ECL Season 42 team list (finally) finalized

With the recent announcement that Victorum would be moving up from ESEA Advanced to ESL Challenger League for Season 42 to fill BHOP's spot, the list of squads participating in ECL has finally been solidified. Victorum's promotion, and the promotions of several other Advanced squads, come after a messy period during which a number of ECL teams disbanded or departed the league, leaving a number of spots available for move-ups.

The first ECL mainstay to depart the league was GODSENT, as the core of Epitacio "TACO" de Melo, Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer, and Bruno "latto" Rebelatto were acquired by 00 Nation, not leaving a suitable lineup for the squad to field in ECL. The departure of the Brazilian heavyweights of GODSENT was followed up by another South American squad, as paiN exited the league due to visa issues preventing the squad from competing.

Axolotls were the next team to exit ECL Season 42. The squad fought to retain their spot in Season 41's relegation, besting Davenport University and Detonate in order to do so, but the team was soon split apart, with the final nail in the coffin coming as Kevin "consti" Yi and Andrew "Tender" Cote left to join the ex-Bad News Bears core. BHOP is the final squad to now miss out on ECL Season 42, which comes as a result of a number of roster changes for the squad, including the departure of Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk to Gaimin Gladiators. cxzi's exit from the squad was the straw that broke the camel's back, with BHOP unable to field a core trio to retain their place in the league from ECL Season 41.

A fifth and final spot came from the reserved EPL demotion spot in the league. As there was no eligible NA team team from last season that could claim the spot, it was instead given to ECL Season 41 Relegation.

The five teams that have received the call up to ECL are Detonate, Northern Forces, Unjustified, Davenport University, and Victorum. Contrary to what might be common sense, the majority of players of these teams have at least one season of ECL/Premier experience. The only team with a wholly new cast of ECL players is collegiate team Davenport University.

The list of teams for ECL Season 42 is:

Barring any more departures, these sixteen teams will now be waiting for ECL Season 42 to kick off, with the league set to start in a matter of days on August 16th.