Both BLAST and ESL have announced that several of their upcoming competitions have been rescheduled. Both companies worked together in order to create a better schedule for the CS:GO competitive season. As it was, some of the esports events were interfering with each other, some even happening at the same time – the revised schedule evens out the distribution, making it easier for teams to attend, play and travel in between events.
Affected are the ESL Pro League Season 14, the BLAST Premier Fall Groups and the IEM Fall. For the Spring season, groups and showdowns have already concluded, leaving only the finale left to be fought – this will take place between the 15th and 20th of June. The Fall season will start a little after that – the new dates for the BLAST Premier Fall Groups stage will be 16th to 26th of September. The Showdown following the group stage will happen in the week between October 12th and 17th. Finally, the finale will happen between the 24th and 28th of November.
As for the World Final of the BLAST season 21 – its dates have not been moved, and it will take place as expected between the 14th and 19th of December. Of course, some of the ESL/IEM dates were changed too – the ESL Pro League Season 14 will now be taking place between August 16th and September 12th.
Of course, this won’t affect the ESL Pro League Predictions. The IEM Fall event will be happening between September 28th and October 10th, avoiding the previous overlap with the Valve CS:GO Major. Other events like the IEM Beijing remain unaffected by the changes.
The Updates
Now if you look at the scheduled dates, you’ll immediately notice that things have indeed been moved around a bit to make it easier for players to follow their commitments and participate in the events. There will be enough time to allow for travel and at least some downtime – a must-have, given that esports athlete welfare is so often neglected in the pro gaming world.
Naturally, esports betting sites are happy too – with the adjusted schedule, there’s really no conflict anymore, allowing all teams and players to play in each bracket they qualify for, without having to pick which event they would prefer to attend!
This wasn’t a one-time deal, by the way – ESL and BLAST have hinted at the fact that future scheduling will also happen more collaboratively. Oh, and speaking of collaboration – the pro teams taking place in the upcoming 2021 CS:GO competitive events were consulted prior to the changes that were made to the tournament schedule. They were aware and informed ahead of time, to give them the opportunity to consider the new schedule in advance.
Now that fans have been informed as well, it’s time to update your calendars to match the new dates – it’d be a shame to miss out on the best BLAST Premier betting odds because of an outdated schedule!
