How to watch the ESL Pro League season 9 finals

Sixteen CS:GO teams will battle for $600,000 at the ESL Pro League season nine finals in Montpellier, France, which starts on Tuesday, June 18.

Stream

The ESL Pro League season nine finals will be broadcasted on ESL’s two Twitch channels since the event will feature simultaneous matches until the quarterfinals. You won’t want to miss any of the action on the main broadcast or the second channel.

Format

The competition will last six days, with the grand finals set to be played on June 23. Sixteen teams will fight for their share of the $600,000 prize pool and the champion gains one point for the Intel Grand Slam. The team that wins four out of 10 big events run by ESL, IEM, or DreamHack this year will complete the Intel Grand Slam and win $1 million. Liquid are in the lead with two points, while Astralis have one. The Danes were the first team to win the Intel Grand Slam last year.

Teams were split into two groups and the tournament will feature a double-elimination GSL format. The first matches will be played as best-of-one games, but the rest of the competition consists of best-of-three series, apart from the best-of-five grand finals. The top three teams from each group advance to the playoffs. Group stage winners will automatically advance to the semifinals, while second and third-place teams will play in the quarterfinals.

The winner will take home $250,000. Second place earns $80,000 and the semifinalists will win $40,000 each.

Teams

Group A:

Astralis: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
Fnatic: Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Richard “Xizt” Landström, Simon “twist” Eliasson, and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
NRG: Ethan Arnold, Tarik Celik, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Damian “daps” Steele
G2: Richard “shox” Papillon, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, François “AMANEK” Delaunay, Lucas “Lucky” Chastang, and Audric “JaCkZ” Jug
Heroic: Adam Friberg, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, and Martin “stavn” Lund
Cloud9: Timothy “autimatic” Ta, Maikil “Golden” Selim, René “cajunb” Borg, Will “RUSH” Wierzba, and Daniel “vice” Kim
Grayhound: Chris “dexter” Nong, Olivier “DickStacy” Tierney, Erdenetsogt “erkaSt” Gantulga, Simon “Sico” Williams, and Liam “malta” Schembri
DETONA: Vinicius “vsm” Moreira, André “tiburci0” Rosseto, Wesley “hardzao” Lopes, Matheus “Tuurtle” Anhaia, and Matheus “prt” Scuvero

Group B:

Team Liquid: Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella
FaZe Clan: Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Håvard “rain” Nygaard, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, and Filip “NEO” Kubski
North: Valdemar “valde” Bjørn, Markus Kjærbye, Nicklas Gade, Philip “aizy” Aistrup, and Jakob “JUGi” Hansen
mousesports: Finn “karrigan” Andersen, Robin “ropz” Kool, Chris “chrisJ” de Jong, Özgür “woxic” Eker, and David “frozen” Čerňanský
MIBR: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Marcelo “coldzera” David, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and João “felps” Vasconcellos
HellRaisers: Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow, Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný, Issa Murad, Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas, and Christian “loWel” Garcia
Luminosity: Henrique “HEN1” Teles, Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles, Lucas “steel” Lopes, Ricardo “boltz” Prass, and Gabriel “NEKIZ” Schenato
TYLOO: Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand, WingHei “Freeman” Cheung, HaoWen “somebody” Xu, YuLun “Summer” Cai, and YuanZhang “Attacker” Sheng

Schedule

The ESL Pro League season nine finals will begin at 5am CT on Tuesday.

Tuesday, June 18

5am CT: Fnatic vs. NRG
5am CT: G2 vs. Grayhound
6:10am CT: Astralis vs. Cloud9
6:10am CT: Heroic vs. DETONA
7:20am CT: Liquid vs. North
7:20am CT: FaZe vs. TYLOO

8:30am CT: Mousesports vs. MIBR
8:30am CT: HellRaisers vs. Luminosity
9:40am CT: Group A lower bracket first match round one
9:40am CT: Group A upper bracket first semifinal
1:10pm CT: Group A lower bracket second match round one
1:10pm CT: Group A upper bracket second semifinal

Wednesday, June 19

5am CT: Group B lower bracket first match round one
5am CT: Group B lower bracket second match round one
8:30am CT: Group A lower bracket first semifinal
8:30am CT: Group B upper bracket first semifinal
12am CT: Group A lower bracket second semifinal
12am CT: Group B upper bracket second semifinal

Thursday, June 20

5am CT: Group B lower bracket first semifinal
5am CT: Group B lower bracket second semifinal
8:30am CT: Group A upper bracket final
8:30am CT: Group A lower bracket final
12am CT: Group B upper bracket final
12am CT: Group B lower bracket final

Friday, June 21

8am CT: First quarterfinal
11:50am CT: Second quarterfinal

Saturday, June 22

8am CT: First semifinal
11:50am CT: Second semifinal

Sunday, June 23

9am CT: Grand finals

Key storylines

The spotlight will be on Liquid and Astralis. The North Americans have taken the lead for the title of best team in the world by winning IEM Sydney in May and DreamHack Masters Dallas in June. Astralis and Liquid are the only teams that have scored points for the Intel Grand Slam so far.

FaZe, NRG, Fnatic, and North haven’t won a tier-one tournament in 2019 yet. They’ll have to play well in order to approach teams like Liquid, Astralis, ENCE, or Vitality. NRG will play their last event with daps since they replaced him with Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz this week, but he isn’t allowed to play because of ESL’s roster lock.

MIBR have to bounce back after their lackluster performance at the ECS season seven finals last week. They were eliminated by Complexity and saw FURIA surpass them as the best Brazilian team in HLTV’s rankings.
Mousesports played well at the ESL Pro League Europe stage and their new roster looks promising. But they have to perform well at a big event.