ESL announces changes to 2024 EPT slot distribution

17-11-2023 18:26

NA loses a world ranking invite in Katowice and Cologne as ESL revises how teams can qualify for the Pro Tour events in 2024.

IEM Katowice 2024 is the first Big Event of the year

ESL has announced the slot distribution and the qualifying process for the events that make up the ESL Pro Tour in 2024. This comes two months after the tournament organizer unveiled the competitive calendar for next year, featuring seven Masters and Championship events and four Challenger events.

In revising the slot distribution for 2024, ESL opted to reduce the number of World Ranking NA spots for both IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne from two to one, while also removing Elisa Masters Espoo as a qualifier event for Katowice.

Because of these changes, ESL has added two extra Global ESL World Ranking invites for Katowice and an extra invite for Cologne. Meanwhile, ESL Meisterschaft will no longer send the winner to Cologne and will be replaced by a German qualifier.

ESL unveil 2024 calendar; Pro League shortened

IEM China 2024, which took IEM Sydney’s place in the Pro Tour calendar, will feature an offline qualifier instead of a local hero invite. The number of European qualifier spots for this event has been reduced from two to one as South America has received a qualifier slot.

Below you can find the changelog for the 2024 ESL Pro Tour:

IEM Katowice 2024

- Removed Affiliate Event slot (Elisa in 2023).
- Reduced ESL World Ranking NA slots, from 2 to 1.
- 2 additional Global ESL World Ranking invites (8 instead of 6), which came from the removal of affiliate event and 1 NA ESL World Ranking slot.

IEM Cologne 2024

- Replaced ESL Meisterschaft slot with German qualifier slot.
- Reduced ESL World Ranking NA slots, from 2 to 1.
- 1 additional Global ESL World Ranking invite (8 instead of 7), which came from the removal of affiliate event and 1 NA ESL World Ranking slot.

ESL Pro League S19

- Global ESL World Ranking slots increased from 3 to 4.
- ESL Pro League EU Pre Qualifier Season 19 slots reduced from 2 to 1.
- ESL Brazil Premier League Season 15 slot replaced with an increased qualifier slot for South America (2 instead of 1).

ESL Pro League S20

- Added two new regions for ECL (ESL Challenger League) slots, South America and Oceania - both have 2 qualifying slots.
- Removed National Championship & open qualifier slots (those are replaced by new regions of ECL).
- Removed 1 Global ESL World Ranking slot (from 4 to 3).
- Added two Affiliate Event slots (one for EU Pre-Qualifier, one for TBD event).

IEM China 2024 (vs IEM Sydney)

- Replaced Local Hero Invite with Offline Qualifier.
- Decreased EU Qualifier slots from 2 to 1 and added 1 SA Qualifier slot instead.

ESL Challenger

- ESL removed the South African slot and in some cases replaced Local Hero Invite slots with local qualifiers.

The qualifier dates and the world ranking cutoff dates for all events can be found here. For IEM Katowice, the first Big Event of 2024, the cutoff date is December 18, the day after the BLAST Premier World Final and ESL Challenger Atlanta come to an end.

The slot distribution for IEM Katowice 2024 is the following:

Play-in

ESL national champion

ESL Ranking EU

ESL Ranking NA

ESL Ranking Asia

ESL Ranking

ESL Ranking EU

ESL Ranking SA

ESL Ranking Oceania

ESL Ranking

Group stage

FaZe

ESL Ranking

MOUZ

ESL Ranking

Note: G2, MOUZ and FaZe have already qualified for IEM Katowice 2024 on account of winning qualifying events (IEM Cologne 2023, ESL Pro League 18, and IEM Sydney 2023, respectively).

rip

2023-11-17 18:27

9 replies

Fake

why special slot for poland? they dont have a single tier1 or tier2 team

2023-11-17 18:34

7 replies

need to have polish representation to pump up ticket numbers in Katowice

2023-11-17 18:43

1 reply

Hahahaha lol no

2023-11-17 19:36

They dont have one *never mind they do

2023-11-17 18:52

The same reason cologne has german qualifier and iem china has chinese qualifier

2023-11-17 18:44

9ine?

2023-11-17 18:48

they kicked their igl and lose every game now

2023-11-18 17:00

there will be last esl polish championship (autumn 2023) to play for Katowice 2025 will be polish closed quali (like german quali for Cologne 2024

2023-11-18 16:57

wtf?? backwards as usual

it’s over

2023-11-17 18:28

it's joever

2023-11-17 22:57

Rip

NA in mud

2023-11-17 18:29

na got backstabbed like Cesar lmao XD "From to 2-1" everywhere XDD

2023-11-17 23:40

"Replaced Meisterschaft slot with German qualifier slot" He ain't do nothing but step back 😭

2023-11-17 18:30

stop hurting NA they are already dead

2023-11-18 07:18

Ryan friend malding

rip And uh, what about EG's partner spot? What's going to happen to it? They're literally going to be gone soon.

