EPT CS:GO APRIL UPDATE

May 4, 2021
CSGO

Our biggest news in April is that Cologne is now operating under the Intel Extreme Masters brand. On top of that, EPL S13 & ESEA Premier S36 have completed and we are halfway through DreamHack Masters Spring where the majority of teams will solidify their participation for IEM Cologne.

Continuing reading to discover the latest from within the ESL Pro Tour for CS:GO.

The ESL WR measures performance across all competitions (rules here)
- Used for the majority of invitations issued to teams for EPT Masters & Challenger competitions

The EPT Standing strictly measures performance inside the EPT & CS:GO Majors
- The primary form of invitation into either IEM Katowice or IEM Cologne.

ESL World Ranking

Team	Rank (New)	Move	Rank (Old)
Gambit Esports	1	±0	1
Heroic	2	+13	15
Natus Vincere	3	+1	4
Virtus.pro	4	+1	5
Astralis	5	-3	2
FURIA Esports	6	+3	9
Ninjas in Pyjamas	7	+15	22
Team Liquid	8	-2	6
G2 ESports	9	+1	10
Team Spirit	10	-3	7
Complexity	11	+8	19
BIG	12	-4	8
Team Vitality	13	-10	3
FaZe Clan	14	-3	11
Bad News Bears	15	-1	14
Evil Geniuses	16	±0	16

All data above from May 3rd, 2021

Gambit are still #1 and have been since March 3rd after their IEM Katowice 2021 victory
Heroic have shot up this month after winning EPL S14 in April
NiP are also sharp risers after Top 4 in EPL S14 & strong performances in Blast Premier Spring

Your team can start gaining ESL WR points by competing in ESEA Cash Cups, DreamHack & ESL qualifiers on ESEA. For all the latest rankings together with a full breakdown of rules & points - please see here.

Intel Extreme Masters: Cologne

On April 28th, we announced that Cologne will now become an IEM competition. This change was initiated following the news that ESL & Intel extended their 20year-long commitment to building esports.

Also important is that we’ve taken the opportunity to simplify our ESL Pro Tour story by consolidating all EPT Masters & Championship tournaments under one brand. Moving forward, there will be Intel Extreme Masters and ESL Pro League.

Another commitment we’ve made in April is to prioritize our planning in hope to bring back LAN for our EPT Championship; IEM Cologne. If things go well, this will be the first CS:GO LAN since early 2020.

IEM Cologne: Invitation Distribution

	EPT Standings	ESL World Rankings	EPT Connections
Group Stage	8	0	0
Play-In	8	6	2
Total Invitations	16	6	2

To understand where teams are within the EPT standings visit here.

With DHM Spring in progress and near completion, we are very close to confirming all teams who will be receiving invitations to compete for the $1,000,000 prize pool.

ESL Pro League: Season 13 & Season 14

The season ended with one of the best clutches seen within a Grand Final. The Cadian 1v4 for the series point on the 5th map was the highlight of the tournament. This moment also went down in history as ESL’s best performing tweet ever. The work doesn’t stop as we are already on the path for ESL Pro League Season 14 season. ESEA Premier Season 36 recently concluded which confirmed Bad News Bears from North America and ex-Winstrike Team from EU as participants for Season 14 alongside our regular ESL Partner teams. All the latest Season 14 information can be found here.

DreamHack Masters Spring

This past week the DHM Spring group stage unfolded, going from a total of 16 teams down to just 6 remaining for the playoffs.

In Group A the IEM Katowice champions Gambit Esports claimed top spot and advanced to the semi-finals after pulling out victorious in the CIS-derby with a 2-1 win over NAVI. Second place in the group put NAVI through to the quarter-finals, while G2 Esports followed in third to also advance to the quarter-finals.

For Group B it was Heroic coming out on top, not dropping a single map and beating Astralis 2-0 in a Danish-derby to reach the semi-final. Advancing to the quarter-finals together with Astralis was FURIA Esports, following a win over Vitality.

This sets the bracket for the playoffs this coming weekend:

Friday May 7th
16:45 CEST - Astralis vs. G2 Esports
20:00 CEST - NAVI vs. FURIA

Saturday May 8th
16:45 CEST - Semi Final 1 - Gambit vs. Astralis/G2 Esports
20:00 CEST - Semi Final 2 - Heroic vs. NAVI/FURIA

Sunday May 9th
16:00 CEST - Grand Final

With the results of the group stage in mind, the Road to Cologne standings is near completion and teams have been locked in for the IEM Cologne Main Event and Play-In slots, based on the points standings.

IEM Cologne: EPT Standings

Jul 6-18

Group Stages	Play-in
Gambit Esports	G2 Esports / Team Spirit
Heroic	Complexity
Virtus.pro	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis	Evil Geniuses
Natus Vincere	Team One
FURIA	Vici Gaming
Team Liquid	MIBR
G2 Esports / Team Spirit	Renegades

The only matter left to lock things fully into place is going to be pending the result of the G2 Esports vs Astralis match:

Should G2 Esports win versus Astralis, then they will claim enough points to move past Team Spirit who currently sit in the 6th cutoff slot in the European standings, thus claiming a IEM Cologne Group Stages spot, while Team Spirit will be sent to compete in the Play-In.
Should Astralis win versus G2 Esports, then Team Spirit will hold onto their IEM Cologne Group Stages spot, while G2 Esports will settle with a spot in the Play-In.

