ESL trims down Pro League to 24 teams; reveals preliminary invite list and format

24-1-2020 18:26

ESL has announced that Pro League will be trimmed down to 24 teams and revealed a preliminary list of teams invited to participate in the 11th season as well as its format.

The news partially confirms Thursday's report released by DBLTAP, which first revealed that the next season of ESL Pro League would feature 24 teams — trimmed down to half from a total of 48 teams who participated in Season 10 across Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region — and presented a list of 24 teams who had a spot in the upcoming season.

The reported list also included Cloud9 and MIBR, who by all accounts are among the teams believed to participate in the North American league currently known as "B Site", which will reportedly run alongside ESL Pro League, thus preventing teams from competing in both.

The revised ESL Pro League is taking shape with a preliminary invite list

That information is all but confirmed by Friday's official announcement of the 24 teams to whom the tournament organizer has offered a spot in the 11th season of ESL Pro League, as the aforementioned two names are not part of the list after "either declining or not responding."

The following 24 teams have officially been sent an invitation to ESL Pro League Season 11, with their participation still unconfirmed and pending response at the moment:

The organizers have not revealed the full criteria by which they decided the invited teams other than inviting the top-16 teams from the Season 10 Finals. Their preliminary list does, however, seem in line with the formula reported by DBLTAP, which involves a combination of member organizations that have agreed to the "Lanxess Agreement", ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals participants, latest European and North American MDL winners (FORZE and INTZ), and the ESL World Ranking.

The presence of Complexity, who did not play at the latest ESL Pro League Finals and are low on the pecking order when it comes to the organizer's ranking (currently No. 39), in particular heavily supports the notion that some slots are allocated to "member teams" who have signed the aforementioned agreement.

This means that many who took part in the previous ESL Pro League season will not be returning, instead being invited to the next MDL season in the main regions, and those who were originally supposed to have a chance to qualify after placing second or third in the 32nd ESEA MDL season in Europe and North America — HAVU, Spirit, Riot Squad, and Triumph — will miss out on the opportunity to participate. Teams will have a chance to earn direct advancement to the 12th season through MDL and the ESL World Ranking.

ESL has also announced that the league will be divided into four round-robin groups with best-of-three matches all around. Group winners will be seeded into late stages of the playoffs, while the runner-ups and third-placed teams will advance to an earlier stage. When the top-six teams are determined, the tournament will move on to an arena location for a three-day event.

Where is BIG CLAN? mouz best german team right now but please invite future top 1 BIG CLAN cmon guys...

2020-01-24 18:32

51 replies

Where is the best top50 team in the world bigclan?

2020-01-24 18:28

16 replies

they just reached semi finals at DH Leipzig...

12 replies

+1 top 10 next week

10 replies

Fluke Clan

2020-01-24 18:34

9 replies

has flukequid flair

2020-01-24 18:35

8 replies

B site ahahaha

2020-01-24 18:39

7 replies

-godsend -sharks +dignitas +big clan -godsend -sharks +dignitas +big clan -godsend -sharks +dignitas +big clan -godsend -sharks +dignitas +big clan -godsend -sharks +dignitas +big clan

2020-01-24 19:57

6 replies

why dignitas? godsend are god sent

2020-01-24 21:37

2 replies

lol nice one

2020-01-25 02:30

Bcs forest goat

2020-01-25 09:43

Godsent >>>>>>>> Big

2020-01-25 05:17

cloud9>>>>bigclan, dignitas

2020-01-25 07:28

dignitas playing b site

2020-01-25 13:59

Yes, just won two maps after player break, send the invites...

2020-01-24 22:31

Best top50 implies they're top 1

2020-01-25 13:24

1 reply

I haven't said something else or?

2020-01-25 13:29

top 25

2020-01-28 13:26

+1 inviting shit teams like Sharks, INTZ and FURIA but no BIG... shameless from German organization

14 replies

+1 LOL how is this even allowed...

2020-01-24 18:29

They're all better than bug......

2020-01-24 18:31

You are wrong.

FÚRIA #15 INTZ #32 Sharks #43 . . . . . . . . BUG CLEN #46

2020-01-24 18:36

BIG top5 soon

but furia intz and sharks play easier qualifiers because NA/SA so more tournaments = better ranking

2020-01-24 18:43

BR CS in a nutshell

2020-01-24 21:10

Then they trash in EU teams that shit in BIG so the order doenst matter

2020-01-24 21:40

ranking is bullshit anyway big had worsest ranking in tournement yet they are 2nd beest (atm)

2020-01-24 21:38

Big Clan #22

2020-01-28 13:28

switched 2/5 players for better players, thats why won vs heroic, vp, complexity and renegades with the new team

2020-02-21 13:20

+1 sharks not even having a full lineup at this point

of course, fan of Movistar. mibr and Furia are better than Big

2020-01-24 20:54

Thats already enough shit teams

2020-01-25 10:42

In the bin

2020-01-24 18:30

they are a german org not team, you dont call g2 spanish because its a spanish org

2020-01-24 18:37

3 replies

its a meme dude, they used to be german so people still meme that they are, just like they meme xantares being german for being in BIG

2020-01-24 19:07

But Fnatic are a UK team man, cmon.

