ESL Pro League Season 9 Pre-Relegation (Almost) Preview
Today, the Pre-Relegation tournament for ESL Pro League is set to begin. This will see four teams facing off in double elimination bracket, with the winner going straight to Pro League. All matches will be played in a best-of three format, with the grand final being a best-of-five.
Happening now, today's starting match ups are:
 Lazarus (1) |
vs. | Singularity (4) |
| Envy (3) |
vs. |  INTZ (3) |
The first head to head will see Lazarus going against Singularity. Lazarus will be defending their spot in Pro League after an underwhelming season, while Singularity will be looking to earn a spot at the top.
Lazarus have had a good run of form recently, making it to the grand finals of the MSI MGA Closed Qualifier earlier this week before losing to Riot Squad 2-1. Yesterday, the team had a solid performance in the first ECS Season 8 North America Pinnacle Cup Open Qualifier, besting Final Feature and LiViD to qualify for the main event.
This afternoon, their roster will be:
- Braxton "swag" Pierce
- Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro
- Gage "Infinite" Green
Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik- Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker
- Danny "fRoD" Montaner (Coach)
This is Singularity's second time fighting for a spot in Pro League, with their first time being eight months ago in Season 8 Relegation.
After placing third in Season 31 of Mountain Dew League, Singularity has been staying in form in the off season. Though they failed to qualify for the Berlin Major, Singularity took first place in NCS Major Chicago this weekend against a multitude of mixed teams, only dropping one map throughout the whole tournament.
Today is Singularity's chance to prove they're deserving of being called professionals. Representing Singularity today will be:
- Joshua "oSee" Ohm
- Cameron "hydrex" Kern
- Ryan "ryann" Welsh
- Ricky "floppy" Kemery
- Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman
- Jared "MAC-1" Schneider (coach)
The second match up will see Envy going up against the Brazilian team INTZ. Both teams played in ESL Pro League Season 9, but their lackluster performances have landed them in Relegation.
Envy has been quiet most of the summer, with their last big event being IEM Chicago 2019 in July with their coach Zachary "Eley" Stauffer as a stand-in. Even with their coach, Envy played a close series against MIBR, though they have struggled recently, falling against Joshua "steel" Nissan's nambla mix-team in the first round of the MSI MGA Closed Qualifier.
Today, Envy will be fielding their roster of:
- Noah "Nifty" Francis
- Jacob "FugLy" Medina
- Sam "s0m" Oh
- Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor
Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek- Zachary "Eley" Stauffer (Coach)
As for INTZ, they had a great run in Berlin at the Americas Minor, and will be going to the StarLadder Berlin Major after besting MVP PK in the Minors' 3rd Place Play-In. Beyond this, they have been absent for the rest of the summer.
Hoping to keep their spot in Pro League, playing for INTZ will be:
- Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe
- Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes
- Alexandre "xand" Zizi
- Lucas "destiny"Bullo
- Gustavo "yeL" Knittel
- Alessandro "Apoka" Marcucci (Coach)
Following the initial match ups, the winners will advance to the upper bracket, and the losers will drop to an elimination match in the lower bracket. After the second round is played, losers from both brackets will face off to see who will play in Friday's grand final.
After the conclusion of the Pre-Relegation tournament, the three remaining teams go through the same process in the Relegation tournament on the 17th where they will be joined by ATK. For a detailed description see the ESL Pro League website.
