Winter esports showdown: Must-watch tournaments in 2025

Esports bettors, get ready for an action-packed Winter as 2025 brings you exciting tournaments. The first quarter is already shaping up with a handful of events gracing the bookmakers with various markets and enticing odds. 

Key takeaways:

• There are plenty of esports tournaments in 2025 but only the ones up to March have details more-or-less laid out.
• The tournaments up to March 2025 are an assortment of conclusions of the 2024 season and kickstarter of the 2025 year. 

The Winter season has an assortment of high-stakes competitions. Some are the conclusion to the 2024 circuit while others mark the start of a new series of esports tournaments. Here are 10 of the most exciting competitions you shouldn’t miss from January to March 2025.

ALGS 2024 Championship (Apex Legends)

The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS): 2025 Championship is the official top-most important event in the Apex Legends esports tour hosted by publisher Electronic Arts (EA). It will be an offline event in Sapporo, Japan starting with 40 teams split into 4 groups in the group stage. Each group hosts a 3-match series round-robin for a total of 18 esports events. 

All teams advance to the two-bracket elimination stage but are seeded based on group stage performance. The bottom 20 teams play first in the loser's bracket round 1 then the top 10 advance to the loser’s bracket round 2. Bottom placers are eliminated. 

Group stage top 20 teams play in the winner’s bracket stage. The top 10 advance to the Finals while the bottom 10 compete in the loser’s bracket round 2. Winners of that bracket advance to the finals to play against the winner bracket top 10. The finals is a match point tournament where the team to secure 50 points first is crowned grand champion of the ALGS 2024. 

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BLAST Slam II (Dota 2)

BLAST is a Denmark-based esports production company hosting a multi-seasonal tournament series for Dota 2 called BLAST Slam. The event on the 3rd to 9th of February 2025 is BLAST Slam II, the 2nd running of the series featuring 10 teams that qualified through invitation. They are split into 2 groups where each one competes in a best-of-1 round-robin format. 

1st place teams are seeded in the semi-finals, 2nd place teams are in the quarter-finals, and 3rd place teams are seeded in round 2 of the playoffs. 4th and 5th placers from both groups are seeded in round 1, competing for a chance to advance. The playoffs are a single-elimination bracket where most matches are best-of-3 except for the finals which will be a best-of-5.

LCK Cup 2025 (League of Legends)

The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Cup, organised by Riot Games, kicks off the esports calendar 2025 in South Korea, signalling the start of the new competitive season. This tournament follows a Hard Fearless Draft rule where each team can only pick a champion once until the end of the competition. 

All 10 teams are divided into 2 for the group stage and every team plays against each member of the opposite group once each in best-of-3. Whichever group has more wins is called the ‘winners group’ and the other one is the ‘losers group’. 

The top 3 teams from the winner's group advance to the playoffs while the rest play against the top 4 teams of the loser's group in the play-in. The bottom team of the losers group is eliminated. The top 3 teams from the play-in compete with the winner's group top 3 in the playoffs. LCK Cup 2025 winner qualifies for the 2025 First Stand. 

IEM Katowice 2025 (Counter-Strike 2)

The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is organised by ESL Gaming GmbH annually for multiple video game events. IEM Katowice is the annual tournament for Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) in the Intel Grand Slam series. The top 8 teams from the Valve Global Standings (VGS) directly qualify for the group stage but places 9 to 24 compete in the play-in. 

The play-in stage is a double elimination bracket where 16 of the best CS2 teams are seeded via VGS rankings. All matches are best-of-3 and the top 8 teams advance to the group stage. All 16 teams are divided into two groups, each hosting a double-elimination format where all games are best-of-3. 

The top 3 teams of each group advance to the playoffs. Group winners are in the semi-finals, runners-up start in the quarter-finals high seeds, and 3rd place teams are in the low seeds. The playoffs follow a single-elimination bracket where all games are best-of-3 except the Grand Final is best-of-5

Six Invitational 2025 (Rainbow Six Siege)

The Six Invitational is the top tournament of the esports calendar for Rainbow Six Siege organised by Ubisoft in partnership with BLAST. It consists of a group stage, playoffs, and finals for 20 teams. MGM Music Hall in Massachusetts, United States but the events are closed to fans. Live viewing will be exclusive to live streaming on the R6 Esports website and Twitch. 

