Update: Scott "SirScoots" Smith has responded to the PEA statement:
"Telling us that the PEA is not an exclusive league and that the owners will give the players the right to choose, but continuing to force a choice between PEA and EPL creates the same end result."
You can read the full statement here.
Additionally, WESA has offered its take, saying PEA's offer "boiled down to us terminating the NA division of the ESL Pro League," and the org "politely declined." You can read the statement here.
Original story follows below.
PEA, the Professional Esports Association, has decided to let the players choose if they'd like to compete in the ESL Pro League (EPL) or PEA's league following controversy that spilled onto social media earlier this week. PEA released a statement Friday in response to the team's players collectively claiming that they were not informed about nor had consented to the removal of the teams from ESL Pro League.
"The intention of the PEA League is to create a better league for both American players and organizations. It is not an exclusive league. The teams will continue competing in non-PEA operated leagues and tournaments," the statement said.
The "open letter" also acknowledges issues of oversaturation of tournaments in the Counter-Strike market and claims that PEA attempted to work on the problem with WESA, the World Esports Association; PEA says WESA declined. PEA outlines financial numbers, claiming it pays out more than EPL with higher minimum averages ($81,250 versus $21,428.57), which includes prize money and a minimum guaranteed profit share. Lastly, PEA states its "organizations unambiguously have the contractual right to decide where their players compete," but will "in good faith" leave it to the players to decide.
On Tuesday, Slingshot Esports reported that the PEA-associated teams in North America - Cloud9, compLexity Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, Immortals, NRG Esports, Team Liquid and Team SoloMid -- would be removing themselves from the ESL Pro League. Many of the teams have participated since the league's inception in 2015.
Following that report, five of those teams' players (a total of 25) published a letter opposing this action; Counter-Strike personality Scott "SirScoots" Smith fronted the group. They claim that they had not been informed about the removal by their team owners prior to the Slingshot report.
On Thursday evening, Team SoloMid Counter-Strike player Sean "seang@res" Gares posted chat logs between himself and Team SoloMid owner Andy "Reginald" Dinh regarding the letter, EPL and PEA.
Toward the end of the conversation, Dinh said he would terminate Gares from his player contract, which was enacted just several weeks ago, because of his lack of communication before the letter's publication. Dinh later published a Twitlonger, claiming that he felt the rest of the SoloMid team was misled by Gares into agreeing to the letter and that Gares had tarnished SoloMid's brand.
Gares and the remaining players later responded in their own Twitlongers, with Gares claiming that he had an in-person conversation over lunch with Dinh two days prior to the publication of the letter explaining his intentions. The players, for their part, claim they were aware of what they consented to partaking in and that Gares did not mislead them.
PEA launched in September, aligning the seven teams, appointing former Azubu COO Jason Katz as its commissioner, and stating that it would launch its own competitive Counter-Strike league. The association was in response to the World Esports Association (WESA), an organization of multiple European Counter-Strike teams and event organizer ESL.