ESL Pro League Season 24: One Account Staked $5.3 Million on Katowice in Three Days, Mostly Live, and Where It Went

Most whale accounts we track drop one big ticket and disappear. Mnt41 does not stop. Between Sunday 4 and Tuesday 6 October, at the Swiss stage of ESL Pro League Season 24 in Katowice, this one account placed 40 single tickets worth $5,333,796 on Counter-Strike, up to $227,000 a time, and 37 of the 40 went on after the match had started.

That is 61% of every dollar we captured on the event in singles, from one username. It got $4,260,585 back.

The event

ESL Pro League Season 24 is being played entirely on LAN in Katowice, Poland, from 3 to 11 October, the first Pro League arena event since 2019. Sixteen teams, a $1,000,000 prize pool, a best-of-three Swiss stage (three wins to go through, three losses to go out) and then an eight-team single-elimination playoff in the Spodek Arena from 9 to 11 October, with a best-of-five final. Twelve teams were invited from Valve’s rankings and four came through the ESL Challenger League: 1win, M80, ShindeN and TYLOO.

Three days, day by day

Day	Tickets	Staked	Returned
Sun 4 Oct	14	$1,211,305	$787,991
Mon 5 Oct	14	$2,196,936	$1,318,994
Tue 6 Oct	12	$1,925,555	$2,153,600
Total	40	$5,333,796	$4,260,585

Two losing days and one big winning one. The pattern underneath is consistent: Mnt41 bets map winners and match winners in-play, at short-to-middling prices, in stakes that sit around $200,000 to $227,000 when the account is confident, and it chases a match it has already lost on.

The best sequence: Legacy v M80, $476,748 on the comeback

Tuesday 6 October was the day it all came back, and one match did most of it. Legacy, ranked sixth in the world by HLTV, were playing without their in-game leader arT, who was ill, against M80, a Challenger League qualifier ranked 27th. Mnt41 was on M80 throughout:

1. Ten minutes into the match, $227,000 on M80 to win Map 1 at 1.15 and, a minute later, $200,000 more at 1.38. M80 won Cache 13-4. Returned $261,050 and $276,000.
2. Map 2 went the other way. $135,000 on M80 to take it at 2.10 and $23,341 on M80 -1.5 maps both lost when Legacy won Mirage 13-9 to level the series.
3. At 1-1, with the decider to come, the account went again: $227,000 on M80 to win the match at 2.10 and $70,145 on M80 to win Map 3 at 2.10.

M80 won Dust2 13-7 and the series 2-1, which eliminated Legacy. The match ticket returned $476,748, the biggest single return of the account’s run, and the M80 sequence as a whole turned $882,486 into $1,161,118.

The worst: $472,463 on 9z round handicaps

Monday’s damage came from a market the account does not usually touch. Against Natus Vincere, Mnt41 backed 9z on the round handicap twice, betting that the underdog would stay within a few rounds on each map:

• $197,509 on 9z +6.5 rounds, Map 1, at 1.28
• $225,000 on 9z +4.5 rounds, Map 2, at 1.65, and another $49,954 on the same line

NAVI won Nuke 13-6 and Cache 13-6. Seven-round margins on both maps: half a round outside the 6.5 cushion on the first, and well clear of 4.5 on the second. All three tickets lost: $472,463 for nothing, the largest single-match loss of the run.

The same afternoon cost $582,252 on the match of the day. Before Team Vitality v Team Falcons started, Mnt41 took Vitality -1.5 maps at 2.80 for $146,000 and Vitality to win Map 1 at 1.75 for $27,728. Falcons won the first map, Anubis, 13-9, and both of those were finished. Fifty-seven minutes in, the account switched sides with $226,246 and $182,278 on Falcons to win the match at 1.58. Vitality won Dust2 13-4 and Mirage 13-8. Both sides of the same match, and every ticket lost.

The other wins

• MOUZ over Spirit, 5 Oct. $223,000 on MOUZ to take Map 1 at 1.62 returned $361,260, and $220,000 on Map 2 at 1.22 returned $268,400. MOUZ won 2-0, Dust2 13-5 and Mirage 13-11, ending what HLTV counted as a 32-match unbeaten run for Spirit in Swiss stages.
• 9z over BetBoom, 6 Oct. $227,359 on 9z to win at 1.48 returned $336,491, with a second 9z ticket of $122,994 returning $182,031. 9z won 2-0.
• FURIA, Map 1 against Aurora, 6 Oct. $227,000 at 1.48 returned $335,960 when FURIA won Dust2 13-8. Aurora then won the next two maps and the series.
• NAVI, Map 2 against Vitality, 4 Oct. $200,000 at 1.48 returned $296,000 when NAVI won Nuke 13-5. Vitality still won the series 2-1.

Where the account came from: BLAST Open, Porto

Mnt41 first appears in our data on 26 August, during BLAST Open Fall 2026, which ended in Porto on 6 September with Spirit beating MOUZ 3-1 in the final. On that event the account placed 43 single tickets worth $2,503,492 and got $2,679,135 back, a profitable fortnight. Katowice has been twice the size and has gone the other way, so far.

Across the 89 tickets we have captured from the account since late August, every one has been on Counter-Strike apart from two League of Legends tickets on the LPL Grand Finals. You can follow every one of them, as it is placed, on the Mnt41 profile.

The Swiss stage, and what is next

The bigger story of the week in Katowice was the world No. 1. Spirit lost 2-0 to MOUZ and then 2-0 to 1win, ranked 42nd in the world, and went into the final Swiss day needing to win. Vitality and MOUZ were the first two teams through, and Aurora, 1win and Falcons followed. G2, BetBoom, Legacy, TYLOO and ShindeN are out.

The last three playoff places are decided today, Wednesday 7 October: FURIA v 9z, PARIVISION v NAVI and Spirit v M80. The playoffs in the Spodek Arena run from 9 to 11 October.

Every ticket on the event is on the ESL Pro League Season 24 hub and the Counter-Strike board, team by team on M80, Natus Vincere and Team Vitality. The same fortnight produced a $1,000,000 VALORANT ticket in Shanghai. More on the esports hub.

Before you tail anything, check the bonus board. 18+ · gamble responsibly.