Week One starts April 14 and ends April 16 with twenty four best-of-one games being played between the EU and NA brackets.
The first round of matches for Week 1 of the ECS League has finally been announced on their website. G2 Esports, GODSENT, Astralis and Ninjas in Pyjamas will be facing off in double-header matches starting on April 14.There are four games preferable for EU fans while NA time zones can watch four games that should fit well into their schedules as well. All games are best of one.
The Schedule for Friday, April 14th is as follows:
Europe
- G2 Esports vs. GODSENT Game 1 - 19:00 CEST
- G2 Esports vs. GODSENT Game 2 - 20:00 CEST
- Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas on de_Train - 21:00 CEST
- Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas on de_Cache - 22:00 CEST
North America
- Team Liquid vs. OpTic Gaming on de_Cobblestone - 18:00 EDT
- Team Liquid vs. OpTic Gaming on de_Cobblestone - 19:00 EDT
- SK Gaming vs. Bee’s Money Crew on de_Cobblestone - 20:00 EDT
- SK Gaming vs. Bee’s Money Crew on de_Inferno - 21:00 EDT
G2 Esports were the champions of ECS’ first season, sweeping Luminosity Gaming in a best of three. Though they haven’t won a premier tournament since, they have had strong showings in a few major events as of late, getting as high as second place finishes in said tournaments. The team will be facing GODSENT twice on Friday, with the maps to be announced as of time of publication. GODSENT has struggled in the past, which has resulted in some roster changes; flusha and JW were traded back to Fnatic after almost six months on GODSENT, who received twist and disco doplan in return.
Astralis is hoping to rebound after their heart-breaking loss at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 LAN finals, where they were bested by FaZe Clan 1-2 after back-to-back-to-back first place wins in the last three Premiers they participated in. NiP's last glorious moments were their victories at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 LAN finals and IEM Oakland, since then the team has experience performance struggles on a consistent basis. The two teams will be playing a BO1 on Train and Cache.
Team Liquid have recently been showing decent results, especially in the North American scene. A top two finish was attained at the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 North American closed qualifier. In addition to the aforementioned a top four placement was accrued at the iBUYPOWER Spring Invitational 2017, where they lost against the upcoming opponents, OpTic Gaming. Their opponent, OpTic Gaming, finished second in ECS Season 2 and were champions of ELEAGUE Season 2. According to the schedule, they’ll be playing two rounds on Cobblestone to kick off their run in the tournament.
Finally, SK Gaming is coming off of a second place finish at DreamHack Masters - Las Vegas 2017, while Bee’s Money Crew (BMC) is the underdog, having only participated in Minors and Qualifiers as of late. BMC swept compLexity Gaming in the promotional matches to claim the tenth and final spot for the tournament. The two will face off on Cobblestone first, then again on Inferno to close out the matches for the night.
Europe’s bracket will also include Virtus.Pro, fnatic and Team EnVyUs, while North American teams Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud9 and Immortals round out the NA Bracket. Those teams will play later on in Week 1.
All matches will be broadcasted in FACEIT's YouTube channel.
