We are excited to share new ESL Pro Tour updates today. This is a follow-up to our previous announcement in October, where we revealed the initial details about the ESL Pro Tour in 2025 outlining our competitive calendar, announcing the departure from best of 1s, ESL Pro League updates and its new seeding system, and what our tournaments look like under the new Valve regulations.
Summary:
- How the $22M+ USD for teams and players will be allocated over 2025 and 2026, along with our philosophy and factors driving our decisions. This will include:
- Details on the prize money, its format and per-event distribution
- Introduction of the Annual Club Incentive and the requirements for teams to participate
- How club compensation is driven by ESL revenue and profit share
- Details regarding the location of ESL Pro League Season 21
- Team invitation cut-off dates for 2025
- Qualifier dates and formats for IEM Dallas 2025 and ESL Pro League Season 22
What Is There To Play For
We believe that players can achieve their highest potential when supported by a competitive base salary and well-organized club support structures. To create such an environment, we have implemented a system designed to benefit both clubs and players. In line with our commitment, ESL will allocate $11 million USD annually to clubs and players in 2025 and 2026.
Each of our seven events will now feature two prize categories: Player Prize Money and Club Prize Money. Additionally, clubs can opt into the Annual Club Incentive Program, which distributes a dedicated year-end pool among participating teams with minimal extra obligations.
The Club Prize Money and Annual Club Incentive payouts are tied to ESL’s forecasted revenues and profits. ESL is committed to sharing 10% of its revenue and 25% of its profits from Tier 1 Counter-Strike 2 esports competitions to fund these payouts. Meanwhile, the Player Prize Money is intended to remain in its current form, serving as an incentive and reward for players.
Prize Money Distribution
The ESL Pro Tour 2025 prize distribution can be found below:
ESL Pro Tour 2025Overview
Total Prize Money | Player Prize Money | Club Prize Money | |
|---|---|---|---|
IEM Katowice 2025 | $1,250,000 | $1,000,000 | $250,000 |
IEM Cologne 2025 | $1,250,000 | $1,000,000 | $250,000 |
IEM Dallas 2025
| $1,000,000 | $300,000 | $700,000 |
IEM Chengdu 2025 | $1,000,000 | $300,000 | $700,000 |
IEM Spring | $1,000,000 | $300,000 | $700,000 |
ESL Pro League S21 | $1,000,000 | $400,000 | $600,000 |
ESL Pro League S22 | $1,000,000 | $400,000 | $600,000 |
ESL Pro Tour - Championship Events
Intel® Extreme MastersKatowice & Cologne
Place | Player Prize Money | Club Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
1. | $400,000 | $60,000 |
2. | $180,000 | $36,000 |
3-4. | $80,000 | $28,000 |
5-6. | $40,000 | $21,000 |
7-8. | $24,000 | $14,000 |
9-10. | $16,000 | $7,000 |
13-16. | $10,000 | - |
17-20. | $4,500 | - |
21-24. | $2,500 | - |
Total Prize Money: $1,250,000
| ||
ESL Pro Tour - Masters Events
Intel® Extreme MastersSpring & Dallas & Chengdu
Place | Player Prize Money | Club Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
1. | $125,000 | $160,000 |
2. | $50,000 | $100,000 |
3-4. | $25,000 | $80,000 |
5-6. | $12,500 | $60,000 |
7-8. | $7,000 | $40,000 |
9-10. | $5,000 | $20,000 |
13-16. | $4,000 | - |
Total Prize Money: $1,000,000
| ||
ESL Pro Tour - Masters Events
ESL Pro League Season 21 & 22
Place | Player Prize Money | Club Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
1. | $100,000 | $150,000 |
2. | $50,000 | $75,000 |
3-4. | $25,000 | $55,000 |
5-8. | $18,000 | $40,000 |
9-11. | $13,500 | $25,000 |
12-14. | $10,500 | $10,000 |
15-16. | $8,500 | - |
17-19. | $6,500 | - |
20-22. | $4,500 | - |
23-24. | $3,000 | - |
Total Prize Money: $1,000,000
| ||
Teams will also continue competing in the Grand Slam race for a chance to win $1,000,000 and mark their era in Counter-Strike history.
Annual Club Incentive
The Annual Club Incentive is the second component of club compensation and is designed to reward teams for their contribution to the ESL Pro Tour in the form of tournament attendance, viewership as well as promotional activities related to ESL events.
