Spirit, Vitality, NAVI, and Falcons will compete in ESL Pro League Season 22

The organizers of the ESL Pro League Season 22 for Counter-Strike 2 have announced the list of teams that will participate in the championship. The announcement was made on ESL's official social media channels.

Eight teams received direct invitations to Stage 2:

• Team Vitality – the reigning champion of the previous ESL Pro League season;

• MOUZ (Europe);

• Team Spirit

• The MongolZ

• Team Falcons

• Aurora Gaming

• FaZe Clan

• Natus Vincere

Additionally, 12 teams have been invited to Stage 1. These include well-known teams such as Virtus.pro, G2 Esports, Heroic, FURIA, Astralis, GamerLegion, and 3DMAX. Regional league winners have also earned their spots in Stage 1: Ukrainian B8, Brazilian Fluxo, North American NRG, Chinese Lynn Vision, and Australian Rooster. The remaining four spots will be determined through open regional qualifiers in July.

Invited teams for ESL Pro League Season 22. The top part of the image shows the eight teams directly invited to Stage 2, while the teams listed below will begin in Stage 1. Some team logos feature their achievements (e.g., regional league victory), and the four cells with question marks represent spots that will be filled based on regional qualifiers.

ESL Pro League Season 22 will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, from September 27 to October 12, 2025. A total of 24 teams will compete for a prize pool of $400,000. Notably, this is the second consecutive Pro League season held in Sweden; the previous four seasons (17–20) were held in Malta.

Team Vitality enters the tournament as one of the favorites. After the addition of the star player ropz from FaZe earlier this year, the Vitality roster was significantly strengthened. In the first quarter of 2025, the team won several prestigious championships, including IEM Katowice 2025, ESL Pro League Season 21, and BLAST Open Spring 2025. As a result, the French club (the Season 21 EPL champion) has solidified its status and will defend its title at the upcoming tournament.

The list of invited teams has changed compared to the previous season. For example, FaZe Clan, which did not receive a direct invite for ESL Pro League Season 21, is now among the invited teams for Stage 2. On the other hand, the famous Heroic roster will have to qualify through Stage 1, as Team Falcons earlier signed most of Heroic's players, thereby securing a high spot in the Valve ranking and a direct slot in Stage 2. Additionally, for the first time in ESL Pro League history, we will see the young Russian team Aurora Gaming, which received an invitation to Stage 2 and will face off against world-class teams. Team Spirit and Natus Vincere complete the list of invited favorites from Eastern Europe – their fans also expect strong performances from their favorite teams in the new league season.

CS2 Developers Rarely Play Their Own Game

ESL Pro League Season 22 will be one of the major events of the fall in CS2. The tournament will feature a new clash between world grandmasters and ambitious newcomers, and fans will have the chance to witness the evolution of the competitive Counter-Strike 2 scene, a year after the transition from CS:GO. The organizers promise the usual high-quality tournament production and exciting matches leading up to the grand final, which will crown the champion of ESL Pro League Season 22. All matches will be available for live streaming on ESL's official channels.