| 2018 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Dates | February 13, 2018–May 20, 2018 |
| Administrator | Electronic Sports League (ESL) |
| Venue | Verizon Theatre |
| Teams | 40 teams |
| Purse | ~US$1,593,478.93 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Astralis |
| 1st runners-up | Team Liquid |
| 2nd runners-up | FaZe Clan Natus Vincere |
| MVP | Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann |
ESL Pro League Season 7 (shortened as EPL Season 7) is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It is the seventh season of the ESL Pro League. Teams from two continents, North America and Europe will compete in fourteen team leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals. For the first time, the EPL finals returned to a location that had already hosted an EPL final as ESL decided to head back to Dallas and will host the finals at the Verizon Theatre.[1] The regular season started on February 13, 2018, and ended on April 26, 2018. Europe's season started with Astralis overrunning Team LDLC.com. North America's season kicked off with the Season 6 champion SK Gaming edging out the Season 4 champion Cloud9. South America's season began with Dereguedere tying with W7M Gaming. Asia-Pacific's season started with B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape defeating Grayhound Gaming. Asia-Pacific's season ended with MVP PK defeating Grayhound Gaming in three maps to take first seed in the APAC region. South America's season will end with Team Wild taking on W7M Gaming. Europe's season ended with HellRaisers defeating North to take the last European spot in the finals. North America's season ended with Ghost Gaming defeating compLexity Gaming.
The finals started on May 14, 2018, and ended on May 20, 2018, in Dallas, Texas, United States. Astralis defeated Team Liquid in four maps to claim the organization's first title.
This tournament is the ninth tournament of the first season of the Intel Grand Slam, which is a list of premier tournaments run by ESL and DreamHack. The first team to win four titles would earn an extra $1,000,000. SK Gaming (ESL One Cologne 2017 and ESL Pro League Season 6) and FaZe Clan (ESL One New York 2017 and Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Sydney) lead the way with two titles each. G2 Esports (DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017), Ninjas in Pyjamas (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – Oakland), Fnatic (Intel Extreme Masters Season XII - World Championship), and Astralis (DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018) have one title each.