ESL Pro League Season 24 moves to full LAN format

ESL announced on Friday, November 28, that the ESL Pro League Season 24 will be hosted entirely on LAN, but will feature
fewer teams to facilitate the format change.

Scheduled to kick off on October 3, ESL Pro League Season 24 will be the 20th S-Tier Counter-Strike 2 tournament of the 2026 season and the second Pro League of the year.

However, unlike Season 23 and previous iterations, it will be held only on LAN, in Katowice, Poland, marking a significant change in the premier tournament’s structure.

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The change, however, will also affect the number of teams participating. The lineup has been cut down from 24 to 16 teams, reducing the field by eight.

Of all participating outfits, 12 CS2 esports teams will receive invites based on their Valve Regional Standing (VRS) as of the
August 2026 update. The remaining four slots will be filled by squads who win their respective regional qualifiers in Europe,
North America, South America, and Asia.

All 16 attending teams will be placed in a single Swiss-style group, where all games are played as best-of-three. The top eight teams will proceed to Spodek Arena in Katowice for the playoffs.

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  The bookies' bookie

The ESL Pro League S24 playoffs will be single-elimination, with all games played as Bo3, except the grand finals, which will be best-of-five.

While the overall format has not changed much, aside from the removal of Stage 1 and the transition to offline play, the decision to make ESL Pro League LAN-only applies only to the 24th season.

“These changes only relate to Season 24 for now; we will continue to explore options for future seasons of ESL Pro League,” read the announcement.

“This includes gathering community feedback, interfacing with participating teams and players, and ultimately what makes for an exciting competition in the end.”

As confirmed, the possibility of moving all succeeding events to LAN-only is not off the table. However, this depends on the
success of the new format.

While ESL is making plans for future events, the Counter-Strike 2 scene is currently focused on the ongoing StarLadder
Budapest Major 2025, which enters Stage 2 on Saturday, November 29.