The ongoing war between ESL Pro League and B Site has been hitting headlines this month with all sorts of official and unconfirmed information, so let's clear up the confusion with a rundown of everything we know and think we know about the two competing leagues.

If you've been following CS:GO news, reports, and social media over the past few weeks, it was impossible not to notice an ongoing competition between ESL Pro League and a fresh player on the tournament organizer front called "B Site", a new league that is still in the works and will, by all accounts, run on similar dates as EPL, which essentially makes the two mutually exclusive.

ESL Pro League and B Site — let's break down what we know

With around a month to go before the two leagues kick off and official information about them being scarce and difficult to find, we figured it would help clear up some the confusion if we compiled everything that has been revealed from official sources and reported unofficially.

ESL Pro League

The long-standing ESL Pro League has undergone a variety of changes for 2020 and will be looking vastly different compared to the previous version, which began with a regular portion regionally — in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania —, with each region feeding a number of sides into the 16-team finals. That will no longer be the case from Season 11 onwards.

Instead, a total of 24 teams from all around the world will gather in one place (the location is unknown at this time) for four weeks, which will see them distributed into four best-of-three round-robin groups of six in the regular season. Group winners will earn a place in the late stages of playoffs, while second and third-placed teams will be seeded in an earlier stage. When the competition is narrowed down to just six teams, it will move on to an arena for a three-day event, which will culminate with a best-of-five grand final — similarly to the playoffs of the previous finals.

The 24 participants have not yet been confirmed exactly. ESL has so far released a list of 24 teams who have been offered a spot, but that doesn't necessarily mean all of them will accept. They are:

All we know for certain is that teams who made it to the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals were invited. However, up to 16 of the participants will reportedly be "Member teams" (these are, in essence, spots owned by organizations who commit to form a long-term partnership with ESL that is meant to extend beyond just ESL Pro League), while the rest of the list seems to feature the winners of the last MDL season, forZe and INTZ, and the highest-ranked teams next in line according to the ESL World Ranking.

We know little about how relegation will work outside of the fact that MDL will stay as a part of the system, but a leaked preliminary document from Dexerto showed that the plan was to offer the Member teams protection from relegation — unless they place last in their group in three out of four consecutive seasons, in which case they could be voted out of the league.

If you find yourself thinking, 'But where are MIBR and Cloud9?', they are not on the list because the two organizations are believed to be a part of B Site. You might also notice plenty of other omissions when it comes to participants of the last Pro League season in one region or another who have been left out, such as BIG, Sprout, HellRaisers, Singularity, Envy, and more.

Much to their sorrow and protest, they have all been demoted to MDL and will only get a chance to requalify for Season 12. The omissions and the late timing ESL chose to communicate this drastic change to the snubbed teams have caused a stir in the scene, and the tournament organizer has since issued an apology for not letting the teams affected know their fate earlier.

"B Site"

First of all, that term is not even the official name the league will go by, in the end. The people behind B Site have been keeping their cards close to their chest, waiting to finalize all the details before making any announcements, so we have been left with finding out pieces of information either through reports or from the mouths of some of the individuals who hold key positions in the project: Dan Fiden, president of Cloud9, Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields, who is involved on some executive level as Creative Director, and Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat from the position of a spokesperson.

Produced by FACEIT (but not to be confused with ECS), B site will reportedly start with a month-long regular season featuring three tournaments in Los Angeles, with LAN finals in Europe (and further alternating between Europe and North America) at the end. The exact format is unknown, but we at least know that there will be a double-elimination mechanic, which Semmler called "brutal and very entertaining".

B Site has mainly been advertised as offering a better revenue share model than ESL Pro League due to the majority of the teams essentially being the owners of the entire project. Ten out of a total of 12 spots in it are planned to be owned by organizations who buy in for $2 million, with the remaining two spots awarded through some form of open qualifiers. Six of the 10 organizations have already committed, and even though their identity hasn't been made official, reports say they are the following:

The rest is still undetermined as B Site continues its efforts to persuade some of the best teams in the world to join in.

MIBR are so far the biggest name in B Site after leaving Pro League

A key element that has been revealed is that none of the franchised teams will be in danger of relegation, but they will be incentivized to be competitive due to the threat of a whopping $100,000 monthly fine applicable in case they fall out of the top 20 of a ranking administered by the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA). What ranking that will be is unclear at the moment, but Dan Fiden has stressed that it will be neutral to the league and will have a completely transparent methodology.

Another selling point B Site-involved individuals have often endorsed is the entertainment side and introduction of new shoulder content, which is going to be led by Thorin as Creative Director and member of the on-air team. In fact, the talent lineup is one of the few details we have had confirmed up until now when it comes to the league, and that lineup is:

For now, that is all we know and have heard. More details are sure to come in the following days and weeks as we close in on the kick-off of ESL Pro League and B Site.

If you'd like to hear more on the topic from Semmler, who acts as a spokesperson for B Site, make sure to watch the latest episode of HLTV Confirmed (also available in audio), where the veteran commentator spoke at length about the league and his involvement.

We are currently in discussions with a representative from ESL, whom we are also hoping to bring on the podcast to clarify the tournament organizer's perspective of the changes to Pro League.