AGO qualify for ESL Pro League after strong ESEA Premier season

A 3-0 grand final victory in a Polish derby earned AGO a spot at the prestigious tournament, while Anonymo will have to settle for the newly-created EPL Conference.

AGO swept their contrymen from Anonymo 3-0 in the grand final of ESEA Premier Season 38 (default win, 19-17 Dust2, 16-6 Nuke) to close out the season and claim the main prize: $20,000 and a spot in ESL Pro League Season 15 which takes place in March - April of 2022.

"The Hawks" completed a strong season (5W - 2L in groups) with an impressive playoffs run — dropping just one map across four series —, despite losing two key players in Michał "⁠snatchie⁠" Rudzki and Karol "⁠rallen⁠" Rodowicz after the group stage.

Their two youngsters, Szymon "⁠kRaSnaL⁠" Mrozek and Miłosz "⁠mhL⁠" Knasiak, stepped up to the task and pushed their team to the title despite playing without their new in-game leader Denis "⁠Grashog⁠" Hristov.

mhL only featured in the playoffs, but averaged an event-high 1.33 rating

The other finalist, Anonymo, also had roster issues but managed to claim a spot in ESL Pro League Season 15 Conference while using benched player Kamil "⁠KEi⁠" Pietkun as a stand-in. BLINK are left disappointed after a 7W-1L group stage and 2-0 victories over Wisla Krakow and LDLC, and DBL PONEY in the playoffs, as Anonymo defeated them twice to see the Albanian team finish one spot short from qualifying for an event of higher stature.

ESL Pro League Season 15 schedule:
Conference: November 23-28 (online)
Group stage: March 9-April 3, 2022
Playoffs: April 5-10, 2022

ESL Pro League Season 15 Conference team list:

GODSENT
Extra Salt
Renegades
Sharks
+5-8 National Champ. slots

Renewal
Anonymo
DH Open November
ESEA Premier runners-up

ESL Pro League Season 15 team list:

Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Vitality
G2
FaZe
Astralis
ENCE
Liquid
MOUZ
Complexity
fnatic
Evil Geniuses

Looking For Org
AGO
ESEA Premier winners
EPL Conference
EPL Conference
EPL Conference
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD

The relegation tournament for ESEA Premier Season 38 was happening at the same time as the playoffs, where the four worst Premier teams, three best Advanced teams, and Copenhagen Flames as the invited team competed for four spots in the next season of Premier. There was little room for surprises as the four highest-ranked squads came out on top.

Movistar Riders staved off relegation, 1WIN and Nemiga stepped up from Advanced, and Copenhagen Flames proved they were worthy of a slot by beating Endpoint and Enterprise in the lower bracket despite a default loss to Apeks in the first match. After peaking at No. 22 in the world in August, demotion to ESEA Advanced will come as big hit to Endpoint who haven't found their footing since the departure of William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman to fnatic.