ESL Pro League

ESL Pro League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event ESL Pro League Season 8
Sport Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Founded May 4, 2015 (2015-05-04)
No. of teams 54
Countries International
Headquarters Cologne, Germany
Most recent
champion(s)		 Denmark Astralis
(1st title)
Most titles Sweden Fnatic
(2 titles)
TV partner(s)
Official website EPL English website

ESL Pro League (formerly ESL ESEA Pro League; shortened as EPL) is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) professional league based in two continents, North America and Europe, currently compromising 26 teams: 14 in Europe and 12 in North America. The EPL is considered to be the premier professional CS:GO league in the world (along with FACEIT's Esports Championship Series) and one of the major professional leagues in eSports. The ESL Pro League began as a venture between ESL (formerly Electronic Sports League) and E-Sports Entertainment Association League (ESEA). Its inaugural season started on May 4, 2015.[1]

History

In early November 2014, the German-based Electronic Sports League announced the creation of the ESL Pro League as the European ESL league. On April 28th, 2015, ESL announced a joint venture with the North American-based E-Sports Entertainment Association League to provide a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league with 500,000 USD in total prize money in the first season between two continents. Since then, it has expanded to fourteen teams per region and raised its prize pool to 1,000,000 USD and has two season per year.[2] ESL rose the prize pool once more by making the teams fight for $1,000,000 in the Finals, raising the season prize pool by $250,000. In addition, the number of teams in the finals rose to sixteen, with more teams from regions other than North American and Europe participating in the Finals.[3][4][5]

Format

The first season featured twelve teams from each continent that were invited by ESL to participate in its inaugural season that started on May 4, 2015 with Team Dignitas defeating Titan.[6] In the first three seasons, the EPL gave the top four teams in each league a ticket to the finals on an offline (LAN) tournament. Starting with Season 4, ESL decided to expand the Pro League to 28 teams, so that there would be fourteen teams per league. This also meant that six teams from each region would qualify for the offline finals. For each regular season, teams would play every team twice in its respective league, so that each team played twenty-two games for the first three seasons and twenty-four games from season four to season seven. However, in Season 7, two teams – Counter Logic Gaming and Misfits – dropped their rosters and forfeited their Pro League licenses, reducing the number of North American teams to twelve. Also in season 7, ESL decided to expand geographically by creating the Asia-Pacific and LA LEAGUE (South America) divisions, bumping the number of teams up from 24 to 40.[7]

The first three offline finals had eight teams, in which teams were split up into two groups of four in a double-elimination, GSL group format and two teams from each group qualified for the playoffs. The playoffs featured four teams, with the semifinals being a best of three and the finals being a best of five. Starting from season four to season six, teams were split up into two groups of six and each team would play every team in its group once for the group stage. Three teams from each group qualified for the playoffs. The round of 6 and the semifinals are best of three series and the finals area best of five, with the exception of season four, in which the finals were a best of three. In season seven, with the EPL expansion, the number of teams went up to sixteen.

ESL Pro League also features a promotion and relegation stage, in which the worst performing team in each league after each season is relegated to ESEA's Premier Division (Mountain Dew League) while the best team from the Premier Division is promoted to the Pro League. In addition, the next two worst performing teams by the end of the Pro League Season and the next two best teams in the Premier Division play out a double elimination bracket to fight for two spots in the following season's Pro League while the other two would play in the Premier Division.

Unlike Valve Major tournaments, such as 2013 DreamHack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Championship or MLG Major Championship: Columbus, in which team slots are given based on the player rosters, ESL awards spots to the organization. For instance, Valve would consider SK Gaming to have won two Major championships, as the players (FalleN, fer, coldzera, fnx, TACO) won one at MLG Columbus 2016 while under contract with Luminosity Gaming and won another at ESL One Cologne 2016 while under contract with SK Gaming. In addition, if the majority of the roster transfers to another team, Valve would give take away the spot from the old team and give it to the team that the core of the roster headed to. At ESL One Katowice 2015, PENTA Sports made it to the top eight at the tournament, giving the players a guaranteed spot at the next major, ESL One Cologne 2015; however, players denis, Spiidi, and nex were bought out by mousesports, thus giving mousesports PENTA Sports's spot at Cologne 2015 as the majority of PENTA moved to the mousesports team. EPL would consider Luminosity Gaming, which won Season 3, to have one title and SK Gaming, which won Season 6, to also have just one title. However, a team is allowed to sell or simply give its Pro League license to another organization, as in the case of Tempo Storm transferring its roster to the Immortals organization for Season 4.

