Eight professional Counter-Strike teams will play at the ECS season eight finals in Dallas starting on Thursday, Nov. 28.
All eyes will be on the four best CS:GO teams in the world: Astralis, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and Fnatic. If Astralis win, they’ll solidify themselves as the best team in the world until the next season starts. But if one of the other squads win, they’ll have a shot of dethroning the Danes at the ESL Pro League season 10 finals in December.
Ninjas in Pyjamas, AVANGAR, MIBR, and Sharks complete the team list for this event. We’ll see if these squads are capable of upsetting the higher-ranked ones.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ECS season eight finals.
Stream
ECS season eight finals will be fully broadcast on FACEIT’s Twitch Channel. There won’t be any simultaneous matches, so it’ll be easier to watch your favorite team.
Format
Matches will be played for four days in Dallas. Eight teams will fight for their share of the $500,000 prize pool.
The teams will be split into two double-elimination GSL groups. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals. Apart from the best-of-one opening round, all matches will be played as best-of-three series.
The winner of ECS season eight finals will earn $225,000. The runners-up will take home $100,000, while the semifinalists get $50,000 each.
Teams
Group A
- Evil Geniuses: Ethan Arnold, Tarik Celik, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz
- Team Liquid: Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella
- Ninjas in Pyjamas: Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Simon “twist” Eliasson, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, and Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora
- AVANGAR: Ali “Jame” Djami, Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev, Alexey “qikert” Golubev, Timur “buster” Tulepov, and Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev
Group B
- Astralis: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Fnatic: Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, Maikil “Golden” Selim, and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
- MIBR: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Vito “kNgV-” Giuseppe, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles
- Sharks: Raphael “exit” Lacerda, Leonardo “leo_druNky” Oliveira, Jhonatan “jnt” Silva, Ignacio “meyern” Meyer, and Luca “Luken” Nadotti
Schedule
Thursday, Nov. 28
- 9am CT: EG vs. AVANGAR
- 10:30am CT: Liquid vs. NiP
- 12pm CT: Astralis vs. Sharks
- 1:30pm CT: Fnatic vs. MIBR
- 3pm CT: Group A winners match
- 6pm CT: Group B winners match
Friday, Nov. 29
- 9am CT: Group A elimination match
- 12pm CT: Group B elimination match
- 3pm CT: Group A decider match
- 6pm CT: Group B decider match
Saturday, Nov. 30
- 12pm CT: First semifinal
- 3pm CT: Second semifinal
Sunday, Dec. 1.
- 3pm CT: Grand finals
Key storylines
Astralis haven’t been as dominant as they were in 2018, but they won the two CS:GO Majors of 2019 and IEM Beijing, which took place earlier this month. If they win the ECS season eight finals, they won’t have to worry about EG and the other top teams for a while. The Danes didn’t make it into the ECS season seven finals playoffs in June, so they’ll want to perform better this time.
EG couldn’t hold onto the No. 1 spot in HLTV’s rankings after they massively underperformed in China at IEM Beijing and the CS:GO Asia Championships. This is their chance to redeem themselves in the best way possible considering how stacked is ECS season eight finals.
Liquid had an impeccable first semester. The North Americans won six LAN tournaments plus the Intel Grand Slam. But they didn’t live up to expectations at the StarLadder Berlin Major in August and have seen their form slowly decline since. They have rested almost a month after attending BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen from Nov. 1 to 2 and will likely bring some new tactics to this event.
Fnatic are in great shape after they added Golden and flusha in September. In October, the Swedes won DreamHack Masters Malmö and were runners-up at the StarSeries i-League season eight finals. ECS will be their first LAN since StarSeries i-League. Can they prove that it wasn’t just a honeymoon phase?