A total of twenty-eight teams fought against each other divided into two divisions, European and North American, in an extensive ten weeks online challenge in the $1,500,000 ESL Pro League Season 5 dating back since early February.

Only twelve teams however earned a spot for the LAN finals of the competition, which are scheduled to kick off this Tuesday, 30th of March, and run until 4th of June inside the Verizon Theatre located in the memorial for competitive Counter-Strike city of Dallas, Texas, USA.

SK Gaming finished on top in the North American division of the Pro League with a score of eighteen wins and only six losses during the entire online stage.

The following twelve finalists from both the European and North American divisions will match up against each other divided into these two groups:

Group A:
SK Gaming (FalleN, fer, felps, TACO & coldzera)
Immortals (kNg, lucas, hen1, boltz & steel)
Fnatic (flusha, jw, olofmeister, KRiMZ & dennis)
Cloud 9 (n0thing, shroud, Skadoodle, autimatic & Stewie2k)
G2 Esports (apEX, kennyS, shox, NBK & bodyy)
Team EnVy (RpK, Happy, SIXER, ScreaM & xms)

Group B:
Natus Vincere (Edward, GuardiaN, s1mple, seized & flamie)
North (MSL, k0nfig, cajunb, Magiskb0Y & aizy)
OpTic Gaming (tarik, mixwell, NAF-FLY, RUSH & hazed)
Team Liquid (nitr0, EliGE, jdm64, stanislaw & Twistzz)
NRG Esports (ptr, FugLy, daps, Brehze & LILMAN)
mousesports (chrisJ, denis, oskar, loWel & ropz)

"From Sydney to Dallas.... Our legends are and always will be striving for the win and nothing less!"

The tournament will be broadcasted directly from the venue on ESL's YouTube channel with the following talents being in charge of your viewing experience:

Hosts:
Alex 'Goldenboy' Mendez
Jason 'moses' O'Toole

Backstage Reporter:
Tres 'stunna' Saranthus

Analysts:
Halvor 'vENdetta' Gulestøl
Chad 'SPUNJ' Burchill
Janko 'YNk' Paunović

Commentators:
Matthew 'Sadokist' Trivett
Henry 'HenryG' Greer
Sam 'DaZeD' Marine
John 'BLU' Mullen

Observers:
Heather 'sapphiRe' Garozzo
David 'Prius' Kuntz

All group stage matches will be using a best-of-one format with six teams in total proceeding forward to the best-of-three structured playoffs.

The top team from each group will directly move to the semi-finals, while the other four will have to fight back starting from the quarter-finals instead.

The schedule for the offline finals of EPL is the following:

30th of May, Tuesday:
Playday 1:
18:30 CEST - SK Gaming vs. Cloud 9
18:30 CEST - G2 Esports vs. Team EnVy
19:45 CEST - Fnatic vs. Immortals
19:45 CEST - G2 Esports vs. Cloud 9
21:00 CEST - SK Gaming vs. Immortals
21:00 CEST - Fnatic vs. Team EnVy
22:15 CEST - Team EnVy vs. Cloud 9
22:15 CEST - Fnatic vs. SK Gaming

31st of May, Wednesday:
00:00 CEST - Team Liquid vs. Natus Vincere
00:00 CEST - mousesports vs. North
01:15 CEST - mousesports vs. Natus Vincere
01:15 CEST - NRG eSports vs. OpTic Gaming
02:30 CEST - NRG eSports vs. North
02:30 CEST - Team Liquid vs. OpTic Gaming
03:45 CEST - NRG eSports vs. Team Liquid
03:45 CEST - North vs. Natus Vincere

Playday 2:
18:30 CEST - G2 Esports vs. Immortals
18:30 CEST - Fnatic vs. Cloud 9
19:45 CEST - Team EnVy vs. Immortals
19:45 CEST - G2 Esports vs. SK Gaming
21:00 CEST - Fnatic vs. G2 Esports
21:00 CEST - SK Gaming vs. Team EnVy
21:00 CEST - Immortals vs. Cloud 9
22:45 CEST - NRG eSports vs. Natus Vincere
22:45 CEST - mousesports vs. OpTic Gaming

1st of May, Thursday:
00:00 CEST - mousesports vs. Team Liquid
00:00 CEST - North vs. OpTic Gaming
01:15 CEST - NRG eSports vs. mousesports
01:15 CEST - Team Liquid vs. North
01:15 CEST - OpTic Gaming vs. Natus Vincere

Playday 3:
19:00 CEST - 1st quarter-final
22:50 CEST - 2nd quarter-final

3rd of May, Saturday:
Playday 4:
19:00 CEST - 1st semi-final
22:50 CEST - 2nd semi-final

4th of May, Sunday:
Playday 5:
20:00 CEST - Grand final

This season finale's prize winnings will be distributed by ESL as the following:

1st. - $225,000
2nd. - $100,000
3rd-4th. - $60,000
5th-6th. - $45,000
7th-8th. - $40,000
9th-10th. - $35,000
11th-12th. - $32,500

SK Gaming will open the competition in Dallas in a match against the North American powerhouse Cloud 9, who interestingly enough was the exact same team that defeated our Brazilian squad on home soil back during the grand final of the fourth season of ESL Pro League back in October 2016.

Do not hesitate to show us your support for our CS:GO division during their rematch against Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert's team as well as the tournament overall via social media using #VAMOSSK.

As usual more information can be found in our esport index.

Stay tuned to SK Gaming for more updates from the fifth season of ESL Pro League.