The CS Asia Championships 2026 will see sixteen of Counter-Strike’s elite teams play in Shanghai, China, in the final Tier 1 tournament before the IEM Cologne Major.
Insider Gaming has all the details you need to know to enjoy the event, but make sure to set your alarm, as Shanghai’s timezone is UTC+8, so games start early.
CS Asia Championships 2026 Schedule and Format
The CS Asia Championships has the following schedule:
- May 20-24
- Group stage: May 20-22
- Playoffs: May 22-24
The format sees a rare return of Best of 1s to the Tier 1 scene:
Group Stage:
- Two groups of eight teams, double-elimination.
- The top team from each group advances directly to the semi-finals.
- Group runners-up and lower-bracket winners advance to the quarter-finals.
- All matches are best-of-three, except for the first round Best of 1s.
Playoffs:
- Six-team single-elimination bracket.
- All matches are best-of-three, except the Grand Final, which is a best-of-five.
- Third/Fourth place decider to be played before the Grand Finals.
CS Asia Championship 2026 Teams
Sixteen teams are competing at the CS Asia Championship 2026 tournament this year. In contrast to last year, the tournament is a Tier 1 tournament, so there are some big names in the field, including:
- Parivision
- Falcons
- MOUZ
- The MongolZ
- Team Liquid
- B8
- 3DMAX
- Legacy
- NRG
- paiN Gaming
- M80
- BC.Game
- MIBR
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- TYLOO
- Lynn Vision
The groups and opening for the CS Asia Championships 2026 matches are:
Group A:
- Legacy vs NRG
- MOUZ vs Tyloo
- Falcons vs BC.Game
- paiN vs M80
Group B:
- 3DMAX vs MIBR
- Parivision vs Liquid
- The MongolZ vs Lynn Vision
- B8 vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Prize Pool:
The CS Asia Championships 2026 is a $1,000,000 prize pool tournament, distributed as such:
- Prize Pool: $1,000,000
- Club Share: $600,000
- First place: $400,000 ($250,000 of which is Club Share)
CS Asia Championship 2026 Location
Perfect World is sticking to its home city as the CS Asia Championships 2026 will take place at the Shanghai Yuanshen Gymnasium, Shanghai. Perfect World hosted the Shanghai 2024 Major in Shanghai, and are rumoured to be hosting another Major in the City in 2027.
How to Watch the CS Asia Championships 2026
Perfect World and PGL have a broadcast partnership, meaning the English broadcast is will be on PGL’s streams:
CS Asia Championships 2026 Predictions
After getting to the Grand Final of PGL Astana, Team Falcons will be hoping to build on Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen’s strong start as IGL to have more success at the event, starting with a Best of 1 against Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev’s BC.Game.
While the team has been reluctant to put pressure on winning trophies, there is no Team Spirit here to stop them, nor a Furia that ran them close in Astana’s quarter-finals.
Still, the roster will be more focused on growing understanding and protocols than silverware. It will be how Falcons look in the game that may be more important to their IEM Cologne 2026 Major chances than winning scrappy matches.
The MongolZ seem to be the main challengers, still enjoying strong form as a playoff contender, but rarely getting big wins in 2026. The Mongolian roster will relish a weaker field in front of an Asian crowd, as they seek their first triphy of 2026.
The MongolZ ran Falcons close in PGL Astana’s groups, with Falcons winning in Map 3 overtime to close out the series. Can The MongolZ go one better in Shanghai?
MOUZ will continue to test their roster with Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius and Adrian ‘xelex’ Vincze after a third-place finish at PGL Astana. Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman seemed to elevate his game even more as IGL, but not everyone shone for MOUZ under his leadership.
Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi especially suffered a poor showing, and xertioN fell apart in their semi-final once again on the stage.
Parivision suffered a bruising PGL Astana, with open talk of roster changes from coach, Dastan ‘dastan’ Aqbaev. The good news is that they start against a hopeless Liquid roster.
That means that the Brazilian rosters may be taking Parivision’s usual spot as dark horse for the event. Both paiN and Legacy had strong showings at IEM Atlanta, taking 5th/6th and 3rd, respectively.
paiN defeated FaZe and FUT at the event, with Legacy winning their group by defeating M80, Astralis, and eventual winners, NAVI.
Legacy are defending their CAC crown after winning the 2025 iteration of the event, but the 2025 event was officially designated as a Tier 2 event, featuring a far weaker field than this time around.
Prediction: Team Falcons
Who do you think will win the CS Asia Championships 2026? Let us know on our Discord Server.
For other news, see the details of Insider Gaming’s Showcase!
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
More from Darragh Harbinson
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