ESL, one of the biggest esports tournament organizers in the world, has announced a change in their approach to grand finals for their upcoming events.
In a statement made by ESL’s Senior Product Manager, Michael “Cynil” Parsons, the community was informed that ESL will be hosting fewer best-of-five grand finals in their tournaments for the year 2023.
The announcement came after the grand final of IEM Rio, where Vitality emerged victorious over Heroic in a best-of-three series. This is in contrast to previous IEM tournaments, such as Dallas in 2022, where grand finals were best-of-five.
In the statement, Cynil clarified that “EPT Masters tournaments such as IEM Rio, IEM Dallas, and IEM Fall will be Bo3.” He went on to say that “ESL Pro Tour Championship events such as IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne will remain Bo5 alongside EPT Masters tournament ESL Pro League.”
The decision to host fewer best-of-five grand finals has been a topic of discussion in the esports community for years.
While proponents of the format argue that it tests a team’s endurance and their map pool, critics have pointed out the immense length of time it takes to complete a best-of-five series.
To put things into perspective, HLTV’s Josip “brcho” Brtan crunched some numbers and found that the average broadcast length for a four-map Bo5 was five hours and 10 minutes, while a five-map series took seven hours and 14 minutes (although this was based on a small sample size).
Overall, this change in approach by ESL could potentially make their tournaments more accessible and viewer-friendly, as best-of-three series tend to be shorter and more action-packed than their longer counterparts. However, only time will tell if this change will be beneficial for the esports community as a whole.
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