Members of some of the biggest tournament organizers in esports are meeting in Bucharest, Romania during this weekend’s DreamHack event to formulate a response to a possible Counter-Strike: Global Offensive super league.
Discussions between ESL, fantasy esports website Vulcun, and streaming platform Twitch, along with representatives of multiple top-tier Counter-Strike teams, were first revealed by joint reports in the Daily Dot and HLTV on April 10. The meeting, which was held at the Twitch offices in San Francisco, centered on a proposal to create a tournament similar to Riot’s League of Legends League Championship Series.
Both the ESL’s Michal “Carmac” Blicharz Vulcun denied that any league would lock teams into exclusive contracts that would bar them from taking part in other tournaments.
(Sorry, this embed was not found.)But exclusive or not, the existence of a such an influential league would surely upset the power balance in
Counter-Strike. As esports legal expert Anna Baumann
wrote about the potential deal:
“From a competition law point of view, this deal would establish market dominance (by far) when it comes to tournaments and their broadcasting. Market dominance could establish factual exclusivity (teams don’t have the time/resources/interest in attending other tournaments).”
Though the ESL and Vulcun league is still under discussion, other tournament organizers are well aware of the threat, which is why Pro Gaming League (PGL), DreamHack, Gfinity, FACEIT, and Starladder representatives are coming together at the event in Bucharest this weekend to formulate a counter-strategy.
Counter-Strike developer Valve, meanwhile, has yet to speak on the matter, which could define the future of the game as an esport.
Image via Valve
