The organisers of the Esports Championship Series (ECS) have announced that season two of the league will kick off in October.

Running from October 7 to December 11, Season 2 of the ECS, hosted by FACEIT and Twitch, will continue to consist of 20 teams, 10 from North America and 10 from Europe, with $1.75 million up for grabs - a figure that includes financial support.

The biggest change from Season 1 is the creation of a Development League, which will act as a qualifying platform for ECS. In both regions, four teams determined by open qualifiers will join four invited sides in the Development League, scheduled for September.



G2 won the first season of the ECS

The top two teams from these tournaments will then take on the bottom two teams of Season 1 in promotion matches to determine the final two teams in both ECS divisions. In Europe, dignitas and Na`Vi are the teams facing the threat of leaving the league, while in North America it will be Echo Fox and Team Kaliber fighting for survival.

"The open qualifiers will provide new teams the opportunity to showcase their talent to the world and join our top CS:GO esports league," said Michele Attisani, CBO of FACEIT. "It’s our goal to provide new teams a chance to be recognized in the community and become stars, while providing current ECS teams a fresh pool of talent to test their skills against."

Teams can sign up for the open qualifiers by clicking on the following links:

Europe:

North America:

All 20 teams competing in ECS are offered co-ownership, which means that they get seats on the league's governing committee and a share of the revenue generated by the tournament.

G2 won the first season of ECS after beating out Luminosity at the season finals, which took place at the SSE Arena, in London.