In less than a month's time 32 teams will converge in Malta to fight in the new-look ESL Pro League Season 17.
ESL has announced the group distribution and sex pamela rios videosopening matchups for the upcoming 17th season of ESL Pro League, which is set to be played over five weeks from February 22 to March 26.
EPL recently underwent an expansion from 24 to 32 teams as well as a change in format. This change will see the participating teams play in four groups of eight featuring a triple elimination format. The top four teams advance to varying stages of the playoffs — first-placed to the quarter-finals, second-placed to the second round, and third-fourth-placed to the first round of the knockout bracket.
Group A is headlined by IEM Rio Major and BLAST Premier World Final winners, Outsiders and G2, who will be accompanied by another top-10 team in Cloud9 and a variety of top 30 teams from all over the world — fnatic, MIBR, Evil Geniuses, Eternal Fire, and IHC.
In Group B, HEROIC are the top seed following their runners-up finish in Rio and title-winning campaign at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, and will be joined by MOUZ and FURIA as the headliners. BIG, Complexity, Imperial, SAW, and Movistar Riders round out the second group.
Four international teams feature in Group C — FaZe, Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and OG — along with two Brazilian representatives in 00NATION and paiN and two Australian teams, Grayhound and Rooster.
Liquid are currently the highest-ranked team of Group D, and will be joined by Natus Vincere, ENCE, Spirit, Astralis, ATK, FORZE, and Rare Atom.
Group distribution
Group A (Feb 22)
Outsiders
G2Cloud9fnatic
MIBR
Evil Geniuses
Eternal Fire
IHC Group B (Mar 1)
HEROICMOUZFURIA
BIG
ComplexityImperial
SAW
Movistar Riders Group C (Mar 8)FaZeVitalityNinjas in PyjamasOG00NATIONpaiN
GrayhoundRooster Group D (Mar 15)Liquid
Natus VincereENCESpiritAstralis
ATKFORZE
Rare Atom Opening matchups
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Rare Atom #58 Zhuo 'advent' Liang
Andrew 'kaze' KhongYi 'JamYoung' YangJingxiang 'Mercury' WangQianhao 'Moseyuh' Chen Xielin 'k4Mi' Zhu 
FORZE #33 Vladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoAndrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov 
Movistar Riders #28 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoPere 'sausol' Solsona SaumellDavid 'dav1g' Granado BermudoAntonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez Galder 'bladE' Barcena 
MIBR #36 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesRaphael 'exit' LacerdaMatheus 'Tuurtle' AnhaiaBreno 'brnz4n' PolettoFelipe 'insani' Yuji Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima 
Natus Vincere #8 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyAndrii 'npl' Kukharskyi Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy 
OG #12 
Nemanja 'nexa' Isakovi?
Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanAbdul 'degster' Gasanov
Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas Casper 'ruggah' Due 
Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' Ohm
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Ga?inskis Damian 'daps' Steele 
Imperial #32 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoJhonatan 'JOTA' Willian Rafael 'zakk' Fernandes 
SAW #20 Christopher 'MUTiRiS' FernandesRicardo 'roman' OliveiraTiago 'JUST' MouraJo?o 'story' VieiraMichel 'ewjerkz' Pinto Omar 'arki' Chakkor 
ATK #38 
Rhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJonathan 'djay' Dallal
Jonathan 'b0denmaster' BodenmalmMichael 'Swisher' SchmidGareth 'MisteM' Ries Daniel 'sprayxd' Kogan 
00NATION #39 Marcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloEduardo 'dumau' WolkmerBruno 'latto' RebelattoLucas 'nqz' Soares Olavo 'chucky' Napole?o 
Vitality #9 
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi Danny 'zonic' S?rensen 
fnatic #11 Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson
Dion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' J?rgensen
William 'mezii' Merriman Jamie 'keita' Hall 
Astralis #18 Andreas 'Xyp9x' H?jslethLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzBenjamin 'blameF' BremerChristian 'Buzz' Andersen Peter 'casle' Ardenskjold 
FURIA #6 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRafael 'saffee' CostaAndré 'drop' Abreu Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira 
Evil Geniuses #21 Timothy 'autimatic' TaVincent 'Brehze' Cayonte
Sanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovJerric 'wiz' JiangJadan 'HexT' Postma Daniel 'Vorborg' Vorborg 
Cloud9 #10 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimur 'buster' TulepovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner 
BIG #15 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' BaumannKarim 'Krimbo' Moussa Fatih 'gob b' Dayik 
Complexity #22 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' Kemery
H?kon 'hallzerk' Fj?rliMichael 'Grim' WinceJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Tiaan 'T.c' Coertzen 
Outsiders #5 Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliAleksandr 'KaiR0N-' AnashkinPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev 
paiN #29 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtFelipe 'skullz' MedeirosRomeu 'zevy' Rocco Henrique 'rikz' Waku 
Ninjas in Pyjamas #16 Kristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeFredrik 'REZ' Sterner
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenLudvig 'Brollan' BrolinDaniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov Daniel 'djL' Narancic 
Grayhound #31 
Simon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJoshua 'INS' PotterDeclan 'Vexite' Portelli David 'Kingfisher' Kingsford 
MOUZ #7 Christopher 'dexter' Nong
David 'frozen' ?erňanskyJon 'JDC' de Castro
ádám 'torzsi' TorzsásDorian 'xertioN' Berman Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen 
ENCE #14 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferValdemar 'valde' Bj?rn Vangs?
Pavle 'Maden' Bo?kovi?Pawe? 'dycha' Dychaálvaro 'SunPayus' García Eetu 'sAw' Saha 
HEROIC #1 Casper 'cadiaN' M?llerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Richard 'Xizt' Landstr?m 
FaZe #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenH?vard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlstr?m 
Eternal Fire #27 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' D?rtkarde?Bu?ra 'Calyx' Ark?n?mer 'imoRR' Karata?Yasin 'xfl0ud' Ko? Sezgin 'Fabre' Kalayc? 
G2 #2 
Nikola 'NiKo' Kova?Nemanja 'huNter-' Kova?Justin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov Jan 'Swani' Müller 
Spirit #13 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Sergey 'hally' Shavaev 
Rooster #98 Michael 'chelleos' HawkinsAkram 'ADK' SmidaCorey 'nettik' BrowneTyson 'asap' PatersonTynan 'TjP' Purtell 
IHC #30 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarTengis 'sk0R' BatjargalTuvshintugs 'Annihilation' NyamdorjGaridmagnai 'bLitz' ByambasurenSodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat