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Hikari Wins 2XKO at Evo Vegas 2026, Beats SonicFox/INZEM

Divyesh Moghe
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Hikari Wins 2XKO at Evo Vegas 2026, Beats SonicFox/INZEM

Kayne, Ekko, Teemo, and a man who never doubted himself. Jo’siah “Hikari” Miller went 14-1 across the weekend, fell to the losers side in Top 8, and walked out of Las Vegas with the trophy anyway. Asked afterwards if there was ever a moment he thought he might lose, his answer was one word: no.

Hikari Wins 2XKO Evo Vegas 2026 Championship, Beating SonicFox and INZEM

Hikari defeated the duo of Dominique “SonicFox” McLean and Lenwood “INZEM” Arnold in the Grand Finals of 2XKO at Evo Vegas on June 28, 2026, claiming his fourth Evo title. It is his second 2XKO major crown of the year after Evo Japan.

The losers run that decided it

The twins Toshi and Haru sent Hikari down early, which should have been the story. Instead it became the setup. He ground out a timeout win against Globo’s Teemo, then cut through 2WINZ, Poka and Supernoon without dropping a beat. SonicFox and INZEM arrived at Grand Finals unbeaten all weekend. Hikari reset the bracket 3-0 and took the second set with the duo managing a single game.

His preparation was almost rude in its specificity. “I definitely watch their VODs and habits,” he said of facing a two-player team. His practice partners for the tournament? SonicFox and INZEM.

Why this one matters for 2XKO

Gaming Nexus counted 938 entrants outlasted; esports.gg logged 1,080 registrations, making 2XKO the third-largest title at the event ahead of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Guilty Gear Strive. It was also the game’s first appearance on the Evo Main Stage, a real milestone for a Riot fighter that shed developers to layoffs and has been fighting the perception that its casual audience already left.

Hikari, for his part, is not entertaining the argument that Evo’s regional expansion has dulled Vegas. “It’s the Super Bowl of fighting games.”

Next stop is Evo France. He says he already knows which mistakes to fix, which will be news to anyone who watched him.

Evo 2026 Results: Arslan Ash Wins 8th Title, MenaRD Repeats

Divyesh Moghe
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Evo 2026 Results: Arslan Ash Wins 8th Title, MenaRD Repeats

Two men walked off the Las Vegas Convention Center stage on Sunday night holding records. One of them had to beat himself to do it.

Evo 2026 Results: Arslan Ash Wins Eighth Title as MenaRD Goes Back-to-Back

Arslan Ash won Tekken 8 and MenaRD defended Street Fighter 6 on finals day at Evo 2026, June 28. This closed out a weekend that drew 5,774 unique competitors from 50 countries across 12 titles.

Arslan’s run was not close. The Pakistani star, now competing under Twisted Minds, went 11-0 through a 1,355-player bracket without dropping a set. He beat South Korea’s Rangchu 3-2 in the Grand Final. Number eight ties the all-time Evo record. This puts him level with Justin Wong and SonicFox.

The character choice deserves a paragraph of its own. Arslan alternated between Nina Williams and Kunimitsu, released as Tekken 8’s first Season 3 DLC character on June 1. This was twenty-seven days before the event. Nobody had counterplay documented. Furthermore, nobody had frame data drilled at tournament speed. He brought a weapon the room had never held.

South Asia had more than one story on the day. Qasim Meer’s top-five finish marked continued growth for Pakistani Tekken internationally. The top four finishers: Arslan, Rangchu, LowHigh and JeonDDing—each locked direct qualification for the Esports World Cup 2026 Tekken 8 event in Paris. This event runs August 4 to 7 with a $1 million prize pool.

MenaRD’s night was messier and better television. Saul Mena II reached Grand Finals from the winners side against Riddle Order’s Shigematsu. Shigematsu won the first set 3-1 to force a bracket reset. Both players then picked Blanka. Shigematsu committed his Level 2 Super Art without securing a conversion, draining his Drive Gauge. Therefore, MenaRD punished the Burnout state with corner pressure to close the second set 3-0. Tech TimesThefightinggames

It is his fourth Evo championship and second straight in Las Vegas, from a field of 2,416 Street Fighter 6 entrants, with $40,000 for the win. No other player has won four Evo titles inside a single game era.

