We understand that all good things must eventually come to an end. It is with heavy hearts that we have now reached the conclusion of the league, but we are grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of such a special community for the past few years. We want to thank each and every one of you who has been a part of CAL. Your passion and dedication to the game have made it the incredible and memorable experience it has been. Your enthusiasm and willingness to grind have inspired us, and we are forever grateful to have had the chance to share in this journey with you. We are proud of all ..read more

For the first time in a long time, we have some major CAL news to share: the league will be winding down at the end of season 51. It’s been a wild ride, to say the least. When we created CAL, we envisioned a league where players could compete, improve, and eventually be noticed by teams. It was our small contribution to the Asian CS:GO ecosystem. CAL was thriving at the start, with a lot of activity and player interest. With time, the interest in CS:GO in Asia has seen a significant decline. To be completely honest, our own interests have shifted elsewhere as well. It’s still sad to end suppor ..read more

A Short Update We’ll keep it short and sweet for this update, because to be honest, not much happened in CAL-land during October. The only division that had games going was CAL India Division 1 and for the third season in a row, it was rev3nnn that bested the field to end up at the top of the leaderboard. A big congratulations to rev3nnn from the CAL team on your remarkable streak. We’re now entering our 50th season. It’s crazy how time flies (this is a common observation in these articles nowadays… we know). In the competitive world, the Rio Major is currently going on. We’re rooting a bit ex ..read more

A Trip Down Memory Lane CAL has turned four years old. When I think about it, it’s absolutely insane; who would have believed we’d get this far? So, instead of lamenting the current situation of CAL and CS:GO in Asia, let’s go back in time and take a trip down memory lane. When Nikhil, Gad, and I started CAL in October of 2018, we had a large number of players of all skill levels show up. They all united under the CAL umbrella, from established Asian professional players to joyful beginners. CAL, like most good things, introduced a sense of excitement to the scene while also providing somethin ..read more

August was a particularly competitive month in India’s premier division. It was great to see players play more than 150 games in a season once more. Queue times decrease and more games occur when players are eager to play – it simply becomes a better experience for everybody. Let’s cross our fingers that the momentum continues in September. Unfortunately, there is also some bad news from the 47th season of CAL. FACEIT flagged a group of players in CAL’s 3rd SEA division for entering games quickly and surrendering them to gain ELO and leaderboard progress. All of the players involved have recei ..read more

The open qualification process for the IEM Rio Major 2022 will kick off on August 15, with teams from China, the Middle East, Oceania, and the Rest of Asia able to sign up. The qualification process for Valve’s 18th Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will follow the same structure as the PGL Antwerp Major. Each sub-region in Asia-Pacific (China, Middle East, Oceania, and Rest of Asia) will feature two open qualifiers where participants will battle it out in a best-of-one, single-elimination bracket, with the exception of the best-of-three decider match, for four closed qualifier spots.  Fro ..read more

Another CAL season has come and gone. While we’d like to keep the CAL update short and sweet this time (because there’s only so much to write about), we do have some news from the Asian CS:GO scene that should excite teams and players looking for competition. But first, let’s finish up the CAL season in July, shall we? The fact that both India Division 1 and 2 had games in July was a pleasant surprise. In July, oleGamingYT took first place in Division 1, with -STAN-iwnl taking second place. Keep up the good work, gentlemen! We’re not making any changes to CAL for our August season, so the same ..read more

Fintech platform Cake DeFi is partnering with FACEIT to host weekly free-to-enter tournaments both in APAC and India, beginning on July 24 and ending on September 11, featuring a total prize pool of more than $9,000 in crypto prizes. The Cake DeFi Weekly Crypto Tournament, featuring a total prize pool of more than $9,000, will start its inaugural week on July 24 with $695 in DFI cryptocurrency up for grabs. The partnership between these two giant companies saw yet another investment made to strengthen and elevate the Asian CS:GO scene, where they will routinely organize weekly and bi-weekly to ..read more

We’re back with our monthly update article, where we keep you up to date on everything CAL and the state of CS:GO in Asia (hint: it’s not great). The 45th season of CAL was a slow one, with little activity across our divisions. The only active division was India Division 2. During the first weekend of June, we held the final event in our CAL x Gamers Without Borders series, which was played on Mumbai servers. Unsurprisingly, NEXGA took first place for the third time in a row by beating KingPins in the grand final 2-0 (16-12 Inferno & 16-11 Dust2), completing the CAL x GWB trifecta. They wi ..read more

Malaysia-based NEXGA has officially unveiled its Southeast Asian CS:GO roster.  MALAYSIA – Jonathan “BUUMZK1NG” Yap, a former Malaysian coach of the 2019 WESG Malaysia Regional Finals winners Darkhorse, has officially announced the creation of his own esports organization, NEXGA, an abbreviation for Next Generation of Aces. According to the announcement, the organization will first concentrate on building its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster further before expanding to Riot’s first-person shooter later on.  ALSO READ: CAL Season 45 – Chugging Along! “Growing up and playing a ..read more