The biggest esports tournaments in 2024

January 2, 2024

by Brian Bencomo

Updated Feb. 17

It’s a new year, which means a new slate of esports tournaments and events to look forward to. The Counter-Strike 2 and Call of Duty calendars are already pretty robust, and we’ve got dates and locations for many major League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, Rainbow Six, Dota 2, Halo and Overwatch 2 tournaments too. Here’s a preview of some of the biggest esports tournaments and events in 2024.

CDL Major 1

Call of Duty

Jan. 25-28 -- Boston, United States

Photo credit: SlasheR / Instagram

The first Call of Duty League Major of the year will take place in Boston. A couple weeks of qualifiers have already taken place in December, and there will be two more weeks of qualifiers in January leading into the Major. Unsurprisingly, the always-in-contention Atlanta FaZe and defending champion New York Subliners are both undefeated in qualifiers. Surprisingly, the revamped and rebranded Miami Heretics also are 3-0. All 12 CDL teams will be at the Major, but records during qualifiers will determine seeding.

IEM Katowice

Counter-Strike 2

Jan. 31 - Feb.11 -- Katowice, Poland

Photo credit: Helena Kristiansson / ESL

IEM Katowice is always the first big Counter-Strike tournament of the year and one of the most prestigious annual CS tournaments. With CS2 releasing in fall 2023, this will be the first IEM Katowice in which teams will compete in CS2 rather than CS:GO. G2 Esports, the defending Katowice champions, headline the list of eight directly qualified teams. Recent CS2 champions FaZe Clan and Team Vitality are among the eight, and Complexity Gaming will be the sole Americas representative among the directly qualified teams.

Joining these teams will be another 16 teams who have qualified for the play-in stage. Cloud9, Virtus.pro, Heroic, FURIA, GamerLegion, ENCE and Astralis are among the more notable play-in teams. Keep an eye on The MongolZ, an organization-less Mongolian team that finished in the top 12 as IHC Esports last year. Team Liquid, a perennial North American contender, is notably absent, but M80 will be carrying the NA banner alongside Complexity at this tournament.

BetBoom Dacha Dubai

Dota 2

Feb. 4-16 -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Photo credit: Viola Schuldner / ESL

The first big offline Dota LAN of the year will be BetBoom Dacha Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. With the Dota Pro Circuit not returning for 2024, instead of Majors, big events like this one will be the place where the best teams will showcase themselves. Last year, Gaimin Gladiators was a three-time Major winner and champion of BetBoom Dacha 2023. They finished second to Team Spirit at The International, Dota’s season-ending championship tournament.

Six Invitational

Rainbow Six Siege

Feb. 13-25 -- São Paolo, Brazil

Photo credit: Ubisoft

World championships tend to happen at the end of the year in esports, but like American football, Rainbow Six esports always kicks off the year by crowning a champion. Europe’s G2 Esports are the 2023 Six Invitational champions, and they will be in attendance to defend their title. Besides G2, the other European contender is Virtus.pro who won both stages of the Europe League last year. The favorites, however, are w7m esports, who finished second at SI 2023 and won both Majors in 2023. In fact, the top two seeded teams at the first ever Six Invitational held in Brazil are two Brazilian teams: w7m and FaZe Clan.

Soniqs are the top-seeded North American team, but DarkZero Esports and Spacestation Gaming both performed better at the most recent Major. While the champion is likely to come from either Brazil, Europe or North America, keep an eye on Japan’s SCARZ and the United Arab Emirates’ Geekay Esports, who both had top eight finishes at Majors last year and could pull off some upsets.

Games of the Future

Dota 2

Feb. 19-25 -- Kazan, Russia

Photo credit: ESL

The second big international Dota LAN will take place just a few days after BetBoom Dacha. Last year’s top teams Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid and Team Spirit aren’t among the invited teams to Kazan, but there are still a few invited slots pending. If none of those teams get invited, Chinese teams like Azure Ray, LGD Gaming or G2.iG might be contenders to win this. Team Spirit are a Russian organization, so it’s likely they will eventually be invited and be among the favorites at this tournament.

Masters Madrid

VALORANT

March 14-23 -- Madrid, Spain

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

The first VALORANT Champions Tour Masters event of the year will take place in March following competition in the Americas, Europe, Pacific and China regions the first couple months of the year. Last year, Fnatic, Evil Geniuses, LOUD and Paper Rex were championship contenders. This year, three of those four teams should be in the mix in Madrid, but it remains to be seen how reigning world champs Evil Geniuses will fare in light of the org’s financial struggles and roster breakup in the offseason. Without the championship roster together in 2024, a new North American team will likely emerge as a contender in Madrid.

