Businessman Maksym Krippa, who owns the NAVI esports club and the GSC Game World gaming studio, has confirmed that he has become the head of the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF). His plans include the development of school and university esports and the reintegration of veterans through games.
Businessman Maksym Krippa, who owns the NAVI esports club and the GSC Game World gaming studio, has confirmed that he has become the head of the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF). His plans include the development of school and university esports and the reintegration of veterans through games.
Krippa confirmed his appointment to this position in a comment to Forbes Ukraine. Earlier, Gameinside.ua reported that the NGO «Federation of Cybersports of Ukraine» will soon be re-registered with new owners.
The new board will be formed from the heads of NAVI and Maincast, owned by Maxim Kripp. It was reported that Andriy Hryshchenko has been appointed as the executive director. The board will include NAVI CEO Yevgeny Zolotarev, Maincast co-founder Vitaly Volochay, commentator and streamer Mikhail Zverev, NAVI coach Andriy Gorodensky, and NAVI COO Kucherov Oleksiy.
«There is a risk in this, because they are all playing „under one banner“», — said WePlay studio commentator Oleksiy Maletskyi.
UESF was founded in 2017 to promote and develop esports in Ukraine. The Federation is an official member of the International Esports Federation (IESF), Global Esports Federation (GEF), Esports Europe Federation (EEF), World Esports Consortium (WESCO), Belt and Road International Esports Association Alliance (B&R IEAA).
Among the main achievements of UESF are: recognition of esports as an official sport in Ukraine, holding about 330 tournaments, social and educational projects for people with disabilities and orphans. However, after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, UESF’s activity significantly decreased.
According to Forbes Ukraine, the Ukrainian esports market has collapsed from $20-30 million to $5-7 million. This decline occurred because players cannot fully travel to competitions abroad, Ukrainian broadcast studios have lost their Russian-speaking audience, and holding tournaments in Ukraine is impossible due to the war.
According to Ivan Danishevsky, founder of the analytical company Esports Charts, who was one of the founders of the Federation of Cybersports, the restoration of active work of the UESF requires $1.5-2 million in investments per year. «Maxim has a lot of resources, so I hope they will be able to do what we wanted to do,» he noted.
Maksym Krippa noted that the UESF development strategy is still in the works, but he plans to build communication with the community, develop school and university esports, reintegrate veterans through games, and expand the number of cyber disciplines covered by the Federation.
«We will also build a clear regular system of Ukrainian championships, which will allow us to fairly select worthy candidates for the national team that will represent Ukraine at world-class competitions», — added Krippa.
Recall that earlier he went public with his first major interview, talking about how he became the owner of the NAVI esports club and the Maincast company. According to him, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NAVI «cut off all ties» with Russia. At first, this seemed like a bad business decision, but later it yielded «fantastic results».
Maxim Krippa also reported on the profit-making release of STALKER 2 and negotiations with Netflix about a possible film adaptation of the game.
