ESL finalize team list for ESL Challenger League Season 40

ESL have finalized the team list for ESL Challenger League Season 40, with the most substantial change seeing the league return to sixteen teams after initially being earmarked for fourteen teams.

As such, ex-Detonate and X13 have been granted spots from ESEA Premier Season 39 Relegation while in a surprising move Damian "daps" Steele's Orgless lineup have been invited to round out the team list.

Extra Salt were initially set to play ESL Challenger Season 40, however their participation in the league was always suspect as the team is reportedly set to be announced by Louvre Agreement team Complexity tomorrow. The decision to invite Orgless will likely draw the ire of some in the community as they are the first team to be directly invited to the second highest division in ESL/ESEA's league system since Não Tem Como were invited to ESEA MDL Season 27.

In particular, Brazen are likely to feel aggrieved as they would be the next team in line to be promoted due to their fifth-place finish in ESEA Premier Season 39 Relegation.

In a notice sent out to all teams in ESL Challenger League, Zyrus "Osodank" Bechstein, North America ECL Tournament Manager, said that ESL made this decision to improve the quality of ESL Challenger League while also allowing teams in Advanced to play without having a clear favorite in the division. That is in reference to how the majority of recent Advanced seasons have been won by high-profile teams including MIBR, GODSENT, paiN, and Yeah.

This season, the seeding for Groups A and B were based off of a mixture of ESL World Ranking and HLTV World Ranking.

The two groups are, in the order they are seeded:

ESL Challenger League Season 40 is set to begin on January 18th.