ESL One Cologne 2014 (CS:GO)

Lore & Background

Ninjas in Pyjamas won the event by beating 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. The tournament was livestreamed on the official ESL Twitch channel.

Reader's Guide

The top seven teams from EMS One Katowice 2014 qualified as Legends. LGB eSports would have had a Legends spot but disbanded before Cologne 2014. Six teams from Europe, one from North America, one from Oceania, and one from India played online qualifiers. Teams were split into four seeded groups; all group matches were best-of-one using the GSL format. The playoff bracket consisted of eight teams in single elimination, best-of-three matches. The map pool included seven maps: Train was removed, while Cache, Overpass, and Cobblestone were added. In the group stage, both teams banned two maps, then the map was randomly selected from the remaining three. In playoffs, each team banned one map, then chose one; if a third map was needed, it was randomly selected from the remaining three.

Did You Know?

• Overpass was released by Valve only a month before the tournament, causing some controversy.
• The Indian qualifier was added because LGB eSports disbanded, leaving only seven Legends.
• The European qualifier had 16 teams in a double-elimination bracket, with six qualifying to the Major.