ECS season two launches next month, 2017 seasons already in development

After a relatively successful debut, FACEIT’s Esports Championship Series (ECS) league is returning for a second season next month.

The $1.75 million league will feature the top teams in Counter-Strike—but for the first time, FACEIT will run open qualifiers and a development division to allow promotion into the main ECS league.

With plans for season two at an advanced stage, FACEIT is already planning ahead for seasons three and four to take place in 2017.

Each region will host four open tournaments, with the winners of each joining four invited teams from their region for the developmental division. The top two teams after six weeks of play will face off against the bottom two teams from the ECS divisions for a spot in season two. For North America, that will be Echo Fox and Team Kaliber. In Europe Na`Vi finished last after withdrawing and forfeiting their season, along with Team Dignitas, the second team to face a promotion match.

Like the teams who are already in the league, any promoted team will take an equity stake in ECS and gain voting rights in the governing committee.

“The governing committee basically discuss and decides the framework and rules and regulations surrounding the league and its evolution.” FACEIT CBO Michele Attisani told the Daily Dot. “That’s the framework that we set up and it’s built to give the possibility of all the people involved to work on the future evolution and development of ECS.

“I’m fairly happy, I think we definitely introduced a lot of positive things and are definitely working in the right direction.”

According to Attisani, the short lead time for season one that contributed to Na`Vi’s withdrawal and caused a number of other issues has led FACEIT to plan much further ahead—teams will have dates for all ECS seasons through the end of 2017 over the next couple of weeks.

Attisani also praised the input of partner Twitch, though described their role as more “advisory” than involved in the operations of the league.

In season two, and in the coming 2017 seasons, FACEIT will augment its broadcasts with content delving deeper into the personal and professional lives of the players, according to Attisani.

“One part that is really important for us is the storytelling,” Attisani told the Daily Dot, “and giving the spotlight to the players and giving more insight into the players from either a personal or statistical standpoint. How are they playing, how are they evolving, how are they training? This is something we believe will really push the quality of the content higher and will definitely start implementing a lot of things from season two, it will be a constant evolution.”

Season one of ECS concluded last month in Wembley Stadium, with G2 Esports taking home the title.