Hall of Champions: all teams that have won the ESL Pro League

Founded in 2015, the ESL Pro League has undergone many different iterations. Despite its changes in format, name, and structure, however, the competition has maintained its position as a premier destination for Counter-Strike esports. 

Coming into its 21st season, the ESL Pro League has once again adapted. Gone are the days of the partner team structure that was first implemented in Season 13. Instead, teams are invited to participate through Valve’s Global Standings and by qualifying via ESL’s Challenger ecosystem. Team participation has been reduced from 32 to 24, and this year’s ESL Pro League seasons will be held in Sweden as opposed to the familiar destinations in Malta. 

With ESL completing 20 seasons of its top-tier Counter-Strike competition, certain teams have proven to be specialists at the event. In this article, Esports Insider breaks down the most successful ESL Pro League teams and when the rosters held the trophy aloft.

Unfortunately, one isle winner of the ESL Pro League was not crowned in Seasons 11 and 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, ESL did manage to award regional victories for European and North American teams. Interestingly, this was the last time that ESL had separate leagues for the regions with Season 13 implementing just one global league. 

For Season 11, Fnatic and Team Liquid won their leagues in Europe and North America, respectively. Fnatic’s then fully Swedish roster features current player Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson. 

Team Liquid’s Season 11 roster features two familiar names still playing for the organisation. Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic and Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken are in the organisation’s current line-up, despite the latter leaving to join FaZE Clan for two years. 

Following a similar format, Season 12 crowned FURIA Esports and Astralis as North American and European champions, respectively. For FURIA, this is the organisation’s only technical ESL Pro League season trophy.

ESL ESEA Pro League Season 3 was won by none other than Luminosity Gaming, which took its fully Brazilian roster to the UK to topple Europe’s G2 Esports 3-2 and claim $200,000. Whilst the league was only in its third iteration, this was a monumental victory for the Americas’ Counter-Strike scene, given that Europe had claimed the first two events. 

Luminosity’s roster in 2016 consisted of some of Brazil’s biggest names in Counter-Strike, notably Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo and Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David. Unfortunately, the organisation may never improve on its solitary ESL Pro League trophy with Luminosity exiting Counter-Strike in 2019. 

Following on from Luminosity’s heroics in Season 3, North America’s Cloud9 won ESL Pro League Season 4 in Brazil. Featuring the likes of Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesie and Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip — both of whom went on to become popular streamers within the esports scene — Cloud9 defeated SK Gaming’s Brazilian roster to etch their name in history. 

Whilst the North American organisation has failed to win another ESL Pro League, Cloud9 went on to secure its biggest trophy in Counter-Strike a few years later, winning the 2018 ELEAGUE Major in Boston. Despite being a heralded name within North America’s Counter-Strike scene the organisation announced that it was stepping away from the ecosystem in 2025. 

Despite winning three IEMs and two BLAST Premier World Finals, G2 Esports has only managed to claim one ESL Pro League trophy, all the way back in Season 5. 

The European organisation is certainly more known for its escapades in the 2020s, however, in 2017 G2’s fully French roster toppled North in Dallas, Texas to walk away with $225,000. Whilst all of its team members will go down in the history books, G2’s squad featured the likes of French superstar Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire, who went on to claim the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 trophy with Team Vitality. 

With four different winners in four consecutive seasons, SK Gaming avenged its loss to Cloud9 in 2016 to win ESL Pro League Season 6. 

During this time, the organisation featured two familiar names that have already been mentioned in this article: Coldzera and FalleN. In fact, Ricardo ‘boltz’ Prass is the only player that wasn’t a part of Luminosity’s ESL Pro League win. The Brazilian roster beat FaZe Clan’s European team in Odense, Denmark. Currently, SK Gaming has dropped out of the Counter-Strike scene.

Skipping a couple of seasons and Team Liquid won its one and only ESL Pro League title in Season 9 of the competition. With a roster consisting of NAF, Twistzz, Stewie2K, Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella, and Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, Team Liquid prevented G2 Esports from securing a scent ESL Pro League trophy in the roster’s home ground of Montpellier, France. 

