ESL One Cologne 2017

The ESL One Cologne 2017 was held in Cologne. The ESL 2017 was played from July 7th to 9th, 2017. The event was held in the Lanxess Arena in the cathedral city. A total of 16 teams were used. The prize money pot was worth 250,000 US dollars. The event in esports was the last premiere before the big event in Krakow, Poland that same year.

The format

ESL got 12 teams up to compete at this event. Two teams from Europe, one team from North America and one team from China fought against each other. It was played and fought in three different qualifiers.

The different map pools

The Valve Active Duty Map was played at the event. The individual maps were:

• Cache Map
• Cobblestone Map
• Inferno Map
• Mirage Map
• Nuke Map
• Train map
• Overpass Map

The transfer

The host was Paul "ReDeYe" Chaonoer from United Kingdom. Desk host (who takes care) was Alex "Machine" Richardson from England. The reporter was from the United States and was Tres "stunna" Saranthus. The analysts were:

• Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill
• Adam "friberg" Friberg from Sweden
• Janko "YNk" Paunovic from Serbia

The commentators

• Anders Blume from Denmark
• Hugo Byron from United Kingdom
• Henry "HenryG" Greer from United Kingodom
• Christian "Chrispian" Hart from United Kingdom
• Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat from North America
• Jason "moses" O'Toole from North America
• Jack "Jacky" Peters from the United States
• Harry "JustHarry" Russell from United Kingdom
• Lauren "Pansy" Scott from United Kingdom (one of the few women)
• Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett from Canada

The watchers

• Patricia von Halle from Germany
• Heather "sapphiRe" Garrozo from the United States
• DJ "Prius" Kuntz from the United States

The qualifiers

There were two teams from Europe at the start. One team was from North America and one team was from China. These teams were ready for the qualifiers.

The European qualifiers

Eight teams were invited. The winners of the ESL championship were at the start for qualification.

The teams

• The Independent States with the Flipsid3 Tactis team (they were invited to qualify)
• The GODSENT came from Sweden (were also invited)
• The Danish team Heroic was invited
• The Soldiers team came from Turkey
• The Dignitas team from Norway
• The EnVyUs team from France was ready
• Team Kinguin came from Poland
• The Esport team from Denmark was ready

These teams were all invited to qualify. Furthermore, the ELS championship winning team BIG came from Germany.

Then came:

• From Bulgaria the Outlaws Mannschat (Open Qualifier 1)
• Team 29 (Open Qualifier 2) came from Belarus
• The Tundra Esports team from Norwagen was ready (Open Qualifier 2)

The United States Cologne 2017 Qualifier

• the Counter Logic Gaming team from North America
• the Misfits team from the USA
• the Australians with the Renegades team
• the liquid team from America

These were the teams from the USA invited to qualify.

Then there were:

• the Splyce team from the United States (Open Qualifier 1)
• the team compLexity Gaming from America (Open Qualifier 2)

The qualifiers from China

A team from the teams from China qualified here. There were a total of 16 teams here.

The teams from China were

• B.O.O.T.cn
• the Eastern Mysterious Power team
• the Eclipse team
• the Flash Gaming Team
• "NEW4" team
• TyLoo crew
• UYA team
• ViCi Gaming Team

They were all invited to qualify.

Then came from China:
• Acme Exlamation (Open Qualifier)
• Five eSports Club (Open Qualifier)
• Green.Gaming (for the Open Qualifier)
• LCD Gaming (Open Qualifier)
• Lynx (Open Qualifier)
• Recall THE END (Open Qualifier)
• Sports.Power Clan (Open Qualifier)
• To.be.or.not.to.be (Open Qualifier)

The CN Cologne 2017 Qualifier

The competition teams

• Team Cloud 9 from the United States
• The FaZe Clan team was set up from the European Union
• The Swedes formed the Fnatic team
• The French competed with the G2 Esports team
• The Immortals team came from Brazil
• The mousesports team was set up from Germany
• Independent states with the Natus Vincere
• the ninjas in pajamas with Sweden
• the Danes with the North team
• the OpTic Gaming Team
• Brazil came with the SK Gaming team
• Virtus.pro and the country of Poland

These teams were all on the invitation list to qualify.

