With ESL Pro League Season 17 officially over, we have crowned FaZe Clan as champions and look forward to the teams returning to Malta and competing in season 18. As such we wanted to make sure you were fully up to date with the schedule for the upcoming season and further explain how the slots have been allocated.
Date Changes
We have slightly adjusted the dates for Season 18 in order to optimize the CS:GO calendar further to avoid potential overlap. Now running between August 30th - October 1st, we are taking over the shores of Malta again and hope to keep bringing you the same enthusiasm and passion for CS:GO.
Season 18 SLOT DISTRIBUTION
Announced on February 17th, the EPL Season 18 Slot distribution explains the qualifying paths teams will have for the upcoming season. With this qualifier expansion, the ESL Pro League Conference Stage ceases to exist and the planned distribution slots for Season 18 will be as follows.
- 15 Louvre Partner Teams (Astralis, BIG, Complexity, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, FURIA, G2 Esports, Heroic, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid, and Team Vitality);
- Three teams qualify via their ESL World Ranking;
- Two teams qualify through winning an ESL Challenger competition (Melbourne and Hannover);
- Six teams qualify through winning a regional ECL season (EU S44 & S45; NA S44 & S45; Asia S44 & S45);
- Two teams qualify through the ESL National Championships in BR (One Team) or ANZ (One Team);
- Two teams qualify amongst all of the European ESL National Championship winners;
- Two teams qualify via regional EPL Qualifier (ANZ & SA).
The cut-off date for the ESL World Ranking teams will be on the 12th of June. The NC EU Pre-Qualifier for all EU National Champions will be played July 13-16. More information on the EPL Regional qualifiers will be available soon.
