ESL One Cologne 2016, also known as ESL Cologne Major 2016 or Cologne 2016, was an Electronic Sports League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. It was the ninth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and was held at the Lanxess Arena In Cologne, Germany from July 8–10. It featured 16 teams from throughout the world competing. Cologne 2016 had the second consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
The playoffs featured eight teams. Astralis, Fnatic, Gambit Gaming, Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, Team Liquid, and Virtus.pro were returning Legends and FlipSid3 Tactics was the only new Legend. Ninjas in Pyjamas failed to retain its Legends status after eight straight majors of being Legends. The grand finals had SK Gaming, which was the defending champion from the previous major at MLG Major Championship: Columbus, against Team Liquid, which was the first ever North America team to reach the grand finals at a major. SK Gaming defeated FlipSid3 Tactics and Virtus.pro and Team Liquid upset Natus Vincere and Fnatic to reach the finals. In the end, SK Gaming defended its title 2–0 over the underdog Team Liquid and continued to be the only non-European team to win a title until the PGL 2017 Kraków Major Championship, in which Gambit Esports from Kazakhstan won the title. SK Gaming also joined Fnatic to be the only teams to have multiple major titles.
Format The top eight teams from the MLG Columbus Major ("Legends") were automatically invited to ESL One Cologne 2016. The remaining eight spots were filled by teams that advanced from the ESL One Cologne 2016 Main Qualifier. These 16 teams were then split into four groups, seeded based on results from Columbus 2016 and the Cologne 2016 Main Qualifier. The groups were decided by a random number generator. First the bottom four teams of the qualifier – G2 Esports, Team EnVyUs, Team Dignitas, and FlipSid3 Tactics – were randomly assigned to groups as the fourth seeds. The top four teams of the qualifier – Gambit Gaming, OpTic Gaming, mousesports, and FaZe Clan – were then randomly selected to be the third seeds. The teams that placed fifth through eighth at Columbus 2016 – Fnatic, Virtus.pro, Counter Logic Gaming, and Ninjas in Pyjamas – were randomly assigned the second seeds in the group. Finally, the top four teams from Columbus 2016 – SK Gaming (formerly Luminosity Gaming), Natus Vincere, Astralis, and Team Liquid – were randomly given the top seeds in the four respective groups.
The way that ESL seeded the groups drew some criticism. While Groups A and B combined had three of HLTV's top-10 teams, Group D alone had SK Gaming (#1), G2 Esports (#2), Fnatic (#4), and FaZe (#16). CS:GO analysts called for a more effective seeding method.
All group matches were best-of-ones with the exception of the final decider match, deciding the last playoff spot. The highest seed would play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds would play against each other. The winner of those two matches would play each other to determine which team moved on to the playoff stage, while the losers of the first round of matches also played. The loser of the lower match was then eliminated from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the two remaining teams would play a best-of-three elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the Global StarCraft II League.
The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were best-of-three, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.
Map Pool There were seven maps to choose from. Between Columbus 2016 and Cologne 2016, Inferno was taken out of the active map pool and Nuke was reintroduced after the CSGO development team revamped the map. Before each best-of-one match in the group stage, teams alternated banning maps until five maps had been banned. One of the two remaining maps was randomly selected, and the team that that did not get a third ban then selected which side it wanted to start on. In all best-of-three series, each team first banned a map, leaving a five-map pool. Each team then chose a map, with the opposing team selecting which side they wanted to start on for their opponent's map choice. The two map picks 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 Mirage Nuke Overpass Train
Main Qualifier
Regional Qualifiers The final four bracket from each qualifier are shown below; two from each move on to the main qualifying event. All games are offline.
Asia Minor The winner and runner-up of Intel Extreme Masters Season X Taipei were invited to the qualifier. In addition, two teams from the Korean qualifier, two teams from the Chinese qualifier, one team from the Southeast Asia qualifier, and one team from the Oceania qualifier will be in the minor.
