ESL Pro League

2019
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Leicester, United Kingdom (Europe group stage) Burbank, California (Americas group stage) Montpellier, France (Finals)
Dates	April 12, 2019–June 23, 2019
Administrator	Electronic Sports League (ESL)
Venue	ESL studios (Europe and America group stages) Montpellier Exhibition Center (Finals group stage) Sud de France Arena (Finals playoffs)
Teams	48 teams
Purse	US$750,000
Final positions
Champions	Team Liquid
1st runners-up	G2 Esports
2nd runners-up	mousesports NRG Esports
MVP	Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
←  Season 8 Season 10 →

ESL Pro League Season 9 (shortened as EPL Season 9) was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It was the ninth season of the ESL Pro League. Teams from five continents – North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America – competed in four leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals. The regular season started on April 12, 2019, and ended in June 2019. This season was also the fourth tournament of the Intel Grand Slam Season 2. The EPL Finals took place in Montpellier, France. ^[1]

The finals for ESL Pro League Season 9 featured G2 Esports, which defeated FaZe Clan and NRG Esports en route to the grand finals, and Team Liquid, which defeated Astralis and mousesports. The season concluded with Team Liquid defeating G2 Esports three games to one to earn its inaugural Pro League title. This is the inaugural that a North American team has won a premier title in Europe.

Format

This season introduced a vastly different format than other seasons. Instead like last season, which had five leagues, there will only be four leagues: Europe, Americas, Asia, and Oceania.

Europe's league will feature sixteen teams, thirteen of which were automatically invited based on their top thirteen placement from last season. One team qualified by winning season 29 of Europe's Premier Division and another two teams qualified through the relegation phase. The Americas league also had sixteen teams, but instead of just teams based in North America, it will also feature Latin American teams. This league will feature the top nine teams from North America's season 8, the winner of season 29 of North America's Premier Division, and two teams from the relegation phase; there will also be four Latin American teams. Asia's league will feature four teams from the Greater China area and four teams from Southeast Asia. Oceania's league will feature eight teams. Both Asia and Oceania's regular seasons will remain online. ^[2]

The biggest change came with Europe's and the America's leagues featuring offline regular season play. This format will be similar to a mix of the ELEAGUE Season 1 group stage and the ESL One Katowice 2015 group stage. Four teams at a time will fly out to an ESL studio and play their matches there. For all four leagues, teams will be divided into groups of four teams and play a best of three robin round. For Europe, there were four groups. The winners of each group automatically moved on to the Finals while the teams that placed second and third moved to a second group stage. Fourth place teams were eliminated. In the second group stage, there were two groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group qualified for the finals. For the Americas, the first group stage was the same, but for the second group stage, only one team from each group moved on to the Finals. For Asia and Oceania, there were two groups in the first stage. The top two teams moved on to the second stage. There, only one team from each region qualified for the Finals in France. ^{[3] [4]}

Qualifiers

Season 8 Relegation

Europe Relegation

Due to Europe's league expanding to sixteen teams, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic were automatically invited to this season rather than playing in this relegation phase and AGO Esports played in the relegation phase instead of being automatically sent down to the Premier Division. In addition, Epsilon eSports was unable to play in relegation, so OpTic, which had the best record in Premier, took its place.

Season 8 Relegation AGO Esports (Season 8 #14) Virtus.pro (ESEA Season 29 #2) Team Kinguin (ESEA Season 29 #3) OpTic Gaming (ESEA Season 29 #5-8)

North America Relegation

Season 8 Relegation Rogue (Season 8 #10) Team Envy (Season 8 #11) cantwinalan (ESEA Season 29 #2) Team Singularity (ESEA Season 29 #3)

Teams

Europe

Americas

Asia

Oceania

Europe

Stage 1

Group A

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	mousesports	3	0	100	55	+45
2	OpTic Gaming	2	1	110	95	+15
3	North	1	2	84	100	–16
4	ex-Space Soldiers	0	3	52	96	–44

Group A matches
North	1	2	OpTic Gaming
mousesports	2	0	ex-Space Soldiers
mousesports	2	1	OpTic Gaming
North	2	0	ex-Space Soldiers
mousesports	2	0	North
OpTic Gaming	2	0	ex-Space Soldiers

mousesports looked strong in its group stage matches, as it only dropped one map out of the six it played. OpTic Gaming also had a strong performance as it was the only team to take a map off of mousesports. North struggled throughout the group stage, but two close map wins against the former players of Space Soldiers allowed the Danes to stay alive. ex-Space Soldiers continued to struggle after leaving Space Soldiers, even under the leadership of veteran Turkish-Australian player Yaman "yam" Ergenekon.

