ESL clarify miscommunicated roster rules for ECL, offering lifeline to Nouns and Party Astronauts

ESL have sent a letter to all teams competing in ESL Challenger League Season 49 North America clarifying and outlining a significant rule change regarding the number of roster changes teams are allowed to make this season. The letter has made it clear that ESL has axed Rule 2.21 from the 2024 ESL Pro Tour CS Roster Restrictions rulebook, meaning the rule that a team can only add five players within a 120-day window is no longer in effect.

In real terms, this means all teams in ESL Challenger League S49 NA are able to make up to three changes in the league after the roster submission deadline (January 3rd).

This clarification will likely come as a massive relief to teams like Nouns, Party Astronauts, Chicken Coop, and InControl were previously told they were out of roster additions.

For Nouns, this would allow the team to swap out Christopher "cJ-dA-K1nG" Jones in the league after their first eight matches while finding a long-term replacement for Gage "Infinite" Green.

Likewise for Party Astronauts, they team will have two roster additions to play with, meaning Ben "ben1337" Smith and co. could replace Colby "Walco" Walsh and Wesley "viz" Harris, thus keeping the PA core together.

ESL's letter reads:

We want to clarify how the 120-day rule was applied this season. The rule remained in effect until January 18th, when the rule changes went into effect. Any roster additions made before the roster submission deadline (January 3rd) do not count toward the three ESL Challenger additions allowed during the regular season.

The regular season officially begins after the roster submission deadline, so only additions made after January 3rd count toward the limit. This adjustment applies to all ECL teams that were previously informed they had no remaining additions if they had made roster changes before the deadline.

This update is being sent to every team to make sure all of the rules apply fairly and correctly to everyone

For the remainder of the Season we will also not be enforcing the rule that states:

Any changes to the roles of participants submitted during the roster submission process (e.g. starter being moved to substitute, and vice versa) are considered an addition.

If you have any questions regarding your team's situation, feel free to reach out.

Reactions to the letter by players from affected teams in comments to Dust2.us ranged from relief to frustration that the rules were not communicated properly from the start of the season.

ESL Challenger League Season 49 Week 4 is set to start tonight at 09:00PM.