Teams
The MongolZ (IEM Taipei #1) Renegades (IEM Taipei #2) MVP Project (Korea #1) m0nster.kr (Korea #2) VG.CyberZen (China #1) TyLoo (China #2) Risky Gaming (SEA #1) Team Immunity (Oceania #1)
Europe Minor The Europe Minor was held by DreamHack in Tours, France. Two qualifiers were held and four teams from each qualifier moved on to the minor.
Teams
HellRaisers (Qualifier #1) Lounge Gaming (Qualifier #1) SK Gaming (Qualifier #1) Team Dignitas (Qualifier #1) ENCE eSports (Qualifier #2) Epsilon eSports (Qualifier #2) GODSENT (Qualifier #2) Team Orbit (Qualifier #2)
CIS Minor In the CIS Minor, four teams were invited and four more teams from the closed qualifier arrived to the minor in Moscow.
Teams
ANOX (Invited) Arcade eSports (Invited) Team Empire (Invited) Worst Players (Invited) Binary Dragons Gold (Closed Qualifier) Digital Wave (Closed Qualifier) FLuffy Gangsters (Closed Qualifier) Vesuvius (Closed Qualifier)
Americas Minor The Americas Minor had four teams invited, three teams from the North American qualifier, and one team from the South American qualifier.
Teams
NRG Esports (Invited) OpTic Gaming (Invited) Selfless Gaming (Invited) Tempo Storm (Invited) Team SoloMid (NA #1–2) Winterfox (NA #1–2) Team Kaliber (NA #3) WinOut.net (SA #1)
Main Qualifier Like the previous majors, there will be a major qualifier and regional qualifiers. The bottom eight teams from MLG Columbus 2016 received automatic bids to the main qualifier. Two teams each from the Asia, North America, Europe, and CIS Minors will be able to compete in the major qualifier.
Unlike previous qualifiers, this main qualifier will be a sixteen team swiss tournament, where after the Day 1 games, teams will play other teams with the same win–loss record. Every round will consist of one game. In addition, teams will not play the same team twice. Any team with three wins would qualify for the major, and any team with three losses would be eliminated.
First round seeding was determined by the following: Teams that placed 9th at the previous major (mousesports, FaZe Clan, Gambit Gaming, G2 Esports) were first seeds Teams that placed 13th place at the previous major (FlipSid3 Tactics, Splyce, Team EnVyUs, Cloud9) were second seeds Teams that placed first in their regional qualifiers (OpTic Gaming, TyLoo, FLuffy Gangsters, Team Dignitas) were third seeds Teams that were runners-up in their regional qualifiers (Immortals, Renegades, Team Empire, HellRaisers) were fourth seeds
In the second round, the winners in the first round will face each other in the "high" matches; the losers will face each other in the "low" matches.
In the third round, the winners of the high matches from round two will face each other. The winners of these two matches will qualify for the major. The losers of the high round and the winners of the low round will face each other in the "mid" matches. The losers from the previous low matches will face each other in round three's low matches. The losers of these low matches are eliminated. Twelve teams remain in the Qualifier.
In the fourth round, the losers of the high matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in round four's high matches. The winners of the high matches qualify for the major. The losers of the mid matches and the winners of the low matches will face each other in the low matches of round four. The losers of these matches are eliminated from the Qualifier. Six teams remain.
In the last round, the remaining teams will face off. The winners of these matches will qualify for the major and the losing teams will be eliminated.
