PGL Counter-Strike Event Locations Revealed

We’ve got a very full roster of Counter-Strike tournaments taking place in 2025 and PGL have just confirmed the full details of their 4 events.

More location changes

The biggest news is that PGL are the second tournament organizer to change an event location quite drastically this year. The PGL tournament originally pegged to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina will now be in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The reason given is for the jam packed Counter-Strike 2025 schedule and the travel logistics of moving multiple EU based teams to South America.

I can only imagine how disappointed SA CS fans are at this news – it isn’t often they get events and when they do, fans are known for showing up in force.

It doesn’t look like PGL will be returning to South America any time soon either. The events announced so far for 2026 will also take place in Cluj Napoca, Bucharest, Astana and Belgrade. However, there are still 2 more events to be announced so we can keep our fingers crossed for SA CS fans.

Full PGL Counter-Strike schedule

So with the changes in place, the schedule has now been confirmed as:

There’s still another event to be announced though! The final PGL Counter-Strike event will take place in China in October, with Perfect World taking the reigns as they have with the Perfect World Shanghai Major in this region.

Tournament formats include extended playoffs

The playoffs are probably the most exciting part of any CS tournament, this is where things really come down to the wire. PGL are going to be fully leaning into this and having 8 teams compete in the playoffs.

This does mean that there’s going to be a 3rd place decider match at each of these events. I’m actually really not a fan of 3rd place deciders. It feels like a reason for players to take their foot off the gas, there really isn’t anything to play for apart from money so it spoils it a bit for me. But who knows, maybe PGL will come up with a way to keep the excitement going.

Commitment to pay

Payment issues have been rife in esports for so many years now. It’s something everyone from orgs to players to fans hates about the industry. But PGL have made a commitment to pay out their prize money in a timely manner and have actually confirmed dates that payments will be made by.

Their blog confirmed that all prizes will be paid out 2 weeks after the event has completed. I’ve got to say, I really do love this. I hope it really does give players that extra layer of comfort. It must be said that PGL are going to have to fight hard to get orgs to come to their events when the calendar is so packed and having this incentive is beneficial for everyone involved. Overall, I’m a big fan of this announcement.