DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship that was held from October 28–November 1, 2015 at the Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was organized by DreamHack with help from Valve and the Professional Gamers League. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000.

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
2015
The DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 logo
Tournament information
SportCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
LocationCluj-Napoca, Romania
DatesOctober 28, 2015–November 1, 2015
Administrator(s)Valve
DreamHack
Tournament
format(s)
16 team round-robin group stage
Eight team single-elimination playoff
Venue(s)Polyvalent Hall
Teams16 teams
Final positions
Champions Team EnVyUs
1st runners-up Natus Vincere
2nd runners-up G2 Esports
Ninjas in Pyjamas
MVP Kenny "kennyS" Schrub

Eight teams were featured in the playoffs. Fnatic, G2 Esports, Luminosity Gaming, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team EnVyUs, Team SoloMid, and Virtus.pro – all Legends from the last major – were once again Legends as no Challenger took their spots. Team EnVyUs, which defeated Fnatic and G2 Esports, was the winner of the event, defeating Natus Vincere, which defeated Luminosity Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas, in the finals, 2-0. This came after Team EnVyUs placed second at the previous major, including a game in which Fnatic came back from a large deficit in the first game of grand finals.[1][2]

Format

The top eight teams of the ESL One Cologne 2015 qualified as Legends. The Challengers consisted of the top eight teams from the DreamHack Open Stockholm 2015 Qualifying tournament.

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 all best of one matches, each team bans two maps. Then, one team bans another map From the remaining two maps, the map played is randomly selected. The team that did not get the third ban gets to choose which sides it starts on. In all best of three series, each team will first remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. The team that did not choose the map will choose which side it starts on. 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
  • Overpass
  • Train

Main Qualifier

Regional Qualifiers

Two teams from the first European qualifier moved on to the major. Eight teams that were eliminated in the said qualifier moved to the second European qualifier. Three teams from that qualifier moved on to the major. Two teams from the North American qualifier moved on to the major and one team from the Asian qualifier moved on to the major.

Europe Qualifiers

Europe Qualifier #1
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 DH Cluj-Napoca 2015
            
Team Dignitas 0
k1ck eSports.hu 2
k1ck eSports.hu 2
Reason Gaming.dk 0
Reason Gaming.dk 2
Los Jefes 0
k1ck eSports.hu 0
Copenhagen Wolves 2
Copenhagen Wolves 2
EURONICS Gaming 0
Copenhagen Wolves 2
PENTA Sports 1
PENTA Sports 2
Torpedo Gaming 1
Copenhagen Wolves Q
HellRaisers Q
SK Gaming 2
Infinity 0
SK Gaming 2
Dobry&Gaming 0
Dobry&Gaming 2
MIXCAT 1
SK Gaming 0
HellRaisers 2
Space Soldiers 1
London Conspiracy 2
London Conspiracy 0
HellRaisers 2
HellRaisers 2
Wizards e-Sports Club 1
Europe Qualifier #2
Round 1   Round 2   Round 3   DH Cluj-Napoca 2015
SK Gaming 2  
NIGHT RAID 0     SK Gaming 0  
Torpedo Gaming 1     MIXCAT 2  
MIXCAT 2       MIXCAT 0  
London Conspiracy 2       Dobry&Gaming 2  
x6tence 1     London Conspiracy 0
Dobry&Gaming 2     Dobry&Gaming 2  
OverGaming 0       Dobry&Gaming Q
PENTA Sports 1       Team Dignitas Q
Team LDLC.com Blue 2     Team LDLC.com Blue 0  
Reason Gaming.dk 2     Reason Gaming.dk 2  
Space Soldiers 0       Reason Gaming.dk 0
Team Dignitas 2       Team Dignitas 2  
AWTR 0     Team Dignitas 2 3rd Place DHCN Qualifier
k1ck eSports.hu 2     k1ck eSports.hu 0   MIXCAT 2
WorstPlayers 0   Reason Gaming.dk 1

North American Qualifier

North American Qualifier
Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
Team Liquid 2
h00liGaNz 2
Team Liquid 2
compLexity Gaming 0
3sUP Enterprises 0
compLexity Gaming 2
Team Liquid Q
Mythic Q
Mythic 2
Method 1
Mythic 2
Conquest 1
Games Academy 0
Conquest 2

Asian Qualifier

Asian Qualifier
Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
m0nster.kr 0
ExsequoR 2
ExsequoR 0
QeeYou 2
QeeYou 2
iSg.vA 0
QeeYou 2
Skyred 0
Skyred 2
Team nxl 1
Skyred 2
TyLoo 0
MVP Karnal 1
TyLoo 2

Main Qualifier

The 16 teams at the major qualifier played at DreamHack Open Stockholm 2015. The bottom eight teams from ESL One Cologne 2015, five teams from two European qualifiers, two teams from the North American qualifier, and one team from the Asian qualifier.

Teams were divided into four groups and the top two from each group made it to the major.

ESL One Cologne 2015 Bottom 8
Regional Qualifiers
  • Copenhagen Wolves (Europe Qualifier 1)
  • HellRaisers (Europe Qualifier 1)
  • Lounge Gaming1 (Europe Qualifier 2)
  • Team Dignitas (Europe Qualifier 2)
  • Team ROCCAT2 (Europe Qualifier 2)
  • Team Liquid (North America Qualifier)
  • Winterfox3 (North America Qualifier)
  • Skyred4 (Asia Qualifier)

1Lounge Gaming signs the entire Dobry&Gaming lineup.

2MIXCAT emerges with Team ROCCAT.

3Mythic is signed by Winterfox.

4The Asia Qualifier champion, QeeYou, had passport issues and could not attend. Skyred was the runner-up of the qualifier and took its place at the main qualifier.

DreamHack Open Stockholm 2015

The main qualifier took place at DreamHack Open Stockholm 2015. Group A

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Cloud9 2 0 64 40 +24 6
2 Team Dignitas 2 1 93 89 +4 6
3 Team Immunity 1 2 89 97 -8 3
4 Team ROCCAT 0 2 44 64 -20 0
Group A Results
Cloud9 2 0 Team ROCCAT
Team Immunity 0 2 Team Dignitas
Cloud9 2 0 Team Dignitas
Team Immunity 2 0 Team ROCCAT
Team Dignitas 2 1 Team Immunity

Group B

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Titan 2 0 72 51 +21 6
2 Vexed Gaming 2 1 89 98 -9 6
3 HellRaisers 1 2 108 97 +11 3
4 Skyred 0 2 41 64 -23 0
Group B Results
Titan 2 0 Skyred
Vexed Gaming 0 2 HellRaisers
Titan 2 1 HellRaisers
Vexed Gaming 2 0 Skyred
HellRaisers 1 2 Vexed Gaming

Group C

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 mousesports 2 0 67 47 +20 6
2 Team Liquid 2 1 97 77 +20 6
3 Renegades 1 2 77 101 -24 3
4 Winterfox 0 2 51 67 -16 0
Group C Results
mousesports 2 0 Winterfox
Renegades 1 2 Team Liquid
mousesports 2 0 Team Liquid
Renegades 2 0 Winterfox
Team Liquid 2 0 Renegades

Group D

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Counter Logic Gaming 2 0 81 66 +15 6
2 FlipSid3 Tactics 2 1 90 68 +22 6
3 Copenhagen Wolves 1 2 82 95 -13 3
4 Lounge Gaming 0 2 71 95 -24 0
Group D Results
FlipSid3 Tactics 2 0 Copenhagen Wolves
Counter Logic Gaming 2 1 Lounge Gaming
FlipSid3 Tactics 0 2 Counter Logic Gaming
Copenhagen Wolves 2 1 Lounge Gaming
FlipSid3 Tactics 2 0 Copenhagen Wolves

Broadcast talent

Hosts

  • Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner
  • Richard Lewis

Interviewers

  • Pala "Mantrousse" Gilroy Sen
  • Scott "SirScoots" Smith

Analysts

  • Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson
  • Joona "natu" Leppänen
  • Jason "moses" O'Toole
  • Duncan "Thorin " Shields

Commentators

  • James Bardolph
  • Anders Blume
  • Henry "HenryG" Greer
  • Daniel "ddk" Kapadia
  • Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
  • Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett

Broadcasts

All streams were broadcast on Twitch in various languages.

  • DreamHackCS
  • 99Damage
  • BiDa
  • cadiaN
  • cnon3
  • DreamHackCS Spain
  • Excello
  • GamermagTV
  • Gameshow
  • GamingLive
  • GEC TV
  • Hungarian Esport TV
  • HuntingDuck
  • IzakOOO
  • striimIT
  • Subzidite
  • svtplay

Teams

Legends
Qualifiers

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Team Kinguin partner with G2 Esports and the players played under the G2 banner.[3]

After signing with G2 Esports, then known as Gamers2, Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom leaves the team and joins Titan while Swiss player Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez was out of Titan.[4] Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad is then brought over from the Copenhagen Wolves to take ScreaM's place.[5]

The roster of Team eBettle played under the name Vexed Gaming due to the organization wanting to distance its eSports and betting operations.[6]

mousesports sign the young Bosnian Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and drop Timo "Spiidi" Richter from the active roster.[7]

Team Liquid signs Spencer "Hiko" Martin and coach James "GBJame^s" O'Connor and release Kyle "flowsicK" Mendez.[8]

Team Dignitas release Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen and bring in Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski from SK Gaming for an undisclosed amount.[9]

Pre-Major Ranking

The HLTV.org October 26, 2015 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the final one released before the major. It included tournaments up to PGL CS:GO Championship Series: Season 1, in which Team SoloMid defeated Virtus.pro in the finals, and DreamHack Open London 2015, in which Team EnVyUs defeated Team SoloMid in the finals.[10]

HLTV.org Pre-Major Ranking
World Ranking
Place Team Points Move
1 Team SoloMid 892
2 Fnatic 888
3 Virtus.pro 805
4 Team EnVyUs 778
5 Ninjas in Pyjamas 440
6 Natus Vincere 432
7 Cloud9 279
8 Team Dignitas 214
9 G2 Esports 209
10 Counter Logic Gaming 208
11 Team Liquid 207 1
12 Titan 203 1
13 mousesports 197 2
14 Flipsid3 Tactics 183
15 Luminosity Gaming 175
18 Vexed Gaming 102

Change since October 19, 2015 ranking

Group Stage

Group A

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Luminosity Gaming 2 0 32 24 +8 6
2 Fnatic 2 1 61 44 +17 6
3 Cloud9 1 2 45 61 -16 3
4 Vexed Gaming 0 2 23 32 -9 0
Group A Matches
Fnatic 1 0 Vexed Gaming
Luminosity Gaming 1 0 Cloud9
Cloud9 1 0 Vexed Gaming
Fnatic 0 1 Luminosity Gaming
Fnatic 2 0 Cloud9
Group A Scores
Group A Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Fnatic 16 Cobblestone 10 Vexed Gaming
Luminosity Gaming 16 Dust II 11 Cloud9
Cloud9 16 Cobblestone 13 Vexed Gaming
Fnatic 13 Inferno 16 Luminosity Gaming
Fnatic 16 Dust II 6 Cloud9
Fnatic 16 Overpass 12 Cloud9
Fnatic Cache Cloud9

