BLAST Premier 2025: A world of innovation and compelling storylines
2025 is set to be a huge year of change for Counter-Strike, and BLAST will be changing alongside it.
Ever since Valve posted their ‘A Level Playing Field’ statement, BLAST has been working behind the scenes to craft one of the most innovative tournament circuits in CS history, ensuring compelling and exciting storylines that will captivate fans like never before.
BLAST VP of Ecosystems, Valve, Riot Games, Andrew Haworth put it best: “2025 is shaping up to be BLAST’s most exciting year to date.”
An innovative calendar
For the past few years, BLAST’s tournament calendar has been made up of seven tournaments: two Groups, two Showdowns, two Finals, and a World Final that is the culmination of the Counter-Strike year.
As of 2025, we will now host six events in the year, but those six events will bring with them far more opportunities for teams in the BLAST Premier circuit than ever before as well as much more Counter-Strike action for those of you watching at home.
The BLAST Premier tournament circuit will now be made up of three events, each with its own format and unique features. These events are BLAST Bounty, BLAST Open, and BLAST Rivals.
- BLAST Bounty: A truly innovative, gameshow-like structure in which 32 teams will compete to raise the bounty on their heads in order to take home a larger percentage of the prize pool.
- BLAST Open: Big arena events with an epic large scale providing a truly global route for teams from all CS regions and opportunity to shine against the world’s best teams.
- BLAST Rivals: A battle of the elite where the best of the best will come toe-to-toe to see who reigns supreme.
These three tournament formats will each be played twice across the year, once in the BLAST Premier Spring Season and again in the BLAST Premier Fall Season. These two seasons are as follows:
SEASON 1 - Spring 2025
- BLAST BOUNTY: 14 - 26 January
- BLAST OPEN: 18 - 30 March - Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
- BLAST RIVALS: 29 April - 4 May
SEASON 2 - Fall 2025
- BLAST BOUNTY: 5 - 17 August
- BLAST OPEN: 26 August - 7 September - Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom
- BLAST RIVALS: 11 - 16 November
You’ll notice that we even gave you a sneak preview of some of the venues for these incredible events, keep your eyes peeled for future announcements as we take BLAST Premier truly global in 2025 and beyond.
“From 2025 onwards BLAST Premier fans will have more broadcast hours, more events and more teams to sink their teeth into than ever before."
"We are ripping up the script at BLAST from next year onwards by introducing a fresh and exciting format that will keep fans and players on the edge of their seats at all times. Valve ranking-based invites and regional qualifiers, alongside dynamic prize pools and incredible arena locations will mean the world’s best teams will be competing on a global platform."
“As part of these changes, we have created stronger financial incentives for teams and a framework that will mean the world’s best and in-form teams will be rewarded and encouraged to compete in BLAST Premier events. We have an ambition to support a sustainable ecosystem, which means BLAST will be investing $6 millions into competing Counter-Strike teams and their long-term future as part of our payment framework,” said Andrew Haworth, VP of Ecosystems
A Major development
2023 saw BLAST take a new step as a tournament organiser as we hosted the final ever CS:GO Major, the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
It was a phenomenal event - the first of its kind on French shores - with legacies cemented, 58,891,766 hours watched, 50,000 fans across four days of world-class CS and a peak viewership of 1,528,724 - and we’re not done yet.
Just as we’re bringing tier-one Counter-Strike back to Great Britain with BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, we’ll be bringing the Major back to the United States of America for the first time in seven long years. Given how the last NA Major went, we know this one will be special.
The BLAST.tv Major 2025 will take place in one of the most historically significant places in Counter-Strike as we head to Austin, Texas, using the state-of-the-art Moody Center as the venue.
We can’t wait for the headlines spawned from that venue.
“We are delighted to bring North America its first Major in seven years next summer. Austin, Texas is renowned for hosting the biggest and best music and entertainment events in the world. We are proud to bring esports and Counter-Strike to this world-class city, with a best-in-class arena to match in the Moody Center,” said Andrew Haworth, VP of Ecosystems
A trifecta of tournaments
In 2025, Tthe BLAST Premier tournament circuit will comprise three distinct events, each featuring its own unique format and characteristics: BLAST Bounty, BLAST Open, and BLAST Rivals:
1. BLAST Bounty - a dynamic prize pool to keep teams on their toes
BLAST Bounty is an innovative new tournament added to the Counter-Strike landscape.
A 32-team event, it will be made up of the top 30 teams in Valve’s Global Ranking as well as two wildcard teams selected by BLAST.
It’s a do-or-die format, with the teams playing the two opening rounds in an online setting in single-elimination BO3s. 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.
But here’s the fun part: The teams participating in BLAST Bounty will come into the event with a bounty on their heads decided by seeding. Upon winning a match, the winning team will claim 50% of the available bounty as a guaranteed payout at the end of the event, while the remaining 50% will carry forward to raise the stakes in the following match.
Oh, and there’s a twist too: In the opening round, the lowest-seeded teams will get the chance to pick which of the highest-seeded teams they would like to play. The seeding will then be reset in the following rounds, with the lowest-seeded teams once again being given the opportunity to select their opponent.
If you love an underdog story, this is the tournament for you.
2. BLAST Open - giving underdogs a chance to face the world’s best teams in leading arenas around the world
BLAST Bounty won’t be the only chance for underdogs to shine in the BLAST circuit, BLAST Open will also provide teams with a chance to build their legacy as four underdog teams come up against the 12 highest-ranked teams in the world in some of the greatest arenas across the globe.
Once again, the Valve Global Ranking will be used to decide those 12 teams, and the other four teams will be decided by regional qualifiers.
The first week of each Open event will take place in the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen. There the 16 participating teams will be split into groups of eight to play out double-elimination BO3 brackets and decide the three teams that will advance to the playoffs from each group.
The six playoff teams will then be jetting off to the city hosting the arena final, where they will then take place in a BO3 single elimination bracket that will culminate in a BO5 final.
3. BLAST Rivals - Deciding where the title of the world’s best belongs
Finally, we have BLAST Rivals, an event where the best teams across the Counter-Strike season according to the Valve Global Ranking will face off to see which of them is the greatest of all.
Similar to the current BLAST Finals format, the eight teams in attendance will face off in a BO3, GSL format which will lead into a playoff bracket with BO3 Quarter and Semi Final games and a BO5 Final.
Prize pools, participation fees and team payouts
In 2025, BLAST will invest $8.5 million into the competitive Counter-Strike ecosystem. This investment is distributed through three primary mechanisms:
- Participation Fees - $4 Million
- Frequent Flyers Programme - $2 Million
- Prize Money - $2.5 Million
Participation fees are a significant component of BLAST's financial structure, providing teams with guaranteed income based on their ranking.
The frequent flyers programme is designed to reward teams for their consistency and participation in multiple BLAST events.
Read more about Prize Money, Team Earnings, and the Frequent Flyer Programme here.