Lance Carson
ESL One Cologne is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by the Electronic Sports League. The first three tournaments were sponsored by video game developer Valve. The event has been held annually since 2014, with the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The tournament features 16 teams competing for a share of a $1,000,000 USD prize pool.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date | July 2nd-7th, 2019 |
| MVP | Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
| ... | |
| Year | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 |
| Location | Lanxess Arena |
| Number of Teams | 16 |
| Prize Pool | $1,000,000 USD |
What You'll Learn
ESL One Cologne 2014
The tournament had a total prize pool of $250,000. Ninjas in Pyjamas won the event by beating Fnatic 2-1 in the finals. The tournament was livestreamed on the official ESL Twitch channel. Over 400,000 concurrent viewers watched the grand finals, while 2,950,600 total unique viewers watched the event across four days.
The top seven teams from EMS One Katowice 2014 qualified as Legends. Six teams from Europe, one team from North America, one team from the Oceanic region, and one team from India played online qualifiers in order to play in the tournament.
Teams were split into four seeded groups, and all group matches were best-of-one. In the first round of matches, the highest and lowest seeds faced each other, and the second and third seeds played each other. The winner of those two matches then played to determine the first team to move on to the playoff stage, while the losers played to eliminate one team from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the final two teams faced off to decide the remaining playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the Global StarCraft II League.
The playoff bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were single elimination, best-of-three. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.
There were seven maps to choose from, two more than the previous Major. Train was removed for the tournament, while Cache, Overpass, and Cobblestone were added. Overpass was released by Valve only a month before the tournament, and the decision to add a new map on such short notice before a Major caused some controversy.
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ESL One Cologne 2015
ESL One Cologne is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by the Electronic Sports League. The first three tournaments were sponsored by video game developer Valve.
The tournament was won by Ninjas in Pyjamas, who beat Fnatic 2-1 in the finals. Over 400,000 concurrent viewers watched the grand finals, while 2,950,600 total unique viewers watched the event across four days.
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ESL One Cologne 2016
The playoffs featured eight teams: Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, Team Liquid, Virtus.pro, and FlipSid3 Tactics. Notably, Ninjas in Pyjamas failed to retain its Legends status after eight straight majors of being Legends, and FlipSid3 Tactics was the only new Legend.
The tournament followed a GSL format, with four double-elimination format groups. The opening, elimination, and winners' matches were best-of-one, while the decider matches were best-of-three. The top two teams from each group advanced to the playoffs, which followed a single-elimination bracket format.
The grand finals saw SK Gaming, the defending champion, against Team Liquid, the first North American team to reach the grand finals. SK Gaming ultimately defended its title with a 2-0 victory over Team Liquid. With this win, SK Gaming became one of the only two teams at the time with multiple major titles, along with Fnatic.
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ESL One Cologne 2017
Twelve teams were invited to compete, and four spots were filled by two teams from Europe, one team from North America, and one team from China, who competed in three different qualifiers. The group stage was a sixteen-team Swiss tournament, and the playoffs were an eight-team, single-elimination best-of-three bracket, except for the grand finals, which was best-of-five.
The MVP of ESL One Cologne 2017 was Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo.
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ESL One Cologne 2018
ESL One Cologne is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by the Electronic Sports League. The first three tournaments were sponsored by video game developer Valve. ESL One Cologne has been held annually since 2014, with the exception of 2021 and 2023, when no tournament took place.
The group stage featured two double-elimination format groups, each containing eight teams seeded based on the ESL CS:GO World Rankings. The initial matches were Bo1, while all following matches were Bo3. The top three teams from each group advanced to the playoffs, with group stage winners advancing to the semifinals, runners-up advancing to the quarterfinals as High Seeds, and third-place teams advancing to the quarterfinals as Low Seeds.
The playoffs followed a single-elimination bracket format. The quarterfinals and semifinals were Bo3, while the grand final was Bo5. The MVP of ESL One Cologne 2018 was Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev.
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Frequently asked questions
ESL One Cologne is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by the Electronic Sports League.
The first ESL One Cologne tournament was in 2014.
There have been 7 ESL One Cologne tournaments so far.
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut was the MVP of ESL One Cologne 2019.
The next ESL One Cologne tournament will take place from 1st-3rd August 2025.
