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ESL Pro League

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ESL Pro League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event ESL Pro League Season 9
File:ESL Pro League 2019 v2.png
SportCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
FoundedMay 4, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-05-04)
Owner(s)Electronic Sports League
(ESL)
No. of teams48
CountriesInternational
HeadquartersCologne, Germany
Most recent
champion(s)		United States Team Liquid
(1st title)
Most titlesSweden Fnatic
Denmark Astralis
(2 titles)
TV partner(s)
Official websiteEPL English website

ESL Pro League (formerly ESL ESEA Pro League; shortened as EPL) is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional league. It is based on two continents, North America and Europe, and currently comprises 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] This was later for season 9 changed to four regions as North America and South America were integrated into one region. In addition, the Europe and Americas region features offline group play. Season 9 featured eight teams from Europe, six teams from the Americas, one team from Asia, and one team from the Oceania region.[8]

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 the Valve-sponsored CS:GO Major Championships, 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 Americas Asia Oceania
France ex-3DMAX United States Cloud9
Poland Aristocracy United States compLexity Gaming
Denmark Astralis United Nations Denial Esports
Germany BIG Brazil DETONA Gaming
European Union FaZe Clan United States eUnited China 5Power Gaming Australia Athletico Esports
Sweden Fnatic United States Ghost Gaming Thailand ALPHA Red Australia Avant Gaming
France G2 Esports Colombia Infinity Esports Singapore B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape Australia Breakaway Esports
European Union HellRaisers Brazil INTZ eSports India Entity Gaming Australia Chiefs Esports Club
Denmark Heroic Argentina Isurus Gaming Thailand Lucid Dream Australia Grayhound Gaming
European Union mousesports United States Lazarus Gaming South Korea MVP PK Australia Ground Zero Gaming
Ukraine Natus Vincere Brazil Luminosity Gaming China TyLoo Australia ORDER
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas Brazil MIBR China ViCi Gaming Australia Paradox Gaming
Denmark OpTic Gaming United States NRG Esports
Denmark North Australia Renegades
Turkey ex-Space Soldiers United States Team Envy
Bulgaria Windigo Gaming United States Team Liquid

Notable former teams

Former teams that are noteworthy are listed below. The country beside the team name was the nationality of the last players fielded by the team before being out of Pro League. "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 Division," also known as the Mountain Dew League, means that the team is in the division under the Pro 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 Division.

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 Division
United States Counter Logic Gaming Season 6 Inactive
United States Misfits Season 6 Inactive
Sweden GODSENT Season 6 Defunct
Brazil SK Gaming Season 7 Inactive

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 [9]
2 United States Burbank Sweden Fnatic (EU 2) Commonwealth of Independent States Natus Vincere (EU 3) 3-2 [10]
3 United Kingdom London Brazil Luminosity Gaming (NA 1) France G2 Esports (EU 4) 3-2 [11]
4 Brazil São Paulo United States Cloud9 (NA 1) Brazil SK Gaming (NA 3) 2-1 [12]
5 United States Dallas France G2 Esports (EU 2) Denmark North (EU 1) 3-1 [13]
6 Denmark Odense Brazil SK Gaming (NA 2) European Union FaZe Clan (EU 3) 3-1 [14]
7 United States Dallas Denmark Astralis (EU 6) Team Liquid (NA 1) 3-1 [15]
8 Denmark Odense Denmark Astralis (EU 1) Team Liquid (NA 3) 3-1 [16]
9 France Montpellier United States Team Liquid France G2 Esports 3-1 [17]
10 Denmark Odense

Other Leagues

ESL also has two other leagues outside of Counter-Strike. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is currently in its ninth season with its finals taking place in Milan, Italy. G2 Esports has the most titles with four as the team won the Year 1 Season 1, Year 2 Season 1, Year 2 Season 2, and Season 8 titles. In addition to the 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. ^ Burazin, Zvonimir (December 18, 2018). "ESL INTRODUCES OFFLINE PRO LEAGUE GROUP MATCHES IN EU, NA". HLTV.org. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  9. ^ "ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  10. ^ "ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  11. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  12. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  13. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  14. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  15. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  16. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  17. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
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