ECS S7 Week 2 teams and matchups announced

The eight teams which will be vying for an ECS S7 Finals spot in both Europe and North America in the upcoming week have been confirmed.

The second ECS Season 7 cup will take place on March 18-21, in both Europe and North America, with the single-elimination BO3 bracket determining one LAN Finals participant from both regions. However, with the cup overlapping with the media and travel days for BLAST São Paulo, a number of high-profile teams are missing, giving an opportunity to backup squads.

woxic's new team will take on fnatic in the quarter-finals

In Europe, Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe will be ceeding their spots due to the tournament in Brazil, with Astralis, who won the first week, also not participating. Interestingly, OpTic (ECS S6) and Valiance (3-0 in Pinnacle Cup) who are currently in China for WESG, will not participate in the cup, while fnatic, who is still in competition there, is expected to take part.

ECS Season 7 Week 2 Europe will start with the following quarter-finals:

North vs. Virtus.pro
AVANGAR vs. FORZE
MOUZ vs. fnatic
Vitality vs. LDLC

North, Virtus.pro, FORZE, LDLC, and AVANGAR will all be getting their second shot at earning a spot at the $500,000 ECS S7 Finals after participating last week, with AVANGAR being the team that impressed the most in Week 1, pushing the winners Astralis to the edge on two maps.

Another Pinnacle Cup team which we will be seeing this week is Vitality, who will start their campaign by taking on countrymen LDLC. Considering their ranking and the number of teams ahead of them which will most likely be playing in upcoming weeks, this is the best shot Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt and co. have at qualifying for the finals.

Also, MOUZ will debut their new lineup in ECS, featuring Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker, Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský, starting their run with a difficult confrontation against fnatic.

Who will Cloud9 complete their roster with?

On the North American side of things, MIBR and Liquid—who were upset in the first cup by Rogue—will be missing out due to attending BLAST, with Renegades passing on the opportunity as well due to still being in Europe, working on their visas.

The following matches will kick-off ECS Season 7 Week 2 North America:

23:00 - NRG vs. Spacestation
23:00 - eUnited vs. INTZ
02:00 - FURIA vs. Luminosity
02:30 - Bad News Bears vs. Complexity

Cloud9, who still haven't announced their fifth player, will debut in ECS S7 against Spacestation, while INTZ and FURIA will kick off things with a Brazilian matchup.

On the other side of the bracket, Complexity, who reached the grand final in Week 1 and were just barely edged out by Rogue, will take on eUnited, who recently added Armeen "⁠a2z⁠" Toussi as their coach. In the final quarter-final, NRG, who are looking for redemption after being upset by Complexity last week, will take on Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes's Luminosity.