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This update rebuilds the loan system from the ground up, gives retiring players a second life on the coaching staff, and makes the transfer screens tell you what is actually happening.
Retiring players can now become free-agent coaches or analysts — a familiar name leaving the server can show up again on the staff market.
Two-way profile links between a retired player and their new staff card, so you can follow a career across both roles.
Reworked retirement letters, and a retiring player now keeps their photo on the staff card.
Fixed retired-player profile links going dead after moving back and forth between profiles.
One rule, one price, one language. Five connected problems fixed:
One loan term rule. Loan length used to be decided in four different places at once — the popup, the AI, the pricing and the signed contract could all disagree. Loan terms are now a single 3–18 month. Old saves are repaired on load: loan offers are re-priced for the term they will actually be signed for.
Loan counter-offers are priced as loans. AI sellers used to answer a loan request with half the purchase price — an unpayable counter by design. Purchases keep their old minimum ask.
Loan e-mails speak about longer reply with purchase wording and accuse you of "undervaluing the transfer" after you asked to borrow a player. Every line that names the deal now has a loan variant in all 11 languages.
AI buyers accept an ask instead of mailing your own terms back at you.
Loan requests come from clubs that make sense. Borrowers are now filtered by caliber and squad size, so requests no longer arrive from near-empty clubs 250 places below you — and targets nobody couldburn the whole request windowin silence.
Loans are no longer disguised as purchases in the transfer list. Loan rows now carry a "Loan" caption under the destination club and the return date under the transfer date.
Upcoming agreed transfers are now shown on the World Transfers tab.
Fixed: a loaned player could be sold or loaned on to a third club by the club that only borrowed him.
Men can no longer join AI women's teams. Also added "Female" team option on EMDB to differentiate men teams from female teams even without players in them.
Added the IPL tournament.
Added career session analytics.
Test-suite corrections and internal housekeeping.
We are getting closer to our big August update, so this one is the last (probably) till August.
Optimized maps and reworked the map loading process.
Reworked the visuals of Anubis.
Updated water textures on Anubis and Inferno.
Reworked side balance (T/CT) on all maps.
Slightly reduced comeback chance.
Reworked the formulas for how player attributes influence matches.
IGL leadership skill and map practice level now have a much stronger impact on team performance.
Reworked the formula for quick match odds.
Reduced the impact of Basecamp. (Applies to new careers)
Reduced the bonus from morale.
AI players can now both grow and decline over time. Young players are more likely to develop, while older players gradually lose form.
Attribute growth from training is now faster.
Player potential can now be hand-authored in the database and is shown as stars on the player profile.
Reworked how does match results impact player's morale state.
Player form and season impact are now factored into transfer value.
Clubs that are clearly out of their depth no longer bid on listed players.
AI academies no longer sign players older than 21. They can sign up to 23 y.o. in rare cases when they have less than 5 players.
AI clubs now sign young free agents — promising youngsters no longer sit unsigned for years.
Clubs will more actively ask for a loan of your player.
Fixed: a rejected negotiation no longer locks the player out of the entire market — only the releasing club is blocked.
Fixed: players whose contract simply expired are no longer locked from signing.
Fixed: loaned players left without a club no longer receive an unnecessary waiting period.
Added variety to the size and starting composition of team staff.
AI teams now top up their staff monthly and hire available specialists from the market instead of creating new ones.
Every AI club tier now has a PR manager and a physiotherapist.
Staff negotiation emails now state the exact wage the candidate expects.
Added a new club: EQX (Equinox Gaming, Portugal) with a full roster — Batuca, ditrip, KiLLx, minD, miserita, wrong.
Added a new club: Trident Esports (Australia).
Added 25 new free agents:
Italy — -Angelo, -Longdd, adh4rt, at1picaL, boosta-, Brontolo666, Forwardp, jonyzera, LTH, maj1me, rave666, ryfragz, satybgohard, Scr0cc0, TheLegenDDDD, Xengood, Zeanyy, zoom_iwnl
Portugal — ZPX
Norway — Saasinho, Sagøy
France — YouKnow
Israel — -Lior
Japan — 11kai
Botswana — vyrr
Updated details for several existing players.
