Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Modern Times Group-owned Electronic Sports League (ESL) has issued an apology to several striving teams earlier today. This just comes in a couple of days after reports surfaced suggesting that ESL is likely to reduce Pro League slots from 48 to 24. ESL plans to discard regional Pro Leagues and focus on a global league for all regions with appropriate representation.
The new list of ESL Pro League teams includes previous ESL Pro League Season 10 LAN Finals participants, Mountain Dew League winner, organizations that have signed Lanxess agreement and other teams are invited according to ESL world rankings. The relegation stage of EPL S10 has been called off and the teams are likely to play MDL S33.
And the most frightening part of the turn of events is the fact that ESL did not communicate with teams that were to lose their EPL slots. Most of the players and organizations got to know only after the reports began surfacing.
The intact statement from senior VP of ESL is attached beneath. He said on Twitter, “On Friday, we announced large changes to ESL Pro League for 2020 and beyond. As part of it, a number of teams were informed that they would not have a slot in the upcoming season. We apologize that we have not conducted the process up to the desired standards.”
“We got it wrong by not letting affected teams know further in advance that significant changes were coming, including the number of teams playing. While several important elements that the league’s structure were unknown until last week, the teams were not given enough notice.”
“We were not specific enough about how teams can get back to EPL in the future. We are still working on final details in consultation with CSPPA, but any of the teams will be able to make it back in S12 – not only through MDL and in a way that ensures regional representation.”
“We did not engage with the affected teams enough to understand how we can preserve the value the EPL slot held for them. We have reached out to all teams and are going to speak this week to make sure that we can address their concerns to the best possible extent.”
“ESL Pro League and MDL are core elements of ESL Pro Tour, and it is our clear intent to make sure that MDL remains and grows as a stable environment for teams to compete in below EPL. All teams affected by the format change have the option to compete there in the coming season.”
“In 2020 we have opened the ESL Pro Tour up with a large number of opportunities for spiring teams to reach the Masters level, including spots for Challenger tournaments in Masters tournaments and a mandated percentage of open online qualifiers in our Masters stops.”
“We remain committed to making sure that over the broad spectrum of our activities as many teams as possible receive chances to compete at the highest level. We will release more details in the next days and will continue to provide updates and engage with everyone on this topic.”
The turn of events were critically slammed by the Counter-Strike community. However, CSPPA also registered its disappointment with ESL’s way of functioning and esport historian Duncan “Thorin” Shields has publically announced his displeasure and said that he would not work with ESL in future.
