Turtle Entertainment Polska

New Electronic Sports League in Poland.

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on Jan. 7, 2011

Cologne, January 7, 2011 – Turtle Entertainment, the European leader of the electronic sports market, and Grupa Leonardo Ltd., the company behind Cybersport.pl, the organizer of the biggest computer games competitions in Poland, have joined their forces to create Turtle Entertainment Polska, the Polish representative of the German eSports titan. The new enterprise will include, among others, the league structure of the Electronic Sports League (ESL) as well as the national branch of the ESL’s web-TV service – ESL TV.

The main aim of the partnership will be providing a professional platform for a vast gaming community with all the levels of play from casual to competitive. That might involve introducing projects like ESL Pro Series (national computer games league) including a series of live eSports events organized in the biggest Polish cities.blockbuster.

Cybersport.pl is the organizer of the most prominent computer games competitions in Poland at the moment. With the community of about 61,000 registered users and numerous professional eSports tournaments such as Liga Cybersport (Cybersport League) or Pan-European Tournament, it is currently the most experienced party operating on the Polish eSports market. The last finals of its largest project, Liga Cybersport, were held in November 2010 at the Multikino cinema in the Zlote Tarasy mall in Warsaw, a place where all the most important movie premieres take place in Poland. It attracted over 12,000 eSports enthusiasts from the whole country.

“The cooperation with Turtle Entertainment aiming at developing the Polish section of the ESL is, next to Cybersport.pl, a response to the growing interest in electronic sports in Poland,” says Krzysztof Pikiewicz, the Project Manager at Cybersport.pl. “The enormous potential that both projects carry will allow us to elevate Polish eSports to a higher level,” he adds.

"Poland is one of the most important eSports countries in the world in terms of the potential of the market, but also in how many amazing gamers it has,” says Ralf Reichert, the Managing Director at Turtle Entertainment. “We are delighted to be starting Turtle Entertainment Polska with a group of such talented and creative people, to bring the experience of great ESL events to various gamers across Poland," he adds.

Turtle Entertainment GmbH is the leading gaming company in the field of competitive gaming and electronic sports. Founded in the year 2000 the company is currently offering its services in more than 37 countries including the US and China. Core of Turtle's services is its online portal called Electronic Sports League (ESL) which reaches above ten million visits per month generated by more than 2,7 million registered users. Among its numerous competitions in about 35 games are world famous ESL Pro Series (compared to the national football league) and Intel Extreme Masters (the global league of the video games champions).

Turtle Entertainment Polska will be the biggest venture in the electronic sports in Poland. The experience of both companies will allow the Polish fans and computer games players to experience eSports competitions on a completely new level. Krzysztof Pikiewicz, the Poject Manager at Cybersport.pl, will be the person in charge of the newly established cooperation.

Cybersport.pl

Founded in 2005, Cybersport.pl unites a carefully gathered team of professionals (organizers, technicians, admins and referees), who aim at spreading the eSports culture and are responsible for preparation as well as organizing live eSports events and league competitions held all year round in Poland. Liga Cybersport, organized by Cybersport.pl, is at present the biggest league in computer games in Poland. It associates about 5000 professional players and more than 60.000 casual gamers and fans. CyberTV, a web-TV service of Cybersport.pl, broadcasts regularly the most interesting league matches, live shows and interviews with the Polish eSports celebrities. Further information available at www.cybersport.pl

Electronic Sports League

The Electronic Sports League (ESL) is the largest and most important league for gamers in Europe consisting of more than 2,7 million registered members and more than 670,000 registered teams. ESL is operated by the company Turtle Entertainment GmbH since 2000 and offers more than 3,500 professional leagues and amateur ladders from a variety of games. Nearly 400.000 matches per month are being played worldwide using the ESL technology.

The ESL has 12 franchise holders and two subsidiaries working in 37 countries around the globe. Global Corporations such as Intel, Alienware, Asus, adidas, Volkswagen and Nokia support the ESL. In close cooperation with the Chinese ProGamerLeague ESL opened the ESL Asia section in 2007.

The ESL system includes ladders, leagues and cups for everyone. 90% of the active members play in free ladders and cups. About 9% take Gaming to the next level in the ESL Amateur Series, and less than 1% of all active users manage to reach the professional leagues like the ESL Pro Series.

Turtle Entertainment GmbH

Turtle Entertainment was founded in 2000. The company quickly grew to be the European leader in the sector of electronic sports (eSports). The Electronic Sports League (ESL), operated by Turtle Entertainment, is active in 37 different countries worldwide. The league portal www.esl.eu reaches above ten million visits a month generated by more than 2,7 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via its web-TV service, ESL TV, since 2007. The headquarter has 140 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Important business partners of Turtle Entertainment are global corporations such as Intel, Alienware, ASUS, adidas, Volkswagen, Nokia, Trend Micro, Sennheiser, Windows 7, Sidewinder, SteelSeries and gamed.de.

Further information is available at www.turtle-entertainment.com

Online resources at a glance:

- This press release as PDF: www.turtle-entertainment.com/Dateien/PM_ESL_Polish_partner_EN.pdf

- Further information concerning Cybersport.pl: www.cybersport.pl

- Further information concerning Electronic Sports League: www.esl.eu

- Further information concerning Turtle Entertainment: www.turtle-entertainment.com

- Company Trailer Turtle Entertainment GmbH (browser flash movie): http://files.turtle-entertainment.de/video/eslpromo.html

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Contact:

Turtle Entertainment GmbH

Press Office

Ibrahim Mazari