BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 – Counter-Strike 2 Tournament Overview and Schedule

The 2026 season of Counter-Strike 2 begins on January 13, when the first top-level tournament, BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1, kicks off. After the StarLadder Major Budapest 2025 world championship, there was a month-long break during which lower-level tournaments were played.

On January 10, the annual HLTV awards were held, revealing the best players of 2025, with Team Vitality recognized as the best team. There was not much intrigue, as Vitality won both world championships last year and is the main favorite in the upcoming BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 tournament.

This BLAST Bounty tournament is a relatively new format, having been introduced only last year. The tournament stands out in that teams choose their opponents and have a set prize, known as a “bounty.”

The losing team loses the money they have, and it goes to the winning team – so the team carries a larger amount of money into the next stage. The total prize pool for the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 tournament is $1.15 million. BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 will take place from July 20 to August 2, and the prize pool will also be $1.15 million. Last year, Team Spirit won the first BLAST Bounty tournament of the season, defeating Aurora in the final.

Last year, Team Spirit won the first BLAST Bounty tournament of the season, defeating Aurora in the final. The second tournament, held from August 14 to 17, was also won by Team Spirit, which defeated TheMongolz in the final. Compared to last year, the total prize pool has doubled, from $500,000 to $1.15 million.

As in previous years, BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 will begin online before moving to the studio. The first two rounds will be played online, and this is the stage where surprises can be expected.

There are several reasons why the first days of the tournament online may bring more surprises than usual:

1. This will be the first official high-level tournament this year.
2. When playing online, not all teams have the same motivation as when playing in LAN tournaments.
3. Lower-ranked teams will have a great opportunity to earn extra points, as this is a favorable tournament for them – the best esports teams will certainly not be showing their best form yet.

A total of 32 teams will play in the tournament, each with its own ranking. Teams ranked 17th to 32nd chose their opponents ranked 1st to 16th in order. BetBoom, ranked 17th, chose first and selected paiN, while ECSTATIC, which had the last pick, chose Falcons.

After the first round, 16 of the 32 teams will remain, and then the teams ranked 9–16 will again choose their opponents from among the teams ranked 1–8. After the second round, eight teams will advance to the final stage.

The final stage will take place on January 22-25 at a studio in Malta. The format will remain the same: in the quarterfinals, teams ranked 5-8 will choose their opponents, and in the semifinals, two teams will again choose who to play against. Full BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 schedule:

• January 13-18: first two stages, matches played online
• January 22: two quarterfinal matches (5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.)
• January 23 – 2 quarterfinal matches (5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.)
• January 24 – semifinals (5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.)
• January 25 – 5:00 p.m. final

All matches in the tournament will be played to two wins (BO3), except for the final, which will be played to three wins (BO5). Also, before the start of the tournament, it was announced that the map “Train” would be removed from active maps and the map “Anubis” would be returned.

MOUZ, G2, TheMongolz, and TYLOO have declined to participate in the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 tournament. Still, all the other prominent teams will be participating – FaZe, Aurora, NaVi, Vitality, Liquid, Spirit, and Falcons.

When placing bets on well-known betting sites, it is essential to note that this will be the first official tournament, and most teams will field a renewed lineup.

In last year’s BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 tournament, there were no significant surprises in the first round – only BetBoom won against MOUZ. The second round saw many more surprises – BetBoom’s victory over FURIA, Eternal Fire’s (now Aurora) victory over Falcons, Heroic’s victory over Liquid, and paiN’s victory over FaZe.

There were no surprises in the first stage of last year’s Season 2, which shows that betting on the favorites can be a profitable betting strategy. However, in the second stage, FaZe lost to Virtus.pro, NaVi lost to Astralis, and Liquid won against FURIA. The second round of the tournament is the most dangerous, where the favorites can fall.

The undisputed best team of 2025, BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1, is a clear favorite, but it would be no surprise if Vitality failed to win this tournament for the third time in a row. The main reason is motivation.

The whole team has just collected a bunch of awards, and in less than a month, IEM Krakow is coming up, where the motivation will be totally different. The team will use this tournament as training, and they can win if they reach the final, because it is tough to beat Vitality in a BO5, or if no opponent can challenge them.

In our opinion, this is the favorite of the tournament, which did not make any changes during the break, indicating that the organization believes in its current players.

It must be acknowledged that 2025 was a big disappointment, with only one tournament won. With players such as Kyousuke, M0NESY, and NiKo, the Falcons should be competing for titles in every tournament.

The format is quite favorable for this team – to reach the final, they only need to beat one high-level opponent. There should be no lack of motivation after last season.

FURIA can be considered the biggest surprise of 2025. After suffering an unexpected defeat in the quarterfinals of the StarLadder Budapest Major, the team had enough time to train and prepare for the start of the new season.

Danil “molodoy” Golubenko from Kazakhstan was a significant discovery last year – he not only won the Rookie of the Year award, but also ranked 6th in the top 20 players. Like Falcons and Vitality, FURIA has not made any changes, which should allow them to show high-level play in the first tournament. Therefore, the team should receive attention on esports betting platforms.