ESL Pro League Season 22 invites announced*

8-7-2025 20:47

20 of the 24 teams to compete in ESL Pro League Season 22 are now known.

ESL has unveiled the invites for ESL Pro League Season 22, which is set to kick off with Stage 1 on September 27. 24 teams will come together in Stockholm, Sweden to contest the event, with a total prize pool of $1,000,000 up for grabs.

ESL also announced the invites for the four regional closed qualifiers that will decide the final teams to attend ESL Pro League Season 22.

Six LAN events to prepare invites as Valve releases July ranking update

The entirety of the top 15 teams in the global VRS as of July have accepted invites, with one through to eight set to start in Stage 2 whilst the rest enter the tournament in Stage 1.

Five teams have been invited due to their success in their respective region's ESL Challenger League: Lynn Vision, B8, NRG, Fluxo, and Rooster.

The final four teams to attend ESL Pro League will come from closed qualifiers in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. Said qualifiers will take place between July 11-19.

Stage 2

Stage 1

Europe closed qualifier

Liquid
ex-

Open Qualifier

Open Qualifier

South America closed qualifier

Open Qualifier

Open Qualifier

North America closed qualifier

Open Qualifier

Open Qualifier

Asia closed qualifier

Open Qualifier

Open Qualifier

Teams that declined invites are:

EU: Ninjas in Pyjamas, ECSTATIC, BIG, BetBoom, Spirit Academy, HOTU, Betclic, SAW, Nexus, CYBERSHOKE, Johnny Speeds, BC.Game, and Tricked.

NA: Complexity, Wildcard, FlyQuest RED, Chicken Coop, Nouns, ex-LAG.

SA: paiN, MIBR, FURIA fe, and GameHunters.

Asia: TYLOO, FlyQuest, Rare Atom, Eruption, Akimbo, Just Swing, Gods Reign, Only One Word, Akimbo, MANTRA, and KZG. ATOX were not eligible for an invite due to a ban from ESIC.

23:25 : ESL has updated the list on their website with changes to North America since the time of publication.

JiJieHao competing in the European Closed Qualifers is so wrong. Give me a European passport and I'll accept it

2025-07-08 20:51

5 replies

better for them ping wise I guess, or if they preferred Asia they couldve done as HOTU did and decline to play Asian open qualifiers instead

2025-07-08 21:01

They wanted to I guess? Btw. How the fck they invite 9 pandas without roster but not any polish squad? They invite sashi when Betclic is higher in the Valve ranking than them.

2025-07-09 10:27

3 replies

Betclic denied their invite.

2025-07-09 11:06

2 replies

I am freaking blind, I checked this part XD thanks mens)))

2025-07-09 11:15

1 reply

yw mens polish mountain

2025-07-09 11:22

col???

2025-07-08 20:50

7 replies

The NA closed qualifier takes place during IEM Cologne so they can't attend. (Honestly incredibly stupid from ESL's part but I digress)

2025-07-08 20:53

6 replies

that is so ass

2025-07-08 20:58

Says closed qualifiers would be 7/11 to 7/19, Cologne starts on 7/23. I think it is Fissure that runs at the same time.

2025-07-08 20:59

Fissure is the 15-19th I believe so that makes sense

2025-07-08 21:16

Col are higher ranked than NRG so they denied the direct invite

2025-07-08 22:49

No, NRG won ECL S49 NA, that's why they are attending.

2025-07-08 23:19

oh oops, i should learn to read

2025-07-09 00:18

NIP declined????? Welcome to EU, Team Liquid

it s gonna be great to see liquid get smashed in the qualifier

2025-07-08 20:54

Tricked and Ecstatic? awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

nice

2025-07-08 20:52

Liquid not even on stage 1 XD.

Ex-NaVi Junior. As if they aren't being sold by navi right now to the highest bidder?

Thats why they are being called Ex Navi junior bozo. Deal hasnt been finalized so they arent going to use the new ORG name. Also, would they even be allowed to participate otherwise? Considering NAVI main roster is in stage 2

surely that has to happen before the tournament begins

2025-07-08 21:15

It doesn't

2025-07-08 21:30

navi can't field 2 rosters at the same tournament

2025-07-09 02:20

Kind of feels wrong when the team, all 5 of it's players (or in that case 4, I guess) is contracted to the org still, the org pays them salaries, but you can just go "Nah, we are currently selling them and they will not be representing us if it falls through, we will make them use "ex-" or some other non-affiliated tag, even though we pay them salary and will look for another buyer in the meantime". That's the same kind of mental gymnastics that you have to do to say that Outsiders weren't Virtus.pro IMO, if the deal falls through, then NaVi Junior should either not play or NaVi should terminate their contract if they want to let them play to avoid possiblle CoI. But I guess then their result won't raise their price if it's good.

