ESL Pro League Season 25 will take place in Saudi Arabia from March 6-14, 2027, marking the first time the flagship CS2 league has been hosted outside Europe, the United States, or Brazil. ESL confirmed the location alongside a boosted prize pool of $1,250,000, a $250,000 increase over Season 24, with the additional money going to the club share portion.
The format stays the same. 16 teams on LAN, 12 global invites plus four ESL Challenger League Season 52 winners from Europe, North America, South America, and Asia-Oceania. Invites follow the January 2027 VRS, seeding follows the February VRS. Teams arrive March 4, media day is March 5, and the tournament runs through a nine-day stretch ending with a playoff stage in front of a live audience.
Why Saudi Arabia, Why Now
Savvy Games Group, fully owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, acquired ESL FACEIT Group for a combined $1.5 billion in January 2022. That deal made this move inevitable. ESL has co-organized the CS2 events at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh every year since 2024, and EWC 2026 runs August 12-23 at Boulevard Riyadh City. Hosting EPL in the same region is a logical next step for an organizer that already operates there half the summer.
The $250,000 prize pool bump sits within a broader $11.45 million ESL Pro Tour allocation for 2027. ESL also folded playoff viewership into its Annual Club Incentive system this year, tying team earnings to combined average concurrent viewership across the full tournament.
Community Split
HLTV comment sections and social media lit up within hours. A chunk of the community pointed to EWC 2025 in Riyadh, where reports circulated about drinks being thrown toward The MongolZ players and lighting issues during matches. Those incidents fed a broader skepticism about competitive integrity at Saudi-hosted CS2 esports events.
Others see the investment as unmatched. Between EPL Season 25 in March and EWC 2026 in August, Riyadh will host two of the biggest CS2 events on the 2027 calendar within six months. No other city on the circuit comes close to that density.
What It Means for the 2027 Calendar
ESL Pro League Season 25 joins a packed first half: IEM Krakรณw and PGL events fill January and February, while BLAST Open Singapore runs alongside EPL in March. For teams chasing VRS points and EPL qualification through Challenger League, the grind starts before the new year settles in.
The four Challenger League slots give smaller teams from every region a direct path into the biggest CS2 league in the world, played on LAN, in a venue Saudi Arabia will want to showcase. ESL has not named the specific arena. Season 24 used Spodek in Katowice; the Saudi venue will need to match that standard if EPL plans to return.
ESL Pro League Season 25 is part of the 2027 ESL Pro Tour. Full team invites will be published following the January 2027 VRS release.
