Det er muligt at Cloud9, som vandt ESL Pro League Season 4, ikke er til at finde ved den kommende sæson af ESL Pro League. De er dog ikke de eneste, hvor også Immortals, Counter Logic Gaming, Team SoloMid og Team Liquid står i samme situation, men det er ikke med spillernes gode vilje. Det er derimod igennem deres organisationers samarbejde med Professional eSports Association ( PEA). Derfor har spillerne nu råbt op, og fået Scott "SirScoots" Smith til at poste et åbent brev for dem.

The Counter-Strike players of Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Immortals, Team Liquid, and Team SoloMid have jointly decided to publish this letter after recently being told by the PEA and our team owners that we do not have the right to choose where we compete and that they intend to prevent us from playing in ESL Pro League. We have selected Scott “SirScoots” Smith to represent us, and he is posting this letter on our behalf.

Brevet starter ud med at fortælle, hvad spillerne blev fortalt og introduceret for, da deres organisationer blev en del af PEA.

When the PEA was announced, our owners and Jason Katz, the PEA’s Commissioner, made it clear to the esports world that it was their goal to empower the players and collaborate with transparency. Andy from TSM said that the PEA had no intention to be exclusive and that it would share strategic decisions with the players. Steve from Liquid said that he wanted to see esports get to a place where the players and teams were aligned. Jack from C9 called us partners. Jason Katz himself said that the players would have a strong voice in every major league decision and that the PEA would make sure it reached agreements with us regarding our overall commitment to the league. He also said that the PEA would have the highest level of transparency in the industry.

Most of the players weren’t even informed of the PEA’s existence by their owners until the night before it was announced. Jason Lake’s celebratory Tweet of a group picture seemed like it was implying that the players and team owners were completely on the same page, but Pimp and hazed, for example, didn’t even know what the PEA was until the night before that photo was taken.

Dette billede som Jason "moses" O'Toole postede på Twitter er nok desværre ikke langt fra, hvad spillerne følte og vidste omkring PEA.

Spillerne fortæller, at de ud fra deres forståelse ikke var tvungne til at være en del af PEA, og de spillere som blev udvalgt til at repræsentere spillerne i kommittenten var Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, Spencer "Hiko" Martin og Jacob "Pimp" Winnech. Spillerne troede at en af målene for PEA, som de også blev fortalt i starten, var at de ville arbejde sammen med andre turneringsorganisatorer, så der ikke var problemer med planlægning og kampe.

Der er noget der lugter

Ved IEM Oakland begyndte rygterne at cirkulerer om, at PEA ikke havde været i kontakt med EPL, og snakken nærmere gik på at holdene skulle trække sig fra ligaen. Det var her at spillerne kontaktede SirScoots, som siden da har repræsenteret spillerne i denne sag, og han sendte den 7. december et brev til PEA, hvor spillernes bekymringerne blev udtrykt omkring det de havde hørt.
Reaktionen blev at PEA for første gang kontaktede EPL, men kontakten omhandlede ikke om holdene skulle forblive i EPL, men derimod at EPL skulle forlade Nordamerika og give PEA kontrollen som liga i Nordamerika. Jason Katz forklarede spillerne den 8. december, at enten skulle EPL acceptere forslaget eller så skulle holdene trække sig fra EPL, og kun spille i PEA ligaen, der skulle starte i 2017. Organisationerne og PEA ville nu bestemme hvilke ligaer, som spillerne kunne deltage i, og spillerne ville ikke have nogen indflydelse der på.

While it was made clear in our letter that we wouldn’t be comfortable being forced out of EPL, some of the PEA owners still scheduled meetings with their players from the 7th to the 9th to try and convince us that their new plan was in our best interests. While we were skeptical, we wanted to hear our owners out, so we attended to listen and voice our concerns. Some of the owners used a presentation document to pitch us, and we asked the PEA for a copy so that we could review it with Scott on our own time, but it felt like we were getting the run-around. One owner told us that Scott should already have a copy. Jason Katz said that he wasn’t aware of the existence of such a document. Another owner told us that he needed Jason’s approval to share a copy with us. Between the 7th and the 9th, we collectively requested a copy of the presentation no less than five times, but we never received one.

Spillerne konkluderede efter gentagende møder, at PEA’s forslag ikke var i deres bedste interesse, og heller ikke for communitiet, og at de ville forblive i EPL. Den 15. december fandt spillerne så ud af at forhandlingerne mellem PEA og EPL var brudt ned, hvor EPL havde tilbudt at dele indtægter fra ligaen, men PEA havde afvist det.

So, when the PEA and our owners first spoke more openly about their ability to tell us where we can and can’t play, we asked them what gave them the right. Their response was very direct: It’s in your contracts. This came as a shock — our owners had always given us the clear impression that we held the final say when it came to where we competed. In a profession where so much of your income depends on your performance and brand exposure, being able to choose where you play is vital. We expressed our disagreement to the PEA and our owners, and pointed out that what was now happening contradicted just about everything they had said back in September, but they still stuck to their position. As Jason Katz, who had described himself a few months before as a trustworthy and unbiased party, told one group of players: “Things change.”

Brevet i dets fulde længde.

Spillerne som har skrevet under på brevet er fra følgende organisationer, og de håber at de går fra 25 og til 35, hvis spillerne fra NRG og compLexity følger trop. 

Cloud9
Counter Logic Gaming
Immortals
Team Liquid
Team SoloMid

PEA er den Nordamerikanske version af WESA, hvor WESA har en lang række af de mest prominente europæiske organisationer involveret. Men mon ikke efter denne uges annoncering fra RFRSH, og denne tilgang til spillerne og deres valgmuligheder, at flere af dem begynder at overveje, om det ikke var mere fornuftigt at lave deres egen organisation. Forhåbenligt ser vi spillerne endelige tage deres kontrakter mere seriøst, og ikke bare se efter nummeret, som bliver udbetalt hver måned. Hvis du vil have en kort gennemgang af, hvad PEA egenligt er, så lavede Duncan " Thorin" Shields selvfølgelig en video omkring det, da den blev annonceret. 

Hvad mener du, skal spillerne bare gøre som der bliver sagt, eller har de medbestemmelse, da det er dem, som bringer organisatioerne resultaterne og fans.