FACEIT’s ground-breaking esports initiative, the Esports Championship Series (ECS), will mix top teams and newcomers in the Season 3 Development League as top teams North, FlipSide and Gambit have been invited to the European league, while Misfits and Renegades will battle in the North American league. Set to kick off on February 28, a total of 16 teams, eight from each region, will compete for a chance to earn passage into Season 3 through a final showdown against each region’s bottom two ranked teams from Season 2.
This season also marks the return of the Community Caster Challenge, which gives aspiring esports casting talent an opportunity to fly to the ECS studio and cast live matches of Season 3. To help kickstart the next big caster career, FACEIT will be hosting one caster during each match in their official Twitch channel. In addition, the ECS team will be providing assistance to give participating casters the best quality streams possible, this includes expert advice, support, graphical assets and video content. Casters looking to join the Community Caster Challenge can send the following information to ecs@csgoleague.com for consideration: first and last name, contact email, Skype link, Twitch channel URL, and other social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).
The eight invited teams and four qualifying teams in the ECS Development League are as follows:
Invited European Teams:
•North
•Gambit
•Team Kinguin
•Flipsid3
Qualified European Teams:
•PRIDE
•Tengri
•Rogue
•Space Soldiers
Invited North American Teams:
•Misfits
•Renegades
•Winterfox
•Selfless
Qualified North American Teams:
•Premier Rejects
•Bees Money Crew
•Splyce
•Denial Esports
As with the previous season of ECS, season three offers participating teams the option of league co-ownership and a vote in Governing Committee representation. The ECS’ co-ownership arrangement gives teams the option to use part of the $1.75M that ECS is providing for the prize pool and supportive funds that can potentially be used to bolster salaries, facilities and equipment to help out the players.
For more information on the ECS, please visit the official website at www.csgoleague.com or follow the ECS on Twitter (@ECSleague).