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The ESL Pro League Season 20 is set for the teams who have qualified for the Counter-Strike 2 tournament. The 3 week event is slated to take place in Malta, and will begin on September 3 and ends on September 22, 2024.
32 teams have qualified for the tournament and will compete for a prize pool of $750,000 and circuit points that will be used to determine their eligibility for future tournaments.
The ESL Pro League Season 20 champion will also have an automatic invitation to the IEM Katowice 2025, one of the most well-known Counter-Strike events.
Which Teams Are Going to Compete in ESL Pro League Season 20?
The process of choosing which teams would compete in the ESL Pro League Season 20 was made via invitations, partner teams, and overall performance in the Challenger Leagues.
Of the 32 teams that are locked in for this ESL Pro League Season 20 event, 5 teams were chosen based on their performance in various world events from last season up to the first half of the 2024. The first team to get the nod is Team Spirit, who is the reigning champion of IEM Katowice and the BLAST Spring Final.
Following Team Spirit, MongolZ got the second invite after an impressive performance during the first half of the 2024 season which culminated in big wins in the PGL Major Copenhagen Legends stage and YaLLa Compass and MESA Nomadic Masters tournaments, respectively.
Virtus.pro and Eternal Fire, two veteran Counter-Strike teams, got the invitation due to their consistent performance throughout the 2024 campaign. Last but not least was the inclusion of 9z: their performance late in the season had them reaching the semi-finals of IEM Dallas and becoming victorious at the FiReLEAGUE Global Finals.
Rounding up the teams are the ESL partner organizations as well as 10 winners and runners-up from the regional challenger leagues. The ESL partner organizations include Astralis, BIG, Complexity, Ence, Faze Clan, Fnatic, Furia, G2 Esports, Heroic, Mouz, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid, and Team Vitality.
Teams from the regional challenger leagues are Falcons of ESL Challenger Jönköping, Monte from ESL Challenger Melbourne, and 3DMax from European Conference. ECL S47 Europe is represented by KOI and Sangal Esports, ECL S47 NA with M80 and Wildcard Gaming, ECL S47 SA with Imperial Esports and Red Canids, ECL S47 OCE with Flyquest and Rooster, and ECL S47 AP with Lynn Vision Gaming and Atox Esports.
What is the Format for the ESL Pro League Season 20?
ESL Pro League Season 20’s format sees the aforementioned 32 teams participating in 4 Group Stages that will have Triple Elimination rules. All matches in the Group Stage will compete in Best of 3 matches, and the 1st placers of each Group will secure their place in the Upper Bracket Quarter Finals in the Playoffs.
Meanwhile, the 2nd placers will be designated to the Lower Bracket Round of 12 matches, while the 3rd & 4th placers will be relegated to the Last Chance Round of 16 matches.
Groups A and B matches will take place on September 3-8, while Groups C and D matches will happen on September 10-15.
Following the Group Stage, The Playoffs will take place on September 17-22. The Playoff format is going to use the 16 Team Single Elimination bracket, with competing teams needing to win a Best of 3 series until two teams remain. The final two teams will compete in the Grand Finals where the champion will be decided after a Best of 5 series.
Apart from winning the championship and the $750,000 cash prize, the eventual winning team shall earn a direct invitation to IEM Katowice 2025.