Counter Strike has been a game built from the top down, in an inverted pyramid in which the few at the top, the best of the best, the trailblazers, have been able to set the tone and maintain themselves at the forefront of the international scene. But can local scenes follow suit? In this article, we tackle Spain, one of the developing scenes trying to make big leaps.

With the growth of CS over the past years, local leagues are trying to make room for themselves and impulse the game nationally and have it grow from the bottom up. Spain was able to do just that with League of NLegends, when LVP (Professional Gaming League) created a national ecosystem that now supports several dozen players and even imports them from abroad. The question now is, can CS follow suit or is it a different beast completely? That is a question that many local scenes are trying to figure out. What strategy should be followed? Which model is the best? Should it work as a microcosm similar to the international ecosystem, or should it follow its own rules? In Spain, a region that has proved, in other games, that national leagues can be successful, several models are fighting for viability.

When the LVP announced Counter-Strike would not be part of their repertoire of games for the first season of the Superliga, a revamped concept of their Division de Honor (the equivalent of a first division) in January of this year, it was a big blow to the community, who felt like the scene was floundering despite other projects by ESL and GAME, two of the three main competitors in CS:GO, being planned in the background. With little money, few opportunities, and a lot of disappointment, both nationally and internationally, the Spanish scene, like most small scenes that don’t have a strong legacy to fall back on, has been a breeding ground for burnout and frustration. Sure, it has produced some talents, like Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas and Christian "⁠loWel⁠" Garcia Antoran, but more often than not there has been a triangle of disharmony between players, teams, and tournament organizers—every corner laying the blame on the other—which has halted the development of the scene. With little money on offer, players have had carte blanche to change teams and lineups regularly and constantly, something fans and followers mockingly called the scene’s “weekly rotations.” In turn, tournament organizers blamed teams for not keeping players in line, and players blamed tournament organizers for not giving them the freedom to play other competitions that may have seemed more appealing in the short term.

Could a solid local structure produce more players like mixwell?

Without the power to control their players, teams have been unable to put forth serious projects that could last the duration of a season, and without a stable environment to build upon, tournament organizers have been unable to make leagues with a strong production value that would attract more viewership. That caused ESL Spain to stop their EPS and rethink their product, just like LVP didn’t include CS:GO in their lineup of games for their first season of Superliga to come up with a different approach that could make the game work within their framework, something that hasn’t happened in the past.

LVP proved that it is possible to create a strong local and professional circuit with League of Legends when they created one of the strongest national scenes in the world with both national and international players thriving and dozens of professional players earning salaries. So what went wrong with CS? “There’s not a single answer,” Sergi Mesonero, co-founder of LVP, tells us “but one problem is that to have a professional league we demand a very strong commitment from the teams. We want to make a product that can be broadcasted on television, and with CS teams we haven’t had that commitment.”

While it is easy to see how LVP has created, since 2011 and with Riot’s help, a very strong model for their League of Legends league, it can also be said that such a regimented structure may not work with the open circuit nature of Counter Strike. LVP’s focus has always been centered around storytelling, and being able to follow what happens from casual to professional—Riot even granted LVP a slot into the EU Challenger Series play-in—is what has allowed for this growth. The problem with this model, or at least what has caused so much strife between LVP and teams and players, is that Counter-Strike is not regimented and structured, and all the actors in the scene want to spread themselves across as many leagues, cups, and qualifiers as possible, and having all of those possibilities flying around doesn’t bode well with trying to tie things down into a single powerful national league.

Late last year, GAME eSports, the competitive branch of the videogame retailer GAME, also entered the space after acquiring the smallest of the three competitors in Spain, SocialNAT. Soon after they announced their first cup, which was played in October in Barcelona, where four teams played for over $8,000. Then, a few weeks later, the offline finals of their league were revamped with over $30,000 in prize money. Although unsustainable, and just chump change compared to LVP’s plans of creating a professional national ecosystem, it was a declaration of intentions and a welcomed boost to the local economy. If not more, it was at least an incentive for teams and players to get their act together.

Prizepools are starting to increase as tournament organizers focus on growing the scene

Right after LVP announced they would put their CS:GO league on hold, ESL announced a partnership with Movistar, a telecommunications giant, and presented ESL Masters Spain which is a rebranding of their ESL Pro Series and boasts a prize pool of around $24,000 for its inaugural season, which is quite an investment for a dysfunctional national scene. “We wanted to make a CS:GO league, and we have a lot of experience from the ESL Pro Series,” says Eider Díaz, ESL Spain’s brand manager, during an interview, “CS is the game with the longest tradition in esports and we wanted to make a serious bid.” “CS has always had a very volatile scene,” adds Adrián “Nertun” Gómez, ESL Spain’s competition director, “and what we’re trying to do now is show that it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way anymore.”

