ESL Pro League Season 23 Stage 2 teams set

After five days of online action, the teams competing in Stage 2 of ESL Pro League Season 23 are now set.

Of the 16 teams competing in the opening stage, eight have advanced to join the world’s best Counter-Strike teams in the next set of online matches to determine which make it to the playoffs.

FUT Esports and Legacy were the first to book a place in Stage 2 after navigating through Stage 1 with flawless 3-0 records. This included victories over Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, and Parivision, for Legacy, while FUT Esports toppled M80, Passion UA, and Astralis to advance.

Despite its loss to FUT Esports, Astralis still managed to advance with a 3-1 record alongside Monte and paiN Gaming. ESL Pro League Season 23 marks the second Tier 1 tournament for PaiN Gaming’s Guilherme ‘piriajr‘ Barbosa and Vinicius ‘vsm‘ Moreira, as the all-Brazilian roster continues to climb the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).

Elsewhere, 3DMAX, HEROIC, and G2 Esports required all five rounds to advance. After beginning the season on the back foot, the arrival of Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier for 3DMAX has made an impact, sweeping aside a struggling Team Liquid roster to make it into Stage 2.

G2 Esports edged past Ninjas in Pyjamas in a hard-fought best-of-three, while HEROIC stunned Parivision with a 2-0 scoreline to finalise the Stage 2 field.

Alongside the qualified teams, several of the world’s top rosters enter the action to begin the ESL Pro League Season 23 campaign in Stage 2.

Below is a list of invited teams joining the fold in Stage 2:

Interestingly, without Team Vitality and Team Falcons attending, along with Parivision’s early exit, ESL Pro League Season 23 will crown a new Tier 1 champion.

The action begins on March 6th with the opening round of matches shown on ESL’s Twitch and YouTube channels: