Interview: ESL CEO Ralf Reichert on the new WESA governing body and how it will change eSports

ralf reichert interview esl pic 1

A few days ago the World Esports Association (WESA) was announced – described by some as the FIFA of eSports. ESL will also be working with this new eSports governing body to regulate leagues.
eSports News UK’s Oscar Pelling asks ESL CEO and WESA board member Ralf Reichert about the new organisation, how the player council will work and what it all means for the future of eSports.
 

If ESL is a part of WESA and a company that also runs eSports tournaments, isn’t there a conflict of interest there?

I think considering the general idea for WESA – and you could say the same for the teams – it’s actually the opposite.
Federations often have nothing to do with the people in their sport, which means that they are totally removed from the sport. We can see this as a negative in some sports, where the federation does incredibly badly.
What we chose was an inclusive model where players, teams, and leagues are in the same body. We feel that in the history of eSports there has been a close symbiosis, not a formalised one or factual one.
We are looking to formalise this relationship between everyone involved and to make it inclusive of all parties involved. It’s clearly more inclusive than any single entity out there, unlike the UFC for example, where one person has run the sport privately.
 

There’s currently only one league governed by WESA – the ESL CSGO Pro League. Will the WESA bring in more leagues in the future?

We are certainly open to that. If the right candidate – which has sustainability, longevity and multiple games – is looking to expand, we are certainly open to the discussion.
 

There’s a concern that as the CEO of ESL, you would be less inclined to let other leagues become part of the organisation…

Well it’s the same for the teams, they might be hesitant to get other teams in. I think this will be one of the things that will make WESA successful, to achieve the relevance and the size and the inclusiveness, to show that it’s the relevant body in this.
I think it’s a bit of a catch 22: if we don’t do it, we don’t have the relevance we’d need, so it sorts itself out.
 

How can a team qualify for WESA membership?

I actually can’t disclose too much about that right now, what I can say is that the process is built in a way that is based mainly off of sporting success. If a team is continuously successful, then that is basically a pass into WESA, and then there are certain requirements.
It’s less about individual votes from different parts of WESA, and more about a process which we hope to make public in the next couple of months. I think to be legitimate there, we need to be transparent about this and that’s what we plan to do.
 

“eSports is a very specific sport, it’s very different from other sports. At the same time we are trying to apply the most common logic from other sports, but as in every sport there is evolution – and I would be shocked if in two years’ time the organisation hasn’t evolved.”

 

For a budding team that is looking to join WESA, how can they prove their worth of they cant play against the top teams in WESA sanctioned tournaments?

That would be the same argument against the Champions League for example. In tennis, if you are not an ATP player then it’s very hard to qualify for Grand Slams.
I think in every single sport that is successful, the way into the system is actually much harder than being part of it. In that respect I think eSports is no different.
However, in traditional sport you need to invest tons of money, because it’s all physical events that you need to travel to. Whereas with eSports you can probably qualify for the ESL Pro League with mainly online competitions and not many offline ones.
I would argue in every sport it’s incredibly hard and expensive, and in eSports it’s only hard, so actually it has a big advantage compared to traditional sports. In traditional sport, it usually takes decades of practice, and in eSports it is much more inclusive, because if they have the right talent at the right time and place, sometimes just a year or two of really hard practice can actually allow you to compete at the top level.
 

The Arbitration Court is something we haven’t been given a whole lot of information about, and the way it interacts with the major organisation. Can you give us a bit more information on how it interacts with the players, committee and teams?

It’s fairly simple – it’s independent. The arbitration court itself is independent from the members and the body, that’s what every arbitration is. Jurisdiction is always independent in traditional democratic systems.
 

How serious would a team’s actions be before they have their membership revoked?

Time will tell.
 

There isn’t a specific criteria that can be broken?

I don’t think so – most criteria is based on sporting success, and usually you have penalty clauses for when somebody does something against the rules and regulations. But there is no extinction process in place.
 

One of the most vocal concerns is the control that ESL – as part of WESA – will have over the CSGO scene and how it could abuse this influence. What’s your response to this?

It’s hard for me to answer because it’s not concrete enough right now. I think the general concept is that this is something new which people can see being great or damaging. It’s very natural that people focus on the potential threats.
I think we were very aware going into this that it was going to be a challenge, that’s why we have done this press conference in the first place, to try to answer as many of those questions.
I think going forward what we are going to do is very closely monitor what the most pressing questions are and try to cater to those questions. My other executive board members took part in a Reddit AMA to answer as many questions as possible, so that going forwards we create transparency and trust.
 

Will that be a big focus for the association?

I think it is an integral part – without it WESA will not work. Time is the only challenge.
In an ideal world you do a Friday AMA every week where you can answer every question, but unfortunately time doesn’t allow for that. We will make sure to read all our feedback – this is something that absolutely everyone in WESA is committed to.
 

What will you be doing as a board member?

The board does pre-decision making, discussions with the League Commissioner who runs WESA, and gets into discussions with all the members. The board basically decides all the matters first, when they are not in a larger scale. To some extent it represents WESA too, as we did here at the press conference.
 

Could you give us more details on the player council and who it will consist of?

The player council will be made up of one player/representative from each team.
 

“Players will have a direct voice in the members meetings. So the teams will vote for a player to represent them – and that player will be able to go into any door they want to.”

 

And could that be a player or someone from management?

No, it has to be a player from the roster. Currently we are having a detailed discussion about whether or not it can be the coach, as of now we feel that that would be okay.
The purpose is for the players to have a direct voice in the members meeting. So the teams will vote for a player to represent them – and that player will be able to go into any door they want to.
 

How much power or influence does the players council have within the association?

Finding the best balance of power between the different elements of the association is one of the things I am most excited about. We want to create a system that has this triangle of power, somehow balancing itself out.
 

It’s not set in stone?

It’s a starting point. eSports is a very specific sport, it’s very different from other sports. At the same time we are trying to apply the most common logic from other sports, but as in every sport there is evolution – and I would be shocked if in two years’ time the organisation hasn’t evolved.
I think it’s important to be adaptive: in eSports this is one of the key criteria to being successful and we will try to do that. Do we know if we will be successful? No, but we will try to do it.
 

In light of the recent banning of three teams in the NA LCS, will WESA by comparison work for more transparency on these kind of matters?

First and foremost I think that Riot has done an incredible job of making LCS what it is and the rules around it. I think we are going to face some of the same challenges. To say if we are going to be better or worse is not the point – we will try and act as best we can.
We will have a greater discussion between all the three major stakeholders which will be an advantage going forward, but as Riot are trying something new, we are trying something new and we are all learning along the way.
 
Follow Oscar Pelling and Ralf Reichert on Twitter here
Image source: Matthias Huber

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