Bulgaria’s recent and largest esports tournament to date, Game Evolution, has inspired the competition’s main partner and sponsor UltraPlay to open an esports academy, OutLaws, to nurture young talent in the region.

Advanced betting solutions provider UltraPlay has announced that it has succeeded in gathering two teams of young stars in CS:GO and Overwatch who now have been rewarded with their own professional contracts.

The teams finished first and second respectively in the tournament.

Ivan ‘Rock1nG’ Stratiev, captain of the CS:GO team commented: “I am so happy that now I get the chance to work with UltraPlay – the leading company in our industry. Me and my teammates are going to work very hard in order to achieve our first goal – to be at least in Top 30 world CS:GO rankings.”

OutLaws will bring together the most dedicated young Bulgarian gamers who will now have a heightened chance to compete in the largest gaming tournaments worldwide.

Overwatch team captain Pavel ‘MYSToGAN’ Panev, stated: “Today we are satisfied to announce that we will team up with Outlaws.gg in order to reach our goals as a Overwatch team!

“Even though we’ve started playing together recently, we already have made huge progress. We have already shown that we can compete both on a national and international level, and we aim to become one of the best Overwatch teams in the world!”

In addition to professional contracts, UltraPlay will also provide the two teams with a boot camp with experienced trainers to improve their skills, strategic play and teamwork.

Mario Ovcharov, CMO of UltraPlay said: “We are more than happy to expand our commitment in esports by acquiring 2 uprising teams.

“Giving them a chance to become a world class organization gives satisfaction to everyone in our company. You will be seeing a lot from them in the upcoming months.”

Esports Insider says: This is fantastic work by Ultraplay. Bulgaria is a country where there is a huge interest in and passion for esports, but that lacks extensive opportunity for players to challenge on a global basis. The launch of OutLaws is one small step for Bulgarian esports, and one giant leap for the players selected.