In 2025, the Annual Club Incentive will reward 16 teams with the largest contributions. A total of $2,950,000 will be distributed amongst them based on the size of their contribution. This is a non-exclusive program available to any team that wishes to participate.
How the Annual Club Incentive is calculated
The Annual Club Incentive contribution is calculated using the following formula:
Club Contribution = V x N
Where in a given year:
- V is the sum of points earned for viewership across our tournaments (see table below).
- N is the total number of EPT tournaments a team has participated in.
The Annual Club Incentive will be paid out annually in Q1 of the following year to the top 16 teams with the highest contribution (as measured by the formula above) and distributed pro-rata. For example, if a team had 10% of the total club contribution among the top 16 teams, they would earn 10% of the $2,950,000.
Note: Tournaments will be weighted differently based on their duration (reflecting the time commitment required from teams) and the anticipated difficulty of travel for teams. This approach aims to encourage teams to participate in events that are more challenging to accommodate within their competitive schedules.
VIEWERSHIP POINTS
Team Rank | Points earned (Katowice/Cologne) | Points earned (Spring/Dallas/Chengdu) | Points earned (ESL Pro League S21&22) |
|---|---|---|---|
1st - 4th
| 8 | 12
| 14 |
5th - 8th | 6 | 9 | 10.5 |
9th - 12th | 4 | 6 | 7 |
"EFG’s commitment to the Counter-Strike ecosystem encapsulates a financial investment to the long-term health of both teams and players. We believe this commitment enables further stability and provides teams the foundation to continue their investment in Counter-Strike and their players"
Marc Winther, Director Game Ecosystems - Counter-Strike, at ESL FACEIT Group.
In the coming days ESL will go live with further details on how to opt-in for the Annual Club Incentive Program as well as the simple process for teams to sign up, so all teams will have a healthy amount of time to do so ahead of our first event in Katowice.
Requirements
To be eligible for the Annual Club Incentive, teams must meet the following criteria:
- Participate in tournaments they are invited to, including main tournaments and closed qualifiers.
- Commit to a core set of promotional obligations for the tournaments they are invited to, aligned with current tournament requirements.
Teams may opt out-of up to three tournaments within a two-year period and still remain eligible, subject to these conditions:
- Teams may opt-out of two events they were invited to within a single year.
- In a two-year period that includes an ESL event designated as a Major (replacing an existing event and thereby freeing up calendar space), teams may opt out of two events they were invited to.
ESL Pro League Season 21 in stockholm
The first Season of ESL Pro League in 2025 will take place at our ESL studios in Stockholm, Sweden, from March 1 to 16. The tournament will introduce a new format featuring 24 teams, with team-selected seeding for the initial phase and live ratings during the two Swiss stages. More details about the tournament seeding for EPL can be found here. This seeding system is based on the one we have developed for the IEM Katowice 2019 Major.
More information about ESL Pro League Season 22 will be announced in due course.
Team invite cut-off dates
The team invite cut-off dates for each event will correspond to the monthly VRS publications provided by Valve. These cut-off dates will apply to both the main event and, where applicable, the qualifiers. The cut-off dates for our 7 LAN events in 2025 will be on the day when the first VRS ranking becomes available in a given month:
Event | Invite cut-off date |
|---|---|
IEM Katowice 2025 | January, 2025
|
ESL Pro League Season 21 | January, 2025
|
IEM Spring 2025 | February, 2025
|
IEM Dallas 2025
| February, 2025
|
IEM Cologne 2025 | June, 2025
|
ESL Pro League Season 22 | July, 2025
|
IEM Chengdu 2025 | August, 2025
|
The monthly VRS publications, which will serve as the basis for team invitations, can be accessed here. Exceptions to invitations will apply if a player is banned by EFG or ESIC.
qualifier dates & details
In 2025, we will offer open and closed qualifiers for two of our events: IEM Dallas and ESL Pro League Season 22. Other events will include qualification paths via other tournaments.
You can find a complete overview of the slot allocations here.
IEM DALLAS 2025
For IEM Dallas open and closed qualifiers will take place in Europe, Asia, North and South America.
Europe
All matches will be played online and will be played on European servers.
- Open qualifier: February 7-8
- Closed qualifier: February 10-12
- 16 teams participating, 5 teams qualify for IEM Dallas 2025
- 10 teams invited: Europe VRS Invite (5th-15th)
- 6 teams from Open Qualifier
- 16 teams participating, 5 teams qualify for IEM Dallas 2025
Asia
All matches will be played online and will be played on Asian servers.