Group B

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	FaZe Clan	3	0	107	60	+47
2	Heroic [Note 1]	1	2	124	139	–15
3	devils.one [Note 1]	1	2	102	130	–28
4	Ninjas in Pyjamas [Note 1]	1	2	113	117	–4

Notes

Group B matches
FaZe Clan	2	1	devils.one
Ninjas in Pyjamas	2	1	Heroic
FaZe Clan	2	1	Heroic
Ninjas in Pyjamas	1	2	devils.one
FaZe Clan	2	0	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Heroic	2	1	devils.one

FaZe Clan was clearly the strongest team is it had almost no problem sweeping up the competition. Heroic, devils.one, and Ninjas in Pyjamas were all in a deadlock, each winning only one series. The very close loss to devils.one would come back to haunt Ninjas in Pyjamas as the Swedes were placed last in the group as Heroic and devils.one beat out the tiebreaker. Heroic defeating devils.one in a nail-biter, double overtime third map allowed the Danes to escape with the second seed; had Heroic lost to devils.one, it would have been in last place.

Group C

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	G2 Esports	3	0	130	106	24
2	Natus Vincere	2	1	131	131	0
3	Fnatic	1	2	113	113	0
4	Windigo Gaming	0	3	125	149	–4

Group C matches
Natus Vincere	2	1	Windigo Gaming
Fnatic	0	2	G2 Esports
Natus Vincere	1	2	G2 Esports
Fnatic	2	1	Windigo Gaming
Natus Vincere	2	1	Fnatic
G2 Esports	2	1	Windigo Gaming

G2 Esports continued to look for a consistent, winning pattern, and it did so in this group, as it took down Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) and Fnatic to top group C. Na`Vi was not shaken up by the G2 loss as it went on to take down Fnatic. Fnatic, arguably the most decorated team in CS:GO, struggled, but defeating Windigo Gaming allowed the Swedes to stay alive. Windigo had strong performances prior, but the Bulgarians struggled to take the game to the finish line, as four of its losses were within four rounds of victory.

Group D

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Astralis	3	0	113	67	+46
2	HellRaisers	2	1	84	80	+4
3	BIG	1	2	107	113	–6
4	ex-3DMAX	0	3	52	96	–44

Group D matches
BIG	1	2	HellRaisers
Astralis	2	0	ex-3DMAX
Astralis	2	0	HellRaisers
BIG	2	0	ex-3DMAX
HellRaisers	2	0	ex-3DMAX
Astralis	2	1	BIG

The favorites Astralis cleaned up group D with relative ease. HellRaisers and BIG also advanced fairly easily, as ex-3DMAX struggled massively, failing to even win one map.

Stage 2

Group E

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Fnatic [Note 1]	2	1	118	115	+3
2	HellRaisers [Note 1]	2	1	107	88	+19
3	Aristocracy [Note 2] [Note 3]	1	2	85	95	–10
4	OpTic Gaming [Note 3]	1	2	97	109	–12

Notes

Group E matches
OpTic Gaming	2	1	Fnatic
HellRaisers	2	0	Aristocracy
HellRaisers	1	2	Fnatic
OpTic Gaming	0	2	Aristocracy
HellRaisers	2	0	OpTic Gaming
Fnatic	2	0	Aristocracy

Fnatic turned things around after losing to OpTic Gaming in Group E, defeating HellRaisers and sweeping Aristocracy. On the other hand, OpTic did start off quite well, but Aristocracy and HellRaisers both swept the Danish team, taking OpTic out of the running of the EPL S9 title. The early HellRaisers victory over Aristocracy would turn out to the be decider for the final Group E spot in the finals, as Fnatic and HellRaisers moved on.

