EPT CS:GO MAY UPDATE

2021 Tournament Calendar
ESL World Ranking Update
EPT Masters & Championship
EPT Challenger
Outro

The 10th and final DreamHack Masters has been completed, all teams for Intel Extreme Masters Cologne are confirmed, returning to LAN remains our highest priority & IEM Summer is just around the corner!

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

ESL World Ranking Update & ESL Pro Tour Standing
  • With the RMR series completed, the ESL WR is updated and we’ve issued invitations for the remaining teams for IEM Cologne ‘21.
  • Notable changes:
    • Gambit Esports retain #1 rank for over 70+ days
    • mousesports are up to #13 after their FP3 victory
    • Astralis have fallen to #8 from #5

ESL World Ranking

Team
Rank (New)
Move
Rank (Old)
Gambit Esports
1
±0
1
Heroic
2
±0
2
Natus Vincere
3
±0
3
G2 Esports
4
+5
9
FURIA Esports
5
+1
6
Virtus.pro
6
-2
4
Ninjas in Pyjamas
7
±0
7
Astralis
8
-3
5
Team Liquid
9
-1
8
Team Spirit
10
±0
10
Complexity
11
±0
11
BIG
12
-4
8
mousesports
13
+7
20
Team Vitality
14
-1
13
FaZe Clan
15
-1
14
Bad News Bears
16
-1
15

All data above from May 31th, 2021

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.

ESL WR / EPT Standings Explanation

  • 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.
Product Updates: EPT Masters & Championships

Intel Extreme Masters: Cologne

The tournament is just over one month away, Jul 6-18.

As announced, our plan A) remains to bring teams back competing within a LAN environment. We are evaluating all options to make this work i.e. locations, formats, different stages online or offline. Our company's priority is to make this happen.

All teams are now known! As of Monday 31st May, the final 7 teams were added to the completed tournament line-up found HERE.

6x ESL World Ranking Invites

  • BIG
  • Team Vitality
  • Mousesports
  • FaZe Clan
  • Bad News Bears
  • OG

1x National Championship Global Play-off Winner

  • LDLC

ESL Pro League: Season 14

Together with Blast we announced adjustments to the scheduling of Season 14 which resulted to EPL S14 being rescheduled to take place across Aug 16 - Sep 12.

  • EPL S14 is planned to take place live from Malta
  • Currently, there are 14/24 teams confirmed
    • +3 Teams from ESEA Premier, EU, NA & OCE
    • +1 New Partner Team
    • +6 ESL World Ranking (cut off date currently undetermined)
  • We are working together with the partner teams to update the EPL format which received mixed reviews in S13.

All the latest Season 14 information can be found here.

DreamHack Masters Spring

Congratulations to NAVI for winning the 10th iteration of the tournament, they’ve come close twice before but both times lost the final, third time's the charm for them. With the victory the team also claimed the second Intel Grand Slam event win, meaning they must win 2 of the next 5 tournaments to wrap it up and claim the $1M prize.

The tournament also acted as the final Masters tier tournament before the ESL Pro Tour points cutoff ahead of the upcoming Championship at IEM Cologne. This set for an interesting race to finalize the standings for European and North American teams, with only a few teams having locked in their qualification.
Upon tournament conclusion we furthermore had a new peak concurrent viewership record for the product, a record of 448.000 that had been standing since the Las Vegas tournament in 2017, now surpassing 520.000. We were furthermore happy with the following outcome:

  • Community interest in the rollout of our beta test of POV streams, we’re continuing to improve on this product for upcoming tournaments
  • Launching our first foray into NFT drops, with multiple of the artworks selling out, make sure to keep an eye out for more in the future if this caught your attention
  • Following the merger of ESL and DreamHack, this was a first collaboration between our teams in Germany and Sweden, as well as remote locations

Moving forward this tournament will be consolidated under the Intel Extreme Masters brand as we head into 2022, as announced with the ESL & Intel continuing their 20year-long commitment to building esports.

IEM Summer

All of the 16 teams are known with the tournament set to take place in the next few days, 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
G2 ESports
European Qualifier
OG
European Qualifier
Fun Plus Phoenix
European Qualifier
Sprout
EPT Connection - NC GP

To get ready for the competition:

  • Tournament Trailer here
  • Broadcast talent announcement here!
  • Group announcements here
  • Official website with all details here

The race towards IEM Katowice ‘22 is speeding up as IEM Summer will be the first tournament to contribute fully in EPT Points towards the competition. To read more details visit here.

IEM Fall & Winter

As written above, together with Blast we were able to make changes to our tournament schedules in the second half of the year which has resulted to IEM Fall taking place across Sep 28 - Oct 10.

Specific to IEM Winter, the tournament remains planned to take place across Dec 2-12.

Product Updates: EPT Challenger

DreamHack Open

DreamHack Open competitions are starting back up as we’ve recently announced qualification details for DHO45 here.

