ESL Pro League with $1.5 million

18-1-2016 18:00

ESL has announced that $1,5 million will be given away in 2016 across two seasons of the ESL Pro League.

After hosting two Pro League seasons in 2015 with $1 million split evenly between them, ESL has announced a 50 per cent increase in prize money for 2016, in which ESEA will no longer feature as a title sponsor.

The third season of the ESL Pro League will kick off on February 9, featuring 24 of the best teams in the world. With offline finals at an undisclosed location scheduled for May, this season will pay out $750,000 to the teams competing in the European and in the North American divisions.

ESL Pro League will be much bigger in 2016

In announcing the new Pro League season, ESL stated that it aims to bring the competition to "larger offline crowds", adding that it is also working on television broadcasts, in a bid to compete with the $2.4 million E-League, hosted by Turner and WME | IMG.

"The ESL Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League is levelling up this year: we’ll be working on enabling larger offline crowds to follow the action as players battle in matches that could define the rest of their lives,” ESL Vice-president for Pro Gaming Ulrich Schulze said in a statement.

"But it’s not just offline audiences we’re aiming for – television broadcasts, a higher standard of online production, a continued emphasis on competitive integrity – these are just some of the things you will see this year."

The ESL Pro League will run alongside other offline events that will be hosted by the German company this year, which include IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne.

Below you can find the team list for ESL Pro League Season 3:

Europe	North America
fnatic	Luminosity
Null element Na`Vi	Liquid
EnVyUs	CLG
Astralis	OpTic Gaming
ex-Titan	compLexity
dignitas	Cloud9
NiP	SPLYCE
mousesports	Enemy
Virtus.pro	Sponsorless
SK	NRG
FlipSid3	Winterfox
FaZe	Renegades

fnatic are the reigning Pro League champions after winning the Season 2 offline finals, which took place last month in Burbank. By winning the event, the Swedish giants managed to defend their title from the first season, whose offline finals were held in Cologne.

NICE

2016-01-18 18:03

8 replies

ok i guess

2016-01-18 18:12

4 replies

HOLLY FAK

2016-01-18 18:25

3 replies

wow

2016-01-18 18:30

TBA GONNA BE ENCE, ENCE EZ WIN

2016-01-18 18:33

1 reply

TBA = G2 + Renegades

2016-01-18 20:39

cheer! bill gates gaming!

Wow Joe u got first I'm proud of u

2016-01-18 18:47

thx Dan it is one of the biggest achievements of my hltv career

2016-01-18 18:49

18 replies

a bunch of shit NA teams instead of PENTA/HR gj ESL

2016-01-18 18:40

17 replies

Almost all of the NA teams listed could beat Penta. If Penta or HR want in, they need to win more and qualify.

2016-01-18 18:50

11 replies

i should stop triggering dumb burgers

10 replies

If you stopped making stupid comments, you wouldn't have anything to worry about.

2016-01-18 18:52

2 replies

Please my friend, he is only German, such destruction is not needed :(

2016-01-18 18:58

It wouldn't be the first time America beat Germany

2016-01-19 14:15

you could just not post, wont have to worry about people making any kind of replies :/

2016-01-18 19:01

and another one

2016-01-18 19:16

but he is right, penta/hr are one level above of few american teams(sponsorless, splyce, ex-method). Should be 14 EU teams, 2 Asia teams and 8 NA/SA teams(or 12 EU/2 Asia/3SA 4NA).

2016-01-19 00:36

Now what you said about removing NA spots and giving them to SA and Oceania and Asia is fine. Adding more EU spots, however, is dumb because penta and HR are about NA level. There is no point in adding more spots so that teams that have even less of a chance get into EPL. Why have more EU spots if the teams added aren't(LIKELY) going to do anything? Now you could say "What's NA gonna do?" Well look at the first EEPL finals. If it happened before, it can happen again.

2016-01-19 14:35

the burger is right tho. penta and hr are tier3 team how would get beaten by all the na trash

2016-01-18 19:26

50 per cent

2016-01-19 06:35

PENTA K LMAO.

2016-01-18 19:05

tbh PENTA would probably be premier in NA aswell

2016-01-18 19:20

Penta ... lol are you serious?!

2016-01-18 22:56

lol penta is complete shit

2016-01-19 06:17

lol Penta, totally irrelevant team. Got to show more if you want to compete in EU.

2016-01-19 11:20

nice!

u w8 m8

People starting to understand that the CSGO dream is real.

This is when CSGO starts being taken more seriously ^^ yeey

2016-01-18 21:46

Or it becomes even bigger joke. Online matches decided by angry 10yo bet addicts DDOSing while millions on the line and matches delayed 5hours constantly etc. :DASD

2016-01-18 22:23

can be :D gotta hope security on servers gets better :D

2016-01-18 22:24

OMFG SO GOOD

HYPE GUYS

2016-01-18 18:04

HYPE HYPE!

2016-01-18 18:05

nice

cool

lol

yeah i like it, now we talking.

Nice

w0w

awesome sauce!

Fuck ESL

we have eurosport ,soon we will have euroesport :D

perfect title

2016-01-18 18:15

2016-01-18 18:36

expected

BOOOOM

VP to win all !

HOLY SH*T! Thats awesome! Maybe Valve will awake and give more than 250k per major. EDIT: Maybe one day, they will make qualifiers for more countries (for example, 1 for Asia, 1 for Oceania, 1 for SA, 1 for Africa) and increase the number of teams in the offline finals.

2016-01-18 18:06

9 replies

I was thinking the same. Maybe 24 teams?

2016-01-18 18:17

for that, it needed to be 32, at least (to make 8th finals, instead of semis and quarters). if its 24, the groups doesn't have 4 teams each (just like in every sports).

2016-01-18 18:19

You can do it in many different ways. 4 groups of 6 where 4 make it to the playoffs for example. With a round of 16 . Just depends on the size and amount of time at hand. You could have the top2 of each group go directly to quarter while 3 and 4 have to do a bo3 in the round of 16. The euro cup in football is gonna be 24 teams this summer up from 16.

2016-01-18 18:37

yeah, we can give that as an example. But I think it will never change, ppl are to much stupid (the public). Have qualifiers for all the world: Why you do this, I want the 16 best teams, not the worst ones! Have only EU qualifiers: shitty organizers, doesn't want CS:GO to be global. Have NA qualifiers: why NA even has a qualifier, they are tier50. I can give more, but its useless.

2016-01-18 19:02

Volvo has never given money to majors...

2016-01-18 21:15

Just curious why u want bigger price monies for tournaments? I dont think teams have problems to motivate themselves atm so it shouldn't increase the quality of the games that much. And if u think it's going to make the game itself bigger wouldnt the money be better spent on developing the game further? o_O

2016-01-18 22:30

2016-01-18 23:37

Its not for the already existing teams, but to attract more, newer guys towards cs.

2016-01-19 06:10

biggest increases in player base have been after big updates tho.

2016-01-19 18:12

Daaamn! Gonna be epic!

good

WAT

getting my stacks ready for betting

PogChamp

Ez TBA

So awesome. Here in NA TNT(turner)network nba basketball intro shows CSGO with the other sports. Good things are happening even in NA

CS GO is on the rise

2016-01-18 18:07

yesss

2016-01-18 18:38

750k per season, not that much tho.

3x as much as our majors

2016-01-18 20:37

no g2 no party

TBA = G2

2016-01-18 18:09

pls no 250k for online

LET'S FUCKING GOOOO

2016-01-18 18:08

OH YEAHHH

The real question is... when is ESL/ESEA announcing the wildcarded teams? Are they just waiting for official announcements from all of the organizations?

inb4 banned by valve

hltv.org/news/16840-esl-pro-league-with-.. < HYPEEE oh... only 1,5 million :c

NA is waste of money.

ez for lg

2016-01-18 20:47

Wonder how much will go to online LAN finals should be at least 500k

G2, Renegades for last two spots.

2016-01-18 18:10

But Method died.

2016-01-18 18:11

Method's spot will go to gob b's team (ex-Method)

2016-01-18 18:13

500 -> 750 are u stypid?

VERY NICE Now we await the announcement of the new season Faceit League

O MY GOD. It's really good news for all cs community

when winterfox can compete in a 1.5m$ league u know somethings wrong

if it is so easy, make a team and participate.

2016-01-18 18:43

nice braindamage

2016-01-18 19:04

Even ENCE without training is better than WinterFox and ence has no chance in EUs side.

2016-01-18 20:05

missing asian division

2016-01-18 18:14

ez money for ?

for ?

2016-01-18 20:45

FINALLY :D Volvo next??

HYPEEEEEEEE Now all we need is a huge venue for these finals and this will be amazing.

I seriously hope it's now $500,000 for each LAN finals prize money. They were giving too much away to the online league results.

yeahhhhhhhhhhhh 1.5 million

wait so who's Sponserless now? is that ptr's team or

2016-01-18 18:16

More millions boys :D

Tbh NA is getting much more competitive. At least within the continent!

sk > g2 ayyyyyyyyy

bring on bo1

Ok offline crowds nice. But we don't want any of your GSL BO1 GROUPSTAGE ANYMORE ESL PLEASE !!!

2016-01-18 18:20

OKAY ITS HAPPENING BOYS

babam looking forward to it

Meanwhile majors are 250k top kek

meanwhile majors last 1 weekend, and leagues last whole seasons.

2016-01-18 18:32

Nice. RIP ESEA

2016-01-18 18:18

FINALLY NICE PRIZEPOOL

Why not G2?...

I really don't understand why LG is NA... Shouldn't it be SA?

2016-01-18 18:21

NA league, they are not saying that LG is a NA team.

2016-01-18 18:24

We could have G2 on EU league, Renegades and GA on NA league.

G2 and Renegades I think, I doubt GA will be in pro league

2016-01-19 09:30

WELL PLAYED ESL !!!!!!!!

