North American organisation Envy Gaming has bought into FLASHPOINT, the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league operated by FACEIT.
Team Envy will be the seventh founding team of the league, with a buy-in cost of $2 million (£1.55 million).
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Team Envy joins Immortals Gaming Club (owner of MIBR), OverActive Media (owner of MAD Lions), Cloud9, Gen.G, Dignitas, and c0ntact Gaming as a founding partner of the team-owned league.
Mike Rufail, Owner and CEO of Envy Gaming, spoke on the venture in a release: “We’re excited about the future of competitive Counter-Strike. Team Envy has been a fixture in the game for five years. With a new roster and a new home for our team in FLASHPOINT to start 2020, we expect to write the next chapter in our Counter-Strike legacy for Envy fans everywhere.”
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FLASHPOINT describes itself as a “unique entertainment product” that was devised to “address the core issues” that threatens CS:GO: “a lack of stability and long term investment and the immediate threat to team organizations of the establishment of a tournament organiser monopoly.”
According to the league’s official website, it will have 10 founding partner teams for its inaugural season; this means that three more teams are yet to buy into the league. Envy Gaming operates in Overwatch League with Dallas Fuel and Call of Duty League with Dallas Empire.
Esports Insider says: This is a league for organisations with significant backing and Envy Gaming has proven its fondness of exclusive leagues through its involvement with Activision Blizzard’s two franchised competitions. With those things in mind, this move makes sense – Team Envy has to treat CS:GO as a priority again if it wants to avoid the pesky $100K fines from FLASHPOINT, though.