Professional Esports Association

Professional Esports Association
The initialism P E A in black capital letters, surrounded by a black rectangle, slanted to the right and with a slight split horizontally down the middle
GameEsports
FoundedSeptember 2016; 8 years ago (2016-09)
CommissionerJason Katz (2016–2017)
No. of teams9
ContinentNorth America
Official websitewww.proesports.org (archived)

Professional Esports Association (PEA) is an American association of nine North American esports organizations. It was founded in 2016 as a member-owned esports league by seven American esports teams. Jason Katz was the league's commissioner from its founding until his departure in February 2017.

The association was created with the aim of having a "stable, healthy, long-term environment for the players".[1] It planned to institute an equal profit sharing system between players and owners, instead of relying on the traditional prize pool system. The PEA's first planned competition was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) league, which was scheduled to begin in January 2017 with a minimum $1 million prize pool.

In December 2016, a decision by the PEA to disallow players from competing in the ESL Pro League was met with opposition from players, leading them to issue an open letter protesting the decision. In response to the letter, the PEA held a vote on the issue, which ended with players voting to play in the ESL Pro League. As a result, the association suspended its plans for a CS:GO league, four months after its inception. In May 2017, the PEA announced that it would be shifting its focus from hosting esports leagues to "[contributing] towards a productive and profitable North American esports ecosystem".[2]

  1. ^ Vincent, Brittany. "The Professional esports Association officially launches in 2017". Engadget. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Observer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).