On November 4, representatives from the tournament organizer BLAST announced details about their upcoming championships for Counter-Strike 2 set to take place in 2025.
Recently, BLAST was compelled to modify its tournament formats due to a decision by game developer Valve, which now allows invitations to championships based solely on its official rankings.
In 2025, BLAST will hold six tier-1 championships, excluding the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, along with eight qualifying tournaments. The new events are named: The Bounty, The Rivals, The Rising, and The Open.
According to company representatives, they plan to stimulate the teams to participate in their events by compensating them for fulfilling advertising commitments. In total, the payout for 2025 will amount to $4 million.
Here is the schedule for invitation dates to the BLAST events:
Season 1:
- BLAST Bounty – December 16, 2024 (prize pool – $650,000);
- BLAST Rising – February 3, 2025 (prize pool – $160,000);
- BLAST Open – February 3, 2025 (prize pool – $540,000);
- BLAST Rivals – April 1, 2025 (prize pool – $650,000)
Season 2:
- BLAST Bounty – July 14, 2025 (prize pool – $650,000);
- BLAST Rising – July 14, 2025 (prize pool – $160,000);
- BLAST Open – July 14, 2025 (prize pool – $540,000);
- BLAST Rivals – October 6, 2025 (prize pool – $650,000)
Previously, the tournament BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 took place, where eight teams competed for a prize pool of $1 million, with G2 Esports emerging as the champion.