The 31st season of ESEA MDL has come to a close in Europe and North America, determining all participants of the Global Challenge and ESL Pro League relegation.

After the regular season came to an end last week in Europe, it was time for the playoffs. In a surprising turn of events, CR4ZY, who had gone undefeated in the regular season, went down in the quarter-finals to Spirit, with Vitality, Movistar Riders, and Sprout also reaching the semi-final stage.

Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt's team confirmed their status of favorites by defeating Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev & co., earning a chance to fight for direct advancement to ESL Pro League Season 10 against Sprout, who took down Movistar Riders en route to the European Finals.

Vitality and Sprout will play for a spot in ESL Pro League

After a hard-fought battle between the two on Sunday, Spirit defeated Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas's side 2-1, copping the third and last spot at the seasonal Global Challenge and a place in the ESL Pro League Season 9 relegation tournament.

The final standings of ESEA MDL S31 Europe look as follows:

1-2. Sprout - Global Challenge + EU MDL Finals
1-2. Vitality - Global Challenge + EU MDL Finals
3. Spirit - Global Challenge + EPL Relegation
4. Movistar Riders - $2,500
5-8. GamerLegion
5-8. Epsilon
5-8. CR4ZY
5-8. Chaos
9. FORZE
10. Virtus.pro
11. x-kom
12. AGO
13. pro100
14. ALTERNATE aTTaX - MDL S31 Relegation
15. HAVU - MDL S31 Relegation
16. Izako Boars - MDL S31 Relegation
17. expert - MDL S31 Relegation
18. ENCE - Advanced S32 (withdrawn)

In North America, Singularity, FURIA, and ATK finished atop the league with 12 wins each and they continued to succeed in the playoffs, winning their quarter-final affairs alongside Party Astronauts to determine the four teams advancing to the Global Challenge.

Having returned from a successful run in Europe, Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's squad lived up to the expectations, beating Party Astronauts to make it to the North American Finals, in which they will take on Singularity for a spot in ESL Pro League Season 10 on July 13.

FURIA and Singularity topped the North American MDL

Meanwhile, South African side ATK won a close third-place decider against Ian "⁠motm⁠" Hardy & co., booking the last spot in the North American relegation for ESL Pro League, making the final standings of the league the following:

1-2. Singularity - Global Challenge + NA MDL Finals
1-2. FURIA - Global Challenge + NA MDL Finals
3. ATK - Global Challenge + EPL Relegation
4. Party Astronauts - Global Challenge
5-8. The Quest
5-8. Riot Squad
5-8. TeamOne
5-8. New Identity
9. Ascent
10. Rugratz
11. Peeker's Advantage
12. Variance
13. BLITZKRIEG
14. Thunder Logic - MDL S31 Relegation
15. Bushido Boyz - MDL S31 Relegation
16. Mythic - MDL S31 Relegation
17. Prospects - MDL S31 Relegation
18. Chris and the boys - Advanced S32

The following eight teams will take part in the ESEA MDL Season 31 Global Challenge, which will run on July 13-14 in Dallas, Texas:

