eSports
SK Gaming wins half a Million dollars
The largest “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive”tournament in the world, 16 Teams battle it out in Cologne by a gigantic prize money. In front of a sold out stadium, the Brazilian defender of the title is finally.
A computer game fills the entire Lanxess Arena. What sounds, for many people, surreal, was this weekend, back to reality. The Top Teams in the Counter-Strike scene met in Cologne, to prove on a huge stage. The expenses and the production were bombastic. Several Hundred people were involved in the Event. One reason for the great Scenery: the price of money. A total of one Million US dollars were disbursed. To the winning team SK Gaming US $ 500,000 went alone.
The prestigious Event took place already for the second Time in the Lanxess Arena, having already surpassed last year, all existing attendance records. Also in this year, the hall was full, and there are several million viewers watched the part up to several hours of games on the Streaming platform Twitch.
Home team fails in the group stage
The group stage, which took place under exclusion of the Public, was played in four groups of four Teams in Double Elimination mode. That is to say: Lose a Team two games, it is eliminated from the tournament. Also, the German Team mousesports took part in the tournament. After they lost the first game, it was in the second attempt, better luck and defeated the French Team Envyus with a 16:12. In the decisive match, however, lost against the later finalist-Liquid from the USA with 0:2 after Maps, and was eliminated from the tournament. The biggest CS:GO tournament in the world had to get along without German participation.
karrigan from Astralis during the quarter-finals of the concentration of Pur
On 8. July opened then, finally, the gates of the Lanxess Arena for the spectators, who had camped already for days in Cologne’s Rhine Park, to get a place in the hall. The mood in the sold-out Arena was terrific and was able to make with ease a soccer game competition. The Teams were celebrated by their Fans. A harmonious Coexistence was not a Problem, so that the many different viewers from all over the world celebrated together a huge Party.
SK Gaming confirmed their role as favorites
In addition to the Event as a great party location, there was also a sporty part. The Playoff games were contested in Best-of-three mode. This means that from the Map-Pool that currently includes seven different cards, by a Veto-System, three Maps are selected. Once a Team can choose two Maps, the game is won. The quarter final matches, the game Natus Vincere (Ukraine) vs Team Liquid (USA) it is relatively straightforward and were, respectively, 2:0. In the case of the latter, you could enjoy the full length of three Maps.
The sophisticated tactics and the tremendous understanding of the game, the team made every single game to be a spectacle, so that all were looking forward to the semi-final games. Here, the poles of Virtus Pro met first on the Brazilian title holders, SK Gaming. In the second semi-final of the Champions fnatic from Sweden played against Team Liquid of the United States. Thus, the Motto of the semi-finals, it was clear: Europe against America. The two matches promise to be exciting Matches. In both Games, only one or two rounds decided the. At the end of the triumph of the American Teams, so that at the Grand Final on Sunday, Team Liquid and SK Gaming. The game saw, in addition to the 14,000 people on the spot, a million other people at the same time.
On the huge stage of the ESL One in Cologne’s Lanxess-Arena of 14,000 spectators watched the games
Unfortunately, the final did not approach the voltage of the two semi-final games. Team Liquid could not follow his performance from the day before and came right into the game. In the case of the Brazilians, however, everything went the way you had imagined it. SK Gaming confirmed already shown achievements and played the Americans in the land. Final result 2:0. A successful title defense for the Brazilian Line-Up of star player Gabriel “Fallen” Toledo, earned in addition to the Prestige of a prize money of 500,000 US dollars. The runner-up didn’t go home empty – at least $ 150,000 it gave to Reach the final.
ESL One in 2017, have already announced
As a conclusion, you can follows: The eSport continues to grow and in comparison to past Events, you realize that it is slowly growing from its infancy. The prize money increase, the organization is professional, and now businesses are also from the private sector for the former niche industry. You may be curious as to where the path will lead. Next year, it goes at least back to Cologne. Because the next ESL One has been confirmed for 2017 by the organizer, the Turtle Entertainment GmbH, during the tournament already.