BLAST Bounty 2026 S1: Preview
The first S-tier Counter-Strike tournament of 2026 begins tomorrow. BLAST Bounty Season 1 will host a ruthless single-elimination bracket accommodating 32 teams in the first round. The initial couple of rounds will run online before eight teams book their LAN spots. BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals will take place in Malta, starting with the Ro8. BLAST Bounty features a unique system that lets lower seed teams pick their opponent from the upper half.
Each team starts with certain bounties on their heads; the higher the seed- the more bounty the team carries. When a team wins, they secure half of their opponent's bounty as a confirmed cash prize and the other half gets added to their bounty. Here are the opening round's matchups spread across four days:
Match
OG vs FUT
EYEBALLERS vs FaZe
fnatic vs 
Astralis
HOTU vs 
Aurora
Passion UA vs GamerLegion
NRG vs HEROIC Monte vs Natus Vincere Virtus.pro vs Vitality M80 vs 
Gentle Mates Inner Circle vs 
3DMAX Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Liquid ECSTATIC vs Falcons ENCE vs PARIVISION SINNERS vs Spirit BetBoom vs 
paiN 9INE vs FURIA
Date & time (IST)
13/01/2026; 16:30
13/01/2026; 19:00
13/01/2026; 21:30
14/01/2026; 00:00
14/01/2026; 16:30
14/01/2026; 19:00
14/01/2026; 21:30
15/01/2026; 00:00
15/01/2026; 16:30
15/01/2026; 19:00
15/01/2026; 21:30
16/01/2026; 00:00
16/01/2026; 15:30
16/01/2026; 18:00
16/01/2026; 20:30
16/01/2026; 23:00
With the initial couple of rounds set to be held online, The MongolZ and TYLOO have declined their invites. The LAN Finals will take place on 22nd January 2026 in Malta. The event carries a total prize pool of $1.15M USD out of which $650,000 USD is set aside as the club share. To find out how much a team can rack up in bounties head over to BLAST's Bounty Simulatorhttps://blast.tv/cs/bounty-simulator.
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