FaceIt’s Counter-Strike Esports Championship Series returns in October

The Esports Championship Series did well so well earlier this year that it’s returning for another round in 2016.

ECS Season 2 starts October 7, with the finals set to take place in December, and FaceIt — the company that organizes the event and provides some of the tech underlying Turner’s Eleague events on the TBS cable network — plans to offer a whole new set of teams the opportunity to join the league. Just like in Season 1, every team that makes it into the top division will own a piece of the ECS, and they will receive revenue sharing as part of that deal. Esports is a business that is already worth $748 million annually, and it should reach $1.9 billion by 2018, according to intelligence firm SuperData Research. FaceIt is trying to bite out a chunk of that by offering a deal that provides stability for teams and for pro players, which is something of a new concept in the world of professional gaming.