ESL Pro League Season 21 Power Rankings – Who Will Win?

ESL Pro League is one of the staple events in the Counter-Strike calendar, with this upcoming tournament set to be the 21st iteration. It represents an important notch in the Intel Grand Slam race for its eventual winner, putting more at stake than its $400,000 prize pool.

Thanks to the new Valve tournament rules as of 2025, ESL Pro League Season 21 has adopted a slightly new format in its move from Malta to Stockholm. This time, just 24 teams have been invited to play, as opposed to the 32 of recent events. Let’s put these teams into some ESL Pro League Season 21 Power Rankings, shall we?

Team Spirit chase IEM Katowice revenge

Last team we saw Team Spirit, they were reeling from their devastating loss to Team Vitality in the Final of IEM Katowice 2025. To me, they looked like a team totally out of sorts, tired individually, and out of ideas as a collective. Now, Team Spirit have had a good few weeks to recuperate and go back to the drawing board.

That’s why I’m expecting Team Spirit to come into ESL Pro League Season 21 as favorites. This team with something to prove is a fearsome prospect, and I can’t imagine donk will be at all happy after he dropped a real stinker performance in the Katowice Final. All this makes Spirit’s matches at ESL Pro League a must-watch this time around.

Falcons have a chance to make up for PGL Cluj-Napoca failure

Another team looking to avenge failure at the final hurdle is Falcons. This organization missed the chance to win their first ever Counter-Strike trophy in the PGL Cluj-Napoca Final, underlined by a particularly tough day at the office for NiKo. Don’t be surprised to see this roster bounce back immediately at ESL Pro League S21.

This is a team with scary potential when all of its stars are firing on all cylinders. Sure, they’ll almost certainly still be reeling from PGL Cluj-Napoca, but if they can use that frustration to fuel an even better performance at ESL Pro League, I give them a real chance of winning the entire thing.

Potential ESL Pro League Season 21 underdogs

Narratives at the top are one thing, but I’ve always got a soft spot for an underdog. ESL Pro League S21 has plenty of teams not well-placed to win the event, but could still make some noise and cause some upsets.

One underdog I’ll be keeping my eye on at ESL Pro League Season 21 is Heroic. There is clearly tons of talent on this lineup, and tN1R looks far, far better than anyone expected. However, their best performances so far have come from the comfort of their own homes, so I’m going to need some signs of life on LAN pretty soon. They don’t want to develop a reputation as serial onliners.

My second chosen underdog is Team Liquid. This is more down to circumstance than anything else – they made the choice to skip out on PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, with dire implications for the team’s VRS points. Now, Team Liquid need a good showing at ESL Pro League to ensure they don’t slip any further down the rankings. The pressure is on – will they thrive, or will they wilt as the Major qualification VRS rankings approach.