Sponsor objectives "Finish TOP 3" have been changed to "Finish TOP 4".
Fixed an issue where sponsors would not return to active status after their lockout period ended.
Major invitations are now sent if the team is in the TOP 32 among teams with a full roster.
Financial reports now display the monthly bonus.
Added notifications for errors in the save system.
Improved detection of incorrect system behavior, reducing the risk of losing your progress.
The game now automatically creates save backups: the previous save and a save from the start of the in-game month.
Recovery is available both from the career selection menu and in case the current save fails to load. ! The first launch after this update may take longer, as old saves are migrated to the new format. Saves that were already corrupted or had issues before this update due to any OS related issues most likely cannot be recovered.
Fixed player and staff gender — the game no longer refers to everyone with female pronouns.
Fixed raw placeholders showing instead of words in the post-transfer cooldown email.
Fixed the intro hanging when the required video codec is missing on the system.
Hello everyone, yet another little patch fix.
Smarter AI offers — AI counter-offers are now capped to the seller's asking price and the buyer's budget, so you'll no longer see unrealistic numbers on the table.
No more instant buy-backs — clubs can no longer immediately re-sign a player they just sold to you. Sold means sold.
Correct rejection messages — when a selling club turns down your counter, you'll now see the right reason instead of a misleading "insufficient offer" message meant for the buyer's side.
Fixed unsignable top staff — high-tier staff members that could not be signed are now available as intended.
Fairer match damage — in-match damage is now accurately assigned to the player.
Improvements - other improvements.
Various bug fixes and internal test coverage improvements for more reliable transfer logic.
Next patch will contain more balance features, transfer and simulation enhancements. Thank you for your time.
Esports Manager 2026 has been out for just over a week, and we're blown away by the support. At its peak, more than 10,000 of you were playing at the same time. The game landed on Steam's Popular New Games list, and the launch rush was bigger than anything we'd planned for— so many of you jumped in at once. Thank you for bearing with us through the surge; seeing that many managers on day one meant the world to us.
We're reading every review and every discussion here on Steam, plus all the bug reports and feedback on Discord. Most of what has shipped since launch came straight from your reports.
Patch 1.0.1 (July 7): A more alive transfer market — AI clubs now loan players to and from each other, not just buy and sell, and make smarter squad decisions. (Under the hood: loans respect player consent, regions, and limits.) Full patch notes
Patch 1.0.2 (July 11): More competitive, believable matches — tighter sim pathing on every map, smarter rotations, better map bans, and reworked buy logic. Full patch notes
Hot-fix (July 12): Fixed retired players getting stuck on your roster — and affected saves now repair themselves automatically on load. Full patch notes
Hot-fix #2 (July 15): Fixed retired players getting stuck on your roster — and affected saves now repair themselves automatically on load. Full patch notes
We update demo with the latest changes from release version, so take a look.
Simulation improvements (all kind of, from movements to tactics)
Transfer system (on a way to make it more real)
Adding T3-T4 tournaments - we know it's the most asked feature
Creating academy - also on our radar.
Saves problem - some of you might experience problems with saves, we are investigating and will fix this.
Crashes - please ping us so we can check what happened.
The best places for feedback and bug reports are the Steam Discussions and our Discord. We read everything.
AI teams now request loans for your players. When a club can't afford a full transfer, it may ask to loan your player instead. Requests are gated by eligibility (contract, no sub-loans, gender, nationality, join cooldown, a 2-in / 2-out loan limit) and only clubs of comparable strength will ask.
AI teams no longer sell players they hold on loan. A loaned-in player belongs to his parent club, so he can't be listed for transfer or fire-sale.
Loan emails now read correctly. Deal confirmations, loan requests and counter-offers are no longer worded as "transfers" — proper loan text everywhere, across all 11 languages.
Fixed silent accept on loan deals. If you edited the loan duration in your reply, the deal no longer closes quietly on the AI's original terms — it now routes as a full counter-offer.
Contract-type dropdown is locked when you respond to an incoming bid on your own player, defaulting to the type the AI offered (it stays editable for your own outgoing offers).