Teams

Europe North America China Southeast Asia Oceania South America India
Poland AGO Esports
Denmark Astralis United States Cloud9
Germany BIG compLexity Gaming
European Union FaZe Clan United States eUnited China CyberZen Thailand Beyond Esports Australia Chiefs eSports Club Brazil Imperial e-Sports
Sweden Fnatic United States Ghost Gaming China EHOME Singapore B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape Australia Grayhound Gaming Argentina Isurus Gaming
France G2 Esports Brazil INTZ eSports China Flash Gaming Indonesia EXECUTIONERS Australia Ground Zero Gaming Brazil Santos e-Sports India 2ez Gaming
European Union HellRaisers Brazil Luminosity Gaming South Korea GOSU Malaysia FrostFire Australia Legacy Esports Brazil Sharks Esports India OpTic India
Denmark Heroic Brazil MIBR South Korea MVP PK Thailand Lucid Dream Australia madlikewizards Brazil Team Wild India Slaughter Rage Army
European Union mousesports United States NRG eSports Japan SCARZ Absolute Indonesia Recca Esports Australia ORDER Brazil W7M Gaming India Team Brutality
Ukraine Natus Vincere Australia Renegades China TyLoo Thailand Signature Gaming Australia Paradox Gaming United Nations TBD
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas United States Rogue China ViCi Gaming Philippines TNC Pro Team New Zealand Tainted Minds United Nations TBD
Denmark North United States Team EnVyUs
Turkey Space Soldiers Team Liquid
Bulgaria Windigo Gaming

Notable former teams

Former teams that are noteworthy are listed below. "Inactive" indicates the team is not active in the Counter-Strike scene, but the team is active in other eSports. "Defunct" indicates the team shut down operations due to any reason, such as financial issues. "Premier League" simply means that the team is in the division under the Pro League (Mountain Dew League). FlipSid3 Tactics became the first team that took part in an EPL season to be demoted to the Main Division, which is the division under the Premier League.

Team Last appearance Status
Denmark Team SoloMid Season 2 Inactive
France Titan Season 2 Defunct
Commonwealth of Independent States FlipSid3 Tactics Season 3 Main Division
Germany PENTA Sports Season 4 Inactive
United States Echo Fox Season 5 Inactive
United States Selfless Gaming Season 5 Defunct
New Zealand Winterfox Season 5 Inactive
Poland Virtus.pro Season 5 Premier League
United States Counter Logic Gaming Season 6 Inactive
United States Misfits Season 6 Inactive
Sweden GODSENT Season 6 Defunct

Seasons

The list of seasons and the top two teams in each season are in shown below. The number next to the teams shows what positions they placed during the regular season in their respective leagues.

No. Location Winner Runner-up Score Ref
1 Germany Cologne Sweden Fnatic (EU 1) United States Cloud9 (NA 1) 3-1 [8]
2 United States Burbank Sweden Fnatic (EU 2) Commonwealth of Independent States Natus Vincere (EU 3) 3-2 [9]
3 United Kingdom London Brazil Luminosity Gaming (NA 1) France G2 Esports (EU 4) 3-2 [10]
4 Brazil São Paulo United States Cloud9 (NA 1) Brazil SK Gaming (NA 3) 2-1 [11]
5 United States Dallas France G2 Esports (EU 2) Denmark North (EU 1) 3-1 [12]
6 Denmark Odense Brazil SK Gaming (NA 2) European Union FaZe Clan (EU 3) 3-1 [13]
7 United States Dallas Denmark Astralis (EU 6) Team Liquid (NA 1) 3-1 [14]
8 Denmark Odense United Nations TBD United Nations TBD [15]

Other Leagues

ESL also has two other leagues outside of Counter-Strike. Its Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is currently in its seventh season with its finals taking place in Atlantic City. PENTA Sports has the most titles with three as the team won the Year 1 Season 1, Year 2 Season 1, and the Year 2 Season 2 titles. In addition to Rainbow Six Siege league, ESL also has a Halo league. However, the two leagues are much less prominent than the Counter-Strike league as Rainbow Six only has a $248,000 prize pool compared to CS:GO's $1,000,000 prize pool.

References

  1. ↑ "ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ "World's largest Counter-Strike league to be hosted by ESL and ESEA". ESL Gaming. April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ Mira, Luis (February 20, 2018). "ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals expanded to 16 teams". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ Steiner, Dustin (February 20, 2018). "ESL Pro League Returns to Dallas for $1 Million Finals". Unikrn. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ Schulze, Ulrich (February 20, 2018). "Ulrich Schulze on Twitter: The expansion to 16 teams for #ESLProLeague finals comes with geographical expansion. More details on that soon". Twitter. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Titan vs. Dignitas". HLTV.org. May 4, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  7. ↑ Villanueva, Jamie (February 11, 2018). "Misfits and CLG back out of the ESL Pro League". Dot eSports. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  8. ↑ "ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ "ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  11. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  12. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  13. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  14. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ "ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
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