ESL Pro League updates relegation system across all regions
Tournament organizer ESL has updated the relegation system for its ESL Pro League in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive across all competing regions.
The ESL Pro League recently changed its format to include more teams in Europe, the Americas, and in the Asia-Pacific region. Sixteen teams are taking part in the group stage for each region, with the top squads moving directly to the next stage of the event while the bottom sides take part in a relegation stage.
Each region has its own relegation system.
In Europe, the fourth-place teams in the group stage move to the pre-relegation round. The teams compete there in a double elimination bracket featuring best-of-three matches.
The team finishing that bracket in fourth is relegated automatically to a lower division, while the first-place team keeps its spot in the Pro League. The second and third teams must face two squads from the MDL in the relegation round. The winners of those series move to the Pro League, while the losers drop to the MDL.
In the Americas, the three fourth-place teams and the MDL runner-up compete in the pre-relegation round. The winner keeps its position in the Pro League, while the other three teams will compete in the online relegation round against MDL’s third-place team. Only one team moves on from this stage of play to the Pro League.
The fourth-place team from Latin America will face the LA League champion, and this winner also gets a place in the Americas Pro League.
In the Asia-Pacific region, two teams from the Australia Pro League groups play against two teams from qualifiers, with the two winners moving up from there. In China’s group, the last-place team faces a winner from qualifiers for the last remaining spot in the top league.
The last-place team from the league’s remaining group then goes against two qualifying teams from Southeast Asia and one winning team from the Indian Premiership. Only one of those four teams qualifies into the top Asia-Pacific league.
Read Also
News
The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027
Ben Boland
The 2026 Esports Nations Cup has been suspended until 2027. The Esports Foundation announced the delay on August 18, citing ongoing regional uncertainty. The inaugural competition was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comprising over 100 national teams and featuring 16 different games, including League of Legends. According to the Esports Foundation, this decision follows ongoing developments in the region and consultation with key stakeholders. Moving the event ...
Esports Betting
MLBB is the most-watched game from the EWC, and it’s hard to see another game beating it
Michael Hassall
The Esports World Cup 2026 has officially passed its midway point and viewership figures for the tournament have surpassed many expectations so far, as per Esports Charts. The viewership tracking site revealed new statistics for the event on Aug. 6, showcasing just how many games had set new records in viewership, including one name leading the way in views: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. MLBB leads the viewership charts with the ...
Counter-Strike
CS2 at the EWC 2026 Preview: Odds, Details, Predictions and More
Owen Harsono
Top-tier Counter-Strike action returns at the Esports World Cup, as 32 of the best teams will take the trip to Paris to compete for millions of dollars. If you’re looking to watch the event, here’s everything you need to know and which teams to keep an eye on. The Esports World Cup is one of the largest CS2 events if we’re looking at prize pools, as $2,000,000 will be distributed ...
News
Opinion: Is Esports Tracing the Same Evolutionary Path As Traditional Sports?
Cecilia Ciocchetti
What happens when an industry compresses centuries of sporting evolution into less than a decade or two? Communities become global audiences overnight, rivalries spread through social media within minutes, and tournaments turn into entertainment products faster than ever before. And so what took traditional sports centuries to build has taken esports a fraction of that. From local communities to sold out arenas, and from informal matches to Olympic-style events, the ...
Counter-Strike
BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-final predictions: who’s making it to the grand final?
Owen Harsono
The top four teams we’re seeing at the BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-finals are far from what anyone would expect before the tournament began, but here we are. We’re only three matches from crowning a winner, so let’s take a look at the best BLAST Bounty semi-final predictions for both upcoming matchups. Starting the semi-finals off is a banger of a series between FaZe Clan and Team Spirit, which is one ...
Counter-Strike
We Ranked The Top 5 Most Hated CS2 Maps
Owen Harsono
If you’re a Counter-Strike player, you probably have that one map you always ban first in every Premier game — and you're not alone as almost everyone has one too. Below, we’ll take a look at the most hated maps in Counter-Strike history and explain why they are disliked by the community at large. Anubis is one of the newer releases in the Counter-Strike 2 map pool, but it has ...
Counter-Strike
The Top 10 Best Clutches in Counter-Strike History Ranked
Owen Harsono
Pulling off an impossible clutch is one of the greatest hits of dopamine any Counter-Strike 2 player can ever feel. However, pulling them off at the highest level can be a little tricky since everyone is so coordinated. That’s exactly why mind-blowing clutches are remembered forever. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the 10 best clutches in Counter-Strike history. We’re opening the list with former mousesports ...
