UK esports organisation Endpoint have revealed a new program they’re putting in place to prevent their best players from leaving in the future.
Last week, top UK CSGO player William ‘mezii’ Merriman left Endpoint to join Fnatic. While providing a springboard for top talent to join bigger orgs and leagues is helpful to the player in question, and the org usually receives a buyout fee, it means the smaller org has to rebuild again – something that is all too familiar for grassroots UK esports organisations.
This is a trend Endpoint are now addressing, following the departure of players like smooya, flameZ and mezii over the years.
Endpoint have revealed a legacy membership program, which rewards player loyalty and gives talent an incentive to stay with the org.
Endpoint CEO Adam Jessop told Esports News UK that any player that has been with Endpoint for 18-24 months or more are now classed as legacy members. This entitles them to a cut or revenue share of any player sales from the team, ‘as they have ultimately contributed to the performance of those players and the success’.
They will also be involved in the discussions and decisions, and the revenue share is a way to soften the blow for them where they may lose key teammates to tier 1 orgs.
Endpoint COO Peter Thompson explained more in this video:
“Thanks to the fans for sticking by us,” Peter said. “It might feel like we’re growing and doing great, then you lose a player, it can feel like you’re starting again.
“Our ambitions are much higher than where we are right now – top 20, top 15, we want to make a Major as a UK organisation, but how do you do that if your players keep getting poached? We don’t want to keep recycling players and dropping back down, then having to rebuild.
“We want to reward players’ loyalty with legacy membership. So if we unfortunately lose a player, it can at least be a win-win-win situation.
“And we need to build a brand that has a support network, legacy and fanbase – everything a top tier organisation has. So that when someone else comes knocking, the player might think, ‘you know what, I couldn’t be happier at Endpoint. I believe in this team and believe we can get higher’.
“That can take time, it might take two, three, four or five years – you can’t cheat your way there, we need to keep reinvesting.”
It’s certainly an interesting initiative and while it won’t be necessary at every tier in esports, it has the potential to help those orgs like Endpoint, who have grown well, have a good structure in place and have the potential to become a bigger organisation in the future.
Following the departure of mezii, Endpoint signed Jordanian 17-year-old CSGO player Mohammad ‘BOROS’ Malhas to their main roster.
Further reading: The next chapter for UK CSGO: Is there a brighter future ahead?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
