ESL announces ESL Pro League Season 14 dates and teams

Today, ESL announced Season 14 of the ESL Pro League, along with a short trailer of the announcement. This new season of the $400,000 online tournament will start on Aug. 14, with some of the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams in the world participating.

A new round, a new season of #ESLProLeague! 🔥

Season 14 starts on August 16, get ready to see the best of the best take each other on! pic.twitter.com/lWy0D8KiDx

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) August 9, 2021

ESL Pro League Season 14 Group Stage

The Group Stage for ESL Pro League Season 14 will be four single round-robin groups. Out of the total 24 teams that have been invited, each of them will be placed in one of four groups with six other competitors in it. Teams will play best-of-threes against every other member of the group. Each of the four groups will have an entire week to play out their scheduled matches. The  dates are as follows:

Group A: Aug. 16-20
Group B: Aug. 21-26
Group C: Aug. 27-31
Group D: Sept. 1-5

The full #ESLProLeague Season 14 groups schedule! ⤵️

ℹ️ The order of the matches on the 4th day of every group is decided by the results in the group up until that point!

Get ready for August 16th with the restart of the CS calendar! 💥 pic.twitter.com/fJFPwCkkpq

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) August 5, 2021

The teams that place first in the group will advance straight to the quarterfinals of the playoff bracket. While the second and third place teams will advance to the round of 12. Once the Group Stages have concluded, the seeded teams will be placed in a single-elimination bracket to determine an eventual winner. Every match in the playoff bracket will be a best-of-three until the grand finals, which will be a best-of-five.

The tournament will feature many Tier 1 CS:GO teams from around the world. ESL’s partnered teams will be automatically qualified into the tournament. These include Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, Astralis and many more. The other half of the teams participating won their qualification through the ESL World Ranking or through the ESEA Premier tournament. Season 14 of the ESL Pro League will also be the first time that certain teams will debut new rosters. Bad News Bears added Paytyn “⁠junior⁠” Johnson, BIG with Nicklas “gade” Gade and, finally, Alex “ALEX” McMeekin for Fnatic.