ESL One Katowice 2015

ESL One Katowice
2015
Tournament information
Sport Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Dates March 12, 2015–March 15, 2015
Administrator(s) Valve Corporation
Electronic Sports League (ESL)
Tournament
format(s)
 16 team GSL group stage
Eight team single-elimination playoff
Venue Spodek Arena
Teams 16 teams
Purse $250,000 USD
Final positions
Champions Sweden Fnatic
1st runners-up Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas
2nd runners-up France Team EnVyUs
Poland Virtus.pro
Tournament statistics
MVP Sweden Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
Kills Get_Right (Ninjas in Pyjamas) (211)
KD Ratio NEO (Virtus.pro) (1.42)

ESL One Katowice 2015, also shortened as Katowice 2015, was the fifth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship that was from March 12 to March 15, 2015 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. It was the first CS:GO Major of 2015. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve Corporation. The tournament had a total prize pool of $250,000 USD.

The playoffs had eight teams. Fnatic, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, PENTA Sports, and Team SoloMid were returning Legends from the last major. Keyd Stars was the only new Legends and became the first South American team to play in a major and become a Legend. HellRaisers had its Legend spot taken away after losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Keyd Stars in the group stage. The grand finals would play out to be one of CS:GO's finest sets of 2015 between the two legendary Swedish teams. Fnatic defeated PENTA Sports and Virtus.pro while Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Team SoloMid and Team EnVyUs on their way to the grand finals. Fnaticousted Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 in the finals.[1] Fnatic was the first team to have more than one major title in its hand and would be the only team to do so until SK Gaming (which was Keyd Stars at this tournament) when the Brazilian team won MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016.

Background

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. In addition, the counter-terrorists can run down the clock before the terrorist can plant the bomb or kill the entire counter-terrorist team; if terrorists do run out of time (each round has one minute and forty-five seconds), the terrorists who remain alive by the end of the round earn no round bonus money. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.

There are six categories of purchasable categories, five being weapons – rifles, sub-machine guns (SMGs), heavy, pistols, and grenades – and the sixth being utilities, which includes armor and a taser. All guns have different states and all grenade types have different in-game effects. The highly explosive grenade deals damage in a small radius, the smoke grenade places a smoke screen for fifteen seconds so that nobody can see through the placed smoke, the decoy grenade emulates the player's primary gun, the flashbang temporarily blinds players who look at it explode, and the Molotov cocktail and Incendiary Grenade set a small radius of the map on fire for seven seconds.[2] Alongside all of these weapons, the Zeus x27, a taser, can also be purchased. For most professional players, the main choice of weapons are two rifles – the AK-47 for Terrorists and the M4A4 or the M4A1-S for the Counter-Terrorists – and the AWP. However, if limited on money, players tend to choose pistols – such as the Desert Eagle, CZ-75 Auto, and the P250 – the UMP-45 – which is considered to be simply a weaker M4A4 or AK47 despite being an SMG – and the SSG 08 – which is a much inferior AWP. If players know the opposing team has a weaker inventory, then players may choose to use lesser weaponry such as the MAC-10 or the MP-9 as the SMGs give twice as much money as rifles with each kill and give players more money going into further rounds. Heavy weapons are rarely used, with the MAG-7 being the most used, as players need to be very close range in order to get an accurate shot. The Kevlar is an important part of CS:GO as having armor allows a player to have more accurate aim when while getting hit by bullets and decreases the amount of damage taken. A helmet can also be bought; the helmet does not allow certain weapons to give a one shot, one kill potential, like the M4A4. Counter-Terrorists can also buy a defuse kit, which decreases the amount of time to defuse the bomb from ten seconds to five, which saves a lot of time as the bomb explodes forty seconds after the Terrorists planted the bomb.

In the game, there are two bombsites where Terrorists can plant the bomb. Counter-Terrorist must defend the bombsites from the Terrorists. Each half starts with a pistol round, in which players can only buy utility, grenades, or pistols. Most teams tend to have three or four players buy Kevlar armor and one or two players who buy grenades and/or a defuse kit; on the Terrorist side, a player sometimes buys an upgraded pistol and gives that pistol to a teammate who as Kevlar in order to give the Terrorists a better chance to win the round, as the default Terrorists pistol, the Glock is inferior the default Counter-Terrorist pistol, the USP-S. Most teams tend to go for a force buy in the second round if they lose the pistol round; a force buy is in which a team uses up its money despite having lesser weaponry than the other team in an attempt to win the round. Other teams go for a save or economy round, in which the teams intentionally do not buy many weapons or utility to have more money to buy more ideal weapons in the following round. Teams then go into a gun round, in which both teams have decent guns, but not necessarily the ideal round, as one team may have a player who has a less than ideal gun or the team does not have many grenades. Each half consists of fifteen rounds and a regular game has a maximum of thirty rounds. The first team to reach sixteen rounds wins the game. If teams are tied at fifteen, the games goes to overtime, in which each overtime is a best of six rounds, making each half three rounds. If teams are still tied at the end of overtime, the game will go on to another overtime until a winner is decided.