New-player inflow raised from ~3 to ~30 per year. The free-agent pool used to dry up, leaving AI rosters empty by year 3.
Elite staff won't join weak clubs for money alone. Top free-agent staff now refuse a low-prestige club regardless of wage, with a clear prestige-based decline reason (all languages).
Will be re-uploaded today with latest updates.
This is tiny patch that we wanted to release before the next big one.
Retired players stuck in squads — retired players are no longer left sitting on a team roster with every sell/contract/release action locked. Existing saves self-heal on load, so any player affected by this is repaired automatically.
Retired-player complaint spam — retired squad members no longer send wage-demand or playing-time complaints.
Career-start market freeze now works both ways — during the 1- or 6-month starting market freeze, AI clubs will no longer send offers for your players. You can still make outgoing offers at any time.
Smarter transfer realism — significantly decreased the chance of world-class players leak into bottom-tier clubs. Stars who want out of a top team resist extreme prestige downgrades, weak clubs can't grab elite free agents far above their level, and much stronger contracted stars can't slip into a weak roster.
German (de-DE) — improved menu, labels and prompts: neutral CFO termination text, Globale ERS-Rangliste, clearer training-map limit message, plus Startseite, Nachrichten, Spitzname, Vertragsende, Betriebskosten and transfer-list / termination actions.
Hello everyone, first of all - thank you for playing our game and giving us tons of feedback. We've been working pretty hard to get this out this week so we have some time to work on other things regarding balance, bugs and features.
Today's update includes these changes:
Fixed pathing on all maps
Additional navigation grid fix on maps
Fixed map loading
Fixed T behavior when waiting for timings and rotations
Fixed CT rotation after the bomb is planted
Improved AI map ban algorithm
Reworked buy logic in decisive rounds
Double AWP now works: the second AWP goes to the secondary sniper
Fixed behavior under different tactic rules
Fixed standard tactic descriptions
Reduced ERS gains everywhere: per match, between teams, and per tournament.
Training rebalance: reworked formulas and impact factor to make game more hard
Changed the training data output form
Reworked NewGen player generation: lowered maximum attribute values, added more variety
Quick match result has been rebalanced with new impact factor
Reworked per-map IR calculation
The AI no longer spams the same bid on your player every day: after a rejection the team backs off for 14 days, then returns with a higher offer (happened when buying team had less than 5 players in the roster)
Role-aware AI emergency signings: a short-handed team no longer stacks a single role (e.g. four AWPers)
AI teams with fewer than 5 players now fill out their roster faster instead of staying incomplete
Fixed stranded negotiations that permanently blocked new offers on a player
Loaned players can no longer be sold: the Sell button is disabled and shows the reason
Lowered starting and market wages
Decompressed low-end wages so weak and mid players no longer pile up on a shared floor
Compressed transfer prices above for all players based on new formula that's better represent the value of a player
Wages are now better scaled with player rating: a strong player at a top club earns more than a weaker teammate
Wage drops by 30% after a month on the bench
Undismissable manager: you cannot be sacked for anything
Freeze the AI transfer market for the first 1 or 6 months (default 1).
Player emails now respect the player's gender across all languages
Fixed a crash on gendered languages (UA/PL/RU and others)
Disabled firing emails when the manager cannot be fired
The monthly sponsor income report is no longer sent twice
Fixed the German MVP text
Added missing translations
Full cross-border language compatibility for Portugal/Brazil and Spanish-speaking countries
Raised the CIS-UA, BR-SA and CIS-Slavic pairs; cohesion grows toward 100% over 6 months in the same roster
Fixed some tooltips that were shown at incorrect place.
