The eighth season of ESL Pro is scheduled to begin today across two different continents with 26 professional teams ready to compete for a spot in the Grand Finals.
League Format
Being arguably the largest CS:GO tournament in terms of scale, the ESL Pro League is split across several continents, namely Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, and Asia. The European and North American tournaments begin today, while the Oceanian and Asian ones will take place later in October.
The first stage of the tournament will come in the form of the Online Round-Robin League Format. The games will be played online, rather than at a physical location. According to this format, every team will play against all others in two best-of-one matches. For every match won a team will receive points. A standard match will award 3 points, whereas a game that goes into overtime will award 2 points to the winner and 1 point to the losing team. The rankings will be determined based on the whole number of points at the end of the tournament.
The top seven European teams will advance to the Grand Finals, while the top eleven will be directly invited to Season 9. The bottom teams will be relegated, with the worst performing team being directly sent to ESEA Premier.
The top six North American teams will get to participate in the Grand Finals, with the top nine eligible to participate in Season 9. Teams placed 10th and 11th will be sent to relegation, while the 12th team being relegated to ESEA Premier.
Participating Teams
A combined total of 26 teams will participate in North American and European tournament. These will be separated into two leagues based on the continent from which they originate. More specifically, the list of teams include:
| Europe | North America |
|---|---|
| Astralis | Cloud9 |
| FaZe Clan | Ghost Gaming |
| Fnatic | Team Liquid |
| G2 Esports | Luminosity Gaming |
| HellRaisers | MIBR |
| Heroic | NRG Esports |
| mousesports | Renegades |
| Natus Vincere | Rogue |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | INTZ eSports |
| North | eUnited |
| Space Soldiers | compLexity Gaming |
| BIG | Team Envy |
| AGO Esports | – |
| Windigo Gaming | – |
Grand Finals
The ESL Pro League Finals will take place once all five leagues have played through their respective tournaments. The event is staged for 4 December and will run until 9 December. The prize pool for the tournament is $750,000, of which $250,000 will go to the first place winner, $110,000 to second place, $55,000 to third and fourth place each, with the remainder being split among the other lower ranking teams.
The tournament will be held in the Sparekassen Fyn Arena in Odense, Denmark and will be streamed online. The 16 competing teams will be seeded based on the results of the continental leagues. More specifically:
- 7x European Teams
- 6x North American Teams
- 1x Oceanian Team
- 1x Asian Team
- 1x South American Team