Group F

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	North	3	0	109	80	+29
2	Heroic	2	1	93	98	–5
3	Natus Vincere	1	2	114	99	+15
4	BIG	0	3	57	96	–39

Group F matches
Natus Vincere	1	2	North
Heroic	2	0	BIG
Natus Vincere	2	0	BIG
Heroic	0	2	North
Natus Vincere	1	2	Heroic
North	2	0	BIG

Like Fnatic, North also completely turned things around as it topped Group F, going 3–0, including defeating Na`Vi. Na`Vi was a favorite to head to the Finals, but Heroic upsetting the CIS squad on the last day of European regular season play in a very close third map was the decider, sending Na`Vi home. BIG had some very close maps, but the German team could not pull out a map win.

Europe standings

Europe's final standings are below. The top eight move on to the Finals and qualify for next season. 9th to 12th do not qualify for the Finals, but are invited to next season. The bottom four teams will have to play in a relegation phase for a spot in next season. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Team	Prize Money	Roster	Coach
1st-4th	mousesports	TBD	karrigan, chrisJ, frozen, ropz, woxic	Rejin
	FaZe Clan		NiKo, AdreN, GuardiaN, olofmeister, rain	YNk
	G2 Esports		shox, AmaNeK, JaCkz, kennyS, Lucky	maLeK
	Astralis		gla1ve, dev1ce, dupreeh, Magisk, Xyp9x	zonic
5th-6th	Fnatic	TBD	Xizt, Brollan, JW, KRiMZ, twist	Jumpy
	North		valde, aizy, gade, JUGi, Kjaerbye	mithR
7th-8th	HellRaisers	TBD	ANGE1, ISSAA, loWel, nukkye, oskar	lmbt
	Heroic		blameF, es3tag, NaToSaphiX, stavn, friberg	mithR
9th-10th	Aristocracy	US$10,000	TaZ, dycha, MINISE, mouz, rallen	Loord
	Natus Vincere		Zeus, Edward, s1mple, electronic, flamie	kane
11th-12th	OpTic Gaming	US$8,000	MSL, k0nfig, niko, refrezh, Snappi	ruggah
	BIG		gob b, denis, tabseN, tiziaN, XANTARES	kakafu
13th-16th	ex-Space Soldiers	US$6,000	yam, Calyx, imoRR, ngiN, paz	hardstyle
	Ninjas in Pyjamas		Lekr0, dennis, f0rest, GeT RiGhT, REZ	pita
	Windigo Gaming		bubble, blocker, poizon, SHiPZ, v1c7oR	Shockwave
	ex-3DMAX		davidp, hAdji, JiNKZ, LOGAN, Maka	Max0b

Americas

Stage 1

Group A

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	NRG Esports [Note 1]	2	1	95	86	+9
2	eUnited [Note 1]	2	1	86	71	+15
3	Renegades [Note 1]	2	1	93	85	+8
4	INTZ eSports	0	3	64	96	-32

Notes

Group A matches
NRG Esports	2	0	INTZ eSports
Renegades	0	2	eUnited
NRG Esports	2	0	eUnited
Renegades	2	0	INTZ eSports
NRG Esports	1	2	Renegades
eUnited	2	0	INTZ eSports

NRG Esports, eUnited, and Renegades all tied in series wins, while INTZ eSports failed to find even a map win. NRG would book a spot in the finals since it took a map off of the Renegades. eUnited was seeded second based on defeating the Renegades.

Group B

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Team Liquid	3	0	108	40	+68
2	Ghost Gaming	2	1	96	101	-5
3	compLexity Gaming	1	2	103	125	-22
4	Lazarus Esports	0	3	58	99	-41

Group B matches
Team Liquid	2	0	Lazarus Esports
Ghost Gaming	2	1	compLexity Gaming
Team Liquid	2	1	compLexity Gaming
Ghost Gaming	2	0	Lazarus Gaming
Team Liquid	2	0	Ghost Gaming
compLexity Gaming	2	0	Lazarus Gaming

Team Liquid had a fairly easy time in the group stage, as the top ranked team in the world only suffered a loss to compLexity Gaming (coL), only to stomp coL in the next two maps. The newly formed Lazarus Esports gained good experience against some notable North American teams, but the inexperience proved to be too much to overcome. Ghost Gaming and coL moved on to stage 2 while Liquid went straight to the Finals.