Fnatic vs Vexed Gaming

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The first game of the major began with the defending champions, Fnatic, against Vexed Gaming. Fnatic pulled off one of the biggest comebacks at the ESL One Cologne 2015 grand finals against Team EnVyUs and eventually took the title. In addition, it was the only team to win more than one major title (3 titles) and the only team to win consecutive majors and had the opportunity to win three straight titles at this major. Vexed Gaming was a team that had made it to the majors but never qualified for the playoffs. It defeated Skyred and HellRaisers to qualify for the tournament. Only 1% of Valve's Pick'Em predictions had Vexed upsetting Fnatic. Fnatic started with a pistol round win, the first round, to take a 1-0 lead. Vexed nearly took the second round with limited gear as it took two players down early and was in a 3 vs 1 advantage against Robin "flusha" Rönnquist. However, flusha was able to clutch it and give Fnatic a second round. Fnatic took a third round but Vexed was able to take a 4-3 lead four rounds later. In the fifth round, Fnatic planned to take the B bombsite. The two teams traded two kills each. Bartosz "Hyper" Wolny was able to win a duel against Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson but Fnatic captain Markus "pronax" Wallsten was able to trade. Karol "rallen" Radowicz then took down pronax. Jesper "JW" Wecksell took down rallen with just 6 seconds left and planted the bomb with four seconds. JW was unable to win the 1 vs 2 as Piotr "peet" Ćwikliński took JW down and Vexed took a fifth round. Vexed then went on to take five more rounds to Fnatic's two and the Poles took a surprising 10 to 5 lead at the half against the number two team going into the major. Vexed then crumbled as its offense could not match up to its defense and Fnatic's counter-terrorist side proved to be too strong. Fnatic went on an 11 to 0 run and closed out the game 16-10. flusha lead all players with 27 kills and KRiMZ had 23. Damian "Furlan" Kisłowski of Vexed had 23 kills but it was not enough to take down the Swedes.

Luminosity Gaming vs. Cloud9

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Playing in its third consecutive major, the roster of Luminosity Gaming (LG) placed 5th place at the previous two majors. However, it rose very quickly ever since its debut on the international scene at ESL One Katowice 2015 and was the first South American team to play at the major. Cloud9 defeated Team ROCCAT and Team Dignitas to qualify for the major; the American team had consistently qualified for the major. The game was fairly close throughout the map. Despite being legends, LG only had 21% of Pick'Ems in its favor. LG took an early 5-0 lead before Cloud9 took its first round. In the seventh round, Cloud9 quickly took middle with three players but LG captain Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo took down Mike "shroud" Grzesiek to make it two players. Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir took down Marcelo "coldzera" David after coldzera missed a shot on him. Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert found Lucas "steel" Lopes but Fernando "fer" Alvarenga found Cloud9 captain Sean "seang@res" Gares to make it a 3 vs 3 situation. n0thing took down fer. Ricardo "boltz" Prass found Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham but was immediately traded out by n0thing. FalleN attempted to save his gun but fREAKAZOiD was able to take him down. Cloud9 made it 7-7 going into the last round of the half. In that round, coldzera picked off seang@res in middle but the rest of Cloud9 rushed towards the A bombsite and planted the bomb. coldzera found shroud, n0thing, and fREAKAZOiD and steel took down Skadoodle and LG maintained a one-round lead going into halftime. Cloud9 took the pistol round and then took its first lead at 11-8. LG was forced to have just pistols (comparatively much less optimal weapons) in the 20th round after losing a gun round. n0thing and Skadoodle killed boltz and coldzera, respectively but steel was able to take down shroud. fer then picked off n0thing while running towards the A bombsite but Skadoodle was able to trade him out. steel took shroud's rifle and was able to kill seang@ares and to make it a 2 vs 2 scenario. steel then took down fREAKAZOiD in the B bombiste and Skadoodle from the other side of the map and LG won the round despite investing nearly nothing into the round. From there, LG went on a seven-round win streak and took the game 16-11. coldzera had the most kills with 31, with the next closest being seang@res of Cloud9 at 20. LG would face Fnatic in the winner's match.

Cloud9 vs. Vexed Gaming

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The loser's match pitted Vexed Gaming and Cloud9. Cloud9 was the heavy favorite in this match. Cloud9 took an early 2-0 lead but Vexed was able to win an economy round to get the third round. The teams continued to trade round and Cloud9 took an 8–7 lead going into the second half. Vexed won the pistol round to tie the game at 8 and took the lead after Furlan's triple kill. Vexed extended its lead to 12–8. Cloud9 finally took a ninth round after shroud's three kills. Cloud9 was able close the gap to one round. In the 24th round, seang@res flashed and killed Hyper with a P90, a submachine gun that is considered to be worse than a rifle. However, still with the P90, the Cloud9 in game leader was able to mow down Furlan, rallen, and peet before being taken down by Dominik "GruBy" Świderski but shroud was able to trade him out and tie the game. Vexed was only able to just find one more round and Cloud9's defense held up and won 16-13. Hyper and Furlan had 21 kills each for Vexed, but shroud had 25 kills and fREAKAZOiD had 24. Vexed was eliminated from the tournament.

Fnatic vs. Luminosity Gaming

Casters: moses & Semmler

The defending champions went up against the Brazilian hope on Inferno. Fnatic was chosen by 99% of Pick'Em predictions, thus making the Swedes heavy favorites to win group A. Fnatic took the pistol round and another three rounds and was likely to take a fifth round as LG was limited to just pistols. flusha found steel through the smoke but coldzera took down Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer to make it even. FalleN managed to find two kills on JW and pronax before being traded out by KRiMZ. KRiMZ took down boltz and flusha spotted the two remaining LG players. However, coldzera found both Swedes and LG took its first round after defusing the bomb. Fnatic took a massive 7-2 lead before LG won five rounds in a row to tie the game at 7. Fnatic took the last round of the half and an 8-7 lead. Fnatic won the pistol round and the following round to make it 10-7. Fnatic went aggressive the following round and LG was able to punish the Swedish team for that and took the round. The two teams continued to trade rounds until LG took a 12-11 lead. In the 24th round, olofmeister pushed up onto the area called "Banana," the area between the terrorist spawn and the B bombsite. olofmeister only found one kill onto FalleN before being traded out by boltz. flusha attempted to retake the man advantage but fer was able to shut him down. boltz found pronax in Banana and the other two Fnatic members elected to back off and save their guns, giving LG a 13th round. Fnatic took a timeout and then tied the game at 13 rounds. LG was on a save and only had weak pistols and no kevlar armor. However, fer found pronax and rushed down to the A bombsite. steel found flusha and coldzera took down olofmeister trying to run him down. JW was overwhelmed and KRiMZ was forced to back off and save his gun. LG took the last three rounds of the game and upset the defending champions, 16-13. olofmeister had 25 kills and flusha had 24, but it fell short against coldzera's 26 kills and FalleN's 23 kills. LG picked up first seed, the biggest upset of the tournament, and a playoffs spot while Fnatic faced against Cloud9.

Fnatic vs. Cloud9

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Cloud9 started well after Skadoodle found three kills in the pistol round. Cloud9 took 3-0 but JW clutched a 1 vs 2 in the fourth round after with one bullet after n0thing and seang@res lined up. Fnatic proceeded to win five straight before Cloud9 won an economy round. Fnatic bit back and made it 9-4, cut Cloud9 took the last two rounds of the half to make it a close 9-6 game. The game be blown wide open after Fnatic put up a relentless offense and took seven straight and took the first map 16-6. In the second map on Overpass, Fnatic took an early 3-0 but Cloud9 took the first gun round. Cloud9 tied the game at 3. The two teams continued to trade rounds until Cloud9 burst out and took a 9-6 lead at the half. However, like the first map, Cloud9 struggled in the second half. Fnatic took the lead at 11-9 before Cloud9 picked up a first round. Cloud9 tied the game at 11 after fREAKAZOiD's triple kill. Cloud9 retook the lead at 12-11 but both teams were on very low money heading into the 24th round. In that round, olofmeister found the Cloud9 leader fairly early into the round. The remaining members of Cloud9 tried to push into the B bombsite, but pronax found shroud, n0thing, and Skadoodle and KRiMZ took down fREAKAZOiD and Fnatic broke the economy of Cloud9. Cloud9 could not get back to winning ways and Fnatic was able to obtain Legends status once again after taking down the American team 16-12. In the series, n0thing lead the way for Cloud9 with 35 kills and seang@res had 34, but KRiMZ had 44 kills and olofmeister had 39 kills as Fnatic made its way to the playoffs once again.

Group B

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Team SoloMid 2 0 32 12 +20 6
2 G2 Esports 2 1 69 61 +8 6
3 mousesports 1 2 61 71 -10 3
4 FlipSid3 Tactics 0 2 14 32 -18 0
Group B Matches
Team SoloMid 1 0 FlipSid3 Tactics
G2 Esports 1 0 mousesports
mousesports 1 0 FlipSid3 Tactics
Team SoloMid 1 0 G2 Esports
G2 Esports 2 1 mousesports
Group B Scores
Group B Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Team SoloMid 16 Cache 6 FlipSid3 Tactics
G2 Esports 16 Inferno 8 mousesports
mousesports 16 Overpass 8 FlipSid3 Tactics
Team SoloMid 16 Dust II 6 G2 Esports
G2 Esports 19 Mirage 16 mousesports
G2 Esports 12 Inferno 16 mousesports
G2 Esports 16 Cache 5 mousesports

Team SoloMid vs. FlipSid3 Tactics

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Group B began with the number one Danish team and the number one HLTV.org ranked team of Team SoloMid against a top Ukrainian team of FlipSid3 Tactics. Team SoloMid (TSM) continued being denied a spot in the finals after placing third at ESL One Cologne 2015 and lost to Team EnVyUs. FlipSid3 placed 9th at the previous major and defeated Copenhagen Wolves twice to reach the major. TSM jumped to a 1-0 lead after FlipSid3 were tricked into thinking the bomb was planted on the B bombsite when it was on the A bombsite due to a TSM decoy grenade and the TSM captain, Finn "karrigan" Andersen, clutching a 1 vs 2 against Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov. TSM then took a massive 9-0 lead before FlipSid3 would get its first round. The Ukrainian side would just get one more round in the first half and a 2-13 deficit. The second half was slightly better but TSM was able to close it out with a 16-6 victory. Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin had 23 kills for Flipsid3 and Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk had 17, but those were the only two players to have a positive kills to death differential for Flipsid3. Meanwhile, Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann had 24 kills and karrigan had 19 kills for TSM to have an easy way to the winner's match of Group B.

G2 Esports vs. mousesports

Casters: ddk & natu

The fourth match of the major pitted G2 Esports and mousesports. G2, then under the Team Kinguin banner, placed fifth at the previous major, losing to TSM in the quarterfinals. mousesports defeated Winterfox and Team Liquid to qualify for the major but has had a history of struggling at the majors, including 13th place at the last major. G2 started with a 3-0 lead, but mousesports was able to win the first gun round. However, G2 reset mousesports's economy by winning the following round. G2 then jumped to a 6-1 lead before mousesports obtained a second round. In the next round, G2 set up to take the A bombsite.

