ESEA Advanced Season 53 playoffs to run as Unranked event

Dust2.us has confirmed that ESEA Advanced Season 53 will be held as an Unranked event with the event having no effect on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS). The confirmation marks a change from Season 52 which saw the Advanced division of ESEA's league structure receive special permission from Valve to run as a Tier 2 event.

As can be seen in the above picture of recent events Valve has granted an exception to, they allowed Advanced Season 52 to be played out as a ranked event despite having teams directly invited from Season 51. Per the Tournament Operating Requirements (TOR), all teams must be invited via the VRS, a Wildcard invite, or other method Valve approves of.

It is unlikely ESEA Advanced will run as a Ranked event ever again, especially in North America where most teams in the league are not ranked on the VRS.

While this change aligns the event with the wider rules of the VRS circuit, the decision will likely be unpopular as ESEA Advanced previously served as one of few events in North America that offered ranking points to unranked teams, closing a path to becoming ranked for teams that are not in ESL Challenger League.

ESEA Advanced Season 53 NA playoffs begin tonight at 12:30AM