EndPoint CEO brands ESEA's controversial decision to relegate his UK CSGO team 'a kick in the teeth'

Update (Jan 19th, 9.30pm): It’s been brought to our attention that UK org Royals have been promoted to the ESEA Premier division, a team that EndPoint have never drawn with.
EndPoint beat them 16-6 in the ESL qualifier and 2-0 on maps during week one of the ESL Premiership earlier this week. ESEA says it wants ‘more competitive’ teams in the Premier, then does this – and while it’s arguably good to see another UK organisation in the Premier division, it’s still a confusing series of actions by the league provider.

I guess the purpose of our reddit thread worked then. ESEa have panicked and promoted 4 main teams.Good luck to @ROYALS_CSGO c u nxt season.

— Ian Harding (@Immi_cs) January 19, 2017

 
Original article (posted Jan 19th, 6.15pm):
UK esports organisation Team EndPoint have been relegated from the ESEA CSGO Premier division to the ESEA Main in a controversial move.
EndPoint player Benjamin “Esio” Doughty published a post on Reddit titled ‘ESEA Premier bias?’ yesterday, claiming that ESEA had unfairly relegated EndPoint. He accused them of bias or favouritism towards other teams in the division, some of whom have remained despite breaking the ruling over defaulting matches.
“We were told at the beginning of the season that if we default 4 or more games, we would be kicked out,” Esio said.
“We were also told that the relegation system would mean either bottom 2, 4 or 6 would be relegated. Having finished the season in 18th [out of 24], we figured that our position in Premier was safe and that we would be competing in the next season! However, today we found out we’d been relegated to ESEA Main.
 

“We’ve been told by Aluminati that Gambit Gaming will be getting re-added into the league despite breaking the ruling regarding defaults – this is a load of BULLSH*T.”
ESIO, Team EndPoint player

 
“Why have they relegated 8 teams this season after stating that it would be 4 or 6 teams at the start of the season?
“They’ll state the following rule ‘move ups and move downs for the Premier division are done based on admin discretion’. This basically means ESEA can do as they please with no reasonable explanation. We’ve been told by Aluminati that Gambit Gaming will be getting re-added into the league despite breaking the ruling regarding defaults – this is a load of BULLSH*T. If we were in their situation, we would have probably been banned and kicked out for the next few seasons.
“This proves the bigger names and sponsors will get put ahead of you despite the rulings when it comes to leagues. If you break the rules, you’re out – if they break the rules, they’re allowed back in with no repercussions.”

So long as you’re a professional team you can do what you want apparently ? – guess the point of the thread has been proven! pic.twitter.com/9quGZBqx2n

— Benjamin Doughty (@esioLoL) January 19, 2017

Another EndPoint player, Ian “Immi” Harding, tweeted:

The amount of UK people who are happy we got relegated is what’s wrong with our scene but nevermind shit happens

— Ian Harding (@Immi_cs) January 18, 2017

The standings show EndPoint seventh from bottom, and seemingly in the safe zone:

A separate post has since been made on Reddit, from another user, titled ‘ESEA’s decision to promote teams based on popularity should concern us as a community.’
An ESEA mod on Reddit, FewOwns, responded: “I understand it’s not fun being relegated to a lower division, but your team [EndPoint] also didn’t perform well throughout the entire season, and the decision was made that there were other teams that would make the division more competitive. We feel there are better and more competitive teams for the Premier division.
 

“We feel there are better and more competitive teams for the Premier division.”
ESEA

 
“By no means do we expect everyone to agree with decisions that are made.
“We’re doing our best to have the most competitive division possible. That includes making sure top teams are competing and that teams from lower divisions that perform well get a shot to compete as well.
“[EndPoint previously] asked how many [teams] get relegated, our admin responded that he didn’t know. The team then asked for a TARGET number, they were told 6. A target number is not a concrete number, only an estimate, and they knew that. Unfortunately they presented it in a way that tried to make ESEA look bad, in order to rally support.”
FewOwns also said that ESEA has openly stated in its rules how the division works, including team invites, before linking to some rule pages and info here and here.
 

‘Extremely disappointing’ – Team EndPoint CEO reacts

Team EndPoint CEO Adam “Adz” Jessop told Esports News UK: “The decision by ESEA to remove us from the European Premier division is extremely disappointing. More so is the nature of their actions, we never received any prior notice, nor have we received any formal explanation for this removal.
“We simply got our league fees refunded and were left to realise that the action had been taken.
“I feel that their excuse for allowing some teams to ignore the rules are unfair. They state that Gambit forfeited their remaining games due to commitments elsewhere, but if we were to do that, would we be afforded the same flexibility?
“It’s no secret that during the last season we worked hard to finalise our line-up, and therefore our results may have been hampered, but the team worked hard towards the end of the season to secure their status within the league, beating teams like Alternate Attax and Crowns.
 

“The decision by ESEA to remove us from the European Premier division is extremely disappointing. More so is the nature of their actions, we never received any prior notice, nor have we received any formal explanation for this removal.”
Adam Jessop, Team EndPoint CEO

 
“We have since brought HudzG on board, and we feel that we have got the lineup we were searching for, and the team were looking forward to being a part of such a strong competition.
“Whilst I’m trying to restrain from saying this is another UK CSGO problem, you can’t help but feel that it’s another kick in the teeth.”

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.