The inaugural season of the Professional Esports Association’s (PEA) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league has been cancelled, according to Mashable.
The decision was made after six of the seven rosters slated to compete in the PEA league voted in favor of participating in the upcoming season of ESL Pro League instead—PEA’s main competitor in North America.
As a result, PEA decided that its planned endeavors in North American CS:GO would no longer take place, citing the player vote and oversaturation in the market.
“It has become clear to the PEA organizations that there isn’t sufficient financial support in the ecosystem, either from broadcast/streaming partners, sponsors or others, to profitably operate a third prominent online league, due to the over saturation of the marketplace and the recent upward spiral in operating costs.”
Announced in September, the PEA’s mission statement was centered primarily on enabling the teams to receive a bigger share of any of the league’s profits, as well as provide ownership of the league to a certain number of teams. However, to achieve this the PEA was looking at prohibiting any of its teams from competing in the North American division of the ESL Pro League—without consulting any of the players.
Following the player vote earlier this week, ESL have since offered all of the PEA teams an extra amount of compensation, on the condition that the teams will appear in the ESL Pro League for the next two years. Additionally, the PEA will not be allowed to organize its own league for the same period of time.