HCS Major 1

Halo

March 15-17 -- Arlington, United States

Photo credit: HCS

This will be the first of four Halo Majors this year. Each one will be hosted by a partnered team, which in this case will be OpTic Gaming. FaZe Clan beat OpTic in the HCS World Championship last year, but OpTic were two-time Major champions last season winning in Charlotte and Fort Worth.

Copenhagen Major

Counter-Strike 2

March 17-31 -- Copenhagen, Denmark

Photo credit: Blast

The first CS2 Major of the year will take place in Denmark. We’ll find out who the contenders will be after the results of IEM Katowice and the Blast spring season. Team Vitality are the reigning Major champions and have been one of the more dominant teams since CS2 released despite a revamped roster. Frenchmen Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and Israeli Lotan "Spinx" Giladi remain from that Major-winning roster and have been joined by Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and William "mezii" Merriman. Vitality figure to be one of the favorites at the Major as well as G2 and FaZe Clan.

CDL Major 2

Call of Duty

March 21-24 -- Miami, United States

If the Miami Heretics continue winning like they have during Major 1 qualifiers, then the crowd should be hyped up as they host their first-ever Major. We’ll see who the contenders are after the results of Major 1.

RLCS Major 1

Rocket League

March 27-31 -- Copenhagen, Denmark

Photo credit: Psyonix

The first RLCS Major of the year will take place after the conclusion of regional qualifiers across various regions around the world. Team Vitality are not only reigning world champions but also winners of the last Major of 2023. With an unchanged roster and a superstar in Alexis "zen" Bernier, Vitality figure to be among the favorites to win this Major if they qualify. There was a lot of roster shuffle among all the other top teams in the RLCS, so we’ll have to wait and see who Vitality’s biggest rivals will be this year.

ESL One Birmingham

Dota 2

April 22-28 -- Birmingham, United Kingdom

We’ll get a better sense of the top teams at ESL One after the results of BetBoom Dacha and Games of the Future in Febraury. In the meantime, expect last year’s top teams Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid and Team Spirit to be in the mix. Azure Ray won the last ESL One tournament of 2023, but three members of that team are now with Xtreme Gaming, who are one of the teams invited to this event.

HCS Major 2

Halo

May TBA -- London, United Kingdom

This will be the first HCS Major that will take place in Europe, which should give tournament host Quadrant a boost. We’ll have a better sense of the contenders after the first Major.

League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational

League of Legends

May 1-19 -- Chengdu, China

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

MSI 2024 will take place in May like it usually does after the conclusion of the spring seasons of the regional League of Legends circuits around the globe. Riot Games is returning to China for this event, which makes sense since the country hasn’t hosted MSI since 2016 and Worlds since 2020. Riot announced some changes this year, namely that the winner of MSI will automatically qualify for Worlds and give their region an extra slot at the world championship. Additionally, the second-best performing region also will earn another slot at Worlds for their region. Although Korean teams have won each of the last two world championships, Chinese teams have won MSI each of the past three years. Defending MSI champ JD Gaming figures to be one of the favorites if they qualify as will whichever other teams qualify from China and Korea.

CDL Major 3

Call of Duty

May 16-19 -- Toronto, Canada

Toronto will once again host a CDL Major, and the Toronto Ultra should be a contender to lift a Major trophy at home.

VCT Masters Shanghai

VALORANT

May 23 -June 9 -- Shanghai, China

Riot has announced that the second VALORANT Masters event of the year will take place after the conclusion of the Stage 1 of the VCT regional leagues, which will occur from April through early May. This will be the first VCT event in China with the newest VCT regional league kicking off in China this year. We’ll get a better sense of the potential qualifiers and contenders after the regional kickoffs and Masters Madrid. Fantic won the one and only Masters last year, and EDG was the top Chinese team throughout the year.

OWCS Major

Overwatch 2

May 31 - June 2 - Dallas, United States

Overwatch esports is back! The Overwatch League might be gone, but Blizzard has partnered with the ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) to create the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) for 2024. Overwatch esports will be organized into regional qualifiers in various regions around the world including North America, Europe (EMEA) and Asia that will feed into the OWCS Major that will take place at Dreamhack Dallas. With the dissolution of the Overwatch League, we’ll have to wait and see if orgs begin signing players and teams and who the best teams in the world will be.

Blast Spring Final

Counter-Strike 2

June 12-16 -- London, England

Photo credit: HLTV

Team Vitality beat FaZe Clan in the last Blast final in the fall, and both teams could be in the mix to lift the spring Blast trophy. We’ll have a better sense of the contenders after IEM Katowice and the Copenhagen Major.

