Recently, it has been discovered that the title of Intel Grand Slam is now only called ESL Grand Slam. Although the official broadcasting of the ESL Pro League Season 21 still uses the old name, the graphics in the final have reflected this change. It is worth noting that ESL has not made any official statement about this change.

In February this year, ESL and Intel announced the extension of cooperation for many years, with the press release still using the name Intel Grand Slam V. However, to Iem Katowice 2025, the official documents still retain the old name, but to the ESL Pro League Season 21, the name Intel Grand Slam has disappeared. This is the first sign that may change in the cooperation between Intel and ESL. Although the Intel Extreme Masters series (IEM) retains the sponsor, the current Grand Slam title is no longer associated with the Intel brand.

What changes and why is this important?

The official ESL Grand Slam has been established on the organizers' website, and the graphics in the ESL Pro League Season 21 final also reflects this change. However, the old name still appears in the broadcast and ticker, showing that this may be a sudden change decision.

Currently, there is no information confirming whether this name change is related to the sponsorship contract with Intel has expired, or this is simply a step in ESL's brand repositioning strategy. It is important to note that Intel is still the main partner of the IEM tournament series, but eliminating the name of Intel from the Grand Slam title may be the first step towards larger changes.

Source: ESL

Will Intel continue to comprehensively cooperate with ESL? Or is the CS2 community about to witness major changes in Esports ecosystem? The answer may be clarified at the upcoming tournaments such as ESL Pro League Season 22 or the next IEM events.