Jérome Coupez, the CEO of prominent esports agency Prodigy Agency, advised CS:GO players today to reconsider taking a substitute role for teams attending the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 17 from February to March. It seems that EPL has a rule that prohibits pros from playing in the open qualifiers for the BLAST RMR—the tournament that teams will play to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major in May—to stay as a sub for EPL teams.
“Double check before accepting to being registered as a sub for EPL or before playing the RMR Open Qualifiers please, or you (and the team) might have a bad surprise,” Coupez said. The tweets of the CEO of Prodigy Agency immediately caused an uproar in the community, leading coaches and managers to wonder why ESL’s roster lock for EPL would affect events from outside of the ESL Pro Tour like the RMR for Paris Major, which is run by BLAST.
It’s possible that ESL didn’t consider the ramifications of such a rule when it was made as the senior vice president Ulrich Schulze made a statement on behalf of ESL after Coupez’s tweets. “We are looking into the rule and its application now,” Schulze said in a reply to HLTV journalist Milan “Striker” Švejda.
Every one of the 32 teams attending EPL season 17 next month can list a substitute to play in case one of the players in the active lineup can’t participate in match. This rule, which Coupez talked about and Schulze acknowledged, could potentially squander the chances of players in free agency that would want to form a mix team to play in the open qualifiers for the RMR while also holding a substitute spot for one of the EPL teams.
EPL season 17 will begin on Feb. 22, while the open qualifiers for the RMR will start being played on Feb. 13, which leaves ESL just a few days to review the roster lock rule and inform players and teams of its decision.
Published: Jan 27, 2023 08:02 am