E-Sports Entertainment Association League (ESEA League) is an

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

competitive

video gaming Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback m ...

online league & community founded by E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA). The company is widely known for their

anti-cheat software Cheating in online games is the subversion of the rules or mechanics of online video games to gain an unfair advantage over other players, generally with the use of third-party software. What constitutes cheating is dependent on the game in ...

. ESEA features a system that allows players of all levels to play matches with others.

History

ESEA League began offering lessons to improve gaming skills in 2003 providing instruction in ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

'', ''

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games in which teams of terrorists battle to perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking, assassination) while counter-terrorists try to preven ...

'', and ''

Warcraft III ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos'' is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', after ''Warcraft II: Tides ...

''. ESEA created the first professional fantasy e-sports league in 2004. ESEA began its league history with ''Counter-Strike'', but later added ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...

'' (TF2) a game which gained more popularity after its adaption to "

Free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

" gaming. However, due to the relative lack of players in its TF2 leagues, ESEA announced its intent to shut down the TF2 leagues.

Viewing

ESEA League games can be viewed by fans as live streams from internet broadcasting channels such as eXtv,

Nova Spivack Nova Spivack is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. He is the founder and CEO of the early stage science and technology incubator Magical and co-founder of The Arch Mission Foundation. Spivack previously co-founded Bottle ...

's Live Matrix, TeamFortress.tv, streams on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

and clips on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The annual sponsored ESEA League

LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in sp ...

Finals are held in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Bitcoin mining incident

On May 1, 2013, a user reported that the ESEA's anti-cheat software was being used to mine

bitcoins Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distri ...

without the user's consent. This was confirmed by ESEA's co-founder Eric 'lpkane' Thunberg in two subsequent forum posts. As of the date of discovery, the claimed dollar value of bitcoins mined totaled $3,713.55. As of November 2013, ESEA has agreed to a US$1 million settlement, though a separate class action lawsuit is still ongoing.

Middle East region

In 2017, the company announced new server expansion in Dubai to serve the CS:GO community in

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. In April 2018, ESEA announced Rank S division for players in that region. Later in May 2018, ESEA announced the first CS:GO League for Middle East teams.

References

External links