PGL Announces New Counter-Strike Events

The PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was a massive success, and it helped that two of the best teams in the sport met up in the championship game. NAVI was able to defeat FaZe Clan in the championship match, and it was one that drew a massive crowd. 

Now that there was so much success in Copenhagen, PGL has announced that it intends to get more involved in the Counter-Strike circuit moving forward. A tentative schedule has been announced for 2025 and 2026, and it could create some controversy. 

BLAST and ESL are typically where most of the top Counter-Strike action is played and some of the PGL schedule overlaps with that schedule. PGL could also be chosen for some majors in the next two years, and that could make the schedule even more busy. 

Nothing is official, but these dates that are on the tentative schedule could force top teams to choose where they want to play. 

So Many Events

Valve recently announced that its Partner teams can no longer play on the competitive circuit when it comes to Counter-Strike, and that is going to take away some of the top teams. PGL decided that now was the perfect time to offer new events as it could attract some of those teams. 

There are 11 total tournaments planned by PGL over the next two years, and some of them are expected to be some massive tournaments. It’s unclear how many teams are going to be allowed in each tournament, but there will be a ton of opportunities. 

The first scheduled event is going to be held from February 10th-24th in 2025, and that sets the stage for a busy year. There is also going to be an event that begins at the end of March and runs through the first two weeks of April. 

Other events in 2025 are set to be held in May, September, and October, and the biggest event will be coming in the final event of the year. With so many events scheduled, PGL could ultimately decide to use a points system to determine teams eligible for the end of the year. 

While there are just five events scheduled in 2025, there are going to be six total tournaments in 2026. Much of the schedule is going to be the same, but PGL will be looking to add an event in August as well. 

It seems highly likely that PGL will be chosen to host another major event, and that could force one of these tournaments to be eliminated. BLAST and ESL have not yet responded to this new announcement, but it could look to fight back to stay relevant. 

Betting a Huge Part of ESports

Since esports has become such a massive part of the sports culture, betting on these events has gotten more popular as well. There have been some major betting scandals at times, but it’s starting to become more legal to bet on sports such as Counter-Strike 2 tournaments. 

Felix “xQc” Lengyel has been open about his esports betting tendencies, and there have been times when that has created some issues. When it came time to bet on the PGL Major Copenhagen, “xQc” decided to put all of his trust in NAVI to get the job done. 

After the PGL Major Copenhagen action wrapped up, “xQc” announced that he won more money betting on NAVI than the team was able to bring in with the win. That was a pretty gutsy call to back NAVI as there were some other great teams in the field. 

While betting doesn’t make esports events great, it does speak to just how popular these events have become.