The eight ESL Pro League Season 23 playoff teams have been confirmed following the conclusion of the second online Swiss Stage.
Friday will see the tournament return to an arena for the first time since 2019, when it was held in the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense, Denmark.
The event will take place over three days at the Annexet in Stockholm, starting with a bumper day of Counter-Strike on Friday, when all four quarter-finals take place.
FURIA, G2, and 3DMAX miss out on Pro League playoffs
Tuesday saw the conclusion of the 2-2 decider matches in the Swiss bracket, deciding the final three teams to join the likes of Spirit and MOUZ in the playoffs.
The matchups saw NAVI take down 3DMAX 13-5, 5-13, and 13-5, once again cementing their status as playoff gatekeepers. For G2, it was a disappointing end to another event that showed little progress despite its talented rifling core. G2 fell to the rising young stars of FUT in a 1-2 defeat.
The ex-NAVI Junior core have picked up wins against Furia, Aurora, Astralis, and G2, amongst others, this year, announcing themselves to the world of Tier 1. Now they have their first Arena berth, testing if the inexperienced roster can do it on the big stage.
Following their move to an international roster, there was a clear narrative of lowering expectations around this Astralis lineup, in eliminating FaZe and FURIA consecutively, Astralis have shown positive signs that their international experiment doesn’t have the assumed low ceiling that fans feared it may have.
For Furia, the result is ultimately not going to break their hearts. While the team has struggled to be at the brilliant best that saw them collect four trophies at the tail end of last year, FURIA knew that Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo would not be able to attend the LAN event due to a “personal commitment.”
If FURIA were going to regain their 2025 form, it would not have been in Stockholm in any case.
Bracket set for ESL Pro League Season 23
March 13 schedule:
- 09:00 GMT/05:00 EDT: The MongolZ vs NAVI
- 12:15 GMT/08:15 EDT: Legacy vs Aurora
- 15:30 GMT/11:30 EDT: MOUZ vs FUT
- 18:45 GMT/14:45 EDT: Astralis vs Spirit
March 14:
- 14:45 GMT/10:45 EDT: Winner of QF1 vs Winner of QF3
- 18:00 GMT/14:00 EDT: Winner of QF2 vs Winner of QF4
March 15:
- 12:30 GMT/08:30 EDT: Third-Place Decider
- 16:00 GMT/12:00 EDT: Grand Final
All matches are Best of 3, except the Grand Final, which is Best of 5.
Teams will play for the lion’s share of the $1,000,000 total prize pool of the event, with $776,000 in player prize money and club share still to be distributed amongst the Top 8.
The winner will receive $100,000 in prize money and $150,000 in ‘Club Share’, a form of prize money which is awarded to the organization.
The available prize money might have serious ramifications for the IEM Cologne Major 2026, potentially boosting teams’ seedings in the VRS and allowing them to skip stages of the Major.
So who is taking the trophy home? Can MOUZ do it in an Arena? Will Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets do donk things and carry Spirit to another trophy?
You can discuss that, and more, on Insider Gaming’s Discord Server
If you want more to read, see the invites announcement for PGL Astana here
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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