The defending champion was Team LDLC.com, whose players were now with Team EnVyUs. Before the event, no team had won more than one major.

Format

The top eight teams of the DreamHack Winter 2014 received direct invitations to Katowice. In addition, eight other teams emerged from the offline qualifiers (known as "Challengers").

Teams will be split up into four groups. All group matches are best of 1. The highest seed will play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds will play against each other. The winner of those two matches will play to determine which team moves on to the Playoffs; the loser of that match will play another match against the winner of the two losing teams. The loser of the lower match is eliminated from the tournament. The last two teams will play each other and the winner of that match moves on to the playoffs.

The playoffs bracket consists of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches are a best of three, single elimination format. Teams advance in the bracket until a winner is decided.

Map Pool

The same map pool was kept at this major.

There were seven maps to choose from. In the group stage, both teams can delete two maps. From the remaining three maps, the map is randomly selected, which is played in the end. In the playoffs, each team will first remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. If the series were to go to a third map, that map is randomly selected among the three remaining maps.

Maps
  • Cache
  • Cobblestone
  • Dust II
  • Inferno
  • Mirage
  • Nuke
  • Overpass

Qualifiers

Regional qualifiers

A total of four European teams, one Commonwealth of Independent States team, one Polish team, and one North American team qualified for the offline qualifier. In addition, another spot was granted to a European team in a last chance qualifier.

European qualifier

Two qualifiers in Europe were held. In both European qualifiers, 64 teams played in a single elimination bracket. Two teams from the first qualifier and three teams from the second moved on to the main qualifier.

EU qualifier #1 top 16
Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semifinals Katowice 2015
            
Finland 3DMAX 0
Portugal k1ck eSports Club 1
Portugal k1ck eSports Club 0
Sweden Team Property 1
Sweden Team Property 1
Sweden chosen 0
Sweden Team Property 0
Germany mousesports 2
Norway LGB eSports 0
France webSPELL 1
France webSPELL 0
Germany mousesports 1
Germany Playing Ducks 0
Germany mousesports 1
Germany mousesports Q
Denmark Copenhagen Wolves Q
Finland tryPANTS 0
Denmark eXes eSport 1
Denmark eXes eSport 0
Sweden UNLEASHED 1
Sweden UNLEASHED 1
Germany Planetkey Dynamics 0
Sweden UNLEASHED 0
Denmark Copenhagen Wolves 2
Germany myKPV.de 1
Denmark No Problem! 0
Germany myKPV.de 0
Denmark Copenhagen Wolves 1
Germany Team ALTERNATE 0
Denmark Copenhagen Wolves 1
EU qualifier #2 top 16
Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semifinals Katowice 2015
            
Finland 3DMAX 1
European Union BZSX 0
Finland 3DMAX 1
Spain Wizard e-Sports Club 0
France webSPELL 0
Spain Wizard e-Sports Club 1
Finland 3DMAX 1
Germany Team WinneR 2
Sweden Violetdreams FF
Germany Team WinneR 1
Germany Team WinneR 1
Sweden Team Property 0
United Kingdom fm!TOXIC 0
Sweden Team Property 1
Germany Team WinneR Q
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics Q
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics 1
Slovakia nEophyte 0
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics 1
Sweden Team Orbit 0
Sweden Publiclir.se 0
Sweden Team Orbit 1
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics 2
Norway LGB eSports 1
Hungary VOLGARE 1
Germany Team ALTERNATE 0
Hungary VOLGARE 0
Norway LGB eSports 1
Denmark se mi puta 0
Norway LGB eSports 1
3rd place decider
   
Finland 3DMAX FF
Norway LGB eSports W

North American qualifier

The North American qualifier featured 8 teams that played in a single elimination bracket and one team moved on to the main qualifier.

