The qualifiers for the third season of the Esports Championship Series (ECS) will get underway on Saturday.
The ECS is the first CS:GO league to ‘offer players co-ownership and extensive collaboration in league activities’, and the top two teams per qualifier will earn a place in the ECS Development League which itself will start later this month on the 28th February and run until March 16th.
The top two teams from each region will earn an opportunity to take on last season’s relegation teams for their spots in ECS Season 3. You can watch a season three ‘hype’ video below:
The ECS Open Qualifiers will see four teams from each region qualify for the ECS Development League, with another four teams invited by the ECS. The format is that the top two teams from both North America and Europe will then play the relegated teams from the second season of ECS in a best-of-five.
The winner of each of these showdowns will earn their place in Season 3 and start preparations to compete against the likes of Astralis, FaZe, Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming.
They’ll also be given the opportunity to opt-in to a co-ownership stake in the ECS league.
The Community Caster Challenge also makes a return for season three. Casters looking to be involved can send the following information to [email protected] for consideration: full name, email, Skype link, Twitch channel URL, and any other social media channels they may run.
Matches during the ECS Open Qualifiers bracket rounds (February 18-19 and 25-26) will be single elimination, with the quarter-finals and semi-finals being best-of-threes. The top two teams from each qualifier will advance to the ECS Developmental League.
Esports Insider says: The Twitch and FACEIT league returns for season three. We can only hope that it offers as much exciting CS:GO action as the ELEAGUE Major as Astralis look to defend their season two title.
