For the 19th time in history, ESL Pro League will take place, when Groups A and B begin on Tuesday. The tournament will be played at the InterContinental Malta Hotel in Saint Julian’s, Malta. For the final stages of the Playoffs from May 10th-12th, the matches will be played in front of a live audience. You can buy tickets for the event [link:{"url":"https://pro.eslgaming.com/csgo/proleague/","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}].

These teams participate in ESL Pro League Season 19:

Group A: FaZe, Imperial, Astralis, Eternal Fire, Virtus.pro, Fnatic, 3DMAX, SAW

Group B: Vitality, Sharks, M80, BetBoom, Falcons, TheMongolz, TYLOO, G2

Group C: MOUZ, Bad News Eagles, ENCE, GamerLegion, FURIA, Liquid, FORZE, Monte

Group D: Complexity, PERA, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Heroic, BIG, BOSS, FlyQuest, Natus Vincere

ESL has moved away from the group stage format that we have seen previously. Now the teams face each other in brackets with an upper, and lower bracket plus a last chance stage bracket as well, which means that every team can lose two matches and still be able to qualify for the playoff stage.

16 teams will play in the playoff stage. The winner of each group qualifies for the quarter-final stage, while the 2nd place finisher of each group is seeded to the second playoff round. The 3rd place finishers and the four winners of the last chance stage brackets will face off in the first playoff round.

$750,000 is up for grabs at the tournament with $170,000 being handed out to the winners. A spot at the IEM Cologne 2024 tournament is also on the line for the winner.

The secondary prizes vary from $3,500 (29-32nd) to $80,000 for 2nd place at the tournament which will last from April 23rd until May 12th.

Tres "stunna" Saranthus, Freya "Freya" Spiers

Jason "moses" O'Toole, Janko "YNk" Paunović, Harry "JustHarry" Russell, Hugo Byron, Henry "HenryG" Greer, Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill, Alex "Machine" Richardson

Neo "Ne0kai" Caine, Harvey "Skriv" Rodgers, Lucy "LucyLuce" Eastwood, Brandon "BDog" Rawlings, Travis "Trav" Landaw Mott

Group A – B: 23rd of April – 28th of April

Group C – D: 30th of April – 5th of May

You can see the complete schedule and also find results [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/schedule-results-from-esl-pro-league-season-19","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}].

Teams to watch at ESL Pro League Season 19:

. With their recent signing of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, VP has made their intentions clear about the future. But how will the former Cloud9 and NAVI star operate under the guidance of Dzhami "Jame" Ali? And will Virtus.pro be the next CIS superteam? We also keep a close eye on both Astralis and Eternal Fire in this group. Can the Danes build on their performances at IEM Chengdu, and what about Eternal Fire? We haven’t seen them in action since their playoff run at the Major.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Magisk_dupreeh_Vitality_ep4gao","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

dupreeh and Magisk are back together once again. The two players have won Major with both Astralis and Vitality.

Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen is back in action after he made the move to 

, where he has been reunited with both Danny "zonic" Sørensen and Emil "Magisk" Reif. The Saudi-backed team chose experience over the raw firepower, that Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas could provide, and now we will get the first glimpse of the new lineup in action at ESL Pro League. Falcons take on TheMongolz in their opening round.

We have to wait a while before Groups C and D begin. But already now, we have a couple of interesting teams that we are eager to follow. In Group C, 

 has decided to cut Andrei "arT" Piovezan from the roster and also removed Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira as the acting head coach for the team citing the need for “international intellectuality” in the position.

 is another team that is looking internationally in their recruitment. As of this moment, the Swedish Organization is yet to reveal its fifth and final member of the new iteration of the Ninjas. The Ukrainian AWP’er Artem "r1nkle" Moroz seems like a very solid prospect, while the former coach of Heroic, Richard "Xizt" Landström will look to continue his success in the coaching world as the new brain behind NIP. Naturally, the reigning world champions from NAVI will be in focus playing their first matches since the triumph in Copenhagen last month.

Tournament favorites for ESL Pro League Season 19:

electronic

dupreeh

r1nkle

Virtus.pro

FURIA

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Ninjas in Pyjamas is continuing the rebuild of their roster. Yesterday the fourth piece of the new iteration of the squad was announced.

19-year-old Artem "r1nkle" Moroz transfers from B8, where he spent almost three years grinding through the Tier-2 scene.