ChrisJ took down Håvard "rain" Nygaard but was traded out by Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad. Johannes "nex" Maget found Ricardo "fox" Pacheco as G2 was running into the bombsite. Denis "denis" Howell took down Dennis "dennis" Edman as the G2 player was attempting to plant the bomb, but denis was traded out by jkaem. Mikail "Maikelele" Bill took down nex to make it a 2 vs 2, but mousesports in-game leader Fatih "gob b" Dayik dropped down to trade him out. gob b then took down jkaem and mousesports avoided being reset. The German team was able to get to six rounds and was only in a three-round deficit heading into the second half. However, G2's defense appeared to outplay mousesport's offense and limited mousesports to just two rounds. G2 got the seven rounds it needed to win the game and took Inferno 16-8. gob b had 17 kills, but fox and dennis had 24 kills each. mousesports's star player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač only had 11 kills. G2 faced TSM in its next match.

mousesports vs. FlipSid3 Tactics

Casters: ddk & Fifflaren

mousesports and FlipSid3 Tactics both did not perform well in their respective matches. Both teams had a chance to redeem themselves on Overpass. mousesports started on the less favored side. However, FlipSid3 struggled again in the first half and the German team overran FlipSid3 and took a 12-3 lead into the halftime break. mousesports then easily closed it out with an additional four rounds despite FlipSid3 getting five rounds. Once again, WorldEdit showed up for his team with 22 kills and markeloff chimed in with 19, but the rest of their team did not, including the FlipSid3 captain Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy with just 8 kills. On the other side, NiKo and nex did well for their team with 27 kills each. mousesports would face the loser of TSM and G2. FlipSid3 was eliminated from the tournament.

Team SoloMid vs. G2 Esports

Casters: Anders Blume & Fifflaren

TSM and G2 struck to Dust II, historically a map TSM had innovated with its playstyle. TSM started well with a pistol round win and dupreeh found two kills in the second round. However, Maikelele was able to trade out dupreeh and René "cajunb" Borg to make it 2 vs 3 scenario. Maikelele and rain overwhelmed Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz behind them to even out the players. Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth killed rain trying to plant the bomb but Maikelele was able to trade him out. Maikelele was then able to win a duel against karrigan with just nine health points remaining and his ace won G2 the round. In the next round, with this time TSM on an economy round, the Danes were able to make it a 3 vs 3. Then in a 1 vs 1, jkaem attempted to take down dev1ce, who was on just four points of health and a pistol, and TSM set back G2. TSM jumped to a 6-1 lead before G2 found another. The half ended with a 10-5 lead for TSM. Although the halftime score was respectable for G2, TSM's offense in the second round proved to be relentless and went on a 7 to 1 run to win the game, 16-6. cajunb went big for his team with 24 kills and dupreeh had 21 kills. Everyone on G2 underperformed; Maikelele had 15 kills, but also had 16 deaths, to lead G2. G2 faced mousesports once again.

G2 Esports vs. mousesports

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Unlike the other games in Group B, this series had close games. The first game was on Mirage. The half ended with an 8-7 advantage for mousesports. However, the second half went 8-7 in the favor of G2, ending regulation in a 15-15 score. In overtime, G2 appeared to see through gob b's calls and stormed through the German team to take the game 19-16. NiKo went big with 35 kills and ChrisJ had 29, but Maikele's 34 and jkaem's 33 was able to help G2 push it over the edge for the win. The second game was on Inferno, the map mousesports was stomped on by G2 just two days earlier. mousesports appeared to learn from its past mistakes and NiKo showed up for his team with 24 kills and mousesports was able to win the map 16-12. fox was the only one on G2 to have a positive kill to death differential despite the game being close throughout. Cache was a different story in this series but was similar to the other matches in Group B – a blowout win. G2 had an 11 to 4 lead at the half and limited mousesports to just one round in the second half to win 16-5. It also stifled NiKo to just 10 kills. jkaem had 22 kills and rain had 21 kills to help G2 to the playoffs. Overall, NiKo had 69 kills and ChrisJ had 62 kills as the two non-Germans on the German team did well, but the rest of their team struggled. Meanwhile, jkaem had 74 kills and fox had 62 kills to lead G2 in the three game set. G2 entered the playoffs second place in its group and mousesports was eliminated.

Group C

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Virtus.pro 2 0 35 22 +13 6
2 Ninjas in Pyjamas 2 1 61 42 +19 6
3 Titan 1 2 38 61 -23 3
4 Team Liquid 0 2 26 35 -9 0
Group C Matches
Virtus.pro 1 0 Team Liquid
Ninjas in Pyjamas 0 1 Titan
Ninjas in Pyjamas 1 0 Team Liquid
Virtus.pro 1 0 Titan
Titan 0 2 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Group C Scores
Group C Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Virtus.pro 19 Cobblestone 15 Team Liquid
Ninjas in Pyjamas 13 Cobblestone 16 Titan
Ninjas in Pyjamas 16 Mirage 11 Team Liquid
Virtus.pro 16 Train 7 Titan
Titan 14 Cache 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Titan 1 Dust II 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Titan Overpass Ninjas in Pyjamas

Virtus.pro vs. Team Liquid

Casters: moses & Semmler

Virtus.pro was one of the few teams that had played in every major and made it to the playoffs the last six times. At the previous major, it placed third after defeating in the Ninjas in Pyjamas and losing to Fnatic, the eventual champions. Team Liquid defeated Renegades twice in the major qualifier to make it to Cluj-Napoca. 98% of Pick'Em predictions favored the Polish side in this game. The game took place on Cobblestone, a map in which Virtus.pro was widely known for and a map in which Team Liquid defeated Fnatic on. Virtus.pro (VP) took an early 3-0 lead after winning the pistol and the anti-economy rounds. Liquid tied the game back up at 3. In the seventh round, Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski caught Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella trying to jump in as a flashbang from a Liquid player popped and Paweł "byali" Bieliński took down Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski shortly after. pashaBiceps found Eric "adreN" Hoag through the edge of the smoke and spotted Spencer "Hiko" Martin but Hiko was finally able to put pashaBiceps down. Hiko then took down byali with about 37 seconds left in the round, but the teamwork of Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas took down Hiko and Jacob "FugLy" Medina and VP once again took the lead. Liquid was able to win the eighth round and reset VP's economy. Liquid then extended its lead to 8-4 before VP would pick up a fifth round. Each team took one round each afterwards and Liquid took a 9-6 lead into the half. The American squad started with a three-round winning streak in the second half and had a 12-6 lead. VP took three rounds for itself. Liquid won a 13th round. In the 23rd round, Liquid had just won the previous round but had a worse buy than VP and was in danger of being reset in its economy. VP committed to the A bombsite and the two teams traded kills. However, Snax and pashaBiceps quickly found two kills and then ELiGE was left in a 1 vs 3 and was forced to save his gun. The Polish veterans tied the score at 13 and then both teams reached 15 rounds to send the game to overtime. VP swept the overtime rounds and won the game 19-15. Snax had 34 kills and TaZ had 26 kills while ELiGE had 29 kills and FugLy had 24 for Liquid.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Titan

Casters: Anders Blume & Fifflaren

The second match of Group C pitted the Swedish powerhouse Ninjas in Pyjamas and the French and Belgian veterans in Titan. The Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) placed fifth at the previous major, losing to VP in the quarterfinals. Titan was also at the previous major, but was upset by the Renegades in the group stage. NiP was by far the favorite to win the match. However, Titan started with a strong 8-0 lead under the leadership of Titan's captain Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans and the fragging power of Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux. NiP finally got a round in the 9th round, but Titan's defense stayed strong and finished with a 13-2 halftime lead. All seemed over until NiP started mounting a comeback. In the 25th round, Titan had a limited buy while Ni{ had a full buy. Ex6TenZ found Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund fairly early and then the Titan leader found NiP's leader Richard "Xizt" Landström and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy took down Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg. Although Ex6tenz was taken down by Adam "friberg" Friberg, Richard "shox" Papillon took down Aleksi "allu" Jalli, essentially securing the round for Titan. NiP was able to take three more rounds, but Titan closed it out after Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom took down f0rest. f0rest lead the way for NiP with 21 kills but friberg struggled with 15 kills. Meanwhile, shox had 23 kills and three Titan players sat on 22 kills to secure the upset win. Titan went on to face VP.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Liquid

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Team Liquid nearly took down VP in the initial matches of the group stage while NiP was upset by Titan after being blown out in the first half of that game. Liquid started well after taking a 3-0 lead. In the first gun round, ELiGE found Xizt early into the round, but f0rest took down FugLy about 20 seconds later. f0rest then took down ELiGE but adreN was there to trade. friberg took down adreN in a duel and Hiko found allu, but friberg and GeT_RiGhT boxed in nitr0 and Hiko was left in a 1 vs 2. friberg took down Hiko on the A bombsite from middle and NiP took its first round. The Swedes then went on a 9 to 2 run and took home the first half 10-5. Liquid took the pistol round after nitr0 clutched it against GeT_RiGhT, who was defusing the bomb and needed less than one second more to complete the defuse and give NiP the round. Liquid got to 8 rounds heading into the 19th round. In that round, nitr0 entered the A bombsite and took down Xizt in the stairs position as allu failed to trade as the Finnish player missed a shot. ELiGE found f0rest and GeT_RiGhT traded the American player out. However, adreN was able to trade him out and FugLy found allu in the counter-terrorist spawn. friberg attempted to sneak in but nitr0 was waiting and Liquid won the important first gun round. The game was tied at 10 but Liquid failed to find much success after. NiP seemed to change its setups after game was tied at 11. The Swedes still had a chance at keeping its top eight hopes alive after taking the game 16-11. nitr0 had the best performance for Liquid with 22 kills while ELiGE and Hiko struggled with 14 and 11 kills, respectively. f0rest had 28 kills for NiP and Xizt had 25 while allu struggled with just 11 kills. NiP went on to face the loser of VP and Titan and Liquid was eliminated from the tournament.

Virtus.pro vs. Titan

Casters: moses & Sadokist

VP and Titan struck to Train, a map VP historically was famous for, especially on its terrorist side, the less favorable side on this map. VP elected to start on the counter-terrorist side. VP started with a 5-0 lead but Titan did close the gap by taking a round. However, VP took a round back to reset Titan's economy, but Titan won an economy round, setting back VP's economy. In the 9th round, pashaBiceps took down shox but SmithZz took down TaZ trying to get aggressive. Snax found ScreaM with a shotgun – a gun in which one needs to be very up close with in order to inflict good damage – and Ex6tenz had a chance to trade him out, but the Belgian player missed a flurry of shots and Snax was able to take him down. SmithZz was able to trade him out and Rpk took down Snax but byali took down SmithZz with just 13 seconds to go. VP captain Filip "NEO" Kubski inflicted lots of damage onto Rpk but the French player took him down from the other side of the map with 7 seconds to go. The clock ticked to zero and VP won the round, despite Rpk killing byali a second after the timer expired. Titan seemed to find its footing late into the half and brought the score to a close 9-6 disadvantage. However, VP showed why its terrorist side on the map was to be reckoned with as its offense took home 7 rounds and Titan was only able to find 1. VP moved on to the playoffs and Titan went on to face NiP in the decider series.