Columbus 2016 Bottom 8
mousesports FaZe Clan Gambit Gaming G2 Esports FlipSid3 Tactics Splyce Team EnVyUs Cloud9 Regional Qualifiers
OpTic Gaming (Americas Minor #1) Immortals (Americas Minor #2) TyLoo (Asia Minor #1) Renegades (Asia Minor #2) FLuffy Gangsters (CIS Minor #1) Team Empire (CIS Minor #2) Team Dignitas (Europe Minor #1) HellRaisers (Europe Minor #2)
Qualifier results
Place Team Record Differential Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 1–2 FaZe Clan 3–0 +24 Team Dignitas16–8Mirage High matchFlipSid3 Tactics16–5Cobblestone High matchGambit Gaming16–11Train Qualified Qualified mousesports 3–0 +22 FLuffy Gangsters19–17Dust II High matchCloud916–12Mirage High matchG2 Esports16–1Dust II Qualified Qualified 3–5 Team EnVyUs 3–1 +20 Immortals16–6Dust II High matchGambit Gaming10–16Cobblestone Mid matchSplyce16–4Cobblestone High matchCloud916–12Cobblestone Qualified OpTic Gaming 3–1 +16 Gambit Gaming14–16Cobblestone Low matchFLuffy Gangsters16–9Train Mid matchFlipSid3 Tactics16–7Train High matchHellRaisers16–14Cache Qualified Gambit Gaming 3–1 +9 OpTic Gaming16–14Cobblestone High matchTeam EnVyUs16–10Cobblestone High matchFaZe Clan11–16Train High matchG2 Esports16–10Train Qualified 6–8 Team Dignitas 3–2 +6 FaZe Clan8–16Mirage Low matchTeam Empire16–13Nuke Mid matchHellRaisers10–16Nuke Low matchRenegades16–12Dust II TyLoo16–3Cobblestone G2 Esports 3–2 +2 TyLoo16–9Cache High matchHellRaisers16–8Dust II High matchmousesports1–16Nuke High matchGambit Gaming10–16Cache Cloud916–8Overpass FlipSid3 Tactics 3–2 −2 Renegades16–9Mirage High matchFaZe Clan5–16Cobblestone Mid matchOpTic Gaming7–16Train Low matchImmortals16–12Train HellRaisers16–9Overpass 9–11 HellRaisers 2–3 −9 Splyce17–19Cobblestone Low matchG2 Esports11–16Dust II Low matchTeam Dignitas16–9Nuke Low matchOpTic Gaming16–8Cache FlipSid3 Tactics13–16Overpass Cloud9 2–3 −6 Team Empire16–12Cobblestone High matchmousesports12–16Mirage Mid matchTyLoo16–13Cache High matchTeam EnVyUs12–16Cobblestone G2 Esports8–16Cache TyLoo 2–3 −16 G2 Esports 9–16Cache Low matchImmortals16–11Cache Mid matchCloud913–16Cache Low matchSplyce16–14Mirage Team Dignitas3–16Cobblestone Renegades 1–3 −8 FlipSid3 Tactics9–16Mirage Low matchSplyce14–16Cobblestone Low matchFLuffy Gangsters11–16Mirage Low matchTeam Dignitas12–16Dust II Eliminated Immortals 1–3 −10 Team EnVyUs6–16Dust II Low matchTyLoo11–16Cache Low matchTeam Empire16–7Cobblestone Low matchFlipSid3 Tactics12–16Train Eliminated Splyce 1–3 −19 HellRaisers9–16Cobblestone Low matchRenegades16–14Cobblestone Mid matchTeam EnVyUs4–16Cobblestone Low matchTyLoo14–16Mirage Eliminated 15–16 FLuffy Gangsters 0–3 −15 mousesports16–19Dust II Low matchOpTic Gaming9–16Train Low matchRenegades11–16Mirage Eliminated Eliminated Team Empire 0–3 −16 Cloud912–16Cobblestone Low matchTeam Dignitas13–16Nuke Low matchImmortals7–16Cobblestone Eliminated Eliminated
Broadcast talent Stage Hosts Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner Alex "Machine" Richardson Mitch "Uber" Leslie
Analysts Duncan "Thorin" Shields Jason "moses" O'Toole Janko "YNk" Paunović
Commentators Anders Blume Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat Henry "HenryG" Greer Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett Daniel "ddk" Kapadia James Bardolph Lauren "Pansy" Scott John "BLU" Mullen
Broadcasts