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.
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.
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.
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
Astralis (Season 8 #1) Natus Vincere (Season 8 #2) BIG (Season 8 #3) North (Season 8 #4) HellRaisers (Season 8 #5) mousesports (Season 8 #6) G2 Esports (Season 8 #7) Windigo Gaming (Season 8 #8) ex-Space Soldiers (Season 8 #9) Heroic (Season 8 #10) FaZe Clan (Season 8 #11) Ninjas in Pyjamas (Season 8 #12) Fnatic (Season 8 #13) 3DMAX (ESEA Premier Season 29) OpTic Gaming (Season 8 Relegation) Aristocracy (Season 8 Relegation)
Americas
MIBR (Season 8 #1) Ghost Gaming (Season 8 #2) Team Liquid (Season 8 #3) NRG Esports (Season 8 #4) Renegades (Season 8 #5) INTZ eSports (Season 8 #6) (Season 8 #7) Cloud9 (Season 8 #8) compLexity Gaming (Season 8 #9) Lazarus Esports (ESEA Premier Season 29) Team Envy (Season 8 Relegation) Luminosity Gaming (Invited) (Rogue disbands after StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7. ESL announced the Luminosity Gaming would take its place.) Isurus Gaming (LA League Season 3 #1) Infinity Esports (LA League Season 3 #2) Denial Esports (Latin America North) DETONA Gaming (Latin America South)
Asia
TyLoo (Invited) ViCi Gaming (Invited) MVP PK (East Asia #1) 5Power Gaming (East Asia #2) B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape (Southeast Asia #1-2) Lucid Dream (Southeast Asia #1-2) Alpha Red (Southeast Asia #3) Entity Gaming (India Premiership)
Oceania
ORDER (ESEA Premier S30 #1) Chiefs Esports Club (ESEA Premier S30 #2) Grayhound Gaming (ESEA Premier S30 #3) Breakaway Esports (ESEA Premier S30 #4) Avant Gaming (ESEA Premier S30 #5) Paradox Gaming (ESEA Premier S30 #6) Ground Zero Gaming (ESEA Premier S30 #7) Athletico Esports (ESEA Premier S30 #8)
Europe Stage 1 Group A PosTeamWLRFRARD 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.
North 16 Overpass 19 OpTic Gaming North 16 Train 9 OpTic Gaming North 11 Nuke 16 OpTic Gaming mousesports 16 Inferno 2 ex-Space Soldiers mousesports 16 Train 10 ex-Space Soldiers mousesports Mirage ex-Space Soldiers mousesports 16 Overpass 7 OpTic Gaming mousesports 4 Dust II 16 OpTic Gaming mousesports 16 Train 11 OpTic Gaming North 16 Dust II 13 ex-Space Soldiers North 16 Train 11 ex-Space Soldiers North Inferno ex-Space Soldiers mousesports 16 Train 4 North mousesports 16 Mirage 5 North mousesports Inferno North OpTic Gaming 16 Mirage 6 ex-Space Soldiers OpTic Gaming 16 Overpass 10 ex-Space Soldiers OpTic Gaming Inferno ex-Space Soldiers
Group B PosTeamWLRFRARD 1 FaZe Clan 3 0 107 60 +47 2 Heroic 1 2 124 139 –15 3 devils.one 1 2 102 130 –28 4 Ninjas in Pyjamas 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.
FaZe Clan 16 Train 4 devils.one FaZe Clan 16 Dust II 6 devils.one FaZe Clan Overpass devils.one Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Nuke 11 Heroic Ninjas in Pyjamas 17 Train 19 Heroic Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Mirage 10 Heroic FaZe Clan 16 Overpass 8 Heroic FaZe Clan 11 Dust II 16 Heroic FaZe Clan 16 Mirage 11 Heroic Ninjas in Pyjamas 13 Mirage 16 devils.one Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Overpass 10 devils.one Ninjas in Pyjamas 17 Nuke 19 devils.one FaZe Clan 16 Mirage 14 Ninjas in Pyjamas FaZe Clan 16 Dust II 4 Ninjas in Pyjamas FaZe Clan Overpass Ninjas in Pyjamas Heroic 14 Train 16 devils.one Heroic 16 Overpass 13 devils.one Heroic 22 Nuke 18 devils.one
Group C PosTeamWLRFRARD 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.
Natus Vincere 20 Overpass 22 Windigo Gaming Natus Vincere 16 Train 12 Windigo Gaming Natus Vincere 16 Dust II 14 Windigo Gaming Fnatic 11 Nuke 16 G2 Esports Fnatic 17 Inferno 19 G2 Esports Fnatic Train G2 Esports Natus Vincere 14 Nuke 16 G2 Esports Natus Vincere 16 Train 11 G2 Esports Natus Vincere 9 Overpass 16 G2 Esports Fnatic 16 Train 10 Windigo Gaming Fnatic 13 Mirage 16 Windigo Gaming Fnatic 16 Nuke 12 Windigo Gaming Natus Vincere 16 Nuke 11 Fnatic Natus Vincere 8 Overpass 16 Fnatic Natus Vincere 16 Inferno 13 Fnatic G2 Esports 20 Train 22 Windigo Gaming G2 Esports 16 Dust II 13 Windigo Gaming G2 Esports 16 Inferno 4 Windigo Gaming
Group D PosTeamWLRFRARD 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.
BIG 16 Mirage 9 HellRaisers BIG 8 Train 16 HellRaisers BIG 8 Overpass 16 HellRaisers Astralis 16 Mirage 6 ex-3DMAX Astralis 16 Nuke 7 ex-3DMAX Astralis Train ex-3DMAX Astralis 16 Dust II 4 HellRaisers Astralis 16 Inferno 7 HellRaisers Astralis Mirage HellRaisers BIG 16 Mirage 13 ex-3DMAX BIG 16 Dust II 10 ex-3DMAX BIG Train ex-3DMAX HellRaisers 16 Nuke 10 ex-3DMAX HellRaisers 16 Train 6 ex-3DMAX HellRaisers Inferno ex-3DMAX Astralis 16 Dust II 10 BIG Astralis 17 Inferno 19 BIG Astralis 16 Overpass 14 BIG
Stage 2 Group E PosTeamWLRFRARD 1 Fnatic 2 1 118 115 +3 2 HellRaisers 2 1 107 88 +19 3 Aristocracy 1 2 85 95 –10 4 OpTic Gaming 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 be the decider for the final Group E spot in the finals, as Fnatic and HellRaisers moved on.