The Spirit
The Spirit is a special trophy for the country with the best performance at the ESL Finals and is awarded at the prize giving ceremony. The trophy consists of a sword and was introduced for the first time in 2004.
Points are awarded to the teams in each class then the points of the 4 highest ranked teams, irrespective of class, are added up per country to give the country's score.
Scoring
The scores for the Spirit used to be calculated by adding the actual scores for the 2 best teams per class per country for all classes.
As of 2009, points are awarded for each class as following:
1st place = 10 points
2nd place = 8 points
3rd place = 6 points
4th place = 5 points
5th place = 4 points
6th place = 3 points
7th place = 2 points
8th place = 1 point
The points of the 4 highest ranked teams, irrespective of class, are then added up per country to give the country's score.
This means that in total 4 teams can contribute to this overall score, whether the team is Rookie or AAA, their contribution is weighted equally.
At present the country that has won last year's Spirit has the first option to organise the Finals. If this option is not accepted, the ESL coordinators will try to find another host willing to organise the Finals.