If you can't afford premium/league fees, you can't play in ESEA. It's a lot of money for a lot of Americans too. The financial aspect isn't even worth discussing because it's not like this is even close to a required cost.
EDIT: what I meant by that last sentence is that it's not a good reason to try to get ESEA to change their fees because cost of living is different in different countries, not that we shouldn't care or complain about the cost of luxury goods.