FACEIT has announced the broadcast talent that will be working at the ECS Season 8 Finals.
In a series of tweets, the organizer revealed that former stage host Freya Spiers will reprise her role as the event’s desk host after a successful debut at the ECS Season 7 Finals. Retired Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Sean “seang@res” Gares joins Spiers as the desk’s first analyst.
ECS gave fans a nice surprise by announcing former Ninjas in Pyjamas player Christopher “GeT_Right” Alesund will also be working the analyst desk for the entirety of the tournament. While the veteran CSGO player is still active, fans have seen little of him at events since splitting from the team on September 26.
With more than a decade’s worth of experience in Counter-Strike 1.6 and CSGO, GeT_Right should be able to provide strong insight into the game. Just as importantly, his very recent competitive history should allow him to offer some interesting takes on the current meta.
Barring any changes, ECS Season 8 is the first ECS Season Final to feature less than four analysts. Almost every other ECS final used four to lighten the talent’s workload. The ECS Season 1 Finals was the last to employ just three analysts.
Rounding out the desk and stage crew is fan favorite Sue “Smix” Lee, who will man the stage and handle the post-match interviews.
Casting will be done by the duos of James “gbk” Bardolph and Daniel “ddk” Kapadia, and Henry “HenryG” Greer and Alex “Machine” Richardson. Lastly, Connor “Sliggy” Blomfield fills the unsung hero role as the observer for the ECS Season 8 Finals.
The ECS Season 8 Finals start November 28 and run to December 1. ECS’s eighth event features a stacked lineup of teams including top-10-ranked squads Astralis, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Team Liquid, and AVANGAR.
The remaining three teams are MiBR, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and surprise Brazilian squad Sharks Esports.
The event will start with a group stage, with teams arranged as follows:
Group A
Group B
The entire schedule for the ECS Season 8 Finals is available now, and the first four group matchups are seeded and scheduled. They include Evil Geniuses vs. Avangar, Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Liquid, Astralis vs. Sharks, and MiBR vs. Fnatic.
Day one’s matches are all best-of-ones. ECS will use a best-of-three to determine match winners starting on day two.
The event begins with the group stage on November 28, with the playoffs running from November 30 to December 1.
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