ESL Pro League Season 10 announces its CSGO groups

The ESL Pro League is one of the main CSGO esports leagues. For each of the three regions, there are 16 teams competing. The regions consist of Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific. This format is different than the previous ESL Pro League Season. It featured four regions of Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia with 12 teams each instead.

🙌 The groups are drawn, the fixtures set. Let the games begin! #ESLProLeague returns October 8 for Season 10. These are the full Round 1 matches in the road to Odense 2019:

🗓️ https://t.co/vqy7yHq1s0 pic.twitter.com/DxkRgBVoX8

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 2, 2019

ESL Pro League

Season 10 of the ESL Pro League will have the same round format other than the difference in the number of teams. There are four round-robin groups where teams compete in best-of-three games. The groups are seeded based on the world rankings of Counter-Strike ESL teams. The winner of each group will proceed to the ESL Pro League Finals. 

However, the 2nd and 3rd place teams from each group will still have a chance. They will be sent to a “Round 2” bracket where the eight teams will be split into two groups. These teams will then similarly compete in best-of-three matches for a chance to go to the finals. The fourth-place teams will be eliminated and sent to a relegation round. 

One difference is that the Asia Pacific region will play its matches differently than the other two regions. Instead of four round-robin rounds, there will only be two for the Asia region. These include a Southeast Asian and Chinese group, with each having four teams. This is because the previous Oceania region has been consolidated under the Asia Pacific umbrella. There will be two teams determined, with one each from Asia and Oceania, to advance toward the finals. 

Season 10 groups

The Europe region features mousesports, BIG CLAN, FaZe Clan, OpTic Gaming, Vitality, Sprout, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Heroic. It will also have teams like Astralis, Aristocracy, Fnatic, North, Natus Vincere, Hell Raisers, G2 Esports, and Windigo. 

The North American region of the ESL Pro League will see organizations like MiBR, Envy, FURIA Esports, Swole Patrol, Evil Geniuses, eUnited, Cloud9, and Complexity Gaming compete. Season 9 winner Team Liquid, Renegades, Isurus Gaming, Infinity, Sharks, and DETONA will also participate. There are two empty spots in Group C of the Americas, due to two teams that have since disbanded.

The Asia Pacific region will be represented by Grayhound Gaming, Recursive, Ground Zero, AVANT Gaming, Chiefs, really weird, ORDER, and Paradox from the previous Oceania region. The Asia part of the league will feature ViCi Gaming, MVP PK, TYLOO, Invictus Gaming, Lucid Dream, BTRG, Alpha Red, and BOOT. 

Pro League Finals

The ESL Pro League revealed it would have its finals event in Odense, Denmark. The venue will be the ODINCON EXPO for the Group Stage, with the Sparekassen Fyn Arena for the Playoffs. A total $600,000 USD prize pool will be awarded to the finalist teams between Dec. 3 and 8. 

Teams will play in two double-elimination format groups, where the top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. The playoffs will consist of a single-elimination bracket with a best-of-three in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The grand finals will be a best-of-five instead.