ESL Pro League Season 13 – Teams, Format, Schedule and Favorites

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.

Season 13 features $750,000 USD in prize money and points for both ESL Pro Tour and BLAST Premier circuit. The World’s best 24 teams are in attendance, with some of the most titled organizations ever present.

ESL Pro League

ESL Pro League Season 13 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.

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 13 also features: BIG, Heroic, FURIA, Virtus.pro, OG, Gambit Esports, Cloud9, FunPlus Phoenix, MIBR and Renegades based on the ESL World rankings. The final two spots are filled by Team One and Endpoint, who earned their spots through ESEA Season 35.

The groups are divided as follows:

ESL Pro League Season 13 Groups

© ESL

ESL Pro League Season 13 Schedule

Each group plays a 5-day match schedule between March 8-29. 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 9 days in total. The match dates are divided as follows:

  • Group A – March 8-12
  • Group B – March 13-18
  • Group C – March 19-24
  • Group D – March 25-29
  • Playoffs – April 2-11

In total, 70 best-of-three and 1 best-of-five series will be played during ESL Pro League.

ESL Pro League Season 13 Favorites

Coming into Season 13, the CS:GO scene has been shaken up by huge upsets by CIS teams at IEM Katowice 2021, BLAST Global Finals and Flashpoint Season 2. The region has seen a huge surge in popularity, as their performances leave all other regions wanting. Luckily, all three CIS teams at ESL Pro League are contained within only two groups, giving the rest of pack a solid chance to move forward 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, Complexity and BIG are the the teams likely advancing forward. Renegades and FunPlus Phoenix are far from the desired form to battle the heavy hitters. Team OG can be a potential challenger, but judging by their performance at IEM Katowice 2021, they will need to exceed all expectations.

Group B in constrast is the group of death, as most teams have a solid chance of moving forward. Vitality together with Ninjas in Pyjamas, should have a guaranteed spot forward. The rest is all up for grabs and 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 is all about CIS powerhouses Gambit and Natus Vincere. Both teams should only find a contestant in each other in this group. The rest of the pack is headlined by FURIA who are performing extremely well this spring. Cloud9 may also be a close fourth considering the star-studded roster, but they are yet to show up on the big stage.

Group D is all about Astralis and which team will manage to steal a WIN against them. 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 ENDPOINT 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.

Betting on ESL Pro League Season 13

Here are several key points before you place your ESL Pro League Season 13 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 13 Betting Guide should help you create some interesting betting slips. Finally, our News archive contains information on each previous event and tournament played by each of the participants.

You can watch all of the matches played at ESL Pro League Season 13 live on the official ESL CSGO Twitch Channel.