E-Sports Entertainment Association League (ESEA) is an esports competitive video gaming community founded by E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA). It is widely known for their anti-cheat software. ESEA features a system that allows players of all levels to play matches with others.
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History
ESEA League began offering lessons to improve gaming skills in 2003 providing instruction in Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Warcraft III. ESEA created the first professional fantasy e-sports league in 2004. ESEA began its league history with Counter-Strike, but later added Team Fortress 2 (TF2) a game which gained more popularity after its adaption to "Free-to-play" gaming.
In October 2015 ESEA was acquired by Modern Times Group, which would later buy majority stakes in DreamHack and Electronic Sports League (ESL).
Viewing
ESEA League games can be viewed by fans as live streams from internet broadcasting channels such as TwitchTV, eXtv, Nova Spivack's Live Matrix, TeamFortress.tv and clips on YouTube. The annual sponsored ESEA League LAN Finals are held in Dallas, Texas.
Bitcoin mining incident
On May 1, 2013 a user reported that the ESEA's anti-cheat software was being used to mine bitcoins without the user's consent. This was confirmed by ESEA's co-founder Eric ‘lpkane’ Thunberg in two subsequent forum posts. As of the date of discovery, the claimed dollar value of bitcoins mined totaled $3,713.55. As of November 2013, ESEA has agreed to a US $1 million settlement, though a separate class action lawsuit is still ongoing.