ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs Bracket, Schedule, Teams, Rankings

The final eight teams are set to clash in Stockholm as ESL Pro League Season 21 comes to a head in the Playoffs this weekend. Unlike the most recent Tier 1 event in PGL Cluj-Napoca, ESL Season 21 will conclude with seven of the top eight teams still in contention in the single-elimination bracket. 

PrizePicks is the easiest way to win real money with your CS2 knowledge during the ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs. Pick more or less on player stat projections — from headshots to kills to first bloods — and get paid if your picks are correct.

Below, we’ll take a look at ESL Pro League Season 21 schedule, bracket, teams, and CS2 DFS players to watch throughout the Playoffs this weekend. 

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2025 ESL Pro League 21 Bracket

Below is the 2025 PGL ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs bracket, spanning from Thursday to Sunday, and ultimately decided by a best-of-five series in the Grand Final. The bracket below is via Liquipedia.

How Does the  ESL Pro League Season 21 Bracket Work?

The ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs bracket features eight teams, and unlike Stage 1 and 2 of the tourney, it is a standard single elimination bracket. 

There is no third place decider in this tournament, but thankfully, for those who enjoy longer games, the Grand Final is a best-of-five — first to win three maps wins.

The first round playoffs will start on Thursday, March 13 at 10:45 a.m. ET, and conclude with the Friday, March 14 game at 1:30 p.m. ET. Both playoff match days feature two games, one at 10:45 a.m. ET and another at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The semi-final matches will get underway Saturday, March 15 at 10:45 a.m. ET, and a tentative 1:30 p.m. ET start for the second match. Finally, the Grand Final best-of-five begins at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 16.

You can watch every match during ESL Pro League Season 21 on The Esports Lab, alongside live player stats. Plus, player projections and stats to build your CSS2 PrizePicks Lineups.

ESL Pro League 21 Playoffs Teams

Seven of the eight teams that were waiting in the wings for Stage 1 to conclude advanced to the playoffs. This gives us seven of the top nine teams in the world competing for the Season 21 title, the two outliers are FaZe who did not attend, and Falcons being bested in Stage 2 and Liquid taking a spot. 

The eight teams remaining seed ranking due to win/loss with round win - round loss difference being the tie breaker are as follows:

• Vitality
• Spirit
• Natus Vincere
• The MongolZ
• MOUZ
• Eternal Fire
• G2
• Liquid

ESL Pro League 21 Playoffs: Power Rankings & Top Players

Below, find the eight teams in the ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs in our CS2 power rankings, as well as each team’s top player to watch throughout the Playoffs on PrizePicks.

On PrizePicks, you can win real money by picking more or less on player stat projections — like kills or headshots. If you pick correctly, you’ll get paid out once the games are over.

#1 Spirit

While seeded on the two line for the playoffs, Spirit was the only team to not drop a map. They maintained their #1 Valve World Ranking, and with Vitality being the only team to beat them in over a month and on the opposite side of the bracket, another Grand Finals appearance is right in front of them.

donk

donk has not slowed down this year since winning HLTV’s Player of the Year award for 2024. In every match Spirit has played of ESL Pro League Season 21, donk has top fragged the entire lobby, with his “weakest” performance being 45K-26D against fellow playoff team The MongolZ.

#2 Vitality

Vitality edged out Spirit for the one seed in the playoffs by way of having a single more map won than lost, and for that get the opposite side of the bracket. Vitality is currently 9-1 on the year, having won 22 maps and only dropping 4. Only Eternal Fire has bested them, who draw Spirit first.

ropz

A top five performer with a rating of 1.31 since the turn of the new year, ropz has looked comfortable in his new team. The only question is, as the comfortability and chemistry grows, just how good can he be?

#3 MOUZ

I have MOUZ as my third overall team and my dark horse candidate. The curious benching of their in-game leader — and subsequent replacement with someone who isn’t an IGL — raised a lot of eyebrows a few months ago. 

