ESL Pro League S19 Playoffs Favorites

ESL Pro League S19 is about to enter the playoffs stage. In total, 16 of the initial 32 teams are left in the race but not all of them will start to play right away.

Group winners get to skip the first two rounds and will start in the quarterfinals. Runner-ups get to skip one round and will start in the Round of 12. The 3^rd – 4^th place teams need to play right away. The format is single-elimination, so each match might be the last for every participant.

The playoffs of ESL Pro League S19 will be played between May 7 – 12.

Participants

🔥 We take down the Champs & lock down Top 8! pic.twitter.com/MJKQU8irz3

— Complexity ✭ (@Complexity) May 5, 2024

These are the teams that will compete in the second stage of the tournament:

• BIG
• G2 Esports
• GamerLegion
• Virtus.pro
• BetBoom Team
• FlyQuest
• FaZe Clan
• Monte
• 3DMAX
• The MongolZ
• Team Liquid
• Natus Vincere
• MOUZ
• Complexity
• Astralis
• Team Vitality

As you can see, there are plenty of lesser-known teams on this list. That’s because the group stage format offered participants lots of opportunities to prove themselves and was extremely forgiving. For some of the underdogs, this type of format allowed them to play more relaxed and obtain unexpected results.

FlyQuest, Monte, 3DMAX, GamerLegion, and others will probably have a rough time in the playoffs. But there’s a small chance that will continue to surprise us.

Normally, teams like FaZe Clan and G2 shouldn’t have to start in the Round of 16. Both of them were expected to finish their groups in the top two. But for various reasons, they lost a match before reaching the upper bracket Final, which doomed their chances.

For Natus Vincere, this is a bad situation because they will almost certainly have to play against FaZe in the Round of 12.

Team Liquid’s opponent will probably be BetBoom but FlyQuest could cause an upset in the first round. They already defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas in the group stage, so they have the potential to beat good teams.

MOUZ will likely face G2 in the quarterfinals. The two teams played an identical match at the Copenhagen Major. There, G2 won quite easily despite the statistics.

For Complexity, the path to the semifinals looks easy. They will face one of the easiest opponents in the race and all they need to do is win one match.

Astralis and Vitality proved to be in great shape and they are the biggest favorites in the tournament, along with MOUZ. Unless, of course, Na’Vi, FaZe, G2, and Liquid don’t dramatically improve their playstyle in this stage of ESL Pro League S19.

Header: ESL