The largest franchise in Counter-Strike esports is set to kick off yet another major tournament. The ESL Pro League is heading into its thirteenth season starting today, with a month-long competition between the best teams CS:GO has to offer.
Today, the Group Stage kicks off, with twenty-four teams split across four groups of six teams each. The teams will play against each other once in their groups, with a best-of-three format per series. This stage takes up by far the largest amount of time, and will conclude on March 29th.
The full groups can be found below.
The winners of each group directly advance to the Play-In stage, held on April 8th. In a single-elimination bracket, once more using the best-of-three format per series, these teams determine who will advance to the Playoffs semi-finals directly. In the Playoff stage they'll be met by the second and third-placed teams of each group that have fought their way up through the lower seedings of the single-elimination stage. The grand finals are held on April 11th and will be the only series using a best-of-five format.
Familiar faces will welcome the viewers on broadcast, narrating the event from the beginning until the very end. Tres "Stunna" Saranthus and Jason Kaplan are the designated desk hosts, joined by analsyts Janko "YNk" Paunović and Jacob "Pimp" Winneche. Games are cast by Alex "Machine" Richardson, Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill, Harry "JustHarry" Russell, and Hugo Byron. For all the post-game interviews, Frankie Ward will be catching up with players and coaches.
