After the Professional eSports Association offered its players the choice of either competing in the upcoming season of ESL Pro League or the PEA league in an open letter, several of the figures involved in the situation released statements weighing in on the controversy.

RELATED: NA orgs to give players choice to compete in either EPL or PEA league

According to PEA's open letter, which was penned by Immortals CEO Noah Whinston and released Friday, the team owners are concerned that the PEA league will not be profitable due to over-saturation in the CS:GO scene. Whinston also wrote that running concurrently with EPL would lead to further burnout among their players, who are expected to stream and meet sponsor obligations as well as practice and compete. Additionally, he argued that the prize money lost by sitting out EPL will be made up by PEA's increased prize pool, minimum guaranteed profit for players, health insurance and financial assistance planning.

Scott "SirScoots" Smith, who represents the NA CS:GO players contesting PEA, responded to the letter with a lengthy Twitlonger in which he called the ultimatum an "illusion" of a choice.

Some quick reactions to the PEA's response:



Read: https://t.co/gCbMrH2RfT — Scott Smith (@SirScoots) December 23, 2016

"Players have repeatedly told the PEA that they have no issue with competing in the PEA's first season and that they simply do not want to be forced out of EPL in order to so. Being able to 'choose' between two options that are not mutually exclusive is an illusion, not actual freedom of choice," SirScoots wrote.

SirScoots responded to several points made by Whinston, saying that PEA is untested as a tournament organizer and that players are already skeptical of PEA's prize money per player and profit sharing calculations.

"It is hard to comment on the PEA's prize money per player calculation because after five requests they did not send us the document containing the details behind it," he wrote. "But the pitch points the PEA has relayed in their letter were already pitched to me and the players in private meetings, and the owners already know that we are very skeptical about the pitch points and disagree on many of them."

SirScoots also rebuts several of Whinston's assertions, saying that org owners are responsible for setting their players' streaming and sponsor obligations and that players should be more involved in setting those obligations rather than cutting back tournament attendance. He also says that, in September, PEA had promised that they would work with other leagues to keep schedules from getting disrupted and that players would not have to choose from one or another

"The PEA owners themselves are the ones who ultimately determine streaming and sponsor obligations," he wrote. "The owners are saying that the players do not have time to properly compete and practice and complete all of these obligations when the owners are the ones who are determining the extent of these obligations!

"The owners should be focused addressing this issue not by controlling the players' tournament schedules, but by being open with their economics and working with the players to determine and balance the players' various obligations collaboratively."

Later Friday, Noah Whinston responded to SirScoots' Twitlonger with a point-by-point rebuttal in which he insists that it's not economically viable for EPL and PEA to co-exist in NA, that branding, streaming and sponsor obligations which players agree to when they sign are necessary for teams to survive, and that minimum guaranteed incomes and prize money offset the chance that profit-sharing comes out to low payouts.

"At the end of the day, the team owners are the ones funding the prize pool, league operations, and spending the time and effort to manage the whole initiative," Whinston said. "Running the two leagues concurrently doesn’t only hurt the economics of the PEA league, but individual team economics as well by further reducing the time available for players to stream and activate for sponsors, the two activities that contribute the most to team revenue."

However, Whinston admits it's difficult to share the calculations behind the monetary comparison in his letter as he made the calculation late at night while on a trip in China. He said that he would rediscover the method he used and release it.

"Sure, profit sharing when profit isn't guaranteed has a chance of being $0. We understand that issue, and that's why we are offering a high minimum floor of prize money and a significant minimum guarantee of profit-sharing," he said.

RELATED: 25 players speak out against NA team owners' plan to exclude ESL Pro League

Sean "sgares" Gares, who parted ways with Team SoloMid Thursday night due in part to his support for SirScoots and the players rights movement, weighed in on the open letter. According to him, choosing between PEA and EPL sets a dangerous precedent where players could be barred from other tournaments in the future.

@seangares this is a key reason why this fight is so important. What prevents PEA from dropping ECS and EL a year down the road? — Sean Gares (@seangares) December 23, 2016

Ryan Morrison, an esports lawyer and CEO of the Evolved Talent Agency, which represents several of the players who signed the open letter, has also released a statement on the situation. He says that with the scene professionalizing rapidly, players need to be better organized to defend their rights in the form of a real player union.

"The players on an NFL team don’t get to demand to also play in the other professional leagues. They don’t get to choose their schedule. They accept a large salary and other benefits to go try their best to win for the team they play for. The same is true in esports. The whole of the industry has been moving in this direction," he said.

"However, what those NFL players have that esports players do not, is a union. That union collectively bargains for them and makes sure it’s worth giving up the opportunity to play elsewhere. The same can be true here."

Sasha Erfanian is a news editor for theScore esports. Follow him on Twitter, it'll be great for his self-esteem.