Now it seems that raw firepower may outweigh a lack of in-game calling and strats, with MOUZ winning PGL Cluj-Napoca with ease and now finding themselves within shooting distance of another tournament run. 

Brollan

With the arrival of Spinx, Brollan has seen a downturn in performance. With a rating of 1.06 as a MOUZ member, to a rating of .99 since the new addition, he has been the teams’ weakest link. A slight uptick in performance to cross into a net positive rating, and MOUZ could prove to be too well rounded to lose to anyone.

#4 Natus Vincere

We’ve seen less matches from NaVi than a lot of the teams in the playoffs this year, and they began ESL Season 21 looking shaky. A bad 2:0 loss to SAW, followed by dropping a map to TYLOO. Following that, they seemingly recovered, besting their opponents in the following two games without dropping a map.

w0nderful

The young AWPer has been good for NaVi, but one of his biggest hurdles comes when he faces elite competition. Against top 20 competition, w0nderful has a rating of 1.09, but when he faces the best of the best via top five competition, it drops to 1.03. Of all his teammates, that’s the biggest drop off in performance, and if they want to win the big games the AWP needs to have sustained impact even against the best in the world.

#5 Eternal Fire 

Eternal Fire have continued their ways of being able to win or lose on any given day, with wins over Vitality and FaZe on the calendar year, and then losses over 3DMAX and TYLOO in the Pro League. Whether it’s just a slump or the lack of having an individual consistently rising to the occasion is yet to be confirmed.

MAJ3R

Eternal Fire’s IGL has had a rough outing in the ESL Pro League. Having played Counter Strike on EF for over 2.5 years, he posted a performance that grades in his top 10 for all time worst this week. With a .77 rating in this season of Pro League, his team will need to get more out of him in the fragging department if they hope to compete with the best.

#6 The MongolZ

A team that has been very active this year, and has impressed at times, is just missing a signature victory. Of the three teams seeded above them in this playoffs, they are 0-3 on the year without taking a single map. Their consistent success against great teams that aren't the very best have led them to a #3 Valve Ranking however. 

Senzu

Senzu has been great this tournament, posting a sixth-best 1.27 rating. His typical performance against top 10 opponents dips to 1.03, so his continued run of brilliance could be massive for The MongolZ if they want to topple a tournament favorite. 

#7 G2

In Stage 2, G2 went 3-2, with all three wins being against teams that didn’t make the field of eight. The two losses did though, in The MongolZ and NaVi. If G2 wants to put a string of wins together, they will need to find more contributions outside of just m0NESY.

m0NESY

The third best rating in the Pro League was earned by m0NESY, with a 1.47 rating. He has been electric to watch, and at times it has been a one man army. You’d like to see his teammates rally around him, but until they consistently do, m0NESY on the AWP is must-watch CS.

#8 Liquid

Liquid barely snuck into the playoffs, having only won one more round than they lost total, but a big time 2:0 win over Eternal Fire proved they can battle with the best of them. Twistzz is still super new to his role as an in-game leader, and the team has some growing to do, yet it looks like they have the foundation to get back to being a mainstay in the top 10.

Twistzz

Twistzz, as the team’s IGL has still had a solid impact. Across this event he is his team's second best performer with a 1.11 rating. He’s been doing a lot of vulgar trash talking in attempts to get under his opponents skin, and as long as the individual performance is there to back it up, it’s been fun to watch.

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Win Money on ESL Pro League 21 on PrizePicks

Whether you think Spirit or Vitality win it all, or Liquid makes a dream run, you can win real money money on the ESL Pro League Playoffs on PrizePicks with your CS2 knowledge.

From AWP Kills to Headshots, there’s plenty of player stat projections on the PrizePicks CS2 board for ESL Pro League Season 21 Playoffs. Just pick More or Less on two or more projections and lock in your Lineup to win cash on CS2.