Q: Did you ever discuss franchising with Valve for Counter-Strike, and why didn’t it ever happen?
WS: “I never spoke directly with Valve about franchising. ESL may have had those conversations, but I didn’t.
I was heavily involved on the board of WESA (the World Esports Association), which was a natural evolution of gentlemen’s agreements between teams trying to avoid calendar clashes. WESA evolved into the Counter-Strike open franchise structure, but Valve eventually pulled the plug on partnered teams and direct Pro League invites because they felt it excluded aspirational teams and players from the top level.
It was also hard to get all the teams aligned. The European teams were more cooperative, whereas the American teams played hardball around ownership structures. Finding the right balance between team size, viewership contribution, and revenue distribution is delicate.
That said, ESL and the partner teams got quite far. Participating in ESL’s partner system and sharing sticker money was at times more lucrative for teams than being in the LEC. A big part of that success was that Valve was not funding it, which forced everyone to focus heavily on commercial viability. Compare that to Riot’s LEC, where the primary objective for the publisher is using esports as a marketing tool to drive in-game purchases.”