Team Vitality: the French club that wants to win the Major of Counter-Strike

In e-sport, ping the milestone of the decade already makes you a veteran of the sector. Launched in 2013, Team Vitality is as much a mainstay as it is a global headliner of French e-sport , being the only tricolor club to have an international dimension. Team Vitality is thus the only blue-white-red representative to align itself with the Paris Major of Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS: GO), the major competition of this shooting game which is the main global franchise of e -sport alongside League of Legends, Dota 2 or Valorant.

“It’s a great international competition that takes place at home. The goal is to win,” says Nicolas Maurer, co-founder and CEO of Team Vitality, aka the bees, who is still chasing a first Major title in CS: GO since the club launched a professional team in this game in 2018. .

The bees are part of the inner circle of favorites, a few months after their victory in season 16 of the ESL Pro League, another very competitive CS:GO tournament. In its starting five, the club will be able to rely on the French Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (twice voted world’s best CS: GO player in 2019 and 2020), one of the stars of the discipline.

Present on fewer games

Still, Team Vitality is not confined to this game alone. The French team is present in the European League of Legends Championship (LEC) – thanks to the purchase of a “slot” (guaranteed place) for 8 million dollars a few years ago, this championship operating on the model of a paid franchise closed league like the NBA -, as well as on Valorant, FIFA, Rocket League and Call of Duty Mobile.

In recent years, Team Vitality has chosen to reduce its presence on the number of games and in particular has removed its team from the e-sports competition of Rainbow Six Siege from French Ubisoft in 2022. “We prefer to focus all our efforts on fewer games, notes Nicolas Maurer. But it is possible that we will eventually launch into new markets. Especially in the United States”.

“Costs have continued to rise in esports”

Employing 110 employees around the world, including 40 professional players, Team Vitality today generates nearly 20 million euros in revenue per year – including majority comes from sponsorship -, against 600,000 euros in 2015 . A volume of business still insufficient to be financially balanced since the operating expenses of the French club amount to more than 20 million per year.

“The costs have continued to rise in e-sport, in particular player salaries, and we are still in the investment phase, explains Nicolas Maurer. But we are aiming for profitability in 2025.” Since its creation, Team Vitality has carried out three fund raising (50 million euros in all) led by the investment fund specializing in e-sport, Rewired.GG, belonging to the Indian billionaire Tej Kohli, who is the majority shareholder of the club.