2018 | |
Tournament information | |
---|---|
Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
Location | Odense, Denmark |
Dates | September 26, 2018–December 9, 2018 |
Administrator | Electronic Sports League (ESL) |
Venue | Sparekassen Fyn Arena |
Teams | 54 teams |
Purse | ~US$1,004,686.63 |
Final positions | |
Champions | Astralis |
1st runners-up | Team Liquid |
2nd runners-up | MIBR mousesports |
MVP | Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz |
ESL Pro League Season 8 (shortened as EPL Season 8) is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It is the eighth season of the ESL Pro League. Teams from five continents, North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, will compete in six leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals. The EPL finals returned to Odense, Denmark.[1] The regular season started on September 26, 2018, and will end on November 14, 2018. China's season started with ViCi Gaming upsetting TyLoo in a best of three series. Southeast Asia's season started with B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape taking down Recca Esports, which included a 16–0 map. Europe's season started with Space Soldiers defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas and ended with HellRaisers defeating G2 Esports. North America's season kicked off with Renegades dominating eUnited and ended with eUnited defeating Luminosity Gaming.
The finals started on December 4, 2018, and ended on December 9, 2018. In the finals Astralis defeated Team Liquid in four maps in a five-game series to take home a second straight EPL 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. Astralis claimed this title after winning DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018, ESL Pro League Season 7, Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Chicago, and this event.