NA qualifier
Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
United States Counter Logic Gaming 1
United States Area 51 Gaming 0
United States Counter Logic Gaming 1
United States Mythic 0
United States Denial eSports 0
United States Mythic 1
United States Counter Logic Gaming 2
United States eLevate 1
United States Ayedog 1
Canada SapphireKelownaDotCom 0
United States Ayedog 0
United States eLevate 1
United States HEAT 0
United States eLevate 1

CIS qualifier

In the CIS qualifier, eight teams played in a double elimination, best of one bracket.

CIS qualifier top 3
  Semifinals     Finals
                 
    Russia EYESports 0
  Kazakhstan Exgaming 0     Russia PiTER 2
  Russia PiTER 1  

Polish qualifier

In the Polish qualifier, two teams played in a best of three series after two qualifiers decided the teams.

Polish qualifier finals
Finals
   
Poland INSHOCK 2
Poland MISZCZOWIE GRY 1

Main qualifier

The teams were separated into two groups of 8. The teams played in a double-elimination, best of one bracket. Four teams from each group, two from the winner's bracket and two from the loser's bracket, move on to the major.

Invited1
Regional Qualifiers

1Four of the five players from Team iBUYPOWER were banned by Valve for their parts in the North American match fixing scandal. In a game with NetCodeGuides.com, the players intentionally threw a game.[3] CSGO personality and journalist Richard Lewis exposed the scandal that in exchange of a NetCodeGuides.com win, iBUYPOWER players would receive skins. Duc "cud" Pham, Derek "dboorN" Boorn, and Casey "caseyfoster" Foster, authority figures of NetCodeGuides.com, were banned by Valve. In addition, Sam "DaZeD" Marine, Keven "AZK" Larivière, Joshua "steel" Nissan, and Braxton "swag" Pierce were banned from all Valve-sponsored events.[4] The remaining member of iBUYPOWER, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, was not banned since he was the only player who did not receive anything, thus making evidence against him inconclusive. The bans were officially made permanent on January 5, 2016.[5] Richard Lewis later wrote an open letter to Valve, claiming the bans were too harsh.[6]

2Team WinneR was found to be guilty of match fixing, so the team was disqualified. 3DMAX took the vacant spot. Players of ESC Gaming were also accused of match fixing, but they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

3The Polish roster of ESC Gaming was picked up by Gamers2. ESC Gaming would go on ti pick up a Danish roster.[7][8]

Group A qualifier

Group A Bracket
  Round 1     Round 2     Round 3     Round 4     Katowice 2015
                                               
  Winner's Bracket
   France   Titan  28  
   Russia   PiTER  24    
       France   Titan  14  
       United States   Counter Logic G.  16    
   United States   Counter Logic G.  16          
   Poland   Gamers2  14        
       United States   Counter Logic G.  Q            
       Norway   LGB eSports  Q              
   United States   Team Liquid  14              
   Ukraine   FlipSid3 Tactics  16                
       Ukraine   FlipSid3 Tactics  11          
       Norway   LGB eSports  16        
  Denmark   Copenhagen Wolves  8          
  Norway   LGB eSports  16           Katowice 2015  →
        Katowice 2015  →
  Loser's Bracket      
  Russia   PiTER  19        
  Poland   Gamers2  17     Ukraine   FlipSid3 Tactics  16        
     Russia   PiTER  3          
       Ukraine   FlipSid3 Tactics  Q        
  United States   Team Liquid  10          France   Titan  Q       Katowice 2015  →    
  Denmark   CPH Wolves  16     France   Titan  16           Katowice 2015  →  
     Denmark   Copenhagen Wolves  4  
<noinclude>

Group B qualifier

Group B Bracket
  Round 1     Round 2     Round 3     Round 4     Katowice 2015
                                               
  Winner's Bracket
   United States   Cloud9  16  
   Poland   INSHOCK  2    
       United States   Cloud9  16  
       Germany   mousesports  14    
   Germany   mousesports  16          
   Brazil   KaBuM.TD  10        
       United States   Cloud9  Q            
       Australia   Vox Eminor  Q              
   Finland   3DMAX  11              
   Australia   Vox Eminor  16                
       Australia   Vox Eminor  16          
       Denmark   Team Dignitas  13        
  Denmark   ESC Gaming  11          
  Denmark   Team Dignitas  16           Katowice 2015  →
        Katowice 2015  →
  Loser's Bracket      
  Poland   INSHOCK  11        
  Brazil   KaBuM.TD  16     Denmark   Team Dignitas  3        
     Brazil   KaBuM.TD  16          
       Brazil   KaBuM.TD  Q        
  Finland   3DMAX  16          Finland   3DMAX  Q       Katowice 2015  →    
  Denmark   ESC Gaming  8     Germany   mousesports  8           Katowice 2015  →  
     Finland   3DMAX  16  

