Substitutes for ESL Pro League Season 17 are at risk of not playing in the qualifiers for the Major
/As Jérôme Coupez, CEO of the Prodigy Agency, noticed, the players listed as substitutes for ESL Pro League Season 17 risk missing out on the qualifiers for the major in Paris. The catch lies in the rules of ESL, as the tournament operator has legally prohibited players from participating in third-party events during their tournaments.
To all players who are considering registering as a replacement for the EPL. Please note that it appears that you cannot participate in the open qualifiers for an RMR tournament, or you will not be able to remain registered for the EPL. Even if the RMR tournament/major is not part of the EPT.
Under current regulations, players registered as substitutes for the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 17 cannot play in the open qualifiers for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, and vice versa. Thus, ESL actually banned players from participating in the qualifiers, since the dates for the qualifiers and the start of the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 17 overlap.
However, Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of ESL, spoke on behalf of the tournament operator about possible rule changes. Probably, in the near future the organizers will make changes to the set of rules to allow participants to compete in open qualifiers.
It is worth noting that each participant of the ESL Pro League Season 17 can register a substitute player in case a player of the starting lineup cannot take part in the match/championship.
ESL Pro League Season 17 will take place from February 22 to March 26 in Malta. As part of the championship, 32 teams from the CIS, Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania will compete for a total prize pool of $850,000, as well as a slot for the winner at IEM Cologne 2023.
In turn, open qualifiers for RMR tournaments for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 will start on February 13 and end on the 27th of the same month. Thus, there is not much time left for ESL to provide more clarity on the situation.