BLAST Premier 2026 & 2027 recap - Dates, Places and Prizes

The 2025 season has reached its halfway point, and while there’s still plenty of BLAST Premier action to come, now’s a great time to recap everything already confirmed for 2026 and 2027.

The first six months of our new BLAST Premier format have delivered record-breaking viewership, a wide mix of top-tier teams competing across our tournaments, and unique formats that have pushed players to their limits.

Looking ahead, the next 18 months promise even more events, new and exciting locations, bigger arenas and more prize pools on the line.

The remaining events of 2025, will see us host tournaments in Malta (Bounty S2), London (Open S2) and Hong Kong (S2) as we look to finish off the 2025 season in style!

Whether you’re after event dates, host cities, format details or prize money info - here is your all-in-one guide to everything you need to know ahead of 2026/27!

BLAST Premier 2026 Events

Event dates

Confirmed locations:

Following the Austin Major in June, BLAST will return to the state of Texas in 2026 for the first Rivals of the year, at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.

BLAST Bounty S1: Malta

BLAST Open S1: Europe (exact location to be announced soon)

BLAST Rivals S1: Fort Worth, Texas, USA

BLAST Bounty S2: Malta

BLAST Open S2: TBA (to be announced soon)

BLAST Rivals S2: TBA (to be announced soon)

Format deep dive

BLAST Bounty: Hunting the big dogs

The fun wrinkle with Bounty is that a strong VRS ranking comes with pressure - not just metaphorically, but almost literally. Your ranking becomes a bounty on your head, and beating a team secures 50% of their bounty as a guaranteed payout, with the other 50% being added to your total.

This is a 32 team tournament with the top 28 being taken from the Valve Global Rankings. The other four, however, are wildcard teams selected by BLAST- with details on that being announced closer to the time.

It will be a Bo3 single elimination event with a Bo5 final, with the first two rounds played online from European servers, and the quarter-finals will be played on LAN.

Teams for the BLAST Bounty S1 will be invited using the VRS ranking from the 1st December 2025 with teams for the BLAST Bounty S2 invited using the VRS ranking from the 1st June 2026.

Team Compensation will be earned through Bounties as prize money and Team Payments based on finishing position with $1.15m paid out to teams for each Bounty split between $500k prize money as Bounties earned and $650k as team payments based on performance at the Bounty.

BLAST Open: Rising to the Open challenge

The Open is the biggest and grandest of BLAST's Premier circuit played in iconic arenas that have helped us build our brand and name over the years.

16 teams join us in two groups of eight to play Bo3 double elimination groups, with a six team playoff in the arena culminating in a Bo5 final. In 2026, the Open’s will be played in two arenas upping to three Open events in 2027.

The top 12 teams will be from Valve's Global Rankings, with the other four qualifying from The Risings - a set of regional tournaments with Open & Closed qualifier stages. Stage one will be played in a studio setting, while stage two will be played in packed out arenas around the world - following March’s Lisbon event and September's upcoming London Open.

Team Compensation will be earned through prize money and Team Payments based on finishing position with $1.1m paid out to teams for each Open split between $400k prize money and $700k as team payments based on performance at the Open

Crème de la crème: BLAST Rivals

The Rivals is where the scores are fully settled between the best teams in the world.

Eight teams travel to LAN to show that they deserve the title of the best of the best, with all invites coming from the top of the Global VRS standings.

This will be a BO3 GSL format with a BO5 grand final, and we expect this to be one of the best series of the year. After all, it's the best of the best over five maps. Games don't get better than that. BLAST Rivals will be played on LAN with Hong Kong set for Rivals S2 2025 and Fort Worth, Texas locked in for Rivals S1 2026. In 2027 we’ll have one season ending Rivals as a wildcard event that closes out the BLAST Premier calendar.

Team Compensation will be earned through prize money and Team Payments based on finishing position with $1m paid out to teams for each Rivals split between $350k prize money and $650k as team payments based on performance at the Rivals

Prize pools, participation fees and team payouts in 2026

In 2026, BLAST will invest $8.5 million into the competitive Counter-Strike ecosystem. This investment is distributed through three primary mechanisms:

Overall breakdown:

• Prize Money - $2.5 Million
• Team Payments - $4 Million
• Frequent Flyers Programme - $2 Million

Frequent Flyers Programme: $2 Million for 2026

The frequent flyers programme remains the same in 2026 and is designed to reward teams for their consistency and participation in multiple BLAST events. The programme works as follows:

• Teams earn tokens for participating in events:
  • 4 tournaments: 1 token
  • 5 tournaments: 2 tokens
  • 6 tournaments: 4 tokens
• Additional tokens are awarded for performance:
  • Reaching the second week of the Bounty or Open: 1 token
  • Winning Bounty, Open, or Rivals: 2 tokens

At the end of the year, the frequent flyers pot, a minimum of $2 million, is divided based on the number of tokens accumulated. If a team declines an invite, they forfeit all tokens for that year.

BLAST Premier 2027

In 2027, BLAST Premier will shift to a new event model of two Bounty events, three Open events and one Rivals event, The Bounty & Open Formats will remain the same with the Rivals as a full Wildcard event. More information regarding, qualifier dates, the locations and team compensation will be announced in January 2026.