The CS2 season: Majors, organisers and key events
The short answer: the CS2 season runs almost all year, with two Majors as its high points. Organisers run those events under Valve's own rules. ESL, BLAST, PGL, StarLadder and a few others run the other big tournaments. Events carry more weight when the best-ranked teams play and they offer more prize money. Valve's ranking rewards wins over strong teams and wins at events with larger prize pools more heavily.
Who runs the events
Valve makes the game but does not run the events. Independent companies called tournament organisers run the events under a licence from Valve. As of November 2026, the biggest organisers are:
- ESL runs the ESL Pro Tour. Its two top-level series are Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and ESL Pro League. ESL calls its two biggest events of the year its Championships.
- BLAST runs BLAST Premier. Its events are called Open, Rivals and Bounty. Its schedule for 2027 lists events from January to November.
- PGL runs events in Romania, such as PGL Bucharest and PGL Cluj-Napoca, and others in Europe and Asia. PGL runs the Singapore Major in 2026.
- StarLadder runs StarSeries. It ran the Budapest Major in 2025. It also runs smaller events for teams below the top level.
The site's match data also covers three more organisers: Perfect World's CS Asia Championships, FISSURE's FISSURE Playground and GAM3RS_X's Thunderpick World Championship. The site does not list their matches because these organisers do not post full-match VODs on YouTube.
Which events count most
The Majors
The Majors are the biggest events of the year. Valve writes their rules and invites 32 teams in total, drawn from every region. It also sells items in the game during each Major. CS2 Majors explained: format, invitations and stages explains them.
Events that invite the best teams
Every other event follows Valve's rules for tournament organisers. As of November 2026, those rules split events into two kinds:
- A ranked event counts toward the Valve Regional Standings, Valve's ranking of teams. Direct invitations go to teams in ranking order. Open qualifiers can fill other places.
- An unranked event doesn't count toward the ranking. It can invite any team, but total prize money and other payments to teams cannot exceed 100,000 dollars.
An organiser can also declare a ranked event Tier 1 or Tier 2:
- Tier 1: the event invites at least 20 teams from the ranking, from one or more of its lists: the global list and the regional ones. On each list it uses, the invitations start with the team ranked first. This offers places to the highest-ranked teams on those lists.
- Tier 2: any teams invited from the ranking must be ranked below 12th on the global list.
Tier 1 events therefore bring together the top-ranked teams from the lists they use.
Prize money
As of November 2026, a win over another team carries more weight in the ranking at an event with more prize money, up to one million dollars. So wins at big events count for more in the ranking. Valve Regional Standings: how the CS2 ranking works has the details.
When the season peaks
As of November 2026, there are two Majors a year. In 2025 and 2026, they occupy the same parts of the calendar:
- The first Major ended in June. In 2025 it was in Austin, and in 2026 in Cologne.
- The second Major runs from late November into December. In 2025 it was in Budapest. In 2026 it is the PGL Singapore Major, scheduled from late November to mid-December.
Between the Majors, the organisers' own events fill the calendar.
As of November 2026, the organisers' 2027 calendars show:
- PGL's calendar starts in mid-January, with PGL Bucharest.
- BLAST's calendar starts in January, with BLAST Premier Bounty.
- ESL's calendar starts in late January, with IEM Kraków, whose arena days are in early February. ESL is back in Cologne in August.
How to choose what to watch
You can follow the season without watching every event. Use these as starting points:
- Start with the Majors. Two events a year bring the strongest teams of every region together.
- Look for Tier 1 events. They invite the best-ranked teams of the global list or of a region's list.
- Catch up with VODs. Several organisers post full matches on YouTube. Official CS2 VODs: where to watch full matches lists them and their channels.
- Use the match list. "What should I watch?" on the home page selects finished matches to watch without revealing who won.
If you have been away from the game for a while, CS2 basics: what changed since CS:GO covers what changed.