The next step in the ESL Pro League saga is coming: EPL Season 15 is starting this week. 24 teams will gather in Düsseldorf and fight for their share of the $823,000 prize pool. The winner will get $175,000 of that amount. Who are those teams and what are their stories? Let’s have a look at EPL Season XV together.
Astralis, BIG, Complexity Gaming, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, FURIA Esports, G2 Esports, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid and Team Vitality earned their places here by being a permanent partner team. Gambit Esports, Heroic, Virtus.pro and Entropiq secured their spots through ESL World Ranking.
AGO won ESEA S38 EU Premier, Party Astronauts won ESEA S38 NA Premier, LookingForOrg won ESEA S38 AU Premier to be here. Additionally, Movistar Riders, GODSENT and Sprout found a place here through EPL Conference. Extra Salt also found a place through EPL Conference, but their roster was acquired by Complexity and another team took their place. You can find a detailed glance at the competitors group by group below.
Group A
G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Entropiq, Fnatic, MOUZ and LookingForOrg will be in Group A. The favourite at Group A is G2 Esports and although they lost both PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and IEM XVI Katowice in the finals, this new G2 is still fresh and will seek more adventures.
With dev1ce on the bench, NIP’s climb to the top got shut down fast, but they still are a strong team with a lot of potential. Entropiq weren’t able to impress at IEM Katowice, but they won Pinnacle Fall Series #2 in November and secured a top 8 finish at Pinnacle Winter Series and Elisa Invitational Winter recently.
G2’s arch-enemy Fnatic started 2022 with a streak of bad results, although their form was on the rise after a win at DreamHack Open November. Another big name, MOUZ are also participating in Group A, however, they didn’t impress much at IEM Katowice either. The last team at Group A is Australian LookingForOrg, Dire Wolves’ ex-roster. They don’t stand too much chance, but there is always room for a surprise at ESL Pro League.
Group B
Group B consists of Team Vitality, Virtus.pro, FaZe Clan, FURIA Esports, ENCE and Sprout. The number one favourite here is obviously Team Vitality. Led by their French superhero ZywOo, Vitality is one of the favourites of the tournament, and although their IEM Katowice story ended quickly, they still are one of the best teams in the world.
The winners of IEM Katowice, FaZe Clan is obviously a contender against Team Vitality. However, even though they are the champions of Katowice, they are still the underdogs here. Trailing them is Virtus.pro are the followers; winners of ESL Challenger #48 this year and they managed to advance from the group stage at IEM Katowice.
Brazilian sensation FURIA Esports, the second place of ESL Challenger #48, will be aiming to make one of these favourites bleed and take their places. Their IEM Katowice run wasn’t too bad either. Pinnacle Winter Series #2 second-place and fan-favorite ENCE are joining too, but sadly, they don’t stand too much chance. They were able to make it out of groups at EPL 14, the question is, are they strong enough to repeat that? European Sprout is the last team, but judging from their IEM Katowice performance, they aren’t likely to cause a problem.
Group C
Gambit Esports, Team Liquid, GODSENT, BIG, Movistar Riders and Party Astronauts are participating in Group C. Gambit Esports are at the lead here in Group C as the Russian sensation proved they could challenge the top teams in the world by defeating NAVI twice in the finals last year. They won Funspark ULTI 2021, and made it to the last 6 at IEM Katowice.
TL is following Gambit, but 2022 doesn’t look better for TL anymore than 2021. They are strong enough to make it out of this relatively weak group, but it’s hard for them to achieve more. With their Brazilian roster, GODSENT started 2022 with a poor performance after a very bad 2021. Can they turn that around?
Legendary German team BIG will be fighting for a promotion here, and although they aren’t too successful recently, they do have a chance to achieve that, as TL and GODSENT aren’t looking very good. Spanish Movistar Riders will be here to provide competition, and ESEA NA winners Party Astronauts don’t look like they could pull an upset against these big names.
Group D
Group D is stacked: Natus Vincere, Heroic, Astralis, Complexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses and AGO are joining in. The sensational Natus Vincere with their superstar s1mple are here. After winning everything in 2021, NAVI was ready to keep that streak going, however, the war in their homeland naturally affected their performances at IEM Katowice. They are the strongest team in CS:GO, and everyone is sure that they will once again earn our respect by showing up and performing as the champions like they always do, even in such an unfortunate situation.
IEM Katowice and PGL Major Stockholm semifinalists Heroic are the number two in Group D, obviously. They will be followed by gla1ve’s Astralis, looking for achievements after a year of silence. Having acquired their new roster, Complexity Gaming are here to defend their victorious name. Their last few performances don’t look very bright, but we are ready to be surprised by them.
Evil Geniuses are joining in as the fifth team of the group, they recently had a bad run at BLAST Premier’s Spring Groups. Their 2021 performance wasn’t very good either, with a lot of low finishes in A or S tier tournaments. The last team is Polish AGO, finding their place through ESEA EU Premier. They aren’t one of the big names here surely, but they will be looking to bring some of the big dogs down.
These are the teams participating in ESL Pro League Season 15. The competition will start with Group A on March 9, and the champion will earn $175,000 prize money and a ticket to BLAST Premier World Final 2022. Excited? You can watch the games live and place your bets on Luckbox.
