ESL One Cologne 2018

About the organizer and the championship

ESL is a worldwide famous organization that hosts tournaments in such esports disciplines as Dota 2 and CS:GO.

ESL One Cologne 2018 will be carried out in Cologne, Germany. The prize pool of the tournament amounts $300,000 and Lanxess-Arena will be traditionally a venue. There is no information about the distribution of the prize pool and the tournament’s list of talents at the moment.

ESL One Cologne 2018 will become a part of the Intel Grand Slam series. Let’s remind that the first team that achieves victory in four Intel Grand Slam tournaments in a row will earn a monetary reward in the sum of $1,000,000.

The participants

Totally, sixteen participants will take part in the championship, the list is already known. Eleven participants are the lucky ones that have received direct invitations to the tournament. The rest five teams have been determined with a help of qualifying rounds in Europe, North America, Asia and GG.BET Majestic qualifier.

The format

The group stage will be held on July 3-5. Teams will play in two groups in a Double Elimination bracket. Three teams will advance to the playoffs from each group: two from the upper bracket and one from the lower one. A team that holds the first place in its group will get to the semi-final of the playoff stage and the rest of teams that advance to the playoffs will begin their participation from the quarterfinal.

In the playoff stage, the teams will play in a Single Elimination bracket. Quarterfinal and semi-final matches will be hosted in a bo3 format. The grand final will be run in a bo5 series.

The showmatch

At ESL One Cologne 2018, besides the main matches, a showmatch will be hosted between talents that will be covering the championship for viewers. It will be played in the last gaming day at 12:00 UTC +0.