BESL Pro Season 5 announced
YOU SHOULD’VE KNOWN WE WERE COMING!
With BESL Pro Season 4 grand final happening this Saturday, we thought that it would be the perfect time for us to announce the arrival of BESL Pro Season 5 while already opening up registration for the qualifiers!
In short - no major changes have been done to how our lovely league operates and it’s still pretty much the same old BESL Pro competition that you enjoyed last season!
Teams
As per usual, let’s start with our competitors! The number of teams this season has not changed from the previous one - BESL Pro Season 5 is going to once again feature 16 teams from all three Baltic state countries.
With that being said, here is the list of teams that have maintained their spot in the league by earning at least 2 victories in the Season 4 swiss group stage:
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Dmondo
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SACRAMENTO
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1337HUANIA
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Team Titan
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Domino Gaming
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wolsung
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Timechasers
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deprEST
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LESGEDI
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alltheRAGE
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FiGURE05
The 5 remaining teams are going to be found via qualifiers (read more about them further down below). In a scenario where one or more teams from this list decide to not take part in the upcoming season of BESL Pro, a replacement team is going to be called upon from the 12th-16th place team pool of Season 4.
Format
As mentioned before, there are no major changes to how we operate and thus the format of BESL Pro Season 5 has remained the same. Just like last season, we’re gonna start off our competition with 5 weeks of best-of-three swiss groups followed up by 2 weeks of single-elimination best-of-three playoffs.
The only minor change in regards to the format is that this season we’re once again going to have 4 teams attending the finals event! This means that all the ¼ final game-winners are going to book themselves a trip to HyperTown where they are going to finish off playing the playoff bracket that started out online.
Here’s the week-by-week breakdown of Season 5 competition:
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1st week - Swiss group stage round 1
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2nd week - Swiss group stage round 2
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3rd week - Swiss group stage round 3
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4th week - Swiss group stage round 4
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5th week - Swiss group stage round 5
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6th week - First two quarter-final games
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7th week - Remaining two quarter-final games
First time hearing about Swiss format and wondering what it is?
The initial round of Swiss format consists of 16 teams being matched up against each other in 8 duels. After the initial matches are over, the next round draw takes place, matching teams with the same W-L record against one another.
This means that teams that won their first match (1-0) are going to be matched up against other teams that also won their first match, while teams that lost their first match (0-1) are going to be paired with teams that also lost their debut game.
This sequence goes on for 5 rounds of matches until there are 8 teams that proceed to playoffs and 8 teams that are eliminated. The rule for advancing or being eliminated is very simple - win 3 games and you’re in the playoffs, lose 3 games and you’re out!
Feel free to check out THIS image to better understand how the Swiss format group stage is done. For more details about the format visit our Rulebook.
Prize pool
The prize pool of our competition for Season 5 has not changed from the previous one and teams are once again going to be competing for the lion's share of the €9,000 prize pool!
The €9,000 Season 5 prize pool is going to be distributed as follows:
1st place - €3,000
2nd place - €1,500
3rd-4th place - €750
5th-8th place - €400
9th-11th place - €250
12th-14th place - €150
15th-16th place - €100
Team relegation and LAN Finals
Just like last time, at the end of the season, the bottom 5 teams are going to be relegated from BESL Pro. This means that teams that are eliminated from the swiss group stage with win-loss records of 0-3 and 1-3 do not get a guaranteed slot for the next season.
As for the Season 5 LAN Finals - the event is going to feature the top 4 teams of the online set of games! Accordingly, teams that are going to reach the semi-finals of the playoff bracket are going to the finals event.
This time around the LAN Finals is going to be located in Latvia, with the HyperTown now traveling back to Kipsala exhibition center (Riga) with the event taking place on the 15th and 16th of February!
Season 5 calendar and qualifier details
BESL Pro Season 5 calendar looks as following:
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Qualifier #1 - 01.12 14:00 Baltic time (registration open from 18.11 till 01.12 13:00)
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Last chance qualifier - 08.12 14:00 Baltic time (registration open from 02.12 till 08.12 13:00)
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Regular season - 16.12-02.02 (7 weeks)
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LAN Finals - 15.02
As for the details of the qualifiers:
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Qualifiers are played on FACEIT using Single Elimination Bo3 format;
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Qualifier entry fee is 25 EUR per team;
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Maximum number of participants for the first qualifier is set to 32 teams, whereas the last chance qualifier is going to feature 8 teams;
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The 4 best teams (teams that reach semi-finals) from the first qualifier and the winner (1 team) of the last chance qualifier is going to secure a spot in the BESL Pro Season 5 competition.
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Only teams that consist of a minimum of 3 players from Baltic states are eligible to participate. Read more about player eligibility in our Rulebook.
In order to register your team for a qualifier, you have to:
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Visit besl.pro webpage;
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Register an account;
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Create a team via ‘My team’ section;
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Invite your teammates to your team;
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Pay the qualifier entry-fee via ‘My team’ page;
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Remember that everyone on your team has to link their Steam account to their profile via ‘Profile Settings’ in order to be eligible to participate.
After you have paid the qualifier entry-fee a pop-up window with an invite link to BESL Pro Qualifier Discord server will appear. Join the Discord server and follow the instructions there to complete your registration. Additionally, this Discord server is also going to be used as a communication tool between admins and participants during the qualifiers.
Season 5 game broadcasts
Just like last time, during Season 5 online portion of games, we’re going to provide you guys with three different broadcasts - one for each of the Baltic state countries in their respective language!
However, for the LAN finals, we’re going to transition back into having one English broadcast in order to cater to a broader audience of viewers.
Here’s how it works:
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Just like last season, our broadcast crew that operated in the studio in Riga, Latvia is going to bring you one best-of-three game series every Saturday at 16:00 Baltic time. These broadcasts are going to be streamed on BESL Pro YouTube channel and are going to feature three casters from Latvia - Emvy, S1D, and Gekons.
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On the other hand, both Estonian and Lithuanian broadcasts are not going to follow a set schedule, but are rather going to pick-up games during the week based on caster availability. These broadcasts are going to be streamed on BESL Pro Estonia Twitch and on BESL Pro Lithuania Twitch channels respectively. The casters for both language streams are to be announced at a later date.
All three broadcasts will prioritize featuring teams from their respective countries.
Be sure to follow our broadcast and social media channels in order to not miss any action:
News by: Bruno ‘Gekons’ Gailītis
