What we know (and think we know) about ESL Pro League and B Site

30-1-2020 00:05

The ongoing war between ESL Pro League and B Site has been hitting headlines this month with all sorts of official and unconfirmed information, so let's clear up the confusion with a rundown of everything we know and think we know about the two competing leagues.

If you've been following CS:GO news, reports, and social media over the past few weeks, it was impossible not to notice an ongoing competition between ESL Pro League and a fresh player on the tournament organizer front called "B Site", a new league that is still in the works and will, by all accounts, run on similar dates as EPL, which essentially makes the two mutually exclusive.

ESL Pro League and B Site — let's break down what we know

With around a month to go before the two leagues kick off and official information about them being scarce and difficult to find, we figured it would help clear up some the confusion if we compiled everything that has been revealed from official sources and reported unofficially.

ESL Pro League

The long-standing ESL Pro League has undergone a variety of changes for 2020 and will be looking vastly different compared to the previous version, which began with a regular portion regionally — in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania —, with each region feeding a number of sides into the 16-team finals. That will no longer be the case from Season 11 onwards.

Instead, a total of 24 teams from all around the world will gather in one place (the location is unknown at this time) for four weeks, which will see them distributed into four best-of-three round-robin groups of six in the regular season. Group winners will earn a place in the late stages of playoffs, while second and third-placed teams will be seeded in an earlier stage. When the competition is narrowed down to just six teams, it will move on to an arena for a three-day event, which will culminate with a best-of-five grand final — similarly to the playoffs of the previous finals.

The 24 participants have not yet been confirmed exactly. ESL has so far released a list of 24 teams who have been offered a spot, but that doesn't necessarily mean all of them will accept. They are:

All we know for certain is that teams who made it to the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals were invited. However, up to 16 of the participants will reportedly be "Member teams" (these are, in essence, spots owned by organizations who commit to form a long-term partnership with ESL that is meant to extend beyond just ESL Pro League), while the rest of the list seems to feature the winners of the last MDL season, FORZE and INTZ, and the highest-ranked teams next in line according to the ESL World Ranking.

We know little about how relegation will work outside of the fact that MDL will stay as a part of the system, but a leaked preliminary document from Dexerto showed that the plan was to offer the Member teams protection from relegation — unless they place last in their group in three out of four consecutive seasons, in which case they could be voted out of the league.

If you find yourself thinking, 'But where are MIBR and Cloud9?', they are not on the list because the two organizations are believed to be a part of B Site. You might also notice plenty of other omissions when it comes to participants of the last Pro League season in one region or another who have been left out, such as BIG, Sprout, HellRaisers, Singularity, Envy, and more.

Much to their sorrow and protest, they have all been demoted to MDL and will only get a chance to requalify for Season 12. The omissions and the late timing ESL chose to communicate this drastic change to the snubbed teams have caused a stir in the scene, and the tournament organizer has since issued an apology for not letting the teams affected know their fate earlier.

"B Site"

First of all, that term is not even the official name the league will go by, in the end. The people behind B Site have been keeping their cards close to their chest, waiting to finalize all the details before making any announcements, so we have been left with finding out pieces of information either through reports or from the mouths of some of the individuals who hold key positions in the project: Dan Fiden, president of Cloud9, Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields, who is involved on some executive level as Creative Director, and Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat from the position of a spokesperson.

Produced by FACEIT (but not to be confused with ECS), B site will reportedly start with a month-long regular season featuring three tournaments in Los Angeles, with LAN finals in Europe (and further alternating between Europe and North America) at the end. The exact format is unknown, but we at least know that there will be a double-elimination mechanic, which Semmler called "brutal and very entertaining".

B Site has mainly been advertised as offering a better revenue share model than ESL Pro League due to the majority of the teams essentially being the owners of the entire project. Ten out of a total of 12 spots in it are planned to be owned by organizations who buy in for $2 million, with the remaining two spots awarded through some form of open qualifiers. Six of the 10 organizations have already committed, and even though their identity hasn't been made official, reports say they are the following:

The rest is still undetermined as B Site continues its efforts to persuade some of the best teams in the world to join in.

