Wildcard withdraws from ECL S50 NA final, setting up NRG v. SkinRave match for EPL spot

Instead of a three-team skirmish in the ESL Challenger League S50 North American regional final, a surprise withdrawal has moved NRG into the grand final against SkinRave.

ESL announced today that Wildcard has withdrawn from the tournament, after they were originally scheduled to play NRG in the semifinal for the right to play SkinRave in the final. Instead, NRG and SkinRave will play a best-of-five grand final, with the winner earning a spot in ESL Pro League Season 23.

The sudden withdrawal by Wildcard comes just a couple days after some concerning headlines. Self-proclaimed esports insider Vladislav "GromovCS" Gromov reported at the end of last week that the team will part ways in-game leader Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz. Around the same time, Love "phzy" Smidebrant expressed his desire to leave the team and return to the European scene during an interview with Ludvig "quacke" Nilsson of Fragbite.se.

Wildcard isn't the only team to back out of their respective ECL regional final though. MIBR withdrew from the South America final, allowing 9z to advance directly to their grand final.

NRG vs. SkinRave in the ECL S50 NA regional final is scheduled for Thursday, November 20th at 09:00PM.