PEA newest decision confuses players in CS: GO competitive scene
Twenty-five Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players competing in the Professional Esports Association’s (PEA) upcoming CS:GO league have signed a letter detailing how both PEA and their team owners are acting against their interests.
The letter, which was released today, includes signatures from the full rosters of Cloud9, TSM, Team Liquid, Immortals, and Counter Logic Gaming. The players express that they are being forced by their teams to compete exclusively in PEA’s upcoming event, which prohibits them from competing at tournaments of their choice and indirectly causes them to earn less income.
Professional Esports Association was unveiled on Sept. 9, offering a major new $1 million league in the North American region, featuring revenue sharing and co-ownership for the eight founding teams. The association’s official press release also promised that the players would receive an unprecedented level of transparency from PEA, involving them in decisions regarding regulations, tournament format, and distribution of prize money.
The players describe in today’s letter that, despite the lofty promises of transparency, they are in fact being excluded from having any lasting impact on the tournament itself. This includes the idea of making PEA an exclusive league, which the players claim PEA guaranteed wouldn’t happen.
Things continued to deteriorate between the parties, and on Dec. 14 Smith sent PEA and team owners another letter explaining that none of the players he represented would be willing to compete in PEA’s league on the premise that it excluded them from ESL Pro League. PEA responded by requesting a telephone meeting the following day. In that span of time, however, PEA had elected to end the negotiations with ESL without consulting the players.
PEA has not given an official response to the players’ letter at the time of publishing. The decision to make these issues public is one of the first examples of players publicly rallying against their own teams for better conditions, and is certainly setting things up for an incredibly interesting 2017 in regards to player rights.