MIBR are so far the biggest name in B Site after leaving Pro League

A key element that has been revealed is that none of the franchised teams will be in danger of relegation, but they will be incentivized to be competitive due to the threat of a whopping $100,000 monthly fine applicable in case they fall out of the top 20 of a ranking administered by the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA). What ranking that will be is unclear at the moment, but Dan Fiden has stressed that it will be neutral to the league and will have a completely transparent methodology.

Another selling point B Site-involved individuals have often endorsed is the entertainment side and introduction of new shoulder content, which is going to be led by Thorin as Creative Director and member of the on-air team. In fact, the talent lineup is one of the few details we have had confirmed up until now when it comes to the league, and that lineup is:

Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat
Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares
Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields
Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles
Freya Spiers

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume — Caster
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole — Caster
Daniel "⁠ddk⁠" Kapadia — Caster
James "⁠BARDOLPH⁠" Bardolph — Caster

For now, that is all we know and have heard. More details are sure to come in the following days and weeks as we close in on the kick-off of ESL Pro League and B Site.

If you'd like to hear more on the topic from Semmler, who acts as a spokesperson for B Site, make sure to watch the latest episode of HLTV Confirmed (also available in audio), where the veteran commentator spoke at length about the league and his involvement.

We are currently in discussions with a representative from ESL, whom we are also hoping to bring on the podcast to clarify the tournament organizer's perspective of the changes to Pro League.

i know nothing yet

2020-01-30 00:05

24 replies

Who else doesn’t care and just wants good cs

23 replies

2020-01-30 00:06

1 reply

where big where dignitas ? ? -shark -renegades where big where dignitas ? ? -shark -renegades where big where dignitas ? ? -shark -renegades where big where dignitas ? ? -shark -renegades where big where dignitas ? ? -shark -renegades

2020-01-30 12:03

Like if you agree

2020-01-30 00:08

2020-01-30 00:11

yep

2020-01-30 00:13

this will probably not result in "good CS" it means that outside of the Major teams are less likely to play each other when they signed with different leagues. basically the whole scene will be split up and inside the leagues there will be less competition because some team won't drop out even after a bad performance as they are "members".

2020-01-30 00:23

6 replies

+1 kids don't understand that these greedy asses with their stupid exclusive leagues and buyable league spots (wtf) are hindering the competition overall and they limit "top tier" accessibility for lower and upcoming teams with this shit. worst thing what can happen to cs

2020-01-30 00:57

5 replies

Yes, exactly. Now even ESL adopted the same ill model as Blast and B site is even worse. CS future isn't bright. Hopefully Valve will step in and kill these efforts by starting it's own league as a qualification to majors. Though I don't have much hope. Valve is very unfocused company.

2020-01-30 07:18

3 replies

I like how everyone blames greediness, but in reality we the viewers are. We fucked over billion dollar deals for ESL on Youtube (1000% better than twitch quality wise) and twitch (I do understand shit didn't work sometimes for me). We also demand to have tournaments for free. How the fuck do you think this scene is going to continue without some kind of reform? Maybe if we the viewers aren't cheap pieces of shit this wouldnt have happened. If we didn't cry about that Youtube deal that happened and just watched on the better platform then this dogshit would have never happened and we still got to watch good CS without even having to spend money because youtube is doing that for us. Reflection is an important aspect of life do it more

2020-01-30 10:01

2 replies

Perhaps everyone invested too much into csgo. With Complexity paying their players $1m, you know something is wrong. Everyone needs to spend less.

2020-01-30 17:13

easier said than done. There is the issue with VC money causing stupid inflations. This is generally a VC tactic in which they pump in so much money to the point everything crashes and they by things for pennies on the dollar. The scene in generally took in too much money. The devs mostly do fuck all to help it out and the fans dont help much either.

2020-01-30 23:15

2020-01-31 00:37

+1 but also, these changes do influence whether there will be a lot of good cs so we should actually care. We basically have to hope this shit will not fuck us over too much as fans.

2020-01-30 00:30

2020-01-30 01:22

If you want good cs then you should care. ESL are fucking over all of the lower echelon teams which they have previously promoted. 'Developing regions,' etc. Now that money is tight they don't give a shit about developing the scene and just want that cash and are still pushing for exclusivity by making teams commit for 3+ years. ESL's model is untenable in the long term and they are starting to feel it. And they kicked the teams that ALREADY had worked for getting a spot cos ESL can't afford to run such a large operation anymore. ESL should pay all these teams that they kicked some sort of compensation. In any real sport they would be forced to pay these teams. Teams had plans around their participation in the EPL and now they are fucked cos ESL decided to randomly cut them. In some cases teams had already worked through the MDL into the EPL and now ESL decided that they aren't big enough names and relegated them BACK to the MDL. This is some wild west bullshit. Esports is still a joke in so many ways.

2020-01-30 10:34

7 replies

no yea i agree 100% im just saying i dont care about the 827515 tings ppl are posting about it.

2020-01-30 13:56

ESL run their own league, they make the rules. If they're convinced reducing the number of teams is the way to go, it's their right. If ESL had changed the rules of this season to announce, in advance, how many teams would keep a spot in the next season and according to what criteria, nobody would have been able to complain. Or they could have dropped the ESL Pro League name and launched a new league under a new name with 24 invited teams, and again, nobody could have really faulted them for it. Would the end result have been any different ? No. MDL still exists and we can hope they will, in time, address the remaining questions (no MDL for Latin America, how will the relegation/promotion work between MDL and EPL, etc). What are other TOs doing to bring exposure for Tier 2 / Tier 3 teams ? ESL certainly isn't perfect (their lack of communication towards dropped team was appaling), but it's still the best we've got in many aspects. [Full disclosure : some of the points above are copy/pasted from my own post on Confirmed last episode's page]

2020-01-30 14:33

It literally amazes me how no one gets the point that faceit just closed ecs meaning that all those teams that participated (including those lower ranked) aren’t part of it anymore but should instead invest 2 million into another league. There’s not even a chance to qualify for ecs any longer so all teams suddenly lose this prior source of income just because faceit decides to go with b site. Maybe ESL should just close “pro league” and rebrand it to ”a site” with 24 teams so that people can be happy again. It’s more or less b sites aggressiveness (why use same dates as ESL?) that forced EPL to reduce its teams to 24 so that ESL could to make a competitive offer to the top teams.

2020-01-31 00:42

4 replies

ECS ended. The last season finished. The next season didn't start. No one was guaranteed anything. Also faceit don't own the b-site league. They were just hired to do a job - host a tournament. And there will be a way to qualify for b-site through an open qualifier.

2020-01-31 09:04

Yeah, still doesn’t explain the logic behind scheduling event dates so that it’s either EPL or b site. Also b site promotes exclusivity based on the limited slots available (pretty much the opposite of what esl did with EPL). If the top teams would sign with b site, then epl is pretty much history. No idea who would want that. So it only makes sense that esl countered the aggressive move of b site by limiting their slots.

2020-01-31 10:59

We weren't even talking about scheduling but whatever. There are loads of tournaments going on at all times, you have to schedule them at some point, there will surely be another tournament going on at the same time. B-site will only lose out by scheduling at the same time as ESL because as of right now EPL is much more prestigious than b-site. Limiting slots is fine. What is not fine is taking slots away from teams that had already earned them. B-site never attacked ESL in any way. ESL 'countered' because they are scared of competition and are realizing their business model is not viable long term. If ESL was confident all they had to do was ignore b-site and any other competitors and keep doing what they were doing as they were and still are as of this moment the top dog on the circuit. Cologne is still the most prestigious tournament and together with DreamHack MTG runs like 70% of the circuit.

2020-01-31 11:32

Maybe check your facts. Its not only scheduling for the same time but actively targeting (only) EPL by locking in pro teams: m.youtube.com/watch?v=NQIe7zgb_w8 mobile.twitter.com/Thooorin/status/12225.. That’s a direct attack. You can find more on this on thoorins Twitter btw. And I guess if ECS is allowed to just close down their league without a big fuss (given that its their league and decision) its the same with ESL reducing EPL slots (as its their league and decision). They can essentially do as they please.

2020-01-31 12:16

+1111111111111111

2020-01-31 20:06

24 teams army against 6 team army (3 of them are actually fresh teams). Of course ESL will be more enjoyable. Everyone will talk about ESL, no matter what were the negative changes. But B site league can make a good competitive step in the future. Although right now it seem like DH Masters and DH Open battle.

2020-01-30 00:09

12 replies

Clearly you havent watched the movie 300.

2020-01-30 00:10

Wow, I actually didn't. But it is in my list to watch for many years now. Since it is a first recommendation from The Martin himself, I will watch this one as the next movie I'll watch.

2020-01-30 00:12

Although in reality I heard it was completely different than the movie.

2020-01-30 00:14

Most likely they got wasted pretty fast :D

rofl

2020-01-30 00:24

Thorin is "creative director" yea, no fucking thank you lol... how on earth did he land that job? unqualified is an understatement

2020-01-30 00:28

+11111111 You couldn't have said it better!

2020-01-30 02:26

fanservice? the stupid thorin and the mercenary semmler.

2020-01-30 02:30

Were your feelings hurt by something he said in the past? 😥

2020-01-30 07:58

I actually expect good things from him

2020-01-30 12:44

+1 I think its a great idea by B Site to recruit Thorin as creative director. We'll get some sick content for sure.

2020-01-31 01:29

Did you read the article? 24 teams were INVITED. None of them have agreed to participate, as far as we know. This is the bullshit ESL are trying to push and you are falling it.

2020-01-30 10:38

INTZ, Sharks and Renegades. Totally undeserved.

lol intz are better than VP and GODSENT, that's for sure

2020-01-30 00:15

How so? Both Sharks and Renegades made EPL Season 10 finals, why shouldn't they have a place in the league? And INTZ won their spot through MDL. All of these teams had to play to earn a spot in the league. If you want to talk about teams who don't deserve it, look at Godsent, OG, VP and Ence, who all got to jump ahead of teams who had a rightfully earned place in the league.

2020-01-30 00:47

Cry - - - - > \_____/

2020-01-30 02:27

But Grenades have god dexteR

2020-01-30 07:06

Smells like B-site will get lower ranked teams, why don't they move the date?

2020-01-30 00:25

I really don't know. Surely if they hosted at different times there wouldn't be this tug of war between them both and they could both have the best teams...

2020-01-30 15:03

don't care, will still watch EPL over anything faceit

Reveal prizepool and maybe some of the teams will accept the invitation right away.

> With around a month to go before the two leagues kick off and official information about them being scarce and difficult to find. We are a month away and B-site doesn't have an announced name/brand/marketing, league structure, or (any) confirmed team list. Whereas, EPL is slightly better in having everything but a confirmed team list and some angry group of lower-level players/team/redditors. Meanwhile, The ESL Pro Tour (Katowice, Cologne, etc.), Major, and Blast have had all of these things in places for months now... What is the purpose of these leagues again? Random Wednesday afternoon content?

2020-01-30 00:27

ESL will win

2020-01-30 00:29

So mibr basiclly owns b site? Nice

2020-01-30 00:39

B Site OMEGALUL

2020-01-30 00:55

Finaly Some Change

2020-01-30 00:58

Thank you Striker, very cool!

2020-01-30 01:03

B Site league is for complete losers. And I say that being a fan of MIBR. Look at those teams, ffs. It was created as a hideout for trash teams, where they can compete exclusively against each other in order to claim they've "won a tournament", because they simply can't compete against ESL main teams. B Site is a shame (despite some good, probably mercenary casters)

2020-01-30 01:04

M16R PepeLaugh

im interested in b-site because it will kind of serve as an academy league to EPL where all the shit teams go

2020-01-30 01:09

An academy you have to pay 2 millions to enter.

2020-01-30 08:03

20 teams from pro league will compose the top 20

true dat

2020-01-30 01:59

I’ m trying to understand why the are creating a B-site, look like players want a better participation on the revenue, if so this is a very fair motivation! Maybe in the beginning organizations will pressure players to continue competing at ESL, this can change in the future when players will deserve to be part of B-site teams! Give-me your opinion, have you hear something about it?

2020-01-30 01:42

Leagues suck we just need lots of grand slam tournaments

2020-01-30 01:50

B Shite

Hopefully this doesn't kill the tier 2 and lower CSGO scene

2020-01-30 01:52

ez mibr

2020-01-30 02:01

How do the other 3 Brazilian teams receive an invite to ESL Pro League over MIBR? Sure, MIBR hasn't been doing as good as they have in previous years, but I'm shocked that Sharks and INTZ got into ESL Pro League over MIBR.

2020-01-30 03:28

What? MIBR chose B-Site, that's all.

2020-01-30 03:50

MIBR didn't make the cut for the 24 teams in ESL Pro League? Or so I thought because when they cut it down from 48 to 24 teams, those 24 teams were set in stone unless any of them decided to not participate.

2020-01-30 05:17

Pretty sure MIBR chose "B site" early on, if the rumors and reports speak true. No point in inviting a team if they already committed to another league where the schedules would clash. And ESL probably got a lot more inside information so they'd know if this was the case.

2020-01-30 09:04

Ah okay then, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying :)

2020-01-31 08:10

MIBR partnered with B site Im pretty sure

2020-01-30 13:28

poor BnTeT have to compete against tier 9999 team again,

2020-01-30 03:49

Even if those are the teams, in season two half of them will leave esl for the "easier" competition in b site and it will even the leagues.

I'm standing up for B-site cuz they have Freya Spiers - the prettiest woman in esports i swear uk woman are not that hot, but Freya is exceptional

2020-01-30 07:21

You need to get out of your moms house

2020-01-30 09:59

Good article!

2020-01-30 07:30

At this point I just can see any reason at all as to why I should be watching B-site instead of the EPL. Nor do I see any reason why any real top team would ever get involved with it.

2020-01-30 07:37

not reading

2020-01-30 07:50

> a better revenue share model than ESL Pro League At least now we know why old NiP folks got back together.

2020-01-30 07:51

B Site so bad. It`s only about money. What a competition. When you have paid 2 millions, you are in. And if you suck, you dont get kicked because the viewers deserve to watch the best team, you have to pay more money to B Site. LOL this is not about sport and competition. it`s a fcking management-simulation where it`s only about a calculation if your brand scales with the investment to be seen in this buy-in-league or not.

2020-01-30 08:12

yes exactly, this "league" is a joke lol

2020-01-30 12:11

A good incentive to play the mdl league could be a bigger prize pool imo :()

2020-01-30 08:52

Where are HenryG and Sadokist ????

2020-01-30 11:04

B-site: Mibr, Cloud 9, Gen-G and some other useless orgs, some already gone like Singularity. Also, it's a mistery that mibr is working with Thorin, a guy that refers to brasilians as "monkeys", not to say he is an absolute oxygen waste and a sorry excuse of a human being; Pro-League with all the one's we love to see: Astralis, NiP, Fnatic, G2, Vita, EG and so on... B-Site still didn't come alive and it's already dead... What a joke!

2020-01-30 12:04

So coming from a market that the game needs a boost in order to pay people, you side with the people offering the least opportunities for up and coming teams? Not to mention all the shit with stripping teams that earned spots for WESA teams that are placed there because ESL board members have stakes in the teams.

