YouTube basically didn't need live eSports considering how much many it's makes off VOD eSports and Gaming content - cough....Pewdiepie....cough.

Here's why I believe YouTube is making this move now.

/01 COUNTER-STRIKE ESPORTS VIEWERSHIP

If you go back over the last year, Counter-Strike has been in the top 3 eSports games by Hours Viewed and #1 for half of the year. If you're selling ads - you need eyeballs and engagement.

/02 COUNTER-STRIKE EXCLUSIVES

Now that YouTube has both ESL's Pro League and ECS - and considering that ELEAGUE Season 3 hasn't been confirmed yet and IEM/Dreamhack CS events are also on Twitter now - Google has almost a virtual lock on Counter-Strike Exclusive content.

/03 ECS REVENUE SHARING AND GOOGLE SALES

I'm just going to quote directly what FACEIT's Chief Business Officer Michel Attisani told Forbes:

"ECS is co-owned by the teams participating and there is a revenue share in place. This deal will bring great stability to the scene, and will give us the opportunity to really focus on developing the product, while the YouTube and Google sales team will take care of commercializing the content. That’s not just in terms of pure advertising but also in terms of sponsorship and brand integration. When you talk about Google, it's the best sales force in the world when it comes to digital"

/04 YOUTUBE TV AND ESPORTS CONTENT