Sports
Tundra moves to top of Group B at DreamLeague Season 28
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Tundra Esports won twice on Thursday to rise to the top of Group B with one day left in Group Stage 1 at DreamLeague Season 28.
Tundra is the first team to reach four wins in its group, with MOUZ close behind in second. In Group A, Aurora Gaming notched another win and remains comfortably in first.
Five teams have clinched passage into Group Stage 2 with one round to spare: Aurora, PARIVISION and Team Liquid from Group A, and Tundra and MOUZ from Group B. Either BetBoom Team or OG will earn the last bid from Group A when they square off on Friday. Four teams have a shot at the last two spots in Group B.
The $1 million Dota 2 event features 16 teams, starting in a round-robin stage split into two groups of eight teams. All series consist of two games, and the top four teams from each group advance to Group Stage 2, a single round robin featuring best-of-three matches.
From there, four teams will compete in a double-elimination playoff bracket Feb. 28-March 1 with best-of-three matches until the grand final, which will be best-of-five.
The championship team will receive $250,000 in prize money and a $40,000 club reward. The runner-up side will get $100,000 and a $30,000 club reward.
On Thursday, Tundra swept past Execration and Natus Vincere. In the first match, Tundra won in 29 minutes on green and 43 minutes on red; then, they took down NaVi in 35 minutes on green and 31 minutes on red. Russian Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko had a nearly perfect day, averaging a 9.0-0.5-14.5 kills-deaths-assists differential against Execration and then coming out unscathed with a 9.5-0.0-13.0 KDA against Natus Vincere.
MOUZ had a win over Natus Vincere and a tie with GamerLegion to secure second place and clinch a spot in the next stage. The only other 2-0 result in Group B came when Team Spirit beat Execration in 30 minutes on red and 27 minutes on green.
In Group A, Aurora’s fifth win of the stage came against OG in 39 minutes on red and 34 minutes on green. Team Liquid also beat OG (37 minutes on green, 38 minutes on red) to pave its way into the next stage, and BetBoom positioned itself in fourth when it beat Yakult Bros in 36 minutes on green and 42 minutes on red.
Group Stage 1 continues through Friday.
DreamLeague Season 28 Group Stage 1, Group A standings (W-T-L, map record)
1. Aurora Gaming, 5-1-0, 11-1
2. PARIVISION, 3-3-0, 9-3
3. Team Liquid, 3-2-1, 8-4
4. BetBoom Team, 3-1-2, 7-5
5. OG, 2-1-3, 5-7
T6. paiN Gaming, 1-1-4, 3-9
T6. Yakult Brothers, 1-1-4, 3-9
8. Team Yandex, 0-2-4, 2-10
DreamLeague Season 28 Group Stage 1, Group B standings (W-T-L, map record)
1. Tundra Esports, 4-2-0, 10-2
2. MOUZ, 3-3-0, 9-3
T3. Team Falcons, 2-3-1, 7-5
T3. Xtreme Gaming, 2-3-1, 7-5
T5. Natus Vincere, 2-1-3, 5-7
T5. Team Spirit, 1-3-2, 5-7
7. GamerLegion, 0-3-3, 3-9
8. Execration, 1-0-5,2-10
Dream League Season 28 prize pool, with prize money and club reward
1. $250,000, $40,000
2. $125,000, $30,000
3. $80,000, $25,000
4. $60,000, $20,000
5. $45,000, $15,000
6. $35,000, $15,000
7. $30,000, $12,500
8. $25,000, $12,500
9-10. $20,000, $10,000
11-12. $17,500, $10,000
13-14. $15,000, $10,000
15-16. $10,000, $10,000
–Field Level Media
Sports
Super Bowl LX ratings given late boost, still shy of record
Feb 4, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; NBC Peacock television camera with Super Bowl LX logo at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Nielsen adjusted the ratings for Super Bowl LX, bumping the final viewership numbers to 125.6 million.
The Seattle Seahawks’ victory over the New England Patriots was originally reported to have averaged 124.9 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and other digital platforms. Nielsen said the update was to due a Big Data provider not properly collecting data from its devices on game day.
The new figure still makes Super Bowl LX the second-most watched in history, trailing the record 127.7 million who watched last year’s Super Bowl. However, the Feb. 8 game, won 29-13 by Seattle, was the most-watched show in NBC history and drew a combined average household rating of 39.7.
–Field Level Media
Sports
All-Star events draw biggest audience in 24 years
Feb 15, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Team USA Stars guard Anthony Edwards (5) of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrates with the MVP trophy after the championship game during the 75th NBA All Star Game at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images The NBA’s All-Star festivities drew their largest viewing audience in nearly a quarter-century last weekend, the league announced Thursday.
The league said 46 million people in the United States watched All-Star weekend across the NBC platforms and ESPN, the most since 2011 and more than triple last season.
Capped off by Sunday’s reformatted USA vs. World mini-tournament of four 12-minute games, the weekend also featured Friday’s celebrity game and Rising Stars event and Saturday’s 3-Point Contest, Shooting Stars and Slam Dunk Contest.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was named MVP of Sunday’s 75th NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. Edwards led the USA Stars to a 47-21 win against USA Stripes in the final.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Prez Charlie Baker still wants to ad at-large bids to NCAA Tournament
NCAA president Charlie Baker still envisions an expanded NCAA Tournament field. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images NCAA president Charlie Baker rolled out the red carpet ahead of the Selection Committee exercise to set the top 16 seeds in the men’s tournament field this weekend and couldn’t help but dream of a bigger dance.
Baker and members of the Selection Committee are running their annual bracket stacking drill to be released Saturday with the public finding out where the NCAA sees the top 16 seeds in the tournament at this stage of the season.
The field will not increase in size in March. The men’s and women’s tournament field remains at 68 for 2026. But 2027 could bring a boost in field size to 72 or more, Baker has said.
“I think there’s some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand,” Baker said on Thursday in a session with select media, as detailed by tournament TV partner CBS, a network making headlines about coverage — and non-coverage — of news events and interviews. “You have to remember that some of the folks we’re talking to are going through some pretty interesting corporate conversations of their own. And I think for us, we accept and acknowledge that, but we’re still talking.”
Debate remains around how to structure a bracket growing by as many as eight spots. Baker said the number of at-large bids awarded — currently 36 — is not enough. But he doesn’t want to fiddle with the 32 at-large bids going to conference and conference tournament champions to satisfy the “bubble” teams that might be labeled the “last four out” on Selection Sunday.
“It puts some other really good teams that probably might belong there,” Baker said of the push to increase at-large bids. “But it also protects the AQs, right? Because I don’t want to end up in a situation where people say we need to do something about the AQs because we’re keeping too many good teams out of the tournament.”
–Field Level Media
Super Bowl LX ratings given late boost, still shy of record
NYT Strands hints, answers for February 20, 2026
