FnaticMSI can confirm that our Counter-Strike team will not be attending the WCG Nordic Qualifier.

FnaticMSI has always attended World Cyber Games Grand Finals in the past, with last year being the highlight with a second place finish. As the World Cyber Games are also one of the rare events FnaticMSI has attended but never managed to win, it is an event our players are eager to participate in. 

After winning the WCG Qualifiers in Sweden during Dreamhack, we had to make a choice. The title alone did not mean that FnaticMSI had qualified for the upcoming WCG Grand Final in LA. Instead, there was to be another qualifier featuring the top two teams of Sweden, Norway and Finland. While each of these six teams are allowed to attend the Grand Finals by qualifying for WCG Nordic, only one will get their expenses covered by the organizers. 

FnaticMSI believes that some of the world's strongest Counter-Strike teams originate from Scandinavia and therefore more than one team should get their expenses covered OR teams that have qualified should not have to pay a LICENSE fee on top of their flights to LA to attend. With the already very busy schedule our players have this summer, with events such as GameGune and the ESL Global Challenge Shanghai, going to another qualifier needs to make sense. We feel the WCG is growing further and further from ESPORTS true path. 

This issue was one of the final major blows on top of a long list of things the WCG has so far actioned which we feel is against the spirit of esports. Here are our concerns with the WCG organisation:

  • - A limited (one) spot offered by the WCG for all Nordic countries. This is the biggest market for Counter-Strike 1.6 and takes away in our opinion the whole spirit and concept of regional qualifiers.

  • - The fact teams have already qualified in Sweden and now another qualifier is instigated, making it two qualifiers for Swedish teams.

  • - No official team apparel or wear (player shirts) allowed. Therefore no ability promote our sponsors, what poses a huge issue to the future of professional gaming. If we are not allowed to show our own sponsor logos, we do not provide value to our sponsors, we can not pay players, and can not use any of the footage of us at these events with other media. Without professional players there IS NO ECOSYSTEM in which eSports can thrive. Prizemoney will not drive eSports, it will simply be taken out of eSports. Organisations, teams help build the ecosystem by driving more money back into eSports and bringing money in that was not previously there. 

  • - Requirement to wear WCG provided shirts, removing the organisations promotion of their brand and sponsors, but also potentially promoting conflicting brands.

  • - License fees being charged if teams pay to go themselves.

  • - The insistence of paying prize money directly to players rather than the organisation - this is bad for eSports as it is standard practise that teams manage prizemoney and sending money directly to players can result in breaking of the contractual obligations between players and organisations. It should be the players and teams perogative who receives the prizemoney AND most importantly fills in all the paper work and required documentation. 

  • - The lack of respect or understanding for team managers by prohibiting them to stand behind their respective team. (Only a coach from the national team gets this right!)

    Sam Mathews explaining the issue:

    "We feel something must be done, if WCG want to consider themselves a real tournament for esports then they must understand that they are limiting its growth potential by not nurturing the entrepreneurs and business owners within esports to get a return, which means no ecosystem is built and without an esports ecosystem WCG will not exist. 

    Not only that, with greater competition means there is less and less reason to go to an event such as the WCG if they are not respecting the standards of esports. Therefore making their event even more irrelevant and a sideshow of smaller and many non esports orientated or blatantly paid for games.

    Until some of the reasons have been rectified, we find it hard to justify going. Of course we want more tournaments in esports but at some point there has to be a line drawn."

    Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon explaining the issue:

    "I hereby announce our decision to not participate in further WCG Nordic qualifiers. We strongly believe by winning the Swedish qualifier, held at Dreamhack, that a spot in the grand final should be given to us.

    By pushing us to attend a second offline qualifier will not only cause tension to our already busy summer schedule, it would also declare that WCG does not accept the reality that the three best Counter-Strike 1.6 teams in the world actually hails from Scandinavia, according to G7 and their updated ranking in July this year.

    We also feel disappointed that WCG has not come back to us with an answer to our previous concerns we had together with SK-Gaming and Mousesports, about not letting us represent our sponsors in a decent way by forbidding us to use team jerseys at the WCG events.
    I also want to ask WCG to remove the Player License fee for already qualified teams, teams like FnaticMSI. We would be able to participate in the Los Angeles Grand Finals if only the license fee was voided.

    The team and I truly hope you will understand our decision to not go to a second qualifier in a different country. We believe by winning the Swedish qualifier we should be granted a spot in Los Angeles, since there is no time in an already busy summer to continue qualifying against the whole Scandinavian region, you have to understand there are more events than WCG out there and we have to prioritize other events ahead of qualifications we already won."

    We are sorry to our fans that have been looking forward to see the new line-up in action, but unfortunately we could not agree with the WCG about this matter.