Chiefs
Sprout
Vitality
Spirit FURIA
Singularity
ATK
Party Astronauts Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 25 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1603 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Chaos #42 Fredrik 'FREDDyFROG' GustafssonJoakim 'Relaxa' GustafssonNiclas 'PlesseN' PlessenLinus 'Bååten' AnderssonDaniel 'djL' Narancic The Quest #60 Jack 'xCeeD' HolimanLogan 'Voltage' LongRyan 'Snakes' AmannMichael 'Grim' WinceGabe 'Spongey' Greiner expert #115 Robin 'ScrunK' RöpkeChristoph 'chrissK' KröllJon 'JDC' de CastroAndreas 'Andyy' SchäferChristopher 'PREET' Glaser Rugratz #111 Alexander 'zanz' DiazJoshua 'Hunter' MadoreTyler 'tweiss' WeissNoah 'ULTRA' Giesbrecht pro100 #74 Ivan 'AiyvaN' SemenetsVadim 'Flarich' KaretinAleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovLeonard 'kenzor' VolodarchukMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis BLITZKRIEG #128 Scott 'KARNAGE' SalaAndrew 'ShoT_UP' OrlowskiAlex 'aproto' ProtopapasIan 'tex' BotschNick 'alter' Jackson ATK #58 Roberto 'blackpoisoN' Dall'OccoDominic 'Domsterr' SampaioRhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJohnny 'JT' Theodosiou Spirit #36 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovDmitry 'S0tF1k' ForostyankoPavel 'COLDYY1' VeklenkoViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevArtem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov FURIA #5 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Riot Squad #63 Peter 'ptr' GurneyJosh 'shinobi' AbastadoMitch 'mitch' SemagoMichael 'dapr' GulinoAustin 'crashies' Roberts Virtus.pro #32 Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMichal 'OKOLICIOUZ' GlowatyArek 'Vegi' Nawojski Prospects #218 Warren 'hades' RettichJosh 'JoshRT' LeeCaleb 'sayonara' LeeDylan 'RIKO' Sabin-ArnceMarshall 'Minus' Sedowicz Chiefs #34 Ryan 'zewsy' PalmerChris 'ofnu' HanleyTyler 'tucks' ReillyMatthew 'Texta' O'RourkePeter 'BL1TZ' Athanasatos HAVU #61 Eetu 'sAw' SahaLasse 'ZOREE' UronenOlli 'sLowi' PitkänenAaro 'hoody' PeltokangasSamuli 'Twixie' Herrala FORZE #33 Dmitriy 'facecrack' AlekseyevAlmaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovAndrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Bushido Boyz #123 Daniel 'picky' MilazzoJonah 'JonahP' PuliceTrevor 'FrostayK' BandleWilliam 'shonk' KittrellChristopher 'Swahn' Swahn Mythic #97 Todd 'anger' WilliamsJames 'hazed' CobbErik 'fl0m' FlomDonovan 'zNf' FroidAdam 'Polen' Polen Ascent #85 Chris 'riku' PiaseckiDavid 'cynic' PolsterMarc-Andre 'NiSMO' TayarJoshua 'KiiroKami' Kim Variance #110 Erick 'Xeppaa' BachBilal 'SPAMMER' AliKevin '4pack' PrzypasniakGeorge 'Powerzz' YaedeJustin 'FaNg' Coakley Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Age: 23 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 445 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 AGO #48 Grzegorz 'SZPERO' DziamałekDamian 'Furlan' KislowskiDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiTomasz 'phr' WójcikKacper 'kaper' Słoma Party Astronauts #71 Brenden 'stellar' McGrathIan 'motm' HardyBen 'ben1337' SmithRobert 'robby' BrownJosh 'PwnAlone' Pigue Epsilon #38 Joey 'CRUC1AL' SteuselKia 'Surreal' ManRasmus 'kreaz' JohanssonTeodor 'SPELLAN' NikolovHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Ian 'motm' Hardy Age: 19 Team: Party Astronauts Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 341 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 ALTERNATE aTTaX #66 Stefan 'stfN' SeierDustin 'DuDe' GroßmannMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiMarko 'kressy' ĐorđevićFritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich x-kom #43 Paweł 'innocent' MocekPaweł 'reatz' JańczakOskar 'oskarish' StenborowskiMichał 'mono' GabszewiczDaniel 'STOMP' Płomiński Sprout #24 Florian 'syrsoN' RischeTimo 'Spiidi' RichterSabit 'mirbit' CoktasarNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' Baumann TeamOne #53 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaPedro 'Maluk3' CamposVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' RossatoBruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara Izako Boars #90 Sebastian 'NEEX' TrelaPatryk 'Patitek' FabrowskiPiotr 'nawrot' Nawrocki Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellas Age: 23 Team: Movistar Riders Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 789 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.66 Movistar Riders #39 Aitor 'SOKER' FernándezOscar 'mixwell' CañellasAlejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán Nieto GamerLegion #21 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansAdil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomKevin 'HS' TarnHampus 'hampus' PoserTim 'nawwk' Jonasson New Identity #64 Sebastian 'seb' BuckiSkyler 'Relyks' WeaverCollin 'wrath' McSweeganWill 'dazzLe' LoafmanJonathan 'Jonji' Carey Chris and the boys Singularity #45 Ryan 'ryann' WelshRicky 'floppy' KemeryCameron 'cam' KernJosh 'oSee' OhmAlan 'Shakezullah' Hardeman Peeker's Advantage #86 Daniel 'roca' GustaferriDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordTaylor 'Drone' JohnsonChad 'Oderus' MillerAnthony 'gMd' Guimond CR4ZY #16 Nemanja 'huNter-' KovačNestor 'LETN1' TanićNemanja 'nexa' IsakovićOtto 'ottoNd' SihvoRokas 'EspiranTo' Milasauskas Thunder Logic #108 Jonathan 'djay' DallalJet 'jet-' GaoAmgalan 'genghsta' NemekhbayarBrendan 'Bwills' WilliamsAdam 'Ange' Milian Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev Age: 22 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 431 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 Vitality #4 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ENCE #3 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenJere 'sergej' Salo