Today marks a big day for eSports in general as the scene now has its own regulatory body.
Founded by the Electronic Sports League as well as other leading eSports teams such as Virtus.Pro and Faze, the World Esports Association (WESA) is a new regulatory body tasked with governing and standardizing one of the fastest growing sports on the planet.
A statement on the WESA website states that the organization will “introduce elements of player representation, standardized regulations, and revenue shares for teams”. Simply put, WESA will be to the eSports scene what FIFA is to the football scene, but hopefully without the huge corruption scandals.
WESA will be run by a five men executive board that will manage the day to day running of WESA. Out of these five members, two will be appointed by ESL, two will be appointed by member teams, and the fifth member, the board chairman, will be chosen by all four members. The board chairman will serve WESA for no longer than three years. As for tournaments, the first tournament that will abide by WESA rules will be the ESL Pro League’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament.
Of course, WESA’s formation does not mean that all eSports leagues must now adhere to its rules as the governing body is still in its infancy. Whether or not WESA will become the official governing body of eSports in general depends on whether or not non-ESL run leagues will agree to the rules and systems laid out by WESA. If enough leagues are agreeable to WESA’s systems and requirements, WESA may be able to standardize eSports globally.