ESL will be using standard tournament formats from 2018. The recently concluded IEM Oakland 2018 came under a lot of flak for the format used. According to experts and analysts the format paved way for big upsets and possibly an inefficient tournament in the finals. Ofcourse NIP did end up winning the tournament in the end and that was after defeating almost all the top teams in the world.
The ESL format for their tournaments in 2018 has been released and it is :
Below is a quick comparison of the various ESL events that were held throughout 2017:
| Event | Teams | Group Format | Playoff Teams |
 IEM Season XI Katowice | 12 | Round-robin | 6 |
 IEM Season XII Sydney | 8 | Swiss | 4 |
 EPL Season 5 Finals | 12 | Round-robin | 6 |
 ESL One Cologne | 16 | Swiss | 8 |
| ESL One New York | 8 | GSL | 4 |
| IEM Season XII Oakland | 12 | Round-robin | 6 |
 EPL Season 6 Finals | 12 | Round-robin | 6 |
You can clearly notice the move away from the Swiss system which was heavily favored in 2017. The Swiss system is decent, but without proper seeding it has the potential for huge upsets and potentially not seeing the best teams in the finals.