iWorld
Esports League, ‘Skyesports Masters’ reveals Rs 2 crore prize pool
Mumbai: Setting a new benchmark in the Indian Esports industry, Jet Skyesports, the leading Esports tournament organiser in South Asia has unveiled its latest IP – the Skyesports Masters which is not only the country’s first-ever franchise-based Esports league but also the biggest gaming tournament to date in India with a whopping Rs 2 crore prize pool.
The groundbreaking league will feature a total of eight franchise teams comprising the biggest national as well as international names in CS:GO, and will happen as an on-ground event (LAN) with a live audience in Mumbai, India.
By leveraging its position in the market to unlock revenue streams for all eight franchised teams in the Skyesports Masters with sponsorships, merchandise sales, and media rights deals, Jet Skyesports will act as an enabler for the creation of a sustainable ecosystem for Counter-Strike in the years to come.
Sharing his thoughts on the creation of the Skyesports Masters and its vision, Skyesports CEO and founder Shiva Nandy said, “The Skyesports Masters is set to redefine and raise the bar for Esports in India. With our franchised system, we have found eight fantastic partners to be a part of the inaugural season of the league. Our goal for the league is not to just create one of the grandest tournaments for audiences to enjoy but also to build a viable ecosystem for Esports organisations while unlocking many revenue streams for them. This is the need of the hour for the Indian Esports industry as a lot of organisations are reeling under huge losses and we hope Skysports Masters can be the much-needed game changes for the industry.”
The Skyesports Masters league will kick off with the cafe qualifiers followed by the main event in Mumbai. Here, the eight franchise teams will battle it out in front of a live audience to choose the ultimate “Skyesports Masters.”.
In order to provide the emerging and highly talented gamers of the country a platform to showcase their talent, Jet Skyesports has tied up with local gaming cafés across 20 different cities such as Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and several others, to scout for the best CS:GO players during the qualifiers. The Skyesports Masters will provide franchise teams an option to add the best of the scouted players from the qualifiers to their star-studded rosters.
Commenting on the unique format, JetSynthesys CEO of gaming division Anuj Tandon added, “Over the years Skyesports has hosted various tournaments in association with some of the popular games. Counter-Strike has been at the heart of India’s gaming café culture for decades and Skyesports’ association with CSGO will usher in a revival of the game ahead of the release of Counter-Strike 2. It’s a significant milestone for us as we gear up to bring forth Skyesports’ first-ever franchised esports league that will see a lot of talent emerge and contribute to the growth of the Indian esports industry at the grassroots level.”
In spite of being a traditional Esports title, CS:GO is still a prominent part of the Esports ecosystem with more than 36,00,000 players playing the game in March of this year.
The schedule for the qualifiers, exact venue, and ticketing information will be announced soon on Skyesports’ Instagram, Twitter, Facebook handles. Fans who won’t be able to attend the event live can tune into the electrifying action of the league live on the official Skyesports YouTube channel in multiple languages.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
