Team Vitality will not be playing at ESL One New York 2019

Nathan "NBK" Schmitt, veteran Counter-Strike player, has confirmed that Team Vitality will not be attending ESL One New York 2019, which is set to take place September 28-29 in the Barclays Center.

The ESL One Cologne runners-up, consisting of NBK, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy and Alex "ALEX" McMeekin are looking to be potential world-beaters with some minor tweaks, especially with Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut playing the way he has been recently.

Nonetheless, the players won't be attending the next ESL One event, citing scheduling issues as the reason for skipping the event.

https://twitter.com/NBK/status/1148529118977433600

The initial tweet says:

"Won't be taking part in the ESL One NYC Qualifier, it would overbook our schedule for September as we got invited to tournaments and rest is much needed now in order to be back in shape for Chicago & the Global Challenge.

Really sucks to miss this one again, it is how it is! 😰"

In the follow-up, NBK clarifies that the information was handed in on Sunday night and it is not "a last minute information".

Vitality's path to ESL One New York was supposed to get started today with a qualifying match against Sprout, but they have forfeited and given Sprout a shorter path to qualification. Though they're not one of the favourites to qualify, this could make their case slightly more likely and we may see a surprise challenger at ESL One New York.

It's a shame to see a team such as Vitality back out of an event as large as this, and we can only hope the other events on deck are equally as entertaining as New York is bound to be.