Ultraliga, the Polish league of the European Regional League (ERL) system, might potentially lose its accredited status in the 2024 season.

Image Credit: Polsat Sport

Ultraliga might become an 8-team league

According to a report by Blix.gg, Poland’s domestic ERL Ultraliga could lose its accredited status and become a “minor” ERL starting from next year. Losing that status will inevitably impact the league’s prestige in the tier-wo system, losing spots in the EMEA Masters and have those seeds be assigned to other leagues and tournaments.

Additionally, the number of teams will be lowered from 10 to 8 teams, as teams in Ultraliga would also lose potential new revenues. These changes come in after Riot recently announced the introduction of a salary cap in the LEC to guarantee better financial stability and deal with the ongoing “esports winter” that hit the sector globally.

Related: LCK set to introduce salary cap ahead of the 2023 offseason

The Polish teams come from quite a disappointing season. The #1 seed Orbit Anonymo Esports came fourth in their group at the EMEA Masters and the #2 seed AliorBank Team went winless in their own group as well. The same happened in the EMEA Masters Spring tournament as well when Zero Tenacity and Orbit Anonymo Esports failed to go past the group stage.

It’s unclear which regions might inherit the spots and which teams will stay in Ultraliga. Currently, the 10 teams in Ultraliga in 2023:

AliorBank Team
exeed
Grypciocraft
Illuminar Gaming
Iron Wolves
Kamil&Friends
Maturalni Forsaken
Orbit Anonymo Esports
Team ESCA Gaming
Zero Tenacity

That being said, Kamil&Friends have dropped to the Ultraliga 2nd Division following their loss in the Promotion tournament. Team ESCA Gaming was able to maintain its spot while the new addition is B2TG outlaws, who were the champions of the 2nd division.

Related: Riot Max: “EMEA Masters is a showcase product for domestic talents”