Twenty-four of the best CS:GO teams in the world will battle for their share of $750,000 in ESL Pro League season 14 starting on Monday, Aug. 16.
This will be the first premier CS:GO tournament to be played after the end of the summer player break on Aug. 15, which saw most of the teams rest after IEM Cologne finished on July 18. The competition will be played entirely online from Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic, despite ESL’s best intentions to hold it on LAN.
CS:GO tournaments and teams continue to be affected by the pandemic, especially Renegades, who had to withdraw from the event less than a week before its start due to the travel restrictions that are taking place in Australia at the moment. ESL filled the vacant spot with forZe, the best team placed on its world rankings that didn’t make the Pro League in the first place.
Heroic won the last edition of the ESL Pro League in April over Gambit and there are plenty of teams capable of making a deep run. Natus Vincere reigned supreme toward the end of the first half of the 2021 season, but we’ll see if they can continue that form since many coaches may have studied their tendencies during the player break.
Here’s everything you need to know about ESL Pro League season 14.
Stream
ESL Pro League season 14 will be broadcast on ESL’s three Twitch channels since the event will feature simultaneous matches during the group stage. You won’t want to miss any of the action on the main broadcast, second channel, and third channel.
Format
The 24 teams have been split into four groups of six and all teams will play each other once in the group stage. All of the matches are going to be best-of-three series. The winner of each group will move straight into the quarterfinals, while the second and third-placed teams will advance to the round of 12.
The playoffs will use a single-elimination bracket and all matches will be best-of-threes, except the grand finals, which will play out as a best-of-five series. There will be no simultaneous matches aside from the last day of each group.
ESL Pro League season 14 will run from Aug. 16 to Sept. 12. The winner will earn $175,000, the runners-up will take home $60,000, and the semifinalists will earn $30,000 each.
Schedule, scores, and results
Playoffs
Tuesday, Sept. 7 (Round of 12)
- NiP 2-1 mousesports (NiP 16-12 Ancient, mouse 16-6 Vertigo, NiP 16-8 Inferno)
- Vitality 2-1 Complexity (Vitality 16-6 Vertigo, COL 16-9 Overpass, Vitality 16-12 Mirage)
Wednesday, Sept. 8 (Round of 12)
- ENCE 2-0 forZe (16-5 Nuke, 16-11 Mirage)
- Liquid 2-0 Fnatic (16-4 Nuke, 25-21 Dust2)
Thursday, Sept. 9 (Quarterfinals)
- OG 2-1 (NiP 19-15 Overpass, OG 16-12 Mirage, OG 16-4 Dust2)
- Vitality 2-0 Gambit (16-11 Inferno, 16-14 Vertigo)
Friday, Sept. 10 (Quarterfinals)
- Na’Vi 2-0 ENCE (16-2 Ancient, 16-5 Nuke)
- Heroic 2-1 Liquid (Liquid 16-12 Overpass, Heroic 16-12 Nuke, Heroic 19-16 Inferno)
Saturday, Sept. 11 (Semifinals)
- Vitality 2-0 OG (16-12 Mirage, 16-7 Nuke)
- Na’Vi 2-1 Heroic (Na’Vi 16-14 Mirage, Heroic 16-13 Overpass, Na’Vi 16-14 Nuke)
Sunday, Sept. 12 (Grand finals, Bo5)
- Na’Vi 3-2 Vitality (Na’Vi 16-10 Dust2, Vitality 16-6 Inferno, Na’Vi 16-11 Nuke, Vitality 6-7 Overpass, Na’Vi 16-14 Mirage)
Group A
Monday, Aug. 16
- Heroic 2-0 Bad News Bears (16-1 Mirage, 16-4 Nuke)
- Vitality 2-0 ENCE (16-14 Mirage, 16-8 Overpass)
