BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025: Schedule, Teams & Streams | Esports Charts (2025)

TheBLAST.tv Austin Major 2025kicks off on June 3 at the Moody Center in Austin, marking the first Valve-sponsored tournament of the year. The event is organized by BLAST.tv, the same company that hosted a Major in Paris two years ago.

This year’s tournament brings plenty of updates for Counter-Strike fans, including a larger pool of participating teams and a refreshed map rotation. In this article, Esports Charts has compiled all the essential details fans and viewers need to know before the action begins.

BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 LIVE REPORT

BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 schedule and format

The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is scheduled from June 3 to 22. The tournament will be held in multiple stages. The winners of the Major Regional Qualifiers will compete in Stage 1, with the top teams advancing to Stage 2, while the rest will be eliminated. The same format will apply for progression from Stage 2 to Stage 3. All stages will follow the Swiss Stage format, with matches played in both best-of-1 (bo1) and bo3 formats.

• June 3-6 — Stage 1 (16 Team Swiss System, bo1/bo3);

• June 7-10 — Stage 2 (16 Team Swiss System, bo1/bo3);

• June 12-15 — Stage 3 (16 Team Swiss System, bo1/bo3);

• June 19-22 — Playoff (Single-Elimination, bo3).

The top eight teams from Stage 3 will make it to the playoffs, where they’ll compete in a single-elimination bracket to determine the champion. All playoff matches, including the grand final, will be played in a bo3 format.

BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 participants and prize money

The top eight teams from Stage 1 will move on to Stage 2, where the qualifiers will continue using the same format. For reference, the teams invited to Stages 2 and 3 were selected based on their placement in the Valve rankings.

Stage 1 Teams

Stage 2 Teams

Stage 3 Teams

Just a reminder: the teams are competing for a total prize pool of $1,250,000. The tournament champion will take home $500,000, while even the lowest-placing teams will receive a small consolation prize of $5,000.

BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 broadcasts and community casting

The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is one of the two biggest Counter-Strike tournaments of the season, so there's no doubt it will be heavily featured in livestream coverage. The official broadcast will be available on BLAST’s Twitch and YouTube channels, as well as through the BLAST.tv player on the company’s website.

Regional broadcast partners will likely handle coverage in key languages like Russian, Spanish, and French. A full list of streaming channels will be announced shortly before the tournament kicks off.

Official broadcasts:

• BLAST Premier Twitch(English);

• BLAST Premier Twitch #2(English);
  

• BLAST Premier YouTube(English);

• … and more.

During the Major, expect plenty of streams from community casters. For example, the Brazilian Alexandre "Gaules" Chiqueta will likely cover matches featuring Brazilian teams such aspaiN Gaming,FURIA Esports, andMIBR, all of which received invites to Stage 2. The European qualifiers will have many Russian teams, so we can expect streams from popular Russian community casters like Timur "skywhywalker’" Leonov and Igor ‘’bysl4m’’ Sopov.

It's also likely that Mark "OhnePixel" Zimmermann, the most popular English-language community caster for Counter-Strike, will stream the Major’s matches. Make sure to follow the Counter-Strike 2 section on streaming platforms to find new streamers covering the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025.

If you're an independent streamer looking to co-stream the Major, be sure to reviewBLAST.tv’s community casting guidelines. Pay close attention to the sections about monetization restrictions and rules against rebroadcasting official streams.

Key changes before BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Earlier inour articleon Major Regional Qualifiers, we covered the key changes to Valve’s Major tournament format. Here’s a quick recap of all the updates.

• 32 Teams at Majors:The number of participating teams increases from 24 to 32, aiming to spotlight emerging regions and talent.

• New Qualifier Format (MRQs): The old RMR system is out. It’s now Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs), giving smaller regions better access. For example, the Americas are split into North America and South America qualifiers. Asia-Pacific is split into Mongolia & West Asia, Oceania & Southeast Asia, and China qualifiers.

• Valve Rankings Decide Everything: All MRQ slots are now based solely on Valve’s global team rankings — no more open qualifiers.

• Map Pool Update: Train returns, replacing Vertigo. The new map pool:
  Dust 2, Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Train, Ancient, Anubis.

You can track the progress of the Major Regional Qualifiers and the BLAST.tv Major: Austin 2025 on the Esports Charts tournament page.