Titan vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

This series had two different storylines to it, all ending in the same result. The first game went to Cache, a map that NiP is considered to be one of the, if not the best, teams on. However, Titan put up a fight. NiP took down Titan for three rounds before Titan took a round after shox's four kills. Titan eventually took a 9-6 halftime lead. Titan then had a massive 7 round lead after winning the pistol and anti-economy rounds. In the 20th round, with Titan leading 13-6, NiP barely invested money into the round as it was saving money for the following round, thus making a 14th round very likely for the French side. However, Xizt brought down a low-health SmithZz and then followed onto shox before ScreaM took him down. Rpk brought down GeT_RiGhT and Titan executed towards the A bombsite. friberg took down ScreaM from the back of the bombsite and allu brought down Ex6tenz. Rpk traded allu, but f0rest took Rpk down and NiP picked up an important round. The game was eventually tied at 14 rounds. In the 29th round, NiP had GeT_RiGhT on a shotgun while Titan had rifles on every player. Xizt found shox with roughly a minute to go and allu took down SmithZz in a battle of the AWPs. allu then followed up on Ex6tenz and ScreaM. Rpk took down allu but friberg quickly traded him out. Titan was severely low on money the last round and NiP defense did not flounder and the Swedish team took the first map. Rpk, who was arguably the best Counter-Strike: Source player of all time, had 28 kills and shox had 32 kills, but it was not enough as SmithZz only had 11; on NiP, f0rest had 26 kills. The second map had Titan underperform heavily. NiP ran over the Frenchmen on Dust II and started with an 8-0 lead. Titan would take the 9th round, but that would be the only win it would get as NiP won nearly all exchanges and clutches. NiP won the game 16-1 after allu killed ScreaM and SmithZz. Rpk lead his team, but only with 10 kills as f0rest and allu lead NiP with 22 and 20 kills, respectively. GeT_RiGhT barely saw any action as he had 9 kills but only 4 deaths. Titan's captain, Ex6tenz, had one of the worst games in his career as he ended with just one kill while dying every single round. NiP moved on the playoffs and Titan was eliminated. This would be the last time Titan as a franchise would appear at a major as the organization ceased operations and let go of all its players on January 13, 2016, hours before its team was supposed to play in a US$200,000 tournament.[11] ScreaM, however, said the roster would stay together.[12] The roster is then acquired by G2 Esports after FaZe Clan bought out the old G2 roster.[13][14]

Group D

Pos Team W L RF RA RD Pts
1 Team EnVyUs 2 0 32 15 +17 6
2 Natus Vincere 2 1 67 61 +6 6
3 Counter Logic Gaming 1 2 61 72 -11 3
4 Team Dignitas 0 2 20 32 -12 0
Group D Matches
Team EnVyUs 1 0 Team Dignitas
Natus Vincere 1 0 Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming 1 0 Team Dignitas
Team EnVyUs 1 0 Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere 2 1 Counter Logic Gaming
Group D Scores
Group D Scores
Team Score Map Score Team
Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 6 Team Dignitas
Natus Vincere 16 Cobblestone 12 Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming 16 Cobblestone 14 Team Dignitas
Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 9 Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere 16 Train 9 Counter Logic Gaming
Natus Vincere 10 Cobblestone 16 Counter Logic Gaming
Natus Vincere 16 Inferno 8 Counter Logic Gaming

Team EnVyUs vs. Team Dignitas

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

The first match of Group D put together the best French team of Team EnVyUs and the second best Danish team of Team Dignitas. EnVyUs was a finalist at the last major after finishing first in its group after it defeated Flipsid3 Tactics and Luminosity Gaming and then defeated Natus Vincere and Team SoloMid in the playoffs and had a good lead against Fnatic in the first game of the final before blowing the lead and then being blown out in the second game. Dignitas defeated Team Immunity twice to qualify for the major. EnVyUs showed why it was a finalist at the last major. Dignitas began with a 3-0 lead and then EnVyUs tied it up at 3. The game was then tied at 5 with Dignitas coming off a win in the last round. In the 11th round, EnVyUs was limited to two rifles it saved from the last round and three pistols. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire went up middle to make a play with one of EnVyUs's rifles and found the Dignitas captain Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen but then was quickly traded by Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt then fired a headshot onto Philip "aizy" Aistrup with roughly 28 seconds left and then NBK- found Jacob "Pimp" Winneche through a wall. Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey took down Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski with ease and then cleaned up onto Kjaerbye, giving EnVyUs the round. The French team never looked back after that round and went on an 11 to 1 run from the 5-5 score to take the game 16-6. aizy lead all players with 22 kills, but the rest of Dignitas struggled, as Pimp and MSL were only at 5 kills by the end of the game. Meanwhile, kioShiMa and Vincent "Happy" Cervoni had 21 kills each.

Natus Vincere vs. Counter Logic Gaming

Casters: James Bardolph & natu

The last match of day one matched Natus Vincere and Counter Logic Gaming. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) defeated its opponent in this match at the previous major in the group stage but then fell to Team EnVyUs in the quarterfinals. Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) defeated Lounge Gaming and Flipsid3 Tactics at the Stockholm qualifier to make it to the major. Na'Vi was picked by 96% of Pick'Em predictions to defeat CLG. Na'Vi started the strong as it took 5-0 early lead and then an 11-4 lead into the half. In the second half, CLG took the pistol and the two anti-economy rounds. Na'Vi picked up the first gun round and then an anti-economy round to give the CIS team a 13-7 lead. In the 21st round, Na'Vi executed towards the B bombsite. Pujan "FNS" Mehta took down Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev while blinded by a flashbang and Tarik "tarik" Celik followed up onto Na'Vi's in-game leader Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko. tarik then took down Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács. Egor "flamie" Vasilyev was able to take down Steve "reltuC" Cutler but he and his teammate were in a 2 vs 4. CLG's star AWPer Josh "jdm64" Marzano killed Denis "seized" Kostin. tarik was taken down by a molotov, but jdm64 found flamie and CLG was able to keep its guns for the next round. CLG started a comeback and the score closed to 13-10 and then 14-12 after jdm64's 1 vs 2 clutch. However, Na'Vi was able to pull together for two rounds and it was able to take the map 16-12. GuardiaN, arguably the world's best AWPer at the time, had 26 kills top the scoreboard and flamie had 23 kills. jdm64 was the only one with a positive kill to death differential on CLG at 22-15 while James "hazed" Cobb struggled with just 11 kills. Na'Vi went on to face EnVyUS.

Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Dignitas

Casters: ddk & natu

The final loser's match pitted Dignitas and CLG. The game was played on Cobblestone again. The game was close throughout and predictions were fairly split, with CLG being favored at 58%. CLG started with a 4-0 lead and then a 7-1. However, Dignitas went on a 5-2 run to close the half and the game became a close 9-6 scoreline. tarik's four kills won CLG the important pistol round, but tenzki's two kills the following round won Dignitas its economy round, forcing CLG to go on a save. Dignitas was able to close the gap to one round at 10-9. However, CLG extended its lead to 14-9. Dignitas started bringing things back 14-14. CLG won the 29th round and got the match point first. In the 30th round, Dignitas started planning an execute towards the B bombsite. However, shortly after beginning the execute, tarik took down tenzki and jdm64 found two kills on Kjaerbye and MSL in the drop area of the map, which is between middle and the B bombsite. Pimp then took down tarik in the back of the bombsite but FNS found aizy trying to come out of the drop room. Pimp attempted to clutch, but hazed took him down and CLG won the game. aizy went big with 37 kills and Pimp and Kjaerbye had 20 kills, but their efforts fell short against FNS's 29 kills and tarik's and reltuC's 21 kills. CLG went on to face the loser of EnVyUs and Na'Vi and Dignitas was eliminated.

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere

Casters: James Bardolph & natu

For the first time in this group, a map did not strike to Cobblestone. Instead, it went to Mirage. Despite both teams being strong, EnVyUs was heavily favored to win. The French jumped to a 3-0 lead before Na'Vi tied the score at 3. The teams then traded another set of three rounds to make the score 6-6. Na'Vi took its first lead of the game after seized clutched the round against apEX but it was short lived as EnVyUs took the last two rounds of the half. EnVyUs stretched its lead to 11-7 going into the 19th round. In that round, the first gun round of the half, apEX went aggressive up middle and took down Edward and then followed up with a highly explosive grenade onto GuardiaN. flamie took down Happy but apEX quickly traded him out. apEX found his fourth kill on the round as he took down Zeus trying to look for more information. seized was able to find kioShiMa and apEX through a box. However, EnVyUs's AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub took seized down shortly after he planted the bomb and EnVyUs took the round. Na'Vi found little success in the half, only taking two rounds, as EnVyUs took the map 16-9. apEX lead all players with 24 kills, NBK- had 23, and kennyS had 22, while seized had 17 kills for Na'Vi. EnVyUs moved onto the playoffs and Na'Vi faced CLG.

Natus Vincere vs. Counter Logic Gaming

Casters: ddk & natu

The final set of the group stage displayed the American and the CIS teams of Group D. The first map was on Train, a strong Na'Vi map. Na'Vi started 5-0, but CLG was able to bring the score to 6-9. However, Na'Vi terrorist side stole the game away from CLG and won the map 16-9. seized lead all players with 23 kills and hazed was close by with 22 kills. On Cobblestone, the first half was very close. CLG had a decent lead, but Na'Vi was able to bring it back to 8-7 in its advantage. However, Na'Vi did not show the same defense it displayed it had earlier in the group stage as CLG went on a 9-2 run and closed the map 16-10. reltuC had 28 kills and tarik had 26 to lead CLG to victory while GuardiaN took down 24 for Na'Vi. The decider map was on Inferno. Na'Vi started with a 6-0 lead before CLG got one on the board. However, the American team would only find one more round in the first half and Na'Vi took a 13-2 lead. CLG slowly crawled back in the second half by taking 6 rounds, but it seemed too late as Na'Vi picked up the three rounds it needed to qualify for the playoffs. FNS had 19 kills and tarik had 18 for CLG, but seized's 29 and GuardiaN's and Zeus's 18 kills helped Na'Vi stride to victory. CLG was eliminated from the tournament.

Playoffs

Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
         
D1 Team EnVyUs 2
A2 Fnatic 1
D1 Team EnVyUs 2
B2 G2 Esports 1
C1 Virtus.pro 0
B2 G2 Esports 2
D1 Team EnVyUs 2
D2 Natus Vincere 0
B1 Team SoloMid 0
C2 Ninjas in Pyjamas 2
C2 Ninjas in Pyjamas 0
D2 Natus Vincere 2
A1 Luminosity Gaming 0
D2 Natus Vincere 2

Quarterfinals

Team EnVyUs vs. Fnatic

The Cologne 2015 grand finals took place in the quarterfinals, after Fnatic was upset by Luminosity Gaming in Group A, forcing the Swedes to play as a lower seed in the playoffs. Otherwise, Fnatic did not drop any other game in its group against Vexed Gaming and Cloud9. Meanwhile, EnVyUs had a rather easy route in Group D, defeating Team Dignitas and Natus Vincere.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

nV-Fnatic Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Fnatic BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Train Overpass Mirage Cobblestone Dust II Inferno Cache
Team EnVyUs BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

Fnatic landed on Mirage for its map choice. EnVyUs won the pistol round and the two anti-economy rounds. In the 4th round, flusha and KRiMZ were able to give Fnatic its first round after both got all five kills. In the 5th round, apEX was able to take down flusha and pronax near the terrorist spawn. JW brought down NBK-, but Fnatic was still down a man. Happy was able to take down olofmeister, who was trying to sneak into the B bombsite. The last two Fnatic members decided to go towards the B bombsite, and with ten seconds remaining kennyS took down KRiMZ dropping down and JW was forced to back off to save his gun. In the 7th round with EnVyUs leading 5-1, Fnatic was limited to very weak pistols. All five members then stormed into the B bombsite. NBK- was the only one on the site and he was only able to get one before being traded by JW. Happy missed a shot onto JW and olofmeister was able to punish him immediately with a stolen gun from NBK- for his first kill of the game. JW got another kill onto kioShiMa and Fnatic planted the bomb. olofmeister then found kennyS. apEX took down flusha but he was forced to back off in an attempt to save him gun. EnVyUs, however, was able to come back right away at the start of the 8th round, but Fnatic won a 2 vs 5 clutch to set back the French team's economy. The game was tight for the remainder of the first half and Fnatic had a one-round lead after 15 rounds. The second half started with a 7-1 Fnatic run to make it 15-8. EnVyUs took the 24th round. In the 25th round, both teams were on a full buy. JW rushed up middle and took down a jumping kioShiMa, but kennyS was able to trade right away. Happy then sneaked past a smoke grenade and took down KRiMZ. pronax took down Happy in the connector area, connects middle and the A bombsite, to make it a 3 vs 3 scenario. NBK- was taken down by olofmeister and flusha took down apEX trying to plant the bomb. kennyS picked off flusha and then olofmeister took down kennyS and Fnatic took the game 16-9. apEX and Happy each had 21 kills each but flusha had 27 kills to lead Fnatic to a win. olofmeister had 22 kills despite starting the game with 0 kills and 6 deaths.

