ESL and BLAST announce 2025 event dates

10-3-2024 22:00

Without surprise, the two TOs will take up a significant portion of the event calendar.

BLAST should run the first big tournament of 2025

ESL and BLAST have announced the dates they have locked in for their Counter-Strike 2 events for 2025, providing a big glimpse into what next year’s competitive calendar will look like.

The Counter-Strike circuit will undergo a major transformation at the end of the year after Valve determined that tournament organisers must end their business relationships with teams that participate in their events.

This means that the partner leagues will come to an end and that we are moving to a more open circuit, one in which event invitations will use Valve’s ranking system or be determined by open qualifiers.

Valve to end team and tournament organizer partnerships starting in 2025

BLAST has announced six events for 2025, including what is likely to be the first tournament of the season, scheduled for January 13-26. ESL has announced eight tournaments, two of which will run for 20 days.

Together, ESL and BLAST will take up 160 days of the year for their events. There are also the two Majors, scheduled for June 9-22 and December 1-14, and the player breaks in the summer and winter. All considered, it seems that other tournament organisers will have very little room to run their own events without any sort of scheduling conflict.

Below, you can find the event dates penciled in for 2025:

January 13-26 - BLAST tournament
January 29-February 9 - ESL tournament
February 25-March 16 - ESL tournament
March 17-30 - BLAST tournament
April 21-27 - ESL tournament
April 28-May 4 - BLAST tournament
May 19-25 - ESL tournament
June 9-22 - First Major
July 23-August 3 - ESL tournament
August 4-17 - BLAST tournament
August 20-24 - ESL tournament
August 25-September 7 - BLAST tournament
September 23-October 12 - ESL tournament
November 3-9 - ESL tournament
November 10-16 - BLAST tournament
December 1-14 - Second Major

First major in june is crazy

2024-03-10 22:01

6 replies

its literally perfect tho?

2024-03-10 22:03

Both Majors will now mark the end of the seasons (1st and 2nd semester) and it makes 100% sense, its the most important tournament of the year wich can change lifes with the sticker money and means everything for smaller orgs; with the player breaks coming right after them it will also help teams to restructure and make signs without worring of having another tournament in just a few days

2024-03-10 22:11

majors in summer >>>>

2024-03-10 22:54

nah i love this am also hyped for end of partner teams

2024-03-10 23:30

2 replies

jdcexy, so im quoting you

2024-03-12 03:55

1 reply

what

2024-03-12 12:50

> Valve determined that tournament organisers must end their business relationships with teams that participate in their events I don't understand how Valve can legally enforce this, anyone help?

20 replies

They don't comply = valve don't give them permission to host tournaments

2024-03-10 22:05

This is their product. Both ESL, BLAST and any other TO are at their mercy. If they don't comply, they lose their license to host tournaments. TOs now have to use Valve Rankings to determine invites, meaning no more buying in like with the Louvre Agreement. Which I assume also means that they're also permanently banned from making deals with countries in exclusively hosting tournaments for a set time like EPL with Malta and BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi.

2024-03-10 22:07

4 replies

why would it do that? companies try and make deals with local governments all the time

2024-03-10 22:48

3 replies

The business relationships part can also possibly apply to government deals to exclusively host tournaments in their countries like for EPL in Malta which ESL and the Maltese government signed a deal to host the tournament there in 2023 and is set to expire after EPL 20 later this year.

yes, the relationships with the teams are banned like partnerships. only the teams relationship has ever been mentioned by valve do you think theyre banning all sponsors from tournaments because they have business relationships?

2024-03-10 22:55

obv not lmao

2024-03-10 23:14

they need a license from valve to host a tournament, and valve can choose who they give licenses to

Valve owns cs2. Simple as

2024-03-10 22:45

9 replies

Yea but anyone can download a cs2 server and run as tournament right?

8 replies

Not if there's money on the line. Especially big money such as this. If ESL or any other TO don't comply with Valve, they're basically banned from ever hosting tournaments due to no license. And ESL in particular needs CS since they're essentially extremely reliant on the game.

