FACEIT has delayed the next edition of the FACEIT NA collegiate CS:GO.
The ESL FACEIT GROUP’s Collegiate director, Duran Parsi, has made this news known through a statement detailing the reason for the suspension.
Reason for the suspension of the tournament
The reason for the postponement of the FACEIT NA collegiate CS:GO is related to the internal reorganization of the organization. This has not been as fast as expected after the merger of FACEIT with ESL Gaming. On the other hand, the company has reported needing more time to finalize its plan for the collegiate league.
"A few months ago"
The news of the acquisition/Merger came out a year ago today actually.
— Kevin Hitt (@Kevin_Hitt) January 24, 2023
Registration for the NA region of this tournament ended on January 23. However, the announcement of the suspension of the tournament was made public a short time later. This means that neither the universities nor the players who were preparing for this tournament knew there would be no event until after the registrations.
'Tis the season to be jolly, especially when registration is FREE for @FACEIT's official NA #CSGO Collegiate Championship! 🎄
Signing up is EZ. Just visit https://t.co/brwbMzPKGh and https://t.co/vK50AbGSwI by Jan. 23 to join! Multiple teams from the same school are allowed. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/uELCfEsQVw
— FACEIT Collegiate (@FACEITCollege) December 24, 2022
This tournament series was announced by ESL FACEIT GROUP last July 2022. Moreover, the prize pool was $70,000, distributed in three regions, NA, EU, and BR.
Graduate players can participate in the fall
Due to this unexpected event cancellation, Parsi has ratified that players who graduate in the spring will be able to participate in the fall season. This is a unique rule implemented by FACEIT that allows players who are not enrolled with universities to participate in this tournament series.
Duran Parsi, Director of Collegiate at ESL FACEIT Group, said:
“We are currently not prepared to host a collegiate NA CS:GO league this spring as we had originally planned. We will postpone the NA league until the fall of 2023 to give us more time to finalize our team structure, goals, plan, and get all necessary budgets approved.”
On the other hand, ESL FACEIT Group also gave some details about the next season. They detail the goal of improving the overall experience for players and universities.
In addition, the organization is committed to offering broader support to schools and clubs. This will enable FACEIT to support third-party collegiate events.
FACEIT Premier League links up with the university scene
Another point to note is that the ESL FACEIT Group plans to link the FACEIT Premier League with the college scene. This is to give players a chance to become professional athletes.
According to some rumors, it is very likely that FACEIT will host the grand finale of the CS:GO college tournament in front of a live audience at one of the DreamHack events.
Finally, these plans are not entirely concrete or official. According to FACEIT, the company is still adapting to develop a better environment to grow and sustain college esports in the future.
Header: FACEIT