- Astralis 2-1 Team Spirit (Spirit 16-11 Dust2, Astralis 16-6 Inferno, Astralis 16-7 Ancient)
Tuesday, Aug. 17
- Vitality 2-0 Bad News Bears (16-9 Inferno, 16-9 Overpass)
- ENCE 2-0 Astralis (16-9 Ancient, 16-11 Nuke)
- Heroic vs. Team Spirit (16-8 Overpass, 16-9 Inferno)
Wednesday, Aug. 18
- Astralis 2-0 Bad News Bears (16-4 Inferno, 16-13 Nuke)
- ENCE 2-0 Team Spirit (16-11 Nuke, 16-5 Dust2)
- Heroic 2-1 Vitality (Heroic 16-7 Vertigo, Vitality 16-12 Nuke, Heroic 16-13 Inferno)
Thursday, Aug. 19
- Team Spirit 2-0 Bad News Bears (16-6 Inferno, 16-8 Dust2)
- Heroic 2-1 ENCE (ENCE 16-5 Mirage, Heroic 16-14 Overpass, Heroic 16-14 Nuke)
- Vitality 2-0 Astralis (16-9 Overpass, 16-9 Inferno)
Friday, Aug. 20
- Heroic 2-0 Astralis (16-8 Inferno, 16-8 Vertigo)
- Vitality 2-1 Team Spirit (Spirit 16-14 Dust2, Vitality 16-4 Mirage, Vitality 16-13 Nuke)
- ENCE 2-0 Bad News Bears (16-4 Overpass, 16-11 Nuke)
Group A Results
- Heroic finishes 1st, advances to quarterfinals
- Team Vitality and ENCE finish 2nd and 3rd, advance to round of 12
- Astralis, Team Spirit, and Bad News Bears are eliminated
Group B
Saturday, Aug. 21
- Sinners 2-1 G2 Esports (Sinners 16-11 Vertigo, G2 16-10 Inferno, Sinners 16-9 Mirage)
- OG 2-0 Virtus.pro (16-11 Mirage, 16-6 Dust2)
- forZe 2-1 Complexity (forZe 16-12 Mirage, Complexity 16-12 Nuke, forZe 16-9 Ancient)
Sunday, Aug. 22
- OG 2-0 G2 (16-10 Mirage, 16-5 Inferno)
- forZe 2-1 Virtus.pro (forZe 16-7 Mirage, VP 16-13 Dust2, forZe 16-12 Overpass)
- Complexity 2-0 Sinners (16-12 Vertigo, 16-14 Nuke)
Monday, Aug. 23
- Virtus Pro 2-0 Sinners (16-9 Vertigo, 16-11 Inferno)
- OG 2-1 forZe (forZe 16-8 Mirage, OG 19-17 Inferno, OG 16-8 Overpass)
- Complexity 2-1 G2 (G2 16-13 Vertigo, Complexity 16-12 Mirage, Complexity 16-13 Dust2)
Wednesday, Aug. 25
- OG 2-1 Sinners (Sinners 22-20 Nuke, OG 16-10 Inferno, OG 16-7 Mirage)
- Complexity 2-1 Virtus.pro (VP 16-10, Complexity 16-14 Dust2, Complexity 16-14 Overpass)
- forZe 2-0 G2 (16-14 Mirage, 16-7 Nuke)
Thursday, Aug. 26
- Virtus.pro 2-1 G2 (G2 16-11 Dust2, VP 16-11 Mirage, VP 16-17 Vertigo)
- OG 2-0 Complexity (16-13 Mirage, 16-12 Nuke)
- forZe 2-1 Sinners (Sinners 16-7 Nuke, forZe 19-17 Mirage, forZe 19-17 Ancient)
Group B Results
- OG finishes 1st, advances to quarterfinals.
- forZe and Complexity finish 2nd and 3rd, advance to round of 12.
- G2, Sinners Esports, and Virtus.pro are eliminated.
Group C
Friday, Aug. 27
- BIG 2-0 Evil Geniuses (16-9 Nuke, 16-8 Dust2)
- Na’Vi 2-0 Fnatic (22-19 Overpass, 16-12 Nuke)
- FaZe 2-1 mousesports (FaZe 16-14 Overpass, mous 16-7 Ancient, FaZe 16-8 Inferno)
Saturday, Aug. 28
- Fnatic 2-1 BIG (Fnatic 16-10 Overpass, BIG 16-7 Dust2, Fnatic 22-18 Nuke)
- Na’Vi 2-0 mousesports (16-9 Ancient, 16-9 Mirage)
- FaZe 2-1 Evil Geniuses (EG 16-14 Inferno, FaZe 16-9 Mirage, FaZe 16-13 Dust2)
Sunday, Aug. 29
- BIG 2-0 Na’Vi (16-11 Dust2, 16-7 Mirage)
- Fnatic 2-0 FaZe (16-14 Overpass, 16-7 Mirage)
- mousesports 2-0 Evil Geniuses (16-8 Inferno, 16-11 Nuke)
Monday, Aug. 30
- mousesports 2-0 Fnatic (16-10 Mirage, 19-16 Nuke)
- Na’Vi 2-0 Evil Geniuses (16-12 Inferno, 16-7 Nuke)
- FaZe 2-0 BIG (16-7 Dust2, 16-7 Inferno)
Tuesday, Aug. 31
- Na’Vi 2-0 FaZe (16-7 Inferno, 19-17 Nuke)
- mousesports 2-1 BIG (mous 16-12 Nuke, BIG 16-7 Dust2, mous 16-12 Mirage)
- Fnatic 2-0 Evil Geniuses (16-11 Nuke, 16-14 Inferno)
Group C Results
- Na’Vi finishes 1st, advances to quarterfinals.
- mousesports and Fnatic finish 2nd and 3rd, advance to round of 12.
- FaZe Clan, BIG, and Evil Geniuses are eliminated.
Group D
Wednesday, Sept. 1
- Gambit 2-0 Team oNe (16-14 Mirage, 16-6 Ancient)
- Entropiq 2-0 FURIA (16-14 Overpass, 16-13 Ancient)
- Liquid 2-0 NiP (16-9 Inferno, 16-10 Dust2)
Thursday, Sept. 2
- FURIA 2-0 (16-14 Mirage, 22-10 Inferno)
- NiP 2-0 Entropiq (16-14 Dust2, 16-9 Ancient)
- Gambit 2-1 Liquid (Liquid 16-12 Inferno, Gambit 19-16 Vertigo, Gambit 16-12 Mirage)
Friday, Sept. 3
- NiP 2-0 Team oNe (16-11 Nuke, 19-15 Overpass)
- Liquid 2-0 Entropiq (16-12 Vertigo, 16-12 Overpass)
- Gambit 2-0 FURIA (16-8 Inferno, 16-5 Vertigo)
Saturday, Sept. 4
- Liquid 2-0 Team oNe (16-8 Mirage, 16-11 Inferno)
- Gambit 2-0 Entropiq (16-13 Dust2, 16-10 Vertigo)
- FURIA 2-1 (FURIA 16-13 Nuke, NiP 16-14 Ancient, FURIA 16-9 Mirage)
Sunday, Sept. 5
- NiP 2-0 Gambit (16-12 Ancient, 16-6 Inferno)
- Liquid 2-1 FURIA (Liquid 16-4 Inferno, FURIA 16-10 Nuke, Liquid 19-17 Mirage)
- Entropiq 2-0 Team oNe (16-6 Mirage, 16-5 Dust2)
Group D Results
- Gambit finishes 1st, advances to quarterfinals.
- Team Liquid and NiP finish 2nd and 3rd, advance to round of 12.
- Entropiq, FURIA, and Team oNe are eliminated.
Teams
Group A
Astralis
- Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
- Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
- Emil “Magisk” Reif
- Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen
- Philip “Lucky” Ewald
- Coach: Danny “zonic” Sørensen
Heroic
- Casper “cadiaN” Møller
- Martin “stavn” Lund
- Ismail “refrezh” Ali
- René “TeSeS” Madsen
- Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
Vitality
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
- Richard “shox” Papillon
- Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier
- Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van
- Coach: Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam
Team Spirit
- Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov
- Victor “somedieyoung” Orudzhev
- Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
- Nikolay “mir” Bityukov
- Boris “magixx” Vorobiev
- Coach: Nikolay “Certus” Poluyanov
Bad News Bears
- Jonathan “Jonji” Carey
- Michael “Swisher” Schmid
- Gabe “Spongey” Greiner
- Alan “Shakezullah” Hardeman
- Paytyn “Junior” Johnson (on loan from FURIA)
- Coach: Nathan “madcow” Retterath
ENCE
- Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer
- Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
- Paweł Dycha
- Olek “hades” Miskiewicz
- Joonas “doto” Forss
- Coach: Eetu “sAw” Saha
Group B
G2
- Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
- Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač
- Nemanja “nexa” Isaković
- Audric “JaCkz” Jug
- François “AmaNEk” Delaunay
- Coach: Damien “maLeK” Marcel
Virtus.pro
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali
- Alexey “qikert” Golubev
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
- Timur “buster” Tulepov
- Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev
- Coach: Dastan Akbayev
Complexity
- Benjamin “blameF” Bremer
- Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke
- Valentin “poizon” Vasilev
- Justin “jks” Savage
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
- Coach: Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu
OG
- Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen
- Valdemar “valde” Vangså
- Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski
- Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen
- Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
- Coach: Casper “ruggah” Due
forZe
- Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov
- Almaz “almazer” Asadullin
- Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev
- Aleksandr “KENSI” Gurkin
- Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko
- Coach: Anatoliy “liTTle” Yashin
Sinner Esports
- Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný
- Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar
- Sebastian “beastik” Daňo
- Jindřich “ZEDKO” Chyba
- Max “SHOCK” Kvapil
- Coach: Tomáš “tomkeejs” Tomka
Group C
Natus Vincere
- Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
- Denis “electronic” Sharipov
- Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov
- Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
- Valerii “B1T” Vakhovskyi
- Sixth player: Egor “flamie” Vasilev
