Esports at the Asian Games 2026 (Aichi-Nagoya): the 11 medal events, dates and venue — League of Legends is in, Dota 2 is out. Facts and data angle by Batru.
Esports returns as a full medal sport at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games: 11 medal events across 13 titles, September 23 – October 2, 2026 at the Aichi International Exhibition Center. League of Legends is on the program; Dota 2 is not.
The League of Legends event runs September 29 – October 1, with the medal matches on the final day — a single-elimination bracket plus a bronze-medal match.
Eight national teams are entered: South Korea (the defending Hangzhou champion) and Chinese Taipei qualified directly as Hangzhou medalists, while Hong Kong, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, India, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia advanced from the June qualifier in Kuala Lumpur.
China — the 2018 champion and a Hangzhou medalist, which held a direct spot — did not enter a team in the League of Legends event; no official explanation has been published.
As at Hangzhou 2022, players compete for their countries — 23 nations are entered — and esports medals count in the official Asian Games tally. League of Legends returns after South Korea took the Hangzhou gold.
Dota 2 is not on the 2026 program. It was a medal event in Hangzhou, and industry reporting attributed the omission to production and broadcast constraints: Dota matches can run anywhere from twenty minutes to well over an hour, which is hard to schedule for broadcast windows.
National-roster events are where draft-level analysis matters most: one-off teams have no club history, so heroes, drafts and player pools carry the signal. That is the lens Batru applies to national-team competition across our covered games.
September 23 to October 2, 2026, at the Aichi International Exhibition Center in Tokoname, as part of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
11 medal events across 13 titles: League of Legends, Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, PUBG Mobile, Pokémon Unite, Identity V, Naraka: Bladepoint, eFootball, Gran Turismo 7, Puyo Puyo Champions, and a Competitive Martial Arts event combining Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and The King of Fighters XV.
No. Dota 2 was a medal event at Hangzhou 2022 but is not on the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 program; industry reporting pointed to its unpredictable match length as a broadcast and scheduling challenge.
September 29 to October 1, 2026 — a single-elimination bracket with a bronze-medal match, with the gold-medal match on October 1.
Eight national teams: South Korea and Chinese Taipei qualified directly as Hangzhou 2022 medalists, and Hong Kong, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, India, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia came through the June 2026 qualifier in Kuala Lumpur.
No. China, the 2018 champion and a Hangzhou 2022 medalist, did not enter a team in the League of Legends event; no official explanation has been published. China does compete in other esports events at the Games.
Yes — since Hangzhou 2022, esports is a full medal sport, and results count toward the official national medal tally.
Batru is an independent data site and is not affiliated with the Olympic Council of Asia or the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 organizing committee. Details reflect official announcements as of September 2026 and may change.
Tier shifts, counters and hero pairings across the games Batru covers.
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