Group C

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Luminosity Gaming [Note 1]	2	1	112	89	+23
2	MIBR [Note 1]	2	1	79	60	+19
3	Cloud9 [Note 1]	2	1	88	90	-2
4	Team Envy	0	3	65	105	-40

Notes

Group C matches
MIBR	0	2	Luminosity Gaming
Cloud9	2	0	Team Envy
MIBR	2	0	Team Envy
Cloud9	2	0	Luminosity Gaming
MIBR	2	0	Cloud9
Team Envy	0	2	Luminosity Gaming

Luminosity Gaming topped group C in a huge surprise, as the team was not even supposed to be in Pro League to begin with. Team Envy continued to struggle with its lineup, even with its new addition of Sam "s0m" Oh. Envy bottomed out the group while MIBR and Cloud9 stayed alive.

Group D

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	DETONA Gaming	3	0	120	86	+34
2	Isurus Gaming	2	1	102	70	+32
3	Infinity Esports	1	2	80	101	-21
4	Denial Esports	0	3	80	125	-45

Group D matches
Isurus Gaming	2	0	Denial Esports
Infinity Esports	0	2	DETONA Gaming
Isurus Gaming	1	2	DETONA Gaming
Infinity Esports	2	1	Denial Esports
Isurus Gaming	2	0	Infinity Esports
DETONA Gaming	2	0	Denial Esports

The new Denial Esports lineup struggled as it went 0–3 to the other South American teams. DETONA Gaming went straight into the Finals after taking down every team it faced while Isurus Gaming and Infinity Esports would go on to face a tough task in going against experienced North American teams.`

Stage 2

Group E

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	MIBR	3	0	107	70	+37
2	Renegades	2	1	92	73	+19
3	Isurus Gaming	1	2	83	104	-21
4	compLexity Gaming	0	3	98	133	-35

Group E matches
Renegades	2	1	compLexity Gaming
MIBR	2	0	Isurus Gaming
Isurus Gaming	0	2	Renegades
MIBR	2	1	compLexity Gaming
MIBR	2	0	Renegades
Isurus Gaming	2	1	compLexity Gaming

MIBR readjusted and took down every one in Group E, with only a slip up against coL. Renegades nearly made the Finals, but the loss to MIBR on the last day was the decider. Isurus upset coL to round out Group E and earned an extra US$1,000.

Group F

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Cloud9	3	0	117	84	+33
2	Ghost Gaming	2	1	116	99	+17
3	eUnited	1	2	111	101	+10
4	Infinity Esports	0	3	36	96	-60

Group F matches
eUnited	1	2	Cloud9
Ghost Gaming	2	0	Infinity Esports
Ghost Gaming	2	1	eUnited
Cloud9	2	0	Infinity Esports
Ghost Gaming	1	2	Cloud9
eUnited	2	0	Infinity Esports

Like MIBR, Cloud9 topped its group, defeating Ghost on the last day despite its recent struggles. Infinity could not find some success like Isurus did, including getting 16-0'd by eUnited.

