ESL & DreamHack announce ESL Pro Tour with a prize pool of more than $5 Million

Cover & Thumbnail Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming

ESL and DreamHack have gone ahead and announced the ESL Pro Tour, a global CS:GO circuit which will launch in 2020 offering a prize pool of over $5 Million in aggregate.

The ESL Pro Tour will be the culmination of tournaments like ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters, ESL Pro League, DreamHack Open, and DreamHack Masters. All these events will now take place under one roof while being divided into two different tiers: Challenger and Masters.

These various events will lead to two Masters Championship each year, consisting of IEM Katowice in Poland and ESL One Cologne in Germany.

Image Credit: ESL Gaming

Along with this, the ESL Pro Tour will also have its own ranking system called ‘ESL Pro Tour Rankings’ according to which a teams eligibility for advancing onto a higher tier event will be evaluated.

The ‘Masters Tier’ will be consisting of DreamHack Masters, ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters, and ESL Pro League, while the ‘Challenger Tier’ will be made up of ESL National Championship, DreamHack Open, and ESEA MDL.

Image Credit: ESL Gaming

The teams will be gathering points for their performance at multiple ESL Pro Tour events, which will reflect in their circuit ranking, according to which the top teams will be earning a spot in the two Masters Championship.

For now, the first few tournaments that will be part of the ESL Pro Tour in 2020 have been announced, with DreamHack Open Leipzig taking place from 24-26 January, followed by DreamHack Open Anaheim from 21-23 February, and IEM Katowice scheduled for February.

Image Credit: ESL Gaming

It is still unclear how the culmination of two of the biggest tournament organizers will affect the global Counter-Strike circuit, with the community still divided about the decision, it is certain that there are both positives and negatives to take into account.

More details to be announced on 28 September as part of the media briefing at ESL One New York, a much better understanding of the whole situation will be achieved then. So it's best to wait before reaching a conclusion, stay tuned for the update.