FACEIT and Pinnacle partner for ECS Pinnacle Cup
FACEIT has announced a new partnership with Pinnacle promoting its Esports Championship Series competition.
The partnership will cover seasons 7 and 8 of the ECS Pinnacle Cup, formerly known as the ECS Challenger Cup, through which top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams compete for potential spots in the ECS.
The ECS Pinnacle Cup features 32 teams split evenly between North American and European regions. Teams compete in swiss stages to determine rankings, with the highest ranked teams becoming first in line for placement into ECS Regular Season play.
Pinnacle is a sports betting platform founded in 1998. The platform began taking bets on esports competitions in 2010, and today offers betting services on a variety of competitive games including League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Pinnacle’s nine years in esports have developed into an offering that includes markets spread across more than 30 competitive titles, with esports now standing as the company’s fourth most popular sport by betting volume.
Marco Blume, trading director at Pinnacle, was bullish in describing the partnership’s prospects.
“Everyone at Pinnacle wants to be a part of pushing the growth of esports and partnerships like the one we have just signed with FACEIT will help us do that,” Blume said. “It’s obviously a good move for the business but with so many esports fans in the company, it’s one we’re all really excited about as well.”
The latest season of ECS play will see a new format in which the world’s top CS:GO teams compete in individual ECS Regular Season tournaments, with winning teams being sent directly to the season’s finals event.
FACEIT CBO and Co-founder Michele Attisani spoke to the company’s excitement for both the new format and the partnership with Pinnacle.
“ECS Season 7 is set to be the most exciting and absorbing iteration yet with the new format and we’re pleased to be partnered with an organisation in Pinnacle who share our passion for and dedication to the esports ecosystem and its growth and prosperity,” Attisani said.
The ECS Season 7 finals will be held in London at SSE Arena and begin on June 6. Three tournament winners from each region’s Regular Season competitions will be invited, along with a fourth team from each region taken from overall ECS Regular Season rankings.
Jared Wynne
About Jared Wynne
Jared Wynne is the Editor-in-Chief at WIN.gg, overseeing its content. He has been working in digital media for over two decades, most often in and around the gaming industry. His all-time favorite games include Baldur’s Gate, Doom, and Counter-Strike, but he’ll play just about anything that seems interesting. His previous credits include The Daily Dot, The Esports Observer, GameLand, and more.
View full profile
Read Also
News
The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027
Ben Boland
The 2026 Esports Nations Cup has been suspended until 2027. The Esports Foundation announced the delay on August 18, citing ongoing regional uncertainty. The inaugural competition was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comprising over 100 national teams and featuring 16 different games, including League of Legends. According to the Esports Foundation, this decision follows ongoing developments in the region and consultation with key stakeholders. Moving the event ...
Esports Betting
MLBB is the most-watched game from the EWC, and it’s hard to see another game beating it
Michael Hassall
The Esports World Cup 2026 has officially passed its midway point and viewership figures for the tournament have surpassed many expectations so far, as per Esports Charts. The viewership tracking site revealed new statistics for the event on Aug. 6, showcasing just how many games had set new records in viewership, including one name leading the way in views: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. MLBB leads the viewership charts with the ...
Counter-Strike
CS2 at the EWC 2026 Preview: Odds, Details, Predictions and More
Owen Harsono
Top-tier Counter-Strike action returns at the Esports World Cup, as 32 of the best teams will take the trip to Paris to compete for millions of dollars. If you’re looking to watch the event, here’s everything you need to know and which teams to keep an eye on. The Esports World Cup is one of the largest CS2 events if we’re looking at prize pools, as $2,000,000 will be distributed ...
News
Opinion: Is Esports Tracing the Same Evolutionary Path As Traditional Sports?
Cecilia Ciocchetti
What happens when an industry compresses centuries of sporting evolution into less than a decade or two? Communities become global audiences overnight, rivalries spread through social media within minutes, and tournaments turn into entertainment products faster than ever before. And so what took traditional sports centuries to build has taken esports a fraction of that. From local communities to sold out arenas, and from informal matches to Olympic-style events, the ...
Counter-Strike
BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-final predictions: who’s making it to the grand final?
Owen Harsono
The top four teams we’re seeing at the BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-finals are far from what anyone would expect before the tournament began, but here we are. We’re only three matches from crowning a winner, so let’s take a look at the best BLAST Bounty semi-final predictions for both upcoming matchups. Starting the semi-finals off is a banger of a series between FaZe Clan and Team Spirit, which is one ...
Counter-Strike
We Ranked The Top 5 Most Hated CS2 Maps
Owen Harsono
If you’re a Counter-Strike player, you probably have that one map you always ban first in every Premier game — and you're not alone as almost everyone has one too. Below, we’ll take a look at the most hated maps in Counter-Strike history and explain why they are disliked by the community at large. Anubis is one of the newer releases in the Counter-Strike 2 map pool, but it has ...
Counter-Strike
The Top 10 Best Clutches in Counter-Strike History Ranked
Owen Harsono
Pulling off an impossible clutch is one of the greatest hits of dopamine any Counter-Strike 2 player can ever feel. However, pulling them off at the highest level can be a little tricky since everyone is so coordinated. That’s exactly why mind-blowing clutches are remembered forever. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the 10 best clutches in Counter-Strike history. We’re opening the list with former mousesports ...