- r1nkle has been on my radar since BLAST RMR 2023. He's a young talent that already plays smart CS considering his experience, Richard “Xizt” Landström, Head Coach NIP CS said in a press announcement.

The new NIP sniper made his debut against Monte in the ESL Challenger Jönköping Closed Qualifier, where NIP overcame a shaky start on map 1 to win the match. Artem "r1nkle" Moroz ended the match as the highest-rated player on the server with a 1.31 rating. Later in the day, the Ukrainian delivered the exact same rating, as NIP won 2-0 against Blessed. The team plays later on today against Aurora. NIP currently fields their Young Ninjas player Maoz "BluePho3nix" Paz as their fifth man.

The signing of Artem "r1nkle" Moroz should perhaps not come as the biggest surprise in history. The women's team coach at NIP, Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen did a video for Pley.gg in the summer of 2022, where he pointed at r1nkle as the most exciting prospect for the future.

[youtube:FuhUI1Wc8wU?si=SzPKt6Lo48BZdnMf&t=842]

We teamed up with Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen, who has looked into a lot of demos to find the candidates for this list, where we have excluded all players, who are already playing on a Tier-1/2 team such as Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov to name the most obvious one.

You can see the video here, and down below you can see all the names of the players.

10: {cflag:DK} Frederik "Fessor" Sørensen

The 21-year-old rifler is currently playing on Astralis Talent, but has been roaming around the professional scene for the last couple of years without breaking through. Is the highest-rated player before the playoffs start at WePlay Academy League Season 4.

Is currently playing for MONAD eSport on a C-tier level. The Swedish AWP'er is only 17 years old and could have a long career ahead of him in professional CS.

The Polish AWP'er had some big shoes to fill after Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás was promoted to the first team at the start of the year. But with a 1.22 rating in the WePlay Academy League, it seems like mhL is exactly what MOUZ NEXT had hoped for. 

This list and video were created before the news of w0nderful's move to Team Spirit. But we understand why! The Ukrainian is only 17 years old and has little to no experience in Tier 1 CS:GO, but we cannot wait to see him in action at IEM Cologne.

The AWP'er of Fnatic Rising can play both passive and aggressive with his Sniper rifle, which in today's meta is a huge deal. And hey, it's cool to see a new country in CS:GO (an honorable mention also goes to fellow Romanian Laurentiu "lauNX" Tarlea from Sprout)

Ladies and Gentlemen; We have an in-game leader on the list! IGLs are notoriously underappreciated in CS, but we hope to have picked one of the most exciting prospects for the future in "siuhy", who has won three titles in the WePlay Academy team with MOUZ NXT! 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"mouz_nxt_gbrp0x","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: WePlay Academy League"}]

4: {cflag:IL} Dorian “xertioN” Berman

He is only 17 years old, but has already made quite a name for himself. The MOUZ NXT rifler has also been part of the successful spell at the team winning three titles and being one of the most hyped young players on the scene. But he did not make it into our top three! 

Another one! MOUZ NXT is packed with talents, and this one is special. Jimpphat is only 15 years old but is already signed with the best academy team in the world, which speaks for itself. The young Finn is actually VAC-banned, but since the ban was issued in early 2018, he can already compete at a Major next year.

The Russian is one of the most exciting players for the future. He is right on the edge of being on this list, but he is still largely unknown in the wider CS community. He is playing on 1WIN, who mostly are grinding C-tier tournaments.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/r1nkle_zfiwax","originalWidth":1280,"originalHeight":720,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"png"}]

Who is this guy? Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen was blown away watching demos of the 17-year-old Ukrainian AWP'er. He is currently playing for B8, but should have something much bigger in store for the future. Statswise he is currently rated 1.27 for his last three months, which is also very impressive. 

Deko

Jimpphat

xertionic

siuhy

regali

w0nderfu1

joelxd

Fessor

mouz NXT

Fnatic Rising

Astralis Talent

Virtus.pro is big favorites in today´s game, but there would be a chance for ex-Marlian to create an upset as r1nkle is playing on a high level at the moment.

The Ukrainian has played at 1.19 rating in the last three months, and the Ukrainian roster will have to count on him if they want to have a chance against YEKINDAR and the Virtus.pro roster.

Watch the first game of the EPIC League CIS 2021 today´s here:

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