ESL announces new format for ESL Pro League CS 2 tournaments

Tournament organizer ESL has revealed an updated format for the ESL Pro League series. Starting from Season 21, the system will resemble that of the IEM Katowice Major 2019.

The EPL tournaments will now feature two group stages played under the Swiss system. The first stage will involve 16 teams, with the top eight advancing to the second stage, where they will be joined by another 8 teams. This will ultimately determine the eight teams that will move on to the playoffs.

Each team will rate the other 15 teams, ranking them based on performance. These ratings will influence seeding and will work similarly to the ELO system. However, anomalous votes, where one team rates another significantly lower or higher than the consensus, will not be counted.

ESL Pro League Season 21 will take place from February 25 to March 16 in a LAN format, though the location and prize pool have yet to be announced.