- Open qualifier: February 7-8
- Closed qualifier: February 11-12
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
- 2 teams invited: Asia VRS Invite (2nd-3rd)
- 2 teams from Open Qualifier
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
North America
All matches will be played online and will be played on North American servers.
- Open qualifier: February 7-8
- Closed qualifier: February 11-12
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
- 2 teams invited: North America VRS Invite (2nd-3rd)
- 2 teams from Open Qualifier
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
South America
All matches will be played online and will be played on South American servers.
- Open qualifier: February 7-8
- Closed qualifier: February 11-12
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
- 2 teams invited: South America VRS Invite (2nd-3rd)
- 2 teams from Open Qualifier
- 4 teams participating, 1 team qualifies for IEM Dallas 2025
ESL Pro League Season 22
Qualification for ESL Pro League Season 22 will go through four online events, determined as Tier 1 Regional Events by the new requirements. Each regional event will qualify one team.
Europe
All matches will be played online and will be played on European servers.
- Open qualifier: July 8-9
- Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
- Decider matches best-of-three
- Stage 1: July 14
- Single-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 16 teams invited: Europe VRS Invite (1st-16th)
- 4 teams from Open Qualifier
- Stage 2: July 15-17
- Double-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 8 teams from Stage 1
- Winning team qualifies for EPL S22
Asia
All matches will be played online and will be played on Asian servers.
- Open qualifier: July 8-9
- Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
- Decider matches best-of-three
- Stage 1: July 11
- Single-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 16 teams invited: Asia VRS Invite (1st-16th)
- 4 teams from Open Qualifier
- Stage 2: July 12-14
- Double-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 8 teams from Stage 1
- Winning team qualifies for EPL S22
North America
All matches will be played online and will be played on North American servers.
- Open qualifier: July 8-9
- Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
- Decider matches best-of-three
- Stage 1: July 11
- Single-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 16 teams invited: North America VRS Invite (1st-16th)
- 4 teams from Open Qualifier
- Stage 2: July 12-14
- Double-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 8 teams from Stage 1
- Winning team qualifies for EPL S22
South America
All matches will be played online and will be played on South American servers.
- Open qualifier: July 8-9
- Unlimited single-elimination best-of-one bracket
- Decider matches best-of-three
- Stage 1: 16 July
- Single-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 16 teams invited: South America VRS Invite (1st-16th)
- 4 teams from Open Qualifier
- Stage 2: 17-19 July
- Double-elimination best-of-three bracket
- 8 teams from Stage 1
- Winning team qualifies for EPL S22
Questions & answers
The Club Prize Money and Annual Club Incentive can be viewed as the successor to the money we previously shared with teams via the Louvre Agreement, which was done based on performance and viewership contribution. Club Prize Money will be distributed entirely based on the team's final standings in our tournaments. This method of team revenue sharing ensures that EPT results carry greater weight in VRS standings.
Questions about the VRS should be directed to Valve, but per our discussion with them, any competition performance-related compensation will be weighted into the VRS, and anything not competition performance-related will not. Therefore Player and Club Prize Money will impact VRS, and the Annual Club Incentive will not.
We believe that in a healthy esports ecosystem team organizations play a fundamental role in helping provide stability to players, which includes paying their salaries, covering the costs of boot camps and the staff that supports players. For this reason, funds previously distributed through the Louvre Agreement have been reallocated to support team organizations based on their competitive performance and the value they bring to our events. In the long term, we believe this approach benefits all stakeholders in the Counter-Strike esports ecosystem.
We believe dividing the Annual Club Incentive among more than 16 clubs dilutes the funds too much to have meaningful impact. However, all teams will still have opportunities to earn additional revenue through Club Prize Money.
We remain committed to hosting global events and bringing top teams to continents beyond Europe. As a result, we decided to plece greater emphasis on events requiring additional incentives for participation. For instance, ESL Pro League events demand a longer time commitment, while events like IEM Dallas involve significant travel time, making it more challenging for teams to accommodate such events within their competitive schedules.
All clubs will be able to participate by signing a simple document outlining the terms listed above. In the coming days, ESL will share more details about the opt-in process.
Ultimately, it is up to the community to decide. Our goal has always been to deliver tournaments featuring the best teams, and we believe the new system offers the best chance to achieve this. We look forward to fostering a healthy dialogue around Counter-Strike esports in 2025.
Outro
To keep up to date with our plans for 2025 and not miss any important updates, as always, make sure to sign up for our newsletter and follow ESLCS on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
