Esports has a vast ecosystem that spans across a variety of games, each with its own unique structures and calendars. As such, fans of multiple esports are treated to major tournaments and events throughout the entirety of the year.

To help navigate esports’ hectic calendar, Esports Insider has created a month-by-month list of events that are taking place in 2025. These competitions range from annual World Championships to major leagues that cover entire regions. 

This list will be updated periodically as more major esports events and dates are announced. First published: 13/01/25.

League of Legends and VALORANT kick off esports’ competitive calendar with their international respective leagues all commencing. However, the first month of 2025 also concludes Apex Legends’ latest season as the 2024 ALGS Championship heads to Japan.

February sees some of the best teams across Rainbow Six Siege, VALORANT and Counter-Strike 2 collide with the Six Invitational 2025, VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025 and PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 all taking place, respectively. Meanwhile, Fortnite’s esports ecosystem takes centre stage across the world with its online Major 1 Grand Finals.

League of Legends’ esports ecosystem will debut its new tournament, First Stand, in March. Meanwhile, Capcom Cup 11, Street Fighter 6’s biggest event of the year, and Rocket League’s RLCS 2025 Birmingham Major stand out within a very busy month in esports.

Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 largely dominate April 2025, with the likes of PGL Bucharest, BLAST Rivals Spring 2025, IEM Spring, ESL One Raleigh and PGL Wallachia Season 4 all starting in the month. Call of Duty League’s Stage 3 Major and ESL Snapdragon Pro Series: Mobile Masters 2025 are other stand-out events in April.

Counter-Strike 2 continues to dominate the 2025 esports calendar with four significant events happening in May alone. Notably, this includes ESL Impact League Season 7, Counter-Strike 2’s women’s-only esports competition.

June is jam-packed with international events. Call of Duty, VALORANT, Counter-Strike, Rocket League and League of Legends will host notable global competitions to find the best teams in their respective games at 2025’s mid-way point.

July marks the start of the 2025 Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports tournament in Saudi Arabia. As such, a range of major esports events will be scheduled throughout the month. As of right now, the biggest events announced are the PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 and its new Chess competition.

Alongside the continuation of the Esports World Cup, August will see titles such as Pokemon UNITE and GeoGuessr conclude their respective esports ecosystems.

September sees various Counter-Strike 2 competitions commence, including the ESL Pro League and the StarLadder StarSeries. However, headlining this month is the RLCS 2025 World Championship, which has yet to reveal its location.

So far, very little has been announced for October. However, the 2025 League of Legends World Championship, one of esports’ biggest events of the year, is set to be held in China with PGL hosting another significant Counter-Strike 2 tournament in Serbia.

November sees the conclusion of PUBG Mobile’s esports ecosystem, whilst Rainbow Six, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 all host notable competitions.

European esports organisation G2 Esports has outlined various plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary throughout 2025.

To mark the occasion, G2 Esports has begun celebrations with the launch of G2LLERY, an immersive gallery located in Berlin, Germany.

G2 Esports says the gallery showcases ‘the biggest wins and fails’ the organisation has experienced over the last decade. Fans can attend the gallery until January 20th.

In addition to highlighting the organisation’s achievements, G2 Esports also unveiled its 2025 jersey collection its players will wear for all esports events.

The Pro Kit will be worn during regular season events while a special Prestige jersey will appear at every international event the organisation competes in.

“I’m incredibly proud of the last decade, but now it’s time for us to take G2 to the next level,” commented Alban Dechelotte, CEO of G2 Esports.

“Our aspirations are now much bigger, and 2025 is about laying the foundation for G2 as the new generation sports club of the future.”

The 2025 Pro Kit and Prestige jersey is available for fans to purchase on the G2 Esports website from January 13th.

As part of its year-long celebrations, G2 Esports will be inviting its fans to ‘exclusive events’, announcing merchandise collaborations with ‘major global IPs’, and creating a range of content.

Details on future collaborations and content were not disclosed.

Founded in 2014, the organisation has established itself as one of the largest teams in Europe. G2 Esports has won several championships across various titles including Rainbow Six, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends.

Outside of the anniversary celebrations, G2 Esports recently secured a place at the 2025 edition of the Six Invitational, the biggest tournament on the Rainbow Six Siege esports circuit. The annual event begins on February 3rd and will see teams competing for a $3m (~£2.4m) prize pool.

The European esports organisation competes across eight esports titles including Counter-Strike, League of Legends and sim racing, in collaboration with Alpine Esports.

Fnatic has announced a partnership with Red Bull that aims to support the organisation’s esports rosters and its content creators.

Red Bull‘s logo will appear on the collar of all Fnatic team jerseys. Meanwhile, players and content creators representing the organisation will participate in social media content and activations.

