ESL outline ESL Pro Tour 2026 Tier 1 events – Features seven events over four continents

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 18/12/2025

ESL have outlined their gamut of Tier 1 Counter-Strike tournaments for 2026. The news follows a series of announcements which outlined ESL Pro League Season 23 and IEM Rio.

The ESL Pro Tour will feature seven events over four continents as ESL prepare to host the first Major of the year at IEM Cologne Major.

ESL Pro Tour 2026 in full

A full list of events on the ESL Pro Tour is as follows:

The 24-team IEM Kraków 2026 will kick off the ESL Pro Tour from January 28 to February 8, with the IEM event moving from its traditional home of Katowice’s Spodek Arena to the Tauron Arena in Kraków.

The arena capacity is approximately double that of the Spodek Arena, meaning the event represents a significant expansion in attendance.

ESL Pro League Season 23 sees Pro League return to an Arena finals for the first time since 2019, with the LAN Finals taking place from March 13-15.

Nevertheless, only eight of the 24 teams will make it to the Annexet Arena, with two online stages qualifying the field for the Stockholm LAN finals.

IEM Rio will follow, returning to the calendar for 2026 after an absence in 2025. The 16-team event was last won by Natus Vincere in 2024, but did not feature on the ESL Pro Tour 2025.

IEM Atlanta 2026 comes next. The event is part of DreamHack Atlanta 2026, featuring a crowd from May 15-17.

The event marks ESL Pro Tour’s move away from IEM Dallas, an event which had become the traditional celebration of CS in NA.

The event ends only two weeks prior to the IEM Cologne Major, beginning June 2. The 32-team event marks the first Cologne Major since 2016.

The anniversary celebration sees the Lanxess Arena, ‘The Cathedral of Counter-Strike,’ its third Major in total.

The event will mark the conclusion of the first season of the year, coming immediately before the year-bisecting player-break.

ESL Pro League Season 24 features only 16 teams in order to accommodate a fully-LAN event.

The event sees Pro League return to the traditional home of IEM Katowice in the Spodek Arena from October 9-11.

IEM China rounds out the ESL Pro Tour, but as of yet the exact venue and city have not been announced.

The event will feature 16 teams in total, with 13 teams invited via VRS and three teams benefiting from qualifiers.

The ESL Pro Tour has held IEM Chengdu in 2024 and 2025, with Furia winning the latest iteration.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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