
— Event Info — Stream Schedule — EPL2 Standings — Tour Schedule — Gameplay Rules —
— ESOCTV — Tournament Discord — ESOCTV2 — League Stage
The league stage consists of a Round Robin tournament. Each team will face every other team through 5 weeks of play. Team Managers competing against each other in the next week will agree on Match Pairings for their players and submit their starting roster to the admins no later than the deadline of the current week. In case two Team Managers cannot come to an agreement in regards to the Match Pairings, both managers will submit their rosters to an admin through PM and the admin will create the Match Pairings for the week.
When the week starts, players will face off against their respective opponent in a Play-all-5 series. This means all 5 games of a series will be played out, even if a player is ahead 3-0 in the match.
For example:
Map Pool & Civilization RulesMaps: Map Pool 1 (Gran Chaco / Florida / Alaska / Mendocino / Arizona)
The Nilla Ninjas will lock civilizations first in Game 2.
The Nilla Ninjas (11) vs Somali Kabuli Gaming (14)
diarouga (4) vs Hazza54321 (1)
Conquerer999 (1) vs SomppuKunkku (4)
Stanley_Winston (0) vs iamturk (5)
Chusik (3) vs Yurashic (2)
SirCallen (3) vs tedere12 (2)
The Nilla Ninjas would earn 11 game wins towards their season total, and Somali Kabuli Gaming would earn 14 game wins.
The ESOC Premier League Map Pool is comprised of 13 different maps. These 13 maps are divided up into 6 unique map pools that will be assigned to a team pairing each week. For example, during Week 1, The Nilla Ninjas will play the Mandarin Duck Squad on Map Pool 3. The map pools are as described below. [Kamchatka (S) describes Kamchatka Summer version]

During a given week, the map pool is the same for all players in a team pairing. For example, every series in The Nilla Ninjas vs Mandarin Duck Squad matchup will be played on Map Pool 1. This is so that teammates can help each other practice and plan strategies for each individual map. There will be no map vetoes in the EPL. To know which map pools you will be playing on each week, take a look at the Tournament Schedule.
The new maps included in the map pool for this season have been released with ESOC Patch 8.
Civilization rules will operate slightly differently in the EPL. As usual, players will agree on a civilization matchup in Game 1. After that, all players of a certain designated team will lock civilizations first in Game 2, regardless of whether or not the player won Game 1. The other team will lock first in Game 3, the designated team will lock first in Game 4, and the other team will lock first in Game 5. In essence, these rules provide more predictability to each series, making it easier for teams to practice strategies together.
Like previous major tournaments, there will be a civilization reset after Game 3. This means that a player must play 3 unique civilizations, before being able to play any civilization one more time.
For more information on the map pools for each week and which team will lock civilizations first in Game 2, take a look at the tournament schedule.
Playoffs
At the end of the league stages, there will be a playoffs involving the top 2 teams in Total Game Wins. In the event of a tie in the standings, the following criteria is used for breaking ties.
• # of Weeks Won >
• Result of the week where the two vying teams played against each other
Instead of Play-all-5 series', the playoffs will be constituted of Play-all-7 series', meaning there will be up to 35 games played. For a team to win the playoffs, they must rack up 18 game wins. Additionally, 4 unique civilizations must be played before a civ reset will occur going into Game 5. The #1 seeded team will pick their civilization first in game 2.
The winning team of the playoffs will be declared the victors of the ESOC Premier League, and have the 67% of the tournament prize pool divided evenly among its members. Members will also receive the illustrious EPL Reigning Champs badge. The 2nd place team of the playoffs will have 33% of the tournament prize pool divided among its members.
Additional Rules
All other applicable ESOC tournament rules apply. This includes the sections regarding Gameplay Rules, Scheduling Rules, Casting Rules, and Disqualification Rules.