![]() | |
Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Esports |
Founded | June 2012 |
Founders |
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Headquarters | , |
Parent | ESL FACEIT Group |
Website | faceit |
FACEIT is an esports platform founded in London in 2012. [1] The company has administered leagues for games such as Counter-Strike 2 , League of Legends , Rocket League , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 .
In 2022, it was announced that FACEIT and esports company ESL were being acquired by Savvy Games Group (SGG), a holding company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, for a combined $1.5bn. As part of the acquisition, the two companies are set to merge and form the ESL FACEIT Group. [2] [3] [4]
In April 2016, FACEIT announced the launch of their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, known as the Esports Championship Series (ECS). [5] [6] In April 2017, the company partnered with the video sharing platform YouTube for the series. [7] [8] [9] ECS was one of the two premier Counter-Strike leagues, along with ESL Pro League.[ citation needed ]
The series was discontinued in 2020, replaced by a franchise-based league called Flashpoint. [10] It features 12 teams and a US$2,000,000 buy in spot, and offers co-ownership and revenue sharing to competing teams. [11]
In May 2022, FACEIT announced a multi-million dollar partnership agreement with the cryptocurrency fintech platform Cake DeFi. The agreement sees players participating in FACEIT matchups and tournaments to receive cryptocurrency rewards, with plans to pay more than half a million dollars to FACEIT users. [12]
Season | Date | Location | Champions | Prize pool | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | June 2016 | ![]() | ![]() | US$945,000 | [13] [14] |
2 | December 2016 | ![]() | ![]() | US$750,000 | [15] [16] [17] |
3 | June 2017 | ![]() | ![]() | [18] [19] [20] | |
4 | December 2017 | ![]() | ![]() | [21] [22] [23] | |
5 | June 2018 | ![]() | ![]() | [24] | |
6 | November 2018 | ![]() | ![]() | [25] [26] | |
7 | June 2019 | ![]() | ![]() | US$500,000 | [27] |
8 | November 2019 | ![]() | ![]() | [28] |
On 22 February 2018 Valve, the developers and owners of the Counter-Strike series, announced that FACEIT would host the thirteenth Global Offensive major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018. The event began in mid-September and concluded on 23 September 2018. It was the first Major hosted by FACEIT and the first Major hosted in the United Kingdom. [29] It had a US$1,000,000 prize pool and the playoff stage was held in Wembley Arena. [30] In the finals, Astralis defeated Natus Vincere to win its second Major title.
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian CS team won the ESL One Cologne 2016 Major. SK currently has players and teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone. SK Gaming was founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen.
Dignitas is an American esports organization based in Newark, New Jersey. It was founded by Michael "ODEE" O'Dell in 2003 as a merger of two Battlefield 1942 clans. Dignitas was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2016 and is now a part of parent company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE). The team is best known for its League of Legends, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squads.
Mouz, formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series, having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series.
ESL Gaming GmbH, is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, and the oldest that is still operational. Based in Cologne, Germany, ESL has eleven offices and multiple international TV studios globally. ESL is the largest esports company to broadcast on Twitch.
Olof Kajbjer Gustafsson, better known as olofmeister, is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for FaZe Clan. He has previously played for H2k, Absolute Legends, LGB eSports, Fnatic, and FaZe Clan. Gustafsson is widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO players in history. He has won two CSGO Majors, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015, as well as many other tournaments.
Astralis is a Danish esports organization. Best known for their Counter-Strike 2 team, they also have teams representing other games, such as FIFA, League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege. The parent group of Astralis is the Astralis Group, who previously managed Origen and Future F.C. before the merger of all teams under the Astralis brand. Astralis Group became the first esports organization to conduct an initial public offering, and is traded as ticker Nasdaq Copenhagen: ASTRLS. Astralis's CS:GO team holds the most CS:GO Major Championships won at 4.
Jacky "Jake" Yip, better known as Stewie2K, is an American streamer and professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. As a member of Cloud9, he became the first North American to win a Valve–sponsored major in CS:GO.
Nicolai Hvilshøj Reedtz, better known as dev1ce, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Astralis. On his first stint in Astralis, he became the first to win 4 majors in CS:GO, and to win 3 majors consecutively. He is regarded as one of the best players of all time, consistently playing at a very high individual level since 2014.
The FACEIT Major: London 2018, also known as FACEIT Major 2018, or London 2018, was the thirteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, the second Major of 2018, and first organized by FACEIT. It featured twenty-four professional teams from around the world and took place in London, United Kingdom. The group stages were held in Twickenham Stadium, and the playoffs were played in front of a live crowd in the SSE Arena, Wembley. The London Major was the sixth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. The top sixteen teams from the previous Major, Boston 2018, automatically qualified for the FACEIT Major while another eight teams qualified from their respective regional qualifiers. The eight from regional qualifiers and the bottom eight teams from Boston 2018 competed in the New Challengers group stage, a Swiss-system tournament. The top eight from this stage then advanced to face the top eight teams from Boston ("Legends") in a second Swiss-system group stage, the New Legends stage. The top eight from this stage advanced to the playoffs.
List of events in 2018 in esports.
Counter-Strike Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors, are Counter-Strike (CS) esports tournaments sponsored by Valve, the game's developer. The first Valve-recognized Major took place in 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden and was hosted by DreamHack with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams. This, along with the following 18 Majors, was played in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. As of the 2023 release of Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), Counter-Strike esports, including the Majors, are played in CS2.
The Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019, also known as IEM Katowice Major 2019 or Katowice 2019, was the fourteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the world championship for the thirteenth season of the Intel Extreme Masters. It was held in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland from February 13 – March 3, 2019. Fourteen teams would qualify for the IEM Katowice Major 2019 based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018, while another ten teams would qualify from their respective regional qualifiers. The top eight teams from the London Major ("Legends") received a bye to the second phase of the group stage while the other sixteen teams ("Challengers") had to go through the first and second group stages in order to reach the playoffs. It featured a US$1,000,000 prize pool, the seventh consecutive Major with that prize pool. It was hosted by ESL, their first Major since 2016. This event was the start of the second season of the Intel Grand Slam.
Oleksandr Olehovych Kostyliev, better known as s1mple, is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Natus Vincere. He is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history.
Lukas Egholm Rossander, better known as gla1ve, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for ENCE. Considered one of the best captains in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, he became the first to win 4 majors in CS:GO, and to win 3 majors consecutively.
Russel David Kevin Van Dulken, better known as Twistzz, is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Liquid. He has previously played for top teams such as Team SoloMid, Misfits, and FaZe Clan. Twistzz was named the MVP of ESL One New York 2018 and IEM Sydney 2019 by HLTV.
Marcelo Augusto David, better known as coldzera, is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for RED Canids and a former professional Counter Strike: Global Offensive player. He was named the best CS:GO player in both 2016 and 2017 by CS:GO news website HLTV.
Space Soldiers was a Turkish professional esports organization founded in 2014 by Bünyamin Aydın. The organization consisted of a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division and a FIFA division, the former of which also had an academy team.
Robin Kool, better known as ropz, is an Estonian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for FaZe Clan. Kool has played in eight Majors and won the PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
Heroic is a Norwegian esports organization with teams competing in Counter-Strike 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Sim racing and Rainbow Six Siege.