FACEIT has revealed the groups and schedule for the prestigious ECS Season 8 Finals from Nov 28th – Dec 1st at the Esports Stadium Arlington. The Dallas Finals will mark the conclusion of a Regular Season filled with fast-paced action and will see the best CS:GO teams from Europe and North America compete for a prize pool of $500,000 and the title of the ECS Season 8 champions.
The Europe representatives will be Astralis, NiP, AVANGAR and Fnatic, while Team Liquid, Sharks, Evil Geniuses and MIBR will be the face of North America. All teams will compete in two intense double-elimination groups with the top two teams from each group advancing to the playoffs. The playoffs will then see the top teams battle it out in a single-elimination Best of Three bracket with the strongest team taking home the trophy.
ECS Season 8 Finals Groups
| Group A | Group B |
| AVANGAR | Sharks Esports Team |
| Evil Geniuses | Astralis |
| Team Liquid | Fnatic |
| NiP | MIBR |
How the groups were determined
AVANGAR and Sharks Esports Team were determined as A1 and B1 respectively as they were the first teams to qualify. They then took turns selecting the teams that should be in the opposite groups:
- A1(AVANGAR) selects B2 (Astralis)
- B1 (Sharks) selects A2 (Evil Geniuses)
- B2 (Astralis) selects A3 (Team Liquid)
- A2 (Evil Geniuses) selects B3 (Fnatic)
- B3 (Fnatic) selects A4 (NiP)
- B4 (MIBR) remaining
The Season 8 Dallas Finals sees the welcome return of ECS to Esports Stadium Arlington after Danish powerhouse Astralis took home their third ECS title at the same venue in Season 6. Arlington will provide the backdrop for a Thanksgiving weekend full of top tier competition as teams try to cement their CS:GO legacy with an ECS title. All top four teams in the HLTV rankings, Astralis (1st), Evil Geniuses (2nd), Fnatic (3rd) and Team Liquid (4th), as well as NiP (8th) and AVANGAR (9th) will face off, making the ECS Season 8 Finals a battle for the ages.
The winning team will dethrone ECS Season 7 champions Team Vitality who surpassed all expectations with a miracle run which saw them take down Brazil’s FURIA at the iconic SSE Arena, Wembley earlier this year.
FACEIT has also partnered with leading social broadcasting platform Caffeine on exclusive content throughout ECS, including the return of ‘ECS After Dark,’ their exciting overtime show broadcast exclusively on the platform.
ECS Season 8 Finals Schedule
| Time | Day 1 (Nov 28) |
| 9am CT, 3pm GMT, 4pm CET | AVANGAR vs. EG (Gr A semi 1 – BO1) |
| 10:30am CT, 4:30pm GMT, 5:30pm CET | NiP vs. TL (Gr A semi 2 – BO1) |
| Noon CT, 6pm GMT, 7pm CET | Astralis vs. Sharks (Gr B semi 1 – BO1) |
| 1:30pm CT, 7:30pm GMT, 8:30pm CET | Fnatic vs. MIBR (Gr B semi 2 – BO1) |
| 3pm CT, 9pm GMT, 10pm CET | Gr A UB Final – BO3 |
| 6pm CT, midnight GMT, 1am CET | Gr B UB Final – BO3 |
| Time | Day 2 (Nov 29) |
| 9am CT, 3pm GMT, 4pm CET | Gr A LB R1 – BO3 |
| Noon CT, 6pm GMT, 7pm CET | Gr B LB R1 – BO3 |
| 3pm CT, 9pm GMT, 10pm CET | Gr A LB R2 – BO3 |
| 6pm CT, midnight GMT, 1am CET | Gr B LB R2 – BO3 |
| Time | Day 3 (Nov 30) |
| Noon CT, 6pm GMT, 7pm CET | Playoffs Semi #1 – BO3 |
| 3pm CT, 9pm GMT, 10pm CET | Playoffs Semi #2 – BO3 |
| Time | Day 4 (Dec 1) |
| Noon CT, 6pm GMT, 7pm CET | Showmatch |
| 3pm CT, 9pm GMT, 10pm CET | Grand Final – BO3 |
For more information on the Esports Championship Series, visit ecs.faceit.com and follow the league on Twitter (@ECS).
