ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals viewer's guide

The ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals are just around the corner, so we have prepared a comprehensive guide with all you need to know from a viewer's perspective about the $600,000 tournament.

Elite-level Counter-Strike will return to the Danish city of Odense, which since 2017 has hosted the LAN Finals of the ESL Pro League seasons that have been held in the latter half of the year. The group stages will be held at the ODINCON expo from December 3-5, while the playoffs will be played at the Jyske Bank Arena, formerly known as Sparekassen Fyn Arena, during the last three days of the event.

Sixteen teams, hailing from three regions (Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific) will be duking it out over the week for the lion's share of a $600,000 prize pool. The contestants have been drawn into two double-elimination groups, featuring best-of-three series after the first round of matches. The group winners will go straight to the semi-finals, while the second and third-placed sides will advance to the first round of the playoffs, which will culminate with the best-of-five grand final on Sunday.

The winner of the tournament will earn $250,000 and a spot at IEM Katowice 2020, joining Astralis and fnatic on the team list for the event. In case one of these two teams come out victorious in Odense, the spot reserved for the Pro League champion will instead go to the best available team in the ESL World Ranking, according to Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, VP of Pro Gaming at ESL.

The ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals are part of the Intel Grand Slam Season 3. Liquid, Evil Geniuses, fnatic and Astralis all have one tournament victory to their name this season, which features an updated set of rules in an effort to increase the difficulty of winning the $1 million prize.

The two groups are the following:

Below you can find the complete schedule for the tournament:

Tuesday, December 3:

12:00 Natus Vincere vs. TYLOO | BO1
12:00 FaZe vs. MIBR | BO1
13:15 Heroic vs. 100 Thieves | BO1
13:15 fnatic vs. Evil Geniuses | BO1
14:30 Astralis vs. Grayhound | BO1
14:30 G2 vs. Sharks | BO1
15:45 MOUZ vs. ATK | BO1
15:45 North vs. Liquid | BO1
17:00 - Group A upper-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3
17:00 - Group A lower-bracket round 1 | BO3
20:35 - Group A upper-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3
20:35 - Group A lower-bracket round 1 | BO3

Wednesday, December 4
12:00 - Group B lower-bracket round 1 | BO3
12:00 - Group B lower-bracket round 2 | BO3
15:35 - Group A lower-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3
15:35 - Group B upper-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3
19:10 - Group A lower-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3
19:10 - Group B upper-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3

Thursday, December 5
12:00 - Group B lower-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3
12:00 - Group B lower-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3
15:35 - Group A upper-bracket final | BO3
15:35 - Group A lower-bracket final | BO3
19:10 - Group B upper-bracket final | BO3
19:10 - Group B lower-bracket final | BO3

Friday, December 6
16:00 - Quarter-Final #1 | BO3
19:50 - Quarter-Final #2 | BO3

Saturday, December 7
16:00 - Semi-Final #1 | BO3
19:50 - Semi-Final #2 | BO3

Sunday, December 8
16:00 - Grand Final | BO5

The $600,000 prize pool will be distributed as follows:

1. $250,000
2. $80,000
3-4. $40,000
5-6. $20,000
7-8. $17,000
9-12. $15,000
13-16. $14,000

O. J. Borg returns to host his fourth Pro League Finals, while Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus will be in charge of the desk, where he will be joined by a trio of analysts, including a newcomer in David "⁠DAVEY⁠" Stafford. The Canadian, who attended the MLG Columbus Major with Splyce, is currently playing for Peeker's Advantage and is the host of a podcast with the same name.

Two casting pairs will provide live commentary on the matches, while James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks will be on the sidelines creating content throughout the event.

The complete on-air team is the following:

O. J. Borg - Stage host

Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus - Desk host
Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill - Analyst
Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche - Analyst
David "⁠DAVEY⁠" Stafford - Analyst

Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer - Commentator
Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson - Commentator
Hugo Byron - Commentator
Harry Russell - Commentator

James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks - Content host