Strife to replace paiN in ESEA Premier playoffs
After a great deal of public confusion surrounding the administrators' interpretation of the tiebreaker rules for the regular season of ESEA Premier, it appears that all's well that ends well, as both Strife and ONET4P will participate in the ESEA Premier Season 38 postseason. The former is set to replace paiN, who will be otherwise occupied in Europe with their recent qualification for the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, which conflicts with the postseason window.
According to Strife's tweet, paiN will be granted the slot that they had originally occupied, which was 5th place in their group. This arrangement ensures that paiN will have a spot reserved in ESEA Premier Season 39, but also gives Strife the chance to compete in paiN's place, rather than having a postseason bracket littered with forfeit losses.
Dust2.us was told by Bobby "stamina" Eitrem that paiN had specifically requested this solution of the league administrators, with the rationale that it would be better for the competitive integrity of the postseason for them to have all of the series played.
This is the route that paiN had actually offered, and they are respectfully a big reason why this has happened. They not only reached out to advise they couldn't play, but suggested we take their spot, as they didn't think FFL's would be great for the integrity of the league.
With the reseeding of the ESEA Premier Season 38 playoff bracket the first-round matchups will now be:
 ChocoCheck |
vs. Verum |
| Party Astronauts |
vs. Triumph |
| ONET4P |
vs. RBG |
| Strife |
vs.  Extra Salt |
The ESEA Premier Season 38 playoffs will begin October 12th at 7PM EDT.
