ESL Pro League Season 18 Preliminary Roadmap Revealed

Tournament operator ESL has presented a preliminary roadmap for ESL Pro League Season 18. Despite the rather long period of time before the start of the championship, the organizers have announced the procedure for qualifying for the competition in accordance with their updated vision.

First of all, fifteen ESL partner teams will take part in the ESL Pro League Season 18:

• Astralis, BIG, Complexity Gaming, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, fnatic, FURIA, G2 Esports, Heroic, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pajamas, Team Liquid and Team Vitality
  

In addition, the winners of the next two ESL Challenger at DreamHack events in Melbourne and Hannover, which will take place in April and June respectively, qualify for the tournament.

Also, three tickets to the championship will go to the three best teams based on the ESL world ranking. Together with them, the winners of the next two regional events of the ESL Challenger League series in Europe, North America and Asia will get to ESL Pro League Season 18.

The last participants of the tournament will be determined by the results of qualifications: two tickets will be played in Europe, one in Brazil, Oceania, Latin America and Australia.

Estimated Format of ESL Pro League Season 18

• Upper bracket: Eight teams start from the quarter-final stage, from where the losers are relegated to the lower bracket. The losers of the starting matches get into the first round of the lower bracket, the losers in the 1/2 final stage - into the second round of the lower bracket. In turn, the finalists guarantee a place in the playoffs (the winner of the group goes to the quarterfinals, while the loser of the final match goes to the second round of the playoffs).
• Lower Bracket: The four losing teams in the opening matches of the Upper Bracket start their journey in the first round, from where the winners advance to the second round, and the losers fall into the "Last Chance" bracket. Then the winners play with those who have taken off from the 1/2 finals of the upper bracket for the right to reach the final. The winners of the 1/2 finals of the lower bracket play the final, the winner of which advances to the first round of the playoffs with the top seed. In turn, the loser falls into the semi-finals of the "Last Chance" bracket.
• Last Chance Bracket: Participants eliminated from the first round of the lower bracket play a drop match for 8th place in the group. The winner advances to the next round, where they play the losing lower bracket finalist. At the same time, the losing participants of the 1/2 finals of the lower bracket play among themselves for a place in the final of the "Last Chance" bracket. The winners of these matches advance to the final, where they play for a slot in the first round of the bottom seeded playoffs. In turn, the losing participants are eliminated from the championship.
• Playoffs: The winners of their respective groups will still start from the quarter-final stage, while the runners-up will advance to the second round of the playoffs. In turn, the winners of the lower bracket and the "Last Chance" stage will start from the first round of the playoffs. Here, the participants will form a familiar grid with a single exception. All matches except for the Grand Final (BO5) will be played in BO3 format.

ESL Pro League Season 18 will take place from August 15 to September 24 in Malta. As part of the championship, 32 teams from the CIS, Europe, North America, Latin America, Oceania and Asia will compete for a total prize pool of $850,000, as well as a ticket to IEM Katowice 2024 for the winner.