Nicolas Maurer can’t quite remember the name of the tournament. A small Call of Duty LAN – somewhere in Paris – the kind where the musk of old energy drinks and the hom of a room full of machines lasts longer than the name – left a mark on the man who would go on to find the most storied French sports organization.
“I think [it was] around 2012 or 2013, before founding Team Vitality,” he recalls.
“That was when I found my love for sports, and it’s still a special memory for me.
Nicolas Maurer, CSO, Team Vitality
He was there alongside Fabien “Neo” Devide, who at the time managed Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein and Kevin “BrokyBrawks” Georges. “They were part of a French Counter-Strike team that had just launched a Call of Duty division.”
Accidental architects of French sports
Within a few years, Vitality was born, with Davide now serving as CEO and Maurer as CSO. No one on the nameless CoD LAN knew that, ten years later, the club they were building would be training at the Stade de France, competing in $75 million prize pools and preparing for the World Cup in the city where it all began.
For a long time after that, Maurer says, not much happened in Paris from an esports perspective. There were a few smaller tournaments at Paris Games Week each year, and Vitality hosted the French Call of Duty Championship back in the day, but the big headline events didn’t come to town.
“Competitions were taking place, but not in major titles,” he said. That couldn’t be more true today, and Maurer points to the opening of Vitality’s headquarters, the V.
The Stade de France became Vitality’s official training ground – permanent major sponsors such as Adidas and Renault began to follow as the club’s institutional fitness, and French sports in general, continued to grow.
Then came events. In the following years, Counter-Strike Major came to Paris, then Rocket League, Valorant Champions, Rainbow Six, and EA FC. “Today,” said Maurer, “every publisher and organizer of the tournament realizes that they need to bring their events to Paris, because the level of love and excitement from the fans is unmatched.”
The crowds of Paris, time and time again, have proven him right.
At that moment everything changed in French esports
If you had to pick an important moment in Paris sports history, it would have to be May 2023 – the BLAST.tv Paris Major held at the Accor Arena. It was the last Major ever played in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive before switching to CS2. Vitality, the home team not only won, but ended the tournament, failing to drop a single map throughout the Champions Stage and defeating GamerLegion 2-0 in the Grand Final in front of 50,000 loud fans.
The best player in the world at the time, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, was crowned MVP, and Maurer drew comparisons that would resonate with every Frenchman of a certain age. “I often compare it to the French football team that won the World Cup in 1998,” he said.
“When you play at home, you’re expected to win. But at the same time, there’s a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure. And then it happens, almost like a dream.”
Nicolas Maurer, CSO, Team Vitality
“To win at home, in front of all our fans, with everyone expecting us to win, while putting a lot of pressure on us to do the job – it was a great moment,” he recounted as he reflected on a defining moment in the organization’s history.
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For Maurer, it’s not just an off-the-cuff comparison. The 1998 World Cup final, which saw France’s Zizou score twice, drew a reported global audience of 1.3 billion.
Although he sincerely admits that “the sport has not yet reached the standard of football,” he points out that the 1998 World Cup reached millions of French people who had never cared about football before. There are rare moments that bring the countries together during cultural sharing, and he says, “at that time, even people who didn’t care about football were completely immersed.”
“It was a great event and a memory shared by almost all French people. I was 12 years old at the time, and I’m sure that every young person, and a large part of many people besides only football fans, remembers it very much.”
Sports may not be available yet. But Maurer’s determination to even reach this comparison speaks volumes. Somewhere in Paris this summer, in front of the home crowd again, the foundations of cultural events are being laid. Whether or not it blossoms into something remembered by an entire generation remains to be seen, but the seed, at least, will have been planted.
A child in the crowd
This summer, from July 6 to August 23, the Esports World Cup will head to the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles for seven weeks of competition in 25 tournaments and 24 titles, with $75 million on the line.
The opening event is at La Seine Musicale on July 8, featuring DJ Snake, Aya Nakamura, and Theodora. Beyond the main area, pop-up entertainment venues and live screenings are planned in all areas of Greater Paris. More than 2,000 players from over 200 teams in 100 countries will compete.
The scale is unprecedented for an esports event in Europe, and acts as a ‘festival of esports’. Maurer is especially alive to what it might mean at the grassroots level – young people, or parents, who will enter the Porte de Versailles for the first time this summer and watch live competitive games, in the same city where he once stood in a nameless room watching an untrackable Call of Duty tournament.
“Those who have never been to a competition before can see for the first time what it’s like to watch in person,” he said.
He adds, “I expect people to fill the stadiums, maybe find some really niche games that aren’t very popular in Europe. I expect a big success in terms of crowds, and a lot of people enjoying esports tournaments in person for the first time.”
How politics and love come together
When the Esports Foundation announced in May that political tensions in the Middle East made the event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, untenable in 2026, Paris was confirmed as the new host within days. President Emmanuel Macron marked the announcement publicly, photographed with Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports Foundation, and asserted, “We are ready to host the 2026 Esports World Cup. We are very proud to welcome the world again.”
Macron said as early as 2022 that esports was on the French government’s radar. In an interview with Video Games Industry Memo, Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer of the Esports Foundation, said that the French government is willing to provide “help and support in all important matters.” He emphasized that the package provided by the French government is “incomparable from our point of view.”
Maurer is highly rated on how much government support he means to the sports industry. “At the end of the day, esports is still very much run by private companies, especially publishers,” he said. “Sure, you can have a supportive government, but if the market itself is not that big or not that interesting, it’s second nature.”
However, it is clear that government support can have a very positive impact when political will is met with strong grassroots involvement. He describes the French ecosystem as “a lot of collaboration, big teams, good players, and above all, a very supportive government,” and emphasizes the power of that combination.
Macron’s eagerness to be part of it is obvious. The President has been congratulating French teams when they do well abroad and taking an active role in promoting the need for major sporting events in Paris.
“It certainly plays a big role. If you look at France from the publisher’s point of view, you think: we know the event will be successful, we know there will be fans. We know it will be easy because there are good places and visa support,” he continues.
“In many ways, it’s kind of a no-brainer to come to France.”
Dreaming, despite the odds
Which leaves the final question: what does success look like for Team Vitality itself?
Maurer’s answer is refreshingly honest. A third or fourth place finish in the Club Championship is realistic and acceptable. The second would be unusual. Winning everything, when the Falcons are involved in a very different allocation of resources, he admits, is “absolutely impossible.”
Every great dream begins with a dreamer, and Maurer admits that he, too, dares to dream:
“There’s kind of a secret dream that maybe, if the conditions are right, we can win it all. That would be a huge achievement, but it’s very unlikely to happen. So we’ll see where we end up.”
Nicolas Maurer, CSO, Team Vitality
It’s impossible. But then again, no one remembers the name of that Call of Duty LAN either, and look at Team Strength now.
