ESL Pro League Finals viewer's guide

29-5-2017 20:46

We are merely one day away from the start of the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, so we have prepared our viewer's guide, where you will find the full schedule, the groups, the talent line-up and the prize breakdown.

The fifth iteration of the ESL Pro League will come to a close this week as the 12 best teams from the online portion of the league will duke it out at the Verizon Theatre, in Dallas, for the grand prize of $225,000.

The tournament, which will run from Tuesday to Sunday, will kick off with a best-of-one round-robin group stage, with the participating teams having been drawn into two groups.

The EPL finals return to the US after events in London and São Paulo

The group winners will automatically secure spots in the semi-finals, while the runners-up and the third-placed teams will square off for the final spots in the last-four stage.

Below you can find the group draw in full:

Group A	Group B
Cloud9	Liquid
Envy	MOUZ
fnatic	Natus Vincere
G2	North
Immortals	NRG
SK	OpTic

The first two days of the event will be packed tightly as they will be taken up by the group matches. The quarter-finals will be held on Thursday, while the semi-finals and the title decider will be played over the weekend after a day's break.

The full schedule for the tournament can be found below:

Tuesday, May 30
18:30	SK	vs.	Cloud9
18:30	G2	vs.	Envy
19:45	G2	vs.	Cloud9
19:45	fnatic	vs.	Immortals
21:00	fnatic	vs.	Envy
21:00	SK	vs.	Immortals
22:15	fnatic	vs.	SK
22:15	Envy	vs.	Cloud9
00:00	Liquid	vs.	Natus Vincere
00:00	MOUZ	vs.	North
01:15	NRG	vs.	OpTic
01:15	MOUZ	vs.	Natus Vincere
02:30	Liquid	vs.	OpTic
02:30	NRG	vs.	North
03:45	North	vs.	Natus Vincere
03:45	NRG	vs.	Liquid

Wednesday, May 31
18:30	G2	vs.	Immortals
18:30	fnatic	vs.	Cloud9
19:45	G2	vs.	SK
19:45	Envy	vs.	Immortals
21:00	Immortals	vs.	Cloud9
21:00	SK	vs.	Envy
21:00	fnatic	vs.	G2
22:45	MOUZ	vs.	OpTic
22:45	NRG	vs.	Natus Vincere
00:00	MOUZ	vs.	Liquid
00:00	North	vs.	OpTic
01:15	OpTic	vs.	Natus Vincere
01:15	Liquid	vs.	North
01:15	NRG	vs.	MOUZ

Thursday, June 1
19:00	Quarter-final #1
22:50	Quarter-final #2

Saturday, June 3
19:00	Semi-final #1
22:50	Semi-final #2

Sunday, June 4
20:00	Grand Final

Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez will be the host, while four casters and four experts will do play-by-play commentary and break down the action. The full talent line-up for the tournament looks as follows:

Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez - Host

Jason "moses" O'Toole - Desk Host
Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill  - Analyst
Janko "YNk" Paunović  - Analyst
Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl - Analyst

Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
Sam "DaZeD" Marine  - Commentator
John "BLU" Mullen - Commentator

DJ "Prius" Kuntz - Observer
Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo - Observer

Finally, the event's $750,000 prize pool will be distributed between the competing teams as follows:

1. $225,000
2. $100,000
3-4. $60,000
5-6. $45,000
7-8. $40,000
9-10. $35,000
11-12. $32,500

is this happens

2017-05-29 20:47

16 replies

where is Anders? is it because Semmler is now with gamerz? :/

2017-05-29 20:54

14 replies

Who cares.. they suck now

2017-05-29 20:55

6 replies

bro they are the best casting duo.. sadokist & henryG good but not best

2017-05-29 21:08

5 replies

Semmler casting: 90% giggling, 8% nonsense, 2% ok cast Anders: 90% not paying attention(wrong names etc), 10% HIKOOOO EYYY R U KIDDING ME boring

2017-05-29 21:11

3 replies

i laugh at "HIKOOOO EYYY R U KIDDING ME" but you guys want to criticize everything. It won't change your life if Sadokist/HenryG or Semmler/Anders cast this.

