ESL nearly (not really) ruin the Major

The RMRs, with all their open qualifiers, are a highlight of the calendar.

We get Astralis losing to los kogutos, mix teams like smooya’s Benched Heroes making it all the way, and stream teams like GeT_RiGhT and f0rest’s d00m.

It’s a bit of fun — and everyone can get involved. Yes, even you.

But ESL nearly ruined all that.

Under certain interpretations of "Section 2.2.2 of their CSGO Roster Restrictions”, players that were registered as a substitute for EPL would not be allowed to compete in the RMR under a different banner.

So free agents and perennial substitutes (looking at you, NaToSaphiX) would have to pick between competing in EPL as a 6th man, and the RMR.

Yep. ESL had a rule that affected a BLAST-run and Valve-sponsored Major.

Even their SVP, Ulrich Schulze, did not seem to be aware of the rule, with a quickly-deleted tweet re-surfacing.

ESL, to be fair, did move fairly quickly to change the rule. Now, players’ ‘contracts’ (official or otherwise) always begin two days before the first tournament they play in.

That conveniently covers the RMRs, meaning those sixth men are now free to get knocked out of the RMR before they play 0 rounds for their EPL team. Hurrah!