According to sources, Into The Breach will not be competing in the ESL Premiership Closed Qualifiers that start this weekend. The decision may not come as much of a shock, due to the team’s transition to a full European roster of recent.
This will come as a blow for ESL, with the defending champions not returning for their return to LAN at Insomnia in September. The Closed Qualifiers commence this weekend, will be one of two opportunities online for the invited teams to qualify for the tournament’s playoffs, before an open qualifier tournament later this month and the Insomnia “LAN Party Last Chance” qualifier at the September event.
This is the latest in a string of roster related news for Into The Breach this week. First, coach Gustavo “Juve” Alexandre removed himself from his position of coach on the team, citing personal reasons. Next, and more unexpectedly, ITB saw fit to oust Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar from the team due to “comments and perspectives displayed which do not align with [their] attitudes regarding inclusivity and equality” made by the player recently.
If Into the Breach decide to not play the Open Qualifiers or the Last Chance Qualifier on LAN, it will mark the first ESL Premiership tournament Thomas “Thomas” Utting has missed since 2021, bringing an end to a run of five consecutive tournament finishes. The last time he missed an ESL Premiership event was ESL Premiership Autumn 2020, during the time he was on the ill fated international Envy roster.
