2025 isn't even over yet but tournament organiser ESL is looking way ahead to the future. The company has presented its plans for the 2028 season of competitive Counter-Strike 2, with six events already locked down.
We don't yet know what each event will be, but the firm dates for each tournament have been confirmed meaning we know when to expect action not next year, not the year after either, but the year after that.
2028 ESL CS2 event calendar:
- ESL Event 1 - January 26 - February 6
- ESL Event 2 - March 3-19
- ESL Event 3 - April 10-16
- ESL Event 4 - August 2-13
- ESL Event 5 - September 16 - October 1
- ESL Event 6 - October 23-29
It's reasonable to assume that at least a couple of these tournaments are ESL Pro League events and that the rest are Intel Extreme Masters events. As for which is which, typically ESL breaks up its proceedings by alternating these tournaments, so perhaps we should expect the typical Polish IEM as ESL Event 1, a Pro League to follow, and then an IEM, all before the summer break and then another IEM, the second Pro League of the season, before one final IEM.
Also, we can somewhat infer that the massive gap in the summer means that the Esports World Cup is being eyed for 2028 too, as usually esports organisers avoid this huge festival knowing how much attention and traction it draws.
What do you think of this calendar?
