All the top teams are here to battle for the $400,000 prize pool and for the ESL Grand Slam VI wins. Thanks to the tournament format, some fresh organizations can pull off impressive upsets.
The event ESL Pro League Season 22 treats the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) community to a massive major-like format. The competition starts with Stage 1, where smaller teams have a chance for a breakthrough. The best players in the world join the party with Stage 2. In both these stages, we can witness lots of matches — thanks to the Swiss format.
In this article on esport.gg, you’ll find all the important details about the Swiss Stages at CS2 ESL Pro League Season 22. Watch the stream, check out the schedule and matchups, review the favorites analysis, and follow the results. Who advances to the Playoffs?
Stream: How to watch Swiss Stage matches at ESL Pro League Season 22
Schedule and format
The Swiss Stages run for around two weeks at the CS2 esports event ESL Pro League Season 22. Here is the schedule.
- Sept. 28 – Oct. 2: Stage 1. The 16 invited and qualified teams play through the Swiss System matches. The top 8 advance further.
- Oct. 4 – Oct. 8: Stage 2. The 8 invited teams (with the highest VRS Global standings) join the 8 teams from Stage 1. It’s again a series of Swiss format matches. The top 8 teams advance to the Playoffs.
Check out the next-day matchups in the table below. On Sept. 28, we can witness Round 1 matches: every team in Stage 1 has a chance to earn a tournament advantage with their opening win.
Estimate start time | Matches | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 a.m. CEST / 4:30 a.m. ET | G2 vs Rooster | HEROIC vs M8 |
| 1 p.m. CEST / 7 a.m. ET | 3DMAX vs IC Esports | Astralis vs Fluxo |
| 3:30 p.m. CEST / 9:30 a.m. ET | Legacy vs B8 | M80 vs Virtus.pro |
| 6 p.m. CEST / 12 p.m. ET | FURIA vs HOTU | GL vs NRG |
Talent reveal
The image below highlights all the talent who work during the ESL Pro League S22 streams.
Stage 1 teams, matchups, and results at ESL Pro League Season 22
Mainly, lower-level teams join ESL Pro League Season 22 with Stage 1. Still, there are some pretty strong rosters and even tournament winners among these participants.
To advance to the next stage, the teams should achieve three wins, and they have five rounds for this. The image below shows matchups and results in each Stage 1 round.
Stage 2 at CS2 ESL Pro League S22
Some of the top Counter-Strike 2 teams are invited directly to Stage 2 of ESL Pro League S22. The matchups will be known after Stage 1.
Team Vitality Team Falcons | MOUZ Aurora Gaming | Team Spirit FaZe Clan | The MongolZ NAVI |
The Swiss System continues at the tournament, so three wins in five rounds are needed to earn a Playoffs spot. Three losses mean elimination.
Top Contenders: A look at the ESL Pro League S22 favorites
The tournament is long and you can get interested in experimenting with CS2 esports betting: we have an article specifically about ESL Pro League Season 22. Please always approach this industry with caution to have strictly fun excitement and not disappointment.
Stage 1
In Stage 1, we can see a few big names.
- G2 Esports — The winners of BLAST Open Fall 2025 in London.
- FURIA — The winners of FISSURE Playground #2. It feels like the addition of FalleN to the roster strengthened the team substantially.
Among other teams, it’s interesting to follow the current progress of Astralis, specifically after the return of Emil “Magisk” Reif. M80, 3DMAX, and HEROIC are quite capable of upsets.
Stage 2
In Stage 2, the true tournament favorites join the competition.
- Team Vitality — Fans anticipate their recovery to the tournament-winning form. The Austin Major winners sure can deliver that!
- MOUZ — After a somewhat disappointing result at BLAST Open Fall 2025, Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen, the coach, talked about organizational changes for the team. MOUZ have been coming really close to big CS2 esports trophies, and they absolutely deserve to win one.
- The MongolZ have been showing us a rollercoaster of performance, but they steadily progress with their results. The team won the Counter-Strike 2 EWC 2025.
NAVI, Team Spirit, and Team Falcons are also the usual tournament favorites, but their recent results do not support this reputation.
- Spirit comes to this event with more roster changes: Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich replaced Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia.
- NAVI won StarSeries Fall 2025, which was good cash but not a proper competition for this team.
- Team Falcons brings together big celebrities and the most prominent young players. Still, the legendary coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen can’t make this machine work flawlessly and with stable results.
The Playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 22 will start on Oct. 10. This stage features single-elimination brackets with a third-place match. The grand final will be played on Oct. 12.
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