The ESL Pro League is back - and this year it’s bigger and better than ever. With two seasons boasting US$750,000 in prize money each (a US$250,000 increase on last year’s season totals), that means an incredible US$1,500,000 is on the line for the competing teams - and no one is going to let that kind of money slip through their fingers without a fight.

The ESL Pro League

The ESL Pro League will kick off on the week of February the 8th to the 14th 2016, with the final week of play set to take place from the 25th to the 30th of April 2016. Both seasons will also culminate in large-scale LAN events in front a live audience that you could be a part of!

“The ESL Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League is levelling up this year: we’ll be working on enabling larger offline crowds to follow the action as players battle in matches that could define the rest of their lives,” said Ulrich Schulze, VP Pro Gaming at ESL. “But it’s not just offline audiences we’re aiming for – television broadcasts, a higher standard of online production, a continued emphasis on competitive integrity – these are just some of the things you will see this year.”

The teams

The following teams will be going head to head for the lion’s share of that incredible prize pool during the two seasons of the ESL Pro League:

Europe

Fnatic

Natus Vincere

Question Mark (formerly Team SoloMid)

EnVyUs

Titan

Team Dignitas

Ninjas in Pyjamas

mousesports

Virtus.pro

SK Gaming

FlipSid3 Tactics

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USA

Team Liquid

Luminosity Gaming

OpTic Gaming

Counter Logic Gaming

compLexity

Cloud9 G2A

Splyce.gg

EnemyGG

Sponsorless

Method

Winterfox

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Last year’s ESL CS:GO events shattered numerous industry records and are setting the bar for a truly exhilarating 2016 season. ESL One Katowice became the first ever Counter-Strike event in history to break one million concurrent viewers, while ESL One Cologne managed to eclipse the newly set record with a peak concurrent viewership of 1.3 million, thereby becoming the most watched Counter-Strike tournament of all time. And over the course of 2015, the ESL Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League accumulated over 100 million sessions and almost 30 million hours watched. By undergoing a staggering 50% prize pool increase for 2016, we can expect another thrilling year of CS:GO action and we’re excited to kick off the first season on February 9th.

For more information about the ESL Pro League, be sure to check out the official website and follow ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter.

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