The ESL FACEIT Group officially announced today the end of its long-standing StarCraft II (SC2) competitive circuit, the ESL Pro Tour, from 2025.
It brings an era to a close for SC2 esports, the organization citing fiscal sustainability concerns as the primary factor for the move. Sustaining a circuit of this scale and scope, ESL said, has become all the more daunting in the present economic climate.
Announced in 2020, the ESL Pro Tour was intended to create a healthy and sustainable competitive environment for SC2. Throughout the years, it set up a stable format of online and offline competitions, culminating in a season-ending world championship event each season. The circuit quickly became a staple in the SC2 community. Major events such as IEM Katowice in 2020 and 2021 drew peak viewership figures of 71,794 and 87,479, as shown on Esports Charts.
Throughout its five-year duration, the tour brought over 48,000 matches and paid out more than $6 million in total prize money. The last major chapter of the EPT’s history played out at the 2023 Esports World Cup (EWC) with the SC2 event reaching 60,884 viewers in peak concurrent viewership.
Even though the ESL Pro Tour was discontinued, StarCraft II will again be part of this year’s Esports World Cup. It is a grand-scale, multi-title tournament series supported by the Saudi Arabian government through the EWC Foundation in partnership with ESL FACEIT Group.
In its announcement, ESL highlighted how strong early partnerships and in-ecosystem financial backing made the initial scale of the Pro Tour possible. Yet, over time, it became harder to obtain sustainable long-term funding.
We have high standards for the quality of ESL Pro Tour ecosystems, and we’ve delivered on that premier vision for five years. However, we no longer see a sustainable path forward that maintains the quality and scale of competition fans associate with ESL Pro Tour, and as such, made the decision to sunset ESL Pro Tour for StarCraft II.
ESL
These budget constraints were clearly visible in 2023, as the circuit faced cuts both to the quantity of events and prizes awarded. ESL thought about contracting the tour back even more, but decided to drop the program outright instead of risking dilution of its standards for quality.
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