The Esports Foundation opened applications June 11 for a creator program covering the 2026 Esports World Cup and Esports Nations Cup, with rewards the organization values at up to $2 million.

The program grants approved creators the right to rebroadcast selected tournaments from both events on their own channels. Supported platforms include Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, Huya, and CHZZK, with additional platforms planned.

Content Creators are a Big Part of Esports World Cup Broadcast

About 3,500 creators co-streamed the 2025 Esports World Cup, according to the foundation. It is targeting roughly 5,000 participants for 2026 and says the expansion is intended to reach territories and languages outside its official broadcast coverage.

Participants progress through a mission-and-leaderboard system to unlock rewards. The foundation lists those rewards as gift cards, gaming hardware and consoles, streaming-platform perks, and invitations to attend the events in person. It has not published a per-creator payment structure, and the $2 million figure refers to the total reward pool rather than guaranteed payouts.

The Esports World Cup runs July 6 through August 23, 2026, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, the event’s first edition held outside Riyadh. The Esports Nations Cup, a nation-based competition, is scheduled for Riyadh in November.

The creator program follows the foundation’s 2026 Club Partner Program, which provides $1 million in funding to each participating team.

Applications are open through the Esports World Cup’s official site.

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Indie developer Bellring Games announced a release date for Mistfall Hunter, their PvPvE extraction RPG set in a dark fantasy world.

Mistfall Hunter is set to release across Windows PC (Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on July 29th. An open beta is launching on June 14th, too.

Here’s a rundown on the new details, plus a trailer:

Mistfall Hunter drops players into the Gyldenmist as Gyldhunters: class-based warriors hunting the corroded horrors that stalk the fog. Squad up in three-player teams or push in solo, choose your class, and extract before something out there extracts you.

Meet the Withered Knight

Once they were Rose Knights of the Kingdom of Gaenaria: sworn, ceremonial, gilded. Now they are exiles, cast to the North and branded “Withered Knights.” Their armor is worn. Their honor is shattered. Their faith is not.

In Mistfall Hunter, the Withered Knight strides into the Gyldenmist with a two-handed greatsword and a chivalric code that won’t quit. The weapon’s reach is unusually long, rewarding patient spacing and clean reads. But the class is built around something more interesting than raw damage. At its heart is a sigil-and-detonation loop that turns every encounter into a setup for a payoff.

Core kit:

• Withering Sigils + Reckoning: Mark enemies in combat. Detonate the sigils at the right moment for layered damage and battlefield control.
• Parry: A precise, timing-based defensive tool. Mistime it and eat the hit. Land it and flip the exchange.
• Thorn Guide: A grappling skill that drags enemies into position, pulling targets out of formation for teammates to clean up.
• Withering Talent: The class’s defining mechanic. Suppress and grind down with Sigils, or break enemy lines at the decisive moment. Your build, your call.

The Withered Knight joins an existing roster that includes the Mercenary, Sorcerer, Blackarrow, Shadowstrix, and Seer. It slots cleanly into three-player team compositions as a tempo-setter and crowd-control specialist.

Open Beta: June 14

Mistfall Hunter opens its doors to the full community with a public open beta on Saturday, June 14 at 6:00 PM PT to June 22nd at 3am PT across Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. The open beta is the first chance for players to experience the full three-player co-op loop ahead of launch.

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Samsung Galaxy phones have had a lockdown mode for years. It’s a manual option tucked inside the power menu that disables fingerprint and face unlock and forces a PIN entry. 

It is a useful last resort for situations where someone might force you to unlock your phone with your face or finger. The problem was that most people either didn’t know it existed or never used it in the first place. One UI 9 fixes that, and it does so by removing the choice entirely.

What exactly changed in the power menu?

Spotted by SammyFans and corroborated by members of the r/oneui community on Reddit, One UI 9 Beta 2 (based on Android 17) changes how lockdown mode behaves. 

The dedicated lockdown button has been removed from the power menu altogether. In its place, you’ll see medical info, a more contextually useful option for first responders in an emergency. 

Lockdown itself hasn’t been removed; it has simply become automatic. 

The moment you open the power menu and dismiss it, One UI 9 activates lockdown. It locks the phone and disables fingerprint recognition and face unlock. The only way to unlock it is to enter the PIN, pattern, or password. 

Is this actually better or just more annoying?

I’d say that it is significantly better. The old implementation required you to think straight in a moment of stress, locate the right button, and press it before handing your phone over or, worse, having it taken from you.

The new implementation removes that cognitive burden entirely. Opening the power menu is already a natural reflex when you sense something is wrong, and reaching for the side button is instinctive. Samsung has effectively turned that instinct into a security action without any additional step needed. 

For now, the feature is live in One UI 9 Beta 2 and has not been confirmed for the stable release. Given that Samsung has not officially announced this change, it could still be modified before One UI 9’s stable release ships to the public.

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