The ESL Pro-League competitor Flashpoint celebrates its debut. Despite Corona, the Counter-Strike event takes place offline, making it an exception among the major Esport leagues.
A small respectable success for Flashpoint: According to Twitchtracker, the league on Twitch was able to attract up to 40,000 viewers to the screens at the same time. While many events are being postponed, the American league is defying the current situation. Because Flashpoint still takes place offline so far. However, whether the entire season of the league until the final on April 19 will be played in the same way is questionable in view of the current situation.
Only on Friday the European LEC was suspended in League of Legends. Flashpoint’s direct rival, the ESL Pro League (EPL), is also to be played online until the final round. Even the ESL One Los Angeles in Dota 2, which was even supposed to play in the same city as Flashpoint, has been postponed due to the virus.
In order to ensure the safety of players, fans and our crew in the current global dynamics, Season 11 of #ESLProLeague will be played entirely online and the finals will be moved from Denver to a studio location.
Full details: https://t.co/qBdmv0QjSj pic.twitter.com/rhT6awYDEQ
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 11, 2020
Solid Counter-Strike-ActionAlthough Flashpoint cannot compete with the EPL in terms of the quality of the teams, the entertainment oriented event is currently the only major offline league in CS. The Finnish HAVU and the Danes from MAD Lions had the honour of the opening game on Friday. After a hard-fought match the Finns won 2:1 according to Maps.
After some crazy back and forth, HAVU take Nuke!💥
@MADLions_CSEN 13 – 16 @HAVUgaming📺 https://t.co/iSiSGyTLeT pic.twitter.com/bbhPVGCFuU
— Flashpoint (@Flashpoint) March 13, 2020
The most persistent duel so far took place on Saturday between the Brazilian MIBR and the North American squad of the Chaos Esports Club. The team around former British BIG player Owen “smooya” Butterfield defeated the South Americans 2-1.
On Sunday, 15 March, the duel between local heroes Cloud9 and FunPlus Phoenix will take place. The Korean organisation had bought the Danish roster from Heroic and only announced their involvement in the league shortly before the match.
BIG drops Flashpoint for EPL
Since Heroic can no longer compete in the EPL, Berling International Gaming (BIG) is returning to the highest CS gaming class. The team around the German icon Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz had qualified for Flashpoint, but now wants to play with the big players again.
We are back to where we belong and will play the upcoming #ESLProLeague season.
Dropping out of the league (as a qualified team) was nothing less than a shock in January. But we accepted the situation and just focused on improving. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/3GvVh9g7Yq
— Daniel Finkler (@danielfinr) March 13, 2020
The Germans’ first EPL match will be played on Tuesday, 17 March, against the Swedish favourites Fnatic.