Fixed player photos on promise teams
In Finances, income and spending next to the total budget are now shown per year instead of all-time
Fixed a crash when the scout advisor had no user team
Corrupted saves with missing offer owners no longer break on load
Minor UI changes
Phoenix — cynaxdabest, deaNz, fl0w, Flompy, qaRty
Luminosity — lux, afro, Rainwaker, AZUWU, Bymas
Fire Flux: Cizzx, Quality, zer0UKY, zemix
Luminosity ← afro, Rainwaker, AZUWU, Bymas (Monte), lux (Legacy)
SAW ← krazy, MUTiRiS (BC.Game), ewjerkz (NiP), NOPEEJ (Rebels)
SAW Youngsters ← jERK0z, Jayy2s, tuxa (SAW), Snowiee (free agent)
Eternal Fire ← br0 (NRG), Kvem (free agent)
Phantom ← cej0t (9INE), nicoodoz (ECSTATIC)
SunPayus → G2
cairne → Fnatic
n0te → NiP
KRIMZ → EYEBALLERS
Gizmy → 100 Thieves
MartinezSa → HEROIC
kyxsan → Aurora
Magisk → BC.Game
fame → VP
xfl0ud → FUT
kl1m → G2 Ares
Ex3rcice → 3DMAX
b1elany → 9INE
clax → K27
sdy, Calyx, rigoN, DemQQ, mynio, Moretz
Corrected some IDs and nicknames
xEternaLxx: filled in name, birthdate, earnings and HLTV/Liquipedia links; role changed from AWPer/Sniper to Rifler/Support
Zoker: filled in name (Max Laping), birthdate and earnings
mini: unretired
Save corruptions - we are aware that some of you may have their saves corrupted, we are working on solution, but according to the logs number 1 reason of that is antivirus, Windows Defender or lack of free space on the system.
FPS drops and CPU usage on Inferno and Anubs - we are aware and working on this.
T3-T4 tournaments - top feature priority, expect it to be delivered somewhen in July.
Balance, balance, balance - having constant feedback from you guys is just amazing. This item includes bootcamps and finances.
Translations - we know that German and other languages need improvements, it's on our radar right now.
Further transfer system improvements.
Other bugs that we have in backlog.
That would be it for today. Thanks again for playing our game and don't hesitate to join our Discord or X.
If you want to give a feedback - the best way is email, 2nd best way - #bugs channel on Discord. The 3rd best way - DM gizzie#1054 on Discord server.
The transfer market feels more alive — AI teams now loan players to and from each other, not just buy and sell.
Smart club decisions — a team only loans out bench and young players, holds on to its starting stars; weaker clubs borrow talent when they can't afford to buy.
Player consent matters — a strong player won't accept a loan to a much weaker club.
Limits & regions — up to 2 loaned in and 2 loaned out per team; region and compatibility are taken into account.
Loan return — when the loan ends the player returns home, and his original contract is preserved.
Early return — you can recall a loaned player before the deadline for a reduced fee (the "Return" button).
Clear at a glance — an "On loan" label in the player profile, a loan line in the daily transfer news (all languages), and an entry in the transfer history.
The "Sell" action for your own player now stays available even while a negotiation lock is active: the cooldown only blocks signing a new contract, it no longer prevents selling the player to another team.
A team whose first transfer offer comes way too low of the player's market price is now instantly hit with a 365-day negotiation ban for that player.
Make it guarantee that males are not going to join female squads and vice versa.
The "Confirm" button - in the scouting filters window applies the filters and closes the window again, and the "Reset" button clears every field back to 0 and returns dropdowns to "Any" without closing the window.
Fixed a filter that hid players when the window was left untouched: the default values (including the max wage, which had been stuck at 12345) are now zeroed, so an unconfigured filter no longer cuts anyone off.
The scouting header counter now shows the number of players matching the filter instead of the size of the entire pool.
Removed raw escape sequences (\\xF6, ł) from the recent-transfer negotiation lock message — the affected strings are now properly quoted across 7 locales (sv, de, es, fr, pt, pl, tr).
Fixed post-plant bug when T didn't do anything when CT were already defusing the bomb.
Rotation routes have been corrected across multiple maps, so teams now read the map and move the way they're supposed to.
Your localization's caster now takes the booth by default — you'll hear the action called in your own language out of the box.
Squashed a batch of caster bugs for cleaner, more reliable play-by-play.
Between-round MVP shoutouts have been fixed, so the right player gets the spotlight after every round.
Changed codec for in‑game music/sounds to fix sound glitches (also decrease the render quality - it will help).
