CS2 esports: The entire ESL vs PGL controversy explained

CS2 is a largely esports title, with tournament organizers like ESL, BLAST, and PGL hosting massive events each year. For a long time, they have all coexisted without having any major clashes. However, a recent controversy between ESL and PGL has brought some unexpected drama that could disrupt the events' calendar.

In this article, we explain the clash between ESL vs PGL in Counter-Strike 2.

Everything you need to know about the ESL vs PGL controversy in CS2 esports

The controversy began when a few Counter-Strike fan pages on X shared unverified reports claiming that ESL was pressuring teams to skip the PGL Masters Bucharest 2025. ESL allegedly informed teams that accepted the IEM Chengdu 2025 invite that doing the same with PGL could result in them being banned from the upcoming IEM Krakow 2026 event.

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PGL Masters Bucharest runs from October 24, 2025, to November 2, 2025, while IEM Chengdu takes place from November 3, 2025, to November 9, 2025. This means teams participating in both competitions will not have enough time to travel from Romania to China, especially if they reach the playoffs in the PGL event.

Soon after this news surfaced, the CEO of PGL Esports, Silviu Stroie, confirmed the rumors by posting a statement on X. He accused "other TOs (tournament organizers)" of threatening teams to avoid PGL events, and even calling them out for a monopoly in the industry. He emphasized that the PGL event dates were announced well in advance:

"They well knew our dates for both 2025 and 2026 before they decided they wanted to continue the monopoly, and they will do whatever it takes to stop teams from playing PGL events. So there is no randomness; it's a joint strategy.”

Shortly after, the Senior Vice President of ESL, Ulrich Schulze, responded by sharing the official ESL 2025 events calendar, saying that it was posted on March 10, 2024, two weeks before PGL announced their 2025 and 2026 event dates.

The calendar mentions an ESL event from November 3 to November 9, 2025, but it does not specifically mention IEM Chengdu 2025 by name. Silviu Stroie is yet to respond to Ulrich Schulze's claim.

That's all we know about the ESL vs PGL controversy for now. If tensions continue, it could disrupt the schedule within CS2 esports and impact the teams that were willing to participate in both ESL and PGL events.

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About the author

Harshit Singh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda, with Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, and Marvel Rivals being his areas of specialization. A final-year B.Des (Visual Communication) student at Delhi Technological University, he is always eager to pursue creative endeavors. Harshit aims to deliver news and up-to-date content promptly to players around the globe. To that end, he acquires information from reliable forums and social media pages and religiously tracks the latest coverage of Fortnite — a game he has been playing since 2018. He is often found testing the new meta in-game or spectating competitive tournaments.

Harshit holds a deep love for video games, which stemmed from the hours he spent playing GTA Vice City, NFS Most Wanted 2005, FlatOut 2, and Total Overdose in his school days. Currently, he is veering towards story-driven, single-player games, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of his favorites.

Harshit is an ardent fan of esports titles like CS, Rocket League, and Valorant, with Fnatic, EDG, G2, and Astralis being a few of his favorite orgs. Counter-Strike pro Xantares and Benjifishy, an esports athlete who has mastered both Fortnite and Valorant, are inspirational figures for him.

Harshit works as a music producer under the alias Hysaze. He is extremely passionate about EDM and has garnered over 40 million streams across all platforms. He is also a regular contributor to Fandom’s EDM Wiki.

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