Starting today, the fifth season of ESL Pro League is set to bring you tons of awesome CS:GO action every week until May. While a total of 28 teams is fighting for the top in the North American and European divisions, you can join the competition and prove your knowledge about the CS:GO scene by building the perfect team for our ESL Fantasy league!
Join the ESL Fantasy league for ESL Pro League
As the players in ESL Pro League compete for the top spots in order to make it to the finals at the Verizon Theatre in Dallas, USA, to fight for the lion’s share of the US$1,000,000 prize pool, you compete with managers from all over the world over who’s predicting the outcome of the matches better and picking the right players every week.
You got what it takes to claim a spot among the best? Start assembling your team for the first week and prove it to win weekend tickets to an ESL event of your choice or an ESL Shop voucher worth €50 over the course of the season. Besides competing in the official league, you can set up your own private leagues to challenge your friends.
You need some help picking your players? Here are the players to watch out for, given by the ESL Pro League casters:
Blu’s watchout players for North America
Stewie2k
Despite a recent decline in the power of Cloud9 overall after their victory last season, Stewie2k is still an incredibly consistent player. With his aggressive playstyle he is sure to be out in front of the scoreboard and with fantasy points for Cloud9 in most of their matches.
coldzera
coldzera is always a player to keep an eye on. While SK have been having trouble on the international stage, they still dominate all of the competition here at home in North American leagues. coldzera also recently earning the number one player slot in HLTV's top twenty for 2016 makes it even harder to keep cold off of your fantasy roster.
felps
We had already seen felps' performance in the ESL Pro League last season and just how much of a powerhouse he had become for The Immortals almost always topping the charts in impact frags but now he will joining SK where he will be able to work with players like coldzera who we've already included in this list but also perform under the leadership of FalleN which in theory should only bolster his power as a new member of this squad even more.
EliGE
While his performance can sometimes wane slightly in online matches, it doesn't change the fact that EliGE is still the centerpiece for one of the North American league's biggest domestic rosters in Team Liquid. His general prowess as a player is only boosted by how he is able to perform under pressure when needed, such as this recent 1v2 against the prior EnVyUs squad at the ELEAGUE Major after already getting 33 kills prior to this.
SicK
Looking toward one of our new teams in the ESL Pro League this season in Misfits SicK is definitely someone to keep an eye on. Despite his young age he has already made himself known to be this team's best fragger, and as we go into a new season some changes on the team have put this player under the leadership of Seangares, which much like felps will only allow for SicK to blossom in the coming weeks.
pansy’s watchout players for Europe
To1nou
To1nou, LDLC's AWPer, has shown great potential and a real flair with his AWP at the events running up to their qualification to the ESL Pro League. If he can handle the top end of the AWPing spectrum is yet to be known but it will be a good watch to find out.
Oskar
Oskar, just purely due to drama. The mousesports lineup is like a sitcom. However no one can doubt there is talent there, I would be watching to see how Oskar performs after the previous issues we saw with him and this rather similar roster. If you are stepping into ChrisJs role after he started to perform well it's actually big shoes to fill.
NBK
NBK, so as much as Nathan isn't exactly a "watchout" player in the fact that you will always expect a good performance from him. I will be watching this guy through the season seeing how well he performs with his new roles in G2 and if we get a little of the natural born killer back and less filler.
Sixer
Sixer, It seems I'm watching a lot of the French players this season. I'm just curious how he now fits in with the EnVyUs roster, I know a lot of players who rate him as a very solid AWPer and I will be watching out to see if he gets to fill that role with the current roster and if we see more from this player who went under the radar for some time.
Krimz
Krimz, or should I say the whole of fnatic. I pick him because we saw a return of form at the major that really did get a lot of people excited to see if this continues through the rest of the year. I too will be seeing if the solo site god gets back to what we want to see and let's not forget Inferno coming back in will make this a fun one.
Make sure to check the official website for all matches, streams and news on the new season as well as ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter and Facebook to get all updates, highlights and way more!