2019 proved to be a rather successful year for Team Liquid in Counter-Strike with the organisation also winning ESL One: Cologne and IEM Sydney, securing an Intel Grand Slam as a result. 

Winning the first global ESL Pro League event following the COVID-19 pandemic was Nordic esports organisation HEROIC.

Beating Gambit Esports 3-2 in the ESL Pro League Season 13 grand finals, HEROIC’s Danish roster features a lot of familiar names that are still competing at the highest level today. Martin ‘stavn’ Lund and Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller have found a new home in Astralis, while René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen moved to Team Falcons in 2025. Interestingly, HEROIC were also the first team to win the ESL Pro League under its new partner team-led global league. 

The most recent team to claim only one ESL Pro League trophy is Team Vitality, with its victory coming in Season 16. Claiming $200,000 in Naxxar, Malta, Team Vitality toppled Team Liquid 3-2 in 2022 to win the event. 

Only two members — apEX and Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut — remain part of Team Vitality’s ESL Pro League winning roster. Aside from the two Frenchmen, the Season 16 roster also had Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, and Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi.

Going back in time now, UK-based esports organisation Fnatic was not only the first team to win back-to-back ESL Pro League titles — it was the first winner of the competition. 

Defeating Cloud9 and NAVI, Fnatic subsequently won Seasons 1 and 2 of the ESL Pro League. With full Swedish rosters, four of Fnatic’s players won both events in 2015 — Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell, Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist, Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson, and Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson. 

Alongside this group of players, Markus ‘pronax’ Wallsten and Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman won the ESL Pro League in Season 1 and Season 2, respectively. The Fnatic 2015 season is looked back upon fondly by many fans, with the team also picking up trophies at ESL One Cologne and ESL One Katowice 2015, both of which were considered Majors at the time. 

In 2018, historic esports organisation Astralis managed to secure back-to-back ESL Pro League victories. ESL Pro League trophies for Season 7 and Season 8, were part of Astralis’ unprecedented run, which saw the team go 406 consecutive days at number one on HLTV’s rankings between 2018 and 2019. 

The roster, which consisted of Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz, Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander, and Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, also won three Majors — StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, IEM Katowice Major 2019, and the 2018 FACEIT Major in London.

The most recent two-time ESL Pro League winner is Ukrainian esports organisation NAVI (Natus Vincere). Having secured its first ESL Pro League Trophy in Season 14, the team won the most recent edition of ESL’s competition, beating Eternal Fire in the Season 20 finals. 

Unsurprisingly, there is only one player who won both ESL Pro League events in 2021 and 2024 under the NAVI banner: Valerij ‘b1t’ Vakhovsjkyj. Its Season 14 roster included the likes of NAVI legend Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev whilst its team that won last year is unchanged for 2025. 

The penultimate team on this list is FaZe Clan, with its European-based Counter-Strike roster securing ESL Pro League trophies in Season 15 and Season 17. Claiming titles in Düsseldorf, Germany and Saint Julian’s, Malta, the organisation won the events with identical rosters.

Alongside a recurring name in Twistzz, the team that won in 2022 and 2023 consisted of Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard, Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants, Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen and Robin ‘ropz’ Kool. Aside from Twistzz and Ropz, who are not competing for Team Liquid and Team Vitality, the remaining three players are still with FaZe Clan.

The only team to win three global ESL Pro League events (Astralis and Fnatic won ESL Pro League events in Europe specifically), is German esports organisation MOUZ.

Its back-to-back ESL Pro League victories in Season 18 and Season 19 add to its Season 10 trophy in 2019 when the organisation was known as mousesports. Starting with its Season 10 victory, Ropz and Karrigan led their team to emphatically beat Fnatic 3-0 in Odense, Denmark.

In Season 18, nearly four years after its first Pro League trophy, MOUZ beat NAVI to claim its second title. Whilst MOUZ had a vastly different roster between this gap, David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský was a consistent factor in the team’s two ESL Pro League victories. Frozen was no longer with MOUZ, but the organisation still managed to beat Team Vitality last year to become Season 19 champions.