BLAST introduces new format for Counter-Strike: Bounty

12 January 2026

The first BLAST tournament for Counter-Strike 2, BLAST Bounty Season 1 2026, is about to start. From Tuesday, January 13th 2026, to Sunday, January 18th 2026, 32 of the best Counter-Strike teams in the world will be facing each other online to decide which eight teams will be present for the LAN finals on Malta.
One of the things both players and fans are looking forward to is the continued inclusion of the new Bounty format. BLAST first introduced it back in January 2025 and the international esports tournament organizer is now holding a whole season revolving around it. Simply put, the Bounty format puts a monetary bounty on every participating team, which replaces the traditional prize money distribution based on ranking.

BLAST’s new Bounty format

The new Bounty format does not mean that there is no prize pool guaranteed for BLAST Bounty Season 1 2026. The organizer has announced a prize pool worth $ 500.000 that will be split among the top sixteen teams from the Valve Regional Standings (VRS). That inevitably means that the remaining sixteen teams will not share in the prize pool, but that does not mean they are by definition going home empty-handed.

That is where the Bounties come in or in other words, the prizes that have placed on the “heads” of those previously mentioned best sixteen teams. Team Vitality for example, one of the best Counter-Strike teams in the history of the game, received a Bounty worth $ 60.000 on their heads. This means that their first opponent, Virtus.pro, will win $ 30.000 if they manage to beat Team Vitality. The other $ 30.000 carries forward to the next round with the goal of constantly raising the stakes for the remaining teams as they progress.

Blast Bounties

We mentioned the Bounty that was put on Team Vitality already, but each of the sixteen highest-ranked teams received a similar Bounty:

FURIA: $ 60.000	Team Falcons: $ 60.000	Team Vitality: $ 60.000
Aurora: $ 60.000	Spirit: $ 30.000	Team Liquid: $ 30.000
Natus Vincere: $ 30.000	Astralis: $ 30.000	HEROIC: $ 20.000
3DMAX: $ 20.000	paiN Esports: $ 20.000	FaZe Clan: $ 20.000
Parivision: $ 15.000	Gentle Mates: $ 15.000	GamerLegion: $ 15.000
	FUT Esports: $ 15.000

Counter-Strike innovation

Counter-Strike has been among the most popular and most famous international esports for years now. As a matter of fact, no other esports title distributed more prize money than Counter-Strike throughout the year 2025. One thing the game is not known for though, is innovation in terms of its tournament formats.

“As we entered 2025, we really wanted to create something new and unique for this new era of Counter-Strike”, explains a BLAST spokesperson, “CS calendar is incredibly busy, with lots of events across the year, so we saw Bounty as a great opportunity to create something fresh and unique, offering fans a new tournament experience. At the end of each round, the lower-ranked teams continue choosing their opponents until the Grand Final, where the two remaining teams compete for a chance to lift the trophy.”