ESL prohibits teams from changing regions during the season and reduces the amount of money in overtime

Tournament operator ESL has published changes to its main rulebook. All subsequent tournaments will undergo a number of changes that will affect not only the regional representation of the participants, but also the cash format in overtime. These changes will apply to all tournaments held under the auspices of the EPT.

First of all, ESL decided to change the monetary system that teams use in overtime. If earlier at the start of each series players were given $16,000, now the amount will be reduced to $12,500. A similar system is already being used in the qualifiers for IEM Brazil 2023, and will also continue to operate at the upcoming IEM Katowice 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 17.

Secondly, the organizers have fixed the rules for teams that change regions during the season. Following last year's incident with MIBR, which competed in North America but received invitations to tournaments from Latin America, tournament operator ESL has decided to set stricter requirements for participants in their competitions.

As a result, the organizers have established a kind of "120 days" rule, according to which teams registered in one region cannot change their residence within the established 120 days from the date of first registration. At the same time, teams can choose any region only if their players have valid visas for the corresponding period. Thus, ESL approved the established regional distribution, forbidding teams to play in one region, but participate in qualifiers in another conference.

The next change is a reprioritization of invitations to EPT championships. As a result, the organizers will prioritize the number of invites in accordance with the regional rating value, and only then select participants based on the ESL World Ranking.

Recall that the organizers have made changes to the set of rules for team lineups in order to correct the identified shortcomings in the registration of participants in third-party tournaments. If earlier there was a conflict due to which the players declared as substitutes at ESL Pro League Season 17 could not play in open qualifiers for RMR tournaments for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 for third-party teams, now the tournament operator ESL has softened its requirements.