ESL One Cologne 2020 Will Go Ahead Online
ESL have announced that the Counter-Strike (CS:GO) tournament ESL One Cologne 2020 will go ahead, with all matches played online - in line with COVID-19 safety measures.
ESL One Cologne 2020 will take place from the 18th to the 30th of August, 2020, with the trophy split across four regional divisions in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania, separating the world's top teams. The teams will compete for $500,000 in prize money.
Cologne 2020 was to return to the Lanxess-Arena, but on May 5th, the event was moved to a closed studio and postponed to the end of August, with the arena playoffs being cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions set by the German government.
The teams were determined based on a regionalized version of the original ESL One Cologne qualification rule set: via the ESL Pro Tour ranking, ESL Pro Tour Challenger events and the ESL World Ranking.
Below are the details of the new tournament formats for each region participating (