ESEA Season 33 Global Challenge postponed

ESEA announced that it will reschedule the LAN final of the 33rd season of the MDL league, scheduled for April, with three slots to be played at ESL Pro League S12, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After one of the most competitive seasons to date the teams that have qualified to the MDL Global Challenge are as follows:

  • North America - Triumph, Bad News Bears, Team One
  • Europe - Sprout, x-kom AGO, Japaleno
  • Australia - Order
  • Asia - Lucid Dream

Due to the ongoing global pandemic, the Global Challenge event is postponed. At this time, our main focus is to ensure the safety and health of our competitors and staff. We will wait for clear recommendations from leading global health authorities before setting a new date for the tournament. We intend to keep the same event/competition format but will play the event during the course of Season 34, i.e. before September when the next Pro League season begins.

As this update will result in a significant delay, we will make the following adjustments for teams competing in the Global Challenge:

Teams may add up to two members to their roster between now and the Global Challenge event as several months may have passed between the roster lock and the finals event.

Teams qualified for the Global Challenge may elect to skip Season 34 if they believe they will struggle to manage their schedule with both the LAN finals alongside matches during the training season.

  • If the team chooses to skip and does not qualify for the ESL Pro League then they may return to their division for Season 35 as normal.
  • If the team chose to compete in Season 34 but did not qualify for the ESL Pro League and fell into MDL relegation then they would be treated the same as any other team in relegation for the season. If the team qualifies for the ESL Pro League they would still be eligible for any prize money won during the MDL training season. In the unlikely event that a team qualified for Pro League and also fell into MDL relegation during the training season then they would be able to move to the upcoming season of the ESL Pro League without penalty.