Since the inception of Nouns Esports, I and a few other contributors have always put forward proposals on behalf of the players so they could focus on competing at the highest level. That’s a structure similar to the traditional esports model, where we act as “agents” between the DAO and the team. But in the last six months, we switched gears and asked every roster, starting with the FE team, to submit their own proposals directly to Nouns. This way, they can prove they have the Nounish competency needed to be genuine ambassadors rather than just wearing the jersey. It also opens up a more “à la carte” decision-making process for the DAO and hopefully inspires more gamers to propose onchain.
I want to add context from my years working in esports and make a strong case for any future CS proposals. Nouns has already made real strides in Counter-Strike: recently under Coach AdreN, a Grand Slam winner respected across the scene, and longtime Nouns contributor Mach, who has been supporting Nouns Esports since we started. The men’s team competes at top-tier international events, where salaries follow a traditional sports model. AdreN worked with players’ agents to settle on rates of $2.5K–$4.5K per month, which is still below many other sponsored NA squads. Sponsoring a team of this caliber means they can reach millions of viewers and potentially place ⌐◨-◨ stickers in the game if they qualify for a Major, an achievement that could bring substantial revenue through in-game sales.
Meanwhile, the women’s team faces a far smaller sponsorship pool and set their own requested rates in this proposal. Without Nouns, it’s likely they would remain unsponsored. With top female orgs folding, having Nouns behind them places them near the top of their scene in terms of stability and visibility, even with a smaller audience. Players like Lunari and Jess have changed the meta of what it means to represent Nouns in esports, demonstrating it’s possible to compete at a high level and remain deeply involved with the DAO, opening a new path for us within gaming.
While the men’s and women’s teams aren’t apples to apples, both can serve the DAO in different but meaningful ways. Because of how this vote is going, many in the CS community worry we’ll exit altogether. Most of them can’t simply buy a Noun to show support, so they’ve stepped up in other ways: coverage by the top NA CS publication (https://www.dust2.us/news/56771/nouns-cs2-budget-vote-appears-likely-to-fail), a 2,500 zero-weight vote poll (https://x.com/nounsesports/status/1876751250307354807), and comments on social media (https://x.com/nounsesports/status/1875686183357022333).
We’ve already enshrined Nouns in Dota, and there’s a parallel opportunity in CS if we stay committed a bit longer. Partnerships with brands like adidas and Matcha often stem from our presence in top-tier esports, and continuing to support both teams can help us proliferate Nouns in one of the world’s largest competitive gaming scenes.