The group stage splits the team into 4 groups of 5 to play a single round-robin format. The top seeds advance to the upper bracket quarter-finals, and the 2nd to 3rd seeds meet in the upper bracket 1st round. 4th seeds of each group begin in the lower bracket 1st round and the 5th placers are eliminated. All matches are best-of-3 except for the Grand Final which is best-of-5.

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VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025

Riot Games organises VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025 as one of the four major international leagues in the VALORANT esports scene. It features 8 competing teams consisting of a pair from each of VCT Americas, VCT China, VCT EMEA, and VCT Pacific. These events will commence in January 2025 before Masters Bangkok in the esports events calendar.

VALORANT Masters Bangkok has a Swiss Stage format where teams win twice to advance to the playoffs but are eliminated if they lose twice. Playoffs follow a double-elimination bracket where most matches are best-of-3. The lower final and grand final are each played in best-of-5. 

DreamLeague Season 25 (Dota 2)

Most tournaments listed here are offline events but DreamLeague Season 2025 is an online competition in Dota 2 esports hosted by ESL Gaming GmbH. It has 16 participating teams including the top 4 of the Esports Pro Tour (EPT) Leaderboard one team from each regional qualifier.

DreamLeague Season 25 begins with two group stages. The first one splits the teams into 2 groups and both run a single round-robin series of 2-games each. The top 4 placers of each side advance to group stage 2 and the rest are eliminated. 

Group stage 2 has a single round-robin of eight teams in best-of-3 matches. The top 4 teams are seeded in the playoffs while the rest are eliminated. All matches are best-of-3 except for the Grand Final which is best-of-five, ensuring an exciting climax to the event. 

ESL Pro League S21 (Counter-Strike 2)

The ESL Pro League is one of the biggest annual tournaments hosted by ESL Gaming GmbH and it’s the 2nd one you’ll see in the 2025 season for CS2. The first one is IEM Katowice which happens a month prior. This tournament has 2 stages of the Swiss system series of events and all matches are best-of-3, offering many esports predictions opportunities. 

Stage 1 comprises 9th to 16th place in the VGS and the top 8 advance to stage 2 where they compete with the top 8 of the VGS. The top 8 placers from the Swiss system format stage 2 are seeded in the single elimination bracket of the playoffs where all games are best-of-3 except for the Grand Final. That match is played in best-of-5. 

First Stand LoL (League of Legends)

The First Stand is a new League of Legends and its esports 2025 event is its inauguration. Riot Games is officially organising this event to be held between the first and second splits of all regional tournaments. It only has 5 participants namely the winners of the Korea, China, Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), and Asia-Pacific 2025 split 1. 

All 5 teams play in a single round-robin format where the top 4 teams are seeded in the playoffs while the bottom 1 is eliminated. The playoffs are a single elimination bracket consisting of only semi-finals and grand finals. The results of the First Stand LoL will affect the seeding positions for the Mid Season Invitational (MSI), an international event in a later esports schedule. 

RLCS Birmingham Major (Rocket League)

The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) kicks off its 14th season in 2025 with the Birmingham Major. It will be the closing esports schedule for March as 2025 transitions into Spring. 

Epic Games in partnership with BLAST, the official organisers of this season's Birmingham Major, will be the first of three major Rocket League betting events in 2025. I will be followed by Major 2 (name tentative) in June and the Finals in September.  

RLCS Birmingham Major has 16 participants playing through the Swiss Stage and playoffs. All matches in the Swiss Stage are best-of-5 but those in the playoffs are best-of-7. That opens plenty of esports betting opportunities for a tournament lasting for just 3 days. 

Enjoy betting on esports at Gamdom before spring starts

These are the early esports events 2025 to look forward to. Gamdom covers their fixtures, ready to give you exciting markets and betting odds to win Bitcoin (BTC) or Tether (USDT). Use risk-free bets that you can claim from Gamdom promotions for more chances to win or to make more exciting wagers. All of this is available right here in the best Bitcoin esports bookmaker. 

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