ESL replace showmatches with third-place decider matches

ESL announced on Monday, July 1st, that all of their "tier-one and Wildcard tournaments" from ESL Pro League Season 22 and onwards will feature a third-place decider match before the grand finals. As a result of that, there will be no more showmatches.

ESL explained via a blog post that they're making this change because of the way the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) work.

With the continued evolution of the competitive landscape and teams vying for points counting towards their Valve Regional Standings, which now subsequently will fully decide their fate for the next Counter-Strike Major invites, we’re today adding third-place decider matches to previously announced tournaments.

This change means that ESL are now in line with PGL, who introduced third-place decider matches at the start of the year. These matches are important because the winner gets more VRS points and more prize pool too.

ESL Pro League Season 22 will kick off on September 27. After that, the next ESL tournament to feature a third-place decider match will be IEM Chengdu 2025 and IEM Kraków 2026.