EnVyUs chose Cobblestone, a map it played heavily at the major. EnVyUs started with a 4-0 lead, despite some of the rounds being somewhat close. Fnatic brought the score back to 4-2, but EnVyUs was able to win an economy round to make it 5-2. In the 9th round with EnVyUs leading 6-2, Happy was taken down by olofmeister through a smoke grenade. olofmeister then found apEX through the edge of the smoke but kioShiMa was able to trade after picking up Happy's AWP. kennyS then made things even after taking down flusha on the other side of the map. kioShiMa then took down JW partially through a box while blinded by a flashbang. pronax finally took down kioShiMa, but NBK- traded to put KRiMZ in a 1 vs 2 situation. KRiMZ won a duel against NBK- and then won the clutch by taking down kennyS to give Fnatic an important round. The two teams then traded three rounds each and EnVyUs took a 9-6 lead into the half. In the second half, EnVyUs's offense was able to override the Fnatic defense. EnVyUs started the half with a 6-0 run before Fnatic got on the board in the second half. The Swedes were able to pick up two more rounds, but they would get stifled in the end and EnVyUs tied the series 1-1. NBK-, kioShiMa, and kennyS all had 23 kills each while olofmeister lead his team with 20 kills.

The third map headed to Cache to determine which team goes through to the semifinals. EnVyUs aimed to look for its first title while Fnatic aimed to win its third straight major title. EnVyUs took a 5-0 lead to start the game, but Fnatic dominated the 6th round to take its first round. pronax then called for a timeout with EnVyUs leading 8-1. In the first gun round after the timeout, apEX started off by taking down flusha, but was immediately traded by KRiMZ. NBK- pushed towards KRiMZ and took him down so that EnVyUs could regain the man advantage. pronax was able to take down kennyS as EnVyUs was taking over the B bombsite, and the Fnatic captain was blinded and taken down by kioShiMa. The remaining Fnatic members backed off to save their guns, but Happy took down JW and olofmeister to deny the saved rifles. Fnatic was able to take one more round, but the half belonged to EnVyUs and took a 13-2 lead, despite starting on the less favored side. EnVyUs continued to roll and won three straight rounds to send the French to the semifinals. Happy had 20 kills and NBK- had 19 kills to lead all players while nobody on Fnatic was in the double digits in terms of kills. The number one ranked player of 2015, olofmeister was at the bottom of the scoreboard with just three kills. EnVyUs went on to face the winner of Virtus.pro and G2 Esports and Fnatic was eliminated.

Team EnVyUs vs. Fnatic
Team Score Map Score Team
Team EnVyUs 9 Mirage 16 Fnatic
Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 9 Fnatic
Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 2 Fnatic

Virtus.pro vs. G2 Esports

Virtus.pro had to squeak by Team Liquid in the initial matches of the major but jumped back to form with a dominant win over Titan. Meanwhile, G2 Esports had a strong win against mousesports but fell to Team SoloMid. However, it was able to take the best of three series in a rematch against the German team to qualify for the playoffs. 98% of Pick'Em predictions had the Poles winning the series.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

VP-G2 Vetoes
Map Vetoes
G2 Esports BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Cobblestone Dust II Cache Train Overpass Inferno Mirage
Virtus.pro BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

The first map struck to Cache, a map G2 was known for. VP started on the counter-terrorist side. On the pistol round, G2 was getting ready for a push towards the A bombsite, but Snax was flanking to get information to his team that G2 was for sure executing towards A. However, what could have been multiple kills ended up only being one as Snax only found fox before the rest of G2 realized what was going on and turned around to kill him. TaZ was able to take rain down as G2 was running towards the bombsite but Maikelele traded him out. NEO was able to get to on dennis and jkaem and Maikelele took down pashaBiceps, but byali was able to trade him out to give VP a 1-0 lead. VP then took a 4-0 lead before G2 took a round. G2 tied the game at 4 and VP was forced to go on a save round. In the 11th round, with the score tied at 5, NEO took down rain trying to get information in the A bombsite, but jkaem took down TaZ shortly after. pashaBiceps found dennis on a boost and NEO killed fox afterwards. jkaem took down Snax through a wall and pashaBiceps was unable to find the kill onto Maikelele, letting jkaem kill him after the Polish player ran out of bullets. Maikelele then heard byali running into the bombsite and G2 was able to retake the lead at 6-5. G2 took two more rounds to make it 8-5, but VP won an economy round and then the last round of the half after Snax's two kills with the Desert Eagle and then 4 kills the following round with the AK-47 to make it a one-round game. G2 started the second half well by winning the first two rounds, but VP came back to win the next round. In the 22nd round with G2 leading 12-9, VP went aggressive up middle and Snax was able to take down rain. dennis took down TaZ in the middle of the firefight but Snax was able to trade. pashaBiceps took down Maikelele in middle, but jkaem jumped through a smoke grenade and took down Snax and NEO; while pashaBiceps was focused on jkaem, fox was able to come through the back and shoot him down, suddenly turning a 2-man disadvantage into a 1-man advantage for G2. byalii was at the A bombsite and had to retrieve the bomb, but the two G2 players were waiting. While able to bring down fox byali ran out of bullets and jkaem took advantage and gave G2 a crucial win. Later in the game, G2 lead 15-10 in the 26th round. There, both teams had ideal weapons but VP was short on grenades. VP pushed towards the Checkers area, which is directly across the B bombsite and pashaBiceps caught an unaware dennis. However, rain was able to trade as pashaBiceps attempted to acquire more information. VP started executing towards the B bombsite but fox and jkaem took down TaZ and Snax, respectively. byali was able to take down fox but jkaem spotted NEO and took him down. jkaem then followed up onto byali and G2 took the map. jkaem had 32 kills and rain had 21, while Snax had 30 for VP.

The next map was on Train, a map in which VP was considered to be the best at. G2 started with a 3-0 lead and then a 6-1 lead despite many considering VP's terrorist side to be strong. G2 had a 6-2 lead in the 9th round and had a chance to break VP's economy. VP executed towards the B bombsite. fox went aggressive and was able to catch byali off guard. and rain was able to take down Snax shortly after as he went aggressive on a different part of the map. NEO then decided to push into the B bombsite himself but Maikelele was waiting and the G2 player won the duel in the battle of the two captains. pashaBiceps was able to trade but the Poles were still in a 2 vs 4 disadvantage. fox then caught TaZ through the edge of a train and pashaBiceps missed his spray on rain and G2 once again broke the economy of VP. G2 then went up to 9 rounds, but VP was able to take the last 4 rounds before the half ended, giving them a decent chance to take the game. After the 26th round, VP managed to tie the game at 13. VP then took its first lead of the game at 14-13 after pashaBiceps's two kills. VP then was on match point at 15-13 and G2 had a very limited buy, which included three pistols. G2 started towards the B bombsite and dennis was able to take down TaZ with one of the two rifles G2 had. jkaem then took down NEO and fox followed up onto Snax. byali took down two, but Maikelele and dennis were able to clean up. G2 then forced overtime with the help of jkaem's two kills in the final round. The two teams traded one overtime round each in the first overtime half and TaZ's three kills helped VP take a one-round lead heading into the second overtime. G2 proceeded to take two terrorist rounds and had the lead once again at 18-17. In the final round of the first overtime, VP had four rifles but NEO was forced onto a pistol. fox found an early kill on byali and then hit a flick onto pashaBiceps. Snax was able to take down rain in the back of the A bombsite but jkaem quickly traded. jkaem lost a duel against NEO despite the VP leader only having a pistol but fox was able to pick him off midair as NEO was attempting to enter the site. TaZ tried to sneak his way through but fox held his ground and the Portuguese AWPer clinched the series for G2 and the huge upset. jkaem maintained his firepower from the last map with 30 kills, but fox topped the scoreboard with 32 kills. NEO and pashaBiceps had 28 kills each for VP, but it was not enough to take it over the line. G2 went on to face Team EnVyUs and VP was eliminated.

Virtus.pro vs. G2 Esports
Team Score Map Score Team
Virtus.pro 10 Cache 16 G2 Esports
Virtus.pro 17 Train 19 G2 Esports
Virtus.pro Mirage G2 Esports

Team SoloMid vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Team SoloMid had an easy time in the group stage, defeating both FlipSid3 Tactics and G2 Esports 16-6. However, the Danes never made it past a semifinals majors, but recent success at other tournaments had them favorites to win their first major. Ninjas in Pyjamas had one major in its hands and many second-place finishes. The Swedes fell early to Titan in the group stage, but defeated Liquid and Titan in a best of three to retain its Legends status. 83% of Pick'Em predictions had TSM winning the best of three.

