eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals to clash with APAC ESL Pro League

With the dates now confirmed for the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals, it’s come to the community's attention that the dates are to clash with Stage 2 of the ESL Pro League Season 10 Asia-Pacific.

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• EPL Season 10 Stage 2: November 13th - November 18th
• eXTREMESLAND Finals: November 15th - November 18th

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Conversations began on social media once Geordie “Mac” McAleer questioned if Grayhound Gaming were to win eXTREMESLAND and then be forced to give up their spot, so they could play in Stage 2 of the EPL Season 10 APAC Qualifiers. 

Seeing as the EPL Season 10 Finals will be held in Denmark and for a total prize pool of $750,000, it’s likely that those who are currently competing at the eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals will scrap their qualifying placement and put their efforts into qualifying for the EPL Finals. Although with one position available for the EPL Finals and two for eXTREMESLAND, there is a big opportunity for plenty of Australasian teams to receive international experience before the year ends. 

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With that being said, some players have taken to social media to express their frustration of the clashing events. Tyler “tucks” Reilly went on to state “All four teams fly to Sydney to now play an event that will probably not even matter to anyone. How have we only been told now that the events clash?”

Kamine Naidoo, Product and Project Manager at ESL Australia, stated in a response to tucks on social media “team representatives, including yourself, were sent Pro League dates on Thursday October 3rd via email," and then later agreed having poor communication by stating “we will be looking to make communication more clear moving forward.”

Although a lot of people have been quick to jump at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND organizers, some players have made it aware online that they had questioned ESL Australia on when Stage 2 would be, to ensure dates would not clash with any future events. Some even saying that staff of ESL Australia were unaware of when stage two would be, which then creates the question of who is really at fault here?

Backing up the above, Fergus Stephenson, Head Coach of The Chiefs Esports Club, stated on social media “it’s pretty cooked given that when we asked straight after stage one when stage two would be, staff didn’t know. Instead, we learn on the day of travel for Zowie Regional's.”

Player of Avant Gaming, Jireh “J1rah” Youakim, backed up Ferg’s comment by stating “we also sent an email asking the dates and also asked three separate admins, they ignored our requests or said they didn’t know.”

It's unclear who is in fault here, as quoted above, Kamine Naidoo had stated that emails were sent out to all team representatives on October 3rd.

It’s been said to us that the dates can’t be moved for EPL, due to the way the broadcast works, as the broadcast is supposed to run around the clock for a full twenty four hours. It’s not just Australasia that will be affected by this, it will be the entire APAC region.

It has also been said that if teams drop out of the ESL Pro League due to the dates not being changed, there is a chance that those teams may have to forfeit their spot for next season due to rulings. We will be sure to confirm that.

At the end of the day, Australasia will still be treated to top tier Counter-Strike at both events with a strong chance of Australasian teams being featured at both. It all just comes down to the unfortunate date clashes that have happened yet again, as the same issue happened last year with Grayhound Gaming dropping out of the 2018 eXTREMESLAND Regional Finals at MEO, so they could compete at the ESL Pro League finals.

We will be sure to inform you of any updates as we get them, via our social media platforms.