ESL Faceit Group (EFG) has announced a new partnership with streaming platform Kick, which will see ESL’s Counter-Strike and Dota 2 tournaments streamed on the platform.
Kick secures exclusive tournament rights for ECL
ESL begins its Kick offering with IEM Rio 2026, which is now being broadcast on the platform, in conjunction with its established Twitch and YouTube streams.
ESL’s Kick streams will largely be non-exclusive events, with the exception of the ESL Challenger League, which will become exclusive to the platform.
Insider Gaming has clarified that all products under the ESL Challenger League banner, including ECL Cups, will be part of the exclusive deal.
Kick has signed several of these agreements in the last year with Tournament Organizers (TOs), securing exclusive rights to various Tier 2 Counter-Strike tournaments, including local VRS Lans such as DracuLan and Fragadelphia.
However, Tier 1 events have remained non-exclusive to broadcasts by BLAST and ESL despite deals with the streaming platform. PGL was the first Tier 1 TO to stream on Kick, broadcasting the PGL Copenhagen Major on the platform, again non-exclusively.
What is ESL Challenger League?
An ESL Challenger League Season is a circuit of online Tier 2 competitions held by ESL twice a year, which ultimately qualify one team per region per season to subsequent ESL Pro League competitions.
The circuit begins with four ESL Cups, where each Cup winner makes it to the ESL Challenger League Finals of their relevant region.
The four-team finals are then held, with the winners of ECL EU, North America, South America, Oceania, and Asia guaranteeing a place at Pro League.
For the recent Pro League Season 23, the teams that qualified through ESL Challenger League were Parivision (EU), NRG (NA), Gaimin Gladiators (SA), Semper Fi (Oceania), and Lynn Vision, who did not attend due to an event ban.
What do you think the deal means for the scene? Discuss that on our Discord server.
For more ESL news, see ESL’s new rules for co-streamers of Counter-Strike and Dota 2.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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