2024-03-10 23:02

store.steampowered.com/tourney You need to apply for a license if you want to host a larger tournament that's not just your average small friends & family or a small team $500 cash cup

2024-03-10 23:19

it doesn't list CS2 mens)))))

2024-03-12 15:59

still applies ))))))

2024-03-12 17:30

Yeah im sure donk, s1mple and zywoo will come and play in 'My savings money cup from my grandma pension' 1st place 100 rubles and some cookies, hurry up and register guys i only got 8 chairs in the house and 6 keyboards Host is my mum, casters are my lil bro and his 8 y old friend from school and for security i have a 12 y old dog, everbody welcome P.s. cant use the toilet betwwen 2-4 my dad is in there

2024-03-11 06:06

meds

2024-03-11 06:37

u def need them for what u asked

2024-03-11 15:48

If you've ever been interressed into the Super Smash Bros pro scene, you'll see that it is very possible for editors to literally block tournaments totally legally. So yeah, seems totally possible that Valve will do the same with TOs that do not comply to these new rules.

2024-03-11 08:57

literally their game?

2024-03-10 22:57

Excluding the licence to the game that others said already, softer punishment can be ignoring the event from Valve ranking. That makes the participating team waste time considering the major rankings and free spot to major closed qualifier, but also make the teams drop lower in Valve ranking making them be worse in picking order when deciding other more important tournaments. Prize money is fun and all, but maybe not if it makes you miss other tournaments because of it or forces you to play extra qualifiers.

2024-03-11 00:51

Valve can do whatever they want tbh, this is why they have such a laid back attitude towards everything because they understand and acknowledge their power and never abuse it. This is why they are GOAT.

2024-03-11 11:34

Blast think we care about their tournament dates

2024-03-10 22:06

Almost all are 1 day after esls so they will be heavily unattended imo

wtf, now I noticed. How does this make any sense?

2024-03-10 23:06

Some teams go BLAST, some go ESL.

2024-03-11 09:01

nah, they'll be heavily attended. It just depends on their location. Since franchising/partnerships are permanently abolished by then, teams can now choose where to go without any obligations which will be dependent on the tournament's location.

2024-03-12 04:05

Now blast tournaments can be interesting because the best teams will go to these events. We'll see what they do

2024-03-10 23:00

that depends on the ESL events.

Why is every blast tournament 1 day after an esl event xD , how are teams supposed to travel lul

10 replies

I assume this'll give teams freedom of choice depending on location or if they don't qualify for the ESL events and thus can use BLAST as an alternative.

2024-03-10 22:09

Online tournaments probably

Because the teams are no longer partners, they can now choose not to play a certain tournament i would assume

2024-03-10 23:07

True but still? Surely we wouldnt be gettin all the best teams at any event at any time imo

2024-03-10 23:20

I mean, probably not, but this also means easier path for tier2 teams to get exposure in events that only have 4 tier 1 teams for example, which was a problem with partnered events imo

2024-03-10 23:22

Yes it should be way better for the scene overall

1. this can be dates with including to travel and media dates. 2. without partnerships teams will choose which tournament to attend.

2024-03-10 23:39

They are just filling the calendar and making it a "duopoly" like #49 said They've put 13days for all their tournaments also..

2024-03-11 09:33

In fairness, there isn't really any options. Starladder and ELEAGUE are defunct due to various reasons, WePlay hasn't been in esports since the Russo-Ukrainian war, EPICENTER is basically banned for the latter reason, some merged, PGL is basically exclusively a major hosting TO, and MLG is also defunct as of now and probably wont be brought back by Microsoft. And thus, we have this duopoly.

2024-03-12 04:09

yes i know those are the past already I was mainly refering to any company who wants to come and organize something on CS2. Any kind of event, a caritative coupled with an association or a big one to advertise their brand, or just one to gauge and maybe try to be part of the scene in the near future. Those would be instant in conflict with ESL or Blast and would struggle to attract all the teams the public want to see at an event.

2024-03-12 09:02

Am I blind or rip player break? I’m blind

player breaks exist. They're still the same. A few weeks into Summer and few weeks into Winter.

2024-03-10 22:12

I was just as confused and realized later that im blind xd

Aight so it's clear BLAST are doing complete format overhaul

16 team events now please.

God I hope so, just a much more comfortable number of teams to work with in general

Cool, now we need Valve to step up and tell us their plans on how the open circuit is gonna operate and what are their plans to keep pro cs alive

2024-03-10 22:15

The open circuit is gonna operate as is but without partnered teams, making it more open. If you want to invite teams, you have to invite based on Valve Ranking, and any other spots are given via qualifiers

2024-03-11 03:58

if valve keeps updating their ranking so rarely, the tournaments will be so shit imagine an underdog team wins the major and doesn't get invited to anything for 3 months because the ranking hasn't updated

2024-03-10 22:19

Nuh VALVE Ranking was update so slow because they needed only before RMR (for Invites) and before major (for placements at stages) why to do useless work? I Guess as HLTV they will change ranking ones a week.