Organization window design updated.
Default team icon added.
The scout's valuation no longer "jumps" when the screen refreshes — the recommendation line is now stable.
Players no longer complain about lack of game time if they were inactive during the matches they missed
Fixed physiotherapist and psychologist training issues
Fixed an issue where the wrong opponent was shown in the player's match history after a transfer
Fixed an issue where tooltips appeared behind popups
At the end of the season, EMTV wraps up the year!
From December 12 to 31, a new Top-20 Players of the Year countdown email arrives every day.
The finale is the grand Player of the Year reveal, with full season stats: points, K/D, trophies, tournament and match MVPs, and the match of the year.
Every player gets a unique, fully localized write-up.
The "Coach" commentator now displays as Danish (previously Dutch).
Fixed hosting problems due to high load.
Added validation for not-existing teams in the players/staff profiles.
Added "Add to DB" feature where you can add any player/staff/team/sponsor/tournament from 1 DB to another.
We will update default database this week with latest transfers and teams/players who asked us to add them.
We are aware and continue to work on several known issues, such:
Translations of different sentences and words.
Teams can face each other again in the tournament (will be added in August patch, we need to improve the bracket system).
CPU/GPU usage on Anubis - we are aware of this problem, will be fixed soon.
AWP disappear / not saving - usually the player who is not a AWPer drops it or gives it to Sniper role at the beginning of the round and buys a rifle, so this is not a bug really, but we will improve this by adding "Logs" so you can actually see what happened.
No name in transfer request - will be fixed tomorrow.
Absense of T3-T4 tournaments - they will be added as soon as possible, most probably in 1-2 weeks. We see and understand that this is #1 requested feature.
Adding more tournament bracket types - on our radar, will be added pretty much soon as well as it's #2 requested feature.
Other improvement of the simulation are planned for this month and August.
If you are using custom database - please be aware that if it's broken or created outside of usual EMDB functions - you might see some troubles in gameplay.
The folder for custom images is: %USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\LocalLow\\NeuronaGames\\EsportsManager\\CustomAssets\\. Inside of it you should have Players, Staffs, Teams, Sponsors and Tournaments folders. If you don't - don't be scared, just created them manually.
In order to upload a custom database - download it from emdb.gg and use "Databases" menu.
Thanks for playing! Share your feedback and report bugs — we're reading everything! The next patch fix coming tomorrow, as we want to have everything run smooth and clean.
The wait is over. Esports Manager 2026 has officially launched and is now available to play on Steam for the base price of 19,99$ with the discount of 20%.
Step into the shoes of a real esports manager. Scout talent from all over the world, sign rising stars, build team chemistry, adapt to the current meta, manage your budget and sponsors, and lead your squad through competitive seasons and big tournaments. Every single decision matters. Whether you want to create a long-term dynasty or pull off an incredible underdog run — it’s all in your hands.
Take full control of your own professional esports organization and build it from the ground up.
Scout, sign, and develop real professional players from authentic rosters around the world
Buy, sell, and loan players on a dynamic transfer market where timing and smart negotiations matter
Create weekly training plans that improve skills while protecting your players’ morale and well-being
Use the deep Talk system to communicate with players and staff, understand their motivations, and turn conversations into real advantages
Compete in a full calendar of events — from smaller tournaments to major championships and the prestigious Major.
Build a complete backroom team: hire coaches, analysts, media specialists, and more to support your vision
Grow your brand through sponsorship deals, increase visibility, and expand your influence across the esports scene
Step into immersive match simulations where you make real-time tactical decisions and react to live events
Balance finances, psychology, contracts, and strategy with deep, realistic management — no hand-holding
Create your own tactics, edit, import and export them!
Play amazingly realistic semi-3D simulation.
We’re really excited to see what kind of teams and stories the community will create from day one. What are you going to do first? Drop your thoughts in the comments — we’re reading everything!
