ESL has re-scheduled three sets of matches for the European region in week two of Season 5 of their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League. This special change was made due to a travel conflict resulting from flight delays following the conclusion of DreamHack Masters Las Vegas. The affected teams are Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Virtus.pro. The following matches that have been re-scheduled for a later date are:
Wednesday, Feb. 22
- Natus Vincere vs. North
Thursday, Feb 23
- Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Fnatic
- Virtus.pro vs. HellRaisers
In a news release on the ESL Pro League site, ESL stated “After receiving further information throughout last night and earlier this morning, we felt it necessary to invoke special circumstances and cancel the three affected matches this week and reschedule them to a later point which has not been defined yet.”
ESL made sure that this would not set a precedent for other teams receiving special circumstances in other situations by also mentioning, “absent extraordinary circumstances such as we face here, rescheduling matches is not possible in the League. However, due to the special circumstances and the delays caused by the airline, we are granting a special exception. Players affected by this will in some cases arrive home after their official match start or just a short time before the start of their match after being on the road and traveling for more than 72 hours in a stressful and exhausting situation out of their control.”
As a result of ESL’s decision, there will only be one match on Wednesday and two matches on Thursday on the European side of the league. The full schedule can be found by following this link.
