StarLadder announces return to Counter-Strike with new esports events | GosuGamers

^{Image: StarLadder}

The classic Ukrainian esports tournament operator StarLadder will return to Counter-Strike 2 with more events in 2025 and beyond. 

StarLadder, the esports tournament organiser known for its Counter-Strike events, is returning to old stomping grounds by lining up, “at least four,” new events from 2025 to 2026. StarLadder’s surprise announcement follows PGL also revealing 11 Counter-Strike 2 esports events happening throughout 2024 and 2026, which might make scheduling a little tricky for the teams involved. 

To its credit, StarLadder does acknowledge this in its announcement by saying, “We’ve heard something about pretty tight scheduling. Okay! We’re going to make it a little bit scarier!”

StarLadder returns to the Counter-Strike esports scene

Counter-Strike 2 fans have a wealth of esports events to look forward to, it seems. StarLadder has announced that it’s going, “back on the road,” with at least four StarSeries tournaments scheduled to take place throughout 2025 and 2026. Each of these events will feature 16 teams, with qualifiers being held across the globe. As usual, there will be a prize pool for the top participating teams. 

Here’s the event schedule for these StarSeries tournaments:

● Season 19: May 26 – June 1, 2025

● Season 20: September 12 – September 21, 2025

● Season 21: May 25 – May 31, 2026

● Season 22: September 11 – September 20, 2026

StarLadder considers this a new era of Counter-Strike esports, thanks to, “a significant increase in the number of professional teams,” which it attributes to Valve’s new licensing rules for the esports title. These rules were first introduced last year, with the company banning franchised tournaments to ensure that tournament organisers no longer have business relationships with their participating teams. Valve also now requires that tournaments use its own ranking system or open qualifiers to pick participating teams, so that teams get in solely due to skill. 

However, with other esports organisers like PGL set to host 11 Counter-Strike 2 events over the next three years, StarLadder also admits that it is, “approaching the time when several parallel events in different parts of the world will have worthy line-ups of teams and will generate interest among viewers.” In other words, it’s going to be a busy time for Counter-Strike 2 esports, and teams are just going to have to deal with multiple events running at once. 

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• Source: https://www.gosugamers.net/counterstrike/news/70992-starladder-announces-return-to-counter-strike-with-new-esports-events