The last tournament of the 2017 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive calendar, the ECS Season 4 Finals are set to take place this weekend at the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun, Mexico. Competing for the prize pool of $750,000 will be the eight teams that qualified from the ECS Season 4 Regular Season, who help make up one of the most evenly matched tournaments of the last several months.
The tournament will feature a GSL style double elimination format, that will be broken into two groups. The event will start with best of one matches on day one with each team playing another team in their group. The winners of that match will move on to play each other for a spot in the semifinals.
On day two, the three remaining teams in each group will compete in a best of three elimination match and a best of three decider match to determine the other semifinalist from the group. A format like this should ensure that only the most consistent teams can make it out of their groups.
The ECS Season 4 Finals will be broadcast live starting Friday, Dec. 15 at 10:15 a.m. EST and can be seen on FaceIt’s YouTube channel.
The Groups
Group A:
- Fnatic (Sweden)
- Mousesports (Europe)
- OpTic (Europe)
- Luminosity (Brazil)
Group B:
- Cloud9 (USA)
- Team Liquid (USA)
- FaZe (Europe)
- Astralis (Denmark)
Why you should watch
Thanks to the notably absent SK Gaming — who missed qualifying by just a few points during the North American ECS Season 4 regular season — this tournament’s field is wide open. Sure, FaZe Clan have looked good over the last several months and are a convincing early favorite, but as we have seen, FaZe isn’t immune to upsets.
Group A is filled mostly with teams that are a lot better than most people think. Fnatic and OpTic both proved their skills pretty definitively at the ESL Pro League Finals last weekend. Meanwhile, Mousesports and Luminosity may not be the first teams that come to mind when you think of quality, but both rosters have started to gel recently and have the perfect chance to make the ECS Season 4 Finals their coming out party.
While Group A is full of strong challengers, it’s Group B that will likely offer the stiffest competition. With FaZe Clan and Astralis leading the way, the group also features Cloud9, who have always been known for their stellar performances during Group Stages, and Team Liquid, complete with new stand-in and former Immortals player, Joshua “Steel” Nissan.
Schedule
Fnatic vs Luminosity, 10:15 a.m. EST
OpTic Esports vs Mousesports, 11:30 a.m. EST
TBD vs TBD, 12:45 p.m. EST
Cloud9 vs Astralis, 2:00 p.m. EST
FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid, 3:15 p.m. EST
TBD vs TBD, 4:30 p.m. EST
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