Citing A Lack Of Transparency, FaZe Clan Leaves WESA Only 2 Weeks After Launch

[toc]FaZe Clan, one of the founding teams of the World Esports Association, is leaving the organization only two weeks after its launch.

According to a statement issued to ESPN, the esports team criticized the external messaging and communication of WESA, and said the organization lacks transparency:

“We feel that WESA still has lots of challenges to overcome and we feel that right now it’s not the best place for us to be.”

What is WESA?

Founded by ESL and some of the most well-known esports teams in the industry, the World Esports Association’s purpose is to oversee standardized tournament regulations, player representation as well as revenue sharing for teams.

For that reason, ESL has partnered with those esports teams in an effort to further professionalize esports.

“WESA will offer the chance to bring all esports stakeholders – players, teams, organizers and broadcasters – to the discussion table in order to bring much needed structure, predictable schedules and transparency to the scene,” read a statement on ESL’s website.

The founding teams are Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.pro, G2 Esports, Mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and FaZe, the team that decided to leave the organization.

FaZe’s exit

The team’s press release noted:

“[WESA] doesn’t lack big metaphors of what it could be, but it lacks transparency on how to get there and that is the main reason for why we are leaving WESA.”

FaZe mentioned that it likes the basis of WESA and that it’s something it could be on board with. The team believes that an organization like WESA could help the esports scene to grow further, but that the current form is not the right one and that a larger scope would have to be adopted.

“After the WESA press conference, we raised the same concerns again and it was the first time we saw the external messaging and communication from WESA — and it concerned us,” FaZe said in its news release.

FaZe also mentioned that there was a sign-on fee to join WESA in the amount of $150,000, according to the community leader Scott “SirScoots” Smith, but that the team never collected it. However, the team denied the rumor that there was a penalty for leaving the association, which was reported to be $200,000.

The team joined WESA because it wanted to be included in the European Counter-Strike scene. The North America-based organization currently has a team made up of a mixture of European players, which it acquired from Spanish organization G2 Esports in January.

“We joined the CS:GO scene a few months ago. We’ve had a blast so far and becoming a part of this scene has led us to a lot of new friendships. It’s also been stressful and at times very frustrating,” the news release stated. “CS:GO is also growing so fast, and along with that comes a lot of forces and opportunities. One of these opportunities was WESA.”

Esports community is skeptical

Despite its positive message, WESA has been criticized by the community since its launch.

Apparently concerns exist that ESL, the organization behind the group, will have too much influence on the organization. There’s also fear that the association represents another attempt on ESL’s part to establish an exclusive Counter-Strike league.