ESL have announced important changes to the format of their marquee Pro League, including a slot expansion and relegation changes.

With Season 3 of the ESL Pro League winding down and with its $512,000 finals in London fast approaching, ESL have looked into adjusting the format of the league overall in order to accommodate the growing list of competitive teams in CS:GO.

In a new announcement released today, the German-based organisation mention that the next season of the Pro League will have 14 slots instead of 12 slots in order to make space for a growing slate of high profile teams; the increased amount of regular season slots will also mean more participants in the Season 4 finals, about which information is still forthcoming.

ESL have changed the relegation system for Pro League Season 4

Due to the slot expansion, ESL will implement a new relegation system effective immediately:

• Teams ranked 1 to 11 will keep their Pro League slot for the next season
• The team ranked 12 will go to relegation and play against team ranked 2 in the Premier Division
• The team ranked 1 in the Premier Division will be automatically promoted to the Pro League
• The last free slot will go to one wildcard team per division

The changes to relegation will undoubtedly have a strong effect on the current season of the Pro League, as both teams in danger of relegation and teams doing well in ESEA Premier fight to retain a spot in the million dollar league.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter

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