With FACEIT 2.0, Esports Just Became A Lot More Accessible
Sports are a way of life. From their earliest years, people are enraptured by the competitive spirit — whether that means picking up a ball and practicing to be the best or banding together to support the local club. It’s communal, tribal even. It’s a shared experience where everyone has a stake in the game, and the stories that are created on all sides can last a lifetime.
But sports aren’t easy. For players hoping to make it their career, it means years of commitment, siloing themselves in an effort to be the very best. For most, that means beginning early, creating a lifestyle that tailors them to the grind throughout high school, college, and beyond. Yet, for fans, all the systems are in place to support their athletes. Local meet-ups, homecoming games, and collegiate broadcasts mean that everyone can be there to cheer and build the myth of players as they ascend.
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For esports, it’s different. Over the last 30 years, competitors have had to build their own myth, often without the infrastructure to provide a clear path to glory. There hasn’t been institutional support for those at the top of their field in games like Counter-Strike, at least not in the same way as someone playing football.
But that’s what FACEIT has been trying to achieve.
Since 2012, FACEIT has been an equalizer. It’s a digital platform where gamers can congregate and compete, finding teammates and matches to play at a high level, carving the path to esports stardom. Providing the guardrails and stability otherwise not afforded by the games themselves — either by curbing cheating or simply organizing tournament play and leagues — the platform has become the way gamers can turn their hobby into a career.
Yet, it hasn’t been perfect. The nature of esports, the perception of its niche appeal and the lack of IRL community has hindered its growth. Players struggle to find opportunities in their communities, or even the chance to prove their worth. Even the fans are tasked with tracking stats or scheduled matches on their own, fostering a community that’s global, but remains in many ways grassroots.
That can all change, and it just might, with FACEIT’s latest major overhaul. Launched in November, FACEIT 2.0 ties together the players — their stats, organization, and ability to play — and the fans, providing a space for everyone to watch, compete, and share in the experience together. It’s a holistic app, bringing to esports the entire spectrum of institutions that decades of traditional sports have built, all in one place.
By cementing the foundation of what esports is, it’s also charting the clearer path for what it can be.
What is FACEIT?
In its simplest form, FACEIT serves as a platform for players to compete, finding others of similar skill and engaging with the benefit of a more structured ecosystem that’s afforded by the matchmaking systems provided by the games itself. Whether that means tracking their stats or combating cheaters (video games don’t exactly have referees), it’s been a place where games like Counter-Strike have gone from group meet-ups via LAN (local area network) play to a global phenomenon. It’s served as the grassroots movement that’s fostered talent and connected people as they build a professional career in gaming.
FACEIT doesn’t make games or even own them. It’s a liaison to ensure that players can organize and compete, while providing the guidelines and protections normally afforded by sports’ governing bodies. Historically, it’s been a place for fierce competitors to build their stats and join teams, but that hasn’t always been as smooth as it should be.
Think about the trajectory for someone playing football. They pick up the game, join a local community or school team, and lock into a path that leads them through high school, college, and hopefully, into the NFL. That road isn’t as defined for someone playing video games. The nature of gaming is more isolated; people play at home or in internet cafes where they’re locked into screens. There are community meet-ups and events, organized by groups like ESL, but the big picture and roadmap isn’t as defined as it is with traditional sports, which are embedded in the fabric of daily life.
FACEIT has created a way for players to compete and grow, developing their talents and allowing them to be scouted by esports organizations. Unlike traditional sports, the barrier for entry is lower — you don’t have to spend the first 18 years of your life being driven to games or financially supported with gear and the right schooling to succeed — all it takes is a PC, often just the one sitting at home. But its the organizational aspect that hasn’t kept up, especially for the fans who are looking to support their favorite teams.
That’s where FACEIT’s big update comes into play.
Welcome to FACEIT 2.0
For years, FACEIT has served to connect high-level players for competitive ranked play. Historically, that mostly means just reliable matchmaking beyond what a game client alone can provide, but the latest update aims to provide more — primarily by making the ways people can meet up and play easier and more fully featured.
Fabio Floris, ESL FACEIT Group’s President of Digital Platforms, is the person tasked with garnering user feedback and applying new features to help improve the platform’s experience. He’s keenly aware of where the platform has been and where it could go. “The reason why this product has existed for the past 10 years was mainly to support the Counter-Strike community and audience and support their competitive gaming passion,” he says. “Before this release [FACEIT] was mainly a place where there was a focus on finding content to play, between alternative matchmaking systems and tournaments protected by anti-cheat.”
Floris wants to improve FACEIT, beginning with a new ‘Party Finder’ feature that will change how gamers can find the right kinds of matches that suit their skill level and desired goals. “The biggest gap that there still is between esports and traditional sports is the lack of a very strong ecosystem of people that are participating in the sport with a team, rather than playing [alone],” he says.
