iWorld
India dominates South Asia CS:GO qualifiers, secures spot in Asian qualifiers
Mumbai: Effortlessly navigating their way through the South Asian regional qualifiers, India’s CS:GO team showcased a dominant combination of high-quality gameplay and supreme skills to overpower Pakistan and Nepal on the final day and qualify for the Asian qualifiers which are set to held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 10-17, 2023.
Comprising team captain Harsh Jain (f1redup), Jaspreet Singh (SpawN), Sadab Khan (SK wow^), Piyush Kalwania (clouda), Nikhil Kathe (N1kace) and substitute Omkar Thube (omkar09), the proficient team began the qualifiers with a bang by putting up comprehensive performance to take down Bangladesh with a 16-9 win and Sri-Lanka with a 16-8 victory on the opening day.
The team then continued their momentum on the second day and recorded a 16-5 win against Nepal followed by a 16-6 triumph against Pakistan. Team captain Harsh was instrumental in India’s monumental victories throughout the qualifiers and led his side by example by notably notching a total of 29 kills against Bangladesh and 31 kills against Nepal.
“Qualifying for the Asian qualifiers and representing India as well as the country’s CS:GO community is an incredible accomplishment for all of us. I am really happy that we finished at the top in the South Asian Regionals by beating each and every team. This is the result of months of extensive practice sessions, strategic planning, and careful analysis of our competitors. The competition will undoubtedly be fierce as we’ll be facing off against some of the best teams from Asia but we feel that we’re ready for it. We can’t wait to compete, and give our best to qualify for the World Esports Championships in Iasi,” said Indian CS:GO team captain Harsh Jain.
The skilled team had secured their maiden qualification at the South Asian regional qualifiers by triumphing over Team Wicked Gaming in the finals of the National Esports Championships (NESC) 2023, conducted by the Esports Federation of India (ESFI) earlier this year. They will now battle it out against top CS:GO teams from Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to qualify for the 15 World Esports Championships in Iasi from August 24 – September 4, 2023.
With a whopping prize pool of $500,000 (INR 4.12 crore), the 15 World Esports Championship 2023 is set to be the largest edition of the tournament to date with at least 130 countries participating in eFootball, DOTA 2, Tekken7, Mobile Legends, PUBG: Mobile and CS:GO.
“We are extremely proud of our CS:GO team for making it to the Asian qualifiers. The journey here has been tough, but the hard work and dedication of our players have paid off. They have put in countless hours of practice and have shown incredible resilience and determination in their stunning victories against the top teams from South Asia. We wish them all the best for their upcoming qualifiers and are confident that they will make it to the grand finals in Iasi,” said Esports Federation of India president Vinod Tiwari.
India’s first-ever female esports team (CS:GO) comprising Swayambika Sachar (Sway), Shagufta Iqbal (xyaa), Nidhi Salekar (Stormyyy), Dilraj Kaur Matharu (COCO), and Aastha Nangia (CrackShot) shall be playing their South Asian Qualifiers against Sri Lanka on 11 May and Team India (DOTA) will kick off their South Asian Qualifiers from 15 May onwards.
The 15th World Esports Championships will be featuring well-renowned Tekken 7 professional Abhinav Tejan, and eFootball athlete Ibrahim Gulrez representing the country at the prestigious tournament.
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.
