ESL reveals 2025 tournament calendar

Tournament operator ESL has announced its 2025 Counter-Strike 2 LAN tournament calendar, which features seven events.

For next year, the company has planned five Intel Extreme Masters events, including IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne as well as two seasons of ESL Pro League. Other IEM events will be held in Dallas and Chengdu; the location of the third competition is still unknown, as are the EPL locations.

ESL also unveiled some details about the upcoming competitions. For example, ESL Pro League will reduce the number of participants from 32 to 24, while the updated format will feature two stages of the Swiss system.

Qualifiers will only be held for IEM Dallas 2025 and ESL Pro League Season 21 & 22; participants of other tournaments will be determined based on the official Valve ranking.

Finally, the tournament operator plans to invest $22 million into the Counter-Strike 2 pro scene over two years (2025 & 2026) (in addition to player travel and accommodation costs).

Origin: pro.eslgaming.com