CR4ZY’s CEO revealed details of a purported franchised CS:GO league by ESL and supported by Valve in an interview published today by HLTV.org.
Antonio Meic claims that the player union, the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) is negotiating with ESL in the United States to create a franchised league supported by Valve.
Meic said that the talks are restricted to the United States for now and not Europe, where the strongest CS:GO teams are.
Meic concerned about how the league would be affect the competitive the ecosystem. “I’m not going to be paying $2 million to ESL for anything because what kind of sponsorship equity are they going to bring to the teams, what are the deals going to be like, and how fast can we recover the cost of buying a franchise spot?”
Franchise leagues have become a common model in esports, most notably in League of Legends and Overwatch. Call of Duty will also switch to a franchise model in 2020.
The CSPPA shared its concerns about the franchise model last week. They want the players to be involved in the discussion.
At the time of this publication, ESL and Valve haven’t made any comments regarding a future franchised league.
