ESL gives IEM Chengdu attendees two-day grace period to withdraw

5-9-2025 21:43

The tournament organizer has adjusted their rulebook ahead of the Chinese event.

ESL has adjusted its rulebook to further clarify the rule "2.14.1 Withdrawing from the event" based on a request from Valve, who told the tournament organizer that the rule was not clear enough and vague in some areas.

As a result of the change, ESL has given teams a two-day period to withdraw from IEM Chengdu. If teams withdraw during this time frame, they will not be sanctioned with one ESL Pro Tour event ban (IEM Krakow in this instance), with dropouts after this deadline set to be sanctioned under the updated rule.

IEM Chengdu team list announced

The rule change comes in light of several teams being rumored to have been interested in attending both IEM Chengdu and PGL Masters Bucharest.

Due to the Chinese event set to start just a day after PGL's tournament ends, teams would be unable to fulfill media commitments and/or play their opening matches if they make it to the Saturday matches in Bucharest.

A snippet of the updated rule, which takes effect after September 7 at 23:59 CEST, is listed below, with the tournament organizer also clarifying the exceptional cases that would not warrant a punishment in their changelog.

2.14.1 Withdrawing from the event

Withdrawing participants will forfeit all prize money accumulated for the event and will be penalised with a ban from the next event of the same tier (e.g. if a team withdraws from a Tier 1 event, they will be banned from the next Tier 1 event they would have been invited to).

nice

2025-09-05 21:44

finally some good news

nvm

that's good, but just schedule the events so they don't overlap by like 1 day.. i want to see both events with the best teams.

2025-09-05 21:48

5 replies

Hard disagree Might as well go back to the partnership system if we're gonna have every team attend every T1 event.

2025-09-05 22:19

1 reply

2025-09-05 22:31

you gotta have teams skipping events so we can actually see some of the lower end teams at t1 events against good teams. TOs dont want overlap because it will hurt their viewership would be my guess.

2025-09-05 22:42

It's not like it's one TO trying to schedule all of the different events. Weeks in a year are now essentially having to be fought for to host events given how many TOs want to be hosting THE tier 1 tournament of any given time.

2025-09-06 08:19

Can they do it? Can they ban the team on the next tournament if that tournament is ruled by Valve's rules and are VRS valid??

2025-09-05 22:02

2 replies

you can definitely ban teams, only the criteria must be public and enforced fairly

2025-09-05 22:08

Valve already told them - NO

2025-09-06 22:04

i was told that esl is evil who threat teams ban for no reason if they participate in pgl event

7 replies

genuinely dont understand why not wanting teams missing media day and potentially their first match or straight up just withdrawing last minute created so much drama. I guess ppl are just looking to hate ESL for just about anything they do

2025-09-05 22:33

Well starting your tournament just 1 day after the end of another T1 tournament is a choice made by ESL. It doesn't lower their viewership (no overlap) but it gives them an excuse to ban teams attending the first, in effect attacking PGL. Of course the excuse is worthwile (missing media day etc...) but the choice of the schedule seems odd at least.

2025-09-05 22:54

4 replies

alternatively PGL decided to end their tournament right before another T1 starts. Also doesnt really matter, I think its better for the eco system that they overlap a bit, only issue is teams wanting to do both when they cant. Not like there is infinite space in the calendar anyway

2025-09-05 22:56

Good point! Would be interesting to see who announced the dates first. Otherwise yeah of course there's not infinite space in the calendar, but when you see how bad the ecosystem seems to be (only gambling sponsors etc...), i'd like TO to make as much money as possible, and i don't want PGL or ESL crashing down so we'd get a shitty monopoly... So if both could have the best viewership, would be great From a spectator standpoint though, i agree i prefer to sometimes watch different matches than always the same names.

2025-09-05 23:03

Well the difference is that ESL doesnt even have to make money due to infinite funding from saudi arabia It's not the same for PGL

2025-09-06 00:04

ESL announced their events before PGL

well yes they are thats why valve had to intervene

2025-09-06 08:21

I feel like the valve part should be included in the title

2025-09-05 22:26

'based on a request from Valve' @Killinkolini 😎🥛

2025-09-05 23:05

That's really nice by Valve. I wish we had full access to the tournament rules but I appreciated Valve seemingly being on the ball

2025-09-05 23:08

why do i feel like barely any teams will actually do this if you're in the top like 8 then surely it would benefit the team more for revenue sharing to just go to chengdu

2025-09-06 03:47

valve should have updated the TO rule. A event shall occupy one day before it begins and after it ends on the calender as travel days.

2025-09-06 08:35

well right now you got - Vitality, Spirit, Mongols, Mouz, Falcons, Navi, Furia, Faze, G2 and more teams attending both. so either IEM chengdu is going to be empty since the grace period was given for IEM Chengdu and not for PGL Bucharest, or they're gonna make it work anyway with that 1 day.

2025-09-07 12:03