ESL Pro League Season 19 – Everything you need to know
32 teams fight for the title and the $750,000 prize pool. We have gathered a list of all the important information that you need to know about the event.
For the 19th time in history, ESL Pro League will take place, when Groups A and B begin on Tuesday. The tournament will be played at the InterContinental Malta Hotel in Saint Julian’s, Malta. For the final stages of the Playoffs from May 10th-12th, the matches will be played in front of a live audience. You can buy tickets for the event here.
These teams participate in ESL Pro League Season 19:
Group A: FaZe, Imperial, Astralis, Eternal Fire, Virtus.pro, Fnatic, 3DMAX, SAW
Group B: Vitality, Sharks, M80, BetBoom, Falcons, TheMongolz, TYLOO, G2
Group C: MOUZ, Bad News Eagles, ENCE, GamerLegion, FURIA, Liquid, FORZE, Monte
Group D: Complexity, PERA, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Heroic, BIG, BOSS, FlyQuest, Natus Vincere
Format of ESL Pro League Season 19:
ESL has moved away from the group stage format that we have seen previously. Now the teams face each other in brackets with an upper, and lower bracket plus a last chance stage bracket as well, which means that every team can lose two matches and still be able to qualify for the playoff stage.
16 teams will play in the playoff stage. The winner of each group qualifies for the quarter-final stage, while the 2nd place finisher of each group is seeded to the second playoff round. The 3rd place finishers and the four winners of the last chance stage brackets will face off in the first playoff round.
Prize pool at ESL Pro League Season 19:
$750,000 is up for grabs at the tournament with $170,000 being handed out to the winners. A spot at the IEM Cologne 2024 tournament is also on the line for the winner.
The secondary prizes vary from $3,500 (29-32nd) to $80,000 for 2nd place at the tournament which will last from April 23rd until May 12th.
Talents at ESL Pro League Season 19
A-stream:
Hosts:
Tres "stunna" Saranthus, Freya "Freya" Spiers
Analysts and commentators:
Jason "moses" O'Toole, Janko "YNk" Paunović, Harry "JustHarry" Russell, Hugo Byron, Henry "HenryG" Greer, Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill, Alex "Machine" Richardson
B-stream:
Neo "Ne0kai" Caine, Harvey "Skriv" Rodgers, Lucy "LucyLuce" Eastwood, Brandon "BDog" Rawlings, Travis "Trav" Landaw Mott
Schedule at ESL Pro League Season 19:
Group A – B: 23rd of April – 28th of April
Group C – D: 30th of April – 5th of May
Playoffs: 7th of May – 12th of May
You can see the complete schedule and also find results here.
Teams to watch at ESL Pro League Season 19:
In Group A we set our eyes on Virtus.pro. With their recent signing of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, VP has made their intentions clear about the future. But how will the former Cloud9 and NAVI star operate under the guidance of Dzhami "Jame" Ali? And will Virtus.pro be the next CIS superteam? We also keep a close eye on both Astralis and Eternal Fire in this group. Can the Danes build on their performances at IEM Chengdu, and what about Eternal Fire? We haven’t seen them in action since their playoff run at the Major.
dupreeh and Magisk are back together once again. The two players have won Major with both Astralis and Vitality.
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen is back in action after he made the move to Falcons, where he has been reunited with both Danny "zonic" Sørensen and Emil "Magisk" Reif. The Saudi-backed team chose experience over the raw firepower, that Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas could provide, and now we will get the first glimpse of the new lineup in action at ESL Pro League. Falcons take on TheMongolz in their opening round.
We have to wait a while before Groups C and D begin. But already now, we have a couple of interesting teams that we are eager to follow. In Group C, FURIA has decided to cut Andrei "arT" Piovezan from the roster and also removed Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira as the acting head coach for the team citing the need for “international intellectuality” in the position.
Ninjas in Pyjamas is another team that is looking internationally in their recruitment. As of this moment, the Swedish Organization is yet to reveal its fifth and final member of the new iteration of the Ninjas. The Ukrainian AWP’er Artem "r1nkle" Moroz seems like a very solid prospect, while the former coach of Heroic, Richard "Xizt" Landström will look to continue his success in the coaching world as the new brain behind NIP. Naturally, the reigning world champions from NAVI will be in focus playing their first matches since the triumph in Copenhagen last month.
Tournament favorites for ESL Pro League Season 19:
FaZe – 3.50
Vitality – 4.00
NAVI – 4.00
G2 – 5.00
MOUZ 5.50
Astralis 8.00
Virtus.pro – 9.00
Eternal Fire – 17.00
Falcons – 21.00
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Bad News Kangaroos – 2501
TYLOO - 2501
