- ESL and DreamHack come forward to announce their entire CS:GO competitive circuit for 2021.
- The organizers at the moment have announced 11 CS:GO tournaments, 5 of which are planned to take place in front of a live audience.
- More information about the ESL Pro Tour will be announced in the next few weeks.
ESL and DreamHack have finally come forward to reveal their entire CS:GO schedule for the 2021 calendar year. Together the two organizers will be hosting a total of 8 CS:GO tournaments along with 3 confirmed DreamHack Festivals. The organizers will further give an update on 4 more DreamHack Festivals in the second half of 2021.
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ESL & DreamHack Reveal Details of 2021 CS:GO Calendar
As per the announcement ESL and DreamHack together will be hosting 11 CS:GO tournaments. 5 of these events will take place in a proper LAN environment with a live audience, while the remaining will be hosted in a combination of a studio environment and online competition.
The 11 tournaments which will be hosted for sure in 2021 are as follows,
Event | Date | Prize pool | Teams | Format |
IEM Katowice 2021 | 16 - 28 Feb | $1,000,000 | 24 | Online |
EPL: Season 13 Malta | 08 Mar - 11 Apr | $750,000 | 24 | Online; Studio Playoffs |
DH Masters Spring 2021 | 29 Apr - May 9 | $250,000 | 16 | Studio |
IEM Summer 2021 | 03 - 13 June | $250,000 | 16 | Studio |
ESL One Cologne 2021 | 06 - 18 Jul | $1,000,000 | 24 | Live Event LANXESS |
EPL: Season 14 Malta | 08 Sep - 10 Oct | $750,000 | 24 | Studio |
IEM Fall 2021 | 14 - 24 Oct | $250,000 | 16 | Studio |
IEM Winter 2021 | 02 - 12 Dec | $250,000 | 16 | Live Event Asia |
DH Atlanta | 12 - 14 Nov | - | - | - |
DH Winter | 26 - 28 Nov | - | - | - |
DH Madrid | TBD | - | - | - |
Further information on some upcoming tournaments has also been provided by the organizers.
IEM Katowice
The global health situation is currently on its road to recovery and with IEM Katowice being the first CS:GO tournament to take place in 2021, the tournament will be completely taking place online.
ESL Pro League: Season 13
The next CS:GO tournament EPL: Season 13 is scheduled to take place from March to April and is set to be a combination of both, online qualifiers along with LAN studio playoffs which will be taking place in Malta.
“The ESL Pro Tour will for the majority continue as originally scheduled with over $5,000,000 in prize money with minor adjustments made to the EPT Masters calendar.”
ESL One Cologne 2021
Being the biggest CS:GO tournament for the organizers, ESL One Cologne 2021 is scheduled to be a LAN tournament with live audience for the time being. The grand event featuring a prize pool of $1,000,000 USD is set to take place in the iconic LANXESS Arena, but this is subject to re-evaluation when the situation is accessed once again in the second quarter of the year.
IEM Fall 2021
The current dates for this particular tournament seem to be overlapping with PGL Major Stockholm 2021 which was announced on 14th January. The organizers are actively working on rescheduling their tournament “to adjust and will update the situation in due course of time”.
IEM Summer 2021
IEM Melbourne has quite a history, the 2020 edition of the tournament was scrapped and was instead scheduled to take place this year. However, due to the global situation the event has now been renamed to IEM Summer 2021 and is being held as an online competition.
"For those who hold tickets to IEM Melbourne, you will receive an email from Ticketek with full details on your refund."
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Apart from announcing their 2021 scheduled for the CS:GO competitive circuit, ESL and DreamHack also went on to explain their “Return to LAN” protocol which they will be following for all their tournaments. The protocols which have been agreed upon by the teams, players, coaches, and staff, is as follows:
- Testing and other measures before arrival at the event.
- Travel and arrival at accommodation.
- Creation of a controlled environment among participants, staff and others.
- Ongoing COVID-19 testing procedures during stay.
- Prepared actions in case of positive tests.
- Prepared measures in order to ensure that players can return home safely.
The organizers said that further information about the ESL Pro Tour structure which will include information about DreamHack Open competitions among other things will be announced in the coming weeks.