The Play-In at IEM Cologne will furthermore see a total of 6 teams invited based on the ESL World Rankings, which will happen at the cutoff May 31st. Additionally 1 team will make it through the ESL Meisterschaft, as well as 1 team from the ESL NC Global Playoffs.

IEM Summer

We have 15/16 teams are confirmed, the tournament is set to take place June 3rd - 13th

IEm Summer

June 3-13

Team	Invite/Qualification
Team Vitality	ESL Partner Team Invitation
Complexity	ESL Partner Team Invitation
Evil Geniuses	ESL Partner Team Invitation
Ninjas in Pyjamas	ESL Partner Team Invitation
fnatic	ESL Partner Team Invitation
Astralis	ESL Partner Team Invitation
Gambit Esports	ESL World Ranking
Team Spirit	ESL World Ranking
Virtus.pro	ESL World Ranking
Heroic	ESL World Ranking
Extra Salt	DH Open 44 NA
Imperial e-Sports	DH Open 44 SA
EU Qualifier	European Qualifier
EU Qualifier	European Qualifier
EU Qualifier	European Qualifier
TBD May 30th	EPT Connection - NC GP

As announced here, this tournament will not contribute EPT points to the upcoming EPT Championship; IEM Cologne. This decision was taken to prevent a ranking shuffle 2 weeks ahead of the Championship in order to significantly increase the likelihood of our return to LAN. This tournament will contribute fully to IEM Katowice 2022 and also IEM Cologne 2022.
We are currently in the final stages of preparation (promotional assets, understanding the specific tournament narrative, making sure all teams have support needed to compete remotely).

IEM Fall & Winter

The tournament dates for both:

IEM Fall: Oct 14-24*
IEM Winter: Dec 2-12

*The known date clash between IEM Fall and the CS:GO Major will be resolved soon.

DreamHack Open

DreamHack Open competitions are currently on break and will resume late June.

Dreamhack Open 2021

Tournament	Dates	Regions
DreamHack Open 45	Jun 30 - Jul 4	NA & AS
DreamHack Open 46	Sep 8 - 12	NA & SA
DreamHack Open 47	Oct 13 - 17	EU & OCE
DreamHack Open 48	Nov 12 - 14	Global Tournament
DreamHack Open 49	Nov 26 - 27	Global Tournament

ESEA Premier

First off, congratulations to Ex-Winstrike, Bad News Bears, and ORDER on winning ESEA Premier Season 36 in Europe, North America, and Australia/New Zealand respectively. Ex-Winstrike and Bad News Bears will be joining the likes of legends in ESL Pro League Season 14 and if ORDER can take home Season 37, they will be joining the action as well! If not, they have to play a decisive match against the S37 ANZ winner to achieve advancement to EPL.

Season 36 marked the first season since it’s addition to the ESL Pro Tour and also introduced a number of changes. Through player feedback, the best three changes to the division have been:

1: Guaranteed ESL Pro League position.
2: 4 Seasons a year guaranteeing more prize money and a faster track to the top.
3: Adjusted format from best of ones to best of threes.

However with change, there are growing pains as well. Many things could have been done better and we are working to address the issues and improve going forward!

One of those changes is that moving forward we will be adding two additional international streams for Tuesday and Wednesday matches on our global twitch channels ESL_CSGO and ESL_CSGOB with regular ESL voices! These streams will operate in parallel with our well known and passionate ESEA streamers.

It is already time to play Season 37 and find out the final EPL S14 teams. Starting May 4th, this week kicks off the first set of matches! You can check out all of the schedules and broadcast information on the ESEA Premier website.

National Championships

The first set of National Championships for 2021 are almost completed with the first regional Champions being crowned.

ESL France: Team LDLC
ESL Spain: Movistar Riders
ESL UK Premiership: Endpoint

As mentioned there are so many competitions left to complete inside the next few weeks ahead of the National Championship Global Playoff.

ESL Swiss Championship Playoffs: Apr 13 - May 8
ESL Polish Championship Playoffs: May 7 - 16
ESL Benelux Championship Playoffs: May 8
ESL Turkish Championship Playoffs: May 10 - 16
ESL German Championship Playoffs: May 14 - 15
ESL ANZ Championship Playoffs: May 8 - 9

ESL National Championship: Global Playoffs

In previous updates, we shared our vision for this tournament which contains two important ESL Pro Tour connections; IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in and IEM Summer Group Stages.

Due to the ongoing pandemic we made the decision together with our regional ESL teams to limit the first tournament to only European teams. We are committed to bringing Australian, Brazilian and Vietnamese Champions to the next edition of this product, planned to take place in November 2021.

The inaugural NC: Global Playoff

France: Team LDLC
Spain: Movistar Riders
UK Premiership: Endpoint
Germany: TBD, Final 15.05.2021, live on twitch.tv/esl_csgo
Poland: TBD, Final 16.05.2021, live on twitch.tv/esl_csgo_pl
Turkey: TBD, Final 16.05.2021, live on twitch.tv/esl_csgo_tr
Switzerland: TBD, Final 08.05.2021, live on twitch.tv/eslswiss
Benelux: TBD, Final 08.05.2021, live on twitch.tv/esl_benelux

Taking place from Thursday 27th May, through to the bo5 Grand Final on Sunday 30th May. We believe in National Competitions and their place within our ESL Pro Tour CS:GO ecosystem, all matches will be covered by our well known international ESL talents on twitch.tv/esl_csgo

If you have feedback for how these are presented or items you’d like us to address please feel free to reach out to us on social media under @eslcs.