Here are your 24 teams that are competing in ESL Pro League Season 23 with the Playoffs taking place in Stockholm, Sweden.
All teams were invited based on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) as of January 5th, 2026. The 24 teams will compete online in two 16 teams Swiss stages. 8 teams will be invited directly to Stage 2 while the remaining 16 will be invited to Stage 1.
The Top 8 teams from Stage 2 will compete in front of a LIVE audience for the $1,000,000 Total Winnings as well as a title in the race for the ESL Grand Slam.
Team Vitality (VRS 2) and Team Falcons (VRS 3) have both declined their invitation to ESL Pro League. Ninjas in Pyjamas (VRS 20) and Passion.UA (VRS 21) are now invited as they are the next eligible teams inline for the invites based on VRS. Because of this, Aurora and B8 will start in Stage 2 instead of Stage 1.
Lastly, FUT Esports will replace Lynn Vision following the tournament ruling from ESL Pro League Season 22. To summarize, Lynn Vision withdrew from the event after the deadline and received a ban on attending their next eligible Tier 1 VRS Event, which is Season 23. The Wildcard Invite (ECL Season 50 Asia Winner) has been converted to a Global VRS Invite.
Seeding and Deadlines
Roster submission deadline: February 15, 2026
Tournament seeding: Seeding for the 16 Stage 1 teams and the 8 teams directly invited to Stage 2 will take place two weeks prior to the start of the tournament, on February 16th and March 5th respectively.
A team must keep a majority roster from the original VRS invite date to be able to participate in the event this February.