The world’s largest esports company continues to expand its international footprint. ESL is happy to announce that it will open a regional office in Southeast Asia and has appointed Sebastian Radu to the position of the Interim Chief Executive Officer for this region. Additionally, ESL has confirmed that the company will organize two stand-alone events for Dota 2 as part of its flagship tournament series, ESL One.
This geographical expansion further solidifies ESL’s commitment to develop esports communities and large-scale events around the world. ESL has already held two events in the region: ESL One Manila in April 2016, and ESL One Genting in January 2017. Both events featured international top teams in Dota 2, a massively popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game, which is played by 38% of esports enthusiasts in SEA. ESL One Manila and ESL One Genting had the combined prize pool of US $500,000 and were visited by over 30,000 visitors on site.
Sebastian Radu will lead all operational and strategic efforts as the newest interim CEO for ESL in the region. Sebastian started his professional career in esports in 2004, when he founded Spain’s first full service esports agency, pioneering the industry in this territory. In the following years, his business has grown into the leading voice in the space, becoming ESL’s franchise partner in 2006, and eventually a subsidiary of ESL in 2011. In this time, Sebastian has been advocating for the development of esports across Spanish-speaking countries, where today he’s an accomplished industry professional with an exceptional thought leadership across a wide range of topics. In 2016, he has taken a seat on the Board of Directors, and he continues to play a pivotal role in the development of esports globally, with recent projects including ESL’s international expansion into Latin America and various strategic projects for ESL.
“ESL is and always will be about building esports: for the athletes, the fans and the aspiring players” said Ralf Reichert, CEO at ESL. “Our new regional office will set us up to bring even more global events and tournaments to the region, but more importantly: to help build the local esports communities through grassroots and local championships, which are fundamental to the growth of esports anywhere in the world.”
“ESL’s mission is to bring esports to every corner of the world, and create legendary esports moments wherever we go” said Sebastian Radu, ad-interim CEO at ESL SEA. “With this strategic expansion, ESL is committing to bringing the best of esports to South East Asia, and to further build on the legacy left by the two successful mega events our company already held in Manila and Malaysia. We’re looking forward to future projects, events and partnerships that will bring us closer to this goal in our mission.”