The Esports Manager 2026 Team
It's just amazing what our team went through. We all started to work on Esports Manager: MOBA in 2019 that looked like this in mockups:
Then we established first codebase of Esports Manger 2026 on 31st of December 2023 (yes, this is Razer ːsteamhappyː laptop that we literally created our first prototype on, snow was falling heavy and we were just a couple of hours before New Year):
And that lead us to this:
I want specifically talk about the tomorrow's feedback. Our team will be working 24/7 to read and analyze any problem/issue that you might face and fix them right away, so please contact us directly any way that is possible/convinient for you: Discord (global channel or just ping gizzie#1054 directly!), email ([email protected]) or here, in the Steam Community.
If your feedback is negative - I would really ask you to contact us directly rather than post a negative review on Steam right away, we will definitely help you to resolve your issue or concern in a quickest possible way, that's just how I see our communication with the fans.
We want to thank everybody and everyone who believed in us, supported us and critisized us.
Tomorrow we will have first patchfix with more than 25 items in it plus the bugs that you might find.
I want you to have a great day, stay safe and thank you for your attention.
Andrii Chupyr
CEO of Neurona Games
The Steam Summer Sale is on now, running June 25 to July 9!
Don't forget to wishlist Esports Manager 2026 now. While you wait, check out great deals on other indie.io titles during the Summer Sale to add to your collection.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2749950/Esports Manager 2026 has officially locked in its launch date. Announced today during IGN Live, the esports management sim from Neurona Games in partnership with indie.io arrives on PC via Steam on July 6, 2026. Players will build rosters, scout rising talent, negotiate contracts, and guide professional organizations from amateur hopefuls to world champions.
Build a legacy from scratch or take the reins of an established team to dominate the charts as the best Esports organization around. Recruit top all-star talent or shoot from the bottom with hungry, fresh meat eager to make a name for themselves. Navigate the complexities of team development, manage tournament schedules, and oversee the business operations of a modern-day Esports Organization as a manager.
After years of waiting, the moment you've all been dreaming of is finally here – and trust us, we've been counting down the days right alongside you!
This weekend, June 7th, at #IGNLive, we're dropping an exclusive, massive announcement for Esports Manager 2026.
Think deeper team management, revolutionary scouting systems, global tournaments with gameplay features that let you turn your passion into a billion-dollar empire.
From drafting rising stars to negotiating sponsorships and crushing rivals on the biggest stages – this is the ultimate esports empire builder fans have been demanding.
Below you can find the full changelog:
Updated UI/UX general design:
Split the Fire and Offer buttons for staff.
Font improvements.
Organization, staff and players database updates:
Fixed bug with low quality photos and logos.
Gameplay bug fixes and improvements:
Fixed bug with basecamp.
Add tooltip for attributes and much more.
Fixed translations.
Other multiple bug fixes.
Simulation bug fixes and improvements:
Fixed AWP cooldown when multiple enemies are around the AWPer.
Fixed strategies save/load.
Fixed the affect of the players attributes in the simulation.
Fixed the simulation sounds.
Other multiple bug fixes.
Below you can find the full changelog for this last public demo update.
Updated UI/UX general design:
Windows and menu animations.
New Home screen.
New Training screen.
Various improvements.
Organization, staff and players database updates:
Latest transfers are added.
Added all players and teams (only with normal logos) from emdb.gg
Gameplay bug fixes and improvements:
New transfer and contract system.
Reworked negotitations.
Added contract renewals.
Added court system.
Added ~250 new emails and around 50 new chats.
Simulation bug fixes and improvements:
Fixed various bugs in simulation module.
Tactics and strategies play more role now in the rounds.
Players attributes are affecting the gameplay.
Other improvements of the general engine.
Performance improvements
Translations added.
Other bugs fixes.
Changelog for this bugs fix patch:
Fixed a bug with Molotov when players were going straight into it or running in it.
Fixed a bug when players died in Molotov but were able to shoot/run after that as "X" mark.
Fixed a bug with "save" on CT side.
Fixed a bug when you could have 5+ grenades.
Fixed a bug when players got stuck on one spot on the map.
Fixed a bug when you could create/edit a custom tactic without specifying the round.
Fixed a bug with custom tactic overriding.
Fixed wrong CT respawn spots on Overpass.
Fixed AWP damage.
