ESEA League

History

ESEA League began offering lessons to improve gaming skills in 2003 providing instruction in Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Warcraft III. ESEA created the first professional fantasy e-sports league in 2004. ESEA began its league history with Counter-Strike, but later added Team Fortress 2 (TF2) a game which gained more popularity after its adaption to "Free-to-play" gaming. However, due to the relative lack of players in its TF2 leagues, ESEA announced its intent to shut down the TF2 leagues on April 17, 2019.

Viewing

ESEA League games can be viewed by fans as live streams from internet broadcasting channels such as , Nova Spivack's Live Matrix, TeamFortress.tv, streams on Twitch and clips on YouTube. The annual sponsored ESEA League LAN Finals are held in Dallas, Texas.

Bitcoin mining incident

On 1 May 2013, a user reported that the ESEA's anti-cheat software was being used to mine bitcoins without the user's consent. This was confirmed by ESEA's co-founder Eric 'lpkane' Thunberg in two subsequent forum posts. As of the date of discovery, the claimed dollar value of bitcoins mined totaled $3,713.55. As of November 2013, ESEA has agreed to a US$1 million settlement, though a separate class action lawsuit is still ongoing.

Middle East region

In 2017, the company announced new server expansion in Dubai to serve the CS:GO community in Middle East. In April 2018, ESEA announced Rank S division for players in that region. Later in May 2018, ESEA announced the first CS:GO League for Middle East teams.

References

References

1. "ESEA Stats". E-Sports Entertainment.
2. (2003-08-17). "E-Sports Entertainment Association". ESEA News.
3. Walker, Rob. (2006-02-05). "Double Fantasy". [[The New York Times]].
4. Hussain, Tamoor. (2012-06-29). "The five biggest problems with free-to-play gaming". CVG.
5. "End of NA TF2 League".
6. (2009-09-08). "EG.casey vs Loaded: an ESEA-I match". YouTube.
7. Gaudiosi, John. (2012-03-03). "Pro Gaming Captivates Dallas with ESEA League Season 10". gamerlive.tv.
8. Breslau, Rod. (2012-06-27). "ESEA Season 11 LAN Finals This Weekend". gamespot.
9. (2012-06-28). "90k prizes new CS:GO ESEA LEAGUE". HLTV.
10. (2013-05-01). "ESEA accidentally release malware into public client, causing users to farm Bitcoins". PC Gamer.
11. (2013-05-01). "E-Sports League Mined Bitcoins with Subscribers' Computers". Kotaku.
12. (2013-05-01). "E-Sports League Stuffed Bitcoin Mining Code Inside Client Software". Slashdot.
13. Michael Mcghee. (20 Nov 2013). "ESEA In $1m Settlement". Cadred.
14. (2018-04-18). "Highest ESEA ranking arrives to the Middle East for CS:GO". eSports Middle East.
15. (2018-05-13). "Sign up now for ESEA CS:GO Middle East League -".