New ESL World Ranking ranking formula devalues NA region

Earlier today, ESL announced a number of changes to its ranking formula, with several changes focusing on North America. These changes included adjusting the regional modifier for NA events and decreasing the number of pertinent teams in North America. These changes will overall see NA have more difficulty gaining ESL World Ranking points, something that is essentially for claiming an invite to ESL's S-tier events.

First, ESL is immediately adjusting the aforementioned two subjects, with North America's 26% regional multiplier being reduced to 20%. Asia will see their multiplier improve from 4.5% to 5%, South America will see an adjustment from 7% to 14%, and Oceania has decreased from 9.5% to 8%.

ESL says that the multiplier changes are to help teams that compete internationally in a few high-level events not be outpaced by regional teams who play many local events. Decreasing the overall value of NA events is also likely a response to situations where teams like Complexity and Evil Geniuses realized they could play NA's ESEA Cash Cups to try and lock in spots for massive events like IEM Katowice.

In regards to the changes in pertinent teams, ESL is reducing the number from 10 to 8 for North America with no stated adjustments for other regions. ESL says that the number had initially been improved to 10, "to counteract that a significant number of the top North American teams never played in local tournaments", however, that problem has since become "less relevant". However, this change will also make it harder for NA events to be included in the ESL WR as it will require more of NA's big names to play in events. Consider that ECL teams that would traditionally be ranked ninth and tenth in the region that reliably attend local LANs and play Cash Cups would now no longer count as pertinent teams for ranking purposes.

Additionally, there will be changes taking effect later this March which include now awarding points to teams that place last in larger international events. Considering the rise of local competitions, it would be seen as more viable to move up the ESL Ranking ladder by skipping events where some teams know they will finish last and instead dominate weaker, local competitions to earn points and improve upon their peers.

Moreover, ESL is now introducing "Grinding Prevention" which is being enacted to prevent some teams from gaming the current formula by playing as many competitions as possible. Going forward teams "will be able to increase [their] points by getting better (higher points) results after reaching that limit of 6 contributing competitions, but no longer just plain adding as many competitions as [they] play."

Overall, these changes are another tough blow inflicted on NA by ESL. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel as after 2024 Valve have mandated all large-scale events use the Valve ranking to determine invites.