A public exchange between Counter-Strike 2 tournament organisers PGL and ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has highlighted ongoing tensions over event scheduling and major tournament policies.
Silviu Stroie, CEO of PGL, posted on X that rival organisers were “bullying and threatening teams” to prevent participation in PGL events. Stroie stated that PGL announced its 2025–2026 event dates on 31 March 2024, while “other TOs … announced their events on October 3, 2024,” accusing them of attempting to monopolise the sector.
The EFG and BLAST announcements Stroie referred to were actually published on 10 March 2024, suggesting a mix-up in dates. The confusion appears to stem from the European date format (day–month–year), where 10-3-2024 represents 10 March rather than 3 October. Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Game Ecosystems at EFG, highlighted that ESL had shared its 2025 calendar on 10 March 2024, before PGL’s March 31 announcement. After Schulze’s reply, Stroie did not respond further.
The tension is related to the scheduling of major Counter-Strike events late in 2025. The PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 is scheduled for 24 October–2 November 2025, while IEM Chengdu 2025 is set to start 3 November 2025, just one day after PGL Masters concludes. Stroie’s posts referencing “clashes” may reflect concerns over teams’ ability to participate in consecutive events with next to no downtime between them.
According to The Esports Radar’s learnings and understanding of the Counter-Strike esports event ecosystem, organisers offer varying levels of compensation for teams participating in their tournaments. For example, support provided for travel and accommodation is a factor that can influence team decisions on which events to attend. However, none of the contacted sources reported having felt threatened or bullied by any organiser.
Contacted, BLAST provided an official statement regarding the public discussion:
“We strongly believe that the success of Counter-Strike relies on collaboration between tournament organisers, teams, players and Valve. Over the past 18 months we have invited all TOs, including PGL, to be part of conversations around governance and calendar alignment. Unfortunately, PGL has chosen not to participate in those discussions. Our priority remains ensuring that players and teams have the best possible conditions to compete wherever they want, while fans around the world can continue to enjoy world-class esports events.”
No public evidence from Stroie has been provided to support the accusations. The Esports Radar also contacted ESL and PGL directly but had received no response at the time of publication.
Days before this exchange, Stroie posted on X regarding financial matters in the Counter-Strike scene. He stated that “all the prize pools for all PGL events were paid super fast once the events ended,” and noted that “a lot of TOs” were behind on payments to teams, talent, and vendors, including “the biggest names in the industry.”