2024-03-11 04:38

There are NO breaks between a lot of the events. That'll be hard to travel in time.

2024-03-10 22:22

So for BLAST, it seems like 5 of the tournaments will be Spring groups (and showdown), Spring final, Fall groups (and showdown), Fall final, and Blast world final. What’s the sixth?

2024-03-10 22:24

7 replies

alternatively, they could be abolishing the groups and make them normal tournaments instead.

2024-03-10 22:28

They might keep the format but (it's not bad in my opinion), instead of the teams from the Groups being predetermined (their member teams) like it is right now there would be open qualifying for those spots.

2024-03-11 03:23

I think you are wrong, I reckon it is spring groups, spring showdown, spring final, fall groups, fall showdown and fall fianal. I think they got rid of world final which was about time, such a boring tournament to watch. I also heard a rumor that they wanted to make showdown a LAN tournament similar to the group tournaments which would explain why they got rid of world final.

2024-03-10 22:32

its more likely that they will drop the World Final now that the winter major is set to be the last 2025 event. So you're left with the usual BLAST groups, showdown and finals. Multiply this by 2 and you get the 6 events they will host.

2024-03-10 22:42

eh, I think they might drop the groups and showdowns entirely and just do normal tournaments they once did pre-COVID.

Agree. I think the whole point of groups was to boost partner teams which is now irrelevant

2024-03-11 01:52

Good point. 2 weeks seems a bit long for the showdown, but it’s probably something of that sort, with no world final. Maybe blast will host the last major of 2025 instead

2024-03-11 00:35

January 13-26 - BLAST Spring Groups (or BLAST Premier Spring Series 1?) January 29-February 9 - IEM Katowice February 25-March 16 - ESL Pro League Season 21 March 17-30 - BLAST Spring Showdown (or BLAST Premier Spring Series 2?) April 21-27 - IEM Event in April (Chengdu, Rio, new location) April 28-May 4 - BLAST Spring Final May 19-25 - IEM Dallas or another location June 9-22 - First Major July 23-August 3 - IEM Cologne August 4-17 - BLAST Fall Groups (or BLAST Fall Series 1?) August 20-24 - Esports World Cup August 25-September 7 - BLAST Fall Showdown (or Fall Series 2?) September 23-October 12 - ESL Pro League Season 22 November 3-9 - IEM Fall event November 10-16 - BLAST Fall Final December 1-14 - Second Major

2024-03-10 22:29

I think BLAST might abolish the showdowns and groups and just do normal tournaments.

2024-03-10 22:39

very good prediction

2024-03-12 16:02

PLEASE NO PGL MAJOR VOLVO

2024-03-10 22:34

So ESL and Blast going to organice majors? Or volvo put the date allready?

2024-03-10 22:44

they're just dates. Majors are still determined by whoever Valve wants for the major to be hosted by. And dependent on if they approve of the location.

2024-03-10 22:46

So PGL again, 3 majors on a row lul

MAJOR IN JUNE POGGG

2024-03-10 22:53

Two week long blast event is crazy

2024-03-10 22:56

duopoly

2024-03-10 23:12

I would assume the longer breaks without a tournament from spring and autumn are for wualifiers for the majors then? My only problem is that there is not much room for other TOs i guess, not that we have many anyway

2024-03-10 23:23

There isn't alot of TOs with the resources to join in anyways. Ones such as Starladder, WePlay, and ELEAGUE are all defunct for various reasons, EPICENTER is essentially banned due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, some merged, and PGL is almost exclusively a major hosting TO. There could've maybe been one like MLG but it looks like Microsoft is downsizing or shutting down the esports division of Blizzard and has no intention of reviving the brand.

2024-03-10 23:28

Ye im aware, but there were some gamers8 and asia championship last year for example, thats why i wonder where would random tournaments like those fit

I mean, they could try serving those in tier 2 but eh idk. Because partnerships/franchising is permanently abolished, teams now have the freedom to choose whichever ESL + BLAST events they can attend. Which I assume will be very dependent on their location + if they get invited. Which I assume also means alot of teams will probably not meet face to face again like we've previously seen due to choosing different events to attend.

2024-03-10 23:32