The ESL Pro League has been the most prestigious league in CS:GO for years, but the traditional tournament organizer will have a new competitor. A company named B Site Inc. is set to organize a league in North America and teams like Cloud9 and MIBR are reportedly leading the charge for the league’s creation.
This competition reportedly motivated ESL to request in-person meetings with some of the biggest CS:GO organizations to urge them to sign new agreements with the ESL Pro League, according to a report by Jarek “DeKay” Lewis
DeKay reports that ESL will meet with at least 13 teams between Jan. 22 to 24. The list of teams includes Astralis, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, Fnatic, FaZe Clan, Complexity, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, Vitality, Natus Vincere, mousesports, and ENCE.
Cloud9 and MIBR aren’t on that list, which may suggest that these teams already signed contracts to play in the B Site Inc. North American league. One league wouldn’t exclude a team from competing in both of them, but the CS:GO calendar is getting busier every year, creating a conflict of dates.
ESL’s senior vice president of product, Ulrich Schulze, told DBLTAP that these meetings aren’t unusual. “We would prefer not to make a habit of commenting on every meeting that may or may not take place,” Schulze said.
The ESL Pro League was introduced in April 2015 and 10 seasons have been played so far. The season 10 finals were played in December and featured a $600,000 prize pool. B Site Inc.’s league is reportedly featuring a base revenue share number of more than $1 million for the players only.
