ESL Adding A Twist To Prize Pools Going Forward Into 2025

Marc Winther, EFG's Director Game Ecosystems Counter-Strike said in a followup to the announcement: "EFG’s commitment to the Counter-Strike ecosystem encapsulates a financial investment to the long-term health of both teams and players. We believe this commitment enables further stability and provides teams the foundation to continue their investment in Counter-Strike and their players."

Prize Pool

2025 onwards, ESL events will have two kinds of prize money: player prize money and club prize money, the purpose being to facilitate an environment where “players are supported by a competitive base salary and well-organized club support structures." 

With that said, the prize pool for IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne has been multiplied from $250,000 to $1,250,000, meaning that $1,000,000 will be split across the winning team while the organization will get $250,000. Moreover, the prize pool of IEM Dallas, Spring and Chengdu has been increased to $1,000,000 ($300,000 for players and $700,000 for the organization). Lastly, the prize pool for ESL Pro League Season 21 and 22 has also been increased to $1,000,000 ($400,000 for players and $600,000 for the organization).

Annual Club Incentive

Starting 2025, a system called Annual Club Incentive will be introduced to the mix. It is being described as a “a non-exclusive system designed to reward teams for their contribution to the ESL Pro Tour in the form of tournament attendance, viewership as well as promotional activities related to ESL events."

Specifically in 2025, the team with the largest contribution will get $2,950,000, where contribution wil be the product of two variables: the sum of points earned for viewership across EPT tournaments and the total number of EPT tournaments a team has participated in.

Invite Cut-off Dates

The team invite cut-off dates for the 2025 EPL events was also part of the announcement, where Valve Regional Standings of that month will also play a role:

• IEM Katowice 2025: January 2025

• ESL Pro League 21: January 2025

• IEM Spring 2025: February 2025

• IEM Dallas 2025: February 2025

• IEM Cologne 2025: June 2025

• ESL Pro League 22: July 2025

• IEM Chengdu 2025: August 2025