Who is Behind USEA and the $350K ‘Born to Win’ Competition?

Who is behind the freshly announced US-only Counter-Strike 2 competition Born to Win and USEA?

On Monday a new Counter-Strike 2 competition series called “USEA | Born to Win” was officially announced on social media, promising a total prize pool of $350K USD to players in the United States.

Many in the community wondered just who the USEA is and if it is a legitimate organizer (as it seemingly appeared out of thin air). While The Esports Advocate can’t validate the legitimacy of the event or its organizer, we have learned a little bit more about the company behind it.

The tournament is being facilitated by a company called USEA Holdings LLC, which opened its website for the competition in April and launched its social media channels on Twitter,  Twitch, and Instagram only recently. One of the admins for the official Discord channel is being run by Ben Williamson, the founder of an investment firm out of Naples, Florida, called The Benjamin Group. Williamson doesn’t have any experience running a major tournament competition as far as we know, and the Benjamin Group—which claims ownership of the USEA on its official website—mainly focuses on building/investing in healthcare-focused technology, some Web3 assets management technology, real estate, and a luxury vehicle storage facility business called The Big Box.

According to the official site for Born to Win, the online portion of the competition will be operated through ESL FACEIT Group’s FACEIT platform, and will charge participating teams an entry fee of $10 per player, or $50 per team. Winnings will be paid “when the competition is over,” according to the website.

Further details about the company were revealed on Tuesday in a lengthy interview published by Dust2.us (which we highly recommend you read for the origin story of this new endeavor) with UESA CEO Ben Williamson and VP of Marketing and Operations Mike Peebles.

The gist of that conversation suggests that many of the moving parts of Born to Win are still in flux and being negotiated, including sponsorships, third-party tournament organizers that USEA might work with, and the actual date for the competition to take place.

On sponsorships/partnerships, Williamson claims that his team (he says that the company has around 10 employees) is in active talks with several “Fortune 500 companies,” and the money generated from those deals could surpass the $350K total prize pool for the event.

Further, Williamson says that the team is also in talks with at least two third-party organizers, but did not disclose who those companies are. On timing, Williamson said that it is likely that the competition and subsequent LAN final could take place in Q3 and Q4, respectively. Finally, Williamson said that his firm, The Benjamin Group, is prepared to pay any winnings/other costs if necessary.

All of this is to say that, while USEA has announced “Born to Win” this week, a lot of the pieces to make it a successful competition do not appear to be in place yet (or at the very least, remain unannounced) including an official venue for a planned in-person finals event, and a third-party organizer to help with some of the heavy lifting. It is also unclear if the company plans on handling any aspects of operations, broadcasting, production, hiring on-screen talent, and more, for the competition.