ESL has published the official Stage 1 matchups for ESL Pro League Season 24. Sixteen teams will open the Swiss-style group stage on October 3. Top seed Team Spirit will play ShindeN, while Team Vitality will face 1win.
The bracket is interesting because it shows how team-selected seeding works in practice. Most opening matches put a favorite against a regional qualifier. However, a few pairings look much tighter on paper. G2 and NAVI, for example, sit at seeds eight and nine.
How Team-Selected Seeding Shaped the Bracket
ESL used team-selected seeding for this event. All 16 teams ranked their opponents in order, and the averages, with outliers excluded, became each team’s seed. As a result, Team Vitality moved up two places to second, and MOUZ dropped two places to fourth. Team Spirit stayed first, and Team Falcons kept third place.
The opening round follows a standard bracket. Therefore, seed one plays seed 16, seed two plays seed 15, and so on down the list.
Stage 1 Opening Round Pairings
The first round will take place on October 3. Every match in the stage is a best-of-three. Here are the official pairings:
- Team Spirit (1) vs ShindeN (16)
- Team Vitality (2) vs 1win (15)
- Team Falcons (3) vs TYLOO (14)
- MOUZ (4) vs M80 (13)
- Legacy (5) vs PARIVISION (12)
- FURIA (6) vs BetBoom (11)
- Aurora (7) vs 9z (10)
- G2 (8) vs NAVI (9)
Swiss Format and Schedule
Stage 1 uses a Swiss system. A team that wins three matches advances, and a team that loses three matches is eliminated. Teams that finish 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2 move on to the next phase, and the top eight teams reach the playoffs.
The second round will be played on October 4, with the 1:0 and 0:1 groups playing separately. Next, the third round follows on October 5 for the 2:0, 1:1 and 0:2 groups. The 2:1 matches take place on October 6. Finally, the 2:2 matches on October 7 decide the last Stage 1 spots.
Favorites and Underdogs to Watch
Team Falcons will meet TYLOO in the opening round. Falcons are the reigning IEM Cologne Major 2026 champions, so they enter as clear favorites in this pairing. Meanwhile, ShindeN, 1win, M80 and TYLOO each came through an ECL regional path, and they will try to upset higher seeds.
Several other matches look closer. Legacy and PARIVISION meet at seeds five and 12, while Aurora face 9z at seeds seven and 10. In addition, the G2 versus NAVI match is the closest pairing by seed. The tournament runs from October 3 to 11 in Katowice, Poland, with a $1,000,000 prize pool.
What the Matchups Mean for the Tournament
According to ESL, the Stage 1 matchups follow the team-selected seeding, with the top seed playing the bottom seed. Team Spirit, Team Vitality, Team Falcons and MOUZ open against the four regional qualifiers. Meanwhile, the remaining eight teams will play tighter matches from the start.
Because all matches are best-of-three, one lost series can change a team’s path quickly. Therefore, the October 3 results will set the pairings for the next round. Teams that lose early will need to recover before October 7 to reach the playoffs.
