Natus Vincere and Gambit have been invited to compete in the ECS Season 5 Challenger Cup.
The CIS duo will join GODSENT and HEROIC, the two lowest-placing teams in the previous ECS season, and the four teams who came out of the closed qualifier in a double-elimination bracket that will run from March 6-9.
Natus Vincere were initially due to compete in the first ECS season but ended up withdrawing from the league, citing "an overly busy schedule and tiredness" as the reasons for such a move. Gambit took part in the qualifier for season 1 and in the following seasons' Development Leagues but could never secure a spot in the main tournament.
The top two teams from the Challenger Cup will qualify for the ECS league, which will culminate with a live event from June 8-10 at the SSE Arena - the same venue that will host the upcoming Major.
Below you can find the match-ups for the first upper bracket round:
 Natus Vincere | vs. |  EPG |
 AGO | vs. |  GODSENT |
 Gambit | vs. |  Fragsters |
| HEROIC | vs. |  MANS NOT HOT |
Fragsters #36 Lucas 'Bubzkji' AndersenIsmail 'refrezh' AliJacob 'dragonfly' LundNicolai 'torben' AmorimMartin 'stavn' Lund 
MANS NOT HOT #40 Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannAsger 'AcilioN' Larsen
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Rokas 'EspiranTo' MilasauskasŽygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskas 
Gambit #12 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovDenis 'seized' KostinAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov 
HEROIC #11 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMarco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer
Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelJakob 'JUGi' HansenNikolaj 'niko' Kristensen 
Natus Vincere #5 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov 
GODSENT #29 Simon 'twist' EliassonJoakim 'disco doplan' GidetunFredrik 'freddieb' BuöHampus 'hampus' PoserLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin 
EPG #33 Dmitry 'hooch' Bogdanov
Kristaps 'krii' BricisAleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovAleksei 'El1an' GusevMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis 
AGO #20 Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMateusz 'TOAO' ZawistowskiTomasz 'phr' Wójcik (责任编辑：case drop)
