Franchising is over.

Alright, not just yet. It’ll be in 2025, but the exciting news is that the ESL/BLAST dichotomy might be broken completely.

PGL - and not long after, StarLadder - declared that they’re looking to come back, and the tournament schedule you can find here for 2025 looks CRAZY. Event after event, after event.

It should, of course, be remembered that not every team will be at every event; some of the ESL tournaments will be ESL Challengers, for example, and Vitality won’t be at those.

Unless something goes really, really wrong.

It does seem to suggest that the RMRs might be going, as there’s no space for them. This isn’t something we noticed all by ourselves - we’re not that smart - but once Richard Lewis hinted at it, we put our few brain cells together to recognise they weren’t on the schedule.

Similarly, it might put an end to the five-week ESL Pro League that - frankly - is a bit of a snoozefest. If we’re swapping out Pro League for StarLadder events, RMRs for ranking-based invites, and the same talent for a wider variety, it could be a wonderful time for Counter-Strike.

Richard Lewis himself seems quite likely to come back and play a big part in Counter-Strike after his welcome return to the desk, and Vince and Frankie might find themselves an open door now after ESL’s vice-grip on the scene is loosened.

Hell yeah.