One of the most important events in CS:GO competitive season is coming back for its ninth season. The regular season of ESL Pro League, perhaps the biggest league-like competition out there, starts in just a few days across all three of its main regions. With several changes being introduced for this season, it’s safe to say ESL Pro League will evolve into an even greater competition. Today, with this ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview we’ll be focusing on the European side of the table. As always, the EU region is packed with top-tier teams so the quality of the competition will surely not be lacking.

In addition to Astralis, the most dominant CS:GO team at the moment, there are at least three major contestants for taking the Finals trophy here. In fact, there’s one in each group, come to think of it. However, let’s not dig that deep into teams right away! Instead, let’s take things a bit slower and check out the most interesting facts regarding this tournament and then move to the spicy stuff…

ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview | Interesting Facts

• ESL Pro League Season 9 EU starts on Friday, 12th April and will feature a total of 36 matches spread across roughly 40 days. The final day of the competition is Thursday, 23rd May.
• There won’t be any lack of broadcasting talent for the EU region. Alex “Machine” Richardson is set to be the desk host, Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill will be analyzing the plays, with Harry “JustHarry” Russell and Hugo Byron commenting and guiding us through the live action.
• ESL Pro League S9 Finals will kick off on 18th June and last until 23rd June. We’ll see the sixteen best teams from all three main ESL regions go up against each other for $750,000 in prize pool money.
• Lastly, this tournament is a part of the second Intel Grand Slam season meaning all competing teams will have additional motivation to perform at their very best. Not saying they will need it, though…

Special Circumstances

As hinted above, the ninth season of ESL Pro League European region brings forth several changes. They’re all pretty well-balanced and ought to improve the overall quality of the tournament. Drastically, if I may add.

The first, and biggest, change for this season is the tournament play switch from online to LAN matches. This switch makes the entire regular season a much less time-consuming matter for the teams. The regular season will be much better optimized with a format that makes perfect sense for a league-like competition… unlike some others…Yes, Esports Championship Series, I’m hinting at your confusing region-based structure that doesn’t make sense to anyone involved.

The second change is the two additional teams that’ll be competing starting from this season. In itself, this change is meant to back up the new tournament format. It allows both stages to have perfectly balanced groups and makes sense in the grand scheme of things. More about tournament format right after the prize pool distribution.

Prize Pool Distribution

The eight ESL Pro League regular season featured $105,000 for the EU region. This time, I reckon the amount will be slightly higher since the games are played over LAN and there are two additional teams. While we still don’t know the official numbers, I reckon the overall ESL Pro League Season 9 EU prize pool will wind up somewhere between $125,000 and $150,000. I guess we’ll just have to wait a couple of days and find out!

Tournament Format

The entire regular season of ESL Pro League S9 EU will be divided into two segments, round 1 and round 2. The first-round sports four round-robin groups with four teams in each. The seeds are determined according to the ESL CS:GO World Rankings and all four group winners automatically qualify for the ESL Pro League S9 Finals set for June this year. Last place teams are eliminated while second and third place advance to the second round.

After filling in the first four Finals spots in the first round, the second round is in charge for the last four tickets. This time around, eight remaining teams will be battling each other inside two groups with four teams in each. The format remains the same – round-robin groups with all matches being Bo3. Group winners and runners-up advance to the Finals while third and fourth place teams will have to try again next season. It’s as simple as that…

ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Teams Overview

The EU side of the table is looking mighty af. Even though ENCE is not competing in this tournament, the level of competition is still sky-high. With Natus Vincere, Astralis, and FaZe Clan leading the charge, there is definitely no shortage of legends competing here.

When it comes to qualifying quotas, ESL Pro League Finals makes room for eight European teams. That’s the same number from last year so there are no changes in that regard. Still, the European CS:GO scene has greatly evolved and now we have several additional contestants that are looking quite powerful.

That said, this part of my ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview is going to be focusing on the competing teams. Not all of them, mind you, just the most notable ones. It was quite difficult to choose which teams to focus on since, once again, the competition is rather tough. But I’m confident I made the right choices with these five teams.

Natus Vincere

Before we begin, I deliberately left out the biggest CS:GO team in the world, Astralis, simply because there’s nothing new to be said about them. They’re still the most dominant force in CS:GO so it’s kind of silly to constantly repeat the same Astralis-related facts over and over again. Instead, let’s focus on what seems to be the second-best EU team at the moment – Natus Vincere.

After a fantastic display in Shanghai, the CS:GO community has found their second-best EU and third-best CS:GO team in the world. The current power rankings don’t lie – Astralis, Team Liquid, and Natus Vincere are at the top of the dogpile. Even though their playoffs match against ENCE was much more intense than the end-result suggests, NaVi looked outright scary. Actually, let me rephrase that – S1mple looked outright scary. The world’s best CS:GO player is at the top of his form, frightening every team that comes up against the boys in yellow.

