Earlier this week, FACEIT and streaming platform Twitch joined forces and launched their own Counter-Strike league, called the Esports Championship Series, featuring 20 teams, 10 from Europe and 10 from North America.
With $3.5 million at stake, the ECS will compete with other tournaments like the ESL Pro League and the ELEAGUE, setting itself apart from the rest, however, by the fact that it is the very first championship to offer co-ownership to the competing sides, just like it happens in many traditional sports leagues.

Invites for ECS have been revealed
The debut season of the ECS will kick off on Sunday, with all matches being streamed live on FACEIT's Twitch channel. The list of participants is still missing one team per region as the qualifiers have not yet come to a close.
Below you can find the confirmed teams for the first season of the Esports Championship Series:
Europe | North America |
Astralis | Cloud9 |
Dignitas | Complexity |
Envy | CLG |
FaZe | TSM |
fnatic | Luminosity |
Virtus.pro | NRG |
Natus Vincere | OpTic |
Ninjas in Pyjamas | Liquid |
MOUZ (qualified) | Echo Fox (qualified) |
G2 (qualified) | TBD |
The full schedule for the ECS can be found on the league's official website.

Dignitas #11 
Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroel
Jesper 'TENZKI' Plougmann
Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen
Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke 
FaZe #15 
Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco
Philip 'aizy' Aistrup
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad 
G2 #8 
Richard 'shox' Papillon
Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy
Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux
Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro 
Echo Fox #179 
Sean 'seang@res' Gares
Armeen 'a2z' Toussi
Trey 'tck' Martin
Mohamad 'mOE' Assad
Ronnie 'ryx' Bylicki 
Ninjas in Pyjamas #7 
Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund
Richard 'Xizt' Landström
Adam 'friberg' Friberg
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvi 

Complexity #58 

Rory 'dephh' Jackson
Daniel 'roca' Gustaferri
Joshua 'sancz' Ballenger
Josh 'shinobi' Abastado
Shawn 'witmer' Taylor 
Cloud9 #13 
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert
Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadir
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek
Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip 
CLG #12 
Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler
Josh 'jdm64' Marzano
James 'hazed' Cobb
Jacob 'FugLy' Medina
Tarik 'tarik' Celik 
OpTic #23 
William 'RUSH' Wierzba
Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Damian 'daps' Steele 
Astralis #4 
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
René 'cajunb' Borg
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 
MOUZ #10 
Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Johannes 'nex' Maget
Timo 'Spiidi' Richter
Denis 'denis' Howell 
Natus Vincere #3 
Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev
Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács
Denis 'seized' Kostin
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev 

Envy #6 

Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub
Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer
Timothée 'DEVIL' Démolon 
Luminosity #2 
Lincoln 'fnx' Lau
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga
Marcelo 'coldzera' David
Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo 
Liquid #9 
Spencer 'Hiko' Martin
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Kenneth 'koosta' Suen 
fnatic #1 
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer
Dennis 'dennis' Edman
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist
Jesper 'JW' Wecksell
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson 

NRG #24 

Fatih 'gob b' Dayik
Nikola 'LEGIJA' Ninić
Peter 'ptr' Gurney
Justin 'just9n' Ortiz
Samuel 'SileNt' Portillo 
Virtus.pro #5 
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski
Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski
Paweł 'byali' Bieliński 

TSM #50 

Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen
Pujan 'FNS' Mehta
Timothy 'autimatic' Ta
Hunter 'SicK' Mims