In April 2021, we reduced the number of pertinent teams in North America from 12 to 8, due to an inflation of points within the region, suggesting that 12 was too high. Since then, we’ve  monitored the situation, and in the past months have also received feedback from North American teams. 

Pertinent teams is an important metric that ultimately helps decide which tournaments are eligible for World Ranking points, and how many points each tournament is worth. In order to be eligible for points, a tournament must feature 3 teams at the top of that region’s current ranking. In a region with 8 pertinent teams, this means 3 out of the top 8 must participate.

The feedback we received stems largely from the fact that, while the ESL Challenger League serves as an important competition for the region and provides teams with a pathway to the ESL Pro League, recently it has not adequately helped domestic North American teams to progress worldwide. This is as a result of it not currently being eligible for World Ranking points, due to a large proportion of the top 8 teams in North America not regularly participating in domestic tournaments. The lack of eligible tournaments in the region is also harmful to the ability of our system to rank North American teams against each other.

Based on these considerations, we’re today applying an update to the ESL World Ranking rules.