MDL Week 1-2 Recap - oNe maintain perfect record; ESEA announce Next Big Caster contestants
The first two weeks of MDL Season 31 has ended, and with the season running on an accelerated schedule, every single team had a chance to play a handful of matches, with many unveiling their new rosters following the pre-season shuffle.
The season began with a domestic upset as Season 30 champions FURIA were handed a 12-16 loss to oNe on Inferno. Following this win, oNe continued their good form picking up three more wins against Variance, Bad News Bears, and Chris and the boys.
South African squad ATK also had a good week, picking up decisive wins against Royal and Mythic on Overpass and Mirage and join oNe as the only other team to remain undefeated.
Some noteworthy upcoming matches for next week include:
| Matchup | Date | Time |
 Bad News Bears vs. MASSIVEimpact |
May 14th | 9:30PM EDT |
 ATK vs. Polar Ace |
May 15th | 9PM EDT |
| Singularity vs. MASSIVEimpact |
May 16th | 8PM EDT |
 FURIA vs. Bad News Bears |
May 16th | 10PM EDT |
After one week of play, the standings for MDL are as follows:
| Team | Matches | Wins | Losses | RD | Points |
| oNe |
4 | 4 | 0 | +36 | 12 |
| ATK |
2 | 2 | 0 | +14 | 6 |
| ex-Zone |
3 | 2 | 1 | +11 | 6 |
| MASSIVEimpact |
3 | 2 | 1 | +7 | 6 |
| slashLEVEL |
3 | 2 | 1 | +6 | 6 |
| The Quest |
3 | 2 | 1 | +4 | 6 |
| Polar Ace |
3 | 2 | 1 | +2 | 6 |
| Party Astronauts |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Mythic |
4 | 2 | 2 | +3 | 6 |
| Variance |
4 | 2 | 2 | -8 | 6 |
| BLITZKRIEG |
1 | 1 | 0 | +4 | 3 |
| Singularity |
2 | 1 | 1 | +5 | 3 |
| FURIA |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Spacestation |
4 | 1 | 3 | -17 | 3 |
| Bad News Bears |
1 | 0 | 1 | -8 | 0 |
| Front |
2 | 0 | 2 | -7 | 0 |
| Chris and the boys |
3 | 0 | 3 | -27 | 0 |
| Royal |
4 | 0 | 4 | -25 | 0 |
ESEA have also announced the list of casters who will be competing to claim a spot on the main MDL brodcast. The ten casters will given access to the MDL broadcast GOTV link, and the top three casters will be brought onto the main ESEA Twitch.tv channel. Returning to the challenge is Steven "HeartBreaker" Cropley who competed in the Season 27 iteration of the Next Big Caster Challenge.
At the end of the process, one caster will be voted by the community to attend the MDL Global Challenge where they will cast alongside ESEA's broadcast team.
