HLTV Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Podcast "HLTV Confirmed" discussed, among other things, the upcoming battle between the ESL Pro League, and the new league currently known as B-Site.
The podcast is hosted by industry experts Zvonimir "Professuer" Burazin, Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill, and Milan "Striker" Svedja, who were joined by FaZe Clan coach Janko "YNK" Paunovic to discuss several major developments in CS:GO. One of the topics they weighed in on were details regarding both the B-Site League, and the ESL Pro League, who are engaged in a war of some description with both leagues set to begin in March of 2020.
On the show, Striker began by saying that the B-Site league seems to be aiming for North American organizations that have recently acquired CS:GO teams, such as Dignitas and TSM, as well as previously established organizations MiBR and Cloud9. He went on to say that while B-Site has yet to get any of the bigger organizations to commit to their league over the ESL Pro League, they are still planning to try and tempt some of them over.
SPUNJ followed up on this by saying that even if B-Site is unable to land the bigger teams, that their main emphasis is on "Bringing a different way of experiencing watching Counter-Strike." According to him, they will be focused on trying to create good story lines between the teams, and provide their viewers with good content as well.
Burchill also brought up a potential concern of his, as he mentioned that there was a potential that teams in the two leagues could demand to be paid more and more by each tournament organizer. This could lead to an unsustainable inflation of costs. However, Janko countered this by saying that he believed that the competition between the two companies would instead force them to provide a better player and fan experience.
As far as the Pro League was concerned, they mainly touched on the changes which had been announced by ESL earlier today. Everyone was in general agreement that the changes would lead to better competition, though they were still unsure about which teams would be participating.
Coach Janko touched on this uncertainty, citing a lack of information about both the leagues. According to him, many of the top teams lack information about what each competition will entail, which hampers their ability to commit to playing in one or the other. All four then wrapped up the discussion on the two leagues by giving their vote of confidence to the ESL Pro League, though that was only based on the information that they had obtained so far.
There's a lot to take in here. Right now, it seems that even the players and industry insiders don't have the full picture of what the B-Site or ESL Pro League will look like. It will be interesting to see which organizations commit to which of the two leagues, and how the landscape of competitive Counter-Strike will be impacted as a result.
One of the more interesting aspects of the discussion were the details around B-Site's plans to try and bring a new viewing experience for Counter-Strike. It will be fascinating to see just what kinds of broadcast innovations they bring, as well as what other kinds of content they plan to put out alongside the matches.
As far as the Pro League goes, there are even fewer details. Essentially, we only know that their are some slight tweaks to the format of the competition. All in all, there is a lot to look forward two when both leagues kick off their seasons' come March of this year.
Source: HTLV.org Confirmed