The Season 4 Finals of ECS (Esports Championship Series) will take place December 15-17, live from the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun, Mexico. ECS, a groundbreaking esports initiative founded by FACEIT and supported by YouTube, will host the top names in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) for the second ECS finals of the year. The top four qualifying teams from both North America and Europe will be vying for a prize pool of $750,000 on top of participation fees. The three day event will be broadcast around the world on December 15-17, exclusively on FACEIT’s official YouTube Gaming channel – https://gaming.youtube.com/faceit.
In 2015, FACEIT hosted one of its first CS:GO LAN finals in a cramped office in London. The private event was considered one of the best of the year by both the CS:GO community and by the players who competed at the finals. In 2017, FACEIT is drawing inspiration from that popular event to host the finals at the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun, offering players the perfect competitive environment to serve as a getaway before the winter break. With this private event, FACEIT will focus solely on the teams and talent, giving viewers unique insight into players’ lives at an event. Viewers will hear specific player perspectives and analysis on matches, as well as additional unique content.
“As the first esports league to partner with the teams in a co-ownership agreement, ECS was founded with the goal of creating a player-friendly environment. This season, we wanted to host the ECS finals in a location that gives teams an opportunity to compete in the most competitively balanced environment we can achieve,” said Michele Attisani, Chief Business Officer and co-founder of FACEIT. “These teams work hard all year long with matches, practices and training, and by bringing them to Cancun, we hope that ECS will help fire up their competitive spirits.”
All of the teams participating in Season 4 of ECS can sign up for co-ownership in the league and play a role in determining representation on the league’s governing committee. The ECS is providing a collective $1.5M for Season 4 that will go toward the league’s prize pool and supportive funds that will provide player and team 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 ECS with a more structured framework to operate within.
The online portion of ECS Season 4 continues on http://gaming.youtube.com/faceit until November 24, 2017. In addition, the ECS will be returning to the SSE Arena, Wembley in 2018 for its Season 5 Finals. The public event will host exciting activities, including team signing sessions, giveaways, celebrity appearances, ECS swag distribution, and two days of the world’s greatest CS:GO teams battling for supremacy. Tickets can be purchased at early bird discounted price at: https://wembley.csgoleague.com/tickets/.
