Tournament organiser BLAST Premier has announced that the BLAST Bounty event, an offline CS2 tournament, will return to Malta in January 2027.
The season-opening Counter-Strike tournament will once again take place at the BLAST Arena Studios Ta’ Qali, continuing Malta’s role as a regular host after events were held there in 2025 and 2026. The 2026 BLAST Bounty event had a total prize pool of about $1.15 million, split between prize money ($500,000) and club share ($650,000). So the total financial commitment for 2027 will likely exceed $1 million.
In 2027, the BLAST Bounty prize system will use a “hunting” mechanic where teams earn money by defeating opponents and claiming their assigned “bounty” values. In the playoffs, teams carry a bounty value on their heads. When you beat a team, you instantly win 50% of their bounty as cash. The other 50% is added to your own bounty, making you a more valuable target for the next opponent.
For 2027, BLAST is also introducing acceptance fees for participating teams. A total of $400,000 will be distributed based on team ranking at the time of invitation. Teams ranked 1 to 4 will receive $60,000 each, teams ranked 5 to 8 will receive $30,000 each, and teams ranked 9 to 16 will receive $5,000 each.
BLAST’s 2027 acceptance fees are a new way to pay teams just for showing up to a tournament. Instead of having to win matches to get paid, teams receive a guaranteed “thank you” payment the moment they accept their invitation. The amount each team gets is based on their global ranking at the exact time they are invited.
As per the official details, the 2027 edition will introduce a new 16-team format, with the entire tournament played on LAN from start to finish. Twelve teams will be invited through the Valve Global Rankings, while four more teams will qualify through regional qualifiers in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.
BLAST has confirmed that the invitations for both the main event and the regional qualifiers will be sent on November 3, 2026, based on the November 2 VRS ranking update. Teams will then be seeded on December 7, while the deadline for teams to withdraw from participation is November 17 at 13:00 UTC.
Besides the 2027 Bounty event announcement, BLAST revealed some big updates to its Premier circuit for the 2027 season just last week, including plans to host one of its major Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) events in Rio de Janeiro. And it’s not just focusing on CS2 either. BLAST has also renewed its partnership with Ubisoft to continue running the competitive scene for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, extending the deal for another three years until the end of the 2028/29 season.
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