It may well have been one of the worst kept secrets coming out of North America since it was suggested that maybe "inmates" at Guantanamo Bay might have been having a bit of a rough time, but ESEA have confirmed they will be moving into Europe once more.

After trying out CS:S competitions with mixed success a few years ago, ESEA were criticised heavily and decided to go back to focus on American competition. However, with a lack of real alternatives in Europe, plus the dawn of a new game in the series looming, ESEA will almost certainly be welcome with open arms.

Their press release reads:

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Call us crazy, but we're back again, we've (hopefully) learned from our mistakes, and we're ready to take another shot at ESEA Europe.

With nearly 500 game servers worldwide, the industry's leading anti-cheat client, and over $300,000 in cash prizes given out annually to teams of all skill levels, ESEA is already the leading Counter-Strike community in both North and South America. We've shown consistent support for both 1.6 and Source for nearly a decade now, and plan to maintain our approach with the upcoming launch of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and beyond.

With Europe, we're looking to build on that, continue our support for whichever version of CS you want to play, and to keep that choice yours alone -- not whatever game various large tournaments and organizations decide they want to push.

We're starting small this time with two launch regions, and have handpicked a local member of the community from each to lead the charge:

Nordic - Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen, famed Finnish CS 1.6 player

Germany - Pouri “puri” Naseri, former CS manager of mousesports

We've already begun the process of translating the Client, the game servers, and the website, and have begun working with local datacenters in each region to find the best possible server locations. We expect to have all three regions 100% operational by the end of August at the latest, and will be making further announcements as we bring each one live over the next few weeks.

We appreciate both your continued support, as well as your patience, and are truly excited to be taking the first step towards a better global Counter-Strike community.

They have stated there will be more announcements regarding the expansion soon so naturally you'll be able to read about them on Cadred.org as soon as they are revealed.