ESL has announced the appointment of former professional Counter-Strike 1.6 player Jonas “bsl” Alsaker Vikan as Global Tournament Director.
The role is all encompassing and will see Jonas oversee all high profile ESL tournaments, including the likes of ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters and the ESL Pro League.
The Norwegian former pro began his career in esports all the way back in 2002, as a co-founder of team Meredia and a 1.6 player. A year later bsl founded Norwegian team NoA for which he is best known as. Team NoA went on to become one of the world’s top teams, and the first esports team to feature players from multiple continents under one organisation. Team NoA was also the first organisation to pay for a player transfer when they bought out the contract of Ola “elemeNt” Moum from SK Gaming.
Since moving on from playing and Team NoA, Jonas has covered esports around the world. He was also the general manager of Berlin Allianz during the Championship Gaming Series and has also appeared as a caster and desk host for several event series. Hist most recent foray saw him work for Norwegian newspaper “Adresseavisen” where he was awarded Norway’s parallel to a Pulitzer for his work.
“I was always a fan of competitive gaming and fortuned enough to turn my hobby into a profession,” said Jonas Alsaker Vikan, Tournament Director at ESL. “It’s amazing to see how far the industry all has come and I am very excited to become an active part at ESL, pushing and fostering esports even further in the upcoming years.”
“We are excited to welcome Jonas as the new Tournament Director to our product team,” said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL. “With his extensive expertise in the esports industry, resulting from a variety of job experiences, Jonas embodies the natural fit we were looking for.”
Esports Insider says: Having been around esports for the best part of 15 years, bsl is clearly a man who knows the industry. Having reaped prestigious accolades for content in Norway, he’s now moved to being tournament director at ESL. We look forward to seeing what he brings to the table in the future.