Broadcast Talent

Hosts

  • United Kingdom Sean Charles
  • United Kingdom Alex "Machine" Richardson

Analysts

  • Denmark Casper "cadiaN" Møller
  • United States Spencer "Hiko" Martin

Commentators

  • United Kingdom Leigh "Deman" Smith
  • Denmark Anders Blume
  • United Kingdom Lauren "Pansy" Scott
  • United Kingdom Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

Observers

  • Canada Joshua "steel" Nissan
  • Serbia Yanko "YNk" Paunović

Teams

Legends
Qualifiers

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev depart from HellRaisers. s1mple was replaced by Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev. Later, HellRaisers announces the signing of Egor "flamie" Vasilyev to fill up the remaining spot on the roster.[9][10]

PENTA Sports adds Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert from mousesports and Johannes "nex" Maget from Planetkey Dynamics to its roster. Robin "r0bs3n" Stephan and Felix "fel1x" Zech were out of the roster.[11][12]

Team EnVyUs acquires the full roster of Team LDLC.com.[13]

Team Dignitas releases Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen and signs Finn "karrigan" Andersen as the in game leader.[14] Roughly two months later, the roster is acquired by Team SoloMid.[15]

The players of NetCodeGuides.com disbands from its organization.[16] Counter Logic Gaming then signs four of the five players (Josh "jdm64" Marzano was the exception) and Peter "ptr" Gurney to its roster.[17]

Flipsid3 Tactics releases its Swedish and Bosnian roster and signs the roster of dAT Team. s1mple later left the team and the team signs Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev.[18]

Controversy

Cloud9 was alleged to have been on Adderall during the duration of the tournament. Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen was released by Cloud9 about a month after the Katowice 2015 major before being picked up by Nihilum Gaming. In an interview with the well-known Counter-Strike commentator and analyst Mohan "launders" Govindasamy, SEMPHIS admitted that his whole team was on Adderall while playing.[19] SEMPHIS said to Launders

The ESL [communications] were kinda funny, in my opinion. I don't even care. We were all on Adderall. Like, I don't even give a fuck. Like, it was pretty obvious if you listened to the [communications].[20]

After the interview went viral in the Counter-Strike community, tournament organizers declared their intention to combat the use of PEDs in eSports. ESL also announced that it would partner with the National Anti Doping Association, which would mean random drug tests would be the norm. Cloud9's owner Jack Etienne dismissed SEMPHIS's allegations and did not condone the use of PEDs.

Group stage

Group A

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Sweden Fnatic 2 0 32 10 +22 6
2 Ukraine Natus Vincere 2 1 39 21 +18 6
3 Australia Vox Eminor 1 2 22 34 -12 3
4 Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics 0 2 4 32 -28 0
Group A matches
Team Score Map Score Team
Ukraine Natus Vincere 16 Mirage 2 Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics
Sweden Fnatic 16 Inferno 3 Australia Vox Eminor
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics 2 Cache 16 Australia Vox Eminor
Ukraine Natus Vincere 7 Cobblestone 16 Sweden Fnatic
Ukraine Natus Vincere 16 Inferno 3 Australia Vox Eminor

Natus Vincere vs. FlipSid3 Tactics

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) came into Katowice 2015 after placing third at DreamHack Winter 2014, which was its best placing at a major ever. FlipSid3 Tactics took a difficult road to the major, as it barely scraped past Team Liquid and lost to LGB eSports before finally defeating the Russian-based team PiTER to qualify for the major. This major would start a streak for the Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy and his team of never missing a major. Historically, Na'Vi had a five to two head-to-head record over its CIS rivals.

