WIN

Creating a successful esports league from scratch is no easy task. But less than one year into its WINNERS League endeavor, WIN has already established itself as a major player in the space.

Following the conclusion of WINNERS League’s second season, the team behind WIN is already hard at work not only in setting up for its biggest season of play yet, but also to begin bringing that success to live event spaces.

WINNERS League stands apart as a premier online competition. WIN.gg has partnered with FACEIT once again for WINNERS League Season 3, which is shaping up to be the league’s most dynamic and competitive season yet.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams from Europe and North America will be competing for a share of a $50,000 prize pool. The competition has three divisions, making it accessible for players of all levels. Players will range from up-and-coming competitors looking to work their way up the ladder to seasoned veterans wanting to make a statement and add to their trophy cases.

WINNERS League project lead Nick Gorbunov has seen many teams and players make great strides while taking part in the competition, and he projects a clear excitement for the future direction of the league and how it will continue to help players advance in their careers.

“We’re happy to be able to contribute to players’ development and to shine a spotlight on new and upcoming talents.

As the league grows, these teams will only get more opportunities for greater exposure,”WINNERS League project lead Nick Gorbunov said.

The majority of the prize money will go towards the league’s invitational divisions to incentivize some of the world’s best pro Counter-Strike teams to compete. But there will also be financial rewards for amateur and semi-pro teams who find success in the league, as well as opportunities to move to higher divisions and compete against the best pro players on the planet.

“We are proud of the competition that happens on our circuit. Players have told us that they’re hungry for quality competition, and we’re excited to be able to bring that to them both now and in the future,” Gorbunov said.

Gorbunov added that WINNERS League aims to improve its players’ experience each season. Strides made between the first and second seasons were tremendous, and Gorbunov expects that the league’s third season will see another big step forward as WINNERS League becomes better entrenched as a premier competition both in esports broadly and specifically for CounterStrike players and fans.

Season 3 will begin on October 20 and will be played over the course of 10 weeks. The first seven weeks will feature a group stage format, with teams battling each other as they jockey for playoff positioning. This setup allows players to get plenty of experience playing and ensures that only the best teams will be able to move on. There are no flukes in WINNERS League.

WINNERS League integrates with WIN.gg media platform With the competition having been established, the next logical step for WIN was to connect WINNERS League to its other successful product, WIN.gg.

WIN.gg is a news and statistics platform that has, in just over six months, already established itself as being among the industry’s leaders with more than half a million monthly visits. The platform covers the most popular games in the industry, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, and more.

WIN.gg also boasts advanced data and analytics, allowing its users to see the stats behind the esports world’s best teams and players. It’s something that WIN is now looking to apply to its WINNERS League competitions, allowing players to track performance over the course of play in the league.

WIN CEO Serge Vardanyan is excited about the possibilities and what this could mean for the future of esports.

“There’s a tremendous future available to us with this sort of analytics work,” Vardanyan said. “Allowing players to analyze their own play is a service that we are very excited to provide, and we expect that players will be equally excited to experience it.”

This partnering of services also allows WIN to better take advantage of having a strong mix of complementary products. With WINNERS League now hosted on the WIN.gg platform,

competing players are exposed to the news coverage and stats database of WIN.gg. Curious visitors to WIN.gg are similarly exposed to the league and to the opportunity to compete in it.

“This is the sort of synergy we’ve been aiming to provide from the very start, and we are happy to see it coming to fruition now,”Vardanyan said.

With a growing database already featuring over 16,000 players and more than 6,000 teams, it’s not hard to see the potential here. A successful launch of both iOS and Google apps further strengthens the case WIN is making to be seen as a major player in the space. And as the company continues to do work like this, that case will soon be undeniable.