ESL Hosting $250,000 CS:GO Tournament at Gamescom
Earlier this year the ESL hosted ESL One Katowice Counter Strike Global Offensive tournament. Virtus.Pro won the tournament and took home the largest share of the $250,000 prize pool. Viewing figures for the event were some of the biggest any Counter Strike event has ever seen so the ESL have decided to host another tournament with another $250,000 prize pool.
The ESL One Cologne will take place in the German city of Cologne between August 14th and August 17th. These are the same dates as Gamescom.
The tournament will feature eight invited teams (Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Dignitas, TEAMGLOBAL (former LGB eSports), compLexity Gaming, HellRaisers, Team LDLC.com and Fnatic) as well as eight teams who make it through the qualifiers (six from Europe, one from North America and one from Oceania/Australia).
Ulrich Schulze, Managing Director Pro Gaming at ESL seems very excited about the new event.
“After our thrilling event in Katowice, we are excited to once again host a tournament with a community funded prize pool. eSports is a great place to be right now and with the community growing as it is, we’re happy to be given the opportunity to showcase the best in competitive gaming once again. The biggest gaming event in the world is the perfect place to host the best CS:GO teams from all over the globe and all of us here at ESL are looking very much forward to what gamescom has to offer.”
Whilst his colleague Alexander Nehr, Product Manager at ESL, had this to say:
“Having watched the Finals in Katowice it will be absolutely brilliant to watch Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pyjamas take the stage again in Cologne. With exciting teams such as Team Dignitas and HellRaisers, who constantly improve their gameplay to surprise their opponents, the tournament looks to be fantastic. Can’t wait to see which teams qualify in the coming weeks. You definitely don’t want to miss this tournament.”