Casters: Anders Blume & moses

TSM-NiP Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Team SoloMid BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Cobblestone Overpass Train Dust II Mirage Cache Inferno
Ninjas in Pyjamas BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

TSM chose Train as its map pick. NiP started with an early 3-0 lead. In the first gun round, dupreeh went aggressive into the upper part of the B bombsite and tacked on a lot of damage onto GeT_RiGhT and cajunb was able to finish him off. However, Xizt was able to take down karrigan in the A bombsite, but TSM already took over the B bombsite and was able to plant the bomb. f0rest brought down dupreeh trying to go through a smoke grenade and friberg was able to take down dev1ce. allu then followed up onto cajunb. Xyp9x was able to trade allu, but the rest of NiP was able to swarm him, take him down, and defuse the bomb. In the tenth round, with NiP leading 7-2 and TSM just having won a round, it started off with dupreeh peeking wide and taking down the NiP in game leader Xizt. friberg then ran into cajunb's spray. dupreeh fell to f0rest, but dev1ce was able to trade. GeT_RiGhT made it a 2 vs 3 situation and then karrigan took down allu after the Finn missed a shot on cajunb. GeT_RiGhT was forced to save his gun and TSM avoided being reset and forced NiP onto a save round. NiP proceeded to get to ten rounds while TSM only got to four. In the last round of the first half, TSM needed to win the round to avoid an 11-4 scoreline. Xizt took down Xyp9x and karrigan took down f0rest, but then Xizt followed up onto dupreeh to give NiP a one-man advantage. friberg spotted and killed dev1ce and karrigan brought down Xizt with a pistol in the duel of the two captains. allu then took down cajunb leaving karrigan in a 1 vs 3. karrigan rushed down allu and took allu's AWP, but with just 12 health points. karrigan was able to take down GeT_RiGhT. In a 1 vs 1 against friberg, karrigan went around the map to enter through the back of the A bombsite; he then spotted friberg trying to sneak his way in, planted the bomb, and then easily took down friberg to pull of the clutch. In the next half, TSM took the first three rounds. In the first gun round of the second half, dev1ce found friberg jumping through a smoke grenade, but GeT_RiGhT made things even after bringing down dupreeh. karrigan was able to sneak up on allu before being traded by Xizt, but cajunb took down f0rest. GeT_RiGhT was able to get the bomb planted and Xizt punished cajunb for missing a shot. Xyp9x took down GeT_RiGhT and dev1ce found Xizt and TSM defused the bomb to make it a one-round game. However, NiP was only on pistols the next round and was able to win the round after friberg's three kills. TSM then fell behind 10-15 going into the 26th round. There, the Danish team was limited to just pistols. karrigan took down allu, but GeT_RiGhT was able to trade immediately. f0rest followed onto dupreeh after dupreeh attempted to backstab Xizt. friberg then peeked out onto the A bombsite and took down an unaware dev1ce, but cajunb was able to trade. GeT_RiGhT then traded cajunb from the opposite end of the bombsite and then took down Xyp9x and NiP took game one. karrigan lead his team with 20 kills and dupreeh had 18 kills, but friberg had 27 kills and Xizt had 20 kills to lead NiP.

The next map was Dust II. TSM started well with a 2-0 lead, but NiP stormed back with 7 straight rounds. In the 10th round, cajunb caught a peeking f0rest, but GeT_RiGhT was able to trade. dupreeh took down Xizt to give TSM an advantage but the bomb was planted. allu jumped onto a box and took down Xyp9x and then friberg followed up with a double kill onto dupreeh and dev1ce. GeT_RiGhT was able to take down karrigan from the A Long area and NiP won the round. In the last round of the first half, with NiP leading 11-3, TSM was limited to just four pistols and one rifle with cajunb. dev1ce took down friberg and followed up onto GeT_RiGhT Xyp9x then found Xizt near the middle area and then took down allu trying to retrieve the dropped bomb by Xizt. f0rest was able to get one on cajunb but Xyp9x immediately traded with allu's AWP And TSM avoided a disastrous 12-3 halftime score. NiP started the second half strong after taking the first three rounds to put itself two rounds away from eliminating the number one team in the world. TSM answered back by taking four rounds to make it 14-8. In the 23rd round, executed towards the B bombsite with four players going towards middle to B. karrigan took down f0rest with 58 seconds remaining in the round. GeT_RiGht caught out cajunb trying to enter the B bombsite and then quickly turned around to catch out dupreeh. GeT_RiGhT then took down karrigan while Xyp9x took down Xizt and then GeT_RiGhT. Xyp9x planted the bomb, but allu quickly came in to take him down. dev1ce was able to trade, but now friberg knew where he was and won the duel with 12 health points remaining and defused the bomb to give NiP match point. In the next round, allu took down dev1ce early in the round in middle. As TSM was using its grenades to block off or gain information, GeT_RiGhT lurked through the B tunnels, which leads to the back entrance of the B bombsite and then up middle to catch out cajunb and quickly fell back afterwards. GeT_RiGhT then took down karrigan in the door entrance, which is the entrance when coming up the middle area, of the B bombsite, Xyp9x, however, had a double kill on f0rest and GeT_RiGhT and the B bombsite was open for TSM. However, friberg spotted Xyp9x jumping through a smoke and sprayed through it and took him down. Xizt then came out of the tunnels area and took down dupreeh and NiP pulled off an upset win against the favorites. Xyp9x had 19 kills and cajunb had 17 kills, but it was not enough as karrigan only had 9 kills for TSM. GeT_RiGhT had 28 kills and friberg stayed strong from the last map and had 19 kills. NiP went on the face the winner of Luminosity Gaming and Natus Vincere.

Team SoloMid vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team Score Map Score Team
Team SoloMid 10 Train 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team SoloMid 8 Dust II 16 Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team SoloMid Inferno Ninjas in Pyjamas

Luminosity Gaming vs. Natus Vincere

Luminosity Gaming had wins over Cloud9 and Fnatic in the group stage, despite being underdogs in both matches, including with only 1% of Pick'Em predictions choosing the Brazilians to defeat Fnatic, the defending champions and the most decorated CS:GO team. Natus Vincere defeated Counter Logic Gaming in a best of one and a best of three set, but lost to Team EnVyUs in the process. Na'Vi and LG both never made it past a quarterfinals in a major tournament prior to this major.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

LG-Na'Vi Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Luminosity Gaming BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Train Cache Dust II Overpass Mirage Cobblestone Inferno
Natus Vincere BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

The first game started off on Dust II, LG's choice. Na'Vi started off by winning the pistol round, but LG won an economy round to tie the score at 1. However, on Na'Vi's economy round the next round, GuardiaN's three kills and seized's two kills allowed Na'Vi to regain the lead at 2-1. LG failed to tie it up again on another economy round and Na'Vi took a 3-1 lead. In the 8th round with Na'Vi leading 5-2, both teams had guns, with LG on slightly more inferior rifles. seized brought down steel near the B bombsite early. Zeus sneaked up near the terrorist spawn and had a chance to take down two LG players, but fer was able to quickly lock on and take him down. boltz took down Edward trying to take over the long area, but GuardiaN was able to take down FalleN from the opposite side of the map. LG ran to the A bombsite and a hiding flamie was able to kill coldzera before being traded by fer. GuardiaN walked through a smoke grenade and took down boltz; he then spotted fer on the A bombsite but missed a shot and fer was able to quickly rebound a shot of his own onto GuardiaN's head to make it a 1 vs 1. fer proceeded to plant the bomb and then swiftly took down seized playing on the catwalk position and fer pulled LG's round gap closer. Na'Vi was able to pull together and take a 7-3 lead. In the 11th round, GuardiaN and Zeus took down coldzera and boltz, respectively, and flamie followed up on FalleN after Zeus took down steel. fer was able to catch Zeus and Edward and then punished GuardiaN after the Slovakian missed a shot. With about ten seconds left, fer was able to take down flamie from middle to near the A bombsite and seized had to back off in order for the time to expire so his team could take the round. However, fer attempted to go for seized, but with one second left, seized saved the round for his team. Na'Vi was able to take one more round, but LG took three rounds and the halftime score was 9-6 in favor of Na'Vi. LG took the second half pistol. In the 17th round, GuardiaN took out steel on the B bombsite with roughly one minute and ten seconds to go and Edward toppled fer in the A long area. coldzera jumped and took down Zeus on the short area, which is in the middle area that leads to the A bombsite. boltz found flamie on the catwalk area, which connects the A bombsite and the short area, but Edward traded. coldzera took down seized. After the bomb was planted, coldzera hit another jump shot onto GuardiaN with his submachine gun. Edward then tacked on damage onto coldzera to bring him down to one health point and then quickly turned to take out FalleN, but coldzera was able to hit a headshot onto Edward and defuse the bomb. Na'Vi then went back on guns and proceeded to take three rounds. In the 21st round, with both teams on guns, but LG limited on utility, FalleN was able to take down GuardiaN early in the battle of the two AWPers but flamie was able to trade. fer pushed up in the long doors area and caught out Edward. fer then went more aggressive and pushed to the short area and took down seized. flamie was able to trade, but coldzera took down the remaining players and LG denied Na'Vi of a valuable 13th round. LG was immediately reset afterwards. In the 28th round, with LG bringing it back to 13-14, Na'Vi was limited to four pistols and an AWP on GuardiaN. The Na'Vi AWPer took down steel and flamie rushed down boltz. GuardiaN followed up on coldzera, but FalleN flicked onto flamie and fer took out Zeus. Then the teamwork of GuardiaN and Edward was able to take down the remaining LG players and Na'Vi got to match point. LG, however, was able to take the 29th round and the game headed to the last round of regulation. With roughly 40 seconds to go, coldzera took down flamie and GuardiaN traded. seized then took down steel. FalleN took down GuardiaN but Zeus sneaked through a smoke grenade and traded. He then took down boltz through the edge of a box. fer was able to find him, but Edward got the final kill and Na'Vi was able to take map 1. fer lead LG with 31 kills while the rest of LG did not perform up to par, especially with FalleN just on 10 kills. GuardiaN lead all players with 36 kills and flamie had 24 kills to lead Na'Vi to the win.

LG started with a 5-0 lead, but Na'Vi was able to bring it back to 5-6. In the 12th round, GuardiaN spotted a sliver of FalleN and was able to take him down from the long position of Overpass. boltz was abel to even things out with a kill on Edward while steel took out flamie on the B bombsite. Zeus took down boltz as the bomb was headed to the A bombsite. Zeus then followed up onto fer as Na'Vi was running into the bombsite. coldzera took down flamie, who just planted the bomb for Na'Vi, and then pulled out his pistol to follow up onto Zeus. GuardiaN was able to trade right after but missed a shot on steel and the Brazilian was able to punish him for the missed shot and took him down and defused the bomb to maintain LG's lead. LG took two more rounds to make it 9-5 before Na'Vi took the last round of the half. LG started with a second half pistol round win, but Na'Vi answered back and took three rounds to make it a one-round deficit. In the 20th round, steel took down Zeus early to start off the round. boltz followed up seized but flamie traded. steel nearly had an opportunity to take down two Na'Vi players after sneaking up on them, but a missed spray onto GuardiaN allowed the Na'Vi AWPer to pull out his pistol and take down steel. In the meantime, fer took down flamie as the two Na'Vi players attempted the retake after the bomb was planted for LG. Edward took down fer. coldzera took down Edward and then FalleN caught GuardiaN trying to save his AWP and LG took its 11th round. Na'Vi eventually tied the game at 11 and then took its first lead at 12-11. In the 25th round with Na'Vi leading 13-11, GuardiaN took down LG's captain FalleN early but boltz traded out flamie. Edward the pushed up the long area to find coldzera and seized took down boltz. fer was able to take down GuardiaN but fell short against seized and then Edward denied steel planting the bomb and Na'Vi took 14 rounds. LG took the next round, but Na'Vi got to match point after. LG then took another round. In the 29th round, fer attempted to go aggressive but GuardiaN picked him off in the connector area, which leads to the B bombsite and the middle area. Edward followed up on FalleN. As steel traded out Edward, Zeus caught out boltz. coldzera took down flamie but Zeus was able to trade. Zeus finished off the series by taking out steel with fifteen seconds left and Na'Vi defeated LG in two close maps. flamie lead all players with 24 kills and Zeus had 23 kills with Edward and GuardiaN both on 20 kills. boltz lead LG with 23 kills and fer had 20 kills. Na'Vi went on to play the Ninjas in Pyjamas in the semifinals.