Full bracket breakdowns are available via EventHubs’ Evo 2026 results log. For continuing coverage of South Asian representation on the global circuit, see our esports news desk.

GTA 6 Discs Are Not Coming, Not Even Months After Launch

Aritra Patra
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GTA 6 Discs Are Not Coming, Not Even Months After Launch

Rockstar Games has no plans to release Grand Theft Auto 6 on a physical disc. That applies at launch and at any point afterward, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter.

The update puts an end to weeks of speculation about a possible disc release arriving sometime after GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026.

Why Fans Thought a GTA 6 Disc Was Coming

The confusion started after Rockstar confirmed that physical editions of GTA 6 would not include a disc. Instead, buyers get a case with a download code inside.

That decision did not sit well with fans who still buy games on disc. Some contacted Rockstar Support directly to ask if a disc version would follow later.

One reply from Rockstar Support told a fan they would be able to “acquire a physical copy during the following months.” A separate report added to the idea that a disc edition could land around December 2026.

Put together, both threads gave fans of physical media a reason to hope.

What Rockstar’s Source Actually Said

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the Rockstar Support email was real. But according to a source with knowledge of the company’s plans, the wording was being read the wrong way.

The source said the phrase “physical copy” in that email was referring to the same code-in-a-box edition Rockstar had already announced. It was not pointing to a disc.

The “following months” line was also misread. According to the source, it referred to the months after this week’s price and edition announcements, not the months after the game’s November 19 launch.

The source’s statement on a disc release was direct: there are no plans for GTA 6 discs to be printed, “not at launch, and not months after.”

What This Means for Players

Without a disc, GTA 6 will work like most modern console games. Players buy a code, download the full file, and play it from there. The case becomes more of a collector’s item than a functional product.

It also rules out reselling or trading the game once a player is finished with it. GameStop and similar retailers will not be able to stock used copies, since there is no disc to trade in.

Players can begin preloading GTA 6 starting November 12, ahead of the November 19 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

GTA 6 Leak Hints at Advanced Ray Tracing and Dynamic Weather on PS5

How to Get the Mongraal Skin in Fortnite for Free

Sonu Banerjee
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How to Get the Mongraal Skin in Fortnite for Free

British competitive Fortnite legend Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson has officially joined the ever-growing roster of Fortnite’s prestigious Icon Series in Chapter 7 Season 3, and select players can get his cosmetics without spending a dime.

Mongraal first picked up Fortnite as a teenager and rapidly climbed the ranks to become one of the most recognizable names in the game’s competitive history. Over the years, he has successfully racked up major tournament victories and has managed to build a massive following across YouTube and Twitch.

After a period away from the game, he made a full return to competitive play and has been a consistent presence ever since. Epic Games is now finally rewarding him with an Icon Series skin, and fans have the opportunity to add his cosmetics to their locker for free.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how to get the Mongraal Skin in Fortnite for free.

How to Get the Fortnite Mongraal Skin for Free

To get the Mongraal skin in Fortnite for free, players have to participate in the upcoming Mongraal Icon Cup and achieve certain placements.

For the uninitiated, the Mongraal Icon Cup runs from June 27-28, 2026, and is played exclusively in Fortnite’s Reload mode. This is a Duos-format tournament, so be sure to team up with a partner and queue through the Compete tab once the event goes live in your region.

The prize pool for the top-performing players includes the standard Mongraal skin, the Alien Onesie style, his custom back bling, the Harvester pickaxe, the Lucky Clover pickaxe, the Shing Shing Shing emote, and the Clover Crush wrap.

Players are also able to get the Elite Mongraal skin along with its accompanying Counter back bling in a broader placement window. Casual participants can obtain the “GGs Bro!” emote by earning just 8 points.

Note that the exact placement thresholds for each reward vary depending on which region you’re competing in, so check the in-game Compete tab for your specific regional cutoffs.

How to Buy the Mongraal Skin in Fortnite

For players who don’t secure a high enough placement during the cup, the Mongraal skin will also be available for purchase in the Fortnite Item Shop using V-Bucks in the near future.

