Electronic Sports League

Electronic Sports League
Formerly Deutsche Clanliga
Sport PC and console video games
Founded 1997
CEO Ralf Reichert
Continent Europe
Official website http://www.esl.eu/

The Electronic Sports League (ESL, formerly ESPL) is an E-sports league, which is operated by Turtle Entertainment in Cologne.[1][2][3] In 1997, today's CEO, Ralf Reichert, founded the Deutsche Clanliga (DeCL) with partners. It was renamed in 2000, making it the oldest league of its kind in the world.[2][3][4][5] Today it has more than 5,000,000 registered members and consists of over 1,000,000 teams, which have played over 22,5 million games[6] in addition to leagues and tournaments and VERSUS, the ESL's own matchmaking. The ESL supports over 50 games in different genres, where the best players in various national and international leagues can play for prize money.[6] Games are broadcast on ESL TV, the IPTV station of the ESL, or played publicly on conventions such as Gamescom or CeBIT.[7][8]

Structure

The ESL is represented at both the national and international level:

National Competitions

With the following brands ESL is active at the national level :

International Competition

With the following brands ESL is active at the international level in 15 European countries:

Competitions

ESL Ladder

The ESL Ladder allows new participants (teams or individual players) to enter at any time, and individual encounters can be generated between the counter-parties by a pronounced demand at any time. There is also the possibility of encounters by the ESL Instant Challenger (short EIC), the Challenger Smart ESL (short ESC) or ESL Auto Challenger to let (short EAC) generate.

ESL Amateur Series

An ESL Amateur Series will be opened when there is a great need on the part of players in a game and the relevant Competition or if they have found wealthy sponsors. The series is played after Round ESL system, which means that will be fought in several divisions, in which you can get on and off . Each participant that the Premium - and Trusted status has allowed to log on at any time for the EAS . In addition , a team or player in the ESL Ladder every possible week without existing Premium membership in the EAS ascend. Through successful games in the ESL Amateur Series, teams and players qualify for the professional part of the ESL, the ESL Pro Series .

ESL A Series

In the A-Series is both nationally and internationally possible to qualify for higher tournaments such as the EMS One or the German EPS. The system is similar to the ESL Amateur Series, but there are in the A-Series Open any competitive matches. In the A-Series Premier in which it is possible to qualify for higher tournaments, there is a competitive game per week as well as an ESL Premium restriction.

ESL Pro Series

Main article: ESL Pro Series

The ESL Pro Series is the "pinnacle" of the Electronic Sports League, and the e-sports equivalent of the Football League.

In the ESL Pro Series following games are currently played:[9]

ESL Pro League

Main article: ESL Pro Series

The ESL Pro League is the highest international league of the Electronic Sports League in the discipline Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Play 16 European top teams per season to $48,000.

ESL Major Series

The ESL Major Series (EMS) is an association of international pro leagues, in which participants duel in games that are not supported in the' 'EPS . The predecessor of the EMS was the IPS (International Premiership Series). The EMS is positioned directly under the Intel Extreme Masters. While some games offline finals or encounters can have in the TV studio, the ESL Major Series is discharged mainly online so that everyone can easily participate and watch from your home.

ESL WC3L Series

The ESL WC3L Series began on 12 December 2002. It is the highest Warcraft III Clan League of ESL, in which each season the twelve best teams compete in qualifying tournaments and relegation to a prize of 30,000 euros.

Counter-Strike Champions League

The Counter-Strike Champions League represented the European Counter-Strike League. In it the best teams competed against each other from across Europe.

CSCL has been replaced by the Intel Extreme Masters for Europe's best clans in Counter-Strike, and the best individual players in Warcraft III. The Intel Extreme Masters differ from the Counter-Strike Champions League in the first place by a highly doped prize money and a Europe-wide e-Sport Tour: the so-called Global Challenges. In a figurative sense as the UEFA Champions could be the Intel Extreme Masters thus denote League of gaming.

Intel Extreme Masters

Main article: Intel Extreme Masters

The Intel Extreme Masters is the world's highest competition of the Electronic Sports League.

Trusted Player

The ESL offers the user the opportunity to be classified as a trusted player, a measure to prevent persons losing or gaining a bad reputation from creating new identities while identifying the real person corresponding to and online nickname. In the ESL Trusted player status is increasingly required.

With the introduction of Trusted per the merger of the former four trust level is planned. When this is implemented is not fixed yet. There should only be two stages Trust then loudly Operator: Trusted and Trusted Pro.[10]

Trust Level 1

To maintain this trust level, a letter from the ESL must be requested, in which a 20-digit code is found. This is to be entered on the ESL page. In addition, this letter contains a Player Card, which you can 'identify on ESL events such as the' 'Intel Friday Night Games'. The trust level costs 8,95 € and must be renewed every three years.

Trust Level 2

This trust level requires entering the identity card number and free. The number is not saved and it is required that the user already has TrustLevel 1.

Trust Level 3

To be Trusted to Player 3, you have a copy of the identity card and a signed consent form stating that you stick to the rules of ESL and only one user account has to send to the ESL. One can the necessary documents on an ESL event, e.g. Intel Friday Night Game, leave. In both versions, a processing fee of about 2 euros is required. Again, the identity card copy is destroyed immediately after the review. Trusted Player 3 can also, for example, Children are a valid passport or a passport. There is thus no passport needed to be Trusted Player 3. The waiting time to be Trust Level 3, takes about three to ten days.

