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The gears are starting to turn on the next season of ESL Pro League, to be the 15th rendition of such. With 24 teams, now grouped into 4 differing groups of 6, some of these groups are looking difficult for teams, even the higher-rated ones, to get out of unscathed.

So let's go through the groups, 

Group A, plays March 9th-13th;

  • G2
  • Looking For Org
  • MOUZ
  • fnatic
  • Entropiq
  • NIP

Group B, plays March 16th -20th;

  • Virtus.pro
  • FURIA
  • FaZe
  • Vitality
  • ENCE
  • Sprout

Group C, plays March 23rd-27th;

  • Liquid
  • Gambit
  • Party Astronauts
  • Movistar Riders
  • BIG
  • GODSENT

Group D, plays March 30th - April 3rd;

  • Natus Vincere
  • Astralis
  • Heroic
  • AGO
  • Evil Geniuses
  • Complexity

Pro League Season 15 is due to be played on LAN at the Mediterranean paradise that is Malta, which is where the previous two events were scheduled to occur before the pandemic scrapped those plans back to online play. All matches are best of 3, except a large best of 5 Grand Final. This may be a relief to fans, after the early stages of BLAST Spring Groups were chaotic one mistake could be fatal Best of 1's. The group stages last from March 9th to April 3rd, and then a further 7 days of playoffs until the Grand Final on April 10th.

Group A is looking fairly stacked, looking like G2's for the taking, but it'll be all too easy for any of the other 5 teams to make enough slip-ups and fall out of the top 3. The same can also be said of Group B, Vitality, Virtus.pro & FaZe will be the favorites for sure, although ENCE has a habit of doing deep runs where they're not expected to do so. Group C is probably the least stacked of them all, and it looks a simple run for Liquid & Gambit, with a scrap for third place between BIG, GODSENT & Movistar Riders. Lastly, Group D looks to be back to stack town, with Natus Vincere, Heroic, Astralis all looking the obvious choices, but will the new teams in Evil Geniuses & Complexity find their footing when it counts? It's all to play for!

The last two Pro League's, both from last year, were won by Heroic & Natus Vincere, with Gambit & Vitality being second place. All 4 of those teams are back in business in this new season, will the previous victors hold on to crowns, or will the runners-up rise up? Perhaps when all is said and done, it'll be neither, and we'll have a brand new set of winners & runners-up. 

With just over a month to go, it's nice that not only do we know who is going up against who, it also means all teams involved now know which maps to polish up on before the start, to make sure when the servers are turned on, the teams are also fired up ready for each other.