PEA to launch with $1m league

PEA is the second association to emerge this year after WESA which was launched by six European, two North American teams, and ESL. The owner-operated PEA, whose founding members are TSM, Cloud9, Liquid, CLG, Immortals, NRG, and Complexity, went public today with the aforementioned seven North American teams.

The organization will be unique as the players will get 50% of the share while the other half goes to the owners. The casters are also not overlooked as they will receive the share equal to a player.

Players representatives will have a seat on the Rules Committee which will rule on things such as tournament formats, rules, and prize distribution. They will also be on the Grievances Committee, "which will certify that all player concerns are heard and resolved in a timely manner."

PEA will start their operation with a $1 million league which will have a ten-week season. The first season of the league will offer $500,000.

The commissioner Jason Katz and team CEOs explained the reasons behind launching this association as they highlighted the relationship between the players and owners.

"The PEA represents something new in eSports – an association of top teams running their own league and sharing the profits and the decision-making with the players. This has been the architecture of traditional major sports leagues for many decades, but it is a new evolution for eSports. This will allow us to finally build a stable, healthy, long-term environment for the players, the community, the media and the sponsors." said Jason Katz, PEA Commissioner.

"This marks the end of the 'Wild West' days of eSports. The community and players want stability and dependability. Leagues come and go, teams join them and depart, but with the PEA, the teams are making a long-term commitment to be here, playing for the fans, for the indefinite future." said Jack Etienne, CEO of Cloud9.

"It's time for leagues to share the rewards and strategic decisions with the players, and the best way for team organizations to do that is for us to do it ourselves. The PEA is a vehicle for us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the players, doing what we all love." said Andy Dinh, CEO of TSM.

"Publisher leagues and third-party tournament organizers aren't sharing profits with the players and teams. This is hindering the potential for eSports to rival other professional sports leagues, where players and teams are all aligned to put on the best show year after year." said Steve Arhancet, co-CEO of Team Liquid.

BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.