2020-01-24 20:38

UK has second best CSGO era ever?????

2020-01-28 13:29

so german they dont use any german players

2020-01-24 20:50

MDL just became even more fucking pointless

I was gonna ask that!

2020-01-25 05:18

How is mouz german? Only ger org

2020-01-25 07:46

WHERE IS DIGNITAS

2020-01-25 08:55

2020-01-25 12:48

BiG cLaN

2020-01-25 13:23

BIG already crying twitter.com/ManagerCSGO/status/122103915..

2020-01-25 13:25

On how they interact with eachother i think this is somewhat of a joke (between lenz/cj)

2020-01-25 21:36

I dunno but Thorin was very pissed after ChrisJ tweet. Thorin insulted ChrisJ etc. I dunno what is bad on ChrisJ tweet but some people think obv this way

2020-01-25 21:51

yes Big at least #31 after DH Leipzig that is almost #1 so why no invite ESL?????

2020-01-25 17:31

#22

name checks out lmao

2020-01-25 18:26

2020-01-25 20:45

2020-01-24 18:26

RIP B SIte KEKW

they're just sent invites, nobody confirmed attending

NIP say they will play ESL league.And i think Ence too bc they post picture to ig about that

2020-01-25 08:58

NIP no longer holds any weight tho

2020-01-25 14:21

Godsent pog Btw lots of tier 3 invites (Ence, intz, Tyloo, norph,nip,VP...)

31 replies

+11111

and dont forget...tiredtality

2020-01-24 18:33

13 replies

They don't have the top1 player in the world, really no.

they are still tier 3

Top 6 in the world (2 major events won and final at ESL One Cologne and Legands status) =Tier 3 Thanks for the lesson noscener.

5 replies

sorry, i meant Tier 4, my bad

2020-01-24 18:40

pareces tonto payaso, stop baiting

2020-01-24 20:43

tu ser payaso tonto borrico. Tu ser Tier 5 in comedy

2020-01-24 20:51

Tier 2, always losing to Liquid axaxaxaxaxa

2020-01-24 18:42

That makes them tier3

2020-01-25 04:06

vitality with zywoo = tier 1.5 because of his hard carry vitality without zywoo - top50hltv mark my words, i hope some actually good international team will save zywoo and let him win the major

2020-01-24 19:21

4 replies

What's the point of saying Vita would be too 50 without ZywOo? They have him and are tier 1, nothing else matters.

2020-01-24 20:02

Tier 4...i told you already

2020-01-24 22:03

its too earlt to destroy zywoos carreer joining retirement home aka "faze"

2020-01-24 21:34

-olof +zywoo and let him awp surely at least top3 and way better team than zywoolity

2020-01-24 22:23

Ence, NiP, VP, and north probably after DH are T2 nt

Everything checks out.

ENCE #12 NiP #11 and T3, baguette brain

They only get points bcz of invites but they are level t3 at most.

baguette brain NiP is better than FaZe

LMFAO

2020-01-24 18:49

and better than shitality too. So you mean that craptality doesnt get invites? hahaha what a naaaab

2020-01-24 22:06

you really love to bait that baguette

2020-01-25 05:51

yes sir

2020-01-25 13:17

I'm happy tyloo are invited, hopefully they do well in the league. Maybe some of these tier 3 and tier 2 teams can surprise us and do well

2020-01-24 18:38

I would rather have seen Alpha Red than Tyloose.

Who? I've never heard of them are they the new #1 Chinese team?

They come from Thailand with my boy Olivia aka new prodigy. I hope they qualify for the next Major.

2020-01-24 18:48

Oh cool a Thailand team, it would be pretty cool to have more asian Cs teams around so I hope they do well too

2020-01-24 18:50

Yes rn SA (counting br teams in NA) is becoming a tier3 region so I hope Asia can overcome them.

2020-01-24 18:51

Are they all ladyboys?

2020-01-25 10:44

#DreamOG

2020-01-24 18:27

godsent POG

no dig

I think there is a rumour about that they would play in B-site

Allegedly they are signed up, yes.

