Our No. 1 ZywOo chose a French 16-year-old AWPer Katkame for his Top 20 Bold Prediction 🇫🇷🤝

It was reported that the youngster would be a part of Vitality's academy team 👀🇫🇷

🏆 HLTV's Top 10 Teams of 2025

1) 🇫🇷 Vitality
2) 🐲 Spirit
3) 🐭 MOUZ
4) 🇲🇳 The MongolZ
5) 🇧🇷 FURIA
6) 🇸🇦 Falcons
7) 🇺🇦 NAVI
8) 🇷🇺 Aurora
9) 🗡 G2
10) 🇪🇺 FaZe

TOTY 🇫🇷 Vitality continue to occupy HLTV No. 1 as they head into the new season

🖥 Full HLTV rankings

PGL has announced the full list of participants at its first tournament of 2026, 🇷🇴 PGL Cluj-Napoca, set to take place on February 14-22 in the Romanian city.

All but two of the top 16 teams from the invitation ranking from January 5 have accepted an invitation to play at the Romanian tournament, with the exceptions being 🐲 Spirit and 🐴 Liquid.

That means teams ranked 17th and 18th, 🇩🇰 HEROIC and 🇧🇷 paiN, swooped in to grab spots at the $1.25 million competition.

🇧🇷 MIBR have announced the signings of Carlos "⁠venomzera⁠" Eduardo and Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng ahead of the season's start.

The duo will take the places of Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda and Aleksei "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev, who departed the squad at the end of 2025, with the Swede also inheriting the IGL role from the former.

Alongside the new duo, Dust2.com.br reports that the team has also snapped up G2 Ares' Nestor "⁠LETN1⁠" Tanić as their head coach.

MIBR are expected to be:

🇧🇷 Breno "⁠brnz4n⁠" Poletto
🇧🇷 Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji
🇷🇺 Klimentii "⁠kl1m⁠" Krivosheev (loan)
🇧🇷 Carlos "⁠venomzera⁠" Eduardo
🇸🇪 Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng
🇷🇸 Nestor "⁠LETN1⁠" Tanić (coach)

🇹🇷 FUT start the new BLAST Bounty season with a win against 🇪🇺 OG

🇩🇰 HEROIC have announced that Alimzhan "⁠Alkaren⁠" Bitimbay won't play for the team at the upcoming BLAST Bounty 2026 S1 due to unforeseen visa issues, with Simon "⁠yxngstxr⁠" Boije set to return to activity as his temporary replacement.

"We would like to stress that this decision is not a reflection of Alimzhan's [alkaren's] ability or character. We are working on finding a solution for the situation, and hope to see him rejoin the active lineup as soon as possible," HEROIC's statement reads.

HEROIC will face off against Friendly Campers in the first round of Bounty after the Polish squad came in as a replacement for NRG.

🇪🇺 FaZe are eliminated from BLAST Bounty as 🇸🇪 EYEBALLERS pull off the upset

🇩🇰 Astralis start their BLAST Bounty run with a victory against 🇬🇧 fnatic

🇷🇺 Aurora defeat 🇷🇺 HOTU in their BLAST Bounty opener

🇧🇷 Gaimin Gladiators have announced the signing of Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles, who will take the place of Bruno "⁠shz⁠" Martinelli after the latter was released earlier today.

In Gaimin Gladiators HEN1 will reunite with former teammates João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos and Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian, with whom he played in 🇧🇷 Imperial in 2024. HEN1 also played with felps back in 2016-2017 on Tempo Storm and Immortals.

Gaimin Gladiators are now:

🇧🇷 João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos
🇧🇷 Gabriel "⁠NEKIZ⁠" Schenato
🇧🇷 Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian
🇧🇷 Lucas "⁠bsd⁠" Luan
🇧🇷 Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles
🇧🇷 João "⁠horvy⁠" Horvath (coach)

🇪🇺 GamerLegion kick off their BLAST Bounty journey by taking down 🇺🇦 Passion UA

🇩🇰 HEROIC come out on top against Friendly Campers to pick their first win of BLAST Bounty

So did Falcons want to change or not? 🤨

Here's what our editor-in-chief said about Falcons' lack of changes on 🎙 HLTV Confirmed:

"There were so many rumours about Falcons just before [they denied making any changes] and it's not just from the random leakers, it's from people that would tell me very accurate things in the past."

✉️ ESL has announced the 24 teams invited to Pro League Season 23, which will feature a new format and kick off with two online stages from February 27 to March 9 before heading to Stockholm, Sweden for the LAN finals from March 13-15.

Reigning Season 22 champions 🇫🇷 Vitality declined their invite, as did 🇸🇦 Falcons, with 🇸🇪 Ninjas in Pyjamas and 🇺🇦 Passion UA next in line to replace them. The two declines also mean 🇷🇺 Aurora and 🇺🇦 B8 will start their run from Stage 2.

You can find the complete team list for ESL Pro League Season 23 on the attached graphics

According to Striker's sources, 🇧🇿 BCGAME was interested in buying out 🐲 Spirit's core 👀

"One thing I heard which was the craziest scenario so far was that [BCGame] tried to go to Spirit to buy the entire team/core"

🇺🇦 Monte eliminate 🇺🇦 NAVI from BLAST Bounty in the first match

🇫🇷 Vitality start their season with confidence

Quick business handled as 🇪🇸 Gentle Mates beat 🇺🇸 M80 2:0