bsl leaves ESL as Tournament Director; replaced by crtmn
Jonas "bsl" Vikan has announced he is to step down as Tournament Director of ESL after holding that position for 11 months. He is set to be replaced by Alexander "crtmn" Nehr, who has spent over 11 years at the German-based company, most recently holding the position of Senior Product Manager.
bsl has resigned stating the need for a better work-life balance, something that esports has of yet been unable to offer, as the Norwegian former 1.6 player has two children aged three and five. In his statement released on a Medium post, he listed the time spent on the road as a major factor to his resignation:
During the last 11 months, I have spent 138 days on the road. I supervised 11 pro level competitions in that period, in Germany, US (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas), Denmark, Malaysia, South Korea, Poland, Australia and Brazil.
To do all this meant spending 4,5 months away from my two kids (aged 3 and 5 years). This works for some, but it doesn`t work for me.
bsl started in esports with a three-year long playing career during 1.6, starting his tenure as an international import for mibr. He later founded the legendary organization NoA, home to a number of Scandinavian teams, before moving on to become General Manager of the CGS franchise Berlin Allianz.
His replacement, crtmn, has a long tenure at ESL and has worked alongside bsl on various projects, including assisting ESL with regaining their first CS:GO Major tournament since 2016. In a statement released on the ESL website, he said:
After more than 11 years with ESL, I'm excited to move into the role as ESL's new Tournament Director. The experience I was able to gather throughout the years will help me to even further improve the quality of and around our tournaments in the future. I'm also looking very much forward to once again work closely with all the players and teams to strengthen our relations. I would also like to thank the ESL management team for their continued support and trust.
bsl ended his Medium post thanking those at ESL who had entrusted him with the position for the past year, but just before that he revealed he wasn't quite done with esports as "its fabric is too closely weaved with who I am".
