Rundown: ESL's 2025 circuit in detail and changes

With ESL's circuit announcement came some changes to formats, slot distribution and qualifiers. Here's a rundown of each of the seven events.

The 2025 calendar continues to fill up with details as tournament organizers tackle Valve's new tournament operating rules heading into the next year.

After PGL and BLAST unveiled most details about their events, ESL has now also revealed how its circuit will look in 2025. With that announcement came one crucial change to formats — to do with ESL Pro League — and a bigger shift in how teams participating in ESL events will be determined in a much busier calendar than we've seen in the past few years.

Here's a simple rundown of the details and most important changes, event by event:

IEM Katowice and Cologne

ESL's flagship competitions, the EPT Championships in Katowice and Cologne, will largely remain the same. They will feature the same three-stage format with 16 teams starting from the first and eight teams getting to skip to the second.

The main change is that all 24 teams will be invited based on Valve's Global Standings. Previously, ESL invited teams who won select events in their circuit or by the ESL ranking, plus one local team from an open qualifier.

Stage 1
— 16 teams invited from Global VRS
— Double-elimination, BO3 bracket

Stage 2
— 8 teams invited from Global VRS
— 8 teams advance from Stage 1
— Two double-elimination, BO3 groups

Playoffs
— 6 teams advance from Stage 2
— Single elimination format

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IEM Spring and IEM Chengdu

The Master-level IEMs — those other than Katowice and Cologne — will retain the same format seen in previous iterations: 16 teams play in two double-elimination groups for six spots in the playoffs.

However, unlike in previous years ESL will host no qualifiers for Spring or Chengdu, as instead all teams will be invited via Valve's Ranking. Regional representation will still be ensured:

Group stage
— 16 teams invited (10 Global, 2 EU, 2 AM, 2 AS)
— Two double-elimination, BO3 groups

Playoffs
— 6 teams advance from group stage
— Single elimination format

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IEM Dallas

The format remains the same once again for IEM Dallas, but the teams will be decided via a combination of ranking invites and qualifiers:

Group stage
— 8 teams invited (5 EU, 1 NA, 1 SA, 1 AS)
— 8 teams qualified (5 EU, 1 NA, 1 SA, 1 AS)

Playoffs
— 6 teams advance from group stage
— Single elimination format

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ESL Pro League S21

ESL Pro League will undergo the biggest change out of all events on the ESL circuit.

First of all, it will be reduced to 24 teams from the 32 teams we have seen in the past four seasons. Secondly, it will be run in a format used at the Majors (except with best-of-threes). One Swiss stage will lead to another with eight teams invited a stage ahead of the other 16.

Half of the teams will be directly invited, while the other half will come from ESL Challenger Leagues in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania, and ESL Challenger winners from this year's Atlanta (FlyQuest) and Katowice.

Stage 1
— 4 teams invited from Global VRS
— 10 teams qualify from ECL (2 EU, 2 NA, 2 SA, 2 AS, 2 OCE)
— 2 teams qualify from ESL Challenger Atlanta and Katowice 2024
— BO3 Swiss format

Stage 2
— 8 teams invited from Global VRS
— 8 teams advance from Stage 1
— BO3 Swiss format

Playoffs
— 8 teams advance from Stage 2
— Single elimination format

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ESL Pro League S22

The only difference for the second ESL Pro League season of 2025 is how the team distribution will change between invites and qualifiers for Stage 1:

Stage 1
— 7 teams invited from Global VRS
— 5 teams qualify from ECL (1 EU, 1 NA, 1 SA, 1 AS, 1 OCE)
— 4 teams qualify from Tier 1 Regional Events (1 EU, 1 NA, 1 SA, 1 AS)
— BO3 Swiss format