ESL organizer of electronic sports competitions, has announced the closure of several CS:GO national championships ahead of the game’s transition to Counter-Strike 2. The tournament operator argues that regional and national competitions are not “active focus» for the company in the future. As a result, the CS:GO leagues for Benelux, France, Spain, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and Ireland will cease to exist in 2023 or early 2024.
In practice, this means that ESL will suspend part of its CS:GO tournament operations. ESL and its holding company, ESL FACEIT Group, have stated that they are open to working with third-party organizers to support teams that have participated in national leagues.
ESL noted in the statement that the company has operated two parallel ecosystems for competitive Counter-Strike: the aforementioned national model, such as ESL Championship in Germany and ESL Premiership in the United Kingdom, and a “borderless system” that brings together teams from different Countries includes regions and countries that participate in national tournaments.
According to the company, this led to this ESL will focus on many tournaments at the same time, which is why the decision is now being made public.
Ultimately, it affected our ability to concentrate and led to a number of compatibility issues between the various ESL Pro Tour properties. Over time, it became increasingly clear that the borderless system represents a much more dynamic and flexible foundation for the EPT and a better way for aspiring teams and players to climb the rankings.
ESL instructions
In the same statement, the company noted that some national championships will not hold their final season this year. These include Benelux, France, Spain and Türkiye. Other regional and national competitions will play a final season in 2023 before ending in 2024.
The best teams from Germany and Poland will still have the opportunity to participate in the IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne tournaments, and ESL announced that it has contacted the affected teams to help them make this happen. alternative options‘, although no information was given about such possibilities.
With the disappearance of national and regional competitions, smaller regional teams currently have fewer opportunities to compete and qualify in LAN events. It’s true that EFG has a robust tournament system that provides a path to professional matchmaking like ESEA and FACEIT, but it remains to be seen how these existing resources will be adapted to further empower players and teams.
National competitions will no longer be an active focus for us, however we are open to participating in third party tournaments to serve players and teams who were used to and wish to continue competing in national leagues. As we continue to create a comprehensive ecosystem that offers players the opportunity to go from zero to hero, we will continue and even expand our existing portfolio of pan-regional Tier 2 and Tier 3 competitions such as the ESL Challenger League and others. ESEA leagues.
In recent months, our FACEIT platform has played an increasingly important role in organizing our online tournaments, such as the ESEA League and many qualifying tournaments. This makes it the first step for players who want to take part in organized games and competitions.
Statements from ESL to Esports Insider
