Esports beyond the big two: the CS2, Rocket League, Dota 2 and fighting-game events to watch this winter

As of 25 October 2026. League of Legends Worlds finishes on 14 November and the VALORANT Game Changers Championship on 1 November, but the competitive calendar doesn’t stop there. Here’s what else is worth a slot this winter, with dates from official organisers wherever we could find them. Line-ups and match times for most of these aren’t confirmed yet, and we’ve said so where that’s the case.

Counter-Strike 2: PGL Major Singapore (24 November – 13 December)

The big one. The PGL Major Singapore is the second CS2 Major of 2026 and the first Counter-Strike Major in Southeast Asia. According to the official site, 32 teams play across three Swiss stages:

• Stage 1: 24–27 November
• Stage 2: 28 November – 1 December
• Stage 3: early December (the official Major site and HLTV list slightly different end dates, so check closer to the time)
• Playoffs: 10–13 December at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with a best-of-five grand final

Singapore is UTC+8, eight hours ahead of UK time in winter, so expect UK viewers to get the action from the morning into the afternoon, and the Americas overnight. The full team list and match times weren’t final at the time of writing.

Rocket League: the RLCS Club Championship Kick-Off in London (9–13 December)

The 2026 RLCS season has finished: the World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas, ran from 15 to 20 September. The 2027 season starts with a new club format. Online regional Club Kick-Off Opens run first: MENA 12–14 November, North America and South America 13–15 November, and Europe 20–22 November. They lead to the RLCS Club Championship Kick-Off 2027, a 24-team event at the Copper Box Arena in London from 9 to 13 December. That’s a rare big Rocket League event in a UK time zone. The 24 teams aren’t decided yet, because the Opens haven’t been played.

Dota 2: BLAST Slam and DreamLeague

According to esports.gg’s 2026 calendar, Dota 2’s remaining big events are BLAST Slam IX (20–29 November) and DreamLeague Season 30 (2–13 December), the latter part of the ESL Pro Tour. Formats and match times for both are best checked on the organisers’ sites nearer the date. We haven’t confirmed the team lists.

Fighting games: the big finals arrive in the new year

If you’re waiting for fighting games’ biggest stages, note the dates. They’re not this side of Christmas:

• TEKKEN World Tour 2026 Global Finals: 14–17 January 2027, at Evo Singapore, per Bandai Namco.
• CAPCOM CUP 13 and the Street Fighter League World Championship 2026: 10–14 March 2027 at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, per Capcom.

So this winter is really qualifying season for fighting games: the last regional events and online qualifiers decide who travels. Follow the official tour sites for those dates, because they shift more often than the finals do.

Planning your winter

Put roughly: Worlds and Game Changers carry you to mid-November, Rocket League’s Opens fill the gap, and then the CS2 Major and the RLCS event in London overlap in the second week of December. That’s a busy week if you follow both. For live times on the big two right now, see our how-to-watch guide.

If you’re kitting out a corner for a winter of watching and playing, our sister site What2Buy has UK guides to gifts for PC gamers and the best mechanical keyboards for gaming.