Combined with the Campaign mode headed up by actor Milo Ventimiglia, all three modes could appeal to both new and old Call of Duty players.

We’ll update this article once we know what’s in the Preload for Black Ops 7, as well as its release dates worldwide on both PC and consoles. But for now, the newest title in the Call of Duty series looks set to be much-improved on 2024’s Black Ops 6, with new weapons, a refined Zombies mode, and a campaign full of depth.

Following the conclusion of the regional online group stages, the eight teams competing at ESL Impact League Season 8 have been decided.

Teams from across Europe and the Americas will head to Stockholm, Sweden, to compete for a share of a $123,000 (~£92,153) prize pool and a chance to be crowned ESL Impact’s final champion.

Before teams take to the server, Esports Insider takes a closer look at the teams that have made it to LAN.

ESL Impact League Season 8 is the final time the tournament will take place. On October 3rd, 2025, ESL FACEIT Group announced that the league would be suspended indefinitely, citing a lack of sustainability behind the decision.

Launched in 2022, the circuit cemented its place as an inclusive environment for women to compete in Counter-Strike.

NIP Impact and BIG EQUIPA headline the European teams competing at the event, after topping the Group Stage of the division without conceding a map.

After finishing the Group Stage in third and fourth place respectively, Imperial Female and Overpeek earned a spot after following victories against Flame Sharks Fe and Let Her Cook in the Play-Ins.

Imperial Female heads into the event looking to earn its third ESL Impact title, having previously won Season 5 and Season 6 in 2024.

The North American division featured a round-robin league format to determine the two teams that would advance to the LAN finals.

After winning all seven of its matches, FlyQuest RED convincingly earned the first seed, with Shimmer securing second place with six victories to its name.

South America saw Season 7 champions FURIA fe fail to advance thanks to a three-way tie. Due to map differential, the Brazilian side will not be defending its title.

MIBR and Atrix Esports earned qualification with 6-1 win-to-loss records and a lower map differential than FURIA fe to represent South America in the Playoffs.

ESL Impact Season 8 marks the end of an era for women’s Counter-Strike. With several top teams in attendance, the event is set to feature a high level of competition.

Based on recent form, the likes of Imperial Female and NIP Impact are among the championship contenders.

After a strong showing in the North American division, Shimmer could spring a few surprises against the established names.

Predicted ESL Impact Season 8 Winner: NIP Impact

Capcom has published a statement regarding its recent change to a pay-per-view model for its Street Fighter 6 esports scene.

The change was originally announced on September 28th for Capcom Cup 12 and Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025, two of its biggest competitive events.

The shift to pay-per-view puts the two finals behind a digital paywall, which was free to watch in past years, a change that has sparked backlash from FGC fans.

In its statement, Capcom shared that the decision was made to grow the tournaments into ‘internationally competitive events’ and to support teams, partners, and ‘related business areas’.

Capcom stated: “The decision to introduce Pay-Per-View live streaming for Capcom Cup 12 and Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 stems from our commitment to promoting our esports business in a sustainable manner over the medium to long term.”

The gaming publisher also added that it will strive to provide ‘clearer updates’ for esports events in the future through its social media channels, official website, and from PR representatives.

The statement has been met with criticism online by both fans and athletes within the esports scene.

In response to Capcom’s statement, European player Nathan ‘Mister Crimson‘ Massol said: “Most of our business model teams are based on visibility. By locking the finals behind a pay-per-view stream, you’re actually going against your players, the same players who invest thousands of hours making Street Fighter more popular.”

The pricing details for the pay-per-view tickets were originally going to be announced in late October; however, it has now been delayed until ‘preparations are complete.’ Sales for the Street Fighter League: Pro Japan Playoffs and Grand Finals tickets will begin on November 12th, 2025.

Free replays of the finals will be released on March 21st for Capcom Cup 12, and March 22nd, for the World Championship, a week after the events conclude.

Capcom Cup 12 is the culmination of the 2025 Capcom Pro Tour, running from March 11th to 14th, 2026. The top 48 qualified players will compete across three phases to be crowned the Pro Tour champion, claiming the lion’s share of its $1.28m (~£960,000) prize pool.

The Street Fighter League: World Championship 2025 serves as the crowning event of the event’s eighth season. The top players from Japan, the US and Europe will compete for a share of its increased prize pool of $200,000 (~£150,000).

Level Infinite has unveiled the 2026 Honor of Kings esports roadmap, featuring four cross-regional tournaments — just like in 2025.

The forthcoming year is set to be another packed affair for the MOBA title as the publisher continues to expand HoK globally.

The series of tournaments in the Honor of Kings 2026 esports roadmap are as follows:

The roadmap is similar to 2025’s with the core difference being the schedule of the Honor of Kings Nation Clash. This year, the tournament, which featured three countries, took place from from October 23rd to 26th in Malaysia.

Next year, it will be held before the KWC, which means it could take place in June or July 2026.

As usual, there will be two sets of regional leagues, and based on the announcement, all of them will be making a return. This includes the Majors in the West and East, along with separate leagues in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brazil.

These leagues feed into the KWC for the mid-season event and then the KIC for the year-end and the world champion crowning tournament.

In 2025, Level Infinite committed a $15m (~£11.2m) investment into Honor of Kings esports. The exact figure for next year hasn’t been revealed, but with all major tournaments returning, it is likely to be similar.

The roadmap announcement comes as teams prepare to compete in the 2025 International Championship, set to take place from November 14th to 18th in the Philippines with a prize pool of $1m (~£749,000) on the line.

Interestingly, the top three teams from the KIC will advance to the Challenger Cup 2025, a pinnacle event for the game in China.

Honor of Kings is one of the most popular games of all time, particularly due to its huge player base in China.

The X account for the game has revealed that the titles under Honor of Kings, which include the Chinese version and Arena of Valor, have surpassed 260 million monthly active users in 2025.

With its global launch, the game is continuing to build up its player base as it competes with other mobile MOBA titles in the market such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) and Pokémon UNITE.