Added "Resolution" option in Settings that tweaks how good do you want the rendering to be in simulation
Fixed infinite autosaving that prevents you from going to the next day.
Fixed black screen when starting up the game.
Other minor fixes.
Other minor improvements.
Changelog with bug fixes and improvements can be found below. Update will be released tomorrow at 19:00 CET. All found bugs or if you have any suggestions please address in our Discord channel.
Fixed a bug when players decided to save in the last round or in pistol round. Now they can be instructed in Tactic Creator whether to save in those situations or not.
Fixed a bug when players "stuck" in one spot and don't move on different maps.
Fixed a bug when the bomb could've been placed at the wrong place.
Fixed a bug with the spots network on Mirage.
Improved drops mechanic. Now players should check if other players have money for a gun or not and decide to buy them a weapon or drop grenades.
Fixed a bug when you lost in a full armored round you couldn't select Full Eco or Force Buy next round.
Fixed a bug with "connector" spot on Mirage when players didn't see the opponents through it.
Fixed various textboxes issues in Tactic Creator.
Fixed a bug when players throw grenades when there were too far from the opponents.
Fixed a bug when bomb disappeared.
Fixed a bug when players could've teleported to the spot next to current one.
Fixed a bug in Tactic Creator when you cant change a custom positioning once created and cant change or save captions.
Fixed a bug when terrorists were too late to run away from the explosion.
Fixed a bug with Tactic Creator when your tactics were saved in the wrong place and order and got overriden.
Fixed a bug when players got all blind disregard of the flashbang distance explosion.
Fixed a bug with Molotov multiple kills.
Fixed a bug with HE grenade explosion that causes multiple kills.
Enhanced the balance of CT side (now they have a better chance of winning the round, especially if that's a CT-sided map).
Major improvements for Rush tactics.
Improved the balance of CT rotation and retakes.
Added the possibiliy of grenades save.
Added "First ban" and "First pick" options to the teams based on worldwide statistics.
Balanced extremely winning strategies.
Added a sound at the beginning of the defuse.
Added new animations for the bomb planting and ticking.
Fixed a bug with players description when first and last letters were cut off.
Fixed a bug in Swiss tournament system when you could've played with the same team twice.
Fixed a bug when IGL was randomly assigned. Now it's assigned based on worldwide data or leader attribute.
Fixed a bug when different teams couldn't make transfers in parallel.
Fixed a bug when editing the CEO role and selecting to use previous records made the birth year will automatically reset to 2026.
Fixed a bug with infinite money after selling players.
Fixed a bug with Chat when you couldn't reply (no possible reply options are shown).
Fixed an infinite loading after you fire your staff or player.
Fixed a bug when tournament has ended on Quarter-Final.
Fixed numerous typos and wrong info in teams descriptions.
Fixed a bug with replacing your main players with bench players.
Fixed a bug when you couldn't collect your sponsor's reward so you couldn't proceed.
Fixed a bug when clicking "Quick match results" actually give you 50/50% chance of winning.
Fixed a bug when you click a specific page in the Shop - you will be on that page after you buy something.
Fixed a bug when it didn't show you the results of the match after re-login.
Added 11 languages: Ukrainian, English, Spanish, Polish, French, German, Swedish, Portugese/ Brazilian, Turkish, Chinese, Russian.
Improved Player and Staff page performance.
Now player's role is also displayed in the Squad window.
Added "Second sniper" as secondary role.
Added the ability to add a nickname so it won't be generated by the game.
Balanced negotiations for a players without team.
Added qualification matches results to the sponsors requirements checkmark.
Added Patreon supporters from EMDB app to the game.
Added loan proposition to other teams.
Players roles with correct behaviors for all maps (now only for some of them).
Final tactics improvements.
More financial functionalities (loans, bankruptcy, etc).
You will be fired in case of bad team results.
Boosts and wallbangs to simulation.
Morale conflicts during the game.
Database upload functionality (staff, players, teams, tournaments).
In-game editor to edit any type of the data.
More realistic negotiations for transfers and contracts.
More camera control during simulation (zoom, moves, etc.)
Cache and Anubis maps to the map pool.
Training matches.
Analytics and in-game statistics during simulation (tab).