2025-07-09 08:52

Deal isn't finalized which means it might fall through.

2025-07-08 21:31

Liquid in the closed qualifier lul.

2025-07-08 20:56

9pandas doesnt even have a team how do they get invited

Their core got invited, they probably will play under an orgless moniker. That core is still a top 50 team, so they still get invites, even if they mostly decline them.

2025-07-08 21:28

liquid gonna lose to jijiehao in close qualifier grand final

cinema

2025-07-09 11:09

Why would NIP, paiN, COL, Tyloo, and Flyquest decline????

2025-07-08 20:57

4 replies

Pain, Col and Tyloo are playing in Fissure which runs same time as qualifiers. Not sure on NIP or FLY.

2025-07-08 21:00

Do they think they will get more points from fissure vs playing in Pro League? That makes no sense

2025-07-08 21:09

first of all they were only invited to the qualifier to EPL second of all, yes, both are 1kk prize pool and fissure doesn't have any of the top teams so obviously more chances of getting better results there

2025-07-08 21:19

#31 is correct. Fissure is the same tier LAN as IEM Cologne in Valve's eyes (tier 1) with a giant prizepool, and only one top ten team playing. Your choice is that or playing an open qualifier for Pro League. Might not get as many chances to beat top teams and get more VRS that way, but definitely have a chance at placing higher and getting more prizemoney from Fissure.

2025-07-08 22:29

Why did so many teams decline

Complexity, paiN, MIBR, SAW, BIG, BETBOOM, TYLOO, and RARE ATOM all declined their invites to play at FISSURE instead. Betclic Apogee and Game Hunters declined their invites to attended Fragadelphia 19 in Windsor, Ontario. I'm not sure about the rest of the teams.

2025-07-08 23:30

Ping issue for Hotu

2025-07-09 09:17

Akimbo have the same issue, but it appears that they are not playing in this event. This may be part of the reason: dust2.us/news/63375/report-bluejays-set-..

2025-07-09 14:50

Johnny? But why?? :(

2025-07-08 21:05

Roster change maybe? But I don't know why they say no.

2025-07-08 21:08

Now we know why....

2025-07-09 17:14

Fun for Alliance but I don't know why Johnny Speeds declined.

where's HOTU?

fuck didn't read, my bad

This pretty much confirms NAVI Junior are getting bought out by another org

2025-07-08 21:12

At a minimum they are getting released by NAVI, I think it's a safe bet that an org is signing them though.

yeah NaVi would be dumb to just release them

there's no way navi would release them for free, they are too valuable, they are selling the team (they already said that publicly)

2025-07-08 21:22

A lot of declines, especially from teams who would benefit from a good run. The better teams might already be in EU and thus cannot compete in their local qualifiers like COL, Pain, Tyloo, and MIBR. Game Hunters and Apogee are in NA to play Fragadelphia. Akimbo and most AU teams declined because playing online CS from different continents is just not feasible, same with HOTU, as their ping to EU is massive. (akimbo especially being NA). But why did all these EU teams decline like Johnny Speeds, Tricked, and Nexus? Even if they're going to a LAN, they are playing other tournaments online during this time, and all these teams are desperate for VRS points to try and get to the major, or invites to other huge events. Seems odd to me.

2025-07-08 21:25

Isnt there like a thing when teams from two different continents they play on a server with almost same ping for both teams?

2025-07-08 22:15

Well yes, but what servers would akimbo vs the huns be on? Because one is in NA the other is in mongolia? Theres no real middlepoint.

2025-07-09 01:20

Good point

2025-07-09 07:30

SEA servers?

2025-07-09 10:25

Teams like Akimbo will also likely be seen in the NA open qualifiers, which is what HOTU is doing in Asia. I am also curious about the few European teams that don't have a good explanation for declining their invites.

2025-07-08 23:34

Something shady with ecstatic, sashi, nexus, js and tricked skipping invites

2025-07-08 22:00

Lets go Rooster!!!

2025-07-08 22:03

Why Jijiehao In europe wtf valve

2025-07-08 22:30

mesa has been reallocated into European zone

2025-07-09 01:33

Lol

2025-07-09 08:15

ez 4 ex navi junior, toxic stic krabeni will erode the enemies moral and his teammates

2025-07-08 22:40

Lets go Faze!

2025-07-08 23:33

Whats is NiP doing

2025-07-08 23:47

closed qualifiers for a single spot is brutal, but at least they exist

2025-07-09 00:46

lulquid didn't get in automatically, lulz

2025-07-09 02:16

Why NIP decline? Afraid to lose vrs points?

2025-07-09 04:53

Supernova Comets in qualifier, let's go! Unlike Imperial FE, they will go through every stage and show us that they deserve this spot, good to see women's CS thriving

2025-07-09 06:40