Americas standings

The Americas' final standings are below. The top six move on to the Finals and qualify for next season. 7th to 12th do not qualify for the Finals, but are invited to next season. The bottom four teams will have to play in a relegation phase for a spot in next season. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Team	Prize Money	Roster	Coach
1st-4th	NRG Esports	TBD	daps, Brehze, Ethan, tarik, CeRq	ImAPet
	Team Liquid		nitr0, ELiGE, Stewie2K, NAF, Twistzz	adreN
	Luminosity Gaming		steel, boltz, HEN1, LUCAS1, NEKIZ	zakk
	DETONA Gaming		tiburci0, hardzao, prt, Tuurtle, v$m	rikz
5th-6th	MIBR	TBD	FalleN, coldzera, felps, fer, TACO	zews
	Cloud9		Golden, autimatic, RUSH, vice, cajunb	valens
7th-8th	Renegades	US$8,000	AZR, jks, liazz, jkaem, smooya	kassad
	Ghost Gaming		steel, FREAKAZOiD, koosta, neptune, Wardell	JamezIRL
9th-10th	Isurus Gaming	US$7,000	Noktse, 1962, meyern, reversive, maxujas	pino
	eUnited		Cooper-, food, motm, vanity, MarkE	a2z
11th-12th	compLexity Gaming	US$6,000	stanislaw, ShahZaM, SicK, yay, dephh	Warden
	Infinity Esports		spamzzy, Daveys, points, cruzN, malbsMd	alone
13th-16th	INTZ eSports	US$5,000	kNgV-, chelo, destiny, xand, yeL	Apoka
	Lazarus Esports		Zellsis, Infinite, swag, yay, Subroza	fRoD
	Team Envy		Nifty, FugLy, jdm64, s0m, ANDROID	Eley
	Denial Esports		sickLy, blue, Link, sam_A, VAATI	Emmet

Asia

Stage 1

East Asia

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	TyLoo [Note 1]	2	1	112	78	+34
2	MVP PK [Note 1]	2	1	91	77	+14
3	ViCi Gaming [Note 2]	1	2	76	101	-25
4	5Power Gaming [Note 2]	1	2	92	115	-23

Notes

East Asia matches
TyLoo	1	2	5Power Gaming
ViCi Gaming	0	2	MVP PK
TyLoo	2	1	MVP PK
ViCi Gaming	2	1	5Power Gaming
TyLoo	2	0	ViCi Gaming
MVP PK	2	0	5Power Gaming

5Power Gaming started very strong by defeating favorites TyLoo while MVP PK took down the second seeded ViCi Gaming. However, 5Power's success would not last long as it fell to ViCi and MVP PK was downed by TyLoo. TyLoo and MVP PK would lock their spots for the Asia finals after taking down ViCi and 5Power, respectively. on the last day.

Southeast Asia

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Lucid Dream	3	0	126	88	+38
2	ALPHA Red	2	1	87	75	+12
3	B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	1	2	105	102	+3
4	Entity Gaming	0	3	11	64	-53

Southeast Asia matches
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	2	0	Entity Gaming
Lucid Dream	2	1	ALPHA Red
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	1	2	ALPHA Red
Lucid Dream	2	0	Entity Gaming
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	1	2	Lucid Dream
Lucid Dream	W	FF	Entity Gaming

The two Thai teams overcame B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape to secure spots in the Asia finals. Entity Gaming from India struggled as it only garnered eleven rounds in four maps before eventually forfeiting its last match to ALPHA Red.

Stage 2

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	TyLoo	3	0	112	82	+30
2	MVP PK	2	1	110	77	+33
3	Lucid Dream	1	2	72	82	-10
4	ALPHA Red	0	3	46	99	-53

Asia qualifier matches
Lucid Dream	0	2	MVP PK
TyLoo	2	0	ALPHA Red
Lucid Dream	2	0	ALPHA Red
TyLoo	2	1	MVP PK
TyLoo	2	0	Lucid Dream
MVP PK	2	0	ALPHA Red

The two East Asian team proved to be superior to the Southeast Asian teams, but it was TyLoo to take the Finals spot over MVP PK in a close three game set. Lucid Dream took down ALPHA Red to place third.

Asia standings

The Asian final standings are below. The top team moved on to the Finals and qualifies for next season. 2nd to 6th do not qualify for the Finals, but are invited to next season. The bottom two teams will have to play in a relegation phase for a spot in next season. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Team	Prize Money	Roster	Coach
1st	TyLoo	TBD	BnTeT, Attacker, somebody, Summer, xccurate
2nd	MVP PK	US$5,500	hsk, stax, xeta, XigN, zeff	termi
3rd	Lucid Dream	US$4,500	cbbk, Geniuss, PTC, qqgod, wannafly
4th	ALPHA Red	US$4,000	MAIROLLS, foxz, Kntz, Olivia, SeveN89
5th-6th	B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	US$0	alecks, Benkai, Bobosaur, splashske, d4v41
	ViCi Gaming		advent, aumaN, zhokiNg, kaze, Freeman
7th-8th	Entity Gaming	US$0	Dav, Amaterasu, Excali, Psy, DJOXiC	soLo
	5Power Gaming		xiaosaGe, shuadapai, Viva, dobu, kabal	Xiaoxizi

