When the 12 best teams from the regular season of the ESL Pro League descend on Odense, Denmark in early December for the Season 6 Finals, they will come face-to-face with a new method of determining group draws.
In prior seasons, ESL used the regular season seedings to determine the groups for the finals, allowing some matchups to be more one-sided. The round-robin best-of-one and single elimination best-of-3 format will still be in play this time around.
The new system came about as a result of a player meeting held during the Season 5 Finals back in May. This new method will place the making of the groups into the player's hands, as each team will have a hand in choosing each group. Since G2 Esports won the Finals of Season 5, Fnatic (deemed Y1 in the example below), Europe's number one seed, will receive the first pick in this makeshift draft. OpTic Gaming (deemed R1 in the example below), the number one seed of North America will have the next pick.
If that sounds a bit confusing, and you aren't alone in that though, ESL provided a visual of what that process will look like:
- Y1 selects R2
- R1 selects Y2
- R2 selects Y3
- Y2 selects R3
- Y3 selects R4
- R3 selects Y4
- R4 selects Y5
- Y4 selects R5
- Y5 selects R6
- Remaining team is Y6
The groups will be determined Wednesday, November 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET, and ESL will be providing live updates on its Twitter. The group stage will kick off in Odense, Denmark on December 5.
