ECS

Esports Championship Series Season 3 has been claimed to be one of their most successful events to date. With thousands of players watching the event live in Wembley, London and thousands more watching through the live stream via YouTube. The season spanned for a couple of months and completed eight grueling weeks of hard earned competitiveness.

The Season 3 Finals took place from June 23rd to 25th, 2017 and featured the top eight teams from EU and NA regions. The grand prize pool of $660,000 not only forced the players to bring their best per match but this also raked in a lot of supporters as well. The teams that took part in the event are listed below.

Group A:

  • FaZe Clan
  • Optic
  • G2 Esports
  • SK Gaming

Group B:

  • Cloud 9
  • Fnatic
  • Team Liquid
  • Astralis

The winner that took home the prize and honor of the event was the SK Gaming bringing home a whopping $250,000! Second prize went to FaZe Clan with $120,000 and third went to Cloud 9 and Astralis for $65,000.

These major teams that made it to the Playoffs battled their hearts out in one of the most viewed CS:GO events to date. No official announcements have been made for Season 4 of ECS, but this is sure to come in the near future!

The participants of the ECS Season

The Esports Championship Series, short ECS, a league organized by the platform FACEIT and Twitch, has released the teams for the first season. With prize money of 3.5 million US dollars over two seasons, it is one of the financially strongest leagues CS:GO has ever seen. In addition to teams like Astralis, fnatic and LG, the German organisation mousesports is also represented, which beat the HellRaisers in a best-of-five.

In the ECS there are two groups, one European and one North American, in each of them there are ten teams which meet each other in a best-of-three. Right now Astralis and mousesports are playing for the first victory.

USD 3.5 million eSports Championship Series

The USD 3.5 million eSports Championship Series is the first eSports league where teams are part owners. Currently, the eSports scene is being flooded with new million-dollar leagues. The ESL Pro League prize money was increased to $1.5 million and the new ELEAGUE on TBS announced $2.2 million in prize money for the first two seasons.

FACEIT and Twitch want to draw level

Meanwhile, the traditional league organizer FACEIT has not yet been able to compete with these sums. This is now changing due to a cooperation with the livestream platform Twitch.tv. This year, a total of 3.5 million euros will be made available for the league, whereby this money will go exclusively to the participating teams – be it for the reimbursement of travel expenses or as prize money. In Europe and North America, ten teams will play against each other in a regular season. The best of them will meet at the end of the season at the interregional final event.

Teams become co-owners of the league

However, the eSports Championship Series does not only offer prize money and travel expenses to its participants. It is the first eSports league to put teams in the position of co-owners. Co-founder of FACEIT, explains: “Players and teams are at the heart of the eSports community and deserve the opportunity to reap the rewards of their hard work and dedication to eSports to make it a mainstream phenomenon.

Mouz wants to be there

Eight of the ten European participants will be invited to the league. It is not yet known who exactly they are. The German team mousesports is about to qualify for one of the two remaining places. On Friday evening, the lineup around “NiKo” will play against the Eastern Europeans of HellRaisers at 6 p.m. mouz will be the favourite.

The “Competitive Gaming” platform FACEIT and the responsible persons of the eSports Championship Series (ECS) have concluded a partnership with YouTube. The goal: to make YouTube the exclusive online home for the competitions. YouTube streams ECS from 25 March.

“This is our most significant investment in eSports to date and illustrates our interest in the growing eSports market and its hundreds of millions of gamers who use YouTube every day,” said the Global Head of Gaming Content at YouTube. “The ECS structure in terms of revenue sharing and co-ownership strengthens our belief in giving players a voice. We know that the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Community is already watching clips, highlights and reruns on YouTube, so we look forward to offering them this action live.”

YouTube invests in new eSports partnership

The multi-year partnership will enable competitive gaming fans to take advantage of features such as a high bit rate of 1080p 60fps live video, instant playback and other integrations.

YouTube as central hub for eSports content

YouTube would like to work closely with the players of the ESC League to provide them with the best possible support with their YouTube channels. The addition of live streaming to the on-demand offering helps YouTube expand its role as a central hub for eSports content. Advertisers will be able to take a step into the growing ecosystem and book new ECS sponsorship packages on YouTube.

“YouTube offers ECS fans an unparalleled viewing experience,” said chief business officer and co-founder of FACEIT. “YouTube is by far the world’s most popular video platform for gamers. YouTube continues to work at its leading position as an innovator in video technology, making it a great place for us to be as a new home for the eSports Championship Series.”

Deals of this kind in the world of eSports have become a very lucrative way for tournament organizers to make money. YouTube signed a similar deal at the beginning of the year with ESL for the rights to their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League. Major League Baseball (MLB) has paid $200 million for the League of Legends Championship Series rights, according to Forbes. In any case, the market remains on the move.