With the Rio Major getting moved to November, this means there will be a 444 day gap between the Berlin Major & Rio. While the circumstances are obviously extenuating, it seems as though this could cause big problems for some teams looking to retain their spots in the Legends & Challengers stages.
As we know, teams must maintain 3 out of the 5 players from the previous major to retain their spot in the next major. We are still 7 and a half months out from Rio, and there are multiple teams who have already made their 2 changes. I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere, so I thought it was worth starting a discussion on this.
The most obvious issue is with Vitality's roster. Alex & NBK have both been replaced, meaning if any of Zywoo, RpK, or apEX leave, Vitality will lose legend status. Going off of what Zywoo's mom said ( https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/fnkn2a/nel_zywoos_mom_directly_talked_to_xtqzzz_on/ ), he's pretty unhappy with the team. I'm sure Vitality wants to keep Zywoo anyway, but with the major spot in jeopardy, I can't see any scenario where they let another team buy him out.
There are 5 other teams with only 3 out of their 5 members from the Berlin major:
Unless Mibr wants to play with Zews again, the core of FalleN, fer, & taco can't change unless they want to forfeit their challenger spot.
FaZe must retain the core of rain, NiKo, and olofmeister if they want to keep their challenger spot.
G2 must retain the core of kennyS, jackz, and amanek if they want to keep their challenger spot.
North must retain the core of aizy, Kjaerbye, and gade if they want to keep their challenger spot.
c0ntact must retain the core of Letn1, Espiranto, and ottoNd if their want to keep their challenger spot.
It will be interesting to see if an exception will be made, or if any teams choose to forfeit their spot in favor of the roster's long term competitive health. With 230 days to go, and no guarantee that the Major won't be postponed for even longer, it is a shame to think that this policy could cause half a dozen teams to be stuck with a stale roster.