According to Fnatic, the UK-focused partnership aims to ‘inspire the British gaming community and to push the boundaries of gaming and esports’ in the country.

In addition, Fnatic’s Creator Network — a grassroots talent initiative that finds content creators, influencers and esports athletes — will be involved in the collaboration. The Creator Network aims to amplify Fnatic and Red Bull content throughout the deal.

“Partnering with Red Bull marks an incredible milestone for Fnatic and the esports community here in the UK,” commented Sam Matthews, CEO of Fnatic. “Red Bull’s commitment to innovation and performance aligns perfectly with our mission to push the boundaries of competitive gaming.

“Together, we’re excited to deliver unforgettable content and experiences for our fans and create waves in the UK esports and gaming community.”

The energy drink brand becomes Fnatic’s seventh partner, joining the likes of Jack Link’s and Sony’s gaming brand INZONE. Fnatic did not share the duration of its partnership with Red Bull.

Alongside the partnership, the organisation also announced that its 2025 Pro Kit will officially launch tomorrow (January 11th). Fans will be able to purchase the Fnatic jersey on its website.

Fnatic also unveiled the signing of Rodyon ‘Fear’ Smyk and Denys ‘Burmylov’ Buraga to its CS2 roster.

The UK-based esports organisation competes across a total of 13 esports titles ranging from League of Legends to Call of Duty: Warzone. In May 2024, Fnatic partnered with ONIC Philippines to expand into the competitive Mobile Legends: Bang Bang scene.

Imperial Fe has become the first female Counter-Strike team to qualify for IEM Katowice.

Taking place from January 29th until February 9th, the event also marks the first time a women’s team has competed in an event that forms part of the ESL Pro Tour Championship.

IEM Katowice, a Counter-Strike tournament organised by ESL FACEIT Group, features 24 teams competing for a share of its $1m (~£817,450) prize pool.

Alongside Imperial Fe, the likes of NAVI, Team Vitality and Shanghai Major winner Team Spirit are also taking part. Notably, eight teams have received a direct route to the group stage due to their place in the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).

Every team has been invited based on their VRS ranking as of January 6th 2025. However, there are some notable additions to point out. ESL FACEIT Group noted that Team Falcons has been invited due to acquiring the majority roster of eighth-placed VRS team HEROIC.

Moreover, Imperial Fe was not the only women’s team to reach the top 24 VRS threshold. Placing 24th was FURIA Fe, however, due to the organisation already having a team in the competition, the female roster was selected to not compete. In the team’s place is HEROIC, which acquired the majority roster of Sangal Esports (VRS rank 25).

Having placed 23rd, Imperial Fe has qualified for the Play-In portion of the competition. Teams are placed into a best-of-three (BO3), double-elimination bracket where the top eight advance to the group stage.

Imperial Fe has achieved plenty of success since the organisation returned to the women’s Counter-Strike in May 2024. In November 2024, it won ESL Impact Season 6, securing $50,000 (~£40,883) in prize money as a result.

IEM Katowice forms part of the Intel Grand Slam, a prize offered to the first team that wins four of ten consecutive ESL-operated events. Any team that achieves this goal is awarded $1m (~£817,450).

2024’s IEM Katowice was won by Team Spirit, defeating FaZe Clan in the Grand Final. Both teams will be competing in 2025’s event.

IEM Katowice takes place in Katowice, Poland with the playoffs held in the city’s Spodek Arena which holds up to 11,000 people. The tournament series, sponsored by Intel, has taken place since 2007 with events taking place across Europe and North America.

The full list of IEM Katowice 2025 participants are:

In addition to Counter-Strike, IEM has also hosted tournaments in real-time strategy (RTS) title StarCraft II. ESL FACEIT Group is yet to confirm if IEM Katowice 2025 will host a StarCraft II tournament.

Team Vitality has announced it has secured a two-year partnership with ASUS ROG that will focus on the European organisation’s Counter-Strike 2 and VALORANT rosters.

The deal will see Team Vitality’s CS2 and VALORANT rosters use ASUS ROG peripherals while competing in tournaments.

ASUS ROG‘s logo will also appear on the left sleeve of Team Vitality’s jerseys and players will take part in a range of activations throughout the partnership’s duration.

The peripheral brand becomes Team Vitality’s 14th partners, which includes the likes of ALDI and ice cream brand Magnum.

Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality, spoke on the deal: “We are delighted to welcome such a prestigious brand as ROG to Team Vitality! This partnership mirrors our standards and ambitions: to equip our players and our staff with cutting-edge peripherals, offering precision, responsiveness, and comfort, whilst also supporting our international development strategy.

“2025 is going to be an exciting year for VALORANT and CS2, and this partnership will guarantee unmissable activations for all our fans.”

