ESL Pro League Season 25 in Saudi Arabia with $1.25M prize

ESL Pro League Season 25 will take place in Saudi Arabia from March 6 to 14, 2027. Teams are scheduled to arrive on March 4, a media day is set for March 5 and departures are planned for March 15. ESL confirmed this is the first Pro League season staged outside Europe, the United States and Brazil.

Matches will be played on LAN, following the Season 24 competitive format: 16 teams onsite with the top eight advancing to playoffs, which will be held onstage before a live audience.

Qualification is based mainly on Valve Regional Standings and regional Challenger winners. Twelve slots are reserved for teams ranked first through 12th in the January 2027 Valve Regional Standings, while four spots go to winners of ESL Challenger League Season 52 from Europe, North America, South America and Asia-Oceania. Seeding will follow the February 2027 Valve Regional Standings. Teams or players currently banned by ESL, FACEIT or ESIC are not eligible for invitation.

The total prize pool is $1,250,000, an increase of $250,000 from Season 24. ESL noted the additional funds apply only to the club share, not to player-facing amounts. First place will receive $125,000 for players and $240,000 for the club; second place $50,000 for players and $160,000 for the club; third place $30,000 and $130,000; fourth place $20,000 and $100,000. Teams finishing fifth through eighth will each receive $10,000 for players and $50,000 for clubs. Ninth through 11th place teams will receive $6,000 for players and $25,000 for clubs, 12th through 14th place teams will receive $4,000 for players and $15,000 for clubs, and 15th and 16th place teams will receive $2,500 for players with no club reward.

Season 25 is part of ESL’s 2027 Pro Tour budget, which allocates more than $11,450,000 for teams and players across the year. One change for 2027 affects the Annual Club Incentive: playoff viewership will be included in the calculation. ESL will use the tournament’s combined average concurrent viewership across all stages to distribute Club Incentive points, replacing the prior method that counted only certain viewership figures.

Organizers have published the schedule and the qualification pathway and will rely on Valve Regional Standings updates in January and February 2027 to finalize participating teams and seeding.