BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 will formally kick off the second season of the Counter-Strike calendar, bringing the Tier 1 teams together again for the first time since the IEM Cologne 2026 Major.
Insider Gaming has all the info you need to enjoy the first Tier 1 Counter-Strike 2 event after the player break.
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Schedule and Format
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 will have two distinct stages: an online stage and a LAN Finals. Here’s the full schedule for the event:
- July 21-August 2
- Group stage: July 21-26
- Playoffs: July 30-August 2
The format sees a single-elimination Group Stage give way to a simple eight-team single-elimination bracket:
Group Stage:
- Online Group Stage.
- 32-team single-elimination bracket.
- Wins in the Round of 32 and the Round of 16 qualify the team for the LAN Finals.
- All matches Best-of-3.
Playoffs:
- LAN event.
- Eight-team single-elimination bracket.
- All matches are Bo3, except the Grand Final, which is Best-of-5.
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Teams
The 32 teams competing at BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 are:
- Team Vitality
- Team Falcons
- Team Spirit
- MOUZ
- The MongolZ
- Aurora Gaming
- GamerLegion
- Astralis
- FURIA
- FUT Esports
- G2 Esports
- magic
- paiN Gaming
- FaZe Clan
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Wildcard
- 3DMAX
- Heroic
- Aliiance
- Gentle Mates
- HOTU
- M80
- Sinners Esports
- Team Nemesis
- FOKUS
- Sharks Esports
- Nuclear TigeRES
- Nemiga Gaming
- EYEBALLERS
- Team Liquid
- 100 Thieves
- OG
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Location
While the playoffs for the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 take place at the BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, the Group Stage will be purely online.
Group Stage:
- Online
Playoffs:
- BLAST Arena Studios, Attard, Malta
How to Watch BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 can be watched on BLAST Premier’s channels across platforms on Twitch, YouTube, and BLAST’s own platform:
BLAST Bounty 2026 Season Predictions
BLAST Bounty events are amongst the least predictable events in the Counter-Strike calendar. The events feature teams at varying stages of their preparation in the season, and starts online where Tier 1 teams rarely play.
That means that a few top teams usually miss out on the LAN Finals, such as Vitality in Season 1 of 2025 or NAVI in Season 1 of 2026.
This time, NAVI will worry about early elimination as they will not be playing the event, with Legacy, BetBoom, 9z, and B8 also amongst the teams to miss the event.
Still, the event is in general extremely well-attended, with seven of the eight IEM Cologne 2026 Major Playoffs teams in attendance.
All eyes, therefore, will be looking at that top end, the teams that played out that legendary Cologne bracket, to see if it will play out in a similar way or whether those fine margins will be overturned when the event reaches its LAN stage.
Falcons, Vitality, Spirit, and FURIA are clearly the top four of the event. Without roster changes, they should be able to start the season strong and compete straight away.
For Vitality, it will be a test of whether they can return to their best form and upend a Falcons team that threatens to create their own history as a roster, finally challenging Vitality’s dominance.
Folks at Polymarket believe that Vitality has the edge, with a predicted 38% chance of winning the event. By contrast, Falcons are sitting at a 24% chance alongside Team Spirit.
The odds may be somewhat affected by the absence of Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin from the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 LAN Finals earlier this year, with the Russian suffering Visa issues and the organization having to manage his entries into the Schengen Area carefully.
Elsewhere, the emphasis will be on those teams that did make roster changes, specifically the now English-speaking Aurora roster with the additions of Damjan ‘kyxsan’ Stoilkovski and Jimi ‘Jimpphat’ Salo will be interesting to watch.
Amongst other teams to make changes in the off-season are Liquid, MOUZ, GamerLegion, FUT, and the ever-popular FaZe Clan, whose new 20-year-old AWPer Jason Boe ‘JBOEN’ Nielsen has shown positive signs at the Guangzhou XSE LAN, where FaZe finished 3rd/4th.
However positive each move looks, for those rosters with changes, it’s more about getting reps than winning the tournament, realistically.
So for the ultimate winner, I’m looking for that Vitality vs Falcons rematch, a matchup that Vitality has usually struggled with in the past.
Predicted winner: Vitality
Who do you think will shine or suffer at BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2? You can discuss that and more on our Discord server
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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