Oceania

Stage 1

Group A

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	ORDER	3	0	107	87	+20
2	Athletico Esports [Note 1]	1	2	106	102	+4
3	Breakaway Esports [Note 1]	1	2	95	99	-4
4	Paradox Gaming [Note 1]	1	2	89	109	-20

Notes

Group A matches
ORDER	2	0	Paradox Gaming
Breakaway Esports	0	2	Athletico Esports
ORDER	2	1	Athletico Esports
Breakaway Esports	2	0	Paradox Gaming
ORDER	2	1	Breakaway Esports
Athletico Esports	0	2	Paradox Gaming

ORDER had an easy time against its competitors as it went 3–0. Athletico Esports was able to steal away the second seed based on having more map wins than either Breakaway Esports or Paradox Gaming.

Group B

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Grayhound Gaming	3	0	99	58	41
2	Chiefs Esports Club	2	1	83	71	+12
3	Avant Gaming	1	2	84	86	-2
4	Ground Zero Gaming	0	3	45	96	-51

Group B matches
Grayhound Gaming	2	0	Ground Zero Gaming
Chiefs Esports Club	2	0	Avant Gaming
Grayhound Gaming	2	0	Avant Gaming
Chiefs Esports Club	2	0	Ground Zero Gaming
Grayhound Gaming	2	0	Chiefs Esports Club
Avant Gaming	2	0	Ground Zero Gaming

The favorites Grayhound Gaming had an even easier time than ORDER as it cruised to a 3–0 scoreline without dropping a map. Chiefs Esports Club defeated Avant Gaming on the first day of group B to take the second seed while Ground Zero Gaming did not even take a single map.

Stage 2

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD
1	Grayhound Gaming	3	0	73	49	+24
2	Chiefs Esports Club	2	1	66	69	-3
3	ORDER	1	2	60	81	-21
4	Athletico Esports	0	3	0	0	0

With Athletico not able to make the Oceania finals, it was a quick group. As expected, Grayhound topped the group and booked a Finals spot without dropping a map as Chiefs and ORDER were sent home.

Oceania qualifier matches
ORDER	1	2	Chiefs Esports Club
Grayhound Gaming	W	FF	Athletico Esports
ORDER	W	FF	Athletico Esports
Grayhound Gaming	2	0	Chiefs Esports Club
Grayhound Gaming	2	0	ORDER
Chiefs Esports Club	W	FF	Athletico Esports

Oceania standings

Oceania's final standings are below. The top team moved on to the Finals and qualifies for next season. 2nd to 6th do not qualify for the Finals, but are invited to next season. The bottom two teams will have to play in a relegation phase for a spot in next season. Each team's in-game leader is shown first.

Place	Team	Prize Money	Roster	Coach
1st	Grayhound Gaming	TBD	dexter, DickStacy, Malta, Sico, erkaSt	NeiL_M
2nd	Chiefs Esports Club	US$5,500	tucks, BL1TZ, Texta, ofnu, zewsy	ferg
3rd	ORDER	US$4,500	emagine, aliStair, hats, INS, zeph	Elmapuddy
4th	Athletico Esports	US$4,000	smooth_criminal22, ADK, Dezibel, JD, Teal
5th-6th	Breakaway Esports	US$0	J1rah, HaZR, Llamas, Noisia, YDNA
	Avant Gaming		ap0c, eLUSIVE, mizu, RaZ, soju_j	dayV1D
7th-8th	Paradox Gaming	US$0	Chub, keeyto, Kingfisher, Noobster, Valiance
	Ground Zero Gaming		Xtinct, bURNRUOk, MoeycQ, void, Zemp

Finals

The finalized teams are shown below. Each team's HLTV.org ranking for June 17, 2019 – the final rankings before the Finals – is shown next to the team. ^[5]

