First, it was their takeover over the WCS America. Now, ESL is launching their eSports takeover of the whole of the Americas after buying eSports Services (ESS) and launching a new studio in Los Angeles to host ESL’s operations in North America.

ESS had been an ESL partner since 2006 and helped them run their events in North America during that span. The acquisition by ESL’s parent company, Turtle Entertainment GmbH, gives ESL an established setup to start operations in North America with a team in place at ESS in New York.

Prior to the purchase, ESS was a consulting company that was about connecting with audiences and providing tech solutions to companies. They just happened to specialize in live production and streaming. ESS will continue with their current work in addition to being part of ESL.

The new ESL Los Angeles studio will operate as a production base for ESL in North America. It will be similar in purpose to the famous ESL Cologne studio that recently hosted WCS Europe’s competition. The LA studio will be 7,000 square feet, host hundreds of spectators and feature the same high-quality equipment that is expected of ESL.

Interestingly, the first ESL America production at the Los Angeles studio is scheduled to take place in April. ESL has yet to say what the production will be. I’m willing to guess that it won’t be the WCS America Premier League since that’s been booked for ESL’s Cologne studio but maybe people will be willing to make a late switch to LA.

I’m interested to see how the ESL formula translates to the USA. There are a lot more big eSports events in Europe than North America but I’d be willing to bet that there’s a market for more eSports on this side of the Atlantic. Even if they run most of their events out of the LA studio, getting more premiere level events held at a convenient time for the North American audience can’t hurt the sport’s growth.

Sources: ESL, OnGamers