The World ESports Association (WESA) is a new joint-venture between ESL and eight of the top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) pro gaming teams (Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, Gamers2, Faze, mousesports and Ninjas in Pyjamas). Additional teams will be added to this new association, which will receive equal input from teams. Pro gamers will also split revenues from ESL leagues that operate under WESA regulations.
The ESL Pro League for Valve’s CS:GO will be the first league to implement the new standardized regulations and rulesets of WESA. This association has been in development for the past 18 months, as ESL and teams have worked together to build out a more stable ecosystem, which ultimately could help eSports grow in size, as well as in sponsorship dollars.
Peter Warman, CEO of Newzoo, believes that if WESA proves itself to be the global official body for eSports and it succeeds in creating legislation and structure, the mainstream brands will consider sponsoring international or local events just as they consider sponsoring the Olympics, local cup challenges, the Super Bowl, or the Champions League—including comparable budgets.
“The eSports audience size is already comparable and WESA is one of the initiatives that will ensure that money will follow,” Warman said.
CS:GO is the focus of WESA out of the gate, in part, due to the popularity of the game. In terms of viewership on Twitch, Newzoo reports the game is number two behind Riot Games’ League of Legends with 213 million hours viewed in the past 10 months (and another 246 million hours spent watching direct game streams: other consumers playing CS:GO). League of Legends had 246 million eSports hours in that period on Twitch (and another 544 million “consumer hours”).
Warman said ESL was already the biggest organizer when it comes to supplying CS:GO esports content on Twitch with almost 85 million hours in the past 10 months. ESL’s sister company Dreamhack is number two. Combined, they broadcast over half of all CS:GO eSports viewing hours on Twitch.
Ralf Reichert, general manager of ESL, explains how WESA can help the entire eSports industry evolve into a true mainstream sport in this exclusive interview.
How do you see WESA in comparison to traditional sports associations?
We looked at all the other sports entities, including the NBA, NFL and MLS, and tried to take the best out of each and adapt that to eSports. We don’t want to build the NFL. ESports will always be a little different.
What impact do you see giving players equal power in WESA having on a potential union down the line?
The Players Council is like a mini players union. We welcome the players to unite and to have one strong voice. It represents them fairly at the table, and it actually makes it easier for us to have a joint voice there, and clear common goals we can set up. If they’re unorganized, you have to consider 10 different opinions.
What impact do you feel WESA will have on sponsors?
Right now it gives a framework of clear rules and regulations. Things like transfer rules are in their infancy, arbitration is in its infancy and the contracts between teams, players and leagues can be improved. The key message is it’s going to give stability to the entire ecosystem and scene and create a larger trust on the sponsorship side.
How did you work with Valve on WESA, since you’re focusing on it’s game, CS:GO?
We want to do this together with the publisher, or in games where the publisher isn’t so involved. In games where the publisher is very active and advanced in eSports, the WESA model isn’t the right model. If the game publisher doesn’t want to take on this role, then WESA is the right thing to jump into.
What separates WESA from anything else out there or that’s been done in the past?
Our key goals are to speed up the professionalization and the growth of eSports with this, but also to make it more sustainable and to make sure it doesn’t fall back. Other initiatives have been tried before and have failed because there wasn’t a clear contract between players, teams and leagues. We think we can skip a couple years in the normal development of eSports with WESA and propel eSports forward.
How does having Pietro Fringuelli as the interim league commissioner help connect eSports with traditional sports?
Pietro comes from the soccer world. He knows lots of best practices across how you work with media revenues, scheduling, content and creating the whole league framework to make eSports more reliable. His knowledge and experience has been crucial to forming WESA.
How does the new ESL Network tie into WESA and the acceleration of eSports’ growth?
On the content side we’re trying to get eSports on as many screens as possible to make it more accessable. WESA is more on the structuring side and bringing security to the sport itself. One is more commercial, while the other is more an infrastructure.
It’s not mandatory to run on ESL Network. ESports can run on larger networks as well.
What does the WESA structure open up for television coverage and sponsors?
It opens it up to television coverage. One key cornerstone in linear sports is its planning ability. With eSports there’s a lot of movement of matches and a lack of very basic organizational things. It’s great that you can set up a match in six hours, but too often the predictability is small. If you compare that to other big sports, they plan a year ahead and that gives media companies time to plan programming around it. That’s something we want to encourage with a set league structure that sponsors can count on.
When you look at any other sports, why they grow is predictability with regular play days and clear story lines. ESports is still fluid with lots of new things happening, but there’s limited predictability in what day next week is a match day. People like to tune into Monday night football games. We can cater to these habits.
How does the recent content deal with Hollywood company Pilgrim Media Group help ESL?
The Pilgrim deal brings more original programming about the players. Specifically, that creates stories and highlights personalities that the mainstream audience values.
What impact could WESA have on making eSports more legitimate to the masses?
The speed of the industry is insane. The most important piece for us is that it grows, and it’s on its way. We used to predict it would take 10 years to become mainstream. Now I think it might go faster.
