ESL to overhaul CS:GO Pro League structure

There’s a brand new format coming to the next season of play in the ESL Pro League.

ESL’s CS:GO Pro League is changing its format in 2019. Starting on April 12, the best teams from Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific region will be competing in one of the world’s biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive leagues.

The group stage will begin with 16 teams divided evenly into four groups of four teams each. The teams will be seeded into the groups according to work ranking positioning. Eight teams from Europe, four teams from America, and two teams from the Asia-Pacific region will qualify for the seasonal final.

The new group system is not the only innovation ESL has prepared for Season 9. ESL announced that the European group stage would be a LAN event hosted at the ESL Studio in Leicester, United Kingdom. In North America, the event will take place at a location yet to be revealed.

ESL Senior Vice President Ulrich Schulze was bullish in his description of the upcoming league and its possibilities.

“The CS:GO Pro League will return with a novel format offering live matches from studios in Europe and North America, thus offering more teams the possibility of achieving one of the coveted places for the most complicated CS:GO league to date,” Schulze said.

WESA Commissioner Pietro Fringuelli also chimed in, indicating that some of the moves were intended to give pro teams more time to properly prepare for their matches.

“With the competitive success of the last few years, we are grateful to be able to invest in further improving the Pro League.,” Fringuelli said.

The new ESL CS:GO Pro League kicks off on April 12.