BLAST 2025 Calendar, Format & Prize Pool Announced

BLAST has today announced details for the year 2025 including the upcoming events, prize pool, format, venues, and more. BLAST will be changing a lot next year to ensure "compelling and exciting storylines that will captivate fans like never before."

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“2025 is shaping up to be BLAST’s most exciting year to date," said BLAST VP of Ecosystems, Valve, Riot Games, Andrew Haworth. You can find the complete details for BLAST 2025 season below.

Everything We Know About BLAST Season 2025: Events Schedule, Prize Pool, Format

Unlike the past few years, where BLAST hosted seven events, 2025 will feature six tournaments divided into three events—BLAST Bounty, BLAST Open, and BLAST Rivals.

Here are the dates for all the BLAST tournaments happening in 2025 across Spring and Fall season:

Season 1 - Spring 2025

• BLAST Bounty: 14 to 26 January
• BLAST Open: 18 to 30 March at Altice Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
• BLAST Rivals: 29 April to 4 May

Season 2 - Fall 2025

• BLAST Bounty: 5 to 17 August
• BLAST Open: 26 August to 7 September at Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom
• BLAST Rivals: 11 to 16 November

BLAST.tv Major 2025

Apart from this, BLAST will bring back BLAST.tv Major to USA in June 2025 and will be held at Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

You can find the details of individual BLAST events to be held in 2025 below:

BLAST Bounty

The BLAST Bounty is a new event introduced for next year and will feature 32 teams, including the top 30 from Valve’s Global Ranking and two wildcards selected by BLAST. The tournament will follow a single-elimination format with best-of-three (BO3) matches in the initial rounds played online. The final eight teams will compete in a LAN setting at BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, culminating in a best-of-five (BO5) Grand Final.

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A unique aspect of BLAST Bounty is the "bounty" system. Each team will start with a bounty determined by their seeding. Winning teams claim 50% of the defeated team's bounty, with the remaining 50% carrying forward to increase stakes in subsequent matches. Additionally, in the opening round, lower-seeded teams get to choose their opponents from the higher-seeded teams. This selection process is repeated in later rounds after seeding reset.

BLAST Open

BLAST Open will feature four underdog teams competing against the 12 highest-ranked teams in the world in prestigious arenas. The top 12 teams will be determined by the Valve Global Ranking, while the remaining four teams will be selected through regional qualifiers. 

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The first week of each BLAST Open event will be held at BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, where 16 teams will be divided into two groups of eight to play double-elimination BO3 brackets. The top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs.

The six playoff teams will then travel to the host city to compete in a BO3 single-elimination bracket, culminating in a BO5 final.

BLAST Rivals

The BLAST Rivals event will see the top teams of the season, as determined by the Valve Global Ranking, compete to determine the best team overall. Following the format of current BLAST Finals, eight teams will participate in best-of-three (BO3) matches in a GSL format. This will lead into a playoff bracket with BO3 Quarter and Semi-Final games, culminating in a best-of-five (BO5) Final.

Additionally, in 2025, BLAST will invest $8.5 million into the competitive CS2 scene and you can find the distribution below:

Participation Fees — $4 million

• BLAST Bounty:
  • 1st - 8th: $40,000 per team
  • 9th - 16th: $26,250 per team
  • 17th - 32nd: $7,500 per team
• BLAST Open:
  • 1st - 12th: $45,000 per team
  • Others: $10,000 each for the 1st - 4th ranked teams in EU, NA, SA & Asia Rising
• BLAST Rivals:
  • 1st - 8th: $81,250 per team

Frequent Flyers Programme — $2 million

Teams earn tokens for participating in events:

• 4 tournaments: 1 token
• 5 tournaments: 2 tokens
• 6 tournaments: 4 tokens

Additional tokens are awarded for performance:

• Reaching the second week of the Bounty or Open: 1 token
• Winning Bounty, Open, or Rivals: 2 tokens

At the end of the year, the prize money will be divided into Frequent Flyers Programme teams based on the tokens earned.

Prize Money — $2.5 million

This prize money will be distributed to teams based on their performances in various events.