The first scandal of IEM Rio has dropped.
The old ELEAGUE desk of Moses, Thorin, and Richard Lewis have re-united to bash ESL’s decision to move the Americas RMR to Stockholm — which, you might have noticed, is not in the Americas.
ESL conducted their PR defence through theflyingdj on Twitter, where he said ESL “had planned to host it in the US until a few weeks ago” before it “became clear” South American players would not get their visas in time.
If only someone at ESL had tuned into that tournament we had a while back in Dallas, they might have realised VISAs are quite difficult to get in the States. Oh well.
But still, Stockholm? Why not host the IEM Rio Americas regional qualifier in.. Brazil? Not enough time, apparently — something Apollo (ESL’s Director of Product Management) has since apologised for on e̶s̶p̶o̶r̶t̶s̶a̶p̶o̶l̶o̶g̶i̶e̶s̶.̶c̶o̶m̶ Twitlonger.
Like, apologizing is good. But at least do a press release, come on.
Don’t worry though, at least all that recent investment means they can afford to drop their dodgy 1XBET and U.S. Air Force sponsorships. checks earpiece. Wait, they’re not? And they’re dodging comment, too? Bloody hell.
In other ESL-related news, they’ve announced the lineup for ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne 2022.
In Group B we have (ex?) ORDER and VERTEX ESC as the hometown heroes, along with now fnx-less Imperial and paiN. Meanwhile over in Group A, Entropiq, the Chinese side Wings Up Gaming, and EG’s B team (ex-Party Astronauts) will take turns getting spanked by degster and OG.
OG’s attendance is a weird one. If they win without dropping a map, it’s expected and they’ll get 0 credit. If they somehow don’t win, they’ve got a frosty 18-hour flight home with each other.
But let’s be fair, these tier two LANs are great for the scene and we’re glad they’re back, even if they’re not under the nostalgic DreamHack Open banner. So thanks, ESL! Why were we mad again?
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