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The World eSports Association has finally been announced after multiple leaks throughout the week.
Billed as open and inclusive organisation, the main aim of the group is to further professionalise the eSports world. They will do this by introducing elements of player representation, standardized regulations, and revenue sharing for teams. By doing all of this they hope to be able to create more predictable and effective schedules and events, among other things. The first competition to work under the new WESA guidelines will be the ESL Pro League.
The organisation has been in the works for 18 months, with ESL, Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, G2 Esports, Faze, Mousesports and Ninjas in Pyjamas all being founding members.
The formation of WESA is a critical milestone on our way to grow esports globally, and we’re incredibly excited to work with some of the world’s best professional teams” said Ralf Reichert, Managing Director at ESL. Their continuous support to the formation and structuring of the Association only further cemented our belief that esports is well on its way to become the leading source of entertainment of gaming fans around the world.”
The WESA organisation also features a player’s council, that will feature at least one player from each team. All the players will be able to vote on their player representatives. This will give players a direct voice in all WESA decision making, and allow them to voice opinions on league policies, rulesets, player transfers and more. Interestingly at the announcement event in London, standardisation across player contracts was mentioned, although further details are currently scarce.
It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a part of the esports industry, and its rapid growth in just a few years has made it very clear: there’s growing and more pressing need to structurize it, both on the tournament organizer’s side as well as on the players’ side”, said Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund of team Ninjas in Pyjamas. WESA will offer us a platform to do just that – organize our work and careers, build a network of safety, and offer a solution to business and legal disputes.”
The ESL Pro League will still be open to non WESA members, and WESA teams will still be able to compete in other non WESA sanctioned tournaments. Reichert was very clear that WESA will not be running member exclusive leagues, or any competitions, they will just sanction other leagues. He also stated that WESA will not cover all teams and games, instead focusing currently on the CS:GO world and on the top, multi team organisations that have a history of developing strong talent.
