ESL Pro League S11 split into regional groups, three teams withdraw

ESL has announced that the upcoming Pro League season will be played regionally with three European groups and one North American group. Meanwhile, Renegades and Sharks withdrew from the competition and HEROIC were unable to field a lineup.

Renegades have decided not to travel overseas for the competition and have been replaced by Swole Patrol, while Sharks chose to travel back to Brazil despite already being in Europe, with their replacement still yet to be announced. According to ESL, both teams will be invited back for Season 12.

HEROIC were unable to field an eligible lineup following the loss of their Danish squad around Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer, who made the move to FunPlus Phoenix. BIG have been invited to take their place in the eleventh season after withdrawing from Flashpoint earlier this week.

Liquid and five others will play in a North American group

The redistribution of groups according to regions was made by the organizers following the United States' government's announcement of a widespread travel ban between the country and the majority of Europe.

To limit further travel, the teams who were still yet to travel to Europe from North America have been moved into one group, which now features Evil Geniuses, Liquid, 100 Thieves, FURIA, and Swole Patrol, while the other three were slightly remade accordingly. Complexity and BOOM are already in Europe and will take part in the league there.

The redistributed groups look as follows:

Group A
Astralis
Vitality
Ninjas in Pyjamas
GODSENT
ENCE
BOOM Group B
Natus Vincere
fnatic
North
FORZE
BIG
Complexity Group C
Evil Geniuses
Liquid
100 Thieves
FURIA
Swole Patrol
TBD Group D
MOUZ
G2
FaZe
Virtus.pro
OG
TYLOO

The general schedule will remain largely unchanged, as three best-of-three series will be played each day starting from March 16. When the latter two groups take over on March 26, the North American group will be played late in the day due to timezone differences.

ESL has also added that the playoffs will be played entirely online after deciding against holding the bracket stage in a studio, after all, with each region having a separate champion.

Renegades #23 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsChristopher 'dexter' NongJoshua 'INS' PotterJordan 'Hatz' BajicLiam 'malta' Schembri Evil Geniuses #7 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov 100 Thieves #9 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Complexity #16 William 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevOwen 'oBo' SchlatterBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Ninjas in Pyjamas #11 Simon 'twist' EliassonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' SternerTim 'nawwk' JonassonNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Natus Vincere #1 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy FaZe #8 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Vitality #10 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer Age: 29 Team: HEROIC Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1184 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67 G2 #4 Audric 'JACKZ' JugNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković OG #18 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski fnatic #6 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin FORZE #22 Dmitriy 'facecrack' AlekseyevAlmaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovAndrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov ENCE #21 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaMiikka 'suNny' KemppiSami 'xseveN' LaasanenJere 'sergej' Salo HEROIC Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif MOUZ #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Swole Patrol #81 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirVictor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroAustin 'Cooper' Abadir Virtus.pro #19 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali TYLOO #29 YuLun 'Summer' CaiYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengHaoWen 'somebody' XuWingHei 'Freeman' CheungSeon-Ho 'xeta' Son BIG #20 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne FunPlus Phoenix #14 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupMartin 'stavn' Lund North #24 René 'cajunb' BorgMathias 'MSL' LauridsenPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeNicklas 'gade' Gade GODSENT #17 Mikail 'Maikelele' BillJesse 'zehN' LinjalaMartin 'STYKO' StykKevin 'kRYSTAL' AmendPavle 'Maden' Bošković Liquid #5 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken FURIA #13 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Sharks #127 Raphael 'exit' LacerdaLeonardo 'leo_drk' OliveiraJhonatan 'jnt' SilvaLuca 'Luken' NadottiOlavo 'heat' Marcelo BOOM #41 Ricardo 'boltz' PrassJoão 'felps' VasconcellosGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesBruno 'shz' Martinelli