📝 Structure for FACEIT Season 7 and OWCS 2026 announced

OWCS recently announced how the FACEIT League Season 7 (FLS7) will feed into OWCS 2026.

Much like last year, they are moving to a totally open qualifying system that anyone can join — but that doesn’t mean that all the top OWCS talent from 2025 will have to start from the bottom.

Some teams, though, don’t seem to have a place, and there has been some scepticism and confusion from the community regarding this announcement. We hope to provide all the information and clear everything up in this article.

New Phase System: Open Qualifiers and Legacy Spots

The first phase of the 2026 OWCS Season will begin with an Open Qualifier extended to all players of any rank. This means that any player, regardless of skill level, can create a team to test their skills and possibly make the proper OWCS season.

The second phase will then transition into a 16-team bracket, similar to the one we saw prior to Stage 1 of the 2025 Season in North America and EMEA. The final 16 teams will be determined by the Top 8 finishers in Phase 1, the top four teams from FACEIT League Season 7, and the top four teams from OWCS 2025 Stage 3.

FACEIT League Season 7 to OWCS 2026

FACEIT League Season 7 will serve as a major pre-qualifier for teams in North America and EMEA. The top four finishing teams at the end of the season will automatically qualify for Phase 2 of the 2026 Open Qualifier, and will join the remaining Top 4 non-partnered teams from OWCS 2025 Stage 3. Much like the OWCS Teams, FACEIT League teams must maintain at least three of their players in order to auto-qualify into Phase 2.

The Top 4 teams from OWCS Stage 3 will not be allowed to compete in this season of FACEIT, but players will be eligible to join other rosters if they so choose.

Organizations from Stage 3 — not the players — will be allowed to sponsor teams in FACEIT League. However, if they choose to do so, they will not be allowed to also sponsor their team from OWCS 2025 — they will have to choose either their OWCS or FACEIT team to sponsor in the Open Qualifiers if they choose to go down this path.

Players will still be allowed to keep their spot in Phase 2 regardless of whether their organization re-signs them or not.

OWCS 2025 Stage 3 to OWCS 2026: Top 4 Teams

As previously mentioned, the Top 4 OWCS Stage 3 Teams in NA & EMEA will automatically qualify to Phase 2 of the Open Qualifier. After clarifying with OWCS Administration, this bye into the second phase only applies to the top four non-partnered teams from Stage 3.

This would mean Geekay Esports, Sakura Esports, Team Z, and NTMR in North America would automatically move to Phase 2. Al Qadsiah, Team Peps, Team Vision, and Goud Guys ANM in EMEA would also automatically qualify.

It is important to note that teams must utilize, at minimum, 3 Players from their registered OWCS Stage 3 Roster in order to qualify for an automatic bye into Phase 2.

The remaining teams who did not place in the top 4 — like Extinction and the DhillDucks in North America, along with Quick Esports in EMEA — will be forced to either disband and join other rosters, or qualify through Phase 1 of the Open Qualifier.

Unlike the other squads, Partner Teams will automatically qualify for OWCS 2026, and will not be limited to using the same core roster as Stage 3. Partner teams can sign or re-sign players as needed.

The number of Partner Teams heading into OWCS 2026 is unknown at this time. Please stay tuned to official channels for updates regarding Partner Teams in 2026.

Player Eligibility during the Off-Season

For those seeking to compete during the off-season, players from the OWCS Stage 3 teams will be eligible to participate in FACEIT League Season 7. However, as previously mentioned, teams cannot compete as their full rosters and must disperse throughout various FLS7 organizations.

In theory, this means that teams in the FACEIT Masters Division would be allowed to pick up OWCS players to bolster their roster. Given that there is no other major competition for these OWCS teams and that they would be able to reform their OWCS roster and still qualify come the open qualifier. It seems very possible that Season 7 of FACEIT Masters will be flooded with OWCS players.

Teams like the DhillDucks, Quick Esports and Extinction are left in limbo, as they aren’t eligible to compete in FACEIT Masters due to the lack of a promotion/relegation system this stage, and also don’t get to skip to phase 2 of the qualifiers. Forcing them to split up into various Masters teams or sit on the sidelines until next year.