While Epic Games hasn’t confirmed an exact Item Shop release date or its official price at the time of writing, Icon Series outfits have historically been priced at around 1,500 V-Bucks, with additional cosmetics available individually or as part of a bundle at a slightly higher total cost.

Fortnite Galaxy Hours Start Date and Time

Fortnite Galaxy Hours Start Date and Time

Sonu Banerjee
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Fortnite Galaxy Hours Start Date and Time

The highly anticipated Fortnite Galaxy Hours is just around the corner, and it’s all set to give players a massive boost in completing their Galaxy Sprite collection alongside other gameplay changes.

If you’re an avid Fortnite player and you’ve been working towards collecting all the Galaxy Sprites that Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 3 has to offer, then you won’t wanna miss out on this.

Fortnite Galaxy Hours: Sprite Rate Boost and Other Gameplay Changes

During the Fortnite Galaxy Hours, all players will be able to enjoy the following gameplay changes:

  • Spawn frequencies for all Galaxy Sprite variants will be boosted throughout the map.
  • Players will spawn in with a Firework Flare Gun and a Self-Revive Device.
  • All active fishing spots on the map will be turned into Golden Fishing Spots.
  • Campfire healing will be significantly increased.

Now that you’re aware of all the gameplay modifiers during the event, let’s take a look at when exactly the Fortnite Galaxy Hours will take place.

Fortnite Galaxy Hours Start Date and Time

Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite Galaxy Hours will take place on June 27, 2026, with two separate sessions to give players more time to tune in.

Each session will run for two full hours, which is double the length of earlier Sprite Power Hours, and will give players much more room to hunt down their favorite Sprites.

Below, we have listed the exact start times for the upcoming Fortnite Galaxy Hours:

  • Session 1: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET
  • Session 2: 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET

Can’t figure out what that means for your region? Here’s the full breakdown for Session 1 across major time zones:

Time ZoneSession 1 Window
Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Central Daylight Time (CDT)1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Western European Summer Time (WEST)7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Eastern European Summer Time (EEST)9:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Indian Standard Time (IST)11:30 PM – 1:30 AM (June 27–28)
China Standard Time (CST)2:00 AM – 4:00 AM (June 28)
Japanese Standard Time (JST)3:00 AM – 5:00 AM (June 28)
Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)4:00 AM – 6:00 AM (June 28)

Note that Session 2 kicks off exactly seven hours after Session 1.

Once a session goes live, you’ll be able to tell by the fact that you will start spawning in with the Firework Flare Gun and Self-Revive Device, and every fishing spot on the island will be glowing gold. If those changes aren’t showing up, the window hasn’t opened yet, so keep an eye on the in-lobby countdown and sit tight.

That’s everything you need to know about the Fortnite Galaxy Hours start date and time.

S1mple Banned by Ukrainian Esports Federation

Sarjyo Mukherjee
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S1mple Banned by Ukrainian Esports Federation

Legendary Counter-Strike player Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has been suspended by the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) in light of recent geopolitical situations for playing with Russian player electronic, a move that has sparked a debate across the community, with fans heavily criticising the move.

The official statement confirms that several players hailing from Ukraine have been banned, including but not limited to s1mple for playing alongside Russian players for BC.Game until June 2027. This move will stop the superstar AWPer from playing in any tournaments organised by the UESF and prevent him from representing Ukraine in all national team competitions.

This decision from the UESF is largely motivated by top sporting figures of Ukraine showing restraint in publicly interacting with Russians despite the ongoing war. Russian player Denis “electroNic” Sharipov has spent over a decade playing with s1mple in NAVI and is now continuing his partnership with him in BC.Game, which is serving as the reason behind this ban.

The official statement follows:

The banned players will be unable to benefit from the support provided by the federation and will not be able to compete in tournaments organized by the federation.

  • s1mple: For being on the same team as the Russian player electroNic.
  • zont1x: For playing on the Team Spirit roster, which includes Russian players.
  • s1zzi: For having worn the Spirit Academy jersey in the past.

While this ban has little to no effect on the careers of these players, given that UESF is not known to host any notable tournaments that would serve as a career pathway for them, it is therefore pointless in the grand scheme of things. Despite these regional bans, these players are allowed to compete in notable Counter-Strike tournaments, which will serve as a platform for their career progression.

