Overview of Event

Eight leading teams will compete in the BLAST Bounty Winter 2026 Finals in Malta following a rigorous set of online qualifiers. These teams will vie for part of the $1.15 million prize pool and also for Frequent Flyer Programme tokens. This event is a $452,500 CS2 S-Tier LAN tournament which is slated to take place from January 22 to 25 at the BLAST Arena Studios in Attard, Malta. Here teams will qualify via a unique online closed qualifier with a bounty system, where the winners lay claim to the bounties of the defeated teams.

Tournament Format

The tournament comprises two key parts: a Closed Qualifier taking place online from January 13 to 18, and LAN Playoffs, which are single-elimination. The Closed Qualifier features 32 teams utilizing a bounty-based system. Higher-seeded teams will select their opponents and upon elimination, bounties will transfer to the winners. All matches will be best out of three (Bo3), with the top eight proceeding to the LAN component, each already having been awarded $47,500.

Upon reaching the LAN playoffs, matches consist of quarterfinals and semifinals in a Bo3 format and a grand final in a Bo5 format. There will be a re-seeding process after the quarterfinals where lower-seeded teams get to pick higher-seeded opponents to face. The teams arrive at the LAN section of the tournament with their accumulated bounties, with the top seeds having up to $60,000. The final payouts are determined after the tournament concludes, with the winning team receiving three BLAST Frequent Flyer Tokens and the other teams receiving one token each.

Qualified Teams and Playoff Progress

After some expected qualifier teams were eliminated, eight teams succeeded in reaching the LAN stage. They include favorites like FURIA, Team Vitality, Team Falcons, and Team Spirit. During the quarterfinals, matchups resulted in victories for FURIA, Team Falcons, PARIVISION, and Team Vitality. Reseeded matchups in the semifinals include FURIA vs. PARIVISION and Team Falcons vs. Team Vitality. Final round matchups of the competition will be conducted on January 25, and will be a best of five (Bo5) format.

Additional Details

The tournament will be broadcast live on BLAST Twitch and YouTube channels, and community co-streams will also be available. It serves as the inaugural event of the 2026 CS2 season and features a new map pool. Team Vitality is entering as the favorite team following a successful 2025 season. The live brackets and updates can be found on Liquipedia and BLAST.tv.