The ESL tournament decided not to delay and officially rolled out an announcement — now all upcoming cuts in the framework of the ESL Pro Tour will be held on the latest CS2 patch from January 21, 2026. Starting right from the current qualifications for IEM Rio 2026, absolutely all events — both online and on lan — are moving to the updated version of Anubis.
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New meta and jumps: What awaits the pro scene
Interestingly, as early as January 22, the teams officially began to knead on the updated Anubis layout, getting used to the redesigned jumping mechanics at the same time. Valve, along the way, decided to shake up the balance, because MP7 and MP5-SD have become significantly more deadly — now these pharma can really turn the economy of rounds around. Let’s just say that the update itself arrived exactly on the day of the start of the selections at IEM Rio, where Fnatic and the British Columbia team had already tried their luck — the latter, to be honest, flew off in the very first round. Of the 16 teams, only 2 lucky ones will get quotas for the April main event, so the stakes are exorbitant.
Krakow is under the gun and the conflict with BLAST
The transition to the new build will affect not only qualifiers, but also Tier 1 heavyweight tournaments, primarily the IEM in Krakow, which will take place from January 28 to February 8. Interestingly, ESL was a pioneer here, while the guys from BLAST, on the contrary, preferred to stay on the old beta version for their second week of BLAST Bounty. In fact, viewers won’t see the new Anubis on BLAST broadcasts, which creates a rather strange contrast in the ecosystem. It seems that unity in competitive CS2 is still an unattainable thing.
ESL Professional Tour in 2026
The ESL calendar for this season looks wildly tight, confirming their status as the kings of the industry. The 2026 season starts in Krakow, where 24 top roasters will play for an impressive jackpot of $ 1 million, which is, for a second, about 744,463 pounds.
They are waiting for us ahead:
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The 23rd and 24th seasons of the ESL Pro League;
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Major IEM stops in Atlanta, Rio, China and the legendary Cologne;
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The final chord is the 24th major in Cologne, scheduled for June.
Actually, ESL’s rush to upgrade to a new patch is a great test of flexibility for pro players. It should be taken into account without explanation: whoever adapts to the modified Anubis faster will take the trophies. Everything is very meaningful — the fastest one survives.