The first game of the major started off on Mirage and it did not take very long. Lead by Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko and star AWPer Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács, Na'Vi was able to take a 6-0 lead before FlipSid3 took a round. However, that would be all the success FlipSid3 would get as Sergey "starix" Ischuk and his team would take the remaining rounds. FlipSid3 took the second half pistol round that included a Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk 1 vs. 2 clutch. However, a force buy from Na'Vi and a clean execute to the A bombsite with Zeus's three kills allowed Na'Vi to get to match point quickly. A desperate final from FlipSid3 started off with Na'Vi heading to the A bombsite. starix started off with a kill onto bondik, but Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin traded him out with a desert eagle headshot. Denis "seized" Kostin took down WorldEdit and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev followed up onto Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev in the middle area. B1ad3 was able to catch Zeus off-guard and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov took down GuardiaN to even the playing field, but Na'Vi still had much more firepower. seized took down markeloff through a box and planted the bomb. B1ad3 tried to clutch, but a flashbang from seized aided Edward to finalizing the score at 16-2. Zeus had 21 kills and GuardiaN had 19 in the win. bondik put in work for his team with 15 kills, but a poor performance from the rest of the team fell much short.

Fnatic vs. Vox Eminor

Fnatic came back from the previous major as the most controversial team after the infamous boost against Team LDLC.com. After DreamHack officials decided to replay the map due to LDLC also using a similar boost, Fnatic forfeited the match and the game was handed to LDLC, which went on to win the major. Vox Eminor surprised everyone at the major qualifier after defeating 3DMAX and upsetting Team Dignitas. Historically, the two teams only met once, with Fnatic easily winning a best of three in late 2013.

The teams struck to Inferno, a famous Fnatic map. This match was similar to the other Group A match, as Fnatic dominated. Vox did start off strong as it won the pistol round, but in pure Fnatic style, the Swedes won a force buy in the second round. Vox kept it close and made it 5-2 after Azad "topguN" Orami took two quick kills while heading to the B bombsite. In the next round, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer started with a kill onto topguN about thirty seconds into the round. Fnatic's captain Markus "pronax" Wallsten took out Aaron "AZR" Ward; Luke "Havoc" Paton tried to make a play, but olofmeister's aim proved to be superior. Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill finally had something going with a kill onto Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, but pronax traded immediately. Justin "jks" Savage dropped down to take down pronax from the apartments area on the map, which leads to the A bombsite. jks followed up onto olofmeister, but Jesper "JW" Wecksell was waiting while Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson was on the flank, and Fnatic reset Vox's economy. Vox would take a round in the second half, but that proved to be irrelevant as Fnatic struck back to take the match at 16-3. JW headed the scoreboard with 20 kills. topguN and AZR had 11 kills each for the Australians, but the team had no success against the Swedish powerhouse.

Vox Eminor vs. FlipSid3 Tactics

Both teams were thrashed in their opening matches, having a combined round differential of -27. FlipSid3 was expected to win this match based on having much more experience as the two teams had never met before.

The map was chosen to be Cache, with Vox starting on the counter-terrorist side. That might have proven to be a mistake for the Ukrainians as Vox dominated with an 8-0 start before FlipSid3 finally put one up on the board. In the next round, Havoc started with an AWP kill onto DavCost in the B bombsite and SPUNJ took down bondik in the middle area. AZR popped out to middle to take down B1ad3 before being taken down by WorldEdit. SPUNJ headed back to the B bombsite and took down markeloff in the squeaky area of the map, which is one of three entrances to the A bombsite. WorldEdit rushed up to trade, but he was still left in a 1 vs. 3. WorldEdit found another kill onto topguN in the A bombsite from the middle area. With time waning down, WorldEdit creeped up to the A bombsite to plant the bomb, but Havoc got the backstab and gave Vox the round. FlipSid3 found just one more round in the entire game and Vox cruised to an easy win. topguN and Havoc had 21 kills each to lead Vox. DavCost was the only player for FlipSid3 to get into double digit kills with 13. Vox moved on to face the loser of Na'Vi and Fnatic and FlipSid3 was eliminated.

Natus Vincere vs. Fnatic

Casters: Anders Blume & Pansy

A strongly anticipated matchup between the best team from Europe and the best team from the CIS region was expected to be close. Both teams dominated their opening matches. Historically, Fnatic had a 12-6 record over Natus Vincere and Na'Vi had never won anything more than a best of one against Fnatic. However, this winners' match was a best of one to the favor of Na'Vi.

The two giants went to Cobblestone, a map both teams are comfortable on. Things looked strong for Na'Vi on the pistol round as seized took down flusha in the middle area while the other Fnatic players were prepared to hop into the B bombsite. GuardiaN then took down KRiMZ in the drop area of the map, which leads to both the B bombsite and the connector area that connects the two bombsites. Zeus won a fight with JW while olofmesiter took down starix with a strong, upgraded pistol, the Tec-9. Edward took down pronax, leaving olofmeister in a 1 vs. 4. However, the man that would soon be voted best player of 2015 found two quick kills onto Edward and GuardiaN. With ten seconds left in the round, olofmeister found a favorable fight with seized and won it and then finished off Zeus, who had seven health points, to just about clutch the round in one of the most memorable pistol clutches in CS:GO history. It would prove to be a crucial round as Na'Vi only obtained two rounds in the first half. The second half was better for the CIS team, but Fnatic's defense held strong and closed out the map 16-7. olofmeister went big with 27 kills and KRiMZ took in 20 for himself. seized had 22 kills, but Na'Vi's star GuardiaN only came out with 10. Fnatic took first seed in the group and Na'Vi went on to face Vox Eminor.

Natus Vincere vs. Vox Eminor

Casters: Anders Blume & Deman

Natus Vincere was fully expected to win this match, but after Na'Vi was dominated by Fnatic and Vox Eminor pulled off an upset in big fashion over FlipSid3 Tactics. These two teams had never faced off in the past.

The teams went to Inferno. Na'Vi took a commanding 8-0 lead before Vox took one. However, that would be all the success in the half for Vox as Na'Vi ended the half with a 14-1 lead. Vox took a must win pistol round and looked to get at least four rounds. In round seventeen, Na'Vi bought as much as it could with upgraded pistols and kevlar and went up to middle to the A bombsite. GuardiaN lead the way with a quick headshot onto Havoc. AZR was able to trade out Edward, but SPUNJ fell to starix and AZR eventually fell to GuardiaN and Na'Vi planted the bomb. GuardiaN found another headshot onto topguN. jks was able to kill Zeus, but a fourth headshot from GuardiaN won Na'Vi the round. Vox took the next round, but another force buy from Na'Vi won the team the match and a Legends spot. GuardiaN lead the way with 22 kills and seized was close by with 21. AZR had 11 kills, but Vox was throttled by the CIS team. Natus Vincere moved on to the playoffs and Vox Eminor was eliminated.

Group B

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 France Team EnVyUs 2 0 32 22 +10 6
2 Germany PENTA Sports 2 1 35 32 +3 6
3 Norway LGB eSports 1 2 36 35 +1 3
4 France Titan 0 2 18 32 -14 0
Group B matches
France Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 14 France Titan
Germany PENTA Sports 3 Dust II 16 Norway LGB eSports
France Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 8 Norway LGB eSports
Germany PENTA Sports 16 Cache 4 France Titan
Norway LGB eSports 12 Dust II 16 Germany PENTA Sports

Group C

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 2 0 32 16 +16 6
2 Brazil Keyd Stars 2 1 41 36 +5 6
3 United States Counter Logic Gaming 1 2 31 46 -15 3
4 Commonwealth of Independent States HellRaisers 0 2 26 32 -6 0
Group C matches
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Inferno 9 Brazil Keyd Stars
Commonwealth of Independent States HellRaisers 14 Nuke 16 United States Counter Logic Gaming
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Mirage 7 United States Counter Logic Gaming
Commonwealth of Independent States HellRaisers 12 Inferno 16 Brazil Keyd Stars
United States Counter Logic Gaming 8 Dust II 16 Brazil Keyd Stars

Group D

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Poland Virtus.pro 2 0 32 16 +16 6
2 Denmark Team SoloMid 2 1 46 34 +12 6
3 United States Cloud9 1 2 35 46 -11 3
4 Finland 3DMAX 0 2 15 32 -17 0
Group D matches
Poland Virtus.pro 16 Overpass 5 Finland 3DMAX
Denmark Team SoloMid 14 Nuke 16 United States Cloud9
Poland Virtus.pro 16 Inferno 11 United States Cloud9
Denmark Team SoloMid 16 Nuke 10 Finland 3DMAX
United States Cloud9 8 Overpass 16 Denmark Team SoloMid

Playoffs

The winner of each group would play the runner-up of a different group for each quarterfinals match.

Bracket

Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
A1 Sweden Fnatic 2
B2 Germany PENTA Sports 0
A1 Sweden Fnatic 2
D1 Poland Virtus.pro 0
D1 Poland Virtus.pro 2
C2 Brazil Keyd Stars 1
A1 Sweden Fnatic 2
C1 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 1
B1 France Team EnVyUs 2
A2 Ukraine Natus Vincere 1
B1 France Team EnVyUs 0
C1 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 2
C1 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 2
D2 Denmark Team SoloMid 1

Quarterfinals

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports

Fnatic came into the tournament as the most dominant team in the field and looked to take its second major title. Meanwhile, PENTA Sports had some trouble against the relatively inexperienced Norwegians of LGB eSports, but managed to retain its Legends status as it went up against the best team in the world.