2020-01-24 19:08

Pog Sad no havu :( they were so close

-sharks +havu would make the list better

Rip guardian

No Dignitas ???

OG lmao Totally undeserved

Cry

and complexity, intz, and sharks are? lmfao

they was in Pro League (qualified from MDL) so some team need to play million matches in MDL then win on MDL finals to qualify but some washed up team without any succes and 0 achievements got invited Seems fair Pro League becomes just bussines, nothing near competitive esport

It absolutely is near a competitive esport, any competitive sport is 100% a business as well as a competition. Any big league cant exist long term unless they are making money off their product.

2020-01-24 18:47

No HUNDEN???

HUNDEN in BSite league

Bsite t1 league confirmed

Only bcz HUNDEN and BIG are in it otherwise it is trash.

Yes.. Low calorie food for hunden

1 ASIAN TEAM LULW

VP?

ENCE lMAOOOOOOOOO

21 replies

complexity, intz, and sharks?

they dont deserve it aswell

2020-01-24 18:44

and OG is a big questionmark aswell

mid T3 to be fair, unlike the ones I listed which are T4 at best

2020-01-24 18:45

OG LMFAO

2020-01-24 22:22

OG>ENCE

2020-01-25 10:47

Nice joke

2020-01-25 13:48

ENCE can't even win against tier 2-3 teams

2020-01-25 13:52

Og cant even go through Open qual vs tier 5 teams

2020-01-25 13:53

11 replies

neither can ENCE :DDD

I didnt see ence losing in open qual or losing to shitgo unlike og

2020-01-25 13:54

and bo1 btw

Here goes the excuses

Just wait for ENCE vs OG bo3. Then we can see which team is better

2020-01-25 13:56

Not gonna happen if og keeps losing open qual

They are playing against each other at the Ice challenge btw.

2020-01-25 13:58

hltv.org/news/28844/ice-challenge-groups.. see

We will see then

2020-01-25 14:00

hltv.org/matches/2338868/ence-vs-mad-lio.. losing to mad lions lullulululululu

Cuz mad lions are better and deserve to be top 10, unlike og

its just not fair for ENCE to get an invite, they refuse to play the ESEA MDL season now suddenly they got an invite ESL, where all the other ESEA team worked their ass off to qualify for ESL.

2020-01-25 17:13

No Cloud9 despite ATK’s showing in the finals last time wtf is this

Cloud9 in the BSite league.

I Feel you, Clown9 supporter

His flair doesnt check out. Flag does

2020-01-24 20:15

LMAO THIS INVITES FOR THE RANKING 2019 DECEMBER wqdfqawfdqfwaq

North? Nice OG? Nice Complexity? Nice

Big orgs with trash roster who give tons of money to ESL getting invited over a deserving team like LDLC? Not nice (. _. ')

2020-01-24 18:41

I love my rich orgs 😎

I thought better of you.

can accept to the moment "over" over deserving teams like Sprout, CR4ZY, Illuminar, Spirit, HAVU, even BIG now i can accept

2020-01-24 19:19

0/8

2020-01-24 19:20

even movistar would have been a better invite than godsent lul

2020-01-24 21:50

where did i mention botsent?

2020-01-24 22:20

I mean all the teams u mentioned are all better than the worst from epl including movistar over botsent

idk what are you talking about

forget I said anything haha

Imagine dropping out of the league's little brother and then getting a direct invite lulw

Or beeing first in mdl, qualifying for epl and without even playing a single game getting drafted back to mdl (like sprout)

2020-01-24 20:59

I guess some teams decline. Sprout will take that place

2020-01-25 13:28

What is with teams like big? They had their slot in epl and just got kicked out for no reason

2020-01-25 13:30

the reason is not enough space. They changed the league and cut the teams. Someone has to get out.

2020-01-25 13:33

Yeah it's not fair. It doesn't work out. You can't just kick out teams which own the spot and get in random teams for that

2020-01-25 13:47

problem is also that it is splitted between NA and EU. if they dont split teams like Complexitiy wouldnt get an invite

2020-01-25 14:12

Also rip b-site LUL

Can't wait for OG vs ence matches !! And lol mibr

3 BR teams? KEKW atleast we know who will fill out the last place in tourney's (apart from Furia)

Surprised at that, considering the potential NA teams not on this list (e.g., GenG, eUnited, etc). Although, none of the remaining NA teams have proven anything.

Cloud9 would be the only other good NA pick, but sadly they chose the B Site League which is bullshit, skillwise the team is a lot more appropriate for this than a Tier 2/3 org and tournaments

NA EPL has always been bloated. Far too many teams for the amount & quality of talent in the region. Honestly about time they made this decision.

I agree, they should trim down the teams, as there are a lot of good talent and some free agents (Wardell) around which you could still make like 2-3 teams that could easily participate in DH Opens and stuff

Gen.g apparently in B.site, and EUnited have not looked as hot recently

2020-01-24 21:48

so MIBR skipped EPL to avoid top teams and play against shit teams in another league lmao

dignitas?? ffs

Yes and diggy

no mibr, xaxaxa they probably already confirmed at B site xDDD

Mad lions and BIG should be here lol

mad lions underrated big is bac

Yes second best danish team, fourth or third best nordic team! Big looking strong, would be a fun DH final!

2020-01-24 19:51

most of them will join B/site league

these leagues are going to kill each other

It's so dumb and most people here cheer for this kind of business.. World full of idiots who don't question the system even once

japp +1

GL TYLOO AND MOUZ

I guess they scammed detona and isurus

Sprout got scammed.

2020-01-24 19:17

Godsent pog

ENCE wasted invite

Stop inviting Godsent ffs

and complexity and og and biggest fluke ever avangar

2020-01-24 19:16

just because all these teams got invited doesn't mean all these teams accepted

yes, all accepted. mibr and c9 was the two only teams that refused the invite

2020-01-25 03:11

No. none have confirmed that they would attend. It clearly written "The following 24 teams have officially been sent an invitation to ESL Pro League Season 11, with their participation still unconfirmed and pending response at the moment:"

2020-01-25 03:58

-ENCE +MAD lions

i have heard about mad lions playing in b site

2020-01-24 19:00

Ask me a week ago whether EPL is better than the new b site project and I’d have said EPL. Not anymore though lol at this point a new league is guaranteed to be better

2020-01-24 18:56

+1 they're even bigger imbeciles than BLAST with no invitation for fnatic and mousesports

2020-01-24 19:15

INTZ ??? Sharks ??? Renegades ??? Complexity ??? Where is Movistar Riders ??????????? what a fucking joke

sharks and renegades got invited because they played last epl s10 lan finals intz NA mdl winner forze EU mdl winner and as much as I like them (mr) I have to assume that Complexity > Riders

2020-01-24 19:04

no way that Complexity > MR, and MR destroyed Complexity on praccs afaik

where can u see riders praccs?

2020-01-24 21:46

Where view pracc? Asking for friend

2020-01-24 22:25

yeh but riders is better than sharks and godsent, this is kind of a joke, the fact that even sprout, spirit and havu don't get a chance is just disgraceful

Riders better than Sharks? Tell me a better joke

2020-01-25 06:40

An Argentinian defending sharks because LukeN is there, how objective :)

2020-01-25 09:33

sharks is good, you guys had a good streak but then you dropped off, plus EU is better than SA

2020-01-25 12:02

Im not gonna argue that EU>SA because its true but riders wouldnt win a single match against sharks with meyern. We will see how they perform now that he left. I dont really trust so much in heat

2020-01-25 16:37

Yeh but meyern is gone now...you guys were sick with him but know I think you guys will have to work back to consistency, same as riders now, we have 2 new members and had a roster change 2 months ago. We're 2 good teams with a ton of potential

2020-01-25 16:45

wtf relegation teams got scammed, Sprout, HAVU, Spirit, what a BS

OG, Sharks, Complexity, INTZ, Fluke.Pro, BOTSENT got invite and they robbed Sprout, HAVU and Spirit with this fkin MDL spot?! Inviting such clowns instead of rightful owners of these slots? And no CRAZY, no Illuminar, no MAD Lions? They're mentally disabled even more than BLAST's organizers.

2020-01-24 19:14

Literally any of the top 8's in MDL could beat the first six teams you wrote down...it's horrible (except for OG they're good)

2020-01-24 21:43

none of this six teams are good

2020-01-24 22:21

very true yeah

INTZ just because they wonned the last MDL

2020-01-25 03:48

its 2020 and TOs are still inviting tyloo to shit, why also, furia, intz and sharks invites but no mibr LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

2020-01-24 19:22

chinese viewers bro

2020-01-24 19:23

vici is the better chinese team

2020-01-24 19:24

Miber is a founding team of b site which runs same time as epl. So no invite wasted on a non participating team.

2020-01-24 19:26

ah, ok, thanks

2020-01-24 19:32

intz won the ESEA MDL NA season you moran

2020-01-25 17:09

i was laughing at the fact that 3 br teams other than mibr were invited you 'moran'

2020-01-25 18:33

Let's go tyloo ezzzzz

Really? They invited VP and OG OG can't even pass through open qualifiers and VP is dead team with sanji and AdreN MAD Lions deserves this spot 10x more than OverratedG and Virtus.throw

2020-01-24 20:07

Absolutely awful. A bunch of these teams who lost their spot should be compensated.

