Cover Image Courtesy: ESL Gaming - Helena Kristiansson | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: Liquipedia
ESL which has been in the news for allegedly trying to convince teams to sign a contract that goes against Valve’s guidelines have supposedly taken another step in the wrong direction.
Teams participating in the ESL Pro League will automatically be forfeiting their revenue share if they decline more than 2 tournament invites to ESL events or do not participate in at least 2 ESL tournaments within a calendar year, according to documents obtained by DBLTAP. If such a situation arises where a team forfeits its revenue share, then it will be split amongst the remaining eligible teams.
The above information is allegedly from a term sheet of the new ESL Pro League agreement, which was previously planned to be implemented from 1st January 2020 onwards.
In order to convince teams into signing this agreement which is being called as the “Lanxess Agreement”, ESL has invited at least 13 top-tier teams to Paris, France from 22nd - 24th January to discuss the various terms mentioned within this agreement, including a 4-year exclusive deal with ESL Pro League.
Late last year in September 2019, Dexerto had exposed a few terms from this agreement which reportedly remain unchanged till now, without being formally reviewed by Valve either. Some of these terms that clearly go against Valve’s exclusivity guidelines are,
- Limiting teams which are a part of ESL Pro League into playing not more than 60 days in a calendar year. This excludes Minors, Majors, Online Qualifiers, and ESL Pro League.
- Restricts the teams which are part of ESL Pro League from playing in tournaments and leagues which are longer than 14 days in duration (excluding qualifiers), besides ESL Pro League.
- Teams who want to be a part of ESL Pro League need to sign a 4-year deal with them, adhering to all the terms within the Lanxess Agreement.
Revenue Sharing has been a trending topic of discussion ever since it was reported that the upcoming NA based league “B Site” will be implementing direct revenue sharing with the players, up to a sum of $1.04 Million. Meanwhile, ESL Pro League will be sharing revenue with the teams, after taking a cut for themselves and ESEA.
If these reports are true, ESL might be in violation of what Valve stands by, but the latter has not given an official verdict on anything yet. Let’s see what transpires post the meeting scheduled between ESL and the teams.
