Last season of ESEA Premier League Season 39 came to a disappointing and anti-climactic end when ChocoCheck forfeited the grand final match versus Extra Salt. They were unable to field a squad of five players for the $32,000 best of five despite having eight players listed on their ESEA roster. Previously, the unfortunate result went down as a forfeit loss for ChocoCheck, giving the $20,000 top prize and ESL Pro League Conference spot to the Salters. ChocoCheck then walked from the game they didn’t play with $12,000, however without an invitation to the European competition.
If a team is unable to field a roster, ESEA would usually invite the third place team, in this case, paiN Gaming, to replace them in the grand finals. However, ESEA was not given enough notice before the match began, and so the grand finals went down in the books as a forfeit win.
That was the case for the last month. However, on January 21, 2022, ESEA announced that the automatic punishment of a simple forfeit loss was not enough given the gravity of the grand finals. Thus, they decided to strip ChocoCheck of all rewards associated with second place, including the $12,000 prize.
Instead, they will be swapping prizes with paiN Gaming. Having ended in third after a loss to ChocoCheck in the lower finals, paiN will be awarded the prize ChocoCheck would have received in second place, almost doubling their winnings from $6,500. The reverse can be said for Chococheck who go from $12,000 to $6,500. ChocoCheck will be able to retain their spot in ESL Challenger League and will be eligible to compete in the next season.
Read the full details in ESEA’s announcement: https://play.esea.net/news/15791
