Each competitive online project faces the main task of becoming an esports discipline. Csgo tournaments increase the interest of users and fans in the game, and gives money for the development of the project and its promotion on a global scale.

The Counter-Strike game series did an excellent job with this task and became one of the most popular esports disciplines. And while other projects consider the organized LAN-tournament a great achievement, the upcoming CS:GO tournaments are very big and expected. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and even pure gold become the prizes of such events.

You should spend several months studying various materials in order to understand all the nuances of a counter strike tournament. Read the text below to understand the types and formats of tournaments, their matches, prize pools, ranking systems for teams and players, etc.

Types of CS:GO Tournaments

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has several different types of all cs:go tournament. They are usually related, but some events are separated from the main event bracket. The list of all kinds of csgo tournaments and matches will be huge, so here are the main ones:

  • Regular league tournaments
  • Tournaments “Cycle”
  • Intel Grand Slam Events
  • minor events
  • Main events

Each event should be discussed separately, as they all have a different organization, prize pool, csgo schedule, qualification system, and general structure.

Regular tournaments

Counter-Strike also has leagues for teams of different levels. The most famous of them are FPL, ECS, ESEA, and ESL. The structure of these tournaments is quite simple: teams play online, their results are recorded on a tournament table, and then the best teams gather to compete for the cup, ranking points, and prize money in the season finale.

Cycling Tournaments

These are regular csgo tournaments that are not part of small or large tournaments. For example, this is the BLAST Pro Series event. These tournaments are held offline, live in eSports arenas, demonstrated by thousands of fans, and have their own csgo major schedule.

Such events may have different structures, but are usually a double elimination system with BO1 and BO3 match formats. This list of cs go tournaments is the best in terms of entertainment.

What about qualifications? Basically, the teams receive direct invitations from the organizers. The remaining free slots are filled through open and closed qualifiers.

Intel Grand Slam Tournaments

Intel (yes, one of the PC processor manufacturers) organizes these events. They are more frequent than other  cs:go tournaments online of the same organizer, and each time they arrange events in different cities. Esports events such as IEM, DreamHack Masters and ESL One.

These csgo pro tournaments are very prestigious and have large prize pools. Teams receive such events either by direct invitations or by closed qualifiers. In addition, since 2018 they have been part of the special Intel Grand Slam award. The team that is able to win 4 tournaments a year receives $1,250,000. The first winners to receive this award were Danish professionals from Astralis. They accepted their price as pure gold bars of equivalent value.

Small CS GO tournaments

These events are tickets to big esports cs go tournaments for teams below the top 10 from around the world. Small tournaments do not have large prize pools, but they do qualify for a large major event with a $1,000,000 prize pool. Every region of the world has its own minors, and the best teams face each other during the main event of the year – the csgo major schedule.

Major tournament
This is the dream of any professional player and the goal of any esports organization – to win the main counter strike tournament. Major dates are known in advance, and their prize pools are much larger than any other tournaments. Teams can get to Major by direct invitation or through minors.

Major events bring the most ranking points, and teams become famous after participating in them. In addition, such counter strike global offensive tournaments are interesting for players because of the souvenir chests that fall during the Major.

Match types of CS:GO tournaments

The match types of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions have varying numbers of maps that a team must win in order to win the entire match. There are three main formats: BO1, BO3 and BO5.

  • BO1 – One card. This is the most “random” CSGO match format. The teams were located on the cards, and, finally, they play the rest. This format is used in regular tournaments, qualifiers, and the BLAST Pro series.
  • BO3 is the most popular csgo tournaments format. Teams play up to two wins and forbid and select the desired cards one at a time. All major events and playoff brackets use this format.
  • BO5 – three wins format is rarely used. Teams do not play it during the group stages or playoffs. The BO5 format is suitable for some tournament finals,

CS:GO Tournament Calendar 2023

It can be a bit difficult to stay on track with all the biggest counter-strike tournaments throughout the year. Here we tried to put together a csgo schedule that has been confirmed so far in 2023. This list will be updated with all Tier 1 tournaments. So far, we have yet to hear from BLAST about their plans for the year other than the 2023 Paris Major. Another major is also expected to arrive at the end of 2023.

April:

Tournament IEM Brazil – LAN

Date: 17/4 – 23/4 – 2023

Prize Fund: $250,000

May:

BLAST Paris Major

Date: 8/5 – 21/5 – 2023

Prize fund: $1,250.000

June:

Tournament IEM Dallas – LAN

Date: 2/6 – 4/6 – 2023

Prize pool: TBA

BLAST Spring Finals in Washington DC

Date: 7/6 – 11/6 – 2023

Prize fund: $425.000

August:

IEM Tournament in Cologne – LAN

Date: 1/8 – 6/8 – 2023

Prize Fund: $1,000,000

ESL Pro League Season 18 – LAN tournament

Date: 15/8 – 24/9 – 2023

Prize Fund: $850,000

October:

IEM Fall 2023

Date: 16/10 – 22/10 – 2023

Prize pool: TBA

The above information is enough to understand CSGO esports tournaments, their organization, and formats. Of course, if you’re planning to make some money playing Counter-Strike as a professional player, analyst, or gamer, you’ll need more specific knowledge. However, the information from here will be your solid foundation.

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