The playoff bracket for the ESL Pro League Season 23 Finals has been finalised following the conclusion of the online portion of the event. Two Swiss-format group stages ran from March 1 to March 10, trimming the initial field of 24 teams down to the eight squads that will contest the LAN finals.
The LAN portion of the tournament is scheduled to take place at the Annexet in Stockholm, Sweden, across March 13–15. Two teams that finished Stage 2 unbeaten, Spirit and MOUZ, will start their runs from opposite sides of the bracket after both posting 3–0 records in the online phase.
Spirit, led by Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, draw Astralis in their quarter-final matchup. This will be the second meeting between the two organisations this year after Spirit defeated Astralis 2–0 in the group stage of IEM Kraków earlier in the season.
MOUZ will face FUT in their quarter-final, a repeat of the teams’ encounter at PGL Cluj-Napoca. In that previous meeting MOUZ staged a dramatic comeback on Overpass — overturning a 3–12 deficit — and went on to sweep the series.
Another quarter-final pits Aurora against Legacy, renewing a rivalry that produced one of the most gruelling matches of Stage 2. Their Stage 2 opener featured marathon maps: one match required quadruple overtime on Inferno and the decider on Dust2 went to double overtime, with the Turkish side narrowly claiming the victory.
The final quarter-final sees Natus Vincere take on The MongolZ. The MongolZ will be missing their coach Erdenedalai “maaRaa” Bayanbat for the LAN, and Natus Vincere enter the tie looking to avenge their loss to the MongolZ at Cluj.
The full match schedule for the Annexet LAN finals is as follows. On March 13: The MongolZ versus Natus Vincere at 10:00, Legacy versus Aurora at 13:15, MOUZ versus FUT at 16:30, and Astralis versus Spirit at 19:45. The two semifinals are set for March 14, with Semi-final #1 at 15:45 and Semi-final #2 at 19:00. The final day, March 15, will feature the third-place decider at 13:30 and the grand final at 17:00.
With the bracket locked and the match times announced, the eight remaining teams will head to Stockholm to contest the title and decide who walks away as champions of ESL Pro League Season 23.