ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 groups announced

The ESL Challenger Katowice 2023, one of the international tournaments we will have in the coming weeks, will have the participation of eight teams that will fight for a place in the ESL Pro League S18. In addition, the winning team will take home a juicy $50,000 prize.

A few hours ago, the ESL announced the groups and the first matches of the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023. While it is true that the schedules are not yet confirmed, we already know what will be the first crossings of the tournament, and we will have really interesting matches.

Let’s see the details the ESL revealed regarding the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023.

ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 – Details

ESL Challenger Katowice will be played at the ESL studios in Katowice, Poland, from June 9 to 11, 2023. The tournament will feature eight teams, which will battle for a share of the $100,000 prize pool and, most importantly, a spot in the next ESL Pro League S18, to be played in August 2023.

The ESL has revealed the details regarding the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 groups and the first crossings of the groups. Below, we will show how these groups have been confirmed.

Group A

• ENCE
• pro
• Party Astronauts
• Bravado Gaming

Group B

• FORCE
• paiN
• ECSTATIC
• 9z Team

As we can see, we have teams like ENCE, VP, FORZE, and paiN Gaming, which we have seen in tournaments at the highest competitive level that have been played recently. In addition, it is worth noting that Virtus.pro wants to return to the top in the CS:GO competitive scene because after winning the IEM Rio Major 2022 under the Outsiders banner, the Russian team has failed to reap the expected success.

As we mentioned, the match schedules are not yet defined at the time of writing this article. However, the first day of the tournament is as follows:

Group A

• ENCE vs. Bravado Gaming
• pro vs. Party Astronauts

Group B

• paiN Gaming vs. 9z Team
• ECSTATIC vs. FORZE

ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 – Format

As noted, the eight teams are divided into two groups of four teams each. These start from the Group Stage, where they play in GSL (Double-Elimination) format, where the opening and winner-take-all matches are best-of-one (BO1), while the elimination and deciding matches are best-of-three (BO3).

The top two teams from each group qualify for the Playoff Phase, where they play in a Single-Elimination format, with all matches being best-of-three (BO3).

Tournament favorites

There is no doubt that ENCE is the team that has shown the best performance recently, and with what they have achieved so far in IEM Dallas 2023, they are the favorite team to win this ESL Challenger Katowice 2023. However, they will have to fight tooth and nail against Virtus.pro and paiN Gaming, two teams that are also very strong and aspire to be among the best.

While it is true that the rest of the teams do not look so strong, we cannot overlook FORZE, a team that won the CCT Online Finals #1 a few days ago. While the South American squad, 9z Team, wants to put a blow on the table and get good results in the tournament.

Header: ESL