Bracket Reset Explained: The Format Behind Evo’s Best Drama

Divyesh Moghe
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Bracket Reset Explained: The Format Behind Evo’s Best Drama

Nobody buys a ticket to watch a spreadsheet. Yet on Sunday night in Las Vegas, roughly 2,400 Street Fighter 6 entrants had been compressed down to two men on a stage, and the thing that made the room detonate was not a combo. It was a rule.

The Anatomy of a Bracket Reset: How Grand Finals Format Shapes Fighting-Game Drama

A bracket reset is what happens when the accounting refuses to lie. In double elimination, the player arriving from the winners side has never lost. The player climbing out of losers already has one defeat on the ledger. If the losers finalist wins the first set, the two are level at one loss apiece, and the tournament is honest enough to admit it has not actually produced a champion yet. So it plays again.

That is the whole mechanism. It sounds bloodless written down. Watch what it does to people.

RIDDLE ORDER’s Shigematsu, a player who spent most of his career in online brackets and local venues, took the first set off MenaRD 3-1 after losing the opening game. MenaRD had been playing M. Bison, deliberately declining the Blanka mirror that Shigematsu was daring him into. The reset stripped that choice away. Down to one set, the four-time champion picked up Blanka, and Evo got the Blanka mirror it had spent all weekend not expecting. He won it 3-0.

Here is what the format actually rewards. The losers-bracket player gets one set of live scouting against a champion under stage lights, and the winners-bracket player gets punished for the luxury of never having been tested. That is not a flaw. That is the point. A single-elimination final crowns whoever peaked on the right afternoon. A reset asks a much crueller question: now that everyone has seen you, can you still do it?

Most resets end the other way. The comeback story is the one we remember precisely because the reset so often produces one. Sunday inverted it. MenaRD absorbed the reset, changed characters mid-final, and closed without dropping a game, which is the rarer and colder kind of drama.

The bracket did not create that moment. It just refused to let him avoid it.

Read Capcom’s official Evo Las Vegas 2026 recap for round-by-round detail.

Kojicoco Defends GBVSR Crown at Evo 2026, Beats Shio

Divyesh Moghe
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Kojicoco Defends GBVSR Crown at Evo 2026, Beats Shio

Las Vegas has a habit of turning fighting game finals into coronations. On Saturday night it did it twice for the same man.

Kojicoco Wins Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising at Evo 2026, Going Back-to-Back

Matthieu “Kojicoco” Fardet is now a two-time Evo champion. The Paragon-repping American closed out Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising at Evo 2026 with a grand final win over Shio. In doing so, he defended the crown he first took in 2025. He also became the only player to win the game at Evo twice.

Getting there was not a coronation march. Kojicoco went through Monarch in winners semifinals before Shio arrived in grand finals carrying the kind of momentum that usually ends title defences. However, it did not. Evo’s own account summed it up in three words after the last hit landed: back to back.

The rest of the bracket read like a checklist of everyone who has spent two years trying to solve him. Miraias took third. Monarch, BlueSkyGuyBSG, ZanDori, Paid Actor and Insurgent filled out a top eight that was, by GBVSR standards, unusually stacked. These players were all capable of taking a set off anyone in the room.

What makes the repeat unusual is the game itself. GBVSR is a title that rewards discipline over invention. There is nowhere to hide behind gimmicks, and the field has had twelve months to study every habit Kojicoco has. He won anyway, which says something about adaptation that a highlight reel does not.

The timing could hardly be better for Cygames. The same weekend Kojicoco was lifting the trophy, the official Granblue account was busy announcing Id as a new fighter and version 2.60. They also announced a Nintendo Switch 2 release dated September 17, 2026. A defending champion and a platform expansion in the same news cycle is the sort of thing publishers plan for and rarely get.

For a game frequently written off as the quiet one on the Evo lineup, that is a strong position to be in heading into the back half of the year. The next question is a familiar one. Shio has a year to answer it.

Full bracket and match history are available on the Evo 2026 start.gg event page. For more fighting game and tournament coverage, head to TalkEsport’s news hub.

