ESL FACEIT Group Names Marc Forster Senior Director of Commercial Strategy
Marc Forster has joined ESL FACEIT Group as Senior Director of Commercial Strategy, taking charge of the commercial side of the company’s tournaments and platforms in a role that began this month. It completes a loop two decades in the making: Forster competed on ESL stages long before he worked in the business of them.
His brief stretches from the top of the pyramid to the bottom of it.
What the Role Covers
Forster says he will focus on building a sustainable commercial foundation to support both EFG’s tournaments and its grassroots programmes, including FACEIT, which is designed to help amateur players move toward professional careers. He pointed to the ongoing Esports World Cup, the upcoming first edition of the Esports Nations Cup and last month’s IEM Cologne as evidence of how strongly the company’s events already sit in the industry.
He also plans to carry lessons over from Build a Rocket, the full-service global gaming and esports agency he came from, specifically around long-term strategy, managing growth, and building teams equipped to handle large international client accounts.
Twenty Years Around ESL
Forster’s connection to ESL goes back roughly twenty years, and it started as a player. Before moving into esports business roles, he competed in the Intel Friday Night Games Series and later won a German championship title in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
His professional path since has stayed close to the industry. From 2018 to 2019 he was Product Owner Esports at SPORT1 GmbH, where he helped launch eSPORTS1, one of the first pay-TV channels dedicated to esports in Germany. From 2019 to 2022 he was Associate Director Esports at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, co-leading the esports business unit inside the broadcaster’s 7Sports division across strategy, product development and commercial partnerships. He then spent over four years, from 2022 to mid-2026, as Director Consulting at Build a Rocket, the SPORTFIVE-owned esports consulting agency, running its consulting division of around 70 people with full responsibility for its budget and results. Alongside that, from 2024 to 2025, he worked as a freelance guest lecturer at the Hochschule fur angewandtes Management, teaching students how esports tournaments, leagues and exhibition matches are organised and monetised across different games and regions.
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