ESL Pro League Season 15 Groups Announced

ESL announced the group stage draw for ESL Pro League Season 15 on Wednesday, February 2, dividing the 24 participating Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams into four groups of six. The ESL Pro League Season 15 is slated to start on March 9.

The first ESL Pro League of 2022 will take place between March 9 and April 10, currently scheduled to take place in Malta as a LAN event. Malta was the designated location for ESL Pro League for the past two years, but it had to be moved online due to the ongoing COVID pandemic.

However, despite the setbacks that prevented ESL from hosting the tournament on LAN in the past, the tournament organizers are hopeful they will be able to bring this year’s edition back in front of the fans.

The 15th edition of the ESL Pro League will welcome 24 CS:GO teams, including all of the current top-14 on the global ladder. Joining them are outsiders who will attend ESL’s flagship event looking to make a name for themselves.

Although we’re more than a month away from the tournament, the teams have already been divided into four groups of six – from which the top three teams will advance into the playoffs.

• Group A: G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, MOUZ, Entropiq, LookingForOrg
• Group B: Team Vitality, Virtus.pro, FaZe Clan, FURIA, ENCE, Sprout
• Group C: Gambit Esports, Team Liquid, GODSENT, BIG, Movistar Riders, Party Astronauts
• Group D: Natus Vincere, Heroic, Astralis, Complexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses, AGO

Group A, headlined by PGL Major Stockholm 2021 finalists, G2 Esports, will also welcome two of the most successful esports organizations in CS:GO history, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, who will look to bounce back from a poor run through 2021 and kick off the 2022 season with a bang.

Joining the three juggernauts are MOUZ, Entropiq, and the Australian side, LookingForOrg. The latter enter ESL Pro League S15 looking to make a name for themselves and potentially get spotted by an esports organization to sign them.

Over in Group B, all the eye will be on the new-look rosters of Team Vitality and FaZe Clan, who recently clashed in the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022. Outside of the two European CS:GO powerhouses, Group B will also feature Virtus.pro, FURIA, ENCE, and Sprout.

In Group C, we will get to see the world’s second-best team, Gambit Esports, take on the new-look Team Liquid for the top spot in the group. Meanwhile, the rest of the field, consisting of GODSENT, BIG, Movistar Riders, and Party Astronauts, will look to upset the top dogs.

Set to play out on March 30-April 3, Group D will welcome the reigning CS:GO Major champions, Natus Vincere, who have been drawn in the same group as the Danes of Astralis and Heroic. Joining the three are Complexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses, AGO as outsiders, hungry to prove they can compete with the world’s best teams.

After the final Group D match on April 3, the second and third-best teams from each group will advance into the playoffs’ Round of 12. And from there into the quarter-finals, where the group winners will await their next opponents.

The match winners will advance into the semi-finals and the best-of-five (Bo5) grand finals, slated for April 10.

The playoffs will play out in a single-elimination bracket, with all matches, except for the grand finals as Bo3. Likewise, all group stage matches will play as Bo3, with each team playing each other once.