Season 7 of the ECS tournament kicks on 11 March 2019, and the production company, FACEIT, have announced that they have formed two new partnerships for the competition. This will see Pinnacle being added as the official betting partner for the ECS, whilst Twitch will be the broadcast partner for Season 7.
FACEIT’s partnership with Pinnacle will cover both Season 7 and 8, and it will also see the Challenger Cup being rebranded as the ECS Pinnacle Cup. This will come as part of the newly organised ECS format that has been established to try and provide a less complicated tournament schedule for top-level CS:GO competitions.
© ECS
The new deal will see Pinnacle’s brand name being prominently featured at the Counter Strike contests, and fans can gain direct access to the bookmaker’s real-time odds support that will run from the regular season all the way up to the finals.
The announcement that Twitch would be a non-exclusive media partner for the ECS competitions will be great news for CS:GO fans. This means that it will be the first time that Twitch has covered the world’s largest Counter Strike tournament, and it’s widely expected that viewing figures could even surpass those seen at the last FACEIT London Major. This saw over 820,000 concurrent viewers and helped the esports contest become the most-viewed CS:GO event of all-time.
In orer to guide you through the action, season 7 of ECS will featured a revamped commentary team with legends like James Bardolph and Dan ‘ddk’ Kapadia on hand to provide you with all of the expert analysis and off-hand wise cracks.
The open qualifying period of ECS has already concluded and CS:GO fans can now look forward seeing the elimination rounds that run each week from 11 March. Each round will feature five eight-team contests that have a handy prize pool of $25,000 per region. The winners of the first three weeks will book their place in the ECS Season 7 Finals, whilst the last spot will be taken up by the team will the highest overall prize money winnings.
© ECS
So who can you expect to see in the ECS Season 7 matches? The European matches promise no shortage of first-person shooter talent with the likes of Astralis, LDLC, Avangar, North, NIP, Forze, Virtus.pro and Faze getting ready to inflict some serious damage. Whilst the North American quarter finals also offers plenty of top CS:GO action with teams such as Team Liquid, Rogue, Luminosity, Intz, Complexity, EUnited, SSG and NRG all gearing up to get the greatest amount of prize money and book their place in the grand final.
The ECS Season 7 Finals will once again take place at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London. This will be packed with thousands of the biggest CS:GO fans in the UK cheering on their favourite teams, and thanks to the new partnership deal with Twitch, you don’t have to miss out on the action.