Europe Astralis (2) FaZe Clan (6) G2 Esports (15) mousesports (14) Fnatic (7) North (8) HellRaisers (25) Heroic (29)

Americas DETONA Gaming (59) Luminosity Gaming (44) NRG Esports (9) Team Liquid (1) Cloud9 (31) MIBR (10)

Asia TyLoo (46)

Oceania Grayhound Gaming (19)

Broadcast talent

Desk host

• Tres "stunna" Saranthus

Stage host

• Olivier Morin

Interviewer

• James Banks

Commentators

• Tom "Tombizz" Bissmire
• Anders Blume
• Henry "HenryG" Greer
• Jason "JKaplan" Kaplan
• Jason "moses" O'Toole
• Jack "Jacky" Peters
• Alex "Machine" Richardson
• Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam

Analysts

• Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
• Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez
• Jacob "Pimp" Winneche

Observers

• Jake "Jak3y" Elton
• Alex "Rushly" Rush

Group stage

Group A

G2 Esports was barely able to escape a scare from Grayhound Gaming and NRG Esports took down Fnatic in a close map. Astralis continued to roll as it took down the struggling Cloud9 while Heroic took advantage of DETONA Gaming's inexperience to bump the Brazilians down with relative ease. NRG then took down G2 in a very close three game set, with the latter two games going into overtime. Astralis had no trouble taking out its compatriots in Heroic to move on. Grayhound put up a fight against Fnatic, but the Swedes prevailed in the end while Cloud9 had little trouble putting away DETONA. Heroic then eliminated Fnatic in a series that went three games while G2 survived against Cloud9 in two close games. NRG upset Astralis in the winner's finals to top group A and earn a bye for the playoffs. In the loser's side, G2 took down Heroic, with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub leading the way for the French.

Group B

FaZe Clan edged out TyLoo in the group B opener while North upset Team Liquid on Dust II. mousesports continued to look strong with a win over MIBR while HellRaisers made an all European winner's side with a win over Luminosity Gaming. North fought hard, but FaZe managed to take the series over the Danes in a third map overtime victory. mousesports easily took down HellRaisers to set the winner's side. TyLoo could not get anything done against Liquid as the Americans easily moved on while MIBR got revenge against Luminosity. HellRaisers gave Liquid a scare, but Liquid somehow prevailed and came back in the third map from an 11–14 deficit to a 16–14 win. MIBR easily took down North in the first map, but North came back in the second map; in the third map, MIBR had to rally a bit after being down most of the match to secure the series, with heroics from Fernando "fer" Alvarenga. Finn "karrigan" Andersen took out the team that kicked him in FaZe to help mousesports secure the first seed in group B. On the loser's side, Liquid continued to have success against MIBR in two maps to secure a spot in the playoffs.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Grand Finals

A1

NRG Esports

0

B2

FaZe Clan

0

A3

G2 Esports

2

A3

G2 Esports

2

A3

G2 Esports

1

B3

Team Liquid

3

B1

mousesports

0

A2

Astralis

1

B3

Team Liquid

2

B3

Team Liquid

2

Round of 6

Nikola "NiKo" Kovač had a very strong game for FaZe Clan, but the rest of his team could not get anything going, as G2 Esports took advantage of that, led by Lucas "Lucky" Chastang's 21 kills and 6 assists. FaZe's star players Håvard "rain" Nygaard and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács struggled massively as they had the fewest kills on the server. The second game on Dust II ended in a close first half, with G2 leading 9–6. However, vintage performances from Richard "shox" Papillon and kennyS spurred G2 to running away with the second half and eliminating FaZe.

Astralis versus Team Liquid was the story during Astralis's winning era, as the North Americans almost always failed to crack the Astralis puzzle. After a Danish 12–3 first half, Liquid brought it all the way to 15–12, only to have Astralis close it out and it looked like Astralis was going to run away with it again. However, in the second map, Liquid carried that second half momentum from the first map to a 14–1 first half on the second map, despite Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz's 23 kills to lead the server. Liquid would tie up the series. The third map saw Astralis take a 11–4 halftime lead, but nine unanswered rounds by Liquid suddenly put the Americans up 13–11. Astralis would take two more rounds, but Liquid took out the Danes to headed to the semifinals, as Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski lead the way with 28 kills.

