ESL has announced that $1,5 million will be given away in 2016 across two seasons of the ESL Pro League.

After hosting two Pro League seasons in 2015 with $1 million split evenly between them, ESL has announced a 50 per cent increase in prize money for 2016, in which ESEA will no longer feature as a title sponsor.

The third season of the ESL Pro League will kick off on February 9, featuring 24 of the best teams in the world. With offline finals at an undisclosed location scheduled for May, this season will pay out $750,000 to the teams competing in the European and in the North American divisions.



ESL Pro League will be much bigger in 2016

In announcing the new Pro League season, ESL stated that it aims to bring the competition to "larger offline crowds", adding that it is also working on television broadcasts, in a bid to compete with the $2.4 million E-League, hosted by Turner and WME | IMG.

"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,” ESL Vice-president for Pro Gaming Ulrich Schulze said in a statement. "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 ESL Pro League will run alongside other offline events that will be hosted by the German company this year, which include IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne.

Below you can find the team list for ESL Pro League Season 3:

Europe North America fnatic fnatic Luminosity Luminosity Na`Vi Na`Vi Liquid Liquid EnVyUs EnVyUs CLG CLG Astralis Astralis OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming ex-Titan ex-Titan compLexity compLexity dignitas dignitas Cloud9 Cloud9 NiP NiP SPLYCE SPLYCE mousesports mousesports Enemy Enemy Virtus.pro Virtus.pro Sponsorless Sponsorless SK SK NRG NRG FlipSid3 FlipSid3 Winterfox Winterfox FaZe FaZe Renegades Renegades

fnatic are the reigning Pro League champions after winning the Season 2 offline finals, which took place last month in Burbank. By winning the event, the Swedish giants managed to defend their title from the first season, whose offline finals were held in Cologne.