Renegades have been forced to withdraw from ESL Pro League season 14 just five days before the competition starts due to travel restrictions that are in place in Australia as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization announced today.
These travel restrictions prevented the CS:GO team from traveling from Australia to Europe, the continent where ESL Pro League season 14 will take place online. ESL has given the vacant spot to forZe since they were the next team in line based on ESL’s world rankings, where Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev and crew are ranked 20th.
“Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic right now, we will be unable to attend ESL Pro League,” Renegades’ in-game leader Joshua “INS” Potter said in a video released by the organization on Twitter. “For now we’ll compete in ESEA Premier next season and prepare for the RMR, and hopefully qualify for the Major and be able to attend at the end of the year.”
Renegades were awarded a slot in the $750,000 online CS:GO league after they clinched the ESEA Premier season 37 Australia spot. They finished the first part of the competitive calendar on a high note after qualifying for the main event of IEM Cologne over OG and were looking to build on that result in the first premier tournament following the end of the summer player break.
ForZe will replace Renegades in ESL Pro League season 14’s Group B, which is slated to run from Aug. 21 to 26. The rest of the group features G2, Virtus Pro, OG, Sinners, and Complexity, who forZe will face in the first round on Aug. 21 at 1pm CT.