2020-01-24 20:10

Furia is here, but BIG no...seems fair :D

2020-01-24 20:22

Teams who we're supposed to have a change at qualifying to the pro league after being one of the best teams in MDL have now been just told that they won't be able to qualify for it instead they have to go back to MDL? Seriously?

2020-01-24 20:27

yea its so dumb especially for havu who were popping off lately

2020-01-24 21:41

Well, this isnt good for the B-Site League. C9, MIBR?, more NA teams? yikes

2020-01-24 21:14

Trash format

Super unfair for sprout, spirit and havu, you just get swatted away Also, why does season 11 only have two teams going down? They're destroying the chances of many tier 2-3 teams trying to reach pro league, only allowing one team to do it, 90iq move from esl, but atleast it's not bsite

nice

2020-01-24 23:05

GODSENT LUL

So what teams will A-site and B-site have? And also none of these teams have accepted the invitation. From what I can tell with a 2 million buy in for B-site that is where the money will be at. So I guess ESL is desperate

2020-01-24 23:08

Expected for forze navi vp :)))

2020-01-24 23:52

If all of these teams confirm they want to play ESL, MIBR made a really stupid and coward move into a minor league where they will play against irrelevant teams and never have the opportunity to be trustworthy again

2020-01-25 00:21

INTZ????????? Why lol.

2020-01-25 00:23

they won the ESEA MDL NA , you moron

2020-01-25 17:16

1. If ur gonna insult someone, at least learn how to spell the word. 2. Ok, i didnt know that, so chill.

2020-01-25 17:14

Never seen an organization causing so much harm.

2020-01-25 01:16

guys, you dont know how to read? INTZ has been "invited" because they wonned the MDL north america

2020-01-25 03:50

a shoot in the foot

Fuck, undeserved slot for TYLUL

2020-01-25 04:30

I would rather see VG in the tournament, tyloo w/o betnt will not take a map.

2020-01-25 04:33

who is esl and where has she been all this time?

2020-01-25 04:39

DROP SHARKS and GODSENT IN PLACE OF TEAM DIGNITAS and BIG CLAN thats if esl wants more profit and viewers, i mean they know the fanbase of ex nip players is pretty huge!

Actually thinking that the fanbase from BIG is bigger than sharks LMAO

2020-01-25 06:37

How to become hated by the community? ESL knows it perfectly. Absolutely horrendous, they don't respect teams who fairly won their spot at the next season, simply because they're greedy and incredibly stupid.

2020-01-25 05:31

But ESL knows in CSGO people still watch their tournaments. It is abusive of power probably, but also the most teams know without ESL thex wouldnt get that salary or a paycheck at all. ESL got also many hates in Dota for false DMCA reports. Valve needed to make a statement. They got also hat in wc3 cuz they literally stole the wc3l from another website. ESL has a long history but in the end of the day people watch their tournaments.

2020-01-25 12:46

Dignitas? ,

2020-01-25 09:39

>OG >Complexity FACK THIS SHIT RICH ORG

2020-01-25 10:21

I don't even mind that much them changing things up and kicking teams out if they felt pressure to change their league but way they handled the matter seem to have been totally amateurish and pathetic, apparently teams who they have kicked out and denied playing relegations had absolutely no idea that was going to happen as their communication with these teams was non existent, what a fucking joke.

2020-01-25 10:46

In my opinion, if you are strictly thinking about business, ESLs actions could actually lead to law suits.

2020-01-29 16:28

rip mibr

2020-01-25 11:05

No dignitas, lol trash event

2020-01-25 11:17

Promising tournament if those teams accept! I look forward to it.

2020-01-25 12:17

Where is MAD Lions???

2020-01-25 12:55

expected. wide parts of csgo is a minus bizz for everyone except players and team owners who plunder their orgs. why would organizers do huge leagues and events when 70 80% of matches dont have the needed viewers. future events and tours will only include the top 16-20 international brands with a more or less relevant range in social media, ecommerce etc.

2020-01-25 13:27

Well played ENCE. Didn't have to waste their time on the shitty MDL but got the spot they deserve.

2020-01-25 14:34

they dont deserve shit lol, theyre fucking bad

2020-01-25 15:06

Its completely unfair to the team that tried their ass off to qualify but team like ENCE that left ESEA MDL in the middle coz they don't want to complete suddenly got at invite to season 12. Thats complete disrespect to smaller team.

2020-01-25 17:06