FLASHPOINT: what we know about this league?

Recently the community has been shaken up by the news that MIBR and Cloud9 preferred FLASHPOINT (recently was known as B Site) to their direct competitor, ESL Pro League Season 11, and their participation in the league will cost the owners of the organization $2,000,000 according to unconfirmed information. But it is not the most interesting about the new league by FACEIT. What else do we know about this league? First things first!

What is FLASHPOINT?

FLASHPOINT is a new CS:GO league with a franchising system organized by FACEIT. It will start in March in Los Angeles. The ESPN portal disclosed some information about the first partners of the league: six North American organizations that own their rosters. The list of the participants is represented by Cloud9, Gen.G, Dignitas, MIBR, MAD Lions, and c0ntact Gaming (recently known as CR4ZY). Their participation in FLASHPOINT excludes a chance to perform in the other CS:GO league, ESL Pro League Season 11. The latter will be happening at the same time as FACEIT’s pet project. In their blog devoted to ESL Pro League, the organizers of EPL said that they sent out invitations to their league to Cloud9 and MIBR, but neither of the organizations replied to ESL’s invites.

How much does the participation in FLASHPOINT cost?

And this is not a cheap pleasure! According to the information from DBLTAP, the affiliation fee for each participant is $2,000,000. However, we should take into account that two million dollars give clubs not only access to participation in the league but also the right to partially share the income of FLASHPOINT among each other. This privilege is given to both owners of esports organizations and players that participate in CS:GO matches.

Holding format

FLASHPOINT will have an online stage with additionally invited teams. The organizers are going to set the number of the teams as twelve. As it has already been mentioned, the regular season will be held in Los Angeles. As for the venue, there is no information about it at the moment.

There is an interesting fact: not all the twelve participants will get a chance to play in the league having bought a pass there that is worth $2,000,000. FACEIT will hold a preliminary qualifier with several stages that will let two best teams make it to the list of Top Twelve. Three regions will be taking place in the qualifiers: North America, South America, and Europe. At first, the teams will be fighting with each other at the open qualifiers and after that, only the best out of them will gain their slots at the closed qualifiers. There they will be competing for their slot at the LAN qualifier happening offline with a prize pool of $100,000. The winners will win the main valuable prize which is a pass to the FLASHPOINT league.

OverActive Media Corp., an esports organization, that deals with the corresponding audience, is dead set on their new franchise league. That is what was said by OverActive Media Corp co-founder and chief strategy officer Adam Adamou:

"We see B Site as one of the most foundational developments in esports today. OverActive Media sees this initiative as too important to the future of CS:GO esports not to step in and support it with all of the resources that we can bring to bear."

Competition with ESL

Now FLASHPOINT is going to become the main competitor for ESL Pro League. ESL has recently published a list of 24 teams invited to the league. It does not mean that the teams will become EPL participants for sure. Half of the invited team visited the ESL summit that happened three weeks ago. The following teams were honored to get invitations:

• Astralis
• Fnatic
• Team Liquid
• G2 Esports
• FaZe Clan
• Complexity Gaming
• Team Vitality
• North
• TYLOO
• forZe
• FURIA Esports
• GODSENT
• mousesports
• Evil Geniuses
• Natus Vincere
• 100 Thieves
• ENCE
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Heroic
• Renegades
• Sharks
• INTZ
• Virtus.pro
• OG

When ESL revealed this information, DBLTAP reported that esports clubs really did not sign any agreements but just go invitations to participate in EPL Season 11.

Alongside, ESL got involved in a scandal centered on the reduction of slots in the professional CS:GO league. Due to the difference from ESL Pro League Season 10, the eleventh season will include not 48 but 24 teams and half of the participants have been tossed out. Instead, the excluded teams got invited to ESEA Season 33 with a prize pool of $1,500 in each region and $75,000 in Global Challenge, the closing LAN final. As a comparison, we want to remind that teams were competing for $60,000 at the regional leagues of the previous season of ESL Pro League and the organizers gave a chance for the participants to play for $600,000 at the LAN final. Dunkan ‘Thorin’ Shields, known for his active position in the CS:GO community, became one of the first person to judge ESL’s actions in public.

ESL, America, Professional Esports Association

Three years ago the organizers of ESL Pro League started to confront some participants in FLASHPOINT.

Some North American teams decided to found the Professional Esports Association that can help us regulate all the unpleasant moments and create their own CS:GO league that can let them stop participating in ESL Pro League. The teams promised FACEIT to take part in Esports Championship Series. The list of the rebellious teams includes Cloud9, Immortals, Team Liquid, NRG Esports, Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming, and Complexity Gaming.

This decision led to the appearance of conflicts inside of organizers and teams. Some esportsmen wanted to keep on playing in ESL Pro League whereas the others insisted on leaving the league. Some time later, when the reputation of the Professional Esports Association had already been damaged, the representatives of the Association reported that the teams would stay in the EPL league and would not leave for Esports Championship Series. Due to the tension between the teams included in the association, it was decided to create the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA).

Change of course

An interesting and remarkable thing lies in the fact that the founders of the Professional Esports Association, Team Liquid, and Complexity Gaming, that have recently been conflicting with the management of ESL Pro League, are absent in the list of participants in FLASHPOINT. Instead of that, the clubs preferred participation in the eleventh season of EPL. The representatives of both of the clubs, by the way, were present at the meeting in Paris held by ESL.

What is next?

Due to the fact that FACEIT will focus their attention on running the FLASHPOINT league, their other famous championship, Esports Championship Series, will soon be canceled. Rumor has it that the process of development of the business FLASHPOINT is headed by Dan Fiden, the president of Cloud9 and Immortals, and also by Ari Segal, CEO of MiBR.