HERO ACL 2026: Open qualifiers announced

Through a post on X, XinSai Esports has announced that the HERO ACL 2026 has officially opened registrations for open qualifiers across three sub-regions in Asia. Registrations for these open qualifiers can be accessed through the 5E Play platform. Here are the regions for open qualifiers:

• China (Hangzhou servers)

• Southeast Asia and Oceania (Singapore servers)

• Rest of Asia (Hong Kong servers)

The Southeast Asian open qualifier running on Singapore servers could potentially make it a more viable option for Indian teams over the Rest of Asian qualifiers. These open qualifiers will take place on 10th, 11th and 12th April 2026. The open qualifiers begin with best-of-one matches and switch to best-of-threes quarter-final onwards. China and Rest of Asia open qualifiers have four closed qualifier slots on the line each while Southeast Asian and Oceanic open qualifier hands out three closed qualifier spots.

The closed qualifier will take place on LAN in Shanghai, China sending the top four teams into the main event- HERO Asian Champions League 2026. The main event will operate under the ranked tier-2 banner, carrying a prize pool of $150,000 USD. The format is the main event is yet to be revealed but the winner is confirmed to receive an Esports World Cup 2026 spot. HERO ACL 2026 will serve as the Asian qualifier for the Esports World Cup.