Cover Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming
ESL has taken notice of the problems associated with North American teams traveling to Europe to play in the ESL Pro League Season 11 - Finals, opting to break down the group stage into regional qualifiers consisting of four groups.
Out of these four groups, one will comprise of teams from the two American regions only, while the remaining three groups will be made up of teams from the European region. The only American teams which will be a part of these European groups are Complexity and BOOM, as they are already in Europe for the league.
Apart from turning the first phase of the league into regional qualifiers, ESL has also made two last-minute changes as Swole Patrol and BIG replaced Renegades and Heroic, respectively. While Renegades simply refused to travel overseas for the league, Heroic had to give up their slot due to the unavailability of a proper lineup following the departure of their current roster to FunPlus Phoenix.
[Also Read: Renegades Staff Leave the Organization]
Strangely the Brazilian organization Sharks also returned back home giving up their slot despite already being in Europe for the league, a replacement for the team is still being decided.
The re-distributed groups are as follows,
Group - A | Group - B | Group - C | Group - D |
Astralis | Na'Vi | Evil Geniuses | mousesports |
GODSENT | forZe | FURIA Esports | Virtus.Pro |
Vitality | Fnatic | Team Liquid | G2 Esports |
ENCE | BIG | Swole Patrol | OG |
Ninjas In Pyjamas | North | 100 Thieves | FaZe Clan |
BOOM | Complexity | TBD | Tyloo |
ESL has not taken all possible steps from their side to make the league as comfortable and safe as possible for all the teams and staff members. The coronavirus pandemic might have caused problems but esports tournament organizers always seem to find a way around it. Let’s see how the league proceeds and which teams make it through the regional qualifiers on to the Playoffs.