CDL Major 4

Call of Duty

June 20-23 -- Charlotte, United States

The newly relocated Royal Ravens will host the final CDL Major of the year. We’ll see who the contenders are after the results of the first three Majors.

RLCS Major 2

Rocket League

June 26-30 -- location TBA

The second Rocket League Major will take place at the end of June. There have been three Majors each of the past two seasons, but only two this year in a revamped season structure. We’ll have a better sense of who the qualifiers and contenders might be after the first Major of the year. European teams like Vitality, BDS and Karmine Corp dominated last year and should be among the contenders if they qualify, but a few North American teams are always in the mix, and strong teams from MENA and South America have emerged in recent years too.

HCS Major 3

Halo

July TBA -- Atlanta, United States

Photo credit: HCS

FaZe’s Call of Duty team represents Atlanta, and the org’s Halo team will be utilizing the city to host the third HCS Major of the year. FaZe are the reigning Halo world champs and won a Major last year too.

CDL Champs

Call of Duty

Location and dates TBA

Photo credit: Call of Duty League

We don’t know the dates or location of CDL Champs this year, but it’ll likely take place in July and/or August. As for a location, Los Angeles has frequently been a host, but Champs was held in Vegas last year. The New York Subliners are the reigning CDL Champs.

VALORANT Champions

VALORANT

Aug. 1-25 -- Seoul, South Korea

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

We don’t yet know when or where VALORANT Champions will be held this year, but August-September is the likely time frame given the cadence of the VALORANT Champions Tour season and Riot Games typically scheduling League of Legends Worlds in October. Evil Geniuses are the defending champions.

IEM Cologne

Counter-Strike 2

Aug. 7-18 -- Cologne, Germany

Next to the Majors and IEM Katowice, IEM Cologne -- known affectionately as the Cathedral of Counter-Strike -- is one of the marquee annual events on the CS calendar. G2 Esports are the defending Cologne champs.

HCS Major 4

Halo

Aug. 24-25 -- Salt Lake City, United States

This Major will be hosted by Spacestation Gaming who were the best Halo team besides OpTic and FaZe last year. Spacestation won the HCS Global Invitational that they hosted last August, and were runners-up at two Majors.

RLCS World Championship

Rocket League

Sept. 10-15 -- location TBA

We’ll have a better sense of the contenders after the results of the two Majors this year. Team Vitality are the reigning world champs.

Blast Fall Final

Counter-Strike 2

Sept. 23-29 -- Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen will get their second big CS event of 2024 with the Blast Fall Final coming to town six months after a Major. Team Vitality are the defending Blast Fall champions.

Halo World Championship

Halo

Oct. 4-6 -- Seattle, United States

FaZe Clan are the defending Halo world champs, and OpTic won the championship in 2022 and was runner-up last year. We’ll see if it’s these two teams vying for the championship this year again or if other teams rise to the occasion.

League of Legends Worlds

League of Legends

Final Nov. 2 in London, England

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

We know the Worlds 2024 final will be at The O2 in London, but we don’t know where the rest of Worlds will take place. It could be in locations across the United Kingdom or perhaps across Europe as was the case in 2019.

T1 are the defending champions. T1 have been one of the top teams in the world the past two years and will be running it back with the same roster in 2024, including legendary player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them at The O2. If not T1, then perhaps another Korean team, and certainly the top Chinese teams will be contenders to lift the Summoner’s Cup in London. In 2019 when Worlds was held in Europe, G2 Esports reached the final. They’re again projected to be one of the top European teams in 2024, but we’ll see if they or another European team have what it takes to make a run on home soil.

Blast World Final

Counter-Strike 2

Nov. 11-17 -- Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Photo credit: HLTV

Abu Dhabi will get the Blast World Final for the third year in a row. Team Vitality are the reigning champs.

OWCS Finals

Overwatch 2

Nov. 22-24 - Stockholm, Sweden

The inaugural season of the OWCS will conclude at Dreamhack Stockholm. While Overwatch League LAN events took place in North American and Asia, European fans will now get to experience a Tier 1 Overwatch competition in the new iteration of Overwatch esports.

Shanghai Major

Counter-Strike 2

Dec. 1-15 -- Shanghai, China

December is typically a quiet month devoid of major esports events, but in 2024 we will get a Counter-Strike Major to close out the year. To add a little extra intrigue, this will be the first Major that will take place in China. Unfortunately for viewers in the region, Asian teams have never been among the top CS teams, but it’ll be fun to see which Asian teams qualify and if they will benefit from a home crowd buff.

Lead photo credit: Ubisoft