ESL Pro League Season 15 – Teams, Format, Schedule and Favorites
EPL Season 15 kicks off on March 9th. An all new format and teams will battle for a prize purse of $850,000.
ESL Pro League is one of the highest level global competitive leagues in CS:GO. It features the best teams from Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania battling for the coveted ESL Pro League Trophy. Pro League is a bi-yearly event with one season reserved for Spring and one for Fall of each competitive year.
ESL Pro League Season 15 Format & Teams
Starting in 2022, ESL has made changes to the competitive format of the league. We still have the standard 24 teams in the League, but ESL introduced the ESL Conference as a qualifying phase into the event, on top of the standard ESEA Premier Regional League invites. Last year, ESL Gaming also expanded their partner team list to 14 up from 12. The change means that less team get invites to the event through World Rankings placements.
The teams in attendance in Season 15 are: Astralis, BIG, Complexity, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, FURIA, G2 Esports, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Liquid, Vitality, Gambit, Heroic, Virtus.pro, Entropiq, AGO, Party Astronauts, LookingForOrg, Movistar Riders, GODSENT & Sprout.
*Initially Extra Salt qualified for this event, but after the roster was fully acquired by Complexity, their slot was given to Sprout.
The teams are divided into four groups of six teams. They will play a single round-robin Group Stage before the top three teams in each group advance forward. We discuss each Group and its participants below.
Group A
The kick-off group features G2 Esports as the main favorite, and Ninjas in Pyjamas as a close second. The rest of the group is up in the air in terms of placements, especially Fnatic and MOUZ who are likely to struggle against qualifier teams Entropiq and LFT. When IEM Katowice performance into consideration, Fnatic should be a clear third in this group. Yet, they recently announced the benching of Owen “smooya” Butterfield, meaning they will likely play EPL with a stand-in. How the new player will impact their performance is debatable.
Group B
Fashioned the Group of Death, Group B has four heavy hitters jam packed into a single group. Every team except ENCE is formidable here. Yes, we are not sleeping on Sprout even. Between Virtus.Pro, FURIA, FaZe Clan and Vitality it is hard to choose a clear favorite, especially since each team can cleanly win maps off either opponent.
In terms of CSGO betting, this is the hardest group to gauge on predict. Our analysis will have to work overtime when Group B kicks off.
Group C
Unlike the previous group, Group C is done and dusted for Gambit Esports. They will find little in the way of opposition in their EPL group. On the other hand, deciding who is 2nd and 3rd in this group becomes a tad more problematic. Both BIG and Liquid have the rankings on their side, yet both teams have been struggling to gain momentum this season. Do not be surprised if Movistar Riders and Godsent suddenly have a great showing here.
Group D
Season favorite Natus Vincere will try to make a clean sweep in the final EPL group. Two Danish rosters in Heroic and Astralis and two NA rosters in Complexity and Evil Geniuses will have to decide amongst each other which two teams will join NaVi out of Group D. The top and bottom of the group are already “pre-decided” it now comes down to an EU vs NA battle for the rest.
Betting on ESL Pro League Season 15
Here are several key points before you place your ESL Pro League Season 15 bets. The tournament is rated as Masters level event, meaning there will be more then the usual betting markets. Live betting, specific in-match objectives and exotic bets are available to tipster. Furthermore, as an event following up soon after IEM Katowice, there is plenty of info to go around about each participating team and their playstyle. Both of these factors combined with our ESL Pro League Season 15 Betting Guide should help you create some interesting betting slips. Finally, our Esports News section contains information on each previous event and tournament played by each of the participants.
We will try to provide you with predictions for each set of Group Stage matches days in advance.
Watch ESL Pro League Season 15 Live:
You can watch all of the matches played at ESL Pro League Season 15 live on the official ESL CSGO Twitch Channel.
ESL Pro League Season 14
Season 14 featured $750,000 USD in prize money and points for both ESL Pro Tour and BLAST Premier circuit. The World’s best 24 teams were in attendance, with some of the most titled organizations ever present.
ESL Pro League Season 14 Format & Teams
The online event features 24 teams, 12 of whom are permanent partner teams, while rest receive invites based on the ESL Global Rankings or through the ESEA Leagues.
The teams are divided into four groups of 6 and play out a single round-robin format schedule before the top three teams advance further and bottom three are eliminated. Top performers in each group are either placed in the quarter or semifinals, while the remaining two teams from each group play out a Round of 12 single elimination bracket.
The entire event lasts four weeks in total, with three weeks reserved for the group stage and one week for Playoffs.
ESL S14 Teams
The 12 permanent partner teams are: Astralis, Compelxity, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, G2 Esports, mousesports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid and Vitality.
ESL Pro League Season 14 also features: BIG, Heroic, FURIA, Virtus.pro, OG, Gambit Esports, Team Spirit, Entropiq, Sinners, Bad News Bears, Team One and Forze. The final spot was initially reserved for Renegades, but due to travel restrictions the team was replaced with Forze.
The groups are divided as follows:
ESL Pro League Season 14 Schedule
Each group plays a 5-day match schedule between August 16 – September 5. Three matches are played each day with starting times at 12:00, 15:30 and 19:00 CET. Playoffs commence after the entire Group Stage is completed and last for 5 days in total. The match dates are divided as follows:
- Group A – August 16-20
- Group B – August 21-26
- Grup C – August 27-31
- Group D – September 1-5
- Playoffs – September 7-12
In total, 70 best-of-three and 1 best-of-five series will be played during ESL Pro League.
ESL Pro League Season 14 Favorites
Coming into Season 14, the CS:GO scene has been shaken up by huge upsets by CIS teams at IEM Katowice 2021, BLAST Global Finals, Flashpoint Season 2, and IEM Cologne. Interestingly, all CIS teams at ESL Pro League are split between the four groups, meaning, we might have all CIS teams advance into Playoffs. Let’s analyze the likely performers in each group.
Group A is termed the group of life as it features most of the middle of the pack teams. Heroic, Astralis and Spirit are the the teams likely advancing forward. Vitality and ENCE are far from their desired form, but can pull out upsets. Bad News Bears are not a real challenger here, and will need a miracle to move onward.
Group B in contrast is the group of death, as most teams have a solid chance of moving forward. Virtus.Pro, OG and Complexity are all in contention for a spot forward. The rest is all up in the air, and results will depend solely on how well teams perform on each match day. G2 Esports is the closest team to a favorite from the rest of the pack, but the margin is too small for comfort.
Group C
Natus Vincere needs to show they can maintain their #1 Global Ranking spot by besting heavy hitters like FaZe Clan, Mousesports and Evil Geniuses. The rest of the teams are no pushovers either, BIG and Fnatic both made recent roster changes and we cant place them accurately in terms of strength. Overall, only NaVi is safe to predict as moving forward, with the other two spots up for debate.
Group D is all about Gambit and NiP. Both teams had a strong spring showing, and are expected to move forward. The rest of the the teams might end up in a huge tiebreaker scenario, as every single team is able to defeat each other. Only Team One is guaranteed elimination as they are by far the weakest team at this competition. If you are looking into CSGO betting, you should definitely stay away from this group.
