ECS Season 5 set to start

The Esports Championship Series is set to kick off its fifth season, featuring 20 teams across Europe and North America.

ECS Season 5 will commence the online action Tuesday as 10 teams from Europe and North America will duke it out over a course of seven weeks. Astralis and Virtus.pro will kick off the best-of-one matches at 19:00 as teams will play against all the other teams in their division twice.

The top four teams from each division will advance to the ECS Season 5 finals, which will be held in London, United Kingdom on June 8-10. The bottom two teams will have to go through the next season's qualifying process for a chance to return to the league.

FaZe Clan return as defending Season 4 champions

Gambit and GODSENT were the two European teams to clinch their spots via the new Challenger Cup after both took down Natus Vincere in the upper bracket final and the consolidation final, respectively.

ECS Season 5 Europe team list can be found below:

Astralis	G2
Virtus.pro	MOUZ
Gambit	Ninjas in Pyjamas
GODSENT	FaZe
Envy	fnatic

The Danes of Astralis and the Poles of Virtus.pro will kick off Season 5 at 19:00. The full schedule can be found below:

19:00    Astralis	vs. Virtus.pro
21:00    Virtus.pro	vs. FaZe

Across the globe, the North American Division had three teams coming from the Challenger Cup, Complexity, Rogue, and eUnited. Missing the Season 5 action will be Kory "⁠SEMPHIS⁠" Friesen's Splyce as well as Ghost, who were both knocked out in Round 2 of the ĺower bracket. 

ECS Season 5 North America will have the following teams:

Liquid	NRG
OpTic	SK
Luminosity	Rogue
Renegades	eUnited
Cloud9	Complexity

Liquid and Complexity will kick off the day in North America. Below is the full schedule for the first day:

23:00    Liquid	vs. Complexity
01:00    OpTic	vs. NRG

fnatic #6 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Natus Vincere #7 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov G2 #9 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Ghost #110 Sebastian 'seb' BuckiConnor 'CONNOR93' GloverYassine 'Subroza' TaoufikMatthew 'WARDELL' YuTramaine 'stan1ey' Stanley MOUZ #4 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool SK #3 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo GODSENT #26 Simon 'twist' EliassonJoakim 'disco doplan' GidetunFredrik 'freddieb' BuöHampus 'hampus' PoserLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Rogue #53 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerHunter 'SicK' MimsDaniel 'vice' KimAnthony 'gMd' Guimond Complexity #47 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaRory 'dephh' JacksonJaccob 'yay' WhiteakerPeter 'ptr' GurneyBradley 'ANDROID' Fodor Luminosity #28 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' GonçalvesGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' Cespedes Virtus.pro #18 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' Müller Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Astralis #8 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif eUnited #45 Skyler 'Relyks' WeaverWill 'dazzLe' LoafmanMichael 'dapr' GulinoKaleb 'moose' JayneBrandon 'Ace' Winn Renegades #11 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis Splyce #49 Kory 'SEMPHIS' FriesenDaniel 'roca' GustaferriDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordTaylor 'Drone' JohnsonZack 'XotiC' Elshani Gambit #14 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovDenis 'seized' KostinAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov OpTic #41 René 'cajunb' BorgShahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzNicklas 'gade' GadeKristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Liquid #5 Lucas 'steel' LopesNick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Kory 'SEMPHIS' Friesen Age: 28 Team: Splyce Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 686 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.70 NRG #29 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Ninjas in Pyjamas #10 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanWilliam 'draken' SundinFredrik 'REZ' Sterner Cloud9 #2 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip Envy #27 Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieyCédric 'RpK' GuipouyAdil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomVincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerAli 'hAdji' Haïnouss