Floris says that even though people who play a game religiously, living and breathing it, still often play “solo/duo,” meaning that they aren’t signed up officially to any team or group, instead playing on their own or with a small group of non-regular teammates. The goal with FACEIT 2.0 is to solve this issue, connecting players seamlessly with others of similar skill and motivation, and expand the ecosystem in a healthy way.
Party Finder is a way to streamline the process of finding other players by generating a party that’s somewhat public, in that it’s accessible to people, but has specific filters or requirements for players to join, like their preferences of goals. Want to play with people who are interested in being competitive, but not deadly serious about climbing the ranks? There are filters for that. But if you’re looking to find others with a very specific mindset who are looking to ascend in ranked play, this is where you can put out the call.
The filters allow people to build parties that match their language, region, and skill level, all of which are essential to finding the right teammates operating at a competitive level.
Obviously, some version of this has existed forever, right? Between forums or specific websites where players can post open calls to try to find a group, they’ve always been divorced from the real-time matchmaking that FACEIT can provide. Rather than making a post on a forum, finding some takers, then having to coordinate the game and a chat party with apps like Discord, the 2.0 version of FACEIT handles it all in one place. Put out the signal, competitors come, dive right in. It seems like a no-brainer, yet it hasn’t really existed in this capacity before with the level of sophistication. This is just joining random ranked matchmaking through an in-game client and hoping for the best, it’s opening a connection and dialogue before people take the plunge.
How quickly does it work? Floris claims that the average time from a party’s formation to being full and ready to square up in about five minutes. There are games where the actual matchmaking takes longer than that.
But making a connection isn’t just about linking up quickly, it also requires a social connection. That’s where FACEIT’s new voice chat feature comes in. Previously, players who had met online via forums or wherever had to manage their own means of communication. Usually, that’s through a third-party app like Discord, but that requires an extra layer of work to first meet someone, then get their username, and boot up a program on top of the game. It’s not day-ruining, but it’s an arduous process when someone wants to jump right into gameplay. With FACEIT, it’s as simple as adding someone to a party and picking up the conversation from there.
Floris wants the feature to be an instantaneous way to build fellowship, saying, “We wanted to offer this concept where you join a party and are one click away from starting to talk with people and creating a meaningful connection.”
Having a voice module and social menu that migrates throughout the app and in-game isn’t entirely novel – plenty of games or game clients (like Steam or the console UI of Xbox and PlayStation) all have something similar. But it’s the curatorial aspect that’s special. It’s not just about meeting people, it’s about clicking with a group — and fast.
Floris laughs, “You don’t need to exchange 25 messages on a big chat or forum just to understand what [someone’s] skill level is or where they’re from. We are at a point where we can use data, it’s a little bit smarter.
But the social connectivity of the party system offers more than just idyllic potential for finding strong players. It’s also a way to prevent toxic behavior. Floris points toward basic matchmaking where solo players are thrown into a lobby with random people as the clearest case of where players will find bad behavior and harassment, because there’s an overall disconnect. With anonymity and no guardrails or moderation in place, people aren’t held accountable for what they say.
That accountability comes from verification, which is required for players who don’t have an existing footprint or credentials in the FACEIT system, with a history of playing well or respectfully. If you’ve got no time spent on the platform, no clout built or friends gathered, it makes sense that some verification is needed to garner some trust. That also extends to users who try to cheat, often using multiple alt accounts. Building an identity doesn’t foster community, it insulates it too.
“We want to have a fair, healthy, and positive experience. We want to make sure that the social network that we are providing users with is made by actors that are just here to contribute positively and not having toxic behavior, or just wasting people’s time.”
Going Pro
Historically, FACEIT has been a platform for more serious players, although not exclusively for high-level ones. Floris explains, “I’d say, in the beginning, given the type of mission that we have, it’s never been where you go to relax. Typically, people that come [really] want to play in a competitive way. Their mindset is, ‘I want to improve. I want to win. I want to become the best.’”
With a new ‘Play’ hub, FACEIT 2.0 makes it easier than ever to join a team and, potentially, a league.
The overhauled Play system offers a clear “Path to pro,” as Floris calls it, which will offer different types of ranking systems and player selection that will provide those who are most committed with the clear possibility of becoming the next generation of professional players. And that’s not just a marketing ploy; many players who are currently signed to esports organizations began their career on FACEIT.
Play is divided into Tournaments and Team League modes, which are for people who have formed their own teams and are engaging in structured play. That differs from standard matchmaking, which is more like the day-to-day pickup game avenue.
The suite of options laid out here offer everything needed to walk the path to pro, with the ability to build your stats and portfolio, meeting equally skilled or complimentary competitors and qualifying to jump into the ongoing leagues and tournaments that fit your level. That level is defined by the Track function, which charts all of your match history, including wins/losses and performance across maps, allowing you to see where improvements can be made and play to your strengths.
The social elements extend beyond just DM’ing prospective teammates, though. There’s also an area called “Club,” which operates like its own bespoke sports ecosystem. Joining a club is still, of course, about finding players to match with, but it’s also about becoming a team, a more structured organization that can provide support. Like Party Finder – which is for short-term or immediate connections to play – Clubs are about making connections using deliberate filters to flag to users where the group’s interest lies.
Clubs are associated with broader interests, and their stats aren’t tracked the same way teams are, mostly because they’re open to more types of users, from athletes to fans. Big esports organizations could have a club where they can engage with their fans and community, and plan their own events and activities and, of course, their own member rules and guidelines. They can even offer skins to their members based on what’s provided in the FACEIT shop. Within clubs, there’s also a queue system, meaning organizers can quickly get matches and scrimmages going among their members.
In terms of the individual stat tracking elements, some aspects are in place with more to come, but the ultimate vision is to have a three-pronged approach to data, which allows players, teams, and clubs to all be tracked individually — much like you’d see with the hierarchy of soccer, where the data tells the story of athletes, their specific team, and the larger club’s narrative.
What value does this provide to the average consumer? Well, it’s not just the biggest esports organizations that are using Clubs, it can be used effectively as a grassroots tool. If a high school or college is looking to explore esports, they themselves can make a Club for students to begin playing together, tracking their stats, and fostering that sense of community before eventually breaking out into the greater landscape. It’s an incubator for talent, but also just fun. Maybe a bunch of friends want to connect on nights or weekends, have a laugh while watching matches while waiting for a straggler, then jumping right in to play. It’s all done here. It’s a virtual pub.
The Big Picture
The simplest way to describe FACEIT 2.0 is that it’s an “everything app,” housing all the features that gamers would normally need multiple services for all housed in one place and working dynamically together. And while other platforms may want to be “everything” by, say, making your social media app the same as your banking one or whatever preposterousness tech giants are dreaming up, FACEIT’s toolkit provides true functionality and remains lean — it’s only about marrying concepts that make sense together and people are already using every day.
But like with any sport, it isn’t just about competing and meeting teammates, it’s also about being a fan — or at least being able to watch and learn from others. The new “Watch” feature allows users to tune into live feeds of hosted gameplay from ESL’s leagues and ongoing FACEIT sessions. While that’s a possibility on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, the design of FACEIT affords the luxury of a more fully featured suite of options in how to watch.
Imagine watching the NBA finals and wishing that you could just see the court through LeBron James’ eyes. Here, you can. It’s not just a novelty though, as one key aspect of gaming that sets it apart from in-the-flesh games is that what you’re seeing on screen is exactly what the athletes do too. It’s a 1:1 link into the POV of a player, where you can glean tactics, learning how to play a certain role or map. Now, that’s an education you can’t just buy.
And even for more casual viewers who aren’t interested in shadow boxing their way into being pro while tapping directly into the mind of competitors, it’s still a really engaging (and downright sci-fi tinged) way of experiencing esports. Think about playing a first-person shooter at home and feeling the rage of being blindsided by a kill. You’d want to see the kill-cam, right? Just to know how they got you. This is the maximalist version of that, and it’s how esports broadcasts generally work, except the user themselves can control whose POV they’re seeing at any given time with a god-like omniscience.
Although much of the content that can be streamed consists of the most prestigious ESL tournaments for games like Counter-Strike or Apex Legends, there are also FACEIT-first matches to tune into, the high-level league play of those peers who are climbing the ranks. It’s like having the option to watch pro-tier and collegiate sports at any given time, where audiences can follow the cream of the crop ascend from today’s prospects to tomorrow’s legends.
Combining the social, party, and watch aspects together also creates a unique sort of scouting or outreach methodology. Watching a live feed of someone absolutely dominating a round of Counter-Strike and want to learn more about them? Clicking on their profile opens up their stats and can open up a dialogue to potentially invite them to games and compete together. It’s the ultimate, “I’m putting together a team” scenario that could lead to the next great esports dynasty coming together with relative ease. Think of it like seeing someone in the schoolyard or on the court and making friends on the spot for your next pickup game.
“When you think about the esports ecosystem, there are many actors,” Floris says. “There are those people that are actually competing and generating the story — the news, the information, the content that a larger audience wants to consume. FACEIT has been a lot about those people that are the protagonists of the story, people that want to compete, create the next story, either because they are already a professional player or they want to be the next professional player. But there are also [those people] who are more connected to, ‘How can I consume the story? How can I find the story?”
Floris raises the example of Faze Clan. Out there somewhere is a fan of Faze who wants to relate to them for love of the brand, following the action of that team and being a part of an online space with other fans. Maybe they aspire to someday play for the clan, too. On FACEIT, all of that is possible.
For many people who might just be getting into esports, there hasn’t even been an easy way to find information about what matches or occurring on a weekly basis. He draws a comparison between young people who want to play for the NFL. Getting into football as a kid, there are either academic or community groups they can join. The road ahead of that may be difficult, but the starting point is clear. With video games? It’s a little different.
“In gaming, the paradox is, we are much more connected online, but still people struggle to easily find people that have the common goal of becoming better and participating in the esports aspect of the game,” Floris says.
Through FACEIT 2.0, that struggle has been solved.
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