ESL has announced a massive overhaul of their Counter-Strike tournament system. ESL and DreamHack tournaments will now be part of the ESL Pro Tour, a circuit of CS:GO events with a collective prize pool of over $5 million. As all the tournaments are now connected under one circuit, lower level teams will have a more defined route to the big leagues.

In the past, ESL and DreamHack tournaments have mostly been independent of each other. With the exception of ESL Pro League, a team's performance at one event would not affect their standings at another. Now, with the introduction of the ESL Pro Tour, that all stands to change. The ESL Pro Tour will include three levels of tournaments: Challenger, Masters, and Masters Championships. The first level, Challenger, will be open for lower-level teams and provide them with an opportunity to fight their way up the Pro Tour ladder. Points will be awarded to teams participating in ESL Pro Tour events, with a certain number needed to be promoted to the next level. Teams starting in the Challenger level of the circuit can gain more points by performing well at these events, allowing them to move up the rankings and be included in more prestigious tournaments.

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The second level of tournaments is the Masters level, which will be designated by a prize pool of $250,000 or more. While not explicitly stated, it can be speculated that these will be the same regular ESL and DreamHack tournaments CS:GO fans are used to, such as IEM Sydney. In their announcement, ESL states that these events are "the CS:GO tournaments we all know and love; big names competing shoulder to shoulder with up and coming teams." These tournaments will all feed into the Masters Championships, the third and final tier of the ESL Pro Tour. ESL explains that "Masters Championships are the elite twice-yearly tournaments to decide which team is the absolute best." The description also states that we can "expect only the very top teams at these prestigious competitions." The announcement goes on to list IEM Katowice and ESL One Cologne as the two Masters Championship events.

via ESL

The ESL Pro Tour will have stops all across the world, with 20+ tournaments taking place in five continents over the course of the year. ESL has disclosed the dates for 15 events slated to take place in 2020, each included in the Pro Tour. More tournament dates and circuit information will be released at a press briefing on September 28th, during ESL One New York.

Source: ESLGaming

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