The 2025 edition of the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is going into the final stretch. Now, it’s time for one of the big events - the Counter-Strike 2 $1 million tournament!
This week, CS fans around the globe will experience thrills and high-octane action when the 16 best teams will fight for the $500,000 prize and lots of points to help their organisations rank up in the World Cup.
Five Days of World-Class CS2 Action
The tournament starts on 20 August and lasts until 24 August, when the Grand Finals match awaits us. Sixteen teams are competing for a share of the prize pool, all world-class Counter-Strike crews.
Format-wise, this is a single-elimination tournament, so the stakes are incredibly high for all participating teams. There are no secured slots or loser brackets like in Majors - once a team’s out, they’re out! All matches are played as Best of 3 maps, while the Grand Finals match is a Best of 5 gauntlet.
Schedule for the CS2 Esports World Cup 2025 looks like this:
- Wednesday, 20 August - Round of 16
- Thursday, 21 August - Round of 16 continues and first Quarterfinal matches
- Friday, 22 August - Quarterfinals
- Saturday, 23 August - Semifinals
- Sunday, 24 August - Third place and Grand Final matches
Map pool is mostly classics - Ancient, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, and Train. Since this is part of the grander championship, teams will score points based on their ranking (from 200 to 1,000) that will count towards their overall ranks in the EWC.
Team Standings After Round of 16
Team Vitality and The MongolZ have secured their spots in the semifinals, and one of these two will proceed to the grand finals after they clash this Saturday.
The IEM Cologne winner, Team Spirit, got knocked out by HEROIC, so the Swedish crew will be meeting Aurora in the quarter finals. MOUZ barely snatched a win from Virtus.Pro in the Round of 16. They’ll be facing Team Falcons, who have easily outclassed G2 Esports (2:0). Winners of these two matches will proceed to the semifinal faceoff.
So far, Team Vitality have shown the most consistent performance. They’re the only team in the current stage without a single lost map and are a major favourite for taking the main prize money.
Esports World Cup Betting Offers
Many online sportsbooks offer betting on the Counter-Strike Esports World Cup tournament, with lots of interesting markets and bonuses to boot. We've handpicked some bonuses to get your started:
CS2 Esports World Cup Official Streams
Like all Counter-Strike tournaments, Esports World Cup offers free livestreams through several popular platforms like YouTube, X, TikTok, and FACEIT. All links can be found on the official game page at the EWC website. This page also serves as the main hub for the competition, so you can quickly find all the standings, schedule, and VODs of previous matches.
Since the competition is based in an Arabic-speaking country, there will be both English and Arabic streams, with talent you’ll recognise from other major Counter-Strike events hosting the show.
Matches on Wednesday and Thursday start at 1 PM, Friday and Saturday games start at 4:30 PM, while the Finals day starts early in the morning - at 9 AM.
