ESL Pro Tour 2023 revealed

ESL, by far the biggest tournament organizer is CS:GO, has revealed its tournament schedule for 2023. A total of seven S-tier tournaments will be held throughout the year and they all look exciting. The first will take place at the end of January while the last, at the end of October.

What we still don’t know at this point is who will get the right to organize the second CS:GO Major of the season and when it will take place. Based on ESL’s announcement, it would seem that either PGL or Perfect World received the honor. But nothing is sure yet.

ESL’s 2023 CS:GO events

Here are the tournaments that ESL has planned for next year:

• IEM Katowice — January 31-February 12
• ESL Pro League Season 17 — February 21-April 2
• IEM Spring — April 17-23 (location TBA)
• IEM Dallas — May 29-June 4
• IEM Cologne — July 25-August 6
• ESL Pro League Season 18 — August 15-September 24
• IEM Fall — October 16-22 (location TBA)

CS:GO fans are already familiar with these events. It’s not the first time when an IEM Katowice or an IEM Cologne takes place. And the two ESL Pro League events are part of every CS:GO season.

It will be interesting to see what the prize pools will be this time but most likely, at least several of these seven events will offer $1 million. Perhaps even more. After all, CS:GO has grown a lot recently and even the Majors have higher prize pools.

Until recently, Majors offered $1 million. Now, the new standard seems to be $1.25 million. There’s no way of knowing what comes next. But with 600.000 average concurrent players and a player base of around 20 million, CS:GO is enjoying a lot of attention right now.

What’s strange is how early the next season will end for ESL. The company seems to have no big tournament scheduled for November and December. Or perhaps they will have their Major, although nothing has been announced.

Apart from the S-tier events, ESL will organize lots of smaller tournaments like the ESL Challenger League and the ESL National Championships.

In total, ESL has announced its intention to host more than 40 global tournaments in 2023. Most event locations have not been decided. But as usual, Germany, Poland, Malta, the US, and other famous places (possibly from Denmark or Sweden) will get to see the world’s best CS:GO teams next year.

Luckily for the fans, the action starts at the end of January, which is quite early for the esports industry.

Header: ESL