Here are the Top 5 Esports Games and Tournaments News This Week. The ESL Pro League Season 21 is underway in Sweden, where the best teams fight their way through the Swiss Stage, and the PGL Wallachia Season 3 is about to begin with promising competition among the best Dota 2 teams for a prize pool of $1 million.
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is gaining traction by inviting some of the world’s top chess players. Interestingly enough, Northwood Esports’ Alexia ‘Lexi’ Brown has drawn attention by signing up as a brand ambassador with Corsair, emphasizing the ever-growing overlap of esports and non-endemic brands.
The Madden NFL 25 Championship presented $250,000 to its victor, a sum that exceeds even Super Bowl player payouts and highlights the rising financial stakes involved in esports events.
Top 5 Esports Games and Tournaments News This Week
1. ESL Pro League Season 21 Continues in Sweden
The ESL Pro League Season 21 is ongoing in Stockholm, Sweden, and it is a major event in the calendar for Counter-Strike 2 (CS2).
This season, between March 1 and March 16, 2025, has 24 elite teams playing in a LAN (Local Area Network) format at the ESL Studio.
The tournament will be organized into stages, with a Swiss System for Stage 1 and Stage 2, where the first eight teams in each stage go to the playoffs.
The playoffs will be played on a single-elimination bracket, concluding with a best-of-five grand final on March 17, 2025.
The event has a prize fund of $400,000, with the victor taking home $100,000. In addition to the financial rewards, teams are fighting for coveted VRS points that are important to qualify for ESL Pro Tour (EPT) events in the future.
The winners will also gain an important point in the Grand Slam V race, where the winner gets a cash award of $1,000,000.
The ESL Pro League Season 21 has drawn a varied roster of teams, with big names such as G2 Esports, Team Spirit, and Team Vitality.
The tournament is being streamed on various platforms, including ESL’s Twitch and YouTube channels, to ensure worldwide coverage and participation.
2. PGL Wallachia Season 3 Set to Begin
PGL Wallachia Season 3 is scheduled to start on March 8, 2025, and will continue through March 16, 2025, in Bucharest, Romania, at the PGL Studios.
PGL Wallachia Season 3 is a very awaited Dota 2 tournament with a massive prize pool of $1,000,000 and gathers 16 of the world’s top teams. Among the participating teams are big names like Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, Team Spirit, and OG, among others.
The tournament structure consists of two primary phases: a Swiss System group phase and a double-elimination playoff bracket.
In the group stage, all games are best-of-three, and the top eight teams proceed to the playoffs. Playoffs will be best-of-three as well, with the grand final being a best-of-five game.
The prize distribution for the tournament stands at:
- 1st Place: $300,000
- 2nd Place: $175,000
- 3rd Place: $120,000
- 4th Place: $80,000
- 5th-6th Place: $60,000 each
- 7th-8th Place: $40,000 each
- 9th-11th Place: $20,000 each
- 12th-14th Place: $15,000 each
- 15th-16th Place: $10,000 each.
Also Read: Top 5 Esports Tournaments in March 2025
3. Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Gains Traction Among Top Players
This Chess960 tournament series, co-created by Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner, is looking to popularize Chess960 as a substitute for standard chess by removing heavy opening preparation and theory.
The tour features five main events planned during the year:
- Weissenhaus, Germany (February 7-14): The first stop ended with Vincent Keymer taking the $200,000 first prize13.
- Paris, France (April 7-14): Has a star-studded cast featuring Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Hikaru Nakamura1.
- Karlsruhe, Germany (April 17-21): An independent event with a prize fund of €225,000, with a chance to play in the next Grand Slam event.
- New York, USA (July 17-24)
- Delhi, India (September 17-24)
- Cape Town, South Africa (December 5-12).
Every event is usually preceded by a round-robin stage and then a knockout stage. The Weissenhaus event had a 10-player round-robin with a 10-minute + 10-second increment time control, while the knockout stage had a classical time control of 90 minutes + 30-second increment.
The overall prize money per event differs, with Weissenhaus providing $660,000. The Grand Slam tour points are awarded based on performance, with the highest points accumulator by the end of the year winning the title of Freestyle Chess Champion.
The tour has gained the participation of the world’s best players, including the world’s top five-ranked chess players. Such high-level participation testifies to increasing popularity of Chess960 as a competitive format.
4. Northwood Esports’ Alexia ‘Lexi’ Brown Becomes Corsair Brand Ambassador
Alexia ‘Lexi’ Brown, an elite competitor and content creator with Northwood Esports, has been a new brand ambassador for CORSAIR, one of the top gaming peripheral brands worldwide.
The move is a highlight in Brown’s career, which has seen her being honored for her passion for esports, content creation, and networking within the industry.
As a part of the CORSAIR Partner Program, Brown will work directly with the brand on product releases, model new gaming gear, and participate in creative endeavors.
Her position goes beyond personal branding since she is also the social media and content manager for Northwood Esports, guiding students through media, branding, and esports marketing.
Brown’s path to this partnership started with her internship at Elgato, a CORSAIR-owned company, where she developed skills in videography, product photography, scriptwriting, copywriting, and social strategy.
Her skill at bringing these together into her content and professional relationships impressed CORSAIR’s partnership team, resulting in her being invited to participate in the program.
This partnership not only benefits Brown’s own personal brand but also Northwood Esports’ relationship with big gaming brands.
CORSAIR has been a busy investor in the academic esports scene, donating educational materials and high-end gaming gear, which benefits Northwood Esports and presents new opportunities for future partnerships.
5. Madden NFL 25 Championship Awards Winner $250,000
The ‘Madden NFL 25‘ Championship Series has rewarded its champion a whopping prize of $250,000, beating the pay of Super Bowl players, who received $171,000 each.
The huge financial incentive is evidence of the rising prominence of esports tournaments, especially in the Madden NFL franchise.
The championship is part of the Madden Championship Series (MCS) and comes with a grand prize pool of $1.7 million for the 2024-2025 season, with different tournaments and challenges during the year.
The Madden Bowl 2025 was hosted in London on March 3, 2025, which saw the first time a Madden NFL Championship Series tournament was conducted outside the United States.
The event’s final saw top competitors Jonathan ‘JonBeast’ Marquez and Jacob ‘Fancy’ Worthington qualify after competing online via Challengermode competitions.
The tournament featured a prize pool of $400,000 with the winner getting $250,000 and the runner-up receiving $150,000. The tournament was streamed on EA’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
As we conclude this week’s gaming and esports news, we encourage you to continue reading for more thrilling updates and information on the gaming world.
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Whether you’re looking for the latest esports competitions, new game launches, or upcoming trends, thetop5games.com is your one-stop shop for everything gaming.
