New TO USEA announces $350k American tournament raising curiosity, skepticism
Seemingly out of the blue, a new tournament organizer called the United States Esports Affiliation (USEA) announced plans to host a massive $350k event in the United States that is advertised to conclude in an eight-team LAN finals. This announcement immediately raised equal parts interest and skepticism from the NA community as the prizepool and scale of the event dwarfs anything seen outside of events held by the likes of ESL FACEIT Group and BLAST in the region.
Additionally, a lack of details regarding who is operating the event, their esports experience, and ability to pay out such a massive prizepool, has left many scratching their heads and others calling the event an outright scam.
What is known at the outset is that the USEA promises an entirely open format for season one, with an unlimited number of American teams competing for the $350k over eight weeks of online play and an eight team LAN finals. Curiously, the format is something not seen for a number of years in mainstream Counter-Strike tournaments, with a one-map per week format with no veto dating back to the early days of CEVO Professional League.
To make matters even stranger, the tournament has banned players located outside of the United States from competing in the league, something that will likely alienate many teams, including the plurality of top 20 North American teams with Canadian teammates.
Overall, the tournament to many seems too good to be true while featuring a format and rulebook straight out of the early day of CS:GO, with the likes of Complexity GM Graham "messioso" Pitt and coach Joseph "muenster" Lima being some of the most skeptical large voices at the time of publication.
While it is still early days for the TO and the jury is still out for many on its legitimacy, Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" sat down with Ben Williamson and Michael Peebles for an extended interview that will be released tomorrow to learn more about the USEA and its promises.
