'CS:GO' players vote to ditch Professional Esports Association's first season
UPDATE: Jan. 5, 2017, 9:43 a.m. EST The PEA players' decision to compete in ESL Pro League instead of PEA was also confirmed by the players' representative, Scott "SirScoots" Smith.
It looks like the Professional Esports Association's first season of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is on hold.
The players from the seven North American CS:GO teams that make up the PEA voted to compete in ESL Pro League Season 5 rather than in the first season of PEA's league, Slingshot reported Wednesday and Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne confirmed on Twitter.
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Players in the PEA voted for which league they wanted to compete in after an open letter -- signed by 25 of the 35 member players -- was published in late December detailing some of their issues with the PEA, including a lack of communication and not being made aware that to compete in the PEA, they would have to skip ESL Pro League.
All players from Cloud9, Team Liquid, Immortals, Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid signed the letter and are represented by Scott "SirScoots" Smith.
Before the PEA could respond to the players' open letter with their own, Team SoloMid CEO Andy "Reginald" Dinh kicked player Sean Gares off the team. A series of public back-and-forths between players, teams, Smith and the PEA did not seem to settle any of the issues aired last month.
The PEA was created in September with promises of better pay, benefits and player involvement and launched with seven member teams -- those which signed the letter and NRG Esports and CompLexity Gaming. The first league was set to start in January, but with no teams to compete in it, the future of the PEA is up in the air.
The PEA did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.
