The second big event of the 2023 season will be held in Malta as the 17th ESL Pro League season commences. 32 teams face off for US$175,000 and a ticket to IEM Cologne.
The recent dominance of G2 has propelled them to the top as they are poised to win the Pro League. Online bookmaker bet365 favors them at 5.00, while coming in at second is the winningest team of 2022 in Faze Clan who are given odds of 5.50.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 7th, 5:30 P.M. (EST)
G2 managed to secure themselves their first LAN final win after losing their last four final appearances through clean sweeps. The last time G2 were in the finals, they lost 3:0 to Faze Clan in Katowice. However, they are currently looking dominant after dropping only one series throughout the Global Finals. Their latest addition jks has been very instrumental to their success as they finally have the firepower they lacked after months of struggle. The rifling trio of jks together with Kovac cousins Hunter and NiKo have been fatal. Add in the young superstar m0nesy, who the team acquired last year following an alleged US$600,000 buy out, and you have the foundation of a team proven to achieve results.
This marks the first LAN win of NiKo’s stint with G2 after joining the team way back in 2020. His performance last year earned him 5th place in HLTV’s annual top 20 player list. Joining him is m0NESY at #7 and his cousin Hunter at #14.
On the other hand, Faze Clan won four of the biggest events in 2022 bagging ESL Pro League 15, IEM Cologne, IEM Katowice, and of course, the Antwerp Major. The team has seen tremendous success and the team, apart from ropz who joined last year, have been playing together for two years. The team’s success bagged them individual awards as four of their five players were honored as last year’s top 20 players by HLTV with broky garnering the highest spot among all of them at #6. Faze will surely be looking to revamp their winning ways after a very shaky performance towards the end of the season. Despite that though, Faze can never be discounted as they are still a very star-studded roster and a return to form would surely wreck havoc on the Counter Strike pro scene.
Team Vitality is the most recent Pro League champion after winning a very tight 3:2 finish against North American top dogs Team Liquid. The team is a perfect mix of veteran leadership in apEX, Dupreeh, and Magisk as well as star firepower from youngsters ZywOo and Spinx. While yet to blossom to his fragging potential during his stay with Ence, the arrival of Spinx has been a consistent reason for Vitality’s success. Despite the sheer talent of the roster with ZywOo, Sphinx, and the two four-time major winners, the team has been very inconsistent and had tournaments with group stage exits or early playoff defeats. Legendary coach Zonic should have all the tools as his disposal to help this team’s mentality though.
ESL Pro League is a tough one month derby of the best CS:GO teams. Who will survive Malta and win it all?