Not long after, GAME announced their project for this season, a league with around $20,000 in prizes—branded as GAME Stadium—which also includes Portuguese teams, and if all goes well, will eventually incorporate teams outside the Iberian Peninsula. “Local leagues geared towards top teams are starting to not make much sense, just like 100% online leagues don’t,” Manuel “Mago” Arregui, GAME’s competition director, tells HLTV.org “we have to give them a twist and offer teams something different. I’m sure teams will eventually decide which leagues they want to play and which they don’t.”

With players starting to make salaries, even if still quite basic, many of the problems that plagued the scene, like poor communication between teams and organizers, match forfeits, changing players on a regular basis, etc., are starting to disappear. More prize money being pumped into tournaments, matches being broadcast nationally on television through Movistar’s esports channel, and bigger sponsors working their way into CS has renewed the will of teams to be more serious.

It’s also important to note, though, that while ESL is being strict with starting times and schedules, they are also trying to be flexible and have a dialogue with teams so they can play other tournaments and qualifiers, something LVP has been much more narrow-minded about in pursuit of its perfectly structured TV-ready league. “The mentality is changing in some teams,” says Nertun, “information is flowing and teams aren’t waiting until the last minute to talk to us if there’s something they need to tell us. We know the calendar, and we try to adjust everything so we’re not overlapping. For instance, we let everyone who wanted to play the PGL qualifiers to the Minor do so, and it went very well.”

On the other hand, LVP has a more pragmatic approach. “Do we want an ecosystem that allows for teams in Spain to become professional, or not?” rhetorically asks Mesonero, “because the only way of doing that is by having a national ecosystem. Sponsors couldn’t care less about what happens when a Spanish team plays in Romania. They really couldn’t care less. Giants’ owner tweeted about that just last week. If we don’t bet on a main league that can lead the way, Spain will never get anywhere.”

Agreeing on the need for a strong national ecosystem, ESL’s Eider Díaz says that “it’s important to create a national scene so that teams can become better until they can make it internationally. Fostering the professionalization of the scene will make it easier for teams to make the jump, and we want to see whole teams make the jump, not just individual players,” as was the case with mixwell and loWel. Nertun added that it’s important for teams to try to play at a higher level as well, though. “It’s very important that they can play internationally, even if they get stomped in the late rounds of a qualifier, it’s important for them to play these events to know where they stand.”

loWel (second from the left) and mixwell (third from the left) pictured with gBots at ESL Expo Barcelona. ESL Spain wants whole teams to be able to make the jump to international play instead of just loose players

One of the main things I’ve heard from all of the tournament organizers in Spain right now is that when it comes to their CS:GO leagues, their priority doesn’t lie in getting very high viewership, but rather on creating good content and a solid foundation to build upon in future editions. “We’re not looking for a certain number of viewers or a specific audience,” says GAME’s Mago, “we want the teams to be comfortable and to start developing more things for future editions.” Similarly, ESL’s focus is on creating a strong product. LVP’s Ángel Quintana—one of the big backers of CS:GO in both his company and Spain—also shared that Mediapro, LVP’s parent company and another telecommunications giant, was looking for a strong product that would grow, not something that would instantly be completely self-sustaining.

At the end of the day, the crowd is the most basic element of growth for the scene, and every tournament organizer knows that. According to Enrique “AnubiS” Montero, who runs the Spanish esports news site Trasgo.net and writes for the sports news site Marca, the Spanish crowd is still very green and needs a guiding hand to introduce them to the teams and the players. Several tournaments running at the same time, with the same teams, could create chaos and muddle the storylines, putting new viewers off. While he does understand LVP’s stance, though, he also agrees that what has made CS unique at higher levels is the fact that the schedule is busy and teams are allowed to play as much as they can.

“It is especially important for tournament organizers to create a common calendar,” AnubiS says, “it’s necessary they all get together to not step over each other during online matches and LAN finals, and especially so the transfer market doesn’t open at different times. That has happened in the past and it really made the average viewer confused, since teams were playing several tournaments with different rosters.”

One way tournament organizers have tried to fill this knowledge gap is by also bringing international events to Spain, with Spanish commentary and on the channels fans usually watch. Events that could have just as easily gone under casual viewers’ radars. This has been incorporated into LVP’s strategy since they follow and bring content from League of Legend’s lowest national echelons all the way to the top. ESL’s strategy has been somewhat different. Since there is a gap between national and international CS, and national qualifiers don’t lead to international events the way LVP’s Superliga can lead to the Challenger Series in League of Legends, ESL has brought some of the scene’s well known faces such as Jonathan "⁠MusambaN1⁠" Torrent and Rubén "⁠TorPe⁠" Jesús Gómez Rodríguez to cast some of ESL’s international events and bring them to a Spanish audience in the hope that following international events will create curiosity around national ones.

That has been further fueled by the advent of big sponsors like Movistar, which brings a broadcasting capacity and media outreach beyond what ESL could have encompassed on its own. “I’ve noticed, especially since January, that both brands and media have started to pay more attention to us. I think that when they saw Movistar come in with such a strong project (several leagues, a TV channel...), it has given much more visibility and made people think there’s business to be made here,” says Díaz, “almost all of the Spanish sports media are now covering our league, which didn’t happen last year, when just esports media covered us. People go to the media before the organizers’ websites, so it’s important to have that information out there and accessible.”

ESL has put big name players like MusambaN1 on TV to captivate new audiences

With the advent of sponsors that have a strong reach to audiences and in the media, it now remains to be seen how big the actual pie is, and if there’s enough pie for everyone. Amidst the saturation, LVP announced on June 2 that they will be hosting the Spanish qualifier for ROG Masters, an international $250,000 tournament, within the framework of their Gamergy LAN where the COD and LoL offline finals will be played and where, historically, their CS finals were played. This falls into place with LVP’s strategy of trying to make something different, which is creating a story from the local online qualifiers, the local LAN qualifiers, and beyond.

While the industry seems to be booming, albeit not as much as many may think, the ecosystem right now is all about investment, and much will have to change if Spanish CS wants to start not even reaping benefits, but just breaking even. With players now fighting for better salaries as they see their rivals who have bigger sponsors start to raise the bar, even if just marginally—one example of that being KPI, who just announced that they will be seeking offers when their contracts expire on July 1 and have the added leverage of being the Spanish team that has made it through the Iberian qualifier and into DreamHack’s $100,000 Open in Valencia—organizations need to become better at finding money if they want to retain their squads. In order for organizations to find money, tournament organizers will have to make viewership grow, and players will have to become more media friendly and their commitment to the game and the overall level of competition will have to rise. In other words, all the cogs in the machinery will have to be greased and aligned, something which has time and time again proven to be a great challenge at a grassroots level.

ALEX & co., from KPI, are in a position to negotiate better contracts when theirs expire at the end of the month, as organizations are now willing to pay more for teams able to compete in the top leagues

Now, the wheels are turning. If everyone can push in the same direction and play nice is what remains to be seen. If the market is saturated, tournament organizers will have to find ways to create systems that will allow all of them to thrive on their own but coexist in competition. It has been said several times by the likes of mixwell and loWel that Spain is a country full of talent, so now is the time to create structures that can support and empower teams and players to improve, like it happened in Denmark.

While this particular situation is taking place in Spain, it is something that many other countries and regions that don’t have a strong national scene are fighting to create, and it is something that can help solidify the game from the base instead of from the top. Similarly, ESL has invested in the Adriatic region, announcing it will launch a tournament in partnership with Vipnet, another telecommunications company, to promote the game there. Also, countries like Finland and Norway have matches televised fairly regularly. What remains to be seen now is what framework will support a growth big enough to give the local scenes a noticeable boost.

Another question that emerges when trying to create a strong and self-sustaining national ecosystem is: what’s the end goal? Are tournament organizers trying to create an environment in which local players will flourish and move on to bigger things (i.e.: the international circuit), or is it to move around enough money and power to bring in foreign players to play in Spain the way North America does? Now that CS is starting to become more and more international with teams like mousesports, FaZe, and HellRaisers, the answer is not clear, but the importance of good communication must be considered and issues could arise in regions where English is not commonplace, especially at a time in which the foundations of the system are being rocked. Currently, 17 of the 40 players competing in LVP’s League of Legends Superliga Orange are foreign, and two of the teams do not even have a majority of Spanish players, which inevitably distorts the concept of a league based in Spain.

Which model prevails, what succeeds and what doesn’t, will be found out soon, but what is undeniable is that it would be smart for any actors trying to develop their local scenes to keep an eye on Spain and take note of its successes and failures in the present and the near future.