Round of 6 matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
FaZe Clan	12	Train	16	G2 Esports
FaZe Clan	8	Dust II	16	G2 Esports
FaZe Clan	–	Inferno	–	G2 Esports
Astralis	16	Overpass	12	Team Liquid
Astralis	6	Inferno	16	Team Liquid
Astralis	13	Vertigo	16	Team Liquid

Semifinals

The first semifinal match was between NRG, still fielding daps, against G2 Esports, on Dust 2. The French side started out with a dominating 8–1 lead on the T side. However, NRG managed to win the last 6 rounds in the half due to back-to-back 1v1s by Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte to end up with a 8–7 scoreline favoring G2. NRG took the momentum after winning the pistol round on the T side, and ended up taking 4 rounds in a row. However, G2 eventually found their footing on the CT side and the map ended 16–12 for the French side, with kennyS having a great performance of 28 kills. On the second map, Train, NRG had a dominant T-side and ended up continuing this into the 2nd half, despite an Ace by kennyS on the 2nd pistol round. The decider for the series was Overpass. NRG started out 2–0 on their T side, but they ended up not getting much more than that due to some key holds from François "AmaNEk" Delauney and the half ended up 12–3, favouring G2. Despite an effort from NRG in the second half, G2 ended up closing out the series and claiming a spot in the Grand Finals.

The second semifinal match was between Team Liquid, the #1 team in the world at that time, going up against the up-and-coming international roster of Mousesports. Mousesports started out Overpass by chaining some rounds off the back of Finn "karrigan" Andersen's quad-kill on the CT-side. However, Team Liquid would eventually run away with a dominant 10–5 T-half, which included a last second knife kill on the defuser on the last round by Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella. The North American side ended up closing out their map pick quite comfortably at a 16–8 score line. On Nuke, Liquid looked poised to close out the series with a 12–3 CT half, but Mousesports ended up draggin the map to Overtime off of an impressive performance from Özgür "woxic" Eker who managed to keep Mouz in contention with a quad kill. Despite his efforts, Liquid won the map and match in overtime, and advanced to the finals to face G2.

Semifinal Matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
NRG Esports	12	Dust II	16	G2 Esports
NRG Esports	16	Train	7	G2 Esports
NRG Esports	10	Overpass	16	G2 Esports
mousesports	8	Overpass	16	Team Liquid
mousesports	17	Nuke	19	Team Liquid
mousesports	–	Inferno	–	Team Liquid

Finals

Semifinal Matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
G2 Esports	15	Dust II	19	Team Liquid
G2 Esports	3	Overpass	16	Team Liquid
G2 Esports	16	Nuke	12	Team Liquid
G2 Esports	22	Inferno	25	Team Liquid
G2 Esports	–	Vertigo	–	Team Liquid

Finals standings

Between the end of the regular season and the Finals, a few changes took place.

FaZe Clan replace Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev, who was with FaZe on a trial basis, with legendary Virtus.pro player Filip "NEO" Kubski. ^[6]

TyLoo release Kevin "xccurate" Susanto from the team and acquire Wing Hei "Freeman" Cheung from ViCi Gaming. TyLoo also signed free agent Zhenghao "DANK1NG" Lv as a sixth player. ^[7]

compLexity Gaming released Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz from the team. NRG Esports then signed stanislaw to replace Damian "daps" Steele. However, under ESL rules, stanislaw is not able to participate in the Finals since he playing for compLexity during the season, so NRG was forced to use daps for the Finals. ^[8]

Place	Team	Prize Money
1st	Team Liquid	US$250,000
2nd	G2 Esports	US$110,000
3rd–4th	mousesports	US$55,000
	NRG Esports
5th–6th	Astralis	US$32,000
	FaZe Clan
7th–8th	Heroic	US$24,000
	MIBR
9th–12th	Cloud9	US$22,000
	Fnatic
	HellRaisers
	North
13th–16th	DETONA Gaming	US$20,000
	Grayhound Gaming
	Luminosity Gaming
	TyLoo

References