2023-11-17 18:33

20 replies

Sell it to falcons

15 replies

Ence

4 replies

2023-11-17 18:36

3 replies

Mouz

2023-11-17 18:37

2 replies

Liquid

They already got a spot bruv

2023-11-17 18:46

Why would anyone buy expensive slot just for one year... Oh nvm, I can totally see Falcons doing that

2023-11-17 18:47

8 replies

they could just replace the spot with another ESL World Ranking spot.

2023-11-17 18:49

Would be the best solution imo, I hope that ESL will do that.

2023-11-17 19:18

they likely will. Its kind of meaningless to sell the spot off when partnership systems will be permanently dissolved in 2025.

2023-11-17 19:22

I'm kinda afraid that they will keep the spot for EG

how do you keep something when you wont even exist anymore soon.

2023-11-17 19:38

Yeah, unless ESL resell it at a steep discount that's the only sale of a slot I see happening.

2023-11-17 18:51

It'll probably get replaced with another ESL World Ranking spot.

2023-11-17 18:59

Makes sense.

2023-11-17 19:01

The only one who deserves the slot is Nouns, it was a NA team so it should go to Another NA team only plus Nouns easily dispatch EG every time they meet

2023-11-18 01:04

Everyone's partner slots are being removed per Valve's new rules.

2023-11-17 19:05

I know. The problem is that the partnership system will last for another year and EG's set to drop out of CS next month at the minimum and esports in general sometime after.

2023-11-17 19:27

sad, idk whether EG still have a chance

2023-11-17 21:44

its over for EG. Team’s going to get dropped and after they leave CS, they’re going to end up folding as an org soon after, after some time ofc.

2023-11-17 21:47

Remove a three month league just to add a german qualifier where it's very possible that the best team can lose a mr12 bo1 coinflip to cheaters

cringe Oceania with two EPL slots still, but overall good changes

Gaules must be running ESL because they really hate NA

its ok, ESL hates every region not EU anyways)))

2023-11-17 20:11

Gaules don't hate NA and yeah esl hates all regions outside of EU and people that support that is just stupid not going to lie

2023-11-17 21:01

Meh the Americas really don't even have a team to offer anything valid at the event anyway. Sure maybe in time, but I don't see why we should get any bonus consideration if we can't put together really valid rosters between all of NA/SA.

2023-11-17 22:48

Seeing South Africa get dropped entirely sucks. It will be interesting to see how things change after partner slots go away, but I'm not holding out hope that ESL truly opens up to other regions.

12 replies

frankly, it could depend on how involved Valve will be in the esports scene of CS2 starting in 2025.

2023-11-17 18:50

11 replies

I doubt they leave entirely, but they may give up a lot of smaller and region based events.

10 replies

like I said, it may depend on if Valve will get more involved in the esports scene compared to the past.

2023-11-17 18:55

Unlikely. They considered their Dota 2 tour series to be a failure and have reverted to letting TOs run everything again. I doubt the will get much more hands on with CS.

2023-11-17 19:03

fair, but at the same time tbf, no one exactly knows what Valve will do in regards to CS2 esports until 2025 since that's when Valve's new rules for TO hosting etc starts.

2023-11-17 19:06

Indeed, but at the same time the new rules lead me to believe Valve just want to make sure there is an even playing field between teams and TOs.

2023-11-17 19:48

also fair, but like I said, no one knows what'll Valve do. Basically kept in the dark on what they plan on doing for CS2 esports except for what we know.

2023-11-17 19:49

Considering that Valve just kinda nope'd out of DotA 2, I wouldn't hold my breath that CS2 will get any good working system. It will be more open, but probably still a disaster

Valid. But at the same time in fairness, we still technically don't know what'll Valve do aside from the fact that in 2025, Valve is forcing the permanent abolition of ESL and BLAST's pseudo-franchising and forcing everything back into open circuit. And they can somewhat learn from their failures in Dota 2 and see what'll be best for CS.

2023-11-17 19:12

gave the TBD EPL berth to South Africa, give them a chance

2023-11-18 00:30

eh ngl, I'd rather dump it to Asia instead since there's actually potential hope for the continent in this game.

2023-11-18 00:32

South Africa spot removed from ESL challenger big L Also Asia quals for like only one or two challenger events, L No Asia quals for Dallas, L NA spot removed is kinda good but only if they would also make all other regional spots down to one, should add quals to kato and cologne tho

ESL just can't seem to get it right.

