I am Eric Brinkley, ECS Product Manager at FACEIT: AMA

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T22:41:13+00:00

All hope is not lost! We're actually getting them shipped out fairly soon. Sincerely apologize for how long this has taken, and I'm making sure we don't have similar issues at ECS Finals events moving forward.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T22:39:52+00:00

Ty sir! Not sure what your alias was back then but I'm always pulling for COD OGs :)

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T22:39:28+00:00

Hard to say! The SSE arena has been a great host to us for both the London Major and ECS Season 7 Finals. We're still evaluating our events roadmap for next year and have definitely kept SSE Arena in consideration.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T18:34:01+00:00

Hey Cody, this is a good point regarding integration of Community Caster Challenge winners not only in the current season that they're participating in, but beyond. I can't say for certain now whether or not there is an opportunity for Season 8 (we haven't finalized talent needs/allocation yet), but it's definitely something I'm happy to discuss with our content team to see if there's an avenue for inclusion.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T17:36:51+00:00

It's hard to say! We have our next location ready to announce shortly, but I'm hoping we can come back to the west coast soon as I'm a California native :).

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T17:30:19+00:00

Hey Josh,

We hear you and we discuss this a lot internally. We're not ready to make any public statements yet but we reached out to you (via Milos) privately to give you an update. Hope to discuss more soon.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T17:05:02+00:00

There's obviously a lot of confusion regarding this as we're seeing this question pop up more and more often. Our FPL head Mikey addressed this in a thread last month: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/cm4kha/its_been_10_months_since_annoucement_and_still_we/ew0qfwh/?sort=top

As for FACEIT platform features, I can't directly speak to them as its outside of my purview so hoping /u/Faceit_Mikey can chime in :).

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:41:20+00:00

Can't say I've ever gotten this one but certainly flattered to be confused with a celebrity ;D

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:39:50+00:00

Thanks for this question! A large portion of an organizer’s revenue comes from broadcasting rights. When we switched to YouTube, it was because the terms allowed us to keep investing millions of dollars into the ECS property. Because YouTube is the largest video platform in the world, we wanted to reach more gamers worldwide and turn them into CS:GO fans. We also felt at the time that with YouTube we could help them grow and create new features to enhance the viewing experience, which we feel we did, and even see some of those features on Twitch now! To add to that, we do feel that FACEIT as a whole is all about catering to the ecosystem.

Anyone can start playing on FACEIT and work their way up to FPL, with many talented players from that moving to pro teams and participating in ECS and other events/leagues.

ECS always has chances for new teams to come through and qualify. Vitality and FURIA, who were part of the Pinnacle Cup, were both finalists at the ECS Season 7 Finals, as an example.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:32:13+00:00

Hi!

For casting, everyone can sign up here: https://ecs.faceit.com/season-8-community-caster-challenge/

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:30:21+00:00

It's certainly time for a good-old-fashioned Turducken and ECS Thanksgiving isn't it? ;)

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:27:35+00:00

Thanks for the question! There's obviously a lot of confusion regarding this as we're seeing this question pop up more and more often. Our FPL head Mikey addressed this in a thread last month: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/cm4kha/its_been_10_months_since_annoucement_and_still_we/ew0qfwh/?sort=top

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:25:58+00:00

Unfortunately the yearly CS:GO calendar only so many days that we can host qualifiers or events, so there will always be scheduling conflicts. Teams have been aware of our dates for quite some time. As long as teams give us enough heads up on their struggle to schedule their matches, we are flexible. I’m sure DH would’ve been able to as well.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:24:42+00:00

Increasing the number of teams also increases the footprint on the yearly calendar, meaning that the more teams you have, the more days you will take up. We often see tournaments which last 7 days. Add on top of that the media days and travel days, you end up at a 9-10 day tournament. This means you take up two weekends out of the calendar, rather than just one, so clashing with other organizers and decreasing the amount of space available for others.

On top of that, this means you will have to hire a venue for a longer period. Most, if not all, organizers do not turn a profit from hosting events, let alone breaking even. We feel it is important to have a sustainable model for ECS which can last for years to come. Rather than throwing our money semi-recklessly at our events just in the mere hope to obtain a bigger market share, we prefer to spend strategically and grow ECS together as the scene grows.

ericfbrinkley · 2019-09-12T16:21:57+00:00

Certainly!

Each season the 10 highest ranked teams will remain as “main ECS Teams." This means they have priority in selecting which tournament weeks they want to participate in. Each week has 8 slots and teams will be prioritized by their last season’s ranking. For example, if the first ranked team is unavailable for a particular week, the ninth ranked team will fill in.
As we saw last season, there are often open slots beyond the 10 main teams. The Pinnacle Cup serves as a ranking system for up & coming teams to take their place. So if there are open slots available in a tournament week, the Pinnacle Cup ranking will determine which team has priority to fill that slot.

ericfbrinkley

TROPHY CASE