With some of the dust settled after Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) launched on Wednesday, we wanted to provide you with an update on how the new game iteration impacts ESL’s Counter-Strike competitions currently ongoing as well as upcoming events.

As practice opportunities for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) become very limited and in order to give teams and players the opportunity to fully focus on developing their skill in CS2, our currently ongoing and upcoming competitions will be adjusted as follows:

• ESL Challenger Jönköping Qualifiers: with the first match taking place on Tuesday, October 3, the qualifiers for the upcoming ESL Challenger competition in Sweden will transition to CS2 with immediate effect;
• ESL Impact League Season 4: with the first next match taking place on Wednesday, October 4, the fourth season of the all-women league will transition to CS2 with immediate effect;
• ESL Challenger League Season 46: with the first next match taking place on Thursday, October 5, the online league for aspiring, semi-professional, and professional teams will transition to CS2 with immediate effect;
  • Stay tuned as the new dates and times of the rescheduled matches for North America will be announced
• ESL Meisterschaft 2023 Season 2: with the Division 1 and 2 matches resuming on October 12 and 15 respectively, the German National Championship will transition to CS2 with immediate effect;
  • Stay tuned as potential replacements for Divisions 3 to 6 will be announced via the ESL Meisterschaft channels
• ESL ANZ Champs 2023 Season 2: with the ANZ Main and Champs matches resuming on October 2 and 9 respectively, the Australian & New Zealand National Championship will transition to CS2 with immediate effect;
• Intel® Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: commencing on October 16, our upcoming IEM event down under will transition to CS2 with immediate effect; 
• All ESL Counter-Strike competitions scheduled after IEM Sydney 2023 will transition to CS2. This includes the Chinese qualifiers for IEM China 2024, ESL Challenger Jönköping, ESL Challenger Atlanta, the ESL Impact S4 Finals in Valencia, and the recently announced ESL Pro Tour competitions in 2024.

With this transition, the affected tournaments will also be adapting to an MR12 format. This means that the currently ongoing competitions – ESL Challenger League Season 46 North America and Asia, ESL Impact League Season 4 – will see a mix of MR15 and MR12 matches. In case tiebreakers of these competitions go to round difference, a decider match will take place to settle the tie.

As announced earlier this week, the ESEA and ESL Impact Cash Cups have already transitioned to CS2 and CS2 is currently available on FACEIT. Furthermore, ESL Pro League Season 18, concluding this Sunday, as well as ESEA League Season 46, concluding on Sunday, October 8, will continue to be played on CS:GO.

For more information about the ESL Pro Tour competitions, head over to the official website, and follow ESL CS on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. For more details on ESL’s all-women Counter-Strike 2 tournaments, check out the ESL Impact website, and follow ESL Impact on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.