The ESL Pro League Finals return for another edition of one of the highest prized tournaments in CS:GO.
Following the success of the event in May, the Finals of the fourth installment in the series will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 26-30 October. The prize pool will be $600,000 and it will be spread quite evenly, with $200,000 going into the pockets of the winners. Each team in the Finals will also receive a slice of the prize pie. Coverage will be on Twitch.tv and hltv.org.
The league stage is over and the participants in the Finals are already known. This time the tournament will include more teams, increasing from eight to 12. Similar to last season, each participating team had to earn their place through North American or European qualifiers. The top six teams (out of 14) from this league stage in the two regions advanced to the Finals.
There will be two groups of six teams in the Finals. Each group will contain three teams from the NA region and three teams from the European region. The match format will be a single best-of-one round-robin and so fans will have the chance to watch 15 games in each of the two groups.
Here are the two groups:
Group A
Fnatic (1st in the European League)
Immortals (2nd in the NA League)
mousesports (3rd in the European League)
OpTic Gaming (4th in the NA League)
Team EnVyUs (5th in the European League)
Team Liquid (7th in the NA League – Renegades decided to skip the event, opening up a place)
Group A contains Fnatic, one of the favourites to win the tournament outright. They have a good record in this event, winning the first two editions and finishing 3rd-4th in the last one. Their recent form has been mixed, however, with a number of 3rd-4th place finishes. They haven’t won a Premier event since March and so will be hoping to bounce back to form here.
UPDATE: an announcement was published in their Facebook page that Fnatic CounterStrike will not be participating in this tournament:
Unrelated to these roster changes, we regret to announce that our CS:GO team will not be able to participate in the ESL Pro League Finals in Brazil and that we will be playing with a substitute player during ELEAGUE next month, as dennis will not be participating due to personal reasons. We will release more information on our stand-in shortly.
Immortals might have only formed this June, but they are already making their debut in this prestigious series. Despite being together for only several months, the team have already won DreamHack Summer 2016 and Northern Arena 2016 Toronto, and are clearly a dangerous proposition.
This will be the first participation for mousesports in the Finals as well, even though they have been around for a while. They have participated in every edition’s qualifiers, but have been nowhere near close to qualifying, finishing in 8th place in the European League in each of the last two seasons.
Optic Gaming created their CS:GO division this January and while one of the underdogs, they will not go down easily. The team have been present at quite a few Premier tournaments this year and have generally put up a good fight.
EnVyUs are making a return after missing the last edition of the ESL Pro League Finals. They managed to secure 3rd-4th spot in the second edition and 5-6th in the first and have every chance of advancing from this group.
Team Liquid have been part of the last two editions and finished 5-6th in both. The team proved that they are capable of better things this year though with the unexpected 2nd place finish at ESL Cologne highlighting their quality. Consequently, Liquid will not be satisfied with anything less than a top four spot here.
Group B
Cloud9 (1st in the NA League)
Ninjas in Pyjamas (2nd in the European League)
SK Gaming (3rd in the NA League)
FaZe Clan (4th in the European League)
NRG eSports (6th in the NA League)
Team Dignitas (6th in the European League)
Group B contains several more debutants, but the fight for the top three spots will probably be even fiercer than that in Group A.
Cloud9 finished 2nd in the very first edition, but their performances since then have been less impressive as they did not qualify for the main event of the second ESL series and finished in the last two spots in the Finals of the latest edition. The team have been in solid shape throughout September and October though and will try to secure their second tournament win of the calendar year.
One of the most successful teams in CS:GO history, Ninjas in Pyjamas qualified as 2nd best in Europe (tied with Fnatic, but with fewer frags). The Swedes landed 3rd-4th spot in the last edition, which is their best ranking so far after they failed to qualify for the previous two main events.
The winners of ESL One Cologne, SK Gaming will make their debut here. They failed to qualify for the Pro League seasons 2 and 3, but with an entirely different roster, when they were part of the European region. This all-Brazilian team were signed from Luminosity back in June and have continued the success they enjoyed with their former outfit, securing 3rd-4th at both ESL One New York and EPICENTER earlier this month.
Another newcomer, FaZe Clan were formed in January this year. The Scandinavian boys have attended 10 Premier tournaments this season, but have not been able to claim a spot among the top four so far.
NRG eSports are also making their debut on the ESL Pro League main event stage. Their best achievement this season is a 3rd-4th spot in the Counter Pit League Season 2 Finals back in March.
Meanwhile, Team Dignitas earned the last spot in the European region and will not miss this edition after three previous unsuccessful attempts.
Tournament Format
The top three teams from each group will advance to the direct elimination knockout stage. The second side in Group A will face the third in Group B and vice versa, after which the victors will face the top two teams from the groups for a spot in the Finals.
Last season’s winners Luminosity Gaming did not qualify (although SK Gaming with Luminosity’s former roster did), while the usual suspects Fnatic are highly tipped. Meanwhile, this ESL edition will be a proving ground for quite a few young guns, most of whom are yet to win a tournament this year, so it could be unpredictable.
Image Credit: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/counterstrike/ESL_ESEA/Pro_League/Season/IV/Finals