Luminosity Gaming vs. Natus Vincere
Team Score Map Score Team
Luminosity Gaming 14 Dust II 16 Natus Vincere
Luminosity Gaming 13 Overpass 16 Natus Vincere
Luminosity Gaming Inferno Natus Vincere

Semifinals

Team EnVyUs vs. G2 Esports

EnVyUs had revenge against Fnatic after the Swedish team took down the French at last year's grand finals. With Fnatic out of the way, EnVyUs appeared to be the frontrunners to win the major. Meanwhile, G2 pulled off a massive upset against Virtus.pro, sweeping the series 2-0 and the multinational European team appeared to have the ability to take down the French powerhouse. G2 looked to pull another upset as only 3% of Pick'Em predictions had the team defeating the runners-up of the last major.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

nV-G2 Vetoes
Map Vetoes
G2 Esports BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Cobblestone Overpass Dust II Inferno Mirage Train Cache
Team EnVyUs BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

G2 chose Dust II as its first map. G2 started with a pistol round win but EnVyUs won the second round. The French team proceeded to win two more rounds and G2 won the fifth round after Maikelele's 1 vs. 2 clutch. In the sixth round, both teams had very similar buys, with one players from each team on a pistol. rain was found fairly early buy kennyS's AWP, but with about a minute left dennis and jkaem took down apEX and Happy respectively. dennis then took down kioShiMa and NBK- was caught by jkaem as he tried to go through the smoke for a kill. kennyS then backed off as G2 planted the bomb, but dennis and Maikelele hunted him down and the game was tied at 3. The two teams continued to trade rounds until G2 had a three-round lead going into the 14th round. As G2 was pushing up the middle area, apEX was hiding behind a smoke and took down jkaem and rain before dennis could turn around to find him. kennyS then took down dennis near the B bombsite and then followed up on Maikelele and then fox with the help of kioShiMa to close the gap. EnVyUs won the 15th round and the score was an 8-7 lead for G2 at the half. G2 cleanly took the pistol round and the two anti-economy rounds to take an 11-7 lead. In the 19th round, EnVyUs went up middle with about a minute left. fox missed a shot onto kennyS from the catwalk position, but soon dropped to the counter-terrorist spawn and picked off apEX. dennis was able to take down NBK-, but kioShiMa was able to enter the B bombsite after taking down rain. dennis then reentered the bombsite and found two quick kills onto kioShiMa and kennyS. Happy was able to take back a kill onto Maikelele in the duel between the two in game leaders, but fox was able to stop him and G2 got a 12th round. In the 22nd round with G2 leading 14-7, kennyS found jkaem through a box, but Maikelele and dennis took down apEX, Happy, and kioShiMa before fox was killed by NBK-. NBK- then followed up onto Maikelele to make it a 2 vs 2. NBK-'s third kill onto rain and kennyS catching a jumping dennis secure EnVyUs's first round of the half. The Frenchmen were able to take two more rounds before G2 got to 15. In the 26th round, EnVyUs executed towards the B bombsite with all its players coming from the upper tunnels area. NBK- entered and took down a blind rain but dennis was able to trade. Happy took down Maikelele with his pistol but dennis again traded with kennyS. The standing Swede then suddenly found two more kills onto apEX and kioShiMa. Happy was able to relent and took down jkaem and fox in middle to make it a 1 vs. 1. The two found each other with Happy in middle and dennis on the B bombsite and dennis was able to win the duel to secure an ace and Dust II for G2. Happy had 22 kills to lead the French, but jkaem had 27 and dennis had 26 to lead the multinational European team.

The second map turned out to be one of the longest games in major history. The two teams traded three rounds each to start the game. In the 15th round, with EnVyUs leading 8-6, fox found an early kill onto NBK-, who was trying to look over the smoke to spot any enemies. kennyS traded fox out after the Portuguese player missed a shot and then followed up onto jkaem. He then caught dennis jumping into the bombsite and apEX took down rain. Maikelele was able to trade but Happy was also there to trade and EnVyUs took a 9-6 lead into the half. The 19th round, with the French leading 11-7, started with kennyS missing a flurry of shots before a flashed Maikelele took his down as G2 was heading to the A bombsite. kioShiMa traded the G2 leader out and Happy sneaked up behind G2 and took down dennis and jkaem as apEX took down fox, leaving rain in ai 1 vs 4. With roughly 40 seconds left, rain found kioShiMa and apEX in quick succession to make it a 1 vs 2. He then picked up the bomb and planted it, but not before Happy sprayed through the smoke to tag him down to 46 health points. rain then won a duel against NBK- and then clutched the round for G2 against Happy. EnVyUs got to match point first at 15-13, but G2 was able to take the last two rounds to send the game to overtime. In the first overtime, both team won two counter-terrorist rounds and one terrorist rounds. G2 took an early overtime lead, but EnVyUs brought it back to 21-20. In the following round, Happy and NBK- were able to take down fox, rain, and jkaem before dennis took down the two players. Maikelele got stuck in his position as kennyS's incendiary grenade burned him and apEX followed up onto dennis and the game headed to triple overtime. EnVyUs then put G2 in its place and swept the third overtime 4-0 and won the game 25-21. Happy lead all players with 44 kills while NBK- had 35 kills and kennyS had 34 kills. fox also had a massive game with 40 kills but was the only player on his team to finish with a positive kill to death differential.

The third map was Cache, a map both teams were considered to be strong on. However, EnVyUs eventually jumped to 3-0 lead and then a 7-3 lead. In the 11th round, after G2 just won a round, rain jumped through and took down Happy who was on a box. NBK- took down Maikelele but dennis was able to trade. apEX sneaked up and took down rain and then followed up onto jkaem. Then EnVyUs entry fragger then took down fox before dennis was finally able to shut him and kioShiMa down. kennyS traded him out and G2's economy was reset. In the final round of the first half with EnVyUs leading 10-4 after a kioShiMa clutch, the said player got two early frags onto Maikelele and dennis in middle. Happy took down jkaem on the A bombsite and kioShiMa followed up onto fox. EnVyUs looked like it was going to have a substantial lead going into the second half since rain was against five. rain took down Happy in middle and then took down kioShiMa in the checkers area. He then was able to track down a flanking kennyS and then NBK- from the same position as kennyS to suddenly make it a 1 vs 1. rain then faked going to the A bombsite and then was able to take down apEX back on the B bombsite and rain pulled off a 1 vs 5 clutch to take a manageable 5-10 disadvantage into the second half. After the two teams traded one round each, EnVyUs went on a run and took a 15-6 lead. G2 found one more round to make it 16-7. In the 23rd round, EnVyUs went to the A bombsite. Maikelele took down apEX but was traded by kennyS. Happy then sneaked up onto G2 in middle and rook down dennis and rain. and the followed up onto jkaem. fox was able to take down NBK-, but Happy immediately traded and EnVyUs was headed to another finals. apEX had 25 kills and kennyS had 23 kills while dennis lead his team with 19 kills. EnVyUs went on to face off the winner of Na'Vi and NiP and G2 was eliminated.

Team EnVyUs vs. G2 Esports
Team Score Map Score Team
Team EnVyUs 10 Dust II 16 G2 Esports
Team EnVyUs 25 Inferno 21 G2 Esports
Team EnVyUs 16 Cache 7 G2 Esports

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Natus Vincere

The Ninjas in Pyjamas, like G2 Esports, pulled off an upset against one of the favorites and the number one team in the world coming into the tournament, Team SoloMid. Natus Vincere had to squeeze by Luminosity Gaming, which was ranked second to last on the HLTV.org's rankings as the Brazilians had not attended many events leading up to the major. With the top three teams taken out in the quarterfinals (TSM, Fnatic, Virtus.pro), both of these teams had a chance to take the major. 81% of Pick'Em predictions favored the Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

NiP-Na'Vi Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Ninjas in Pyjamas BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Cache Overpass Train Dust II Mirage Cobblestone Inferno
Natus Vincere BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

NiP chose Train to start the second semifinals. Na'Vi started with a 7-0 lead as it started on the terrorist side. In the 8th round, flamie took down f0rest from the Ivy area, which connects the long area and the A bombsite but GeT_RiGhT was able to trade out Zeus near the B bombsite. However, as GeT_RiGhT attempted to escape safely, GuardiaN was able to pick him off. Xizt then pushed up near the terrorist spawn and caught a retreating GuardiaN off guard. However, the remaining three players of Na'Vi all pushed together and picked off friberg but allu was able to trade off seized. flamie took down Xizt but allu caught Edward looking the wrong way. allu then caught flamie trying to retrieve the bomb and NiP finally got its first round. In the 14th round with Na'Vi up 10-3, Zeus entered the B bombsite with a spraydown on GeT_RiGhT but allu was able to trade after Na'Vi planted the bomb. flamie took down friberg and then followed up onto f0rest before allu traded. Xizt then took down GuardiaN with an auto sniper but seized went around NiP and took down Xizt. Edward then took down allu with assistance from seized and Na'Vi took the 14th round. The CIS team won the 15th round and took a 12-3 lead. It continued to assert dominance as it acquired 4 straight rounds to take the first map convincingly 16-3. GuardiaN and flamie each had 26 kills while the best player on NiP was allu with just 13 kills.

Next was Na'Vi map choice, Dust II. Na'Vi took an early 5-0 lead. In the 6th round, NiP let the clock run down to about 25 seconds before executing its plans. friberg attempted to flash his way from the catwalk area and drop to the counter-terrorist spawn, but seized was waiting and took his down. However, f0rest was able to trade from middle and NiP ran towards the B bombsite. While GeT_RiGhT was able to take down Zeus, flamie took down f0rest and allu from middle and GuardiaN took down Xizt from the upper tunnels area. GeT_RiGhT eventually fell to Edward and NiP's struggles from the first map continued. Na'Vi had an 11-4 halftime lead. In the second half pistol round, Edward caught allu in the long area and Zeus took down Xizt. GeT_RiGhT brought it back by finding two quick kills onto Zeus and GuardiaN on the short area. flamie ran to the B bombsite and took down friberg on the way there after friberg missed a flurry of shots and GeT_RiGhT took down Edward after Edward missed a flurry of shots. GeT_RighT then heard the bomb being planted by flamie but was able to take down the Russian player and f0rest took down seized in middle and the two NiP veterans clutched the round for the Swedish team. However, Na'Vi answered back and then took a 14-5 lead. In the 20th round, Edward took down friberg as three Na'Vi players were coming from the long area. GuardiaN then took down Xizt but allu was hiding in a smoke on long and took down flamie and followed up on seized after seized took down f0rest. GuardiaN then quickly scoped in onto the FInnish player and took his down and Na'Vi was in a 3 vs 1. GuardiaN then took down GeT_RiGhT on the catwalk position and Na'Vi was on match and series point. NiP was able to win an economy round, but the CIS team closed the game out 16-6. f0rest lead his team with 14 kills, but GuardiaN and Zeus had 23 kills each to lead Na'Vi to a dominant victory over NiP. Na'Vi went on to face EnVyUs and NiP was eliminated.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Natus Vincere
Team Score Map Score Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas 3 Train 16 Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas 6 Dust II 16 Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas Inferno Natus Vincere

Finals

Team EnVyUs had to struggle through G2 Esports, which had a surprising run in the tournament, after the French team lost the first map fairly convincingly and nearly was eliminated from the tournament in the second map before pulling together and taking Cache. Meanwhile, Natus Vincere plowed past Ninjas in Pyjamas as NiP only compiled 9 rounds through two maps. EnVyUs was in its second straight finals and three of its players – Happy, NBK-, kioShiMa – already won a major title at DreamHack Winter 2014. Na'Vi was in its first finals after playing in its first semifinals and looked to be the first CIS team to win a major. 89% of Pick'Em predictions had EnVyUs winning the series and the major.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

nV-Na'Vi Vetoes
Map Vetoes
Natus Vincere BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM
Cache Overpass Train Cobblestone Mirage Inferno Dust II
Team EnVyUs BAN PICK RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

