On Monday, ESEA announced a new policy for the ESEA Invite divisions that should greatly enhance the professionalism and security of the league.
In what will require a $100/player deposit by each team with a title sponsor or organization, funds for travel to the ESEA LAN Playoffs and Finals will be secured. The deposit will be refunded for teams that do not make the playoffs, and will not be expected from teams who play independently of any organization or primary sponsor.
Below is the official announcement by ESEA:
Each season since we started the ESEA League, we’ve worked tirelessly to simplify and improve the process of competitive gaming while also trying to advance what teams and players should come to expect from a gaming company. Having made significant strides in those areas, we now feel we can begin to focus our efforts on further stabilizing, and in turn legitimizing, Invite divisions, teams, players, and the organizations that support them.
To that end we’re pleased to announce our first initiative which will be to require any Invite team that has a title sponsor (team name or tag) to pay a $100.00 deposit per player at the start of each season. The money will go towards travel expenses for teams that qualify for LAN playoffs and will be fully refunded for teams that are eliminated from playoff contention.
While the initial amount might not seem like a lot of money, it’s a step in the right direction and will be built upon during future seasons to help eliminate instances of players representing organizations for the entirety of a regular season, based on the promise of travel funding, only to be left out to dry with days left to book airline tickets and hotels at inflated prices.
CompLexity Gaming fully supports this change and provided this statement to ESEA:
compLexity is happy to support this new initiative. The player / team dynamic is an important relationship, and it is critical that players and teams uphold their commitments to one another.
More information about this change can be found by clicking here.