FaZe to leave WESA - Report*

Last week saw the announcement of the World Esports Association, an esports federation led by ESL and eight founding organisations, but the announcement was marred by leaks beforehand as well as subsequent controveries regarding the non-involvement of other tournament organisers, such as MLG and Gfinity.

This week brought no respite as further community outrage seemingly poured fuel on a hastily started fire, with representatives of the WESA struggling to contain the blaze.

Late into the American evening, entertainment and games website IGN released a report alleging that FaZe were going to leave the WESA following early demands of exclusivity, and would pay as much as $50,000 in penalties for breach of contract.

According to Kevin Knocke, producer of esports content at IGN, the situation unravelled as follows:

"According to those sources, several top tier teams have current agreements with talent agencies for representation. ESL was allegedly pressuring teams to exclusively partner with WESA, and FaZe wanted to retain their current representation. FaZe has informed Petro Fringuelli, acting commissioner of WESA, of their intent to withdraw from the association. They’re expected to publicly announce their departure next week," Knocke wrote.

Following the release of this news, journalist Richard Lewis tacitly hinted that he had heard much the same via his own sources.

A further, and less certain, rumour circulating as a result of this news is that ESL will also lose Major status going forward into ESL One Cologne 2016, although it is unclear if the WESA situation and that allegation are related.

This rumour actually got underway earlier when Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk of HellRaisers apparently posted a similar implication on his VK page.

Although nothing is confirmed as of yet, it should be noted that the lack of an announcement for an official offline qualifier for ESL One Cologne is a worrying sign, especially with that Major less than two months away.

*Update: ESL have confirmed that Cologne will still be a CS:GO Major.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter