Development League to Begin on February 28; Gambit, North, Misfits and Renegades All Invited to Compete to Enter ECS Season 3 Lineup

LONDON – February 27, 2017 – FACEIT’s ground-breaking esports initiative, the Esports Championship Series (ECS), will mix top teams and newcomers in the Season 3 Development League as top teams North, FlipSide and Gambit have been invited to the European league, while Misfits and Renegades will battle in the North American league. Set to kick off on February 28, a total of 16 teams, eight from each region, will compete for a chance to earn passage into Season 3 through a final showdown against each region’s bottom two ranked teams from Season 2.

This season also marks the return of the Community Caster Challenge, which gives aspiring esports casting talent an opportunity to fly to the ECS studio and cast live matches of Season 3. To help kickstart the next big caster career, FACEIT will be hosting one caster during each match in their official Twitch channel. In addition, the ECS team will be providing assistance to give participating casters the best quality streams possible, this includes expert advice, support, graphical assets and video content. Casters looking to join the Community Caster Challenge can send the following information to ecs@csgoleague.com for consideration: first and last name, contact email, Skype link, Twitch channel URL, and other social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

The eight invited teams and four qualifying teams in the ECS Development League are as follows:

Invited European Teams:

North

Gambit

Team Kinguin

Flipsid3

Qualified European Teams:

PRIDE

Tengri

Rogue

Space Soldiers

Invited North American Teams:

Misfits

Renegades

Winterfox

Selfless

Qualified North American Teams:

Premier Rejects

Bees Money Crew

Splyce

Denial Esports

As with the previous season of ECS, season three offers participating teams the option of league co-ownership and a vote in Governing Committee representation. The ECS’ co-ownership arrangement gives teams the option to use part of the $1.75M that ECS is providing for the prize pool and supportive funds that can potentially be used to bolster salaries, facilities and equipment to help out the players.

For more information on the ECS, please visit the official website at www.csgoleague.com or follow the ECS on Twitter (@ECSleague).

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About FACEIT

FACEIT is the leading competitive platform for online multiplayer games, with more than 6 million users logging in a total of over 12 million online game sessions each month. FACEIT allows players to easily play in tournaments and leagues for virtual and real-world prizes through automated tournament management and matchmaking technology. For developers, FACEIT’s advanced software development kit (SDK) allows game creators to easily integrate user-friendly matchmaking and tournaments into their titles to allow gamers to take part in competitive online games at all skill levels. esports organizers, players and communities use FACEIT to create and manage online competitions. For more information on FACEIT, please visit www.faceit.com.