Other unannounced features.
Below you can find the full changelog for this major update.
Updated UI/UX general design:
Windows and menu animations.
New interface design with changes to icons and main buttons.
A new day-change animation has been added.
Organization, staff and players database updates:
New players and teams have been added (including molodoy).
Added logos for created organizations.
Multiple bug fixes and improvements were applied.
Gameplay bug fixes and improvements:
Fixed attribute points distribution system.
Fixed gender switching when creating a manager.
Fixed all errors, inconsistencies, and typos related to information about existing organizations in their descriptions.
Fixed errors in tutorial text messages.
Fixed incorrect player birth date information.
Fixed player photos that were displayed incorrectly.
Fixed an issue where some flags were not displayed when creating a manager or searching for players.
Fixed a bug where multiple training report requests for a player could cause the game to crash.
Added the ability to choose the year of organization creation from 2026 down to 1960.
Fixed incorrect display of staff nicknames.
Added the ability to scroll through all available logos for a newly created organization and fixed possibly wrong background colors for the logo.
Fixed a bug where numbers could not be entered in the organization name.
Fixed a bug where teams were not displayed in the tournament participants list.
Fixed a bug where the key attribute of a staff member went beyond the intended area.
Fixed a bug where sometimes it was impossible to click on a specific staff attribute.
Fixed other issues related to flags and countries namings.
Fixed a bug where it was impossible to reply in chat to a staff member or player.
Fixed a bug where it was impossible to use multiple capital letters in the manager name during creation.
The promise system in the chat has been improved. A notification now appears on the dialogue option that leads to making a promise, as well as in the promises list.
Fixed an issue in tournament when the team that won was moved into the loser's bracket.
Fixed an issue when a player was transferred to his current team.
Added transfer date column into transfers summary email.
Fixed a bug when you could've lost to yourself on the tournament.
Fixed a bug when you could start a game with less than 5 active players.
Decreased amount of injuries and conflicts.
Added background sounds.
Simulation bug fixes and improvements:
Added players roles. Now you can select it from IGL, AWPer, Rifler (lurker, support, entry fragger or anchor).
Tied up players attributes to the simulation behaviour. Starting from now every player will perform based on his attributes, morale state and physical status.
Added 2 commentators to the game (CptJamesForce and PiNG^). More to come upon release.
Added possibilty of picking up the weapon if current weapon is weaker.
Fixed bug when CT were not difusing bomb.
Fixed bug on the map when T were able to plant a bomb outside of the bomb area.
Fixed AWP accuracy and damage.
Decreased the movement speed of the players to make it more realistic.
Tactics and tactics creator bug fixes and improvements
Fixed a bug when selected tactic didn't work next round.
Added more than 250 predefined tactics for all 7 maps.
Reworked tactics creator module: starting from now you can dictate what and how your players will react and behave on every part of the map during the round.
Updated demo will be presented at #SteamNextFest on 23rd of February. Full list of changes coming soon.
So as we said couple of days ago - we got a public demo available on Steam right. The main goal is to collect your feedback about pretty much everything. Roughly 70% of the features are already in the game. 1 month of a gameplay.
If you find any bugs - please report them in our Discord in the specific channel here.
Play it and let us know what you think!
Developing a game for the esports community has been our goal from day one. More importantly, we aim to deliver not just a game, but a high-quality product that showcases what esports truly means to us as a company.
For those of you who may not know, working with a game publishing platform like indie.io greatly helps indie developers focus on game development while they handle all the behind-the-scenes magic. From helping manage store pages to crafting marketing campaigns and even helping the game shine at both digital and live events, indie.io helps in all the aspects that indie developers often struggle with alone.
The reason we’ve teamed up with indie.io is simple: to bring Esports Manager to more gamers.We believe this is a huge milestone in our company’s history and the start of something truly amazing.
Follow us on our socials, join our Discord, and be sure to wishlist and follow the game to stay up to date with future news!
Don't forget to check out indie.io's Steam Publisher Page right here - https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/indieio! They have great titles over there.
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for Esports Manager 2026, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main Esports Manager 2026 statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.