Key Highlights:
- The META CS2 Cup for Season 3 stars January 3, 2025.
- The match will take place between 8 teams in total.
- It will also be streamed live on multiple channels.
Counter Strike 2 routinely holds a series of tournaments that has made it very popular in the Esports scene. This includes but is not limited to both large and small scale tourneys, of which the META cup remains as one of the more prominent additions.
The META cup returns with Season 3 in Counter Strike 2, and along with prominent sponsors such as Kingston and Logitech. More on the upcoming events, dates and what exactly to expect in the sections below.
META Cup CS2 Season 3 Full Schedule
META Cup’s Counter Strike 2 Season 3 begins starting 3rd January, 2026 and goes on for quite some time. For the uninitiated, the META Cup is technically an offline tourney organized by META Esports Kazakhstan.
A total of eight teams will be invited to these matches, where they will duke it all for a nail biting finale. Prior to the grand final, there will be your usual series of matches followed by a double elimination bracket playoff.
Also Read: All Major Free Games to Look Out for in PlayStation, Xbox & PC This January 2026
All matches in this particular tournament will be done in a Best of Three format, being held at the Meta Arena, in Belarus along with a prize pool of $5000.
With all that in mind, here are all the known scheduled matches taking place starting from January 3, 2026 for the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals:
| Date | Team 1 | Team 2 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 3, 2026 | Betboom Team | Winners Esports | Yet to proceed |
| January 3, 2026 | DEPO | OMG | Yet to proceed |
| January 3, 2026 | HOTU | Altay | Yet to proceed |
| January 3, 2026 | Novaq | ALLINNERS | Yet to proceed |
Where to Watch The META Cup CS2 Season 3 Live
Unfortunately, as of the time of writing this article, Season 3 of the META Cup for CS2 has no live streams in sight. This is likely to change as we approach the day of the matches though, and we should see quite a few streams pop up on the likes of YouTube and Twitch.
Until then, readers are recommended to wait until an update is shared. Stay tuned to this section, which will be updated with more information as soon as it is made available.
What Is Counter Strike 2?
Released back in September 2023 as a PC exclusive on the Steam storefront, Counter Strike 2 is a complete successor to CSGO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive), also serving as its drop in replacement.
The release of CS2 also saw it shift toward a free to play model in order to bolster popularity amongst the masses (after all, CSGO was not a F2P title prior). CS2 is a massive step up over CSGO both in terms of technical and gameplay advancements.
In particular, the Source 2 game engine employed within CS2 makes it quite a fair bit more capable, often at the expense of requiring marginally better PC hardware in order to be able to run it decently enough.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, outside of a few minor tweaks, CS2 is largely the same as CSGO, which is for the best. There is no need to fix what isn’t broken, and CS2 largely thrives on the same principle.
That being said, the release of CS2 was not without controversy. The sudden removal of CSGO wasn’t taken too well by fans, and Valve did suffer a major blow during the transition period.
That being said, CS2 looks like it is here to stay, and Valve is continually updating and optimizing the game for its userbase.
