Premier Recap Week 1-3 - paiN and Extra Salt start season in dominant positions
The first three weeks of ESEA Premier Season 38 have come to a close, seeing paiN and Extra Salt lead in Group A and Group B with 2-0 and 4-0 records, respectively.
Extra Salt's start to the season is especially dominant, as the squad won all four series without dropping a single map in the process. paiN meanwhile, dropped a map in their series against Mythic and had to battle Party Astronauts to a 25-23 triple overtime win on Nuke to avoid playing a third map.
While most other squads are quite early in their season, Triumph has been fairly busy, picking up wins against Verum, Coldest Riders, and GGPR while unfortunately having to forfeit against RBG due to Brendan "Bwills" Williams losing internet connection mid-match courtesy of Hurricane Ida.
Triumph's forfeit, while justified under Premier's newly implemented ESL rulebook, is the latest ruling that has caused friction among players as they work around the more restrictive roster and rescheduling requirements.
Earlier in the season this notably caused Secret Club to disband as they were unable to add members after the roster lock, while Big Chillin looked set to follow them after their emergency transfer was rescinded. Fortunately for the latter team, community backlash pushed ESL to reconsider despite clarifying that Big Chillin's circumstances would not meet their normal criteria for emergency transfers.
With Blake "Elk" Swinson leaving Big Chillin two days ago, it will be interesting to see if they are going to be able to finish the season as the chances of them receiving another emergency transfer are slim.
With Fragadelphia set to take place this weekend, only a few matches are scheduled for this week. Despite this, some notable ones are set to take place, including:
| Matchup | Date | Time |
 Third Impact vs. GGPR |
Sep. 8th | 9PM EDT |
| ChocoCheck vs. ONET4P |
Sep. 8th | 9PM EDT |
The standings at the end of week three look as follows:
Note that the above table does not include tonight's results.