Trust Level 4

This trust level is achieved by ordering the ESL credit card. This credit card, technically a regular Visa card of Landesbank Berlin with ESL logo, available in three different colors and three different versions. For each variant cards fall different, often no fees. Those fees are explicitly charges for Visa card itself, not for the Trust Level 4. Because of the applicable fees and the associated unavailability of credit card and thus of trust levels, Level 4 will never be a required status for ESL League loud ESL.

The ESL Visa Card can not be ordered due to a redesign of the offer at the time.

Trusted Pro

In February 2011, Trusted Pro was introduced [11] In cooperation with the Deutsche Post is this trust level are the safest verification stage. The unique identification of the user is done by the E-mail letter. In addition to an application for the e-mail letter to the applicant [PostIdent] must prove his identity by. The fact that a contract is entered into with Deutsche Post, the applicant must be at least 18 years old. The price of Trusted Pro is 7.85 € under the Trusted 1-3. The validity is also three years. Trusted Pro members also receive a playercard.[12] Erstbesteller receive a special Erstbesteller Award, which is displayed in the Player Profile.

Operator

It is operated by the Electronic Sports League, founded in 2000, German Turtle Entertainment GmbH, which has its headquarters in Cologne. As the main sources of income are sponsorship revenue, online advertising, merchandising and international licensing business. Turtle Entertainment assigns to partners from across Europe licenses to operate their own national branches of ESL. Currently, the ESL is represented by 12 licensing partners. The majority of users, however, still comes from Germany. Top 2006 caused Turtle Entertainment headlines when the largest German competitor, GIGA League, and parts of GIGA were purchased himself. In the course of the GIGA-League has been completely removed from the offer. Since the end of 2007, however, Turtle Entertainment is no longer involved in GIGA.

In early 2007 Turtle Entertainment announced the cooperation with Chinese Online League Pro Gamer League (PGL), to establish the ESL in the Chinese market.[13]

Consoles Sports League

The Consoles Sports League was founded in 2006 and provides a platform for a professional setup and an organized game and league system. Players can find here teammate and Results in rankings and tables. In addition, the CSL organizes tournaments for console gamers with material and financial support.

European Nations Championship

The European Nations Championship is taking place since 2004 national team competition, where it is determined that nation, the best e-athletes in Europe. 2009 the ENC in the disciplines of Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, Warcraft III, FIFA, Call of Duty 4 and DotA instead. The final takes place every year in August at the Games Convention in Leipzig.

ESL European National Championship
Discipline Winner Second Third
2004
Counter-Strike  Sweden  Austria  Germany
Warcraft III  Sweden  France  Denmark
2005
Counter-Strike  Germany  Bulgaria  Austria
Warcraft III  Sweden  France  Germany
FIFA  Germany  Russia  Austria
UT 2004  Germany  Netherlands  Sweden
2006
Counter-Strike  Sweden  Norway  Poland
Warcraft III  Sweden  Bulgaria  Germany
FIFA  Germany  Hungary  Russia
2007
Counter-Strike  Poland  Germany  Denmark
Warcraft III  Finland  Sweden  Germany
FIFA  Germany  Ukraine  Hungary
2008
Counter-Strike  Sweden  Germany  Denmark
Warcraft III  Germany  Finland  Sweden
FIFA  Poland  Germany  Romania
Counter-Strike: Source  Czech Republic  France  Slovenia
2009
Counter-Strike  Sweden  Germany  Poland
Warcraft III  Denmark  Netherlands  Germany
FIFA  Germany  Ukraine  Austria
Counter-Strike: Source  Germany  France  Italy
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare  Germany  Finland  Poland
DotA  Ukraine  Romania  Bulgaria
Perpetual Medal
Space Land Gold Silver Bronze Total
1.  Germany 9 4 5 18
2.  Sweden 7 1 2 10
3.  Poland 2 0 3 5
4.  Finland 1 2 0 3
5.  Czech Republic 1 0 0 1
6.  Bulgaria 0 2 1 3
7.  France 0 3 0 3
8.  Austria 0 1 3 4
9.  Russia 0 1 1 2
10.  Hungary 0 1 1 2
11.  Netherlands 0 1 0 1
12.  Norway 0 1 0 1
13.  Ukraine 0 1 0 1
14.  Denmark 1 0 3 4
15.  Romania 0 0 1 1
16.  Slovenia 0 0 1 1

References

  1. ↑ Old ESPL page Web Archive
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 CrunchBase TE
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 TE on Games Industry
  4. ↑ CB - Ralf Reichert
  5. ↑ Cyclopedia - German Clan League
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 ESL Homepage - statistics at the bottom of this page Retrieved on February 4, 2015
  7. ↑ / ESL TV Homepage
  8. ↑ ESL gamescom 2013 Homepage
  9. ↑ http://www.esl.eu/de/pro-series/summer_2012/
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Official News http://www.turtle-entertainment.de/?home&news&1288totheTrustedProIntroduction
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ Official http://www.esl.eu/de/news/34243/NewsforChinaexpansion