eSports Events You Can’t Miss in 2025

Recomended bookmakers

up to 5000 USDT Visit

Visit

Up to 300 USD Visit

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• By looking at the schedule, Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 seem to be dominating the 2025 eSports scene.
• Among the noteworthy games, two will feature inaugural eSports tournaments within their calendar.
• There are three non-competitive events, i.e., exhibitions, that should highlight the year 2025 for eSports.

Photo: Gaming setup
(https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/gaming-setup-with-headphones-chair_33263564.htm#fromView=search&page=3&position=36&uuid=a08f5e06-1d45-47cf-bb57-7b3de608880d)

The year 2024 dropped its curtain for important eSports events, but new and even more exciting competitions, as well as conventions, are planned for 2025. With a few other gaming tournaments dotted around the schedule, such as those for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (R6), VALORANT, Rocket League, and others, Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) and Dota 2 seem to be dominating the 2025 eSports scene. Also, a few gaming conventions gathering eSports aficionados are to be held next year. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the most anticipated eSports competitions and exhibitions in 2025, in our opinion, with plenty more significant outside the list, ordered according to the kick-off time.

BLAST Bounty Spring 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• January 24–26
• BLAST Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark

One of the biggest LAN competitions for CS2 next year will be the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025. It’s going to be the year-opening gaming event.

The best eight teams will be vying for the championship and the $500,000 prize fund. The live broadcast of these in-person matches will only be accessible online via the BLAST website, which is one of the biggest gaming ecosystem developers in the world. Their headquarters, the BLAST Studios, will host the event. Depending on your preference for premium seating, tickets will cost from $55 to $1300. Throughout the games, the statistics will be updated in real-time. There will be an announcement as January draws near regarding the participants in this event.

ALGS Year 4 Championship

• Apex Legends
• January 28–February 2
• Daiwa House PREMIST DOME, Sapporo, Japan

The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS), an esteemed international gaming competition that brings together the top Apex Legend gamers in the globe, will enter its fourth year in 2025, and the Daiwa House PREMIST DOME will host the championship for the first time in Japan.

This event, which will be organized by EA and Respawn Entertainment, will start with 40 teams. They’ll be divided into four even groups of 10 teams each for the Group Stage, which will take place from January 28 to 30. After that, they’ll face off against other groups in a round-robin format. Based on their results, the teams will move on to the Bracket Stage after completing a total of 18 games in the Group Stage. The Winners Bracket will be reached by the top 20 teams. The 20 teams that are left will then play in the Match Point Format. The winning squad will be the one with 50 points and a first-place finish in games. After that, the remaining teams will be ranked according to how many points they earned during the series, which will determine their position and the award they’ll receive from the $2 million prize pool.

IEM Katowice 2025

• Counter-Strike
• January 29–February 9
• Spodek, Katowice, Poland

With a kick-off at the end of January 2025, Poland’s Katowice will host the Intel Extreme Masters 2025, or IEM 2025. This particular Masters competition has been one of the most well-known and eagerly awaited tournaments in the Counter-Strike 2 realm for many years. IEM Katowice 2025 is an integral part of the IEM series, the oldest global pro gaming tour in the world, which consists of several major eSports contests held throughout the globe in different countries.

The $1 million prize pool will be up for grabs for 24 of the world’s top teams, among which we isolate two teams as the biggest favorites—Team Spirit and FaZe Clan—if you decide to try your betting fortune on the best eSports bookmakers. The arena Spodek will host the Playoffs, i.e., EPT Championship, from February 7-9. A subsequent announcement will be made on the qualifying teams that will be competing in this event.

BLAST Slam II

• Dota 2
• February 3–9
• Singapore (venue to be determined)

From February 3–9, Singapore will host Dota 2’s BLAST Slam II. The teams will be vying for a $1 million prize fund.

The teams competing and their specifics haven’t yet been revealed. It does seem, though, that there will be a round-robin Group Stage beginning with 10 teams, with single-elimination Playoffs. Depending on their King of the Hill ranking, the teams will be seeded for the Playoffs.

Six Invitational 2025

• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• February 3–16
• MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

The 10th edition of the Six Invitational, the largest eSports competition for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, will take place in Boston.

At $3 million, this is reportedly the largest prize pool of any R6 event, and it will be held on US soil for the first time. The audience can’t watch the Group Stage or the Playoffs in person, however, they can watch the finals in the MGM Music Hall at Fenway from February 14 to 16. Twenty teams will compete in this offline tournament, which is being organized by Ubisoft and BLAST; the names of all teams that will be competing will be revealed later. Actually, right now, only the names of four teams are unknown.

IEM Expo Katowice 2025

• Exhibition
• February 7–9
• International Congress Center, Katowice, Poland

During the IEM Katowice 2025, the International Congress Center (ICC) in Katowice will host the IEM Expo 2025. The exhibition is making its comeback and will be free to enter.

On the last three days of IEM Katowice 2025, gaming lovers will have the opportunity to enjoy the newest gaming technologies, play games themselves, and enter sponsor activations to win fantastic prizes. The arena Spodek is also open to Expo attendees on a first-come, first-served basis.

PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• February 14–23
• BT Arena, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

In 2025, the PGL will conduct four Counter-Strike 2 competitions. The Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires was to host the opening tournament of 2025. However, due to “an exceptionally busy CS2 calendar with numerous back-to-back events,” the tournament was relocated to Romania’s Cluj-Napoca.

This offline tournament will have a $1.25 million prize fund. The teams competing haven’t yet been revealed by the co-organizers PGL and FiReSPORTS. The top eight teams will advance to the Playoffs out of 16 teams in the Swiss system format.

DreamLeague Season 25

• Dota 2
• February 16–March 2
• Online

Dota 2’s DreamLeague Season 25 will be an online competition on the Europe West server comprising round-robin groups and double-elimination Playoffs. There will be a $1 million prize pool up for grabs.

This event is organized by ESL Gaming, and a total of 16 teams will compete, including four teams from the EPT Leaderboard and at least one team from each regional Qualifier. No specific teams have been revealed as of yet except those from the leaderboard criterion. The first stage of the groups will start on February 16–19. From February 21–27, Group Stage 2 will take place. The double-elimination bracket for the Playoffs is scheduled to be played on March 1-2.

VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025

• VALORANT
• February 20–March 2
• UOB Live, Bangkok, Thailand

Three worldwide leagues, the VCT Masters competitions, each with 12 teams vying for an undetermined reward, will be organized by Riot Games in 2025, as announced. Three continents—Asia, Europe, and North America—will host the events at various periods of the year. The Masters Bangkok, scheduled for February and March 2025, is the most imminent in the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).

Riot Games has suggested a number of modifications to the event’s format. Every region’s VCT Kickoff will take place in January to kick off the season. There will be a double-elimination format with 12 teams from each region. Each tournament’s top two teams advance to Bangkok for the main event. So, the teams for Bangkok aren’t yet known, nor is the prize pool, but it looks like this will be a very exciting tournament, and for now, it seems that eight teams will take part instead of the promised 12. VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025 will take place offline at the UOB Live arena, and the format will be revealed later.

The VCT season will end in Paris, France, but in between, the second will be held in Toronto, Canada.

PUBG Mobile Global Open 2025

• PUBG Mobile
• March–April (exact dates to be determined)
• Tashkent, Uzbekistan (venue to be determined)

The first significant LAN competition of the 2025 season for PUBG, the PUBG Mobile Global Open (PMGO), will be held in Uzbekistan. The precise date and venue, as well as the prize fund, of the event haven’t yet been disclosed, but it was announced during gamescom latam 2024 by James Yang, Senior Director of the Global Esports Center at Level Infinite. Although Uzbekistan has a well-established PUBG Mobile ecosystem with competitions like the Uzbekistan Cup, this is the first time the country will hold an international eSports event.

PMGO 2025 is anticipated to draw the top teams from across the world, further solidifying PUBG Mobile’s position as one of the key “players” in the global eSports scene after its successful 2024 debut in São Paulo, which attracted over 510,000 peak viewers.

RuneFest 2025

• Exhibition
• March 1–2
• National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

The 10th RuneScape event will be RuneFest 2025. It’s scheduled for March 1 and 2, 2025, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, UK. At the same location, it was first scheduled for September 7 and 8, 2024. However, Jagex (a British video game developer) had to postpone RuneFest since the event organizer they engaged failed. Jagex developed and published RuneScape, a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) celebrated by RuneFest.

The Main Stage will have reveals, the newest content will be playtested, there will be a 99 party in a dedicated LAN area, cosplay, opportunities to meet creators, JMods, and members of the community, real-world challenges to earn skill chips, livestreams for those at home, and RuneFest merchandise sales, just like at previous RuneFests. Along with new RuneScape items like the RuneScape Kingdoms board game and tabletop game, next year will also bring a Community Zone, competitions, and a camping area.

