Businessman, and among other things owner of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World and esports team Navi, Maksym Krippa has taken the position of president of the NGO «Ukrainian Esports Federation» (UESF), as first reported by the gaming publication Game Inside and confirmed the Ukrainian Forbes.
The board of the Federation has also undergone changes, which now includes CEO of the Navi esports team Yevhen Zolotarev, co-founder of the Maincast broadcast studio and sports commentator Vitaliy Volochai, commentator and streamer Mikhail Zverev, Navi coach Andriy Gorodensky, and Navi COO Alexey Kucherov (all companies are owned by Krippa).
What do you know about UESF?
The NGO «Federation of Esports of Ukraine» was established in 2017 by the founders of the Windigo team Arthur Iermolaiev, ESM.one holding and Esports Charts agency Ivan Danishevsky, CEO of the Windigo Arena gaming center Anton Markelov, and public figure Eduard Anokhin. In 2021, the Ministry of Youth and Sports granted the organization the status of a national sports federation.
Today, UESF is an official member of the World Federation of Esports and forms the Ukrainian national team for international competitions, and among its main achievements are — official recognition of esports as a sport in Ukraine The UESF opened cyber arenas in Dnipro and Kyiv and will host a total of about 330 tournaments with 40,000 players by 2022, including the first national CS:GO Cup of Ukraine. Also, with the assistance of the UESF, the National University of Physical Education and Sports launched the first Master’s degree in esports in 2020.
With the onset of the full-scale invasion, the esports market in Ukraine collapsed from $20-30 million to $5-7 million, given the restrictions on players traveling abroad for competitions and the loss of Russian-speaking audiences for Ukrainian broadcast studios. Sanctions were also imposed against the Parimatch betting company, which at the time was the main sponsor and partner for many sports in Ukraine, including esports.
Subsequently, the UESF helped to issue permits for teams to travel abroad, but obviously faced criticism when there were cases of players not returning to Ukraine. The last time four athletes did not return after the IESF WEC24 World Championship, which took place in Riyadh on November 11-19, 2024. Instead, the federation was criticized for its reverse actions: in October 2023, commentator Vitaliy Volochai (now a member of the federation’s board) complained about the UESF for did not contribute to the Monte team’s trip to the competition.
What does Krippa plan for UESF?
Ivan Danishevsky, former chairman of the federation’s board, said that UESF needs $1.5-2 million in investments per year to operate, while Krippa said that the development strategy is still being developed. The main plans include — working with the community, developing school and university esports, expanding the number of cyber disciplines covered by the federation, and reintegrating veterans through games.
«We will build an understandable regular system of Ukrainian championships that will allow us to fairly select worthy candidates for the national team that will represent Ukraine at world-class competitions».
Based on the materials Forbes Ukraine.
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: