ESL Pro League Season 20ESL Pro League Season 20 teams, format, schedule, talent, prizes, fantasy
Nearly three weeks straight of Counter-Strike are set to kick off in a matter of days.
ESL Pro League Season 20 is slated to kick off on September 3, with 32 teams split across four groups vying for the lion's share of the Maltese event's $750,000 prize pool, culminating in the BO5 grand final on September 22.
The twentieth bout of ESL Pro League will feature most of the world's highest-ranked sides thanks to their ESL World Ranking or partner team status, with SAW and paiN being the most notable teams to miss out, in addition to various regional representatives such as ATOX, Lynn Vision, and Wildcard, among others.
Participating teams and format
The 32 teams in attendance have been separated into four triple-elimination groups, with four sides from each group making it into the playoffs to produce a 16-team playoff bracket.
Teams will be rewarded for their group stage placings with byes in the playoffs; the winner of the group will start directly in the quarter-finals, the second-place team in the second round of playoffs, and the third and fourth-place teams in the first round.
The playoffs, played in a studio environment with only a minuscule crowd, will be in the form of a BO3 single-elimination bracket leading up to the BO5 final.
Group A will kick off ESL Pro League Season 20, headlined by IEM Cologne runner-ups Natus Vincere alongside FaZe as the group favorites. Eternal Fire and HEROIC also stand out as other playoff contenders in the group, with the former side just coming off of a second-place finish at BetBoom Dacha Season 2.
Group B touts the presence of G2 and Spirit, with the latter side in particular hoping to manage a solid showing at a top event after a dreadful last-place finish at IEM Cologne. Those two sides are supplemented by the presence of The MongolZ and 9z, who will also be looking to make up for disappointing Cologne showings.
Group C features MOUZ, the back-to-back reigning ESL Pro League champions, who recently endured a third-place finish at BetBoom Dacha Season 2 after a surprising loss to Eternal Fire. Joining MOUZ in Group C are names like Astralis, Imperial and, Complexity, with the lattermost side set to play domestic opponent M80 in their opening match.
Rounding out ESL Pro League Season 20's participants are the members of Group D, featuring IEM Cologne champions Vitality, alongside Virtus.pro, Liquid, and Falcons. Group D will also see Marcelo "coldzera" David's RED Canids employ newly-acquired AWPer Henrique "HEN1" Teles for the first time on LAN since joining the squad.
The team list for EPL Season 20 is:
Opening matches
Below are the opening matches for each of the four groups. You can visit the event page here to examine the schedule and dive into the potential group-stage matchups.
Group A
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 03/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 03/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 03/09/2024 |
16:30
|
Match |
| 03/09/2024 |
16:40
|
Match |
Group B
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 03/09/2024 |
19:30
|
Match |
| 03/09/2024 |
19:55
|
Match |
| 04/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 04/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
Group C
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 10/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 10/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 10/09/2024 |
17:10
|
Match |
| 10/09/2024 |
19:30
|
Match |
Group D
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| ESL Pro League Season 20 | ||
| 10/09/2024 |
16:50
|
Match |
| 10/09/2024 |
20:10
|
Match |
| 11/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
| 11/09/2024 |
13:30
|
Match |
Broadcast talent
ESL Pro League Season 20 will be employing a number of familiar faces, with casting pairs like Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill and Alex "Machine" Richardson, and Harry "JustHarry" Russell and Hugo "Hugo" Byron being mainstays in the tournament organizer's circuit. The on-site talent in Malta will also be supported by a remote B stream, featuring names like Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam and Adam "Dinko" Hawthorne.
A stream
Tres "stunna" Saranthus
Freya "Freya" Spiers Jason "moses" O'Toole
Janko "YNk" Paunović
Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez Harry "JustHarry" Russell Hugo "Hugo" Byron Henry "HenryG" Greer
Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill Alex "Machine" Richardson Geordie "Mac" McAleer
B stream Mike "DarfMike" Winnick
Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam Adam "Dinko" Hawthorne Cole "xner" McHenry
Prize pool
The prize distribution is:
1. $170,000
2. $80,000
3-4. $45,000
5-8. $32,000
9-12. $23,500
13-16. $17,500
17-20. $12,000
21-28. $7,000
29-32. $3,500
Fantasy
The fantasy game combining groups A and B of EPL Season 20 is now live, featuring a new booster that allows users to guarantee that one of their players will get exactly zero points when used. You can sign up on the Fantasy page here.
In addition to season points, the following prizes will also be up for grabs in the first fantasy game of EPL Season 20:
1. Hydra Gloves | Mangrove (Field-Tested)
2. AK-47 | Neon Rider (Field-Tested)
3. AWP | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)
On-site coverage
HLTV will be providing you with on-the-ground coverage of ESL Pro League Season 20 starting in the playoffs, with writer Arron "Dempz" Dempsey collecting interviews while Josip "brcho" Brtan captures all the action in photos.
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Alejandro 'alex' Masanet
Matúš 'MATYS' Šimko
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Tiago 'JUST' Moura
Adam 'adamS' Marian
Santino 'try' Rigal Mathieu 'Maniac' Quiquerez
Maximiliano 'max' Gonzalez
Matias 'HUASOPEEK' Ibañez Hernandez
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Michael 'chelleos' Hawkins
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius
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