What will be the first Counter-Strike tournament to be played on CS2?

While the BLAST Paris Major was billed as the grand finale to the CS:GO era of competitive Counter-Strike, all eyes are already turning to CS2. Now the sequel has finally landed and players are beginning to come to terms with Valve’s changes to the classic title, many are wondering: when will the pro scene switch to CS2?

IEM Dallas, the BLAST Premier Spring Final, and the BLAST Premier Fall Groups all ran after the Paris Major, all on CS:GO. The IEM Cologne tournament, an event where ESL was “cautiously optimistic” about potentially playing on CS2, was also officially played in CS:GO.

So when is the first CS2 tournament? At the absolute very latest, the PGL Copenhagen Major in March 2024 will definitely be played on the new game. But is there an event before then where CS2 will be played?

When will the first CS2 tournament take place?

ESL competitive leagues and IEM Sydney 2023 (Oct. 3)

Major tournament organizer ESL announced on Sept. 29 that its competitive calendar will switch to CS2 effective immediately, with IEM Sydney 2023 from Oct. 16 to 22 the first tier one tournament to take place in CS2.

ESL made the immediate switch following CS2’s official launch to the world a day earlier. All ongoing national championships, the female ESL Impact league, and all upcoming offline tournaments in 2023 will be played on CS2 as per the organizer’s official statement.

Controversially, fellow major organizer BLAST has opted to play out their upcoming European and American Showdown events in CS:GO before transitioning to CS2 with the Fall Finals, leaving many pros confused and angry that they’ll need to roll back their client to practice a game that is essentially “dead” in their eyes.

The Roobet Cup 2023 (Oct. 25)

Not much is known about the Roobet Cup 2023 tournament, other than it is an online, European tournament with a $250,000 prize pool. Eight teams have been invited, with the likes of Astralis, Fnatic, FURIA, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Virtus Pro booked and competing. Eight more invites are still to be announced.

The tournament has official listings on both Liquipedia and HLTV, and the Liquipedia listing notes that it will be played on CS2. This would be the second Roobet Cup after the first one was held in June 2022, featuring the likes of Astralis, Cloud9, FaZe, and others. That event was ultimately won by BIG.

Thunderpick World Championship 2023 (Oct. 27)

The online betting platform Thunderpick announced a 16-team tournament with a $600,000 prize pool back in June, with a final set to take place in November 2023. ENCE and Heroic are the first two teams to be invited, while NA squads Wildcard Gaming and M80 have qualified via their regional qualifiers as of July 25.

In a statement provided to Dexerto, Thunderpick said “If the competitive scene has transitioned to [CS2] by November,” then the tournament will be played on CS2. As such, it is expected that Thunderpick’s tournament, following IEM Sydney, will be the next big CS2 event.

The Hussar Cup 2023 and the CS2 Asia Championships (Nov. 8)

The Hussar Cup—a $1 million LAN event that was originally scheduled to be held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3—was contemplating a shift to CS2 and would have been the first CS2 tournament had it gone ahead as planned.

Unfortunately, organizers suspended the qualifiers for the event because it overlapped with ESL Pro League, with invited teams concerned about financial losses. The organizer also temporarily suspended ticket sales and made refunds available, so the event may not happen at all.

The CS2 Asia Championships sees eight teams, including the invited Astralis, FaZe Clan, G2, and MOUZ, line up against two local teams for a massive $500,000 prize pool in Counter-Strike’s offline return to China.

The tournament was announced in late August and was always intended to be played in Counter-Strike’s sequel, but with ESL pulling the trigger on IEM Sydney, the Asia Championships won’t have the prestige of being the first CS2 tournament.