How 2021 Will Start in Esports

The coronavirus pandemic made a negative influence not only on real sports but virtual too. Due to the big ping, teams were forced to play separately at online tournaments in their regions. The situation is gradually balancing back and it means that major esports tournaments are likely to please their fans really soon. We should make a special emphasis on CS:GO and Dota 2. These games are going to give us interesting battles at the very beginning of 2021.

CS:GO

This discipline of the beginning of 2021 is to hold three major event that are going to be interesting for CS:GO fans. Alongside, LAN competitions are going to come back too. First they will be held without spectators. But the return of fans is going to happen pretty soon as they are the base of all competitions. 

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020

On 18-24 January, there will be the final tournament based on the results of the BLAST Premier 2020 series. Eight strongest teams from Europe and America are going to fight for the title of the champions. The participants will be competing for the prize pool of 1 000 000 dollars (600 000 will be given to the winner).

IEM Katowice 2021

Such a big tournament operator as ESL could not skip a year. They have already announced their plans for 2021. The first Regional Major Rankings tournament will be IEM Katowice 2021. It will be taking place from 16 till 28 February, and 24 participants will be fighting not only for a considerable one-million prize pool. Another important goal will be ESL points.

The competition is one of the IGS series and has the Championship status. The interest in the event grows due to the fact that this competition is likely to be LAN. In fact, Katowice will not be able to host spectators due to the limitations imposed because of the known reason.

BLAST Premier: Spring Series 2021

After the Global Final, we will be able to enjoy the spring BLAST Premier series. At the moment the competition is also planned to happen in the LAN mode, however, the venue has not been revealed yet. The competition will be taking place from 4 till 14 February. Now we know 11 out of 12 participants and the prize pool consists of 150 000 dollars. Admittedly, the format and the prospects for 12 teams at the tournament are much more interesting:

• Six team will make it to the final part of the CS:GO tournament, these will be finalists from each group;
• The Showdown stage will be hosting meetings for six teams which did not make it to the final in their groups.

Dota 2

The coronavirus epidemic interrupted the season in Dota: not only three key tournaments but also the main event of the year, The International 2020, were canceled. Now Valve have announced that the official comeback of the DPC season is planned on 18 January.

According to the new format, all regions (North America, South America, Europe, CIS, China, and SEA) will have two leagues with eight teams in each. The games will be happening for several months in them. The best teams from the first division will go to the main tournament of the Major format. The worst team will drop to the second division. And still each place will get their prize money and DPC points. It is a positive fact for teams representing Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels. At the end of the season, those teams that will get the biggest amount of DPC points will make it to The International. The tournament is rescheduled to the summer 2021 but the venue is still Sweden.

The first major tournament is likely to happen in spring. Valve are already looking for organizers. Before the start of leagues there was a release of the new patch 7.28a. Together with the patch, there will appear a new jero. These announcements used to happen at The International, but due to the pause, the dates and time were put off.