The trend of sports club entering esports continues with the Swiss FC Lausanne-Sport absorbing Qualitas Helvetica and rebranding it to LS Esports.
Qualitas Helvetica housed several local teams in CS:GO, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Rocket League. According to the French press release, LS will be looking to provide training for young gamers aiming to make their start in the esports world. This makes sense as the club already runs soccer camps dubbed “LS Academy Camps” for kids aged 7-14 looking to get better at soccer.
LS have made a different move when compared to other Swiss soccer clubs like FC Luzern and St. Gallen by having teams in more popular titles. The latter two currently only field players in FIFA.
In the same press release, the club expresses its desire to ” develop the Lausanne-Sport brand, to attract a young audience to the Pontaise and the new complex of La Tuilière in the summer of 2019.” The Pontaise refers to the Pontaise Stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland which is FC Lausaunne’s home turf.
The football club plans to hire all of their teams by 14 April at PolyLAN 29 in Lausanne and the GAMERS ASSEMBLY at Poitiers according to Alain Joseph, President of Lausanne-Sport and Frédéric Boy, President of Lausanne-Sport Esports.
According to the PolyLAN website, they have sold 1246/1255 seats and have 1509 pre-registered teams out of 1255 spots available. The Gamers Assembly‘s numbers are just as impressive, with more than 1800 players rand 17,000 “visits” in 2016.
Esports Insider says: As mentioned in our previous article on Israel’s dive into esports, support for start-ups is always welcomed and praised. However, when someone who is willing to help start-ups already has an established stadium and training center, it can be even more beneficial.