2017-05-29 21:44

1 reply

^^^^^

2017-05-29 22:08

yeah semmler is extremely annoying, he's saying the same things over and over again and hypes up the biggest trash plays. anders is okay tho. HenryG & Sado are my favorites at the moment, but Dan & James are great also. i'm even starting to like pansy, she has pretty good knowledge in the game. anders should team up with pansy and let semmler host T5 shows with 20 viewers

2017-05-30 14:21

JamesBardolph & DDK bestest

2017-05-30 13:38

what is Gamerz?

2017-05-29 21:07

dont tell me you didnt see it on hltv :O

2017-05-29 21:09

I only saw anything about that Gamerz picked up a team because a team one their tournament or something but I have no idea beside of that what even Gamerz is etc.

2017-05-29 21:10

4 replies

it was reality show where nordic players tried their best to get pro contracts.. one team won it so they have 6 months long contract but they dont have any tournaments to play :/ no invites tho

yes thats what I have seen but what does Semmler have to do with that etc?

2 replies

he was like host there

2017-05-29 21:12

2017-05-29 21:13

rofl these groups are so retarded

damn

where is Virtus Pro?

2017-05-30 01:01

In ESEA Premier LULULUl

2017-05-30 05:49

Virtus.Premier bruh

2017-05-30 09:03

OMG GUYS #3

ez SK

Go G2

HYPE

nice

what a tier2 tourney :(

no, those were the teams that were copetent enough to qualify, its a tier1 tornament, how can u call the others supposedly "tier 1" (kek) teams if they cant even beat theses not so brilliant ones present here.

2017-05-29 23:09

It's not the fault of the event if the top 2 teams didn't manage to qualify

2017-05-30 18:20

ez for SK

2017-05-29 20:48

In my opinion SK will win, but I support C9 :)

2017-05-29 20:49

is the finals bo5??

NIP Should not be allowed to attend!

2017-05-29 20:50

Your name suggests u are sarcastic

2017-05-29 21:28

They are not even attending wtf are you talking

2017-05-29 23:41

izi for envyus

g2 vs envyus on LAN omg

2017-05-29 20:51

Who is goldenBoy?

So many games, yummy

2017-05-29 20:57

group b is like a shit, wtf

2017-05-29 20:58

ez 4 jw

2017-05-29 20:59

finally SK vs Fnatic.

if SK can´t win a tier3 lan like this they are officially trash

2017-05-29 21:05

8 replies

They won IEM Sydney, what's your problem?

2017-05-29 21:15

t3? without astralis and faze but have tier 1 teams lol

2017-05-29 22:48

The only tier 1 team here is SK lol.

2017-05-29 23:12

G2 and fnatic are contenders though. They might surprise, and maybe north and c9(summer)...

2017-05-29 23:28

Wtf

2017-05-29 23:29

If FaZe, VP and Astralis couldnt qualify against tier3 teams then they are tier4 right?

2017-05-29 23:24

LUL ONLINE CS LUL

2017-05-30 09:44

cuz online cs is not cs, hmmmmmmm..... makes sense.

2017-05-30 23:18

WTF why are the groups so unbalanced? 3 NA teams on group B and then SK,G2 and Fnatic on group A , i mean what

2017-05-29 21:06

13 replies

3 NA/SA teams in both groups, and 3 EU teams in both groups. The seeding is based on how good you did during the season.

Group B is a joke compared to A, not only group A has the best NA teams C9,IMM and SK but G2 and Fnatic are there too.

2017-05-29 21:18

North is better than fnatic though and if their only bo3 matters so is navi

2017-05-30 01:13

pls think b4 u type

please, look at group A and B and tell me that it isn't unblanced

2017-05-29 21:19

It's done on a seeding basis. You're also just thinking Group A is good because of 'legendary team' names who have done stuff in the past. Immortals, Cloud9, Envy and Fnatic aren't good teams anymore. Mouz, North and Optic have contemporary success, you need to move on from 2014 and come into 2017.

2017-05-29 21:20

LMAO dude, group B is filled with onliners and the worst NA teams are there too, even C9 has better results on lans than the NA teams on group B, even Na'vi has been shit on lans lately.

2017-05-29 21:40

What a retarded argument, you just compared the worst teams in Group A with the best in Group B. SK and C9 are the best teams in NA atm, G2 looking really strong, fnatic has shown good progress, IMT always puts up a decent fight. Meanwhile Group B has absolute trash tier teams like NRG, OpTic has looked weak recently, as has Liquid. Mouz first LAN together, Na'VI idk what the fuck they're up to nowadays except sucking ass, North overrated as fuck losing to teams like Chiefs and CLG on LAN. Like how can you even say that these groups even remotely compare, you're either trolling or stupid.

2017-05-29 22:27

totally agree +1

2017-05-30 00:29

RIP na'vi fanboys

2017-05-30 04:18

Fnatic haven't been a top team for months. Mouz are better right nowas are Na'Vi and North. Goup b is a tiny bit weaker maybe but I think Liquid, NRG and optic could all pull of upsets vs anyone

2017-05-29 21:30

tiny bit? cmon m8, group B has 3 NA teams, Mouz that never accomplished anything on lan, Na'vi that is in a huge slump, i think that the only consistent team on group B is North. idk how is that a tiny bit, most of the teams on group A did better than the teams on group B this year at lans.

2017-05-29 21:53

Mouz have taken maps of FaZe, G2, Na'vi, Heroic etc on LAn already this year. I'm not saying they're going to win but the ONLY team there I'd definitely put above them is SK. Anyway, I still disagree. There are too many slumping unproven teams around at the moment that i think makes judging groups right now difficult. I accept NRG being nobodies but optTic and Liquid both have on/off histories and really good players, who knows how well they'll do? Plus IMT have swapped a player again, Envy have lost every LAN game they've played etc. If you ignore NRG i don't think they're that uneven. But we'll see I guess.

2017-05-30 15:46

Ez 4 FalleN

Pogchamp DAZEDDADDYYYY

DaZeD Casting PogChamp

fnatic, sk, g2 north, mouz, navi

Group B is a joke

Yeah i thought the same too they did the easiest for americans. Probanly they wont see liquid in quarterfinals

2017-05-29 23:36

No Pansy? PogChamp Btw VP rank #7 LUL

She'll be casting at the be stream tho

2017-05-29 21:21

Group B so izi

This NA events, it should start atleast at like 16:00 and you should let play EU teams first and NA later, but i guess why the fuck care about viewers

ikr

2017-05-29 21:27

B lul

2017-05-29 21:23

WHERE IS ANDERS? ;/////////

2017-05-29 21:24

DAZED LES GOO

kick blu ffs

2017-05-29 21:31

+1 Sounds and acts like a girl, can't cast for shit and even with dazed carrying him during casts he knows nothing of the game and makes an idiot out of himself.

2017-05-30 06:27

lol VIRTUS PRO -1

2017-05-29 21:33

DAAZED YAAAY

no faze no party

lol cloud9 got fucked

Group B is shit -_- Navi and north are lucky

2017-05-29 21:45

North was the highest seed in the eu league they earned their ez group navi didn't

2017-05-30 01:15

Starts at 00:30 fuck

Can't see a world where SK don't win this. North, Navi or G2 should fight against then in finals.

2017-05-29 21:49

Faze or astralis are the uniques team who can beat they and anyway the match would be very close

2017-05-29 23:38

Best of 5 FINAL AGAIN OWWWWWWW YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!! I'm VERY glad to see that more and more events are doing this!