Then were set up:

• Team Heroic from Denmark (EU Qualifier)
• The Space Soldiers from Turkey (EU Qualifier)
• the United States came with the Liquid Team (NA Qualifier)
• the team TyLoo and China (China Qualififer)

The groups

In the first round the teams from the first pool fought with the teams from pool 4. The teams from the second pool competed with the teams from pool 3. In the second round the winners of the first round met each other. In a losing round, the weaker teams finally met each other and continued to fight. There was also a round 3, where the winners of the second round competed against each other again. Those winners of the two games qualified for the major tournament.

Last but not least, twelve teams were ready to qualify. In a fourth round there was again a fight for the next round. It went on like this until the finalists for the major tournament were determined. There remained a total of six teams. These winners eventually entered the major tournament. The losing teams were all eliminated here and could not qualify.

In the first two places, for example, the teams Liquid and Ninjas in pajamas played against each other (3: 0 each).

The playoffs
The quarterfinals, the semifinals and the final were played here.

In the quarterfinals played against each other:

• Nantus Vincere beat G2 Esports 2-0
• Team Ninja in pajamas against Team Cloud 9 with 1: 2
• the Liquid team against the FaZe Clan with 0: 2
• Team OpTic Gaming against SK Gaming with 0: 2

In the semifinals they played against each other:

• Team Nantus Vincerge against Team Cloud 9 with 0: 2
• FaZe Clan against SK Gaming with 0: 2

The finalists here were the Cloud 9 team and the SK Gaming team. SK Gaming won this game 3-0.

The quarter finals

• Natus Vincere won against G2 Esports with 19:17 (it was played overpass in the map)
• Natus Vincere won against the G2 Esports Team 16:13 (the map was Nuke)
• The Cloud 9 team played against the ninjas in pajamas with 16:10 (the map was Train)
• the ninjas in pajamas played against Team Cloud 9 with 16:11 (in the map cache)
• Team Cloud 9 played against the ninjas in pajamas 16: 6 on the Cobblestone map
• the FaZe Clan team fought against Team Liquid 16: 9 (in the Overpass map)
• In a second game the FaZe Clan won 16: 5 against Team Liquid (in the Map Train)
• The OpTic Gaming Team won 16:10 against the SK Gaming Team (in the Mirage map)
• The SK Gaming Team won 16: 9 against the OpTic Gaming Team in the Map Cache
• The SK Gaming Team scored 16: 7 on the Cobblestone map against OpTic Gaming

The semifinals

In the semifinals, the Cloud 9 team won against the Natus Vincere team 16:13 (in the Map Mirage). Cloud 9 also won 16:14 against the same team in the Overpass map. The SK Gaming team won 16: 4 against the FaZe Clan team (the map was Overpass). In the Map Cache the SK Gaming Teamg won against the FaZe Clan with 19:16.

The final
• The SK Gaming Team won 16: 9 against the Cloud 9 team (it was played on the Cobblestone map)
• SK Gaming also won 16:12 against the Cloud 9 team in the Map Train
• In the Inferno map, SK Gaming and Cloud 9 played against each other again - SK Gaming won 16:14

The final with the winners

All places and all prize money are listed here:

• The SK Gaming Team from Brazil took the outstanding first place and thus won the highest prize money of 100,000 US dollars
• The Cloud 9 team from the United States came in second place - they collected $ 50,000 for second place (coach valens)
• Winner in 3rd and 4th place: FaZe Clan from the European Union (trainer RobbaN) and the Natus Vincere team from the Independent States (trainer Andi). They each received $ 22,000 in prize money
• Places 5 to 8 each received prize money of $ 10,000. These were the teams: G2 Esports from France (trainer SmithZz), Ninjas in Pajamas from Sweden (trainer THREAT), OpTic Gaming from the United States (trainer Adrig6) and Team Liquid from the United States (trainer zews)
• The 9th - 11th place went to 6,000 US dollars each: the Swedish fnatic (trainer Jumpy), the team mousesports from Germany (trainer Imbt) and the North team from Denmark (trainer ruggah)
• Places 12 to 14 each received prize money of 3,000 dollars: the Danes with the Heroic Team (trainer FeTiSh), the Immortals from Brazil (trainer zakk) and the Turkish Space Soldiers (trainer hardstyle)
• In 15th and 16th place, the team received prize money of at least 1,500 dollars: the Chinese team TyLoo (trainer peacemaker) and the team Virtus.pro from Poland (trainer kuben) took home the money.