Brazil's Legacy wins back-to-back CS Asia Championships

The CS Asia Championships 2026, one of the biggest Counter-Strike 2 tournaments in Asia, wrapped up in Shanghai on Sunday, with Legacy from Brazil defending their title and Bruno "latto" Rebelatto on the team winning a back-to-back MVP award.

The tournament gathered a total of 16 teams from over 30 countries and regions across the world to compete for a prize pool of $1 million. The games were also broadcast live in multiple languages, including Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, to reach esports fans worldwide.

In the grand final held on Sunday, the Brazilian team Legacy defeated team Falcons from Saudi Arabia 3-1 to get the trophy, with German team Mouz winning over another Brazilian team Mibr to secure third place.

The champion team described their journey at the tournament this year as a "magic" experience motivated by belief and faith in their play. Bruno "latto" Rebelatto saw Shanghai as a fantastic and special city with amazing crowds, which magically gave an impetus to their play in the grand finale.

"Being here in Shanghai and winning back-to-back is just insane. The support from people here is amazing. We just feel the energy and vibes," Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer from the team said after the victory.

Launched in 2018, the tournament organized by Perfect World Esports in Shanghai is drawing extensive attention and recognition globally. It not only provides professional players with an international stage to showcase their competitive skills and sportsmanship, but also allows domestic and global audiences to experience the unique charm of esports culture.

In recent years, Shanghai has been speeding up in building it into a global hub for esports, and is seeing an increasing number of world's top esports tournaments land in the city, including the International DotA2 Championships 2019, also known as TI9, the 2020 League of Legends World Championship (S10) and the 2024 Shanghai Counter-Strike Major.

Earlier in April, the city rolled out a slew of measures to further boost the development of gaming and esports industry, including efforts to cultivate more local esports tournaments with global influence, bring in top-tier international esports events, and provide up to 3 million yuan ($441,354) to support each event.