ESEA League is moving to FACEIT (Season 46 to begin in August)

Today we are excited to announce that the ESEA League is moving to FACEIT, aiming to provide our community with a more trusted, balanced, and enjoyable team league experience, powered by an unmatched anti-cheat technology. The 46th Season start date is planned for mid-August this year, with registration planned to open at the start of August.

For the past 15 years, the ESEA League has been one of the fundamental pillars of the Counter-Strike grassroots scene, providing a platform to the most competitive players to gain experience and improve in a real team environment. After 45 seasons, we witnessed tens of thousands of teams compete to prove themselves by climbing the divisions all the way to the prestigious ESL Pro League, just as many of today’s best teams and players in the world did before them.

In the past year we have found many positive reasons and requests from the community to unite the ESEA League and FACEIT platform, work together as one team, and leverage the technology we have been developing for years to provide you with a better and fairer team league experience. For example, we will be able to leverage FACEIT Anti-Cheat and other platform features to improve in areas where we have been facing growing challenges and be in a stronger position to provide a more trusted, balanced, and enjoyable competition to all participants.

We’ve prepared a lengthy FAQ to answer all of your questions, but in short, there are three key pieces of information you should know about the ESEA League’s next season and its transition to the FACEIT platform.

• We are currently planning to go live at the start of August with the registration for Season 46, with the season beginning mid-August after IEM Cologne.
• To ensure a smooth transition to FACEIT, our teams have worked closely to provide all active ESEA subscribers with a higher-value subscription package depending on which subscription you currently have on ESEA, which is going to be assigned to your FACEIT accounts automatically by the 7th of July.
• To make sure you get the most value out of your new subscription on FACEIT, we prepared $36,000 worth of competitions for you to grind throughout July as you prepare for Season 46, featuring a new pre-seasonal circuit with weekly cups and monthly finals.

Planning Season 46 around the release of Counter-Strike 2

As we all know Valve has communicated that Counter-Strike 2 is going to be launched sometime during this summer, which is an exciting time for all of us. That said, this also required us to change the way we plan Season 46 and prepare ourselves for these potential challenges due to the uncertainty of Counter-Strike 2 launch date:

• We don’t know if CS:GO will be playable after Counter-Strike 2 launches and it could pose a large technical and operational challenge for us if we need to switch to a new game during Season 46 and ensure a smooth transition for league matches, teams and results.

• In the eventuality that Season 46 would need to be completed by switching over to Counter-Strike 2, the amount of time required to support Counter-Strike 2 integration on ESEA would be extremely high. Rather than rebuilding our entire integration and infrastructure to support this, instead, we will prioritize being ready on time and focus on expediting our move to the FACEIT platform which already has a functioning CS2 integration that is being tested by top professional players for the past few weeks in the CS2 10 Mans Hub.

That said, even with the above challenges, after talking with our players we feel it’s the right decision to move forward with Season 46 planning, regardless of the Counter-Strike 2 launch date. If we had not decided to do this, Season 46 would be postponed indefinitely until the Counter-Strike 2 release. This could mean either a short or a very long wait time for thousands of teams, which, depending on the region they are in, really impacts what they have to play, their contracts, and their financial support. In other words, we are taking any technical and operational burden on ourselves to ensure you are able to play as soon as possible.

We would like to assure you all that we will keep you updated on any changes or new information as we plan Season 46.

Transitioning to FACEIT

To ensure a smooth transition to FACEIT, our teams have worked closely to provide you with a higher-value subscription package depending on which subscription you currently have on ESEA. This is going to be assigned to your accounts automatically by the 7th of July.

Find the summary below on what exact subscription you will get or how you will be able to purchase one:

• All players with an active Premium subscription on ESEA will automatically get a new ESEA League Pass subscription on FACEIT for as long as they keep their premium subscription on ESEA active.
• All players with an active League Pass subscription on ESEA will automatically get the new ESEA League Pass as well as FACEIT premium for as long as they keep their League Pass subscription on ESEA active.
• ESEA League Pass on FACEIT will give you access to both the ESEA League Season 46 and all ESEA competition content on the FACEIT platform. All players who are interested will be able to purchase it on the FACEIT platform by the 7th of July. We are also exploring different ways to bundle up ESEA League Pass with FACEIT Premium subscription in the future.

Teams in ESL Challenger, Advanced, Main, and Intermediate will have their spots transferred over to FACEIT. More details about this process will be released once registration opens for the next season.

Win your share of $36,000 in our Pre-Season Circuit for July

To ensure you get the most value out of your new ESEA League Pass subscription on FACEIT, we prepared exciting content for you to compete in throughout July. We are combining our existing Cash Cup’s structure to create a new series of weekly tournaments on FACEIT that will offer qualification spots for monthly finals hosted at the end of July.

Please find the prize pool and schedule breakdown below:

• North America: $20,000
  1st: $10,000
  2nd: $5,000
  3rd/4th: $2,500

• Europe: $10,000
  1st: $5,000
  2nd: $2,500
  3rd/4th: $1,250

• Asia-Pacific: $2,000
  1st: $1,000
  2nd: $600
  3rd/4th: $200

• Oceania: $2,000
  1st: $1,000
  2nd: $600
  3rd/4th: $200

• South Africa: $2,000
  1st: $1,000
  2nd: $600
  3rd/4th: $200

Registration for these events will open once our new subscription tier is available for currently unsubscribed players to participate.

• 10th – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 15th – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 16th – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 20th – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 21st – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 22nd – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 23rd – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 24th – Pre-Season Circuit Qualifier
• 30th/31st – Finals

Thank you for continuing to create the most competitive team-based League in Counter-Strike. As we prepare for our next chapter, we look forward to welcoming new players to our community and welcoming back seasoned competitors for Season 46, on FACEIT. Let’s run it back!

The post has been updated 29.10.2023 19:16. There is new relevant information.
Any suggestions for an update? Write in the comments.