2023-11-17 18:54

Should've removed the OCE qualifier for Dallas, and give it to Asia instead, alas. Gonna pray TheMongolz makes a breakthrough in 2024 so they get invited via ESL World Ranking somehow kekw.

why Dallas doesn't have Asian sides might be visa problem, had you remembered BnTeT visa incident? DreamHack Atlanta is the first post-pandemic US tournament not giving Oceania berth but Asia instead. The best Oceania esports teams, jks-Renegades and DarkZero in apex heroes, are both trained in NA.

2023-11-18 03:27

rip national champs but welcome aussie bots... geniuses

Oceania aren't getting any more spots than before.

2023-11-17 19:04

they still only have one spot. That's the max they'll ever get.

2023-11-17 19:09

Rip tyloos local hero invite spot

TYLOO really screwed themselves over after that choke against Lynn Vision. They now have only two scenarios lmao: 1) Pray they or some other Asian team (best hope is Mongolz) make it into the top 15 by IEM China somehow so they can potentially take a ESL World Ranking spot so they can get through the Asian qualifier without issue (if they can do so) 2) Get through the Asian qualifier and pray they can beat Mongolz who'll probably be attending and will likely mop their asses.

2023-11-17 19:40

6 replies

I already said that they fucked hard with that choke but u guys were saying that they 100% would get local hero invite. Now they are screwed if they meet Mongolz

2023-11-17 19:42

tbf, I don't think anyone expected the local hero invite to get axed. And ye they're definitely screwed if they do cause Mongolz is obviously better, and they play like an EU team, albeit technically on the lower end but still lmao.

2023-11-17 19:44

Like i said, they just added one Asian qual and one SA qual. That's one of the few good changes they made

2023-11-17 22:04

ye, that means we could see Mongolz there, that's a W to me. FeelsBad for TYLOO tho cause they now have to go through them in the Asian qualifier if they're allowed to go through there, which is basically dead on arrival cause there's no way they're beating a de-facto EU team with good ping lmao. (reference: for the ESL Challenger Atlanta qualifer, they're apparently playing from Vietnam for ping sake).

2023-11-17 22:11

I dont think chinese teams can participate into Asian qual when they had their own Chinese qual.

2023-11-18 06:47

oh ye? Then rip TYLOO lmao if they miss out on Copenhagen and IEM China, might as well bootcamp in EU during those times so they can get a grip with themselves lmao.

2023-11-18 06:49

Some bullshit

2023-11-17 19:23

Spot for polish esl champion? I thought there will be no more esl national championships?

2023-11-17 19:30

It's going to be the winner of the last season, which will finish on the 26th of this month.

2023-11-17 19:53

uh ok thank you!

2023-11-17 20:07

They somehow fucked up even more

2023-11-17 19:56

2025 cant come soon enough.

2023-11-17 19:57

If EU qual slots for EPL s19 have been reduced from 2 to 1, should do the same to Oceania as one of Oceania team also finished at last place in previous EPL. The remaining one slot, make it as asia open qual or asia last chance qual something. Do for Katowice qual as well, remove esl ranking for oce.

2023-11-17 20:24

another L for dying game Valorant clears this shitty game

2023-11-17 22:50

Why the hell the German ESL Meisterschaft winner doesnt go to Cologne but the Polish winner goes to Kato... just makes the ESL Meisterschaft less and less relevant even tho it sucks ass anyways nowadays

this season is end of ESL national leagues. Normaly Poland tournament going to Kato but winner of meisterschaft of this season cant going to cologne. normaly next seasons winner of the meisterschaft going to cologne but they dont any national qual anymore thats why

2023-11-18 00:29

because ESL Nations Championship had been terminated unless some were still at going when the abolishment was announced

2023-11-18 00:37

idk why they are making it harder for na to compete with the rest of the globe

2023-11-18 00:12

What the fuck is their problem lol

2023-11-18 01:09

2025 is going to be a good year for cs.

2023-11-18 02:03

when they finally exile oceania from the leagues its going to be a good year they want to remove na's slots but keep your 0-3 every major australian paycheck stealers slots is pathetic and valve will step in to stop it

2023-11-18 02:59

mixed changes

2023-11-18 03:53

Garbage format you want to make CS global esports but with this stupid format this will give more EU slot no wonder CS and Dota are dying outside of EU.

2023-11-18 08:51

Ef katowice pog

2023-11-18 09:08

Way to kill NA scene..

2023-11-18 10:41

ESL knows that SA tier2 is better than NA tier2 xd sad for NA teams but the results speak from themselves :/

2023-11-18 15:53