Casters: Deman & SPUNJ

Sweden Fnatic vs. Germany PENTA Sports Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Sweden Fnatic 16 Inferno 8 Germany PENTA Sports
Sweden Fnatic 16 Cache 7 Germany PENTA Sports
Sweden Fnatic – Overpass – Germany PENTA Sports

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars

Virtus.pro was no surprise to be in the top eight as the reigning Katowice champions was back in the playoffs in front of its home crowd. However, Keyd Stars was the biggest surprise of the tournament as the Brazilians, who had barely any international experience, made the playoffs after pulling off two upsets in the group stage. Keyd Stars didn't even have enough money to go to the offline qualifier, but with the help of $4,000 from Robin "Flusha" Rönnquist, another couple thousand more from ESL, and donations from the community, FalleN's team was able to go to the big stage.

Casters: TosspoT & seang@res

Poland Virtus.pro vs. Brazil Keyd Stars Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Poland Virtus.pro 16 Mirage 4 Brazil Keyd Stars
Poland Virtus.pro 17 Overpass 19 Brazil Keyd Stars
Poland Virtus.pro 16 Nuke 1 Brazil Keyd Stars

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere

Team EnVyUs was the reigning major champion after winning DreamHack Winter 2014, but a very close match against its compatriot nearly cost the team the top spot in Group B. Natus Vincere was able to stomp through the Challengers in its group, but struggled against Fnatic; however, Na'Vi looked to do better in the rematch of the Winter 2014 semifinals.

Casters: Pansy & natu

France Team EnVyUs vs. Ukraine Natus Vincere Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
France Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 12 Ukraine Natus Vincere
France Team EnVyUs 14 Dust II 16 Ukraine Natus Vincere
France Team EnVyUs 16 Mirage 3 Ukraine Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid

The team that went on Counter-Strike's most legendary winning streak, winning 87 maps in a row, looked to reach its fifth straight final. Team SoloMid looked win a title after coming close several times and hoping the acquisition of its new in-game leader karrigan could be the decisive factor.

Casters: Anders Blume & natu

Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Denmark Team SoloMid Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Dust II 8 Denmark Team SoloMid
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 4 Inferno 16 Denmark Team SoloMid
Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Nuke 12 Denmark Team SoloMid

Semifinals

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro

Fnatic easily took care of PENTA in a series that did not take much time. On the other hand, Virtus.pro suffered a loss to the massive underdogs of Keyd Stars on a map that VP was widely regarded to be one of the best on. However, VP made the other two maps look easy as it pleased the crowd with its plays. However, Fnatic easily had VP's number as in 28 maps, Fnatic was able to win 21 of them.

Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS

Sweden Fnatic vs. Poland Virtus.pro Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Sweden Fnatic 19 Cobblestone 17 Poland Virtus.pro
Sweden Fnatic 16 Mirage 8 Poland Virtus.pro
Sweden Fnatic – Overpass – Poland Virtus.pro

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

EnVyUs came into the semifinals as the team with the better record in the head-to-head at 33-17, but predictions were split right down the middle in the battle between Happy and Xizt. The rematch of the Winter 2014 finals was underway.

Casters: Deman & seang@res

France Team EnVyUs vs. Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
France Team EnVyUs 9 Cache 16 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas
France Team EnVyUs 10 Dust II 16 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas
France Team EnVyUs – Mirage – Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas

Finals

The matchup many were hoping for happened. Both teams were at one point considered the best team in the world and the head-to-head was virtually split right down the middle, with Fnatic having a 16-15 lead. Predictions were also controversial as Fnatic was barely favored in the match. The last map would go down as one of CS:GO's greatest as the arena was maxed out to standing room only.

