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