Dreamhack Open 2021

Tournament
Dates
Regions
DreamHack Open 45
Jun 29 - Jul 3
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

Additional updates:

  • DHO45 has been rescheduled to complete on July 3rd instead of the original planning of July 4th.
  • Ongoing evaluations for how best to connect these tournaments deeper within the EPT system

ESEA Premier

ESEA Premier Season 37 is nearing it’s halfway point and there have already been a lot of great and surprising matchups. After having placed second place in Season 36, SAW are off to another great start and are looking to not miss out on EPL again. Boasting an undefeated record with a 2-1 victory over BIG, they are first in line to be the first seed in EU Group B. I am looking forward to the potential SINNERS vs SAW matchup. Coming from Advanced, SINNERS is a brand new team in ESEA Premier and they are already showing their group that they mean BUSINESS. Sitting at 4-0 with wins over Endpoint, Movistar, Anonymo, and x-kom AGO they are on pace to go undefeated.

Similarly in North America, Extra Salt have continued their dominance in Premier. They are currently 5-0 and have not even dropped a map. Extra Salt is the current favorite to not only win Group A, but also the season. However, Party Astronauts and Third Impact are both off to great starts at 3-0 and with the dark horse that is Pain Gaming, I would not write off Group B just yet.

In Australia & New Zealand, last season's champs, ORDER, also are boasting an undefeated record. Sitting at 4-0 in Group B, they are a clear favorite going into the playoffs. Should ORDER win this season, they will be moving on to ESL Pro League Season 14. However, Group A also has some strong talent in Renegades and Dire Wolves, both of which are 4-0. If ORDER can’t beat them in playoffs, then they will be facing the Season 37 champion in a deciding Bo3 for the ESL Pro League spot.

Current Premier Standings

Europe

Group A
SINNERS Esports
4-0
x-kom AGO
2-0
Sangal Esports
1-0
Anonymo Esports
1-1
GamerLegion
1-1
Endpoint CeX
1-2
Movistar Riders
1-3
SproutGG
0-1
Izako Boars
0-2
Group B
SAW
3-0
Wisla All In Games
2-0
BIG
2-1
LDLC OL
2-1
forZe LUKOIL
1-0
ALTERNATE aTTaX
1-1
Nemiga Gaming
1-2
Apeks
0-3
BLINK
0-4

North America

Group A
Extra Salt
6-0
ChocoCheck gaming
4-1
Secret Club
3-1
Triumph
2-2
Recon 5
2-2
GGPR esports
1-1
Big Chillin
1-3
SapphireKelownaDotCom
0-4
QcClan
0-5
Group B
Third Impact
3-0
Party Astronauts
3-0
Team Veloz
2-1
team oNe
2-1
paiN Gaming
1-0
RBG Esports
1-1
CENSRD
1-3
Mythic Reborn
0-3
PDHM Gaming
0-3

Australia & New Zealand

Group A
Vertex ESC
5-2
DireWolves
4-0
Team Renegades
4-0
Hazard
2-1
Riot Gaming
2-3
Overperformers
1-3
BBBMBCBS
1-3
ANIMAL_SQUAD
1-4
Sylyx
0-4
Group B
ORDER
3-0
Chiefs ESC
3-1
HOGCALLIN CONTEST CHAMPS
3-1
TeamSkyfire
1-1
Paradox-
2-1
Rooster-
2-3
DynastyESC
1-3
Bandits_ESC
0-2
WC
0-5

Be sure to not miss any of the action by tuning in every Tuesday and Wednesday on ESL_CSGO and ESL_CSGOb. You can check out all of the schedules and broadcast information on the ESEA Premier website.

National Championships

Competitions for the first half of 2021 are completed. After a hard fought few months, the best regional teams have been found and crowned.

  • ESL France: Team LDLC
  • ESL Spain: Movistar Raiders
  • ESL UK Premiership: Endpoint
  • ESL Swiss Championship Playoffs: Gaijin
  • ESL Polish Championship Playoffs: HONORIS
  • ESL Benelux Championship Playoffs: eClub Brugge
  • ESL Turkish Championship Playoffs: Sangal Esports
  • ESL German Championship Playoffs: SPROUT
  • ESL ANZ Championship Playoffs: ORDER
  • ESL Vietnam Open Cup 2021: DivisionX Gaming

While still in the process of optimizing the National Championship structure, we’ve focused on improving the established tournament path for teams. Aligning these competitions within the ESL Pro Tour is important as do believe regional competition as a cornerstone to the foundation of the game.

In parallel, we are looking to standardize and optimize rules, regulations, formatting and minimum standards. As we continue to take steps in the right direction, we’ll be looking to roll out changes for the 2nd half of 2021 where we’ll be searching again for the next regional stars.

ESL National Championship: Global Playoffs

In previous months, we’ve shared our vision for this tournament and how we want to continue to invest in the EPT Challenger / T2 level of CSGO. The first ever NC:GP took place across May 27-30 and while we are happy with launching this new product, we have a greater role for this competition in the future and will be looking to reposition it stronger within our system.

Congratulations Team LDLC who have won the first iteration of this tournament. They have earned a position to compete at IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in.

Also congratulations to team Sprout for their 2nd place finish which also secures them advancement to compete at IEM Summer which will start on June 3rd.

Final Tournament Standings

  • 1st: Team LDLC (Qualifies to IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in)
  • 2nd: Sprout (Qualifies to IEM Summer 2021)
  • 3rd - 4th: Endpoint
  • 3rd - 4th: eClub Brugge
  • 5th - 8th: GAIJIN
  • 5th - 8th: Movistar Riders
  • 5th - 8th: Sangal Esports
  • 5th - 8th: HONORIS
Outro
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.

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