With the rapidly growing number of CS:GO leagues and organizations, many CS:GO teams have become concerned about player schedules and an over-saturation of events. However, during a press conference regarding ECS Season 2, representatives for the largest team-owned league in the world said that they don't see any conflicts with the other leagues in the space.

"From ECS' side, we see no conflict with [the PEA], just like we see no conflict with WESA or ELEAGUE, though the teams aren't owners necessarily," CSO of FACEIT, Kurt Pakendorf said during the press conference. "Members of our league have been agreed on, those structures and arrangements give us a level of comfort, and I assume it gives the teams a level of comfort as well."

The Professional eSports Association (PEA), a seven-team, owner-operated CS:GO league was formed in September. At the time, many assumed it was exclusively a league, though members of PEA who are also shareholders in the ECS clarified that the PEA is an organization that will build leagues, and each team that is part of the organization owns a spot in the league, similar to a sports franchise owning a permanent spot in a league.

However, that does not necessarily solve the issue of over-saturation. There are dozens of independently owned and operated CS:GO leagues and tournaments, from ESL Pro League to ECS to EPICENTER to the Majors, and teams are starting to sit them out.

"I look at it like, I think esports can still grow immensely," Ninjas in Pyjamas owner Hicham Cahine said during the press conference. "So from that perspective it's difficult to call it over-saturation, there can be a lot more.

"You have already seen over the past years, there are different teams that don't participate in tournaments. Our team doesn't participate in all tournaments. It's just not physically possible."

And while plenty of teams have begun to sit out tournaments that are either not worth their time or just too close to another event, there are other solutions. Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne said that there's more communication now between teams and leagues, which has led to players getting longer and more consistent breaks between events. But Etienne also said that oftentimes, thinning out the number of leagues a team can play in comes down to cash.

"The discussion of which league to drop comes up, and we decide 'okay, let's drop these leagues,'" Etienne said. "But then the players say 'wait, there's money there.'"

And money is a big factor for plenty of teams. As player salaries increase, the amount of money teams are bringing in has to go up as well, which is why some team owners are looking at systems like the PEA and the ECS favorably.

Of the PEA owners at the ECS press conference, only Team SoloMid's Andy "Reginald" Dinh confirmed he is a shareholder in both, and stated that he's looking to double the amount of money going into TSM's CS:GO team.

"Going into 2017 next year, we're looking at doubling our budgets for CS:GO to increase our overall infrastructure, provide better resources for players," Reginald said.

"Last year after losing our European squad we decided to build from the ground up, get a better sense of the scene and develop talent."

According to Reginald, one of the reasons that TSM parted ways with the roster that later became Astralis was because the players were difficult to work with in terms of sponsorship. According to him, players get most of the prize money from events, leaving teams to find different revenue streams, and as the players refused to do deliverable content for sponsors, it was difficult to profit off of those players.

However, one of the bigger changes in terms of team profits now are the cuts they get from the shareholder leagues, like the ECS and PEA. On top of prize money, teams that are registered as shareholders receive a guaranteed minimum payout based on how long they've signed on to be shareholders. This money is earned through sponsorship sales and general ad revenue, giving teams an extra revenue stream to profit off of their increasingly expensive teams.

But CS:GO isn't the end-all and be-all for the ECS. Esports moves fast, and the organization is interested in bringing the team shareholder model to other games.

"We're looking at other games," Pakendorf said. "We're happy with the ECS model and are looking for opportunities to expand it in the future."

The ECS Season 2 Finals run from Dec. 9-11 in Anaheim.

Daniel Rosen is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.