FACEIT reveals ECS Season 7 Pinnacle Cup invites
FACEIT has revealed the list of teams who have been invited to compete in the Challenger Cups leading to season 7 of the Esports Championship Series (ECS).
The competition, which has been renamed the ECS Pinnacle Cup following a partnership with Pinnacle, a betting company that will support the ECS throughout 2019, will see 32 teams (16 invited and 16 qualified) across two regions battle it out over three days, March 5-7, in a best-of-three Swiss stage.
This tournament, the second stage in the newly-revamped ECS format after the open qualifiers, will create a ranking that will be used to fill any potential vacant spots in the ECS regular season tournaments, each one with $25,000 on the line. According to Roald van Buuren, Director of Esports at FACEIT, they will be third in line for Pinnacle Cup spots, after the top eight teams from ECS Season 6 and the two relegated sides from the league.
The winners of the first three regular season tournaments will earn direct entry into the ECS Season 7 Finals, while the fourth regional spot will go to the team that earned the most prize money over the course of the season.
IEM Katowice runners-up ENCE and French side Vitality headline the invite list for the European Pinnacle Cup. Across the Atlantic, FURIA, who were also in attendance at the recent Major, INTZ and Denial are some of the high-profile sides who have received invites to the tournament.
Below you can find the final team list for the ECS Pinnacle Cup:
Europe:
North America:
The match-ups for the first Swiss stage round, scheduled for March 5, are the following:
18:00 ENCE vs.
Nemiga
18:00 AVANGAR vs.
Epsilon
18:00 Spirit vs.
Sprout
18:00 Winstrike vs.
Movistar Riders
19:00 Vitality vs.
Chaos
21:00 Heroic vs.
Windigo
21:00 forZe vs.
x6tence Galaxy
21:00 Valiance vs.
x-kom
00:00 Party Astronauts vs.
MASSIVEimpact
00:00 FURIA vs.
Final Feature
00:00 INTZ vs.
Old Guys Club
00:00 Denial vs.
Infamous
03:00 TeamOne vs.
iNTACT
03:00 Ghost vs.
The Quest
03:00 Bad News Bears vs.
Zone
03:00 Singularity vs.
Mythic