Due to the complaints of some players about the accommodation at the Intel Extreme Masters we would like to shed some light on the situation. The ESL is providing free accommodation for the players at the World Championship event that takes place at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover. Hannover is a city of 520,000 inhabitants that hosts 330,000 visitors at every CeBIT. Accommodation is extremely expensive - ESL pays 120,000 EUR in total for accommodation, including 70,000 EUR for over 160 players and their managers.



The reason we host the event at CeBIT is that it is the largest consumer electronics show in the world and allows the ESL to open up esports to new audiences. It attracts thousands of technology enthusiasts and media from every corner of the globe. We cannot dream of reaching the same number of people with a standalone event. For many German esports fans CeBIT is their first esports experience.



The teams and players that come to CeBIT every season (including Team EG in 2010 and 2011) know the accommodation situation and hopefully can see progress from year to year. We work with agencies that are supposed to provide a certain standard. This season the players are set up in hotels and youth hostels and the ESL staff is spread out across several dozen private apartments where rooms are rented out, including our CEO.



We do our best to provide the best conditions for the players within our possibilities. At CeBIT itself we have the Twitch TV Champions lounge where all players are welcome to relax in an environment which is secluded from the hall noise, where they can get free drinks, check their emails and tweet about us.



We regret that the housing situation is not perfect and we will continue working towards improving it every season. We will make sure that the problematic location will not get booked again. 1380923 , Tuesday, 06/03/12 05:09