BLAST shares dates for its CS events in 2025

The esports entertainment company BLAST has announced some of its plans for its Counter-strike 2 circuit in 2025, sharing the dates on which the events will be held. The organiser has also given a timeline by which it expects to fill out more information for next year.

A crucial year

In an announcement from August 3, 2023, Counter-Strike 2 developer Valve shared its vision on the values of esports, putting in place new regulations regarding the relationship between open tournaments and business relationships in the industry.

"Counter-Strike is at its best when teams compete on a level playing field and when ability is the only limit to their success. Over the past few years, we’ve seen professional Counter-Strike drift away from that ideal." the developer had explained in a blog post.

"The ecosystem has become gradually less open, with access to the highest levels of competition increasingly gated by business relationships." says Valve, enacting limitations on partnership leagues that had increasingly taken hold of professional CS.

Forbidding "business relationships or other conflicts of interest" by 2025, Valve put a timer on structures such as ESL's Louvre agreement, a semi-closed system of circuits that sought to tie in esports organisations together with the organisers, receiving more say within the system and also additional revenue opportunities for its partnered teams.

Similarly, BLAST was also impacted, having signed agreements with organisations that gave competitive advantages to partnership teams in qualifying for events of its circuit, a system that would no longer be allowed by 2025.

"Valve’s changes to an open ecosystem provide opportunities to create new and dynamic additions to our tournaments," VP of Ecosystems at BLAST, Andrew Haworth shared in a press release, promising further innovation on their part under the new guidelines.

2025 dates announced

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With 2025 turning into a pivotal year for event organisers in the scene, BLAST has begun announcing the details of how it plans to navigate the new situation, starting with its event dates. They are as follows:

January 13 - 26
March 17 - 30
April 28 - May 4

August 4 - 17
August 25 - September 7
November 10 - 16

Notably, the events appear to be structured in a two-half structure, with the first two events running for a two-week period into a one-week event, which could be interpreted to be the final of each season. Moreover, it has carved out a three-month break in the summer between these cycles, possibly trying to avoid scheduling conflicts with the annual Esports World Cup.

According to the press release, BLAST is looking to share more information at its BLAST Premier Spring Final in London in June, answering questions about the locations, format, and prize pools.