Esports tournament organiser PGL has announced plans to host a large number of non-Major CS2 events in 2025 and 2026.
PGL aims to organise more than 10 CS2 tournaments in the next two years, with the first tournament set to take place in February 2025 and the last confirmed tournament in October 2026.
The tournament organiser last worked on a large-scale CS2 event (outside of Majors) in 2016, and has been relatively dormant in the space since, only working with Valve on the Major tournaments. The decision to work on more tournaments across the board was made due to a change in regulation which will no longer allow teams to partner with tournament organisers from 2025 onwards.
PGL did not miss the opportunity to reference its competitors by noting that 2025 will bring “an end of the era dominated by a few esports organisers who created a monopoly on the Counter-Strike market.” The company also added that the initiative introduces a breath of fresh air into the scene and that it aims to elevate the quality, excitement and accessibility of competitive CS2 to new heights.
A total of 11 dates were shared by PGL for 2025 and 2026. The first CS2 tournament will take place in February 2025, followed by tournaments in March/April, May, September/October, and October/November. The 2026 calendar will have tournaments in February/March, March/April, May, August, September/October, and October/November.
The announcement is similar to PGL’s recently revealed plans to invest further into Dota 2 with tournamnets plans from 2024 – 2026.
PGl did not mention any plans for upcoming Majors in the Counter-Strike announcement. If the trend of having two Majors per year continues, and other tournament organisers create their own calendars, the number of opportunities for teams looks to be significantly higher than in 2025 compared to previous years.
