The Teams for ELEAGUE’s Second Season are Set
All four teams from the North American preliminary rounds have secured their spots for ELEAGUE’s sophomore season.
SK Gaming, Optic Gaming, Immortals, and Echo Fox emerged victorious in a highly competitive qualifier to claim the available North American spots.
The eight teams that made it to the playoffs in the previous season—Virtus.pro, Fnatic, Mousesports, Na`Vi, EnVyUs, Cloud9, Astralis, and Ninjas in Pyjamas—were automatically granted group stage berths. The remaining 16 teams participated in open qualifiers to earn their spots in the group stage.
The North American qualifier included 11 teams from the first season of ELEAGUE, including SK Gaming, who were disqualified after acquiring the Luminosity Gaming lineup.
SK Gaming had a relatively simple path to qualification, defeating open qualifiers Muffin Lightning and fellow season one competitors NRG eSports without losing a single map in both matches. As double major winners, they are now considered one of the favorites for the second season.
Immortals is one of the two new teams joining ELEAGUE for its second season. Despite being overlooked in the first season under the Tempo Storm banner, the Brazilians followed SK Gaming’s lead and secured two clean-sweep 2-0 victories against Blight Gaming and Team SoloMid.
While the Brazilian teams faced no surprises, Echo Fox managed to upset Team Liquid and claim a 2-1 victory, securing their spot in ELEAGUE. Echo Fox is the only team from the previous season’s bottom six to make a return.
Optic Gaming sealed the final spot with a 2-0 win over Renegades.