3 Reasons Why ESL Discontinues CS:GO National Championship

In advance of the switch from CS:GO to Counter-Strike 2, esports event organizer ESL has announced the cancellation of a number of national championships.

Regional and national tournaments won’t be the company’s “active focus” moving forward, according to the statement from the corporation. As a result, its CS:GO leagues for the Benelux, France, Spain, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Germany, Poland, the UK, and Ireland will all end in 2023 or early 2024.

Therefore, a chunk of ESL’s CS:GO tournament activities are effectively being shut down. ESL has said that it is willing to cooperate with outside organizers to promote teams who competed in national leagues, and its holding company, ESL FACEIT Group, has echoed this stance.

In a statement, ESL said that it has run two competing ecosystems for competitive Counter-Strike: the nation-based model mentioned above, such as the ESL Meisterschaft in Germany and the ESL Premiership in the UK, and a “borderless system,” which features teams from different regions and countries competing in pan-regional tournaments.

The company claims that this caused ESL to concentrate on several events at once, which resulted in the decision that was made public today.

ESL shared the following reasoning in a statement: “It ultimately took a toll on our ability to focus and created a number of compatibility issues across different ESL Pro Tour properties. Over time, it became increasingly apparent that the borderless system is a much more dynamic and flexible foundation for the EPT and a better pathway for aspiring teams and players to climb up the ladder.”

The firm stated in a release that some National Championships won’t run their final seasons this year. This encompasses Turkey, France, Spain, and Benelux. The final season of other regional and national events will begin in 2023, and they will end in 2024.

The top teams from Poland and Germany will still be able to participate in the IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne competitions, and ESL claimed that it has contacted the impacted teams to help give them with “alternative opportunities,” though no specifics on these chances were shared.

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The announcement was made in spite of the $1.5 billion merger between ESL and FACEIT, which took place in early 2022 and during which the firm declared its intention to “support the development of local scenes and grassroots esports.” Also said was that it would “invest heavily in path-to-pro for up-and-coming players.”

Smaller regional teams currently have less opportunities to compete and qualify for LAN tournaments as the national and regional contests have been discontinued. It is true that the EFG has a strong system of competitions, including ESEA and FACEIT matchmaking, that offer a route to the pro ranks, but it is unclear how these current resources will be modified to support players and teams even more.

The ESL FACEIT Group responded to Esports Insider’s request for comment and clarity regarding whether the National Championships will be replaced with something else by making the following statement:

“National competitions will no longer be an active focus on ours, but we are open to engaging with third-party tournaments in order to cater to players and teams that were used to and want to continue competing in national leagues. As we continue to create a comprehensive ecosystem with opportunities for players to go from zero to hero, we will continue, and even look to expand, our existing portfolio of pan-regional Tier 2 and 3 competitions, like ESL Challenger League and other ESEA Leagues.

Over the past couple of months, our FACEIT platform has played an increasingly big role in hosting our online tournaments, for example, ESEA League and many qualifiers. It is thereby establishing itself as the first step for players who want to take part in organized play and competitions.”