ECS Season 5 to bring new qualification system
FACEIT's very own Esports Championship Series, or ECS for short, will be undergoing some pretty major maintenance for its upcoming Season 5.
The league would usually host a Development League, which would allow teams to earn a place in the main Series. However, citing a "busy CS:GO league and tournament schedule ," FACEIT has replaced the Development League with a new "ECS Challenger Cup." According to the official blog post, this change will allow teams to qualify for the main Season of ECS quicker with a newly introduced and more "condensed" schedule.
To play in the Challenger Cup, teams simply must qualify in the ECS Open Qualifiers, which will begin on January 27th in Europe and our very own North America.
On top of the continent-wide qualifiers, Europe will also see individual "Regional Qualifiers", restricted to specific zones: CIS/Russia, North EU, West/Central EU, and South/East EU.
North America will receive a similar system, minus the regional qualifiers. Instead, NA will receive four Open qualifiers with the top four teams of each entering the Closed Qualifier.
In both regions, a total of 16 winning teams from their respective Open Qualifiers will be entered into their Closed Qualifier, from which the top four will move on to the Challenger Cup.
These four teams that made it all the way through the Qualifiers will be joined by two invited teams and two relegated teams from last season. The Challenger Cup will feature a double-elimination BO3 bracket with the two winners moving on to compete in ECS Season 5.
Teams interested can sign up here.
The competition dates are as follow:
EU Open Qualifiers (Regional)
- CIS/Russia Qualifier: February 3, 2018 (2 qualifying slots)
- North EU Qualifier: February 3, 2018 (2 qualifying slots)
- West/Central EU Qualifier: February 4, 2018 (2 qualifying slots)
- South/East EU Qualifier: February 4, 2018 (2 qualifying slots)
- EU Open Qualifiers: 5-15 February (8 qualifying slots)
EU Closed Qualifier: February 16-18, 2018
NA Open Qualifiers: February 3-11, 2018
NA Closed Qualifiers: February 16-18, 2018
