Valve, the developer of Counter Strike who contributes huge prize pool amounts two two major competitions each year, is looking to host its next Major in the fall of 2021, instead of Spring. This'll mean at most, only a single major next year is likely.

Usually speaking, a Major is held each year, in the spring and fall, however neither of these occured last year due to the pandemic, which means by the time the next one is even due, there'll have been a huge 18 month gap between the events.

The initial plan, laid out by Valve in 2019 in which they released the planned schedule of dates for the next handful of events, was to host the spring event in May, over a two week period spanning the 10th, to the 23. Following on from the also cancelled ESL One Rio, which was to be 2020s Fall Major, also cancelled.

Valve's decision is surely based upon the coronavirus pandemic. Which has forced many esports events in 2020 to be cancelled, including two majors and a near complete sweep of large events to be held online or at minimum occur without an audience, including the highly acclaimed ESL One Cologne & IEM Katowice events in 2020. The pandemic continues to be a looming force across the planet, and is still a growing issue across some countries on the globe. In September, the game developer announced that it would not be scheduling Majors until, at a minimum, Regional Major Ranking events, on LAN, are safe to hold where they need to be held.

This means the next dates for a Major are likely to be October 25th to November the 7th in 2021. There may or may not be a play-in event, scheduled for October 23rd & 24th. However Valve have stressed it must be completely safe for teams to participate in a LAN event, as well of, of course, safe for audiences too.

The proposed venues and locations released, suggest the next Major shall occur in Europe, which would, unusually, make it the fourth in a row to be held in that continent. After London, Katowice & Berlin Majors over 2018 & 2019.