Dethroning M80, a revamped Wildcard, & more ahead in ESL Challenger Season 48

It's a brand new season for North America's ESL Challenger League with teams gearing up to compete in the region's top domestic Counter-Strike division. A lot has happened in the last year and even more so in the last few months. If you're new here, let's recap what happened last season while look ahead to what comes before us.

Controversy & Champions

The field shrunk just a few months into play for ESL Challenger League after Rocket was disqualified from the competition due to Damian "EMIYA" Boulware's FACEIT ban for cheating. The whole event snowballed as the team were set to attend the RMR, but withdrew from the competition and NRG eventually went.

With only 15 teams left, it was a dogfight at the top with Nouns, Wildcard, and M80 all looking to take home the title. M80 would go on an unreasonably strong run after their European jaunt and somehow pulled out a miraculous regular season win that was decided on round differential. In the playoffs M80 would go on to take the crown with Wildcard right behind them - guaranteeing the two an appearance at the next season of ESL Pro League.

The Big Changes

Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa isn't just on another team this season, he is in an entirely different continent. The 21-year-old Guatemalan star has been highly touted for some time as the next star from the North American region. His time on M80 proved that and he had a number of suitors this offseason with G2 taking him away.

M80 decided to stay local as they picked up Mason "Lake" Sanderson from Carpe Diem as their new fifth. The "mini-malbs" has proven to be a rising star in North America thanks to his performances in ECL last season. There will certainly be a rough starting period for the young player as he needs to adjust to a higher playing level, but there is some excitement that this could be a star signing for the organization.

Elsewhere, Wildcard moved international as they signed both Love "phzy" Smidebrant and Tim "susp" Ångström to their starting lineup, alongside Polish coach Vincent "vinS" Jozefiak. It's a major shift for the former Forsaken core with Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz returning to the top with a star-studded roster. Josh "JBa" Barutt continues to show promise with the youngster now fully bedded in on a roster that can elevate him to the top.

NRG have also come back with a splash as they signed Nick "nitr0" Cannella as their newest IGL to replace Colby "Walco" Walsh. NRG underperformed domestically last season as the squad barely secured any qualifiers for European competitions. It is now up to NRG to adapt quickly to nitr0's tactics and prove that their big splash back into NA has not been a waste of time.

Mainstays Getting Ready

Nouns, Party Astronauts, Elevate, LAG, Mythic, BOSS, and FLUFFY AIMERS are all returning this season with the majority of their squad in the same organization. Fans will look to Nouns and Party Astronauts as the two teams still hot on the heels of Wildcard and M80 to be challengers at the top with others hoping to make playoffs once again.

Perseverance will debut in this season of ECL as organizations while Limitless has made their return to the division, with the latter being a well-known name in the domestic scene. Perseverance acquired the former Take Flyte squad, who in turn, acquired the former One More lineup. A bit confusing, but hey, we're trying to keep up as well. Limitless have signed the former Unjustified core that played as Carpe Diem last season, but will need to use Jerric "wiz" Jiang and Andrew "Tender" Cote for the first few matches to keep the ECL spot.

Fresh faces... and fresh competition

Finally, we have Revenge Nation, Legacy, and E-Xolos LAZER coming in to round out the sixteen teams that will compete this season. Revenge Nation has been forced to wait a bit for their shot after winning ESEA Advanced S48, while Legacy is coming straight from their dominant victory in the latest Advanced season.

The Brazilian organization will not be the only lineup from the South American nation to compete in North America. E-Xolos LAZER earned their way into the league by securing second place in the latest Relegation event. The E-Xolos LAZER is considered one of the weaker lineups at this level, but with the players well supported by Mexican soccer club Tijuana, they might have the resources to help them win at this top level.

Format and Prizepool

This season, teams will play a round robin BO2 in one single group. The top ten teams of the group stage out of 16 will move to playoffs. All placings are:

• 1st, 2nd advance to Upper Bracket Semifinals

• 3rd-6th advance to Upper Bracket Quarterfinals

• 7th-10th advance to Lower Bracket

• 11th-12th return for Season 48

• 13th-14th sent to Relegation

• 15th-16th demoted to Advanced

This season, the prize pool is $80,000 and are distributed as follows:

• 1st: $20,000 and an ESL Pro League Season 20 slot

• 2nd: $15,000 and an ESL Pro League Season 20 slot

• 3rd: $10,500

• 4th: $7,000

• 5th-6th: $4,250

• 7th-8th: $3,000

• 9th-10th: $2,000

• 11th: $1,600

• 12th: $1,200

• 13th: $800

• 14th: $400

The first BO2 matches begin tonight so make sure to tune in and root for your favorite teams and players!