ESL Pro League 21 Stage 2 first-round matches set

Eight new teams, including Spirit and Vitality, are entering the fray in Stage 2.

The second ESL Pro League Season 21 stage is set to kick off on Friday, March 7, with eight opening round matches kicking off the Swiss group stage.

Eight new teams will start their ESL Pro League journeys as the top seeds in the Swiss group stage: Spirit, Vitality, The MongolZ, MOUZ, Falcons, Liquid, G2, and Natus Vincere.

They will be joined by the teams that made it through the first stage of competition: GamerLegion, paiN, Eternal Fire, 3DMAX, FURIA, SAW, MIBR, and TYLOO.

The invited teams and Stage 1 teams will play each other in the opening round on March 7 in a Swiss stage that will conclude with three decider matches on Tuesday, March 11, after five days of play. Most matches in the opening round will include an invited team against a Stage 1 team, with the exceptions of Eternal Fire vs. 3DMAX and Liquid vs. Falcons, as per the team seeding.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 21
07/03/2025	Vitality 10:30 MIBR	Match
07/03/2025	Spirit 10:40 TYLOO	Match
07/03/2025	The MongolZ 13:00 GamerLegion	Match
07/03/2025	Eternal Fire 13:30 3DMAX	Match
07/03/2025	Natus Vincere 15:30 SAW	Match
07/03/2025	MOUZ 15:45 FURIA	Match
07/03/2025	G2 18:15 paiN	Match
07/03/2025	Falcons 19:25 Liquid	Match

The starting time/match order is provisional and will be confirmed at a later time.

The eight-team playoffs will then get going on March 13 after a day of rest and will conclude on Sunday, March 16, when the champion is crowned in the best-of-five grand final.

Natus Vincere are this edition's defending champions after winning EPL Season 20, but they are yet to lift a trophy in 2025 as Spirit won BLAST Bounty, Vitality were victorious at IEM Katowice, and MOUZ raised the trophy at PGL Cluj-Napoca, which NAVI decided to skip.