I hope that the first season to bridge the ESEA > RGL gap has the 'halves' for 5cp maps and afterwards can be brought more in line with the leagues and LANs in the rest of the world (ETF2L, ozfortress, Copenhagen Games, iSeries, RGB) where there is the 30 minute timelimit per map and no halves.
Same for the whitelist, which is currently ESEA S30/S31 + Solemn Vow, where after the first season the global whitelist discussions and test cups for leagues can be started up again to get rulesets for items and maps more in-line and towards a more universal standard.
A more uniform ruleset should also make the viewing experience a lot easier if you don't need to wonder about which weapons are banned or what the win conditions are for a map if you're an NA or AU viewer on an EU stream and vice-versa.