Riot Kick Partnership: The Stake Problem Riot Won’t Name

Divyesh Moghe
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Riot Kick Partnership: The Stake Problem Riot Won’t Name

Riot Games has spent years telling everyone that its official broadcasts stay clean. No betting odds on screen. No gambling logos on jerseys. Team Vitality is sponsored by Stake, and it still walks onto the LEC stage wearing the logo of a French supermarket chain instead, because Riot’s rules leave no other option.

On Thursday, Riot announced that its esports broadcasts are moving onto a platform Stake owns.

Riot Kick Partnership Puts Stake Inside the Broadcast Riot Promised to Keep Betting-Free

The deal, announced June 26, makes Kick an official broadcast partner for LoL Esports, VALORANT and Teamfight Tactics across global and regional events, excluding China and Korea. It begins with the Mid-Season Invitational, which opens June 28 in Daejeon. Riot’s Doug Watson framed it as meeting fans where they already are, pointing to LATAM, MENA, Turkey and Europe, where Kick has built its strongest base. TalkEsport covered the full announcement herRiot Kick partnership Stakee.

The part nobody in the press release wanted to write

Kick launched in early 2023 as the anti-Twitch, offering creators up to 95 percent revenue share and looser moderation. It now claims over 100 million users. It was also founded and funded by the people behind Stake, the crypto casino. That is not a rumour or an association. It is the ownership structure.

So Riot has drawn a line that says gambling money cannot touch the broadcast, then handed the broadcast to gambling money.

Riot’s answer is that nothing changes. Moderation on Kick will match Twitch and YouTube. Drops arrive the same way. The company says the goal is a “safe and positive experience for all.” On the letter of the policy, that holds. Vitality still cannot wear Stake. No sportsbook is buying an overlay.

A trajectory, not an accident

Read it alongside the past eighteen months and the shape becomes clearer. Riot opened the door to betting sponsorships. It mandated GRID data for licensed operators. Winamax and 1xBet arrived. Now the pipe carrying MSI to Latin America is owned by a casino.

None of those steps individually breaks the rule. Together they describe a direction, and it is not separation.

The uncomfortable question for Riot is not whether Kick will show odds during MSI. It will not. The question is what “betting-free” means when the venue itself is the bet.

Tyler1 vs Ludwig Evo 2026: Ludwig Wins 10-3, FGC Reacts

Divyesh Moghe
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Tyler1 vs Ludwig Evo 2026: Ludwig Wins 10-3, FGC Reacts

Evo has never needed celebrities. That was the whole argument, right up until Friday night in Las Vegas, when Ludwig Ahgren beat Tyler1 10-3 in a first-to-10 Street Fighter 6 set and the fighting game community got the ending nobody had scripted for it.

Tyler1 vs Ludwig at Evo 2026: The Exhibition That Split the FGC

The Friday Night Showdown closed Day 1 of the Evo Showcase on June 26. Tyler1 came in with hundreds of hours of ranked grinding and a Master rank behind his Guile. Ludwig came in claiming Platinum, having spent his public practice time on other characters, then walked on stage and picked Marisa. The armor did the rest. Safe jump setups Tyler1 never blocked, and a 10-3 scoreline that read less like an upset than a setup.

The result matters less than the argument it settled, or failed to settle. When Evo announced the match on April 8, the pushback was immediate: neither streamer is endemic to the FGC, and Evo’s stage is the genre’s most sacred real estate. The objection was not really about skill. It was about what a Showcase slot is for.

Ludwig answered it himself in an April stream, saying he had been paid $500,000 to compete, then arguing that critics were misreading the economics. He said some in the FGC assumed budget and opportunity costs were being diverted from the community, which he called a misunderstanding of the case. He also pointed out he was attending Evo regardless, to push Rivals of Aether II, published by his own Offbrand Games, and floated covering registration for hundreds of players to enter its bracket.

That is the uncomfortable part. The loudest critic of artificial hype would have to concede that the guy accused of importing it was also the one paying entry fees for grassroots competitors. Authenticity in 2026 esports is rarely a clean binary. Tyler1 lost the set. Whether the FGC won anything is a harder bracket to run.

Watch the full exhibition on Evo’s official channel.

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