Understanding BLAST's new 2025 Circuit format

Next year will introduce a number of changes to the Counter-Strike ecosystem as Valve has discontinued tournament organizers from using their partner leagues. In anticipation of those changes, BLAST has introduced a completely new tournament structure for 2025 with three distinct tournaments: Bounty, Open, and Rivals. Each event features a unique format that will attract some of the top teams in the world.

BLAST also says they are investing $6 million into Counter-Strike teams by creating a payment program for organizations that participate in their events throughout the year. The more that teams participate in BLAST events throughout the year, the more they will be financially rewarded. Teams that remain in the top eight of Valve's rankings throughout the year will benefit the most from this program.

BLAST Bounty

The BLAST Bounty events will be a unique format to Counter-Strike. The event features the top 30 teams invited from the Valve Rankings, with two invited by BLAST, competing against one another online from Europe.

Teams will play in a BO3 single elimination format with the quarterfinals onward playing on LAN at the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. The LAN portion will continue to be a single elimination BO3 format until the Grand Finals which will be a BO5.

What is innovative about this event will be that teams come into the event with a "bounty" placed upon them based on their initial seeding. Teams which secure a win against their opponent will be guaranteed 50% of the bounty while the other 50% carries over into the next match and so on until the quarterfinals.

Additionally, the lower ranked teams in the opening round will be able to select who they would like to play from the highest ranked teams in a bid to earn a significant bounty should they provide an upset. After each round, teams are re-seeded based on the previous rounds' results and the selection process will occur once more.

BLAST Open

The BLAST Open will be a 16 team LAN competition with twelve teams qualifying through Valve's Ranking while four spots will be awarded through regional qualifiers to ensure international parity and opportunity.

For the first week of the BLAST Open, the competition will be played from the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen where teams are split into two groups of eight with a BO3, double elimination format designed to take the top three teams to advance from each group.

The final six teams that advance into the playoffs will then travel to a host city where they will all play in front of a live crowd in BO3 Quarterfinals and Semifinals with a BO5 Grand Final to crown a champion. No prizepool or bounty shenanigans here.

BLAST Rivals

This is straight up the best of the best. The Rivals will be the top eight teams invited directly from Valve's Ranking. It will be a BO3, GSL format before leading into a single-elimination playoff bracket and a BO5 Grand Final.

BLAST's calendar is set to be the following for 2025:

• January 13-26 - BLAST Bounty

• March 17-30 - BLAST Open Lisbon

• April 28-May 4 - BLAST Rivals

• August 4-17 - BLAST Bounty

• August 25-September 7 - BLAST Open London

• November 10-16 - BLAST Rivals