Ryan “Painkiller” Cooper of NTMR expressed his concerns with the rule changes. He suggested in a Twitter post that, due to the lack of tournaments for the 5th-8th place OWCS teams, FACEIT Masters would be flooded with a sudden influx of OWCS-level talent saying:

“It feels like all OWCS players are going to temporarily play for these other teams, and then go back to their original teams, just to play in the off-season”

The 5th-8th place OWCS Teams don’t really have much choice —there won’t be any high-level scrims available while the top teams are preparing for the World Finals, and there are no tournaments for them to join in the meantime.

This has been a point of contention for the community, as it will have a large impact on the level of competition between teams that have managed to recruit OWCS-level players, and those that haven’t.

The DhillDucks have said they will be 'boycotting' the tournament as a result in a Twitter post.

It is too early to say exactly how these rule changes will affect the upcoming FACEIT and OWCS seasons, and these rules are subject to change at this time, but there is a lot of scepticism from the community as a whole.

Full rule changes:

OWCS 2026 Open Qualifiers
1. OWCS 2026 will feature a two-phase Open Qualifier, which qualifies a portion of teams to OWCS 2026 Stage 1.
2. Phase 1 of Open Qualifier is Open Registration with No Rank Requirement
3. Phase 2 will be made of 16 Teams. See below for eligibility.

OWCS 2025 Stage 3 -> OWCS 2026
1. Top 4 OWCS Stage 3 Teams in NA & EMEA will automatically qualify to Phase 2 of the Open Qualifier if 3 Players from their qualified roster (registered OWCS Stage 3 Roster, in this case) are maintained.
2. OWCS Partner Teams will automatically qualify for OWCS Stage 1 Regular Season, and have no Core Roster requirement. We are not ready or able to share any further details around Partner Teams at this time.

FACEIT League Season 7 -> OWCS 2026
1. FLS7 will be one of our primary functions for pre-qualifying the best teams/players in NA & EMEA into the 2026 Open Qualifier. In short, FACEIT League Season 7 will be used as a competitive ecosystem to not only qualify some teams into Phase 2 of 2026 Open Qualifier, but act as a stage to showcase the talents of players during the 'off-season'
2. Top 4 FACEIT League Season 7 Teams - In NA & EMEA will automatically qualify to Phase 2 of the Open Qualifier if 3 Players from their qualified roster (registered OWCS Stage 3 Roster, in this case)are maintained.

FACEIT League Season 7: Player & Team Eligibility
1. Top 4 OWCS Stage 3 Teams are ineligible for FACEIT League Season 7.
2. If an organization chooses to represent a team in FACEIT League Season 7, they will need to choose to represent only one of their FLS7 team OR their Top 4 OWCS Stage 3 Team.
3. If the FLS7 roster is chosen in this case, the core 3 players from the OWCS Stage 3 Team will still own the pre-qualified slot into Phase 2 of the OQ and will be able to field another Team/Brand/Organization to represent in the OQ.
4. To be clear, Players from Top 4 OWCS Stage 3 Teams are eligible to participate in FACEIT League Season 7 by moving to another team.
5. All other OWCS Stage 3 Teams are eligible for FACEIT League Season 7. Players can join FLS7 rosters, and Teams can pickup a roster to represent them.

2026 OQ -> 2026 OWCS Stage 1
1. The 2026 Open Qualifier is our primary function to qualify teams into the 2026 OWCS season for their respective regions alongside Partner Teams.
2. Each region's Open Qualifier will advance teams to the Regular Season based on the remaining slots that are not populated by Partner Teams.
3. While at this time we are not ready to share exactly how many teams qualify to 2026 OWCS Stage 1 through the Open Qualifier, we can confirm it will be the primary method of qualification, and only method for non-partner teams.

Open Qualifier Eligibility: Players & Teams
1. All standard Eligibility rules present in 2025 of OWCS apply to the 2026 Open Qualifier (regional eligibility etc). Be sure to review eligibility requirements once the OQ sign-ups open, too!
2. Phase 1 of the 2026 OQ has No Rank Requirement and Unlimited Teams, with 8 total advancing to Phase 2.
3. Phase 2 will be made up of 16 Teams. 8 from Phase 1, and 8 pre-qualified teams, as outlined above (Top 4 in OWCS from each region, and Top 4 from FLS7)