MIBR barred from second EU IEM Sydney Open Qualifier

MIBR and FURIA, two of Brazil's best teams, are currently in Europe as they prepare for ESL Pro League Season 18 and other events in the world circuit. As part of that, the two teams decided to try their hand in the EU IEM Sydney 2023 Open Qualifiers. Yesterday, both MIBR and FURIA were eliminated by bsmpeek and Sprout, respectively.

Today, MIBR tweeted that they would not be allowed to participate in today's qualifiers as they were not authorized. The issue stems from when MIBR decided to move their home-region to South America.

According to Dust2 Brasil, MIBR needed prior authorization from ESL in order to compete in qualifiers in other regions. FURIA, for example, has received that authorization which is why they are allowed to participate in today's qualifier.

At the beginning of the year, ESL established a rule that restricted teams from switching regions. According to rule 2.7.3, a team that is registered in one region is not allowed to change it for 120 days and starts from the first match in such region.

FURIA is playing in the qualifier today in hopes of receiving one of the two final Closed Qualifier spots in Europe for IEM Sydney 2023.