Zero Cash Cups in 2024: Has ESL abandoned the "lifeline" event series?

Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of Dust2.us confirming that ESL would be "temporarily" postponing future NA Cash Cups to reevaluate the future of the event series. The milestone comes with little fanfare as ESL have been essentially radio silent on the future of Cash Cups, an event series previously described as a "lifeline" for the NA scene.

For context, back in October ESL's Product Marketing Manager Alexander "Aluminati" Rymaszewski told Dust2.us that ESL would be temporarily suspending future NA Cash Cups to study a potential restructure of the event series. This was allegedly done with a view on potentially offering something like a new ESEA Cash Cup Circuit that would offer a bootcamp for the winning team, something that was previously done as a tie-in with IEM Cologne 2023.

Along with this statement, ESL released a survey on October 20th asking for feedback on ESEA Cash Cups, with everyone filling it out being entered a drawing for 10,000 FACEIT points. With ESL seemingly set to take a hard look at Cash Cups following the release of Counter-Strike 2, what has happened since then?

Admittedly not much. While ESL would hold two more Cash Cups in December, they came with a reduced $4k prizepool. At the time ESL did not respond to Dust2.us' request for comment, however it is understood these rump Cash Cups were run with remaining funds for 2023 rather than being a conscious evolution of the event series.

This is further evidenced by the fact that there has been zero of these $4k Cash Cups in North America, or any region for that matter, in 2024 while ESL has yet to publicly comment on the results of the survey or what their own internal "study" has determined. In fact the survey is still open to participate in to this day.

With these facts in mind, it suggests that Cash Cups are unlikely to return to NA any time soon, a real blow to a region that also saw the prizepool of ESL Challenger League reduced by $20,000 in October 2023.

The real impact of ESL getting rid of Cash Cups is the evaporation of funds that allow semi-pro players in the region to dedicate time to the game while also in school or holding part-time jobs. Cash Cups injected $168,000 in the North American scene in 2023, with the prizepools going to players that are now in top teams in 2024, including those on M80, Nouns, and Party Astronauts.

Now of course ESL aren't obliged to run Cash Cups or any events in any region, they're a business not a charity. However, as North America is one of their largest markets they may be hurting their own long-term prospects by steering investment away from the region, especially at such a pivotal time with a new game recently being released.

FACEIT saw the largest number of league signups ever this season, while the daily player count of Counter-Strike 2 has continued to rise. Additionally, as FACEIT Pro League (FPL) has recently seen scandal after scandal with the #1 ELO players from both NA and EU being banned for cheating, now may be the time to shift focus back to team competition.

Dust2.us reached out to ESL PR for comment on the future of Cash Cups in North America, however they did not respond by the time of publication.