"ESL started out with Counter-Strike more than fifteen years ago. Now, many years later, we are extremely excited to be in a position where we can take the industry to the next level with the first regular US$500,000 Counter-Strike league together with ESEA."

"ESEA is where the pros play, it's been that way for more than a decade, and combining our league expertise, a million dollars, and ESL's exceptional production quality represents a major milestone for everyone who loves Counter-Strike."

With nearly thirty years of combined experience and numerous successful events all over the globe behind their backs, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) and the E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) unites to host a new global competition named the ESL ESEA Pro League and take one step further over Valve Corporation's traditional majors.For 2015, there will be two seasons each featuring $500,000 prize pool, making that $1,000,000 in total of cash prizes, a solid record in the discipline. Scheduled to start on May 4th, the competition will be split to two invitational divisions, European and North American, each featuring twelve teams.The first stages of the league will be played online in ESEA's servers with their reliable anticheat software online, while the global finals will take place at ESL's studios in Cologne, Germany and Los Angeles, USA.The teams that manages to reach the offline stage, will receive full travel support from the organizations. Furthermore the prize purse will increase for the following years in order to, according to ESL and ESEA, grow and strengthen the competitive scene.Ralf Reichert, Managing Director of ESL, stated the following:ESEA's President & CEOEric Thunberg also added:The ESL ESEA Pro League seasons will also be scheduled around Valve's community-funded major tournaments to maximize the viewers' interest in CS:GO overall.More information will be revealed in the coming days. Stay tuned to SK Gaming.Source: HLTV.org