BLAST Bounty: A dynamic prize pool that will put a target on the world’s elite
2025 is the year for innovation in Counter-Strike, and we’ve cooked up what is perhaps the most innovative event in Counter-Strike in recent years.
BLAST Bounty is an all-new, one-of-a-kind event that will see 32 of the world’s best teams take part in a unique, game-show-esque tournament full of strategy, grudge matches, and do-or-die scenarios.
"The Bounty provides a high-energy and intense tournament to test out rosters at the start of each season," said Frederik Munksgaard, Executive Producer, BLAST Premier.
BLAST Bounty - a dynamic prize pool to keep teams on their toes
BLAST Bounty is a unique event that will feature a bounty prize pool. The prize pool will be dished out based on seeding and individual match results, keeping the teams on their toes to ensure they take home their full bounty.
In BLAST Bounty, the 30 highest-ranked teams in the Valve Global Ranking will be joined by two BLAST-selected wildcard teams and have a bounty placed upon their heads.
All regions will be presented at the BLAST Bounty, if no North American, South American, European or Asian teams qualify for the event direct invites will be provided to each top ranking region’s team to ensure the event is representative of all CS regions.
The bounties will be decided by the team’s seeding, with the highest-seeded teams becoming the biggest targets and having more to lose when the matches get underway.
The teams will play in a BO3 single elimination bracket, with the first two rounds played online in week one from European servers.
The eight quarter finalists will play the second week in a LAN setting from the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. These teams will play single-elimination BO3 Quarter Finals and Semi Finals before a BO5 Grand Final will crown the BLAST Bounty champion.
The best part: The twists
First, we have the prize pool allocation. Teams can guarantee the money they take home by claiming 50% of the bounty won from a match. The other 50% of that bounty will carry over to their next game and be added to the winning team’s bounty.
But that’s not all: the lowest-seeded teams will decide their opponents heading into the first round.
Heading into the second round, the teams will be reseeded, and once again, the lowest-seeded teams will be given the opportunity to choose who they will face off against. But that’s not all, teams will be able to wager their protected bounty when they’re feeling extra confident or want to challenge another team.
“The ability for teams to wager their Bounty is a really fun element of the tournament that I think will mean that every match has the ability to be high stakes. The fact that in the Bounty the lower ranked teams pick who they play and go hunting will be so exciting,” said Frederik Munksgaard, Executive Producer, BLAST Premier.
A perfect means of claiming a larger bounty for these underdog teams, they’ll be looking to test themselves against the best of the best and announce themselves as a threat to the World’s elite teams.
“The dynamic prize pool format will throw up scenarios and storylines not seen in Counter-Strike before, which really excites us and brings something completely different to the table,” said Frederik Munksgaard