BLAST reveals BLAST Bounty Winter 2026 yeam list

BLAST have revealed a complete list of Counter-Strike 2 teams who will participate in BLAST Bounty Winter 2026, highlighted by some notable absences of the world’s top squads.

BLAST Bounty Winter is slated to be the first S-Tier CS2 tournament of 2026. Scheduled to run from January 22 to 25 in Malta, the premier event will officially begin with closed qualifiers on January 13-18.

The online qualifiers will be played online and feature 32 squads, vying for eight invites to the LAN stage. And while the first stage will feature most of the top-rated teams on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), some of the top contenders of 2025 have decided to skip the event.

FURIA, Team Falcons, and the recently crowned StarLadder Budapest Major champions Team Vitality are confirmed to play in the BLAST Bounty Winter qualifiers. Meanwhile, MOUZ, The MongolZ, G2 Esports, Legacy, SAW, B8, FlyQuest, MIBR, TYLOO, Lynn Vision, and Fluxo all opted to skip.

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The long list of withdrawals includes three of the world’s top 10 (MOUZ, MongolZ, and G2 Esports), leaving a notable gap.

BLAST Bounty Winter closed qualifiers will be played in a single-elimination bracket, with all matches as best-of-three.

The teams will be seeded into the bracket based on the opponent they beat in the previous round. The lower-seeded team will get to choose their opponents from the lower-seeded teams.

The top eight squads will proceed to the LAN stage and be randomly drawn into a single-elimination bracket. Played at BLAST Studio in Malta, the BLAST Bounty Winter quarterfinals and semifinals will be best-of-three, while the grand finals will be played as best-of-five.

BLAST Bounty Winter precedes the newly introduced Intel Extreme Masters Kraków 2026, which replaced IEM Katowice as the second big event of the CS2 season.

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