FACEIT, the UK-based company that provides platforms for competitive online gaming, has announced a new esports vertical headed by former founder of Collegiate Starleague, Duran Parsi. The collegiate vertical will focus first on the North American esports space in order to create “opportunities for grassroots collegiate esports.” FACEIT will also establish a new department with a mission of creating collegiate programs for partners in order to” help them build sustainable ecosystems.”
Parsi will lead the new department and will create competition formats while helping to develop international communities for partners. When asked where the collegiate vertical is in terms of sponsors, Parsi told The Esports Observer, “We’re in conversation with a number of sponsors but none of those conversations are at the reveal stage just yet.”
During his time with the CSL Parsi created numerous leagues that encompassed multiple games and platforms that served over 100,000 college students across nearly 2,000 universities worldwide seeing over $1M USD being given out as scholarship money.
Parsi is looking to have the new division of FACEIT facilitate online and offline competitive experiences in partnership with publishers and colleges.
Details into which titles will be offered up first as esports competitions were not revealed with Parsi telling The Esports Observer, “We’re going to focus on the games where we see the most demand. We’ll be revealing our first partnership in the coming weeks with one of the world’s biggest esports, with plenty more in the pipeline.”
Parsi is looking forward to the challenge.
“Having worked in collegiate esports for over 10 years, I’ve built great relationships with schools all over the world and I’ve incorporated everything I’ve learned so far working with these institutions. FACEIT has given me a lot of freedom to create the leagues and infrastructure I’ve always wanted to. We’re excited to announce our collegiate partners when the time comes.”
