We have taken a look at the new iteration of the ESL Pro League that will run the next month.
Tournament: ESL Pro League Season 18
Date: 30/8 – 1/10, 2023
Prize pool: $850,000
Venue: InterContinental Malta
Tournament structure: Eight teams in four groups. Four teams advance to the playoff stage from each group. The group winner qualifies directly for the Quarter-Finals. The second-placed team qualifies for the 2nd Playoff Round. 3rd and 4th placed teams face each other in the 1st Playoff Round.
Group A:
(30/8-3/9)
Vitality vs ORKS
FURIA vs Movistar Riders
Grayhound vs GamerLegion
Group B:
(6/9-10/9)
Heroic vs Rooster
Evil Geniuses vs ENCE
Group C:
(13/9-17/9)
Imperial vs Fnatic
Apeks vs M80
Natus Vincere vs 5yclone
Group D:
(20/9-24/9)
Complexity vs 9INE
G2 vs Lynn Vision
Tournament favorites according to bookmakers:
Favorites: Team Vitality, G2, ENCE
Outsiders: Heroic, Cloud9
Dark horses: FaZe, Astralis, NAVI, Virtus.pro
Talents:
Hosts:
Tres “stunna” Saranthus
Freya “Freya” Spiers
Casters:
Harry “JustHarry” Russell
Hugo “Hugo” Byron United
Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
Alex “Machine” Richardson
Jason “moses” O’Toole
Adam “Dinko” Hawthorne
Henry “HenryG” Greer
Conner “Scrawny” Girvan
Geordie “Mac” McAleer
James “BARDOLPH” Bardolph (B-stream)
Alex “hawka” Hawkins (B-stream)
Analysts:
Mathieu “Maniac” Quiquerez
Janko “YNk” Paunović
Jacob “Pimp” Winneche
Who are ORKS, M80, and 5yclone?
As always we have new teams to watch out for in the ESL Pro League. With 32 teams in the competition, we are bound to learn some new names along the way.
ORKS
: With four players from Poland and one from Estonia, ORKS is one of the unknown quantities at the ESL Pro League Season 18. Starplayer is Łukasz “mwlky” Pachucki. The team was created on July 10th, 2023, and is still looking for a sponsor. The team qualified for the Pro League by winning the European qualifier, besting teams such as SAW and Bad News Eagles. The team is ranked #52 in the world.
M80
is also a new team on the tournament circuit. On July 15th, 2023 the team was established with three Americans, a Dane, and a Guatemalan on the team, this is definitely a new constellation that we have never seen before. M80 is an American Organization with teams in VALORANT, Rainbow Six, and Rocket League. The in-game leader is Marcus “maNkz” Kjeldsen, while the two star players on the team are Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa and Michael “Swisher” Schmid. M80 currently looks like the second-best team in North America after recently beating Evil Geniuses. They are ranked #49 in the world.
5yclone:
The former Rare Atom team is now called 5yclone. The team is without an organization at the moment. In-game leader Liang “advent” Zhuo has a couple of hard-hitting riflers in Yang “JamYoung” Yi and Wang “Mercury” Jingxiang to control, while AWP’er Andrew “kaze” Khong is also a dangerous card on their hand. The Asian team is off to a tough start at the event facing NAVI in the opening round.
Where can you watch the ESL Pro League?
The matches from the ESL Pro League will be broadcast on Twitch. You can see the matches via these channels:
