With the CFPL transitioning into a franchised league, Team Reciprocity owner, Chad Larsson, compares the CFPL to the OWL highlighting a better opportunity.

Team Reciprocity Secure Franchise Spot in CFPL With LGD Gaming Partnership

CrossFire has a huge esports scene in Asia, with the majority of players from China and South Korea. According to Businesswire.com, CrossFire had 660 million players worldwide and is one of the most played games worldwide. As the game grew in esports, the thought of a franchised league would become a reality. With the CrossFire Pro League (CFPL) transitioning now into a franchised league, not every team that wanted in would have a spot. Recently, Team Reciprocity and partnered with one of the biggest esports organizations in China, LGD Gaming. This move allowed both teams to secure one of the ten spots in the new CrossFire franchised league.

“We’re excited to be partnering with LGD Gaming and to be a CrossFire franchise owner on the ground floor of what we believe will be a preeminent esports league in China. I have been a fan of Jie Pan and the work she has done since she founded LGD. Our partnership represents a big step for Reciprocity as this franchise will be among the first of many for us globally.” Founder and CEO of Reciprocity, Chad Larsson.

Better Opportunity in CFPL Than OWL?

With the recently announced partnership between Team Reciprocity and LGD Gaming, CEO of Team Rec took to twitter to show an interesting comparison of the CFPL to the Overwatch League. Since the OWL is a franchised league as well, he posted an image from Esports Charts which shows the comparison of some interesting variables such as:

Cost of Entry

Player Base

Peak Viewers

Average Concurrent Views

Hours Watched

Comparing the two, the biggest eye-opener is the low cost of entry into the CFPL franchised league compared to that of Overwatch. This is interesting to note as the new Call of Duty League which will be franchised next year also has a high entry cost ($25 million) which is run by Activision Blizzard. But there’s more potential for brand awareness in the CFPL considering that Rec/LGD would only pay $1.5 million dollars to enter the new franchised league. That’s literally $28.5 million less than the starting franchise fee in OWL (which can go up to $60 million). Here’s Chad’s tweet:

With CrossFire transitioning to a franchise league. I made an interesting comparison between the CFPL and OWL. Happy to be an owner and on the ground floor of the @CrossFireOnline franchise league! #largestmarket pic.twitter.com/9Ab08IWqOi — Chad Larsson (@ChadLarsson) September 29, 2019

Considering the viewership of CrossFire is higher, with a larger player base, the CFPL has massive appreciation potential compared to the Overwatch League. Some users who replied the Chad pointed out the “Hours Watched”, stating that “hours watched for OW is because they replay stuff non stop…not authentic”.

hours watched for OW is because they replay stuff non stop…not authentic — Taylor Bronsan (@ThaSportAccount) September 29, 2019

Whether that’s true or not, CrossFire is still a great opportunity for both organizations that they would have had to pay tens of millions more to enter the OWL. The partnership will also bring more Western attention to CrossFire which had been struggling to gain global awareness; most notably due to Counter-Stike: Global Offensive getting all the attention.