During the IEM Rio 2024 tournament, the format of the competition organized by ESL caused outrage among professional players and coaches. One of the loudest critics was the player and the coach Faruk “pita” Pita, who spoke harshly about the structure of the tournament in his Twitter account.
Pita's harsh comments
"cant understand why ESL is still running this format. one bo1 and one bo3 and youre out. Imagine if youre from Europe going to Rio. A couple of layovers, delayed flights, you have been constantly travelling for weeks, just to end up playing 3 maps. theres gotta be another way?," Faruk Pita shared in his tweet.
This format, where teams are immediately eliminated after several defeats, caused outrage not only among Pita himself, but also among viewers and other professionals. Many agreed that holding bo1 (best-of-1) matches in important tournaments of this level does not give teams a real opportunity to show their skills.
cant understand why ESL is still running this format.
— Faruk Pita (@pitaCSGO) October 8, 2024
one bo1 and one bo3 and youre out.
Imagine if youre from Europe going to Rio. A couple of layovers, delayed flights, you have been constantly travelling for weeks, just to end up playing 3 maps.
theres gotta be another way?
Criticism from other professionals
The professional community quickly picked up on the topic, and there were many comments from other participants and spectators of the tournament in response to Faruk's tweet. For example, one of the Twitter users under the nickname GROK GANG noted: “Last month there was another tournament with a whole series of last chance, how many opportunities do they need?” Many other users expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that bo1 formats often do not allow teams to show their full potential.
Another commenter, Robin Lindgren, suggested that tournaments at this level should follow a model that uses a full group stage with bo3 series so that each team can play enough cards to showcase their form.
A look at the future
Some in the audience still believe that such formats can be justified for short-term tournaments, but players and coaches like Pita see it as doing more harm than good. As the Rio tournament showed, the bo1 and bo3 format can leave teams disappointed within days of arrival, giving them no chance to recover from a single defeat.
It is hoped that ESL will listen to the criticism and change the format of their tournaments in the future to give teams more chances to fight for the championship.
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