Vitality and Team Falcons refused to take part in a prestigious tournament

Team Vitality and Team Falcons have officially declined their invitations to ESL Pro League S23 which led to changes in the list of tournament participants.

This was reported on the official ESL website.

Although the official reason for refusing the tournament was not announced it is likely that the teams decided to save players energy, in order to show better results at other championships. A similar approach was used by Vitality last year and it helped the team secure several major victories.

Credits: ESL

The vacant slots were passed to the next teams in the VRS ranking queue — Ninjas in Pyjamas (VRS 20) and Passion.UA (VRS 21). Because of this decision Aurora and B8 received a more favorable position and will start their run directly from Stage 2 missing the first stage of the event.

In addition ESL also made adjustments for another reason. FUT Esports will replace Lynn Vision at ESL Pro League Season 22. The Chinese team withdrew from the tournament after the official deadline and as a result received a punishment — a ban from participating in the next relevant Tier 1 VRS event namely ESL Pro League Season 23.