Most people associate Malta with coastal paradises and warm weather.

As true gamers, we don’t really care about that.

We just know it’s one of elite CS’ main hubs.

ESL Pro League Season 19 is about to start and the atmosphere is heating up.

The competition kicks off with a bang, featuring a stacked first group of teams.

FaZe, Astralis, Virtus Pro, Eternal Fire, Imperial, Fnatic, 3DMAX, and SAW are set to battle it out for the first four Playoff spots.

On one side of the bracket, we’ve got FaZe, Imperial, Astralis, and Eternal Fire, which straight-up promise top-tier action.

Let’s see if FaZe can maintain their Chengdu-winning form and move one step closer to that $1M Grand Slam prize.

We’re also keeping an eye on Astralis, who surprised most people with their performance at Chengdu, managing to bounce back after missing CS2’s first Major.

As for the other side, featuring Virtus Pro, Fnatic, 3DMAX, and SAW, we’ve got a clear front-runner in VP.

It’ll be very interesting to see how the new addition adapts to Jame’s methodical approach. If nothing else, it’s a clear-cut firepower upgrade from mir. All in all, it seems like a solid move.

The SAW boys are also looking to make waves in Malta after stepping in for Cloud9, who withdrew from the tournament due to electroNic’s departure. Can the Portuguese squad recover from a rather surprising but also disheartening Major run?

Of course, this is just the first of four groups.

Overall, the tournament runs from April 23rd to May 12th.

Non-stop CS.