Location London, United Kingdom | Teams 24 teams | |
Sport Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dates February 9, 2016–May 15, 2016. Administrator(s) Electronic Sports League (ESL) Purse US$510,000 for Finals
US$190,000 for Preliminaries | ||
ESL Pro League Season 3 (shortened as EPL Season 3) is an Electronic Sports League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. It is the third season of the ESL Pro League. The Finals took place in London, United Kingdom from May 11 to May 15, 2016. The season began on February 9, with Astralis beating Natus Vincere and concluded with Luminosity Gaming defeating G2 Esports in a close best of five grand finals. Teams from two continents, North America and Europe competed in twelve team leagues and play against each other twice to determine the top four teams from each continent that will play in the Finals. The finals will offer a prize pool of US$510,000.
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Format
Each continent will feature the top 9 teams from last season's ESL Pro League Season 2, two teams from the ESL Pro League Season 2 Relegation, and one team from the Wild Card. Teams within each continent will play each other twice to determine the top four qualifier to the Finals in London. There will be a total of nine weeks in this phase of the tournament. All games in the preliminaries will be played online.
The top four teams after the conclusion of the regular season moved on to London to play in the Finals; in addition, those teams were invited to next season's ESL Pro League. Teams that placed fifth to eleventh place did not make the Finals, but were invited to next season's ESL Pro League. The teams in 12th place were required to play in Season 3's Relegation match, in which two teams from each continent play yo see which team moves on to next season's ESL Pro League
The Finals will consist of eight teams, four from Europe and four from North America. These teams will be separated into two groups – the first and third seeds from North America and the second and fourth seeds from Europe will be in one group and the other teams in the other group. The group stage will consist of the highest seed going against the lowest seed and the middle two seeds against each other, both games in a best of one format. The winners will play in a best of one to determine one team in the Playoffs; the losers will play in a best of three to determine which team gets eliminated from the tournament. The remaining two teams will play in a best of three to determine which team will be the second team in the group to move on to the Playoffs. In the Playoffs, the semifinals will be a best of three and the finals will be a best of five. The winner of the finals will win the tournament and the top prize. All games in the Finals will be played offline.
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