2020-01-30 14:24

Needs a boost? What do you mean? Do you actually know what is being paid, return, etc? Anyway, let's say: agreed! Isn't there a CSPPA to work that subject? Shouldn't be the players defending, demanding, by themselves near ESL and then, and only then, get alternatives going eventually on their own? Do you really think, viewers wise, that we want to choose between 2 eventual big events (let's imagine B-Site going "big") and prevent fans from seing the most possible matches? Finally Thorin on B-Site... Is there really anyone with such a sad life that allows himself to have that garbage on any project?

2020-01-30 14:38

You are making assumptions about Bsite even though nothing official yet, From what has been said, it looks to pay players better and allow orgs to actually earn in the scene in another way than pure marketing. And choosing between events is not new at all, there have been multiple TO's in the space fighting like dogs for weekends to run tournaments this changes nothing there And yes I do know it "needs a boost" we In SA are the most prominent CS scene on on the continent and pros/orgs here do not earn anywhere near a descent living wage and have jobs on the side to stay alive. I dont see the rest of the continent being any different if not worse, best sponsorship deals they can look at past the top 3 is peripherals if they are lucky. As for Thorin, think what you want of him, but he has always had whats better for the entire scene in his mind, and you will say yes to his own benefit, and you'd be right, but we must see that his earning potential is semi fixed the scene as a whole so I doubt he would back a project that would damage CS long term. Long story short we should all be supporting both and see who does a better job, B site may not have the teams yet, but if they run a solid season and the teams that play earn better then best believe more of those big names you want to see will be moving over.

2020-01-30 14:54

Don't take me wrong. I 100% agree on turning conditions better for the actors. However, I must insist: CSPPA should lead that quest without the need of having another org spliting teams and talents. Never forget that fans and viewers are the strongest reason for this game reaching so high. Regarding Thorin, I absolutely agree! Unfortunately, as a human being, is an absolute trash that should be renamed for Adolf...

2020-01-30 18:35

I fully agree with you man

2020-01-31 01:31

Completely agreed, mate

2020-01-30 16:10

interesting

2020-01-30 13:20

talent is the only advantage of b-site i am interested in what content they can produce but i'm already uninterested in who would win the tournament

2020-01-30 14:55

expected

2020-01-30 15:33

tldr: ESL has the teams and B-site has the talent

2020-01-30 15:54

Yeah, sadly. ESL will have great teams to look at but no Black DDK. Black DDK what the world needs in casting.

2020-01-30 19:07

we know that now

2020-01-30 16:00

MonteCristo Pog

2020-01-30 16:08

Reveal prizepool

2020-01-30 17:25

so there is a sizeable possibility that every team in b site has to pay a $100k fine every single month to the league. nice investment.

2020-01-30 20:30

2020-02-01 10:57

yes "but they will be incentivized to be competitive due to the threat of a whopping $100,000 monthly fine applicable in case they fall out of the top 20 of a ranking administered by the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association" most teams wont be in top 20

2020-02-01 15:23

bruh u rlly think geng/dignitas would join this league if it were like that?These players have no place in top20 hltv ranking and players,orgs and B site knows that.It will be different ranking,different penalties etc

2020-02-01 15:27

Man ESl is such a shaddy TO. The royaly screwed those 24 teams over. They already qualified and now they have to qualify again??? What is stopping ESL from kicking them out again next year???? This is disgusting and shameful. B site might not have the best teams yet but i the talents they got are amazing. If they cant get atliest 2 more decent teams will not be worth it for me though.

2020-01-30 21:39

If Astralis, Mouse/FNC, TL/EG, Navi joins B Site as the last 4 teams then B Site will win it easily, they have the talent and they have hit ESL enough while they are down I don't like ESL after how they screwed 24 teams who practiced so hard to get into EPL without any notice

2020-02-01 10:56