- Coach: Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskyi
FaZe Clan
- Håvard “rain” Nygaard
- Helvijs “broky” Saukants
- Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
- Finn “karrigan” Andersen
- Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
- Coach: Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström
mousesports
- Robin “ropz” Kool
- David “frozen” Čerňanský
- Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras
- Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand
- Christopher “dexter” Nong
- Coach: Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg
BIG
- Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz
- Nicklas Gade
- Florian “syrsoN” Rische
- Nils “k1to” Gruhne
- Tizian Feldbusch
- Coach: Dustin “DuDe” Großmann
Evil Geniuses
- Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte
- Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov
- Damian “daps” Steele (temporary stand-in for stanislaw)
- Owen “oBo” Schlatter
- Michał “MICHU” Müller
Fnatic
- Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
- Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
- Jack “Jackinho” Ström Mattsson
- Alex McMeekin
- William “mezii” Merriman
- Coach: Jamie “keita” Hall
Group D
Gambit
- Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
- Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov
- Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
- Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov
- Timofey “interz” Yakushin
- Coach: Konstantin “groove” Pikiner
Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
- Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora
- Hampus Poser
- Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
- Linus “LNZ” Holtäng
- Coach: Björn “THREAT” Pers
FURIA
- Yuri “yuurih” Gomes
- Andrei “arT” Piovezan
- Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo
- Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
- Lucas “honda” Cano
- Coach: Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira
Team Liquid
- Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
- Keith “NAF” Markovic
- Jake “Stewie2K” Yip
- Michael “Grim” Wince
- Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo
- Coach: Eric “adreN” Hoag
Team oNe
- Pedro “Maluk3” Campos
- Matheus “prt” Scuvero
- Matheus “pesadelo” Panisset
- Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa
- Enzo “xns” Almeida
- Coach: João Righi
Entropiq
- Aleksey “El1an” Gusev
- Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev
- Alexey “NickelBack” Trofimov
- Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko
- Igor “forester” Bezotecheskiy
- Coach: Dmitry “hooch” Bogdanov
Key storylines
It’ll be fun to watch teams that will be debuting a new lineup in ESL Pro League season 14 since there have been plenty of roster changes during the summer player break. Seven of the 24 teams competing in the tournament made at least one change for the second part of the 2021 season. Fnatic has transitioned to an international lineup with the signings of ALEX and mezii to replace Maikil “Golden” Selim and Jesper “JW” Wecksell and the addition of former Complexity coach keita, which will see former coach Andreas Samuelsson take on a more managerial role within the organization.
Complexity hired peacemaker to replace keita and signed es3tag to fill the void created by the benching of William “RUSH” Wierzba. Astralis once again has a six-man roster after the organization added the young Danish AWPer Lucky and Heroic has parted ways with its coach Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen since he allegedly shared the team’s strats with other parties ahead of IEM Cologne. The Danish tactician will also face a “legal process” in Denmark.
Evil Geniuses saw its in-game leader, Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz, step down from the active roster as he isn’t mentally ready for more international travel. The North Americans will temporarily use daps, their coach, in place of stanislaw. BIG moved İsmailсan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş to the bench and signed former North Danish rifler gade, who also communicates in German. Bad News Bears got a big firepower upgrade since junior will be playing for them on loan from FURIA. He’ll take the place of Peter “ptr” Gurney, who retired to pursue a career in poker.
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