As mid-January approaches, the first notable Counter-Strike events of 2019 will soon be underway, and of course, all 13 global League of Legends competitions. The latter includes the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), which now has 10 long-term partner teams and a complete branding revamp. Jakob Lund Kristensen of RFRSH Entertainment came on the TEO Podcast to speak to both these developments, as both owner of two regonizable esports teams, and a growing tournament IP.

Making a Counter-Strike Tournament Stand Out

Before he co-founded RFRSH Entertainment and took the role as EVP Sales, Jakob Lund Kristensen ran Copenhagen Wolves . In its prime, the Danish esports team organization hosted a roster in the LEC’s predecessor, the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS), and its Counter-Strike team once featured three members of Astralis , the current #1 ranked squad.

“I was the one who brought together Xyp9x, dupreeh, and dev1ce, back then. But I couldn’t keep them,” said Kristensen, explaining that the player’s salaries were coming out of his own pocket. Later, the trio returned, interested in building something new. “I pitched the investment in to Sunstone Capital, at the time. Tried to go mainstream VC funding, which I didn’t actually think was going to work, but it did. Then together with the players, and Frederick Byskov, I created Astralis, which became RFRSH Entertainment later on…”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”By getting mainstream attention on Counter-Strike, our competitors are also getting mainstream attention.”[/perfectpullquote]

RFRSH announced the first iteration of its BLAST Pro Series tournament brand in July 2017. The single day esports event has moved from its home in Copenhagen, to Istanbul and Lisbon, with the first United States and South American dates on the 2019 calendar. The events all feature a unique setup: three group stage matches are played simultaneously, with the audiences given headphones to switch between the action.

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“What’s been very important for us from day one is we’ve always been talking to competitors on the team, and tournament level,” said Kristensen. “Our vision is to raise the tides, so all boats go up. By getting mainstream attention on Counter-Strike, our competitors are also getting mainstream attention. When we inked the deal with TV2 here in Denmark, the following consequence was that ESL and DreamHack also got a deal to be shown on TV.”

Valve , the publisher of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is notably hands-off when it comes to running esports events. This means any company can throw their hat into the ring. . “From an egotistical viewpoint, I would like to keep the current system,” said Kristensen. “I think that is what is so exciting about Counter-Strike, that you aren’t getting in other esports: that people are willing to commit time and money to try and reinvent this thing.”

On the hot-seat question of whether RFRSH would ever seek to run a Major—a Valve sanctioned competition typically awarded twice a year—Kristensen’s answer was along the lines of “never say never,” but he noted that the radically different format would pose a challenge for the BLAST Pro Series. “There is also the issue of us owning a team, which would probably be seen as a problem by Valve.”

Playing at the “xPeke” of European League of Legends

In March 2018, Riot Games announced it would be introducing a franchise-style system for its professional European League of Legends competition. The final selection of team owners would need to pay €8M-€10.5M ($9.2M-$12M USD), with the latter, higher fee for newcomers. RFRSH Entertainment made the cut, but chose not to extend the Astralis name.

“Our initial thought process was to create something new,” said Kristensen. In the early parts of the process, all applicants were under strict NDAs, and when Kristensen spoke to Enrique “xPeke” Martinez, he hoped that he would get to compete against him next year. However the Origen founder said that things hadn’t actually worked out, in that regard. “It was very clear to us that Origen was built on many of the same core principles as Astralis was. By the players, for the players, so to speak.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]I told him [Enrique ‘xPeke’ Martinez] straight from the beginning, there’s no way we’re touching Origen if you’re not a part of it[/perfectpullquote]

“I told him straight from the beginning, there’s no way we’re touching Origen if you’re not a part of it,” continued Kristensen. “The more I talked to him, it just became clear that the one thing xPeke feared more than anything in the world was disappointing his diehard fans…he came into this with an open mind, and he wanted to do it more than anything to give the fans the Origen they deserved.”

On top of removing relegation and promotion, the whole setup of the league includes revenue sharing, and other incentives for partners. “What’s interesting here for us is we’re actually taking a step into something where a lot of it is very dependant on Riot.” “Yes, we’re getting revenue share off a pool, but it’s Riot’s responsibility to make sure that there’s money in that pool. We can create great players, we have great games, and draw a lot of viewers, but viewers doesn’t equal money. You need to monetize it.”

RFRSH is already leveraging its standing to build up Orgien; last week, it was announced that former Astralis sponsor Audi would now feature on the jerseys of Origen. On the surface, it’s not surprising that a German car brand would prefer fantasy battles to guns, but the LEC also caters to a more global audience than the Nordic focused Astralis. “We had something else for them, that fit a little bit of a different target demographic…but in the same target infrastructure.”

The TEO Podcast is available on both iTunes and Spotify.