The shortlist for 2026's Golden Joystick Awards is out and you can vote now https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/events-conferences/the-shortlist-for-2026s-golden-joystick-awards-is-out-including-pc-game-of-the-year-and-you-can-vote-now/
The shortlist for the 44th annual Golden Joystick Awards has been announced, including 10 nominees for PC Game of the Year such as Big Walk, Crimson Desert, Escape from Tarkov, and Valheim. To qualify, games had to be released between November 1, 2025, and September 25, 2026. Voting closes on October 23, and winners will be revealed at a ceremony on November 11.
Aurora, Vitality, MOUZ, and Spirit all secured 2-0 victories in the ESL Pro League Season 24 quarter-finals to keep their title hopes alive. Today they battle for the two grand final spots, with Aurora facing Vitality and MOUZ taking on Spirit. Both Vitality and MOUZ remain unbeaten in the tournament.
1win swept Spirit 2-0 in the ESL Pro League 24 group-stage decider to reach the playoffs with a 3-1 record. The series opened with a 13-5 win on Cache and closed with a 13-9 victory on Anubis. Spirit dropped into the 2-2 bracket, with its next opponent to be announced later.
Valve has updated its tournament operation requirements exceptions list to assign BC.Game to the Asia region and make the team eligible for a Major invitation. The exception comes after Valve adjusted its VRS region swap rules, which had disqualified BC.Game from a Major qualification run. BC.Game's spot at the Singapore Major is now all but confirmed.
AION 2 reached 397,905 concurrent players on Steam for the first time, with a 72.39% rating. SteamDB linked to the game's Steam charts page.
Valve released its monthly Regional Standings update on Monday, with Spirit retaining No. 1 while Legacy surged to second after winning FISSURE Playground 3. G2 returned to the top five and Astralis re-entered the top 10 for the first time since June. The October ranking will determine invites for BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 2 (November 9-15) and PGL Bucharest 2027 (January 17-24).
Professional Tekken 8 player SuperBrine reached God of Destruction with Alisa while fully blindfolded with a sleep mask, streaming the run across seven Twitch broadcasts from June to early October. He said he relied on fighting game fundamentals, reading how players at different ranks behave, and Tekken 8's audio cues, and stressed the challenge was not meant as criticism of the game.