Image: ESL
The grand finalists of IEM Katowice 2025 are off to stellar starts in ESL Pro League Season 21.
The Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) action is heating up at the ESL Pro League Season 21, as eight teams advanced to the Playoffs after surviving the two Swiss format Group Stages which concluded on Wednesday (12 March). 
Team Vitality and 
Team Spirit lead the pack of Playoff-qualified teams alongside 
Natus Vincere (NAVI), 
The MongolZ, 
MOUZ, 
Eternal Fire, 
Team Liquid, and 
G2 Esports.
Those eight teams will be competing in a single-elimination Playoff bracket from 13 to 16 March to claim the lion's share of US$100,000 out of the tournament's US$400,000 prize pool.
ESL Pro League Season 21 featured a total of 24 participating teams, with eight of the Top 10 teams in the Valve Regional Standings earning direct invites to Stage 2. These teams were Vitality, Spirit, NAVI, MongolZ, MOUZ, Liquid, G2 Esports, and Team Falcons. Meanwhile, the remaining 16 teams had to start the tournament in Stage 1.
GamerLegion, 
SAW, 
3DMAX, Eternal Fire, 
MIBR, 
FURIA Esports, 
paiN Gaming, and surprise Chinese team 
TYLOO survived Stage 1 to join the directly-invited teams in Stage 2.
Vitality, Spirit lead Playoff-qualified teams at ESL Pro League Season 21
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice grand finalists Vitality and Spirit were the first teams to qualify for the Playoffs after dominant runs through Stage 2. Vitality started their campaign with a 2-1 reverse sweep over MIBR (7-13 at Anubis, 13-3 at Inferno, 13-3 at Train) before locking up their Playoff spot with back-to-back sweeps over 3DMAX (13-5 at Train, 13-7 at Dust II) and MOUZ (13-6 at Inferno, 13-7 at Dust II).
Meanwhile, Spirit didn't drop a single map en route to the Playoffs. They first swept TYLOO (13-11 at Anubis, 13-6 at Nuke) and made quick work of SAW (13-1 at Dust II, 13-8 at Train), before securing their Playoff spot by routing MongolZ (13-6 at Anubis, 13-11 at Dust II).
NAVI, MongolZ, and MOUZ then formed the second group of teams to qualify for the Playoffs, locking in their spots after four rounds of Stage 2 play.
NAVI overcame a surprising 1-2 loss to SAW (13-3 at Inferno, 9-13 at Nuke, 4-13 at Ancient) in round one with three-straight match victories to advance to the Playoffs. They first pulled off a 2-1 reverse sweep over TYLOO (10-13 at Inferno, 13-5 at Mirage and Ancient) before scoring back-to-back sweeps against paiN (16-14 at Train, 13-6 at Mirage) and G2 (13-9 at Mirage, 13-6 at Ancient).
Both MongolZ and MOUZ started Stage 2 strong with wins in the first two rounds before suffering a loss in round three, then bouncing back in round four to lock in their Playoff spots.
MongolZ started Stage 2 by sweeping GamerLegion (13-9 at Inferno, 16-14 at Mirage) and taking down G2 in three maps (9-13 at Ancient, 16-12 at Dust II, 13-10 at Mirage) before losing to Spirit. A quick 2-0 rout over 3DMAX (13-4 at Dust II, 13-7 at Ancient) then secured the MongolZ a ticket to the Playoffs. Meanwhile, MOUZ defeated FURIA in three maps (13-9 at Train, 13-16 at Inferno, 13-11 at Nuke) and bowled over Falcons (13-7 at Train, 13-9 at Nuke) in the first two rounds, only to lose to Vitality in round three. However, MOUZ bounced back in round four by soundly sweeping Liquid (13-8 at Ancient, 13-4 at Nuke) and becoming the fifth team to advance to the Playoffs.
Liquid, Eternal Fire, and G2 then rounded out the Playoff-qualified teams, having played all five rounds of Stage 2 to make it to the final phase of the tournament.
Both Liquid and Eternal Fire had to overcome their round five opponents in three maps for a Playoff spot, with Liquid taking down 3DMAX (13-11 at Inferno, 6-13 at Ancient, 13-4 at Anubis) and Eternal Fire knocking out Falcons (13-8 at Inferno, 13-16 at Mirage, 13-9 at Dust II). Meanwhile, G2 became the last team to qualify for the Playoffs after sweeping GamerLegion (13-11 at Inferno, 13-9 at Nuke).
