In 2021 our vision for improving the Counter-Strike live event experience will come to fruition. In alignment with teams and players, we’re ecstatic to reveal a significant change to our tournament formatting. Aimed at improving the viewing experience, the competitive landscape and alleviating the fatigue felt by players.
What’s changing?
We are going all-in on storytelling
There are so many amazing stories that go untold in esports because the right amount of time does not exist. Our vision is to create this time, to enable ourselves and others with the right platform to find and tell these missed stories. This is why in 2021 our tournaments will now take place across two weekends, with the first concluding our group stages and the second at arenas around the world.
We’ve worked together with the teams and players to centralize all of our group stage competitions to take place within a new ESL CS:GO studio from Europe. We will also reduce our tournament footprint from 10 to 8, which will reduce the overall amount of required international travel for teams and players for ESL & DH competitions.
What does this mean?
For the players is a lower density of matches and better preparation for the most important ones and at the same time, less time spent away from home. What this means for us is the generation of time in order to create premium content such as; tactical analysis, in-depth interviews and storytelling, hype trailers and much more all specific to the teams within the play-offs.
THE OFFICIAL CS:GO 2021 CALENDAR
This calendar covers all of ESL and DreamHack’s biggest CS:GO tournaments in 2021 and will be continuously updated as more tournaments are being announced.*
| EVENT | DATE | REGION | TEAMS | PRIZE |
| IEM Katowice | 16 - 28 February, 2021 | Poland | 24 |
$1,000,000 |
| ESL Pro League Season 13 | 10 March - 18 April, 2021 | Malta | 24 | $750,000 |
| DreamHack Masters Event | 3-13 June, 2021 | Europe | 16 | $250,000 |
| ESL One Cologne | 6-18 July, 2021 | Germany | 24 | $1,000,000 |
| IEM Melbourne** | 17-22 August, 2021 | Australia | 16 | $250,000 |
| ESL Pro League Season 14 | 1 Sep. - 10 Oct., 2021 | Malta | 24 | $750,000 |
| IEM Masters Event | 14-24 October, 2021 | North America | 16 | $250,000 |
| IEM Masters Event | 2-12 December, 2021 | Asia | 16 | $250,000 |
*All dates are still subject to change.
**WIP based on the tournament break planning for 2021
The new ESL Pro Tour CS:GO Studio
We are stoked to introduce a brand new dedicated ESL Pro Tour Studio that will host the group stages of our tournaments and become a Covid-compliant central hub for all of our ESL Pro Tour events. It will feature all of the latest Intel technology along with 240Hz monitors, height adjustable tables, anti-flash smart glass, rotating players booths and more.
Be sure to check out the ESL Pro Tour website and keep up to track with our Twitter for future updates!