North

North has been playing extraordinarily well during these last couple of weeks. Not many teams can boast with beating both MIBR and FaZe Clan in the span of just two days. Yet North has done exactly that less than two weeks ago in Shanghai.

On top of that, they’ve also won the second week of ECS S7 EU, qualifying for one of key CS:GO events prior to the second Major of 2019. Overall, the Danish boys are looking great in all departments. Valde has turned into a proper magician, displaying brilliant game IQ and top fragging his way through the opposition’s ranks.

Aizy, gade, and Kjaerbye are solid too, enjoying themselves against some of the best teams in the world. However, the same can’t be said for cadiaN. North’s IGL and former Rogue player has been in somewhat of a slump recently. However. given his experience and prowess, I’m sure he’ll get back to his usual self and carry his team to the ESL Pro League S9 Finals.

Mousesports

Moving on with this ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview, we have Mousesports. Mouz has a relatively new roster that has been made to try and recover their former glory as one of the best EU teams. After failing to qualify for the Katowice Major (one of the biggest teams to miss out on it), the changes were, needless to say, necessary.

Coming into this tournament, chrisJ, ropz, karrigan, woxic and frozen will be looking to start off on the right foot. These players have a great mixture of experience and talent, making them a potentially dangerous team for even the toughest of opponents. Mousesports is in Group A with North, OpTic and ex-Space Soldiers. Obviously, expectations are set pretty high. These players ought to qualify for the Finals either directly through the first round or through the second one.

FaZe Clan

Even though they’ve been in a major slump throughout these last few months, I still believe FaZe Clan players will get back to their usual brilliance. NiKo, the BOSSnian legend is still playing at the top of his game but his teammates just aren’t doing their bits.

Olofmeister has been looking particularly bad. His awful performances stretch all the way to the Major where he was one of the worst-rated players in the later stages of the tournament. AdreN and rain weren’t particularly great either, come to think of it. Basically, FaZe Clan has been solely relying on the individual brilliance of NiKo and GuardiaN for the last few months. Needless to say, this will have to change if they want to win some trophies in the near future.

Fnatic

And finally, the last team we’ll be talking about in this ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview is Fnatic. The Swedish side missed out on the opportunity to make a stand at the Katowice Major in what was a seemingly surprising turn of events. Losses against Winstrike, ViCi Gaming, and G2 meant KRIMZ and the boys go home before the real tournament even started.

On a brighter note, KRIMZ and Brollan have been doing well in recent matches. Even though Fnatic’s WESG Finals performance wasn’t the greatest, they surely made up for it in Shanghai. StarSeries S7 showed Fnatic in the best of lights. They went 3-0 in the group stage and continued their stellar track record on the playoffs too. NaVi ended up defeating them 3-0 in the grand finals but it was a much closer match than the end-score suggests.

That said, I expect great things from Fnatic in the ESL Pro League. It will be quite difficult, though, since they’re in a group with G2, Natus Vincere, and Windigo. If everything goes according to plans, the final group stage match against NaVi will be deciding which teams qualify via the first round and which will have to seek their luck in the second.

ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Schedule (CEST)

The perfect way to finish off with this ESL Pro League Season 9 EU Preview is to give you guys a closer look to the first-round schedule. As the title suggests, the time is displayed in CEST time zone so make sure you convert it to your country’s time zone to avoid missing out on crucial matches.

Group A Matches

Friday 12th April

• North vs OpTic – 6.20 p.m.
• mousesports vs ex-SS – 10 p.m.

Saturday 13th April

• mousesports vs OpTic – 6.20 p.m.
• north vs ex-SS – 10 p.m.

Sunday, 14th April

• mousesports vs North – 6.20 p.m.
• OpTic vs ex-SS – 10 p.m.

Group B Matches

Tuesday 16th April

• FaZe vs devils – 6.20 p.m.
• NiP vs Heroic – 10 p.m.

Wednesday 17th April

• FaZe vs Heroic – 6.20 p.m.
• NiP vs devils – 10 p.m.

Thursday, 18th April

• FaZe vs NiP – 6.20 p.m.
• Heroic vs devils – 10 p.m.

Group C Matches

Friday 19th April

• NaVi vs Windigo – 6.20 p.m.
• Fnatic vs G2 – 10 p.m.

Satuday 20th April

• NaVi vs G2 – 6.20 p.m.
• Fnatic vs Windigo – 10 p.m.

Sunday, 21st April

• NaVi vs Fnatic – 6.20 p.m.
• G2 vs Windigo – 10 p.m.

Group D Matches

Tuesday 23rd April

• BIG vs HellRaisers – 6.20 p.m.
• Astralis vs ex-3D – 10 p.m.

Wednesday 24th April

• Astralis vs HellRaisers – 6.20 p.m.
• BIG vs ex-3D – 10 p.m.

Thursday, 25st April

• HellRaisers vs ex-3D – 6.20 p.m.
• Astralis vs BIG – 10 p.m.