Counter-Strike 2 to be part of the Esports Nations Cup

Counter-Strike 2 has been officially announced as a title for the Esports Nations Cup, which will take place later in 2026, in the month of November. The CS2 event at the Esports Nations Cup will take place between November 10, 2026 and November 15, 2026 with a total prize pool of $1,320,000. The tournament will be a national team tournament that will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The tournament is set to be a VRS ranked event, Tier-2, and will see a total of 24 teams participate, with 96 national qualifiers and 10 regional qualifiers set to be held. The national team rosters should have players of the same citizenship and for the teams in the VRS rankings as of the cut-off date of June 1, and no more than three players from the same VRS-ranked team should be registered on a single national team.

The tournament will follow a two-stage qualifier that will take place from July 6-19, using a newly created CS2 National Team Ranking system to identify eligible nations. The CS2 National Team Ranking system will be used to determine which countries and territories will feature a national qualifier, and to seed teams in the qualifiers. It is based on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) that award points to clubs. It will be the CS2 National Team Ranking that will accumulate the points for the five-man roster with the cut-off date for the ranking being June 1, 2026. The nations and rosters that aren't covered through the VRS Ranking, FACEIT Elo points will be used to identify and seed them.

The first stage will consist of 96 national qualifiers held worldwide, with each qualifier featuring 32 to 64 national rosters competing to become their designated national team. The 96 winners of the national qualifiers will advance to the second stage, which will have 10 regional qualifiers, where only the top 24 national teams will earn a spot at the main event.

The tournament will see the team divided into four groups of six teams following a round robin BO1 format. The top 16 teams will then advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket, which will be a BO5 format.

National qualifiers will feature a single elimination bracket, and will run in the following regions:

• North America (8 National Qualifiers)

• South America (8 National Qualifiers)

• Western Europe (16 National Qualifiers)

• Eastern Europe (16 National Qualifiers)

• Middle East + Central Asia (16 National Qualifiers)

• North Africa (4 National Qualifiers)

• South + Central Africa (8 National Qualifiers)

• South + East Asia (8 National Qualifiers)

• Southeast Asia (8 National Qualifiers)

• Oceania (4 National Qualifiers)

The Regional Qualifiers meanwhile will have a double-elimination bracket and will confirm which teams qualify to the team event. They will be divided in the following regions:

• North America (3 slots)

• South America (3)

• Western Europe (4)

• Eastern Europe (4)

• Middle East + Central Asia (3)

• North Africa (1)

• South + Central Africa (1)

• South + East Asia (2)

• Southeast Asia (2)

• Oceania (1)

The qualifier dates for the Asian and Oceania regions are as follows: