Counter-Strike finally has a professional players’ association

A players’ association has finally come to fruition in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) was announced on HLTV earlier today. Spearheaded by avid player advocate Scott “SirScoots” Smith, the newly-founded association will be working in collaboration with the Danish Elite Athletes Association (DEAA), which is captained by Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth of Astralis.

DEAA CEO Mads Øland and legal advisor Michael Døi will be running day-to-day operations for the CSPPA with the help of seven founding board members, who are all players on pro teams from around the world. There are about 90 players that have already joined the CSPPA, and they’ll either elect a new board or confirm the existing board, according to HLTV.

Below are the founding board members.

• Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth of Astralis (Denmark)
• Epitacio “TACO” de Melo of Team Liquid (Brazil)
• Tarik Celik of Cloud9 (North America)
• Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski of Team Liquid (North America)
• Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert formerly of Cloud9 (North America)
• Chris “chrisJ” de Jong of Mousesports (Netherlands)
• Nathan “NBK” Schmitt formerly of G2 Esports (France)

“We will work to secure the best possible working conditions for players in CS:GO, while of course taking into account the special nature of the industry,” Døi said in a statement to HLTV. “Our goal is to represent the players in the best possible way and help the entire scene grow in a positive direction. We see a lot of possibilities for doing that.”

Døi said that players are eligible for membership as long as they are playing at an “elite level,” or presumably in the higher tiers of Counter-Strike. Membership numbers are still expected to grow as players learn more about the organization and its player-centric advocacy.