What to Watch in the 2023 Esports Down Time

Most of the major esports have long schedules with tournaments that you’ll see throughout the year. Although, there’s one major period which is often quiet, the esports down time of winter.

Until the spring gets here next year, a lot of big games aren’t having ongoing tournaments running. It’s a time when people speculate is esports dying, despite the distribution of events being roughly the same every year. There are a few reasons for the down time, but this similar schedule tends to pop across titles. If you’re going to be at a loss for something to watch or play, don’t despair.

More and more, there’s increasing events that you can see over the course of the esports down time. It’s the perfect time to jump into a newer game that you might not have tried before. These are some of the biggest that are still running even during the esports down time.

What’s on During the Esports Down Time?

These are some of the bigger events and tournaments that will take place across esports games during the down time this year.

DreamHack Atlanta

Far from closing hop in December, DreamHack is hosting a major event. DreamHack Atlanta will see tournaments take place for fighting games, CoD Mobile World Championship, CS:GO 2’s ESL Challenger event, Fortnite, and more. Quite a few of these events are major instalments during the normal esports down time.

Blast Premier World Final

The Blast Premier World Final for CS:GO is taking place a bit later than a lot of other events, going down in December. This will be a nice change of pace in a quieter month, happening on December 13-17.

Fortnite Chapter 5 Esports Begin

Fortnite’s current season is a flashback to the game’s early days, but FN Chapter 5 is coming in just a few weeks. This new Chapter will launch during the normal esports downtime. As a new Chapter it’s the perfect chance to get involved. We’ll know more about the exact timeline soon, but we’ll see esports events on all levels in December, January, and February. They’ll be entry level tournaments along with their big seasonal tournaments.

Fighting Games

2023 has been a huge year for fighter, quite a few of the biggest titles getting released. There are quite a few events running in otherwise quiet months. The Capcom Cup X will conclude in February. Even in January though we have the Tekken World Tour, Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour, and SNK World Championship taking place.

When is the Epsorts Down Time?

A down time or off-season in esports is a pretty common concept, but when roughly is it? The exact answer will vary a little depending on which game you follow. The majority of titles tend to wrap up their end of year events in October or November though. They often take until Spring the next year to start back up.

Those winter months are roughly when the esports down time is on. However, plenty of titles are doing more to fill the time now. It’s hard to argue is esports dying when even the off-season has tons of tournament.