Media: Buenos Aires and Shanghai to host 2027 Counter-Strike Majors

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 16/01/2026

HLTV have reported that Buenos Aires and Shanghai will be the hosts of the 2027 Counter-Strike Majors.

The Buenos Aires Major will be the first Major hosted in Argentina, with Shanghai only recently hosting a Major in late 2024.

The tournaments will be organised by Tournament Organisers (TOs) FiReSPORTS and Perfect World, respectively, and hosted from May 31-June 20, and November 22 to December 12.

FiReSPORTS a surprising choice for Argentine Major

HLTV’s report includes confirmation of the Buenos Aires Major from FiReSPORTS Founder and CEO, Rodrigo Figueroa Reyes.

The news quickly followed the statement by PARI Esports Marketing Director, Ivan Burachenko, who claimed that the 2027 Major locations were set.

He added, “The place and the organizer of the first Major of 2027 will surprise everyone. Although I doubt it will be received positively.”

Indeed, FiReSPORTS are a surprise choice, having only hosted regional events to date.

Upon PGL’s initial re-entry to Counter-Strike, the TO announced that it would host three Tier 1 events in conjunction with FiReSPORTS, marketed as PGL on FiRe Buenos Aires 2025, PGL on FiRe Buenos Aires 2025, and PGL on FiRe São Paulo 2026.

All three were subsequently cancelled, reportedly owing to the difficulty of attracting teams to South America amongst the packed Counter-Strike schedule.

The result is that the 2027 Major will be the largest event the Tournament Organiser has hosted to date, by a significant margin.

In that sense, the move echoes the recent StarLadder Budapest Major, which saw StarLadder host its first big event since returning to Counter-Strike.

Prior to Budapest, StarLadder had only organised a small, eight-team StarSeries event since their re-entry to the scene.

Valve keen to exploit Chinese interest in return to Shanghai

HLTV also cite that “several sources with knowledge of Valve’s decision have confirmed to HLTV that PW [Perfect World] is set to host the second Major of 2027 in Shanghai.”

The news is less surprising, following a successful event in 2024 that saw strong engagement from local fans, though returning to the same city is a rare accolade in CS Majors, with only Jönköping, Cologne and Katowice hosting multiple.

The English broadcast of the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 was handled by PGL, who Perfect World have a strategic partnership with Perfect World for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 esports events until the end of 2026, meaning PGL’s involvement would require an extension.

While streaming numbers from China are not known, it is understood that Valve is keen to target regions which can draw new eyes and players to the game.

That desire sees a quick return to Shanghai, which hosted the 2024 Shanghai Major and the recent CS Asia Championship in 2025.

HLTV added that, as per their sources, ESL and BLAST have been awarded the 2028 majors. Locations are not yet known.

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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