PGL Wallachia Season 3

• Dota 2
• March 8–16
• PGL Studio, Bucharest, Romania

The PGL Wallachia Season 3 is set to be held between March 8–16.

While there isn’t much information available about this event yet, the prize pool is said to be $1 million that teams will be competing for. This is going to be an offline tournament in the Romanian capital of Bucharest with the participation of 16 teams.

First Stand 2025

• League of Legends
• March 10–16
• LoL Park, Seoul, South Korea

Midway through March 2025, a brand-new eSports competition for League of Legends (LoL) called First Stand 2025 will take place in Seoul’s LoL Park. Riot Games introduced this new worldwide cross-regional competition in response to fan desire for regional battles.

This new competition is implementing a Fearless Draft mode, never been used before. A champion who’s selected once won’t be allowed to play again in that series. This ought to add a fresh layer of strategy. The third international event, First Stand 2025, will precede MSI and Worlds. It includes five teams that advance following the initial division of the events in each region. Only one team will be sent from each region. It hasn’t yet been revealed who’ll be competing or the sum of the prize pool.

RCLS 2025: Birmingham Major

• Rocket League
• March 27–30
• bp pulse LIVE, Birmingham, England, UK

With its Rocket League event, the Rocket League Championship Series 2025: Birmingham Major will wrap out March.

In Birmingham, 16 teams will compete for a piece of a massive $5 million prize pool set by the Rocket League Championship Series for its events next year. In this eagerly awaited tournament, which will be played in 3v3 mode, the prize pool is set at $351,000. In 2025, there will be three in-person events, including this one. As the event draws near, more information will be made available, such as the teams taking part.

PGL Bucharest 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• April 6–13
• PGL Studio, Bucharest, Romania

The PGL tournament for Counter-Strike 2 will be held in Bucharest, Romania, setting a $1.25 million prize pool. Live Twitch streaming will be available for this LAN-style event.

The team and player statistics will be determined by a number of in-game criteria, including MVP, ADR, kills, and deaths. The statistics will be refreshed frequently once games are over and updated in real-time during the contests.

PGL Wallachia Season 4

• Counter-Strike 2
• April 19–27
• PGL Studio, Bucharest, Romania

The PGL Studio in Bucharest, Romania, will host the fourth season of PGL Wallachia. The Europe West server is where the event is scheduled to take place when it comes to online phases.

In this Dota 2 competition, teams will vie for $1 million. Details about the 16 teams that will take part will be made public as the event draws nearer.

BLAST Slam III

• Dota 2
• May 5–11
• Location and venue yet to be determined

Ten teams will compete for $1 million in Dota 2’s BLAST Slam III. To decide who advances to the Playoffs, a two-round-robin group of five teams will be formed at the start. This offline event (the venue is yet to be disclosed), which is run by BLAST, will also feature single-elimination Playoffs.

As the date draws near, more details will be revealed.

PGL Astana 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• May 10–18
• Barys Arena, Astana, Kazakhstan

Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, will host the PGL Astana Counter-Strike 2 competition. There will be a $1.25 million prize fund for teams to compete for. Sixteen teams will battle on maps including Ancient, Anubis, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Vertigo when the competition starts.

As the event draws near, specifics on the teams will be revealed.

DreamLeague Season 26

• Dota 2
• May 12–25
• Online

Dota 2 players will compete for $1 million on the Europe West server in the DreamLeague Season 26. The names of the 16 participants haven’t yet been revealed. This tournament has been arranged by DreamHack and ESL Gaming, and additional details will be released as they become available.

Esports World Cup 2025

• Multi-discipline tournament
• June– August (exact dates to be determined)
• Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (venue to be determined)

Featuring some of the best games and players in the world, the Esports World Cup 2025 is to be a multidisciplinary extravaganza. The inaugural tournament featured 21 events and 22 contests between June and August of 2024 and had an overal prize pool of $60 million. These are the months when the next year’s edition will be held. As the series aims to surpass its first version in size and quality, there will be more games. The first game was revealed, with the newly released Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 serving as the franchise’s representative.

Although the precise dates or the venue haven’t been disclosed, it’s anticipated that the dates would be comparable to those of the first iteration, which took place from June 28 to August 25 at the Boulevard City. Although the qualifying requirements for each game will be different, the Esports World Cup 2025 will include the final series for each title. There is a Club Championship for participating organizations in every game in addition to the competitions within the games. The prize pool in total is expected to reach the sum that was at the disposal of the participants last year but there’s nothing official yet on that.

BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• June 9–22
• Moody Center, Austin, Texas, USA

The Moody Center in Austin, Texas, will host the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 event for Counter-Strike 2, which is included in the Valve Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors.

Twenty-four teams will be vying for $1.25 million. Eight teams will get the right to move from the Opening Stage to the Elimination Stage, where eight invitees will await them. The top eight teams go to the Playoffs after the Elimination Stage. A single-elimination tournament will be used for the Playoffs. No specific teams have been revealed as of yet.

FISSURE Summer 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• July 15–20
• Belgrade, Serbia (venue to be determined)

FISSURE will conduct two LAN events, including this one. The combined prize fund for both competitions will be $2.25 million. There will be 16 teams and a $1 million prize pool for the inaugural event in July.

Each of the four double-elimination groups will consist of four teams. The Playoffs will thereafter be reached by the top two teams in each group. A bracket with only one elimination will be used. The team names haven’t yet been revealed.

IEM Cologne 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• July 23–August 3
• LANXESS arena, Cologne, Germany

The LANXESS arena in Cologne, Germany, will host the Intel Extreme Masters 2025 competition Counter-Strike 2, which is a part of the Intel Extreme Masters series. One of the largest CS2 competitions, it will take place between the end of July and the start of August.

A $1 million prize fund will be up for grabs. Teams haven’t yet been revealed. There will be 24 of them, as is known.

FISSURE Autumn 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• September 9–21
• Belgrade, Serbia (venue to be determined)

This Counter-Strike 2 event in Belgrade is being organized by FISSURE, as said earlier, the broadcasting studio and eSports tournament organizer, well-known for its Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang broadcasts and competitions. There’s reportedly a $1.25 million prize pool.

It will be a 16-team Swiss system format, with eight teams moving on to the Playoffs following the Swiss Stage, though the precise players have not yet been revealed. High-level gameplay in one of CS2’s most competitive stages is anticipated at this event.

VALORANT Champions 2025

• VALORANT
• September 12–October 5
• Paris, France (venue to be determined)

Riot Games has said that this event will return to Europe for the first time in two years. This will be the fifth VALORANT Champions, or the VALORANT World Championship. There will be 16 teams, although the names of them and prize money haven’t yet been decided.

It’s the VALORANT eSports calendar’s premier event.

Tokyo Game Show 2025

• Exhibition
• September 25–28
• Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan

The Tokyo Games Show (TGS) is one of the largest game shows in the world, and gamers have been aware of it for a while. What better location for one of the largest and most significant video game trade exhibitions in the world than Japan, which is home to some of the greatest names in the gaming industry? You may examine what the major gaming companies—Nintendo, Sony, Square Enix, and Sega—have to offer at the Tokyo Game Show 2025. You can also look at independent developers, mobile game producers, and fascinating virtual reality games.

Every year in September, the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, hosts the video game trade show and conference known as TGS. It’s presented by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. and the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA). The enormous Makuhari Messe convention hall is situated just outside of Tokyo and will host the four-day event in 2025. The exhibition’s program gives the public access to still-in-development systems and games, as well as first looks at upcoming trailers and releases.

PGL Belgrade 2025

• Counter-Strike 2
• October 25–November 3
• Beogradska arena, Belgrade, Serbia

From late October to early November, Belgrade, Serbia, will host the PGL Belgrade Counter-Strike 2 competition.

Although the prize pool is reportedly $1.25 million, no details about the teams taking part have been made public as of yet. There will be 16 teams, though, trying to find their way to the Playoffs via Group Stage.

G-STAR 2025

• Exhibition
• November 20–23
• Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, Busan, South Korea

The biggest gaming convention in Korea, G-STAR, has been taking place every year since 2005. It occurs from the third Thursday of November until the coming Sunday. This means that G-STAR will take place in 2025 from November 20 to November 23.

The largest convention center in Busan, Bexco, is the venue for the event, which includes a range of events like business meetings, gaming competitions, game demos, and the debut of new game IPs. G-STAR has made a name for itself in the gaming business by drawing attendees and participants from both domestic and foreign locations. No wonder given that Korea is practically the birthplace of eSports.

Online Gameplay: Pros and Cons

In recent years, online gaming has grown in popularity because it allows gamers to compete against opponents worldwide without ever leaving the comforts of their own homes. The relative performance and player experience of online gaming versus LAN (Local Area Network) gaming is a topic of continuous discussion. We’ll list the main benefits and drawbacks of playing online for pro eSports players, which at the same time highlight the benefits and drawbacks of playing in LAN tournaments.