2016-01-18 18:22

MORE $$$ for FNATIC. lmao

2016-01-18 18:23

and majors are still 250k

250k$ for valve's majors sounds more funny from day to day.

holy shit!!! :o

2016-01-18 18:26

Now i know why gaben has been so greedy with these updates, GJ GABE NEWELL!

2016-01-18 18:28

Nice ESL, that's how you do it. Valve so mercenary... why not upgrading the csgo major's prize money?? FU volvo!

yes man

Shit is getting HUGE. NA tba is renegades?

2016-01-18 18:31

Please make the finals 500k$ each and 250k$ split through each of the leagues, not the other way around pretty please ESL?

+999999999999999999999

2016-01-18 18:56

better teams then Turner league has atleast the wildcard spots should be for EU G2 and for NA Renegades

Disappointing.

2016-01-18 18:34

Took them long enough to do this. Hopefully now valve will increase the major prize pools.

2016-01-18 18:35

meh

kurwa

Change that to a decimal point right fucking now!

16 teams finals pls

Noice

esl vs turner :D

2016-01-18 18:39

wtf is up with all those NA teams? why no G2(( jkaem and rain are our only hope((((

yeah, so much NA and no Asia/Australian teams, gg ESL.

ESL bought out ESEA and are recycling tbe same list of ESEA Invite teams for the next season

2016-01-18 23:15

woooooooo

2016-01-18 18:42

No renegades? Tyloo doesn't even get a chance? :/

2016-01-18 18:44

5 EU spots plssssssssssssssss

2016-01-18 18:45

The Global incoming Kappa

Should be 1 million for EU and 500k for NA (and would still be too generous for NA).

One question - as this is not VALVE event, can steel, dazed, azk and swag make a team and participate in this one?

2016-01-18 18:51

if ESL unbanned them

2016-01-18 19:09

if i'm not wrong ESEA, ESL and FACEIT banned all of them.

2016-01-18 19:43

oh, okay, sorry for my lack of knowladge

2016-01-19 13:27

where's team Games Academy

XD top kekerino

2016-01-18 18:59

NICE!!!

2016-01-18 18:54

NA rofl ez 1st place for LG

Will we see ESEA lans return? Those were pretty cool

2016-01-18 18:57

RIP ESEA bitcoin miners are broken now.

MAKE IT RAIN ESEA!

2016-01-18 19:00

why so many shitty NA teams taking up the EU spots?

who else from EU are you gonna add that is better than all the NA teams? (other than G2 because I'm sure they're getting the TBA spot)

2016-01-18 19:11

ESL has announced that $1,5 million will be given away in 2016 across two seasons of the ESL Pro League to fnatic. Fixed it for you

G2 and completed

Fnatic ez win ez skins ez win!

2016-01-18 19:03

haha flipside 4 polish teams are better then them

Hope wildcard for Europe will be G2

rip asia -flipsid3 +sexydosiateam

2016-01-18 19:06

winterfox ez

2016-01-18 19:08

wow so much money for fnatic flusha millionaire

2016-01-18 19:14

Interesting that Method retains their spot despite losing 3 players

why not this GA?

iizi moni for fnatic

last euro team will be ence

2016-01-18 19:21

ESEA deserve for rekt

2016-01-18 19:23

2016-01-18 19:24

- top 24 teams of the world -12 teams from na choose one

+1 lmao, I'd only keep LG/C9/TL/CLG/OpTic for the NA list and for the rest EU teams that had to be invited like G2/E-frag and dunno who else, whoever comes to your mind but doesn't have to be an NA team xD

2016-01-18 19:32

I'd rather cyberzen and tyloo go then half these NA teams lol

2016-01-19 07:23

TBA ?

Hope for G2

2016-01-18 19:33

TBA Europe ?

nice one, but where is g2? they should be in it no doubt

2016-01-18 19:35

Hellraisers and complete

2016-01-18 19:38

GA or Renegads?

2016-01-18 19:42

nice! gl everyone :) asia should be invited too

2016-01-18 19:46

inb4 Volvo will increase money for Majors to 1kk. easy money

2016-01-18 19:51

ez for winterfox

2016-01-18 19:53

Oh no esea to mine bitcoins :(

2016-01-18 19:56

where's G2? wtf

2016-01-18 20:03

SK, Flipsid3, mouz, ex-Titan, dignitas, NiP, VP but not G2? Can someone explain?

TBA = G2 right? cuz if it isn't, rip logic

2016-01-18 20:08

csgo dying

2016-01-18 20:12

lol nice

2016-01-18 20:20

2016-01-18 20:22

NA TBA = GamesAcademy

2016-01-18 20:35

needs more ENCE

2016-01-18 20:49

Waiting for EX iBP to make a Team

2016-01-18 20:51

Nice ! :D

2016-01-18 21:08

ez for ENCE

2016-01-18 21:23

$500000 for first place, GJ!

2016-01-18 21:26

"in which ESEA will no longer feature as a title sponsor" Nice, one step closer to a real league. I'm no ted turner honk but I'd love to see them diminish esea's market share then buy them out.

2016-01-18 21:33