FC Lausanne Sport joins eSports Industry
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The last couple of years have been very good for eSports industry, and during that period many individuals and business subjects have joined the industry by buying teams or by signing sponsorship deals with some of the already established eSports organisations. Parallel to that trend, there’s been another one that gained immense popularity recently. That trend featured already established professional standard sports teams becoming part of the eSports industry by launching their own teams or by sponsoring and organising some eSports events all over the world. European football teams have been doing that for some time now, and FC Lausanne Sports is just the latest example of that trend.
A couple of days ago, it was announced that FC Lausanne-Sport had bought Qualitas Helvetica. The announcement explained that Qualitas Helvetica would be changing their name to LS Esports and that they would be continuing their business as usual, only under the different name.
Qualitas Helvetica was an eSports organization that featured eSports teams in Overwatch, CS:GO, and Hearthstone eSports competitions. The official statement from FC Lausanne-Sport also said that they would be focusing more attention on young players who have not had any opportunity to show what they can do in the world of eSports. Considering that FC Lausanne-Sports is already a team strongly devoted to young players through their ‘LS Academy Camps,’ this is not coming as a big surprise.
No FIFA Team for Now
Unlike some other football teams from Switzerland like FC Luzern and St. Gallen that formed their eSports teams for FIFA competitions, FC Lausanne-Sport eSports team will not be featuring FIFA squad at least for the time being. With this decision, FC Lausane-Sport is hoping that they will be able to attract new fans and to promote their stadium called Pontaise among the players. It is expected that the new headquarters of the LS Esports will be moved to the football team’s headquarters. Besides promoting their home stadium, they will also be working on promoting their new complex La Tuiliere which will probably host some eSports competitions when it opens in 2019.
The officials from FC Lausane-Sport have also stated that they will be hiring all of the new LS Esports teams by April 14th and that those teams will be competing under the new name from April 14th when some of those teams will be competing at PolyLAN 29 and GAMERS ASSEMBLY. Even though these two competitions might not be that popular in the world of eSports, they attract a big number of fans, and this is a good way for LC Esports to start their campaign of moving on to new and bigger tournaments in Europe and possibly on the global level as well.
FC Lausanne-Sport will not be the last football or other professional sports team to become the part of the eSports industry. Following this trend, Paris Saint-German, Manchester City, Schalke 04, Anzhi and many others have started their own teams. Also, many professional athletes will be joining eSports once they recognise the potential this booming industry has.