The Commissioner of the ESL Pro League, Alex Inglot, today officially launched a Request for Proposals process for organisations and teams looking to become a partner in the world’s leading CS:GO league. With Season 13 kicking off this week, the existing member teams and ESL have approved the search to identify the best team to join their ranks for Season 14 onwards, and help take the ESL Pro League to the next level.

Now in its seventh year, this ground-breaking tournament starts 2021 off the back of a record-breaking 2020, which redefined viewership levels and revenue potential for a CS:GO league format. While the vast majority of 2020 events had to pivot to online in light of the COVID pandemic, the ESL Pro League members laid the groundwork for a new governance structure, a new revenue share program and a new range of collaborative opportunities, which have already borne fruit. Notably, membership in the ESL Pro League also comes with benefits in terms of access to other top-notch ESL competitions and events, including the Intel Extreme Masters and ESL One.

“When the 2020 minimum revenue guarantees were set at the start of the year, no one in the scene could have foreseen the challenges COVID would throw up,” outlined Alex Inglot, who was brought on board to head up the ESL Pro League in August. “There was genuine trepidation about whether these lofty goals could be met in this new landscape, this new reality. But the year ended with us exceeding those seven-digit guarantees by nearly 20% and with each of our member teams walking away with six figures USD of fresh revenue. There were a few raised eyebrows! And with our minimum guarantees set to more than double over the next two years, we are in a very strong and credible position, as are our existing member teams”.

Hence the newly-launched RFP process: “Between us, Alex and the Teams, we have already had informal conversations and interest from over 15 different organisations, all from different corners of the world, asking about membership opportunities and how they can get involved. So it felt like with our foundations now in place and a strong financial year behind us, it was the right time to explore if and how we could extend this stability and opportunity to another team. We know the best teams want to play our league and take home the trophy, we know our partners and our fellow Members’ partners want to be part of the Pro League: we wanted to see if we could welcome another team into the project we are building together” added ESL Co-CEO Ralf Reichert.

“While the product that fans have watched on their screens has had to change somewhat due to COVID, we have seen and been involved in a whole new spirit of creativity and coordination in the way this ESL Pro League project, backstage, is evolving. We have a meaningful seat at the table, we have regular Member Meetings and working group calls, we iterate conditions and we collaborate on commercial projects. The first year has been tricky for obvious reasons, but encouraging in many ways. Everyone is now hitting a groove in terms of the best way to work, and I am bullish on what we can do together this year and beyond” underlined Evil Geniuses CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson.

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Any interested team or organisation that wants to learn more about the opportunity and the process can visit https://eslfaceitgroup.com/epl-newmember-rfp/ or can contact the ESL Pro League VP Operations on h.jagnow@ext.eslgaming.com for more information.