2017-05-29 22:02

Bo5 bestest

2017-05-30 06:29

Finally an NA event with OK times for most of the games. And a grand final at 8 pm to boot? Yes please! :) Too bad though that I'm going to have to skip almost every NA team's games, lol. Would have preferred for it to start at 4 pm.

What is this shit lmao Group A is stacked and Group B is mostly shitters currently This is some rigged draw by ESL cos they don't get majors for being too shit with production or smth

Learn seeding pls

2017-05-31 05:44

...

2017-05-31 09:38

Good luck to all! Hoping Immortals makes it far ^_^

I Hope optic will do a great performance

2017-05-29 22:10

I was in coma for a half year Where is NiP?

2017-05-29 22:35

Badly designed groups.

2017-05-29 22:42

Nice group balance ESL.

2017-05-29 22:56

It depends on the ranking

2017-05-29 23:01

I know, but why do they decide that before hand? just do the seeding after all the teams have qualified based on hltv ranking or something.. not before... so you don't get these kind of groups.

2017-05-29 23:04

No SPACE SOLDIERS No FUN wont watch... ^^

its so nice of them to put all the shitty NA team matches in the end of the day since us EU viewers have to be asleep by then and then we won't miss any high quality CS <3

2017-05-29 23:18

Hahahahahahaha. Well played.

2017-05-30 06:31

DaZeD a.k.a best caster in the world

2017-05-29 23:23

Group A: SK, G2 and C9 Group B: North, Optic and NaVi

2017-05-29 23:25

1 - SK 2 - Immortals 3 4 - G2 4 3 - Fnatic 5 6 - nV 6 5 - NaVi 7 8 - Liquid 8 7 - clown9 9 10 - NRG 10 9 - OpTic 11 12 - NRG 12 11 - Mouz 13 - NiP You heard it here first, in HLTV.ORG.JUANME555

2017-05-29 23:35

top 5 from group A, seems possible

2017-05-29 23:39

Mouz 12 lul and immortals 2 you never saw any csgo match?

2017-05-29 23:44

Prius as observer, ez tournament

#RUNSKG #RUNFNATIC #IMTWIN #FALLCLOWN9 #CRY9 #ONLINE9

2017-05-29 23:52

ez c9

2017-05-30 00:00

why god why we gotta have blu in that roster

2017-05-30 00:42

I know. :(

Nice

2017-05-30 00:45

LOL Shitty groups, really. B is way weaker.

2017-05-30 01:16

Wow, that Group A is way tougher than Group B, What the hell

2017-05-30 01:18

Its always Liquid vs Na'Vi, Cloud9 vs SK lol

2017-05-30 01:29

Prius better be awake this time, he made some bad moves this year, that pissed me off so hard. Sapphire is way more consistent.

2017-05-30 02:20

lol as a c9 fan I must say "rip c9"

2017-05-30 04:56

Are there any youtube channels streaming this?

2017-05-30 05:19

John "BLU" Mullen - Commentator XD

2017-05-30 05:39

-Ynk +adreN -Blu +Megaman -HenryG/Sadokist +DDK/Bardolph

2017-05-30 05:52

its too late dumb eurocentric event

2017-05-30 09:25

Worst fucking timezone for Asia.

2017-05-30 09:57

For EU not better, 1/2 games after 24-00

2017-05-30 14:26

-SPUNJ -YNk -vENdetta -DaZeD

2017-05-30 10:14

ez Vp

2017-05-30 13:24

SK x G2 Final expected LuL

2017-05-30 16:41

SKEEE YEEE fuck school im gonna watch this

2017-05-30 17:03

G2 gonna win this tourney boys mark my words!

2017-05-30 17:40

Machine and Pansy? nice! but, this is not here! XD

2017-05-30 19:38

What happened with Anders? :(

2017-06-01 01:10

I had to go to google and search for viewers guide there to find this page as i couldnt find it via the event page, i dont know whybitsmissing, cant find the same stuuf i was able to find before the update of the site

2017-06-02 13:56