Casters: Anders Blume, TossopT, & seang@res

Sweden Fnatic vs. Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Sweden Fnatic 16 Dust II 14 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas
Sweden Fnatic 10 Cache 16 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas
Sweden Fnatic 16 Inferno 13 Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas

Final standings

Place Team Prize Money Seed Roster Coach
1st Sweden Fnatic US$100,000 ESL One Cologne 2015 Sweden JW, Sweden flusha, Sweden pronax, Sweden olofmeister, Sweden KRiMZ Sweden Devilwalk
2nd Sweden Ninjas in Pyjamas US$50,000 Sweden f0rest, Sweden GeT RiGhT, Sweden Xizt, Sweden friberg, Finland allu Bosnia and Herzegovina pita
3rd–4th France Team EnVyUs US$22,000 France kioShiMa, France Happy, France SmithZz, France NBK, France shox
Poland Virtus.pro | Poland TaZ, Poland NEO, Poland pashaBiceps, Poland byali, Poland Snax Poland kuben
5–8th Brazil Keyd Stars US$10,000 Brazil FalleN, Brazil fer, Brazil steel, Brazil zqk, Brazil boltz
Ukraine Natus Vincere Ukraine Edward, Ukraine Zeus, Ukraine starix, Russia seized, Slovakia GuardiaN
Denmark Team SoloMid Denmark karrigan, Denmark dev1ce, Denmark cajunb, Denmark dupreeh, Denmark Xyp9x Denmark 3k2
Germany PENTA Sports Germany nex, Germany Spidii, Germany denis, Germany kRYSTAL, Germany Troubley Germany alexRr
9–12th Australia Vox Eminor US$2,000 – Australia SPUNJ, Australia Havoc, Australia jks, Australia AZR, Australia topguN
Norway LGB eSports Norway RUBINO, Norway rain, Norway jkaem, Norway zEVES, Norway Polly
United States Cloud9 United States ShahZam, United States sgares, United States n0thing, Canada shroud, Canada Semphis
United States Counter Logic Gaming United States hazed, United States reltuC, United States tarik, United States ptr, Canada FNS
13–16th France Titan US$2,000 France kennyS, France Rpk, France apEX, Switzerland Maniac, Belgium Ex6TenZ
Ukraine FlipSid3 Tactics Ukraine B1ad3, Ukraine bondik, Ukraine markeloff, Russia WorldEdit, Russia DavCost
Commonwealth of Independent States HellRaisers Ukraine ANGE1, Ukraine kucher, Russia flamie, Russia Dosia, Kazakhstan AdreN
Finland 3DMAX Finland diSTURBED, Finland natu, Finland KHRN, Finland stonde, Finland xartE

References

  1. ↑ "3 things we learned from ESL Katowice's Counter-Strike event". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Villanueva, Jamie (September 6, 2017). "A guide to CS:GO's weapons". Dot eSports. The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Te, Zorine (January 26, 2015). "Valve Bans Pro Counter-Strike Teams For Match Fixing". GameSpot.
  4. ↑ Lewis, Richard (January 15, 2015). "New evidence points to match-fixing at highest level of American Counter-Strike". Dot eSports.
  5. ↑ Corporation, Valve (January 5, 2016). "A Follow Up to Integrity and Fair Play". Counter-Strike.net.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Richard (August 31, 2015). "An open letter to Valve on the iBUYPOWER bans". Dot eSports.
  7. ↑ Mira, Luis (February 11, 2015). "Gamers2 sign ex-ESC". HLTV.org.
  8. ↑ Park, Paul (February 11, 2015). "ESC Gaming acquires new CS:GO team". Score eSports.
  9. ↑ Mira, Luis (January 14, 2015). "markeloff, s1mple out of HellRaisers". HLTV.org.
  10. ↑ "Double replacement in HellRaisers.CSGO roster". HellRaisers. January 15, 2015. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  11. ↑ Kaye, Kelvin (March 4, 2015). "PENTA Sports add Troubley to CS:GO roster". HellRaisers.
  12. ↑ Kojadinovic, Vladimir (December 29, 2014). "Penta acquires strux1 and nex". GosuGamers.
  13. ↑ "TEAM ENVYUS ACQUIRE LDLC CS:GO ROSTER". GFinity. February 2, 2015. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  14. ↑ Barker, Ian J. (December 4, 2014). "Fetish out, Karrigan in at Dignitas". Dot eSports.
  15. ↑ Walkowiak, Marek (January 25, 2015). "CS:GO squad move on". Team Dignitas.
  16. ↑ Mira, Luis (October 23, 2014). "NetcodeGuides lose CS:GO team". HLTV.org.
  17. ↑ Švejda, Milan (January 17, 2015). "CLG sign ex-mouseSpaz". HLTV.org.
  18. ↑ Finch, MJ (January 17, 2015). "WELCOMING DAT AS THE NEW F3 CS:GO TEAM!". Flipsid3 Tactics.
  19. ↑ "Semphis: Cloud9 was on Adderall at ESL Katowice". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  20. ↑ "ESWC '15: Interview with "semphis" (Nihilum)". YouTube. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
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