Electronic Sports League One Cologne 2014, also known as ESL One Cologne 2014, was the third Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. The tournament was held during Gamescom 2014 from August 14–17, 2014 at the Cologne Exhibition Centre in Cologne, Germany. It was the second CS:GO Major of 2014. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$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.
Format The top seven teams from EMS One Katowice 2014 qualified as Legends. LGB eSports would have had a Legends spot as the eighth finalist from Katowice 2014, but disbanded before Cologne 2014. 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.
Map Pool 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.
Before each match in the group stage, both teams banned two maps. The map for the match was then randomly selected from the remaining three maps. In the playoffs, each team first banned one map, then chose one map. The two chosen maps were the first two maps in the best-of-three. If the series were to require a third map, the map was randomly selected from the three remaining maps.
Maps
Cache Cobblestone Dust II Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass
Qualifiers European Qualifier There were 16 teams in the main European qualifier. Four teams from each regional qualifier – Open, North, Southeast, and Southwest – were in the tournament. The tournament was a best of three, double-elimination bracket, with six teams qualifying to the Major.
North American Qualifier This was a 16 team, single elimination bracket with just one team qualifying for the Major.
Oceanic Qualifier This was an 8 team, single elimination bracket with just one team qualifying for the Major.
Indian Qualifier LGB eSports, which placed third at the previous Major, disbanded, so only seven Legends remained. The tournament organizers decided to fill up the remaining spot with a team from India. This qualifier had 8 teams. The teams played in a robin round and the top four teams played in a double elimination bracket.
Broadcast Talent Hosts Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner Scott "SirScoots" Smith
Analyst Richard Lewis
Commentators Anders Blume Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat Joshua "steel" Nissan Stuart "TosspoT" Saw Lauren "Pansy" Scott
Teams Legends
Cloud9 Fnatic Hellraisers Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Dignitas Team LDLC.com Virtus.proQualifiers
Copenhagen Wolves dAt Team Epsilon eSports London Conspiracy Natus Vincere Team iBUYPOWER Team Wolf Titan Vox Eminor
Group stage Group A PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1Epsilon eSports 2 0 32 7 +25 6 2Ninjas in Pyjamas 2 1 38 34 +4 6 3HellRaisers 1 2 26 33 −7 3 4Team Wolf 0 2 11 32 −21 0
Group A matches Team Score Map Score Team Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Dust II 7 Team Wolf HellRaisers 1 Inferno 16 Epsilon eSports HellRaisers 16 Mirage 4 Team Wolf Ninjas in Pyjamas 6 Cobblestone 16 Epsilon eSports Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Overpass 11 HellRaisers
Group B PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1Team LDLC.com 2 0 32 14 +18 6 2Natus Vincere 2 1 47 39 +8 6 3Copenhagen Wolves 1 2 39 40 −1 3 4London Conspiracy 0 2 7 32 −25 0
Group B matches Team Score Map Score Team Team LDLC.com 16 Nuke 2 London Conspiracy Natus Vincere 16 Inferno 4 Copenhagen Wolves Copenhagen Wolves 16 Cache 5 London Conspiracy Team LDLC.com 16 Inferno 12 Natus Vincere Natus Vincere 19 Dust II 17 Copenhagen Wolves
Group C PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1Fnatic 2 0 35 23 +12 6 2Virtus.pro 2 1 48 28 +20 6 3Team iBUYPOWER 1 2 33 45 −12 3 4dAT Team 0 2 15 32 −17 0
Group C matches Team Score Map Score Team Virtus.pro 16 Overpass 7 dAT Team Fnatic 16 Cobblestone 7 Team iBUYPOWER Team iBUYPOWER 16 Cobblestone 6 dAT Team Virtus.pro 16 Overpass 19 Fnatic Virtus.pro 16 Cache 2 Team iBUYPOWER
Group D PosTeamWLRFRARDPts 1Cloud9 2 0 38 32 +4 6 2Team Dignitas 2 1 46 26 +20 6 3Titan 1 2 35 39 −4 3 4Vox Eminor 0 2 10 32 −22 0
Group D matches Team Score Map Score Team Team Dignitas 16 Dust II 9 Vox Eminor Cloud9 22 Dust II 18 Titan Titan 16 Nuke 1 Vox Eminor Team Dignitas 14 Mirage 16 Cloud9 Team Dignitas 16 Nuke 2 Titan
Playoffs Bracket
Quarterfinals Fnatic vs Natus Vincere Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 16 Inferno 11 Natus Vincere Fnatic 7 Dust II 16 Natus Vincere Fnatic 16 Nuke 14 Natus Vincere
Epsilon eSports vs Team Dignitas Team Score Map Score Team Epsilon eSports 9 Dust II 16 Team Dignitas Epsilon eSports 8 Inferno 16 Team Dignitas Epsilon eSports Overpass Team Dignitas
Team LDLC.com vs Virtus.pro Team Score Map Score Team Team LDLC.com 16 Dust II 14 Virtus.pro Team LDLC.com 16 Mirage 12 Virtus.pro Team LDLC.com Inferno Virtus.pro
Cloud9 vs Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Score Map Score Team Cloud9 16 Nuke 8 Ninjas in Pyjamas Cloud9 14 Dust II 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Cloud9 14 Cobblestone 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Semifinals Fnatic vs Team Dignitas Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 16 Dust II 11 Team Dignitas Fnatic 16 Overpass 14 Team Dignitas Fnatic Inferno Team Dignitas
Team LDLC.com vs Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Score Map Score Team Team LDLC.com 16 Inferno 10 Ninjas in Pyjamas Team LDLC.com 6 Nuke 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Team LDLC.com 14 Cobblestone 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Finals Fnatic vs Ninjas in Pyjamas Team Score Map Score Team Fnatic 11 Cobblestone 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas Fnatic 16 Cache 8 Ninjas in Pyjamas Fnatic 13 Inferno 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Final standings Place Prize Money Team Seed for DreamHack Winter 2014 Roster Coach 1st 100,000 Ninjas in Pyjamas Legends status f0rest, GeT RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, Fifflaren pita 2nd 50,000 Fnatic JW, flusha, pronax, olofmeister, KRiMZ Devilwalk 3rd–4th 22,000 Team Dignitas FeTiSh, , , dupreeh, Xyp9x 3k2 Team LDLC.com Uzzziii, Happy, KQLY, , Maniac MoMan 5–8th $10,000 Epsilon eSports Sf, , kioShiMa, GMX, – Natus Vincere Edward, Zeus, starix, , GuardiaN – Virtus.pro TaZ, NEO, , byali, Snax – Cloud9 Hiko, sgares, n0thing, , Semphis – 9–12th $2,000 HellRaisers ANGE1, , , AdreN Dosia – Copenhagen Wolves , Pimp, , karrigan, Nico – Titan kennyS, SmithZz, NBK, ScreaM, Ex6TenZ – Team iBUYPOWER DaZeD, Skadoodle, , , AZK – 13–16th $2,000 Team Wolf RiTz, RiX, , Ace, MithilF London Conspiracy RUBINO, , Skurk, , Polly – WorldEdit, , , , B1ad3 – Vox Eminor AZR, Havoc, SPUNJ, , –
References
External links Official webpage