Photo by Jonathon Yau
Through all of esports ups and downs in 2024, it was one of the best years for UK esports in terms of the events we had here, from the League of Legends Worlds final to an RLCS Major in London, ESL One Birmingham and many more.
To celebrate Christmas Day and to go into the New Year on a positive note, we take a look at some of the UK esports events coming up in 2025.
2025 Blast Open at Wembley
Counter-Strike fans in the UK were treated to the Blast Premier Spring Final 2024 at Wembley earlier this year, and they’ll be treated again in 2025.
A Blast Open will take place at Wembley, London, from August 26th to September 7th 2025.
And, prior to that, an open will also run from March 18th to 30th at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.
There’s more info here: Revamped Blast Premier 2025 circuit to include Wembley Open and Austin Major, as Blast sets aside $8.5m for teams.
RLCS Birmingham Major 2025
Rocket League esports has built up some heritage in the UK, having held multiple major events here over the years in London – the most recent being the 2024 RLCS London Major won by G2 Stride (above).
Now a Rocket League RLCS Birmingham Major has been announced for 2025, which will take place at the Birmingham NEC’s BP Pulse Live Arena in the spring.
It will run from Thursday March 27th to Sunday March 30th 2025, with teams performing in front of a live audience on the weekend of March 29th and 30th.
Solihull Council is working in partnership with Blast, the British Esports Federation, NEC Group, West Midlands Growth Company and the University of Warwick for the event, with a separate British Esports Cup also taking place.
IEM Katowice 2025 watch party in London
Esports News UK is once again teaming up with Acer UK and Predator Gaming to host an IEM Katowice 2025 watch party in London for UK-based esports fans.
If you can’t make it out to Katowice to feel the competitive energy firsthand, then you can join a crowd of super fans and top UK gaming streamers at the UK’s Predator Live Viewing Party.
This will take place at Platform Bar, 2b Worship St, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 2AH. This is a ticketed event that will run from 4pm GMT on Sunday February 9th 2025.
Witness the world’s best Counter-Strike esports players clash in epic battles, fuel your fandom with themed activities and giveaways, and stand a chance to win exclusive Predator prizes!
Tickets to the IEM Katowice 2025 watch party are available from EventBrite here. Tickets cost £10 and include entry, pizza and a drink.
Siege T2 EU esports finals at Epic.LAN
Epic.LAN will host the LAN finals of Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege T2 EU esports tournament on February 22nd and 23rd 2025.
This will take place at Epic 44, the next event in the Epic.LAN calendar at Kettering Leisure Village.
Epic 45 and 46 are set to follow later in the year, with Lux and tabletop weekends also due to take place.
The news comes after Epic 43 was the biggest Epic.LAN event to date.
London to host 2025 Pokémon Europe International Championships
As well as Rocket League, competitive Pokémon has also found a bit of a home in London in recent years.
UK player MEweedle was amongst the 2024 Pokémon EUIC champions crowned in London earlier this year.
Now the latest Pokémon event will get underway at Excel London between February 21st and 23rd 2025.
It will award Championship Points and World Championship invitations to competitors, and more than $500,000 in prizes, spread across the Pokémon TCG, video game, Go and Unite tournaments competitions.
Call of Duty Esports Hub LAN heads to University of Staffordshire
Call of Duty is getting a LAN tournament at the University of Staffordshire’s new esports facility.
The Esports Hub (aka ESHub) is hosting the event on January 18th and 19th 2025, which has a £3,000 prize pool and 24 teams taking part.
Speaking of Call of Duty…
College of Esports to host Katana Spring Open LAN
CoD fans are getting another grassroots LAN in 2025: The Katana Spring Open LAN.
This will run at London’s College of Esports on March 8th.
It will also feature a £3,000 prize pool, with 16 teams able to compete.
RuneFest 2025 all set after 2024 delay
RuneFest was originally due to take place alongside Insomnia 73 in September 2024, following a five-year absence. However, with Insomnia Gaming Festival closing this year, the event was pushed back to 2025.
The celebration of all things RuneScape will run during the weekend of March 1st to 2nd 2025 at the Birmingham NEC.
While RuneFest isn’t a typical esports event, past iterations have included Deadman tournaments and other competitive activities.
Read more: RuneFest 2025 rearranged dates, venue and ticket info confirmed.
European Halo event begins in January 2025
College of Esports is also hosting a European Halo LAN in early 2025 too, with the European Halo League. This will kick off on January 25th and conclude on January 26th.
There will be a £1,000 prize pool, with 16 teams doing battle.
This comes after Faze Clan were crowned winners of the 2024 Halo London Major, and the first University Halo League LAN became one of UK’s most-viewed student broadcasts on Twitch.
Enclave LAN makes its debut
A new UK-based Enclave LAN will be taking place in Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena from April 17th to 21st 2025.
It’s the first event from LANCraft Events Ltd, a business set up by Matt ‘Kharne‘ Macdonald and Michael ‘Geosnipe‘ Lamber, the respective former esports manager and community operations manager of Player1 Events (which ran Insomnia Gaming Festival).
The first Enclave LAN aims to mix social gaming with grassroots tournaments in Overwatch 2 and Rocket League.
Mahvel’s Now – Part 2 at the Razer Store
A fighting games event featuring Marvel vs Capcom Beyond and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 will get underway in the New Year.
The Mahvel’s Now – Part 2 event will start on Sunday January 26th 2025 at the Razer Store in London
It will be presented by Visual Platform, the agency that ran the Kings of the World 2024 Street Fighter 6 finals earlier this month, along with Chrome Alchemist, Tyrant UK and IamC4IQ.
Other UK esports events to look out for in 2025
This article is designed to provide a basic overview of ten events, but we’re sure there will be many more in 2025, and we’ll aim to update this article with them as they are confirmed.
In the meantime, other events you can look out for include UKIC Counter-Strike events, the ESI London industry conference, various anime conventions and more.
Keep your eyes peeled for another EGX x MCM Comic Con this year, plus the British Esports Student Champs, and World of Warcraft fan events like PreachCon, Plebcon and LFG 2025.
The education-focused Bett Show will once again feature an esports area in January, with the British Esports Federation.
The London Games Festival has also announced a new ‘New Game Plus’ consumer games expo event for 2025.
It will take place on April 3rd and 4th 2025 at the London Museum’s exhibition spaces on London Wall, and showcase upcoming games from around the world across all platforms – including the 30+ games from the festival’s flagship Official Selection. The event will be open to both the public and professionals, including an industry conference alongside it.
And last but not least, could we have some more League of Legends esports events in the UK in 2025?
A few local LEC events will take place around Europe in 2025, outside of the usual Berlin studio. While an LEC 2025 event in the UK is unlikely, it’s not been written off just yet. We asked Riot about it recently.
Did we miss any events? Please DM us on X and let us know, and we can add more events into this article.
Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas and have a great New Year from all of us at Esports News UK.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
