ESL Pro League Season 7 (shortened as EPL Season 7) is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It is the seventh season of the ESL Pro League. Teams from two continents, North America and Europe will compete in fourteen team leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals. For the first time, the EPL finals returned to a location that had already hosted an EPL final as ESL decided to head back to Dallas and will host the finals at the Verizon Theatre. The regular season started on February 13, 2018, and ended on April 26, 2018. Europe's season started with Astralis overrunning Team LDLC.com. North America's season kicked off with the Season 6 champion SK Gaming edging out the Season 4 champion Cloud9. South America's season began with Dereguedere tying with W7M Gaming. Asia-Pacific's season started with defeating Grayhound Gaming. Asia-Pacific's season ended with MVP PK defeating Grayhound Gaming in three maps to take first seed in the APAC region. South America's season will end with Team Wild taking on W7M Gaming. Europe's season ended with HellRaisers defeating North to take the last European spot in the finals. North America's season ended with Ghost Gaming defeating compLexity Gaming.
The finals started on May 14, 2018, and ended on May 20, 2018, in Dallas, Texas, United States. Astralis defeated Team Liquid in four maps to claim the organization's first title.
This tournament is the ninth tournament of the first season of the Intel Grand Slam, which is a list of premier tournaments run by ESL and DreamHack. The first team to win four titles would earn an extra $1,000,000. SK Gaming (ESL One Cologne 2017 and ESL Pro League Season 6) and FaZe Clan (ESL One New York 2017 and Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Sydney) lead the way with two titles each. G2 Esports (DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – Oakland), Fnatic (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII - World Championship), and Astralis (DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018) have one title each.
Format The seventh season saw a major change. ESL announced on February 20, 2018, that the EPL Finals would be expanded to 16 teams. On March 5, 2018, EPL announced the creation of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) division, which would divide teams up into three regions and then feature eight teams in an APAC regional. EPL later announced on March 15, 2018, that a South American division, called the LA LEAGUE, would be created and would feature eight teams from a sixteen team closed qualifier. This caused some mild controversy as the four best South American teams – SK Gaming, Luminosity Gaming, Não Tem Como, and No Tenemos Nada – were already playing in North America's league.
North American and Europe featured the top 11 teams from last season's ESL Pro League Season 5, one team from the ESEA Season 26: Premier Finals and two teams from the Season 5 Relegation, which featured the bottom two teams from each league from Season 5 and the two runner-ups from the ESEA Season 26: Premier Finals. The Asia-Pacific region featured three teams from the Australia and New Zealand region; three teams from the China region, which includes teams from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, and South Korea; and two teams from the Southeast Asia region, which includes teams from Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and eight other countries. South America featured a closed qualifier eight invited teams, four teams from an open qualifier, and four teams from a second open qualifier.
During the regular season, each team will play every team in its league in two best-of-ones. The winner of each game will receive three points and the loser of each game will receive zero points. If a game ends to overtime, the winner will receive two points and the loser will receive one point. The top six teams by the end of the season from each region will head to the Finals. Teams that placed seventh through eleventh will not head to the playoffs but will secure a spot in next season's EPL. Teams that placed twelve and thirteenth will go through a relegation phase, in which those teams will be placed in a four team double elimination bracket, along with teams that placed second and third in the ESEA Season 26: Premier Division of their region. The top two teams move on to EPL Season 7. The winner of ESEA Season 26: Premier Division will automatically be invited to EPL Season 7. The team that came in fourteenth place will automatically be demoted to ESEA Season 28: Premier Division. Originally, the North American division had fourteen teams like Europe, but after Counter Logic Gaming released its team and Misfits decided to not renew the contracts of three players, the two teams forfeited their pro league licenses.
There were also two periods in which no matches were played. After week 1, no matches were played for three weeks due to StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 4 in Ukraine featuring twelve EPL teams and Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – World Championship in Poland featuring eleven EPL teams in the two events. One last break from EPL matches took place as thirteen EPL teams attended DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 in France.
The Finals was initially going to have only twelve teams, but on February 20, 2018, it was announced that the Finals will consist of sixteen teams. Europe would be awarded seven slots in the finals and North America would have six slots based on having fewer teams. ESL Senior Vice President of Product Ulrich Schulze said that with sixteen teams in the EPL Finals "comes with geographical expansion", indicating that teams from Asian and the Oceania regions would also be part of the EPL Finals. The two regions were determined to be the Asia-Pacific region and an undetermined region. The APAC region would be awarded two slots and the South America region would be awarded one slot.
Qualifiers Season 6 relegation Before each season, three spots need to be filled up in each league. The team that came in last place in each league is automatically relegated to the premier division for the following season, season 25. Meanwhile, the winner of the premier division's season 26 is automatically promoted to the professional division. For the last two spots, the two runner ups of season 26 of the premier division will be placed in a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket against the teams that placed twelfth and thirteenth in EPL Season 6. The final two teams are promoted to EPL Season 7 and the other two teams are demoted to ESEA Premier Division Season 27.
North America relegation North America's league featured an unusual case. Immortals decided to drop out of EPL after Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe's contract was cut and Henrique "HEN1" Teles and Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles's contracts were bought out by 100 Thieves along with Lincoln "fnx" Lau. Immortals tried to rebuild its team with its last two members in Lucas "steel" Lopes and Ricardo "boltz" Prass by bringing in João "horvy" Horvath, Lucas "destinyy" Bullo, and Caio "zqk" Fonseca. However, boltz was later loaned to SK Gaming and was projected to become part of the permanent roster, so the team brought in Bruno "shz" Martinelli. However, Team Liquid bought out steel, announced that he would go inactive in search of a better team, and and went back to their old team Tempo Storm. then left the team to join the Brazilian-based YeaH! Gaming. 100 Thieves potentially could have bought Immortals's Pro League license, but the CS:GO project fell through as unspecified members were having immigration issues and then 100 Thieves released its CS:GO squad and then the team announced it would not reach out to any CS:GO team for 2018. Therefore, Ghost Gaming, which was going to be relegated to the Premier League, got a second chance to get back into Pro League by taking Immortals's spot in the Season 6 relegation phase.
Season 6 Relegation Rogue (Season 6 #13) Ghost Gaming (Season 6 #14) Rise Nation (ESEA Season 26 #2) GX (ESEA Season 26 #3)
Europe relegation Season 6 Relegation Natus Vincere (Season 6 #12) GODSENT (Season 6 #13) eXtatus (ESEA Season 26 #2) Space Soldiers (ESEA Season 26 #3)
Asia-Pacific qualification Each qualifier featured eight teams. Each region played a double elimination, best of three, eight team bracket.
Australia-New Zealand The Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) season matches will take place from April 4 to 5 and April 9 to 10. The top three will qualify for the APAC finals.
Chiefs eSports Club (Invited) Corvidae (Invited) Dark Sided (Invited) Grayhound Gaming (Invited) ORDER (Invited) Tainted Minds (Invited) Legacy Esports (Open Qualifier 1) Lucky7 Gaming (Open Qualifier 2)
China The China region consists of the East Asia countries. The China season will take place from March 27 to 29. The top three will qualify for the APAC finals.
5Power Club (Invited) Eclipse (Invited) Flash Gaming (Invited) MVP PK (Invited) SZ Absolute (Invited) The MongolZ (Invited) Roar eSports (Open Qualifier 1) EHOME (Open Qualifier 2)
Southeast Asia The Southeast Asia season matches will take place from April 6 to 8. The top two will advance to the APAC finals.
Alpha Red (Invited) (Invited) Fire Dragoon E-sports (Invited) GameTV (Invited) Recca Esports (Invited) Signature Gaming (Invited) Beyond Esports (Open Qualifier 1) Mineski (Open Qualifier 2)
LA LEAGUE closed qualifier The LA LEAGUE will start off with a closed qualifier. ESL will invite eight top teams from all over South America. To fill out the sixteen team closed qualifier, ESL will also host two open qualifiers, from which four teams from each open qualifier will qualify for the closed qualifier. Eight teams will qualify for the South American season. To avoid any consequences with traveling, ESL announced that it would only allow teams in which all players have acquired US visas. Each team was seeded, with the invited teams earning the higher seeds, and set to up play one team in a best of three. The winners of those matchups moved to LA LEAGUE.
Furia eSports (Invited) Furious Gaming (Invited) Isurus Gaming (Invited) Keyd Stars Female (Invited) Sharks Esports (Invited) Virtue Gaming (Invited) W7M Gaming (Invited) YeaH! Gaming (Invited) C4 Gaming (Open Qualifier 1) Dereguedere (Open Qualifier 1) INTZ eSports (Open Qualifier 1) TEAMMATE (Open Qualifier 1) AEON Gaming (Open Qualifier 2) Andes eSports (Open Qualifier 2) Brasil Gaming House (Open Qualifier 2) Team Wild (Open Qualifier 2)
Teams North America
OpTic Gaming (Season 6 #1) SK Gaming (Season 6 #2) Team Liquid (Season 6 #3) NRG Esports (Season 6 #4) Luminosity Gaming (Season 6 #6) Cloud9 (Season 6 #8) Renegades (Season 6 #9) Splyce (Season 6 #10) compLexity Gaming (Season 6 #11) Team Dignitas (ESEA Premier Season 26) Ghost Gaming (Season 6 Relegation) Rogue (Season 6 Relegation) Europe
Fnatic (Season 6 #1) North (Season 6 #2) FaZe Clan (Season 6 #3) Astralis (Season 6 #4) Ninjas in Pyjamas (Season 6 #5) HellRaisers (Season 6 #6) G2 Esports (Season 6 #7) Team EnVyUs (Season 6 #8) mousesports (Season 6 #9) Heroic (Season 6 #10) Team LDLC.com (Season 6 #11) AGO Esports (ESEA Premier Season 26) Natus Vincere (Season 6 Relegation) Space Soldiers (Season 6 Relegation) Asia-Pacific
Grayhound Gaming (ANZ #1-2) ORDER (ANZ #1-2) Tainted Minds (ANZ #3) MVP PK (China #1-2) The MongolZ (China #1-2) SZ Absolute (China replacement) Signature Gaming (SEA #1) (SEA #2)
South America
Furia eSports Furious Gaming Isurus Gaming Sharks Esports Team Wild W7M Gaming
North America Broadcast talent The season 7 talent was announced on February 6, 2018.
Host Tres "Stunna" Saranthus Commentators Danny "dK" Kim Jordan "Elfishguy" Mays Jason "moses" O'Toole Mitch "Pili" Pilipowski Harry "JustHarry" Russell Kevin "KaRath" Zhu Analysts Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl Jacob "Pimp" Winneche
Standings