ESL Pro League Season 21 is almost here, marking a huge milestone for one of ESL’s premier CS2 events. It promises over two weeks of intense Counter-Strike action, with 24 of the best CS2 teams in the world descending upon Stockholm’s ESL Studio between March 1st – 16th to fight for a prize pool of $400,000.
You can watch all of ESL Pro League Season 21 from the official ESL Twitch channel, found below:
Compared to previous iterations of the event, ESL Pro League Season 21 makes a big change to the formula that fans have come to expect over the last few years. Gone are the four Groups of old, with ESL Pro League instead opting for two Swiss groups to determine who makes it to the Playoffs.
ESL Pro League Season 21’s format is as follows:
Ahead of ESL Pro League Season 21, ESL has confirmed all of the teams competing in the event. These are:
Credit: ESL
16 teams have been invited to Stage 1 of the event. The top eight will join the Stage 2 invited teams, making another 16-team Swiss group stage before the Playoffs. The full list of Stage 1 and 2 invited teams can be found below:
Stage 1 Teams
Stage 2 Teams
Notably, FaZe Clan refused an invite to the event.
Credit: Helena Kristiansson | ESL
NAVI come into ESL Pro League Season 21 as reigning champions. It wasn’t the last trophy they won as a team together (that would be IEM Rio), but the team have undoubtedly undergone a downward trend since then. NAVI need to use ESL Pro League as a stepping stone to a successful period in 2025, else they risk this trend becoming permanent for this roster. Personally, I reckon we’ll see a rejuvenated NAVI here.
Overall though, I’m still placing Team Spirit as my favorites to win this CS2 tournament. There will be a fire to this team after losing the IEM Katowice 2025 Final in such poor fashion to Team Vitality, and I just can’t imagine a situation where donk and co. don’t look to make a statement on their return to the server. Remember, Spirit skipped out on PGL Cluj-Napoca, giving them time to get their ideas together for this event.
Last, don’t sleep on Falcons. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from this roster so far, and they appear to be progressing at a much faster rate than I expected. They’re pretty interesting underdogs, especially playing in the studio environment. You’d be surprised how much impact a big stage can make, even on great players.
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