Na'Vi chose Train as its map pick. In the pistol round, EnVyUs took the pistol round. In the second round, with Na'Vi only on upgraded pistols, Zeus started off with a headshot onto apEX on virtually opposite ends of the A bombsite. Edward then peeked out from a similar position Zeus was in and took down a closer kioShiMa. kennyS was able to bring it back by taking down GuardiaN and Happy took down Zeus to even the number of players. kennyS pushed and took down Edward; however, seized gave Na'Vi back the advantage with kills onto NBK- and Happy in quick succession. kennyS made it a 1 vs 1 after taking out flamie. seized had two kills but was on 8 health points and the bomb was dropped. kennyS took advantage and clutched the round for EnVyUs. EnVyUs then went up 5-0 after barely edging out the CIS team in every round. In the 6th round, Na'Vi put up a wall of smoke grenades to enter the A bombsite more safely. Zeus followed up by taking down apEX but kioShiMa was able to even it out by taking down flamie. Edward was able to trade kioShiMa but kennyS traded Edward. Happy, who was on the A bombsite train the whole time, sneaked up on Zeus, who was planting the bomb, and killed him but GuardiaN traded right after. kennyS then stepped onto the said train and took down seized coming from the Ivy area. GuardiaN then realized he only had ten seconds left in the round and backed off to save his AWP and EnVyUs went up 6-0. In the 8th round with EnVyUs up 7-0, kennyS began with a kill onto flamie but Edward took down kioShiMa shortly after. Zeus took down NBK- on the B bombsite while seized took down apEX trying to sneak his way through smoke in the Ivy area. The bomb was planted and the remaining Na'Vi members finished up the two remaining EnVyUs players and got its first round. EnVyUs was forced to save money despite winning 7 straight rounds. Na'Vi proceeded to win 5 more rounds to bring the score to 7-6 before EnVyUs picked up an 8th round. In the last round of the half, kennyS peeked and killed seized in the Ivy area with 43 seconds to go. apEX then took out Edward. apEX then took down Zeus with about 15 seconds left. GuardiaN was able to kill kennyS but with flamie caught out by Edward, GuardiaN was in a virtually impossible position and was eventually taken about by apEX. Na'Vi came back and tied the game 9-9 after winning the pistol and anti-economy rounds. In the first gun round of the second half, the round started off with GuardiaN accidentally killing Zeus as the Na'Vi captain was attempting to push forward. The French team then proceeded to go to the B bombsite, but the flamie and seized defense on the site was able to completely shut down the offense and Na'Vi took its first lead of the game. The game was tied at 12 and then EnVyUs took a 13-12 lead going into the 26th round. There, EnVyUs planned an execute towards the B bombsite. flamie was able to take down NBK- but was traded by kioShiMa. apEX followed up onto seized but GuardiaN was there to trade. Zeus took down damaged kioShiMa but kennyS traded. GuardiaN caught kennyS on the back as the French AWPer attempted to retreat. Edward put up a smoke on the planted bomb to cover himself up while defusing the bomb. Happy sprayed through the smoke and tagged Edward down to 59 health points. He then threw a high explosive grenade and then sprayed some more before the grenade killed Edward. GuardiaN was able to trade, but the kill on Edward meant there was no time for GuardiaN to defuse the bomb and the Slovakian AWPer had to back away and let the bomb explode. EnVyUs then went up to 15 rounds before Na'Vi got one back. In the 30th round, with the French leading the CIS team 15-14, kennyS started the round by jumping on apEX's head and spotted Edward on a train while he was behind smoke. Happy attempted to trick Na'Vi by throwing his grenades into the B bombsite, but Na'Vi stayed put and Zeus took down Edward on the A bombsite. The Na'Vi captain then followed up on NBK-. kennyS was able to trade him out. kioShiMa entered the bombsite through the Ivy area and took down seized but GuardiaN traded. EnVyUs then went to plant the bomb. Happy then took down flamie and the bomb was planted. GuardiaN creeped up and took down Happy, but kennyS immediately traded and EnVyUs won the first map, 16-14. seized lead all players with 32 kills, GuardiaN had 25, and Zeus had 22, but it was not enough. For EnVyUs, kennyS lead the team with 26 kills and Happy had 20, but EnVyUs still won the game despite losing based on individual statistics.

The next map went to Cobblestone. EnVyUs started with a 7-0 lead before Na'Vi took a round, just like the last map. Na'Vi took one more before EnVyUs won an 8th round. In the 10th round, apEX opened up with a kill on seized. Zeus then caught an off-guard NBK-and NBK- dropped the bomb, giving Na'Vi a big advantage. kioShiMa was able to take down Zeus but apEX was traded by GuardiaN right after. kioShiMa then jumped into the same place NBK- was killed and took down flamie. GuardiaN played on the A bombsite waiting for EnVyUs players and flicked onto Happy as the EnVyUs leader attempted to cover all angles. kennyS took down Edward in middle, but kioShiMa was killed by GuardiaN and dropped the bomb near the A bombsite with about 20 seconds left. GuardiaN heard kennyS running up and peeked him, but kennyS was quicker in the battle of the two AWPers and EnVyUs lead 8-2. In the following round, GuardiaN had an AWP but the rest of his team were on pistols. The French team rushed to the B bombsite but Zeus was able to find kioShiMa. apEX was able to take down flamie but he was traded right after by seized. kennyS threw a high explosive grenade and took down both seized and Zeus and NBK- took down Edward and GuardiaN was left in a 1 vs 3 scenario. GuardiaN peeked from his position and took down NBK-. He then quickly flicked onto kennyS and suddenly made it a 1 vs 1. Happy and GuardiaN spotted each other but neither could hit his shots. GuardiaN went back on the B bombsite and grabbed kioShiMa's AK-47. Happy missed his spray and GuardiaN took advantage and got his own spray to connect and Na'Vi won the round. In the 15th round, three French players moved to the B bombsite. kioShiMa found entry kills onto Edward and Zeus and the site was clear. kioShiMa then found GuardiaN through the doors leading to the bombsite and apEX and Happy cleaned up the remaining two players and they took a 10-5 lead. EnVyUs proceeded to run away with the game in the second half. The French team won 5 straight rounds and had a 15-5 lead heading into the 21st round. It did not start well for Na'Vi as seized was taken down eight seconds into the round by Happy. NBK- then took down Zeus with 54 seconds left near the B bombsite and then followed up onto flamie with 50 seconds left. GuardiaN missed a shot onto kioShiMa and kioShiMa was able to punish with 48 seconds to go. Edward was hiding behind the boxes on Cobblestone near the B bombsite but Happy spotted a shoulder and took the Ukrainian player down through the box and clinched the major title for Team EnVyUs. NBK- lead all players with 25 kills while apEX had 19. GuardiaN lead his team with 16 kills, but the rest of his team fell behind, as two players had 10 kills and two players had 9 kills.

Team EnVyUs won its first title. kennyS and apEX had their first major title and NBK-, kioShiMa, and Happy won their second title, their first being with Team LDLC.com at DreamHack Winter 2014. Fnatic still lead all teams with three major titles and Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team LDLC.com, and now Team EnVyUs each had one.

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere
Team Score Map Score Team
Team EnVyUs 16 Train 14 Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs 16 Cobblestone 5 Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs Dust II Natus Vincere

Final standings

Place Team Prize Money Seed Roster Coach
1st Team EnVyUs $100,000 MLG Columbus 2016 kioShiMa, Happy, kennyS, NBK, apEX Next
2nd Natus Vincere $50,000 Edward, Zeus, seized, flamie, GuardiaN starix
3rd–4th G2 Esports $22,000 Maikelele, fox, dennis, jkaem, rain
Ninjas in Pyjamas f0rest, GeT RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, allu HeatoN
5–8th Fnatic $10,000 JW, flusha, pronax, olofmeister, KRiMZ vuggo
Virtus.pro TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, byali, Snax kuben
Team SoloMid karrigan, dev1ce, cajunb, dupreeh, Xyp9x 3k2
Luminosity Gaming FalleN, fer, steel, coldzera, boltz nak
9–12th Cloud9 $2,000 MLG Columbus 2016 Qualifier Skadoodle, sgares, fREAKAZOiD, n0thing, shroud
mousesports gob b, nex, denis, chrisj, Niko
Titan RpK, shox, SmithZz, Ex6TenZ, ScreaM
Counter Logic Gaming hazed, reltuC, tarik, jdm64, FNS
13–16th Vexed Gaming $2,000 peet, GruBy, Hyper, rallen, Furlan
FlipSid3 Tactics B1ad3, bondik, markeloff, WorldEdit, DavCost Johnta
Team Liquid Hiko, adreN, EliGE, FugLy, nitr0 GBJame^s
Team Dignitas MSL, Pimp, aizy, Kjaerbye, tenzki zonic

Post-Major Ranking

The HLTV.org November 3, 2015 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the first one released after the major.[15]

HLTV.org Post-Major Ranking
World Ranking
Place Team Points Move
1 Team EnVyUs 949 3
2 Team SoloMid 821 1
3 Fnatic 785 1
4 Virtus.pro 722 1
5 Natus Vincere 598 1
6 Ninjas in Pyjamas 491 1
7 G2 Esports 308 2
8 Cloud9 273 1
9 Luminosity Gaming 222 6
10 Counter Logic Gaming 220
11 Titan 201 1
12 Team Dignitas 199 4
13 mousesports 198
14 Team Liquid 196 3
15 Flipsid3 Tactics 178 1
18 Vexed Gaming 90

Change since October 26, 2015 ranking

References

  1. Lupton, Drake (November 2, 2015). "Envyus Shine over Navi 2-0 in the DreamHack Open: Cluj-Napoca Finals". GeekSnack. Archived from the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  2. Kovanen, Tomi "lurppis" (October 28, 2015). "The favorites in this weekend's CS:GO tournament". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  3. "CSGO TEAM & KINGUIN PARTNERSHIP". G2 Esports. September 11, 2015.
  4. Wynne, Jared (September 23, 2015). "Scream leaves Gamers2, replaces Maniac at Titan". Dot eSports.
  5. G2NewsDesk (September 30, 2015). "JKAEM JOINS G2.KINGUIN'S CS:GO TEAM". G2 Esports.
  6. Julliet, Jacon (September 16, 2015). "Team eBettle become Vexed Gaming". The Score eSports.
  7. Švejda, Milan (August 30, 2015). "NiKo replaces Spiidi in mousesports". HLTV.org.
  8. "Hiko and GBJames joining our ranks". Team Liquid Pro. September 3, 2015.
  9. Walkowiak, Marek (October 20, 2015). "tenzki joins Team Dignitas CSGO". Team Dignitas.
  10. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org.
  11. Gurst, Damien (January 13, 2016). "Titan Bids Farewell". Titan.pro. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  12. Barret, Ben (January 14, 2016). "Titan e-sports team ceases operations, releases all players hours before big tournament". PCGamesN. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  13. Raven, Josh (January 25, 2016). "With $700,000 price tag, FaZe becomes the most expensive CS:GO team in history". Dot eSports. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  14. Dozsa, Preston (February 1, 2016). "G2 Esports signs former Titan roster". The Score eSports. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  15. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org.
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