16 challengers enter the ECS Pinnacle Cup for a chance to earn a spot to the ECS Season 8 Regular Season. Find out the top teams to watch.
What is the Esports Championship Series (ECS) Season 8?
The Esports Championship Series, also known as ECS, begins its eighth season this Autumn 2019. ECS8 is split into two regions, North America and Europe, and is played in a best-of-three (Bo3) knockout bracket over five weeks of online play.
Each week will feature a $25,000 prize pool, with the highest-earning teams in the first two weeks of online play claiming a qualification spot to the ECS8 Finals. For the last three weeks of the Regular Season, qualification spots to the Finals will be awarded to the winners of each week.
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Follow Pinnacle EsportsWhat is the ECS Pinnacle Cup?
The ECS Pinnacle Cup is a 16 team, Bo3, Swiss format tournament taking place between the 10 - 15 September. The tournament will feature challenger teams looking to claim the open slots in the ECS Regular Season brackets with seeding determined by Buccholz ranking.
ECS Pinnacle Cup odds
The odds below represent the opening matches in the ECS Season 8 Europe Pinnacle Cup. For a complete list of odds for ECS8, head over to our CS:GO section.
CR4ZY, BIG and forZe lead the Pinnacle Cup in Europe
Following a successful run at the Berlin Major where the team narrowly missed out on a spot in the Champions Stage, CR4ZY enter the ECS Pinnacle Cup as the clear favourites to secure first seed in the five day tournament. Serbian Nemaja “Nexa” Isakovic was the leading force in Berlin, scoring the highest HLTV rating on his team at 1.14 over the month long tournament, which resulted in map wins against top teams like NiP, FaZe, Astralis and Natus Vincere.
BIG are new faces to the ECS with a recent roster change that sees long time in-game leader (IGL), Fatih “gob b” Dayik announce his retirement from professional Counter-Strike and Denis “denis” Howell moved to the bench for Owen “smooya” Butterfield and Johannes “nex” Maget. Whilst their recent performances as a team have been lacklustre, the calibre of the players on the current BIG lineup should prove to be enough to push the team into contention for a top seeding spot.
Whilst the pick may surprise some, forZe are likely to perform well in the Pinnacle Cup off the back of a strong performance in the Berlin Major main qualifier that saw the Russian squad reveal moments of brilliance. Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov is a key player to watch from forZe as he completed the tournament with the only positive kill-to-death differential on his team.
Mythic, Riot Squad and Swole Patrol are three to watch in North America
ECS Pinnacle Cup North America Predictions, Odds and Rankings
Headed by popular Twitch streamers Erik “fl0m” Flom and James “hazed” Cobb, Mythic chase an opportunity to join the ECS Regular Season following a reshuffle that saw the addition of three new members. The baseline skill level remains strong with this new-look Mythic, with a mix of Counter-Strike veterans and promising rookies looking to play their first official match together at the ECS Pinnacle Cup.
Ex-Lazarus, now known as Swole Patrol, hope to challenge for a top spot in the ECS Pinnacle Cup. Despite their lack of matchplay, the lineup remains one of the more convincing teams to participate in the tournament featuring veteran players like "Subroza", "zellsis" and "fRoD". Consistency will be key for the team and the bo3 Swiss format should work to the teams advantage.
Riot Squad will be a team to watch in the ECS Pinnacle Cup as they enter the competition on a seven game win streak. Inferno and Overpass will be priority map picks for the Squad if they're looking to get far in the tournament with a pocket pick Vertigo adding an element of surprise to their strategic diversity.
