LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO – July 12, 2016 – The Esports Championship Series, a leading esports initiative founded by FACEIT and supported by Twitch, will launch season two of its ECS Counter-Strike league this fall. Following the format of the successful debut season, season two will include 20 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams (10 from North America and 10 from Europe). Season two of the ECS league officially kicks off October 7, 2016 and will conclude with the grand finals the weekend of December 8, 2016. The Esports Championship Series will also host its first open qualifiers for teams interested in joining the ECS league. The open qualifiers will consist of four rounds in both Europe and North America beginning on August 5 and concluding on August 27. The winners from each qualifier round will join an additional four invited teams in each region’s ECS developmental league, with the top two teams in each region’s developmental league then facing off against the bottom two teams of ECS Season One in a nail-biting promotion match. The two winners from each region’s promotion match will then join the fellow eight teams from Season One to fill out each region’s 10 team roster for ECS – Counter-Strike Season Two. Teams interested in competing in the open qualifiers can sign up at the following links right now: “The open qualifiers will provide new teams the opportunity to showcase their talent to the world and join our top CS:GO esports league,” said Michele Attisani, CBO of FACEIT. “It’s our goal to provide new teams a chance to be recognized in the community and become stars, while providing current ECS teams a fresh pool of talent to test their skills against.” Season Two of the ECS comes on the heels of the successful first season, which took place June 25-26th at London’s legendary SSE Arena, Wembley in front of a packed audience of esports fans. The exciting finals matches of ECS Season One saw French team G2 Esports crowned champions after beating the former Luminosity Gaming lineup in the finals. On its path to the finals, G2 Esports battled to victories against Swedish powerhouse teams Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, along with North America’s Team SoloMid. Teams that qualify for Season Two of the ECS league will earn all the benefits of Season One participants, including co-ownership in the league and the opportunity to select representation on the league’s governing committee. The ECS will provide a collective $1.75M for Season Two that will go toward the league’s prize pool and supportive funds that will provide player stability. This includes helping organizations provide better salaries, facilities and equipment that will improve the overall conditions and welfare for players, while furnishing the ecosystem of the ECS with a more structured framework to operate within. “The Esports Championship Series set out to provide players a league that offers a structured, stable framework, similar to mainstream sports,” said Niccolo Maisto, CEO of FACEIT. “The current $1.75M dedicated to Season Two of the ECS is only the starting point for our ECS initiative. As the league grows, so will the benefits to players and organizations within the league.” ECS-CS Season 2 Schedule Open Qualifiers Open Qualifier 1 – August 6-7 Open Qualifier 2 – August 13-14 Open Qualifier 3 – August 20-21 Open Qualifier 4 – August 27-28 Development league Round 1 – September 9-11 Round 2 – September 13-15 Round 3 – September 16-18 Round 4 – September 20-22 Round 5 – September 23-25 Playoffs – September 26-27 Regular Season Round 1 – October 7-9 Round 2 – October 11-13 Round 3 – October 14-16 Round 4 – November 1-3 Round 5 – November 4-6 Round 6 – November 8-10 Round 7 – November 11-13 Finals – December 8-11 For more information on the ECS, please visit www.csgoleague.com or follow ECS on Twitter. About FACEIT FACEIT is the leading competitive platform for online multiplayer games, with more than 4 million users logging in a total of over 12 million online game sessions each month. FACEIT allows players to easily play in tournaments and leagues for virtual and real-world prizes through automated tournament management and matchmaking technology. For developers, FACEIT’s advanced software development kit (SDK) allows game creators to easily integrate user-friendly matchmaking and tournaments into their titles to allow gamers to take part in competitive online games at all skill levels. esports organizers, players and communities use FACEIT to create and manage online competitions. For more information on FACEIT, please visit www.faceit.com. About Twitch Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Each month, more than 100 million community members gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 1.7 million broadcasters. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. Twitch also features Twitch Creative, a category devoted to artists and the creative process. For more information about Twitch, visit the official website and blog.
Esports Championship Series Set to Launch Season Two of its Counter-Strike League this October