Team Vitality noted that the partnership has been signed until December 2026.

Alongside the partnership, Team Vitality also announced the signing of former FaZe Clan player Robin ‘ropz’ Kool to its CS2 roster. As a result, Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi, the roster’s current rifler, has moved to the inactive roster.

Outside of Counter-Strike and VALORANT, Team Vitality competes across a range of titles, including League of Legends and Rocket League. In December 2024, it partnered with French club Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC) to field players in EA Sports FC esports competitions.

ASUS ROG is no stranger to the world of esports. In recent years, it has joined forces with the likes of tournament organiser ESL FACEIT Group and North American organisation NRG Esports.

Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators are among eight teams invited to participate in Dota 2’s PGL Wallachia Season 3 tournament.

The event, operated by tournament organiser PGL, includes a total of 16 teams which will compete for its $1m (~£812,915) prize pool.

The third instalment of PGL’s Dota 2 tournament series will take place at the PGL Studios in Romania from March 8th -16th, 2025.

Alongside Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators, Aurora Gaming, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, Heroic, Team Falcons, and Team Spirit have also received direct invites to compete.

The remaining eight places will be determined by qualifiers with four teams from Europe, two from the Americas, one from Southeast Asia, and one from China earning places.

Team Liquid heads into the tournament as Dota 2’s current The International champion. In Dota 2’s last major tournament of 2024, ESL One Bangkok, the organisation finished second behind PARIVISION.

Notably, all eight invited teams for PGL Wallachia Season 3 finished in the top 12 of Valve’s season-ending tournament last year.

PGL Wallachia Season 3 is one of three Dota 2 tournaments that form part of the PGL’s series throughout 2025. PGL Wallachia Season 4 is set to commence in April while the fifth edition is scheduled for November.

PGL Wallachia Season 3 is split into a group stage and playoffs. The top eight teams from the group stage will qualify for the playoffs with the remaining eight teams eliminated.

The playoffs see the top eight teams placed into a double-elimination bracket to determine the eventual winner which will receive $300,000 (~£243,683) in prize money. All participating teams will earn at least $10,000 (~£8,124).

In addition to Dota 2, PGL also operates a Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports circuit. The tournament organiser will host four CS2 events across Europe throughout 2025 and six events in 2026.

Esports data platform Esports Charts has named Natus Vincere (NAVI) the most-watched Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) team of 2024. 

The platform noted that NAVI recorded a total of 64.85m hours watched across last year’s CS2 calendar.

In 2024, the Ukrainian esports organisation garnered several notable accolades in CS2. Some of the team’s achievements include winning IEM Rio 2024, PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 — Counter-Strike 2’s first-ever Major — and Esports World Cup’s CS2 event. 

Founded in 2009, NAVI has become one of the most recognisable names within Counter-Strike esports. The organisation is the only team to qualify for every Major in CS:GO and Counter-Strike 2 (21). Since Esports Charts started recording viewership data in 2017, NAVI ranks fifth among the most-watched esports organisations ever, as of November 2024. 

Esports Charts’ latest article also named BLAST Premier: World Final champion G2 Esports as the second most-watched CS2 team in 2024, garnering 60.11m hours watched. Some of the European organisation’s other milestones include winning IEM Dallas 2024 and BLAST Premier’s 2024 Fall Final.

In third place is North American esports organisation FaZe Clan (58.41m), with the most recent Major winner, Team Spirit, claiming fourth (48.43m). Concluding the top five is IEM Cologne 2024 champion Team Vitality (43.03m).

When taking these figures into account, it is important to note that Esports Charts does not record Chinese viewership. This is due to streaming sites in the country not publicly disclosing direct viewership statistics.

For 2025, the Counter-Strike esports calendar has undergone significant changes. This is in large part due to Valve’s open ecosystem and tournament policy, which will come into effect this year.

The scene’s next notable esports event will be BLAST Bounty Spring 2025, held January 23rd – 26th in Copenhagen, Denmark. Counter-Strike 2’s next Major is the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 in June.

In 2025, League of Legends will introduce a new international esports event, with First Stand set to take place March 10th-16th.

Hosted at LoL Park in Seoul, South Korea, First Stand is the first of three international events that will occur across League of Legends’ 2025 calendar.

With the game’s esports ecosystem kicking off this month, further details surrounding First Stand’s format have now been revealed.

First Stand consists of the best teams across League of Legends’ international leagues: LCK (South Korea), LPL (China), LTA (Americas), LEC (EMEA) and LCP (Pacific). These five teams will enter First Stands’ best-of-three (BO3) round-robin stage. 

Game one side selection for each series of this stage will be randomly pre-determined. According to Riot Games, this is to guarantee that every team has a side selection advantage in two series.

Once every team has faced each other, the bottom-placed team will be eliminated from the competition. Following that, First Stand will move onto a best-of-five (B05) knockout stage.

The knockout stage will feature a seeded single-elimination bracket with the victor becoming the first-ever First Stand champion. 

Alongside the accolade, the winning team will also earn a second bye for their region at MSI 2025. As a result, this means the winning region will see its second representative advance directly to the MSI 2025 Bracket Stage.

One of the main additions to League of Legends’ esports ecosystem is the introduction of Fearless Draft. The new champion pick system will be utilised throughout League of Legends’ first split, which concludes with First Stand. 

Riot Games explained that Fearless Draft is a system in which champions used in previous games of a best-of-series become unavailable for both teams in subsequent games. The standard pick and ban phase will still take place at the beginning of every match.  

For example, after the first game of a BO5 series, the 10 champions that were selected by players in that game will be no longer available for the remainder of the series. These will be known as ‘Fearless Bans’. 

This means that under this new format, if a series goes to a fifth game there will be a total of 50 champions banned (10 Standard Bans and 40 Fearless Bans). 

According to Riot Games, the format aims to challenge teams to adapt by bringing new strategies and champion picks.

European esports organisations Team Heretics and CGN Esports have announced a VALORANT-focused strategic partnership.

As a result, both VALORANT teams will train together and prepare for major milestones, such as Team Heretics’ upcoming VCT EMEA season and CGN’s road to qualify for EMEA Ascension 2025.

According to the announcement, the partnership also provides a gateway for Team Heretics to enter the DACH region, which is where CGN is based. Likewise, CGN is looking to utilise the popularity of the VALORANT Champions 2024 runners-up to expand its presence in Spain. 

Alongside training opportunities, the partnership will also see both organisations launch activations such as watch parties, community tournaments and content featuring players from both teams.

Both Team Heretics and CGN Esports will also launch co-branded merchandise, which includes a jersey and collectibles. Finally, the organisations revealed that offline events in Spain and Germany will be announced in 2025. 

“Entering the DACH region with a strong partner like CGN is an honour for us,” commented Niklas Geiß, Team Heretics’ VCT and LEC Team Director.

“Heretics and CGN are united by a vision to inspire the next generation of esports fans through performance, creativity, and authentic community engagement.”

Founded in 2020, CGN Esports is a German esports organisation that currently competes in the  VALORANT Challengers DACH league. Last year, its VALORANT roster missed out on promotion to VCT EMEA, finishing third in VCT Ascension EMEA 2024.

David Dick, COO of CGN Esports, added: “Partnering with Team Heretics, the VALORANT vice world champions, is a dream come true. This collaboration extends beyond esports; it’s about engaging with our fans and creating inspiring experiences, both in and out of the game.”

Introduced by VALORANT developer Riot Games last year, the Affiliate Partnerships programme allows VCT International League teams to create partnerships with Challenger or Game Changers teams. Since then, VCT EMEA teams such as GIANTX, Fnatic and FUT Esports have all secured Affiliate partnerships.

Games developer Riot Games has unveiled the locations for its international League of Legends esports events in 2026 and 2027. 

Announced during League of Legends’ first dev blog of 2025, Riot Games’ Global Head of League of Legends Esports, Chris Greeley, and COO of Esports, Whalen Rozelle, revealed that the 2026 World Championship will take place in North America.

North America last hosted the League of Legends World Championship in 2022, with the event held across San Francisco, Atlanta, New York and Mexico City.

Moreover, fans from the continent won’t have to wait until 2026 for a League of Legends international event as it was announced last year that MSI 2025 will be held in Canada.

Also in 2026, League of Legends’ First Stand event will head to Brazil, making it the first time since MSI 2017 that the country will host an international League of Legends competition. Meanwhile, MSI 2026 will head to familiar grounds, taking place in South Korea. 

Regarding First Stand 2026 in Brazil, Rozelle stated: “Brazilian fans bring amazing energy to live events and we’re excited to kick off the season in such a vibrant esports community.”

For 2027, Greeley and Rozelle detailed that First Stand will head to Southeast Asia, with MSI returning to Europe and the League of Legends World Championship taking place in South Korea. 

Further details such as venues, dates and formats were not revealed. 

The announcement, which included information on gameplay updates and in-game cosmetics, also showcased the upcoming changes for League of Legends esports in 2025. Notably, all major League of Legends competitions will feature three splits for the year, with each split having an international event. 

As such, this has led to a variety of format changes, the introduction of First Stand and the creation of two new leagues, the LCP (Pacific) and LTA (Americas).

Alongside MSI 2025 in Canada, First Stand will make its debut in Seoul, South Korea, whilst Worlds 2025 is heading to China.