ESL Pro League Season 10 LatAm North Open Qualifier

Sharks qualify for ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas *

14-9-2019 12:19

Sharks have booked the final spot in ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas after winning the Latin America North Open qualifier.

The tournament was supposed to feature teams with at least three players living in countries from Latin America North, but Sharks, who had moved to Dallas earlier in the month, managed to bend the rules and gain access to the qualifier by sending their Brazilian trio down to Mexico for a day, sparking outrage amongst the region's players.

Without surprise, Sharks cruised through the single-elimination open qualifier as they hammered Peruvian duo ryokas and Supremacy, with neither side managing to reach double digits even once.

Sharks advance to the EPL Americas stage

The Brazilian team will move directly into the Pro League Season 10 Americas stage, skipping the South American relegation phase following the disbandment of the Denial roster, which had finished at the bottom of its Americas group in season 9.

Colombian veteran Juanes "⁠sickLy⁠" Valencia was one of the players who took to Twitter to criticize Sharks' eligibility in the qualifier, which in his opinion represents a major setback for the entire region.

"To travel to a region like Latin America North to play in this qualifier is a huge blow for our scene because, regrettably, this is not like Latin America South, which has way more tournaments and a stable [tournament] circuit," sickLy wrote.

"To go to Mexico with three players to be able to meet the rules, which said that players HAD to live in the regions seem to me like a low blow.

"You can argue that there are Brazilian teams doing the same in North America, but we must be realistic. The amount of resources and the number of opportunities in the United States is at least 50 teams bigger than in Latin America North. This is the only decent competition that the region has, and it is sad that other South Americans can take what little others have while they can attend every tournament in North America."

UPDATE: Contacted by HLTV.org, Sharks coach Hélder "⁠coachi⁠" Sancho explained that, since there was not a qualifier in Latin America South, ESL gave his team the green light to participate in the tournament as long as the majority of their roster traveled to the region to compete.

The qualification comes in what has been a very busy week for Sharks. The Brazilian team, who revamped their squad in the off-season by signing Argentinian duo Ignacio "⁠meyern⁠" Meyer and Luca "⁠Luken⁠" Nadotti, finished the ECS Season 7 Pinnacle Cup with a 3-0 record and are in the lower bracket final of the North American closed qualifier for DreamHack Masters Malmö, in which they will face ATK.

The ESL Pro League Season 10 Americas will run from October 10 through November 18 and will consist of 16 teams, who will duke it out for six spots at the season finals. The final team list is the following:

Ez 4 nak

2019-09-14 12:20

2 replies

#9 wtf

2019-09-14 12:21

I'm doubtful Check the Ghost roster

2019-09-14 21:09

only bad team in na pro league lol

3 replies

not even lmao meyern is legit next s1mple

2019-09-14 12:39

im talking about other team in the league

2019-09-14 12:41

1 reply

ah yes

2019-09-14 13:16

Ok, very cool

They qualified through an event in which the players have to be from "Three out of five of the players must currently be living in the following countries: Belice, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Guayana Francesa, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Perú, Surinam, Venezuela and Caribe." <That's a copy paste directly from LATAM north qualifier rules. Wtf mens Sharks didn't deserve this what so ever shame on them tbh.

5 replies

They always did that, they were living in Portugal but when there was something like a major qualifier, a esl pro league qualifier or something like that they would always go to Brazil to play in a easier qualifier Even though they would always lose the qualifier

2019-09-14 13:54

To the Major it has a continent/reagion lock, teams from America can only qualify through NA or SA qualifies, even them live in europe

2019-09-14 14:42

I still don't respect this snake move from Sharks what so ever.

2019-09-14 18:07

That was a Stole from the Brazilian Team.. 100 thieves confirmed(?)

2019-09-14 17:56

wot

2019-09-14 12:26

cool

2019-09-14 12:38

that's huge

Meyern and Luken <3

2019-09-14 12:50

Sharks shouldn't even be allowed to qualify in this qualifier. Shame on them.

2019-09-14 12:57

4 replies

It's not the first time teams are benefited that way. Shame on whoever is responsible for that, not the team players.

2019-09-14 12:58

Shame on everyone who does it tbh. I don't blame the players I blame the CEO and the org manager.

2019-09-14 13:04

No u should actually blame the ones who let this happen

2019-09-14 13:36

Exactly, it happens cause they permit

2019-09-14 13:53

2019-09-14 12:51

ESL Bot League is fine as well

2019-09-14 12:59

EU MDL >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NA ProLeague ........ so who cares

2019-09-14 13:07

astralis, mouze, ence and who? zywoo and friends, kennys and friends, Nortilt, Puppies in Pyjamas? wow GREAT TEAMS! until Poland teams > EU rest overall CIS teams are playing much better than EU teams...

2019-09-14 13:52

what ? I said EU MDL, not even EPL :) ... NA PL is full of trash

2019-09-14 16:14

nt no scene

2019-09-14 20:38

Rly this is shit. But, I love that their qualified so IDK

E z

2019-09-14 13:33

where is INTZ?

2019-09-14 13:46

without KNG = rip intz... mAybe intz take ex-luminosity

Mdl

2019-09-14 13:55

congratz sharks!

2019-09-14 13:48

Esl pro league brazil + na scrubs

Thought they would change after moving to na but are still doing the same shit how sad

2019-09-14 15:53

shame qualify...

2019-09-14 16:40

Nice way of the Brazilian teams to steal opportunities to North Latinamerican Teams, the dont live in this region, they dont play in this region, but they stole our spot in the EPL.

2019-09-14 17:21

Not their fault that there wasn't a south american qualifier like the past years

2019-09-14 20:14

the rules are the rules and I dont want to benefit my country team but if the rules said it then they must be respect that.

2019-09-14 17:23

Luken ez as usualy.

2019-09-14 17:32

This is such a shame.

2019-09-14 18:41

Very snake move from sharks, I support luken and meyern, but come on, u literally steal a Latin America spot.

2019-09-14 19:48

''since there was not a qualifier in Latin America South, ESL gave his team the green light to participate in the tournament as long as the majority of their roster traveled to the region to compete'' STOP CRYING, if other latam teams wanted the spot so bad, they should've trained harder and beat sharks which is a team made up of a mix of latinamerican players. 3 Sharks players traveled all the way to Mexico to play this and now some forum geniuses want to tell them they cant play the torunament and should give up the spot for a team they destroyed in 2 maps.

2019-09-14 19:58