ESL have extended the Louvre Agreement, a partnership between the tournament organizers and 14 major teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, until the end of 2025.
The German company have re-committed to the agreement, which came into effect in February 2020 and was built on the premise of providing security and revenue share for the ESL Pro Tour with partnered teams.
Originally featuring 13 teams before 100 Thieves withdrew from Counter-Strike, the Louvre Agreement was recently expanded to 15 teams in a $20 million deal. German org BIG and Brazilian side FURIA both committed to the agreement, with Danish team Heroic set to join the fold in the second half of 2022.
Many of the best CS:GO teams in the world are part of the extended agreement, including HLTV.org top-ranked team NAVI, top-three side G2 Esports, fourth-placed Team Vitality, and the dev1ce-led NIP.
A press release states that, as well as extending the length of the partnership, the new agreement allows teams to generate “higher revenues” and aims to contribute to the rebuild of the competitive CS:GO landscape in North America.
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Another CS:GO initiative by ESL, the #GGFORALL program was announced in December 2021 as a commitment to women’s teams from the tournament organizers. The program includes a CS:GO circuit that has committed $500,000 in prize winnings for the inaugural season in 2022.
“Despite the global challenges and uncertainties of the last 24 months, I’m proud that together we have created something so dynamic for the CS:GO ecosystem,” said Alex Inglot, ESL Pro League commissioner. “The Louvre Agreement is a manifestation of a joint desire to create a sustainable yet ambitious framework within CS:GO – one that can serve to positively impact and influence the rest of the ecosystem.
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.”