peacemaker lambasts Americas invite slot distribution
Touching on comments made by Complexity coach Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen in an interview with Dust2.us regarding the lack of practice opportunities in the North American region, former Imperial and LOS + oNe coach Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu railed ESL and BLAST's decision to provide South America with slot on par with or fewer than North America. peacemaker's comment ultimately ignited a conversation regarding both the distribution of invite and qualifier slots between the two regions, as well as the continued presence of Brazilian squads in North American qualifiers.
The initial discussion revolved around comments made by T.c regarding Complexity's decision to spend a considerable amount of practice time in Europe "for the foreseeable future", citing a difficulty to find consistent scrims in the region, with fellow North American side Nouns only able to field generally two per day. peacemaker then went on to state that, with the practice conditions of North America in mind, it was "unreasonable to keep giving NA the same amount of spots as South America or even close to EU".
These comments were shortly thereafter followed up by a response from Nouns IGL Bobby "stamina" Eitrem, who highlighted the unique disadvantage the North American region faces in regards to the ability of teams from other regions to participate in domestic NA qualifiers, with the reverse not being the case elsewhere. stamina took issue with the idea that Brazilian squads lacked opportunities, highlighting the number of salaried Brazilian squads that have access to European bootcamps and team houses, the type of investment generally lacking in North America in recent years. stamina further reiterated this point by highlighting the presence of five Brazilian squads at the most recent iteration of ESL Pro League, which includes MIBR, who qualified via the North American Conference.
stamina's statement elicited a retort from peacemaker, who countered that the development of Brazilian squads was not a consequence of practicing in NA, stating that the prospect of playing in a region far from home and with limited practice opportunities is "the last thing any Brazilian players want". Further, peacemaker went on to say that the presence of Brazilian teams in the region was actually a boon, and that without them "the past few years your region would've been a lot worse".
peacemaker elaborated that the only reason South American squads competed in North America in the first place was purely for event spots, and that a distribution of event spots that cater towards South America instead would be "fair taking into consideration we have a LOT more teams than you guys nowadays".
Irrespective of one's thoughts on peacemaker's comments, there can be no doubt that it raised an important conversation regarding the state of practice in North America, the distribution of event slots between the Americas, and the presence of teams from outside regions in domestic qualifiers.
