ESEA reveal groups for Premier Season 36; Yeah replaced by Rise
ESEA have announced the distribution of teams between two groups for ESEA Premier Season 36, while simultaneously revealing that Yeah will not compete in the upcoming season. Rise, who were one of the two runner-ups in MDL Season 35 Relegation, were moved up from Advanced in order to fill the gap.
According to ESEA, the groups were seeded based on the ESL World Rankings, followed by their HLTV Ranking, and finally, the team's previous ESEA season record. As a result, Rebirth and Mythic were seeded above teams like Extra Salt and High Coast, while Advanced lineups that have moved up and made changes to their roster during the off-season also attained better seeds than existing MDL playoff lineups (who, admittedly, also made changes).
The highest seeds in each group are ex-Chaos and Extra Salt, who head up Group A, and Triumph and High Coast, who take the top spots in Group B. Each group contains ten teams, and will utilize a best-of-three, round-robin format to determine the top four teams in each division.
The two groups look as follows:
| Group A | Group B |
 ex-Chaos |
Triumph |
 Extra Salt |
 High Coast |
| Mythic |
Rebirth |
| Rise |
Rugratz |
| SKDC |
RBG |
| GGPR |
ImPerium |
| timbermen |
Big Chillin |
| Russian Canadians |
Secret Club |
| Eclipse |
Third Impact |
| Recon 5 |
Hate's Chess Club |
ESEA Premier Season 36 is set to kick off on January 18.
