ESL extends Louvre Agreement

Louvre Agreement extended to 2025.

ESL has announced the extension of the Louvre Agreement for another four seasons, till the end of 2025.

The Louvre Agreement, which is a partnership between 14 major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams and tournament organisers offering revenue share and permanent spots in the league as well as other ESL Pro Tour competitions to the members, first came into effect in February 2020.

The initial agreement featured 13 teams before the withdrawal of 100 Thieves, but with German team BIG and Brazilian side FURIA signing on, the Agreement now has 14 teams and will expand to 15 with Danish side Heroic all set to join in the latter half of 2022.

Alex Inglot, ESL Pro League commissioner, commented:

“This extension was agreed on unanimously, which reiterates the partner’s joint dedication to our goals of a peerless competition for fans, a stable environment for teams and players, and an attractive destination for investment.

“There is so much we can achieve now that we are working on a time scale of 2025 and beyond.”

American organisation, Team Liquid’s founder and co-CEO, Victor Goosens, added:

“Extending the Louvre Agreement is such a momentous occasion for competitive CS: GO.

“Not only does it symbolise a commitment by the partner teams to grow the competitive CS: GO space, it’s also a force-for-good in the joint efforts to strengthen the North American CS: GO ecosystem. It’s a display of what we can build together.”

The announcement that the Louvre Agreement would have 15 teams was made in October 2021 when ESL announced that BIG, FURIA and Heroic had made individual bids for their spot in the Louvre Agreement, which was almost US$20m. All three teams had to provide a “range of organisational, legal and financial information” when being considered by the tournament organiser.

FURIA and BIG were made immediate members of the Louvre Agreement, while Heroic will have to wait till the second half of 2022. The Danish organisation is currently being investigated by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) on allegations that its coach Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen used the spectator bug during a match.

The other existing members of the Louvre Agreement are: Astralis, Complexity, ENCE, Evil Geniuses, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, G2 Esports, Mousesports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid and Team Vitality.