ESEA MDL Season 33 Global Challenge canceled

As a result of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rest of the playoffs bracket of European and North American MDL will be played out shortly after the player break.

A spot at ESL Pro League Season 12 will be on offer to the winners of each of the two regions, with Sprout, AGO, and Galaxy Racer competing in the last stages of the European league, while in North America Triumph, Bad News Bears, and TeamOne reached the upper bracket and consolidation finals.

Although Bad News Bears formally disbanded in mid-May, the former lineup has the option to bring in up to two new players and compete. However, with Jonathan "⁠Jonji⁠" Carey having left for Chaos and Mitch "⁠mitch⁠" Semago, Austin "⁠crashies⁠" Roberts, and Michael "⁠dapr⁠" Gulino all moving to VALORANT, it's unlikely Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney will be able to form a three-man core to be eligible to play the rest of the playoffs.

Sprout, AGO, and Galaxy Racer will play for an EPL spot in August

The European and North American upper bracket finals, consolidation finals, and grand finals will be played immediately upon the kick-off of the new season after the player break concludes, on August 7-9. The prizepool distribution in the two regions will look as follows:

1. $12,500 + ESL Pro League Season 12 spot
2. $10,000
3. $5,000

The decision to cancel the Global Challenge comes at a cost to the Asian and Oceanic representatives who qualified for the Global Challenge, Lucid Dream and ORDER, who will instead receive financial compensation worth $10,000. The Thai side will also get a leg up in the qualifying process to the next Global Challenge, as they will play the winning side from Season 35's Asia Open bracket for the spot.

ESEA MDL Season 33 Global Challenge was originally planned to take place in April, after the regional leagues came to a close in mid-March. The event was first postponed due to the pandemic, before the organizers decided against hosting it altogether.