The MongolZ create history in ESL Pro League

ESL Pro League started as a tournament restricted to only Americas and Europe in July 2015 with online qualifiers from the two regions leading into a LAN finals consisting of eight teams. The League quickly grew in popularity but the regions stayed the same.

Three years and seven iterations later, ESL Pro League Season 7 became the first ESL Pro League event to feature teams from the Asia-Pacific region. South Korean team MVP PK and Australian team Grayhound Gaming were the first APAC representatives at an ESL Pro League. However, both teams crashed out of the event after back to back losses, finishing at the bottom.

Asian teams had a tough time at ESL Pro League tournaments, always exiting the event without winning a single game in the double-elimination bracket. TYLOO became a familiar face on the Asian side of things at EPL but they too, failed to make it past the first two games.

After COVID-19 shut the world indoors, ESL Pro League Seasons 11 and 12 (LANs) were cancelled. One year later, ESL Pro League returned with the new franchise league system, giving out invites to partner teams without putting them through qualifiers or assessing their ESL World Ranking. For two years and four iterations of the event, no Asian team was able to secure an ESL Pro League slot.

In 2023, the Asian slots were reinstated with two teams qualifying for ESL Pro League through the Asian Conference (regional qualifier). Rare Atom and IHC became the first two Asian teams to move past the opening two games with Rare Atom taking down Liquid 2-0 in their opening game but their story doesn't go far as both teams get eliminated in the very next round.

ESL Pro League Season 19 saw a massive shift, with The MongolZ breaking through. This was the year The MongolZ rose up and took Asian Counter-Strike to the next level, even pulling off the deepest Asian run in the Major, going down in the quarter-final of the Perfect World Shanghai 2024 Major. In EPL S19, The MongolZ obliterated Falcons and G2 in the group stage, qualifying for the playoffs where they went down to Virtus.pro in the Ro12.

The MongolZ pulled off an impressive lower-bracket run in the next iteration of ESL Pro League but again flunked out in their playoffs game. This ongoing iteration of the ESL Pro League, Season 21 is seeing a whole new MongolZ. This isn't The MongolZ who's looking to breakout from the Asian scene, but a MongolZ who's been in the Major quarter-finals and have been taking down top 10 teams regularly.

Convincing wins against G2, Gamer Legion and 3DMAX, sent The MongolZ straight into the playoffs from the 3-1 pool. The farthest any Asian team has reached in an ESL Pro League event. The MongolZ met NAVI in their quarter-final game and playoffs are where The MongolZ kept coming up short time after time. The MongolZ broke their playoffs curse, taking away NAVI's own map pick Mirage and then Ancient 13-6, fetching themselves a 2-0 win.

The MongolZ waltzed into the semi-final, where they square up against Vitality. The MongolZ have never defeated Vitality and taking Vitality into overtime, conceding the game 17-19 at IEM Rio 2024 was the closest they came to besting Vitality. Their last matchup with Vitality also came in the playoffs. Vitality got the better of The MongolZ in the semi-finals of IEM Katowice 2025. Catch The MongolZ taking on Vitality in the semi-final of the ESL Pro League Season 21 at 11:00 PM IST today and find out if The MongolZ can take another massive leap on behalf of Asian Counter-Strike.