{"id":22516,"date":"2025-03-06T18:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/?p=22516"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:39:17","slug":"esl-pro-league-season-21-stage-2-overview-teams-schedule-favorites-and-underdogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/news\/cs-2\/esl-pro-league-season-21-stage-2-overview-teams-schedule-favorites-and-underdogs\/","title":{"rendered":"ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2 Overview: Teams, Schedule, Favorites and Underdogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As <strong>Stage 1<\/strong> of<strong> <\/strong>the<strong> ESL Pro League<\/strong> is over, we now know eight more teams who qualified for <strong>Stage 2<\/strong> and will fight for the playoff stage. The second stage is planned to take place from <strong>March 7 <\/strong>to <strong>March 11<\/strong>, with the playoff round beginning on <strong>March 13<\/strong>. In this second phase, 16 teams will compete, and only eight of them will advance to the playoff round. Here, you will find the team&#8217;s list, tournament format, a few words about favorites and underdogs, and how to watch the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tournament Format<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>16 Team Swiss System Format<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All matches are Bo3<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Top 8 teams proceed to Playoffs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stage 2 Teams<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td>Spirit<\/td><td>Liquid<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Natus Vincere<\/td><td>3DMAX<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Vitality<\/td><td>GamerLegion<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>MOUZ<\/td><td>paiN<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>G2<\/td><td>FURIA<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>TheMongolZ<\/td><td>SAW<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Eternal Fire<\/td><td>MIBR<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Falcons<\/td><td>TyLoo<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">ESL Pro League Season 21 &#8211; Stage 2 &#8211; Teams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Favorites and Underdogs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TyLoo <\/strong>were the underdogs even in the first stage, and they will be even more of an underdog in the second stage of the tournament, but they did surprise everyone by winning against one of the top European teams, <strong>Eternal Fire<\/strong>. We will see if the Chinese team can surprise us even more in the second stage. Besides <strong>TyLoo<\/strong>, it is hard to call a clear underdog here, but it would be <strong>SAW<\/strong>, <strong>MIBR, <\/strong>and <strong>paiN<\/strong>. Also, there are some dark horses, such as 3DMAX, <strong>GamerLegion<\/strong>, <strong>and FURIA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Spirit<\/strong>, <strong>Vitality<\/strong>, and <strong>Natus Vincere<\/strong> are pretty obvious favorites to make it to the playoff stage. Outside of them, there are also top European teams like <strong>G2,<\/strong> <strong>MOUZ<\/strong>, <strong>Eternal Fire, <\/strong>and <strong>Falcons, <\/strong>who are expected to make it to the playoff stage. However, there are already seven teams named, so some of them might not make it in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stage 2 Opening Matches Schedule<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-450x253.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/stage2esl.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">ESL Pro League Season 21 &#8211; Round 1<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">March 7<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Spirit <\/strong>vs. <strong>TyLoo <\/strong>and <strong>Vitality <\/strong>vs. <strong>MIBR <\/strong>starting at<strong> 10:30 CET<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>TheMongolZ <\/strong>vs. <strong>GamerLegion <\/strong>and <strong>Eternal Fire<\/strong> vs. <strong>3DMAX <\/strong>starting at <strong>13:00 CET<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Natus Vincere <\/strong>vs. <strong>SAW <\/strong>and <strong>MOUZ <\/strong>vs. <strong>FURIA <\/strong>starting at <strong>15:30 CET<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>G2<\/strong> vs. <strong>paiN <\/strong>and <strong>Falcons<\/strong> vs. <strong>Liquid <\/strong>starting at <strong>18:00 CET<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Watch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>ESL Pro League Stage 2<\/strong> will be streamed live for viewers worldwide. Whether you&#8217;re at home, at work, or on the go, you can enjoy every thrilling moment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/ESLCS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESL Pro League Primary Twitch Stream<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/ESLCSb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESL Pro League Secondary Twitch Stream<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/ESLCS\/streams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESL Pro League YouTube Stream<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>ESL Pro League <\/strong>playoff stage<strong> <\/strong>will start on <strong>March 13<\/strong>, two days after <strong>Stage 2<\/strong> ends. We will give an overview and predictions for the playoff stage as soon as <strong>Stage 2<\/strong> ends and all the teams are figured out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Keep up with our coverage for more insights on the latest esports news and updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview As Stage 1 of the ESL Pro League is over, we now know eight more teams who qualified for Stage 2 and will fight for the playoff stage. The second stage is planned to take place from March 7 to March 11, with the playoff round beginning on March 13. In this second phase,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":22517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5],"class_list":{"0":"post-22516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cs-2","8":"tag-cs2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22521,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22516\/revisions\/22521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blix.gg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}