Players of Valve’s popular first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will have a chance to participate in open qualifiers for a shot at competing in Esport Championship Series’s second season.
Founded by competitive matchmaking platform FACEIT and supported by Twitch, the Esports Championship Series (ECS) is a leading eSports initiative. Following the success of its debut CS:GO season, ECS has announced that the second season is officially a go. In total, 20 teams—10 from North America, and 10 from Europe—will compete for a chance to be ECS Season Two champions.
Esports Championship Series announces season two of competitive Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
For the first time, ECS is also holding open qualifiers for any hopefuls interested in joining the league. (North American players interested in the open league can sign up using these four links; European players can sign up here.) From August 5th – 27th, four rounds of open qualifiers will be held across North America and Europe. The 2 top-placing teams of each region will be invited alongside 4 teams selected by ECS to in a development league, to battle it out against the bottom 2 teams of ECS Season One. The top 2 teams of the development league will then enter the main league of Season Two, joining 8 teams from Season One.
The aim of the open qualifier is to inject new talent into the competitive scene, allowing top performers a chance to showcase their abilities and veterans to keep their skills sharp against the youngbloods.
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,” says Michele Attisani, CBO of FACEIT.
ECS is providing US$1.75 million, a portion of which will go towards the Season Two prize pool.
Membership in the league also comes with its own benefits: teams that qualify for ECS Season 2 will join extant teams as co-owners in the league, as well as gaining representation on the league’s governing committee.
Season Two opens October 20th of this year, and concludes with grand finals the weekend of December 8th.
Readers wishing to find more information can visit the official ECS CS:GO league website.
