Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released by Valve in 2012. Today, it’s one of their most popular games and has spawned a highly competitive set of CSGO events. Right now, the best CSGO players are gearing up and getting to compete in a litany of events with the hope of making it to the Blast Premier Global Final 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season did not go as expected. The ESL One Rio 2020 Major Championship was cancelled entirely. However, new precautions and regulations are in place for this year. This has opened the door for fans, players, and CSGO betting sites to dive into the action once more. Read on for details of the top 2021 events.
CS:GO tournaments – the most popular events in the eSports world.
There are six regions that compete in CS:GO tournaments. These are Europe, Asia, North America, South America, CIS, and Oceana. The best CSGO players and teams are decided according to RMR, or Regional Major Ranking, points. These rank the 24 best pro teams in the world.
The season starts in June and lasts through December. Some of the upcoming tournaments are still being organized and have fewer details available. However, we have included all the current information on CSGO pro league events that have been released at this time.
IEM Summer 2021
The Intel Extreme Masters sequence takes up many spots on the CS GO tournaments schedule. They host tournaments in summer, fall, and winter. The IEM Katowice CSGO season starts with the Summer 2021 event, which starts on June 2nd and ends on June 6th.
IEM has stated that they will host as many competitions as possible between CSGO leagues offline; however, they will adapt according to the pandemic. There is not a set location for the Summer event at this time.
This event has a Group Stage and Playoffs. There are only two teams qualified for the Group Stage at this point, and they are Imperial and Extra Salt. These esports games will be a double elimination between sixteen teams.
Winners will be decided by best of three. The best 18 teams move to Playoffs and are sorted by points into Low Seeds for the Quarterfinals, High Seeds for the Quarterfinals, or to the Semifinals. These are based on a single-elimination format.
Quarterfinals and Semifinals are played as best of three. The two final teams compete in a best-of-five Grand Final for the $250,000 prize.
ESL One Cologne 2021
ESL pro league teams will compete in the One Cologne 2021 from July 7th to the 17th. This event will occur offline at the ESL Pro Studio located in Cologne, Germany. This pits 16 CSGO pro league teams against each other in three rounds.
First is the Play-In. The 16 competing teams will be sorted for the opening matches, which are played in a double-elimination format. The opening matches all best of one. This leaves the top eight to move on.
Next is the Group Stage. It’s played with the same double-elimination format, and eight teams are added back in based on ESL global rankings. Winners are awarded for best of three.
Six teams move to the Playoffs. As with the IEM Summer playoffs, each team is divided into Semifinals or Quarterfinals (low or high seeds). Best of three in these events produces the final two competitors for the best-of-five Grand Final. The ESL pro league prize pool is a tidy $1 million.
ESL Pro League Season 14
The ESL Pro League Season 14 tournament starts on September 7th and lasts until October 10th. There are three rounds to the tournament, as is fairly standard. This season will be hosted in Malta.
The Group Stage has 24 teams to start. There are four groups of six teams that compete in a single-elimination Round Robin. Winners are decided by best of three. The group winners move to the next stage.
This is the Play-In. These teams compete in a single-elimination format for best of three. The winners move to the ESL Pro League Semifinals, while losers move to the Quarterfinals.
The Playoffs reveal the winners of the Semifinals round through a best-of-three format. Those final two CSGO leagues compete in the best-of-five Grand Final for $750,000.
PGL Major Stockholm 2021
The PGL Major is one of the most exciting events for the best CSGO players and punters. It takes place offline through LAN tournaments in Stockholm Sweden. The exact dates of this Major haven’t been released yet.
Typically, the starting points for the PGL Major are determined by the outcome of the ESL One Major Championship. Valve has created a different way to determine initial rankings for this year, with the hope that the next Major occurs as planned.
The rank of teams (before the cancelled event) within the Legend, Challenger, and Contender stages has been converted into seed points. Team Vitality, Heroic, NiP, Team Spirit, NaVi, 100 Thieves, FURIA, and Evil Geniuses begin with 600 points from the Legend stage.
Astralis, BIG, Fnatic, G2, OG, GODSENT, Nemiga, Virtus.pro, and Team Liquid were awarded 300 points at the Challenger stage. Finally, FaZe Clan, North, ESPADA, Team Liquid, Gen G, BOOM, TYLOO, and Renegades were awarded 100 points at the Contender stage.
This year, 24 teams will compete in three stages of the tournament. The format for each stage has not been determined yet. However, the PGL Major winners will get a large portion of the $2 million prize pool. This is the biggest prize pool in 2021.
IEM Winter 2021
The IEM Winter 2021 wraps up the IEM Katowice CSGO season before the BLAST Premier championship. No location has been announced for this event yet. As mentioned earlier, IEM is hoping to host in-person LAN tournaments but will move online as necessary.
The Winter event starts on December 1st and ends on the 11th. It has the exact same format as the Summer event. There are initially sixteen teams competing, which will be narrowed down through the usual CSGO major Group Stages and Playoffs.
The Group Stage winners will be decided by a single-elimination format with best of three. The winners are sorted by points into Low or High Seed Quarterfinals or proceed to the Semifinals. Quarterfinals and Semifinals are played as best of three. The two final teams compete in a best-of-five Grand Final for the $250,000 prize.
BLAST Premier Global final 2021
Much of the Blast Pro Series Final has yet to be determined. It occurs at the end of the year, from December 13th to the 18th. The teams for the Global Final are decided based on the number of RMR points that each of the pro leagues has won throughout the year.
We can say for certain that most of the tournament will occur in a double-elimination format with wins for best of three. The prize pool for this insanely popular even is $1 million. The top four teams will take most of this, with winners pocketing $500,000.
Live streaming available for CSGO online tournaments
We’re quickly heading into the most exciting part of the year for CSGO tournaments. Make sure that you stay on top of the schedule and updates to plan your bets for the season. Check back here for CSGO tips, updates on your favorite US CS:GO teams, and more. We’ll see you at the finals!