Report: eSports team union forms, outlines requirements for CS:GO, Dota 2 tournaments

February 14, 2022 By romas Off

Several eSports organizations have formed a Team Union, and are now making travel and prize money requirements for attending tournaments.

In an e-mail obtained by Richard Lewis for e-frag.net, sent to ESL, DreamHack, StarLadder, FACEIT, PGL, MLG, CEVO, Joindota, Dotacinema, One Game Agency, ESEA, ESWC, Dreamz Media, Beyond the Summit, Fragbite, and Gfinity, Natus Vincere CEO Alexander Kokhanovskyy introduced the teams in the union and outlined their requirements for participating in events in 2016.

The teams listed in the email are Natus Vincere, Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud9, Team SoloMid, Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus. Pro, Titan, and EnVyUs. According to the original article, players from those teams who were approached by e-frag.net said they were unaware that these demands were being made.

The email states that the teams will decline all invitations to Dota 2 and CS: GO without LAN finals, though the US teams will still play in online tournaments due to a lack of CS: GO LAN events, as long as the tournament offers at least a $30,000 prize pool for a league, or $10,000 for a single event.

The minimum amount of prize money for the teams to attend LAN events will be $75,000 for CS: GO and $100,000 for Dota 2, with travel support on top of that.

Additional requirements for tournaments include that prize money be paid within 3 months of the tournament, transportation to the venue from hotels, no more than one best-of-three and one best-of-five matches per day, and a dedicated bathroom for players, inaccessible to the public.

The requirements are for Dota 2 and CS: GO tournaments, but mention them as recommendations for Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone events as well.