ESL, the organizer of tournaments, issued a statement Thursday saying it will make a special effort to make things better for North American teams. Ulrich Schulze, one of the company's management representatives, invited others in the cybersports scene to contribute to the task. The first steps in the plan proposed by the tournament organizer will include «a more» elaborate path for teams seeking to qualify for the ESL Pro League. In addition, the award structure in ESEA tournaments will be redesigned to put more emphasis on competition between teams rather than individual play.
The goal of these measures – is to breathe new life into Counter Strike competitions in the U.S., as they experienced a significant decline in 2020. Due to the pandemic, the American scene became isolated from the rest of the world, and several well-known teams decided to disband or move to the increasingly popular Valorant.
Ulrich Schulze admits that the move online due to the coronavirus pandemic was not the only reason for this situation – . The decisions made by ESL itself, in particular the abandonment of regional divisions in January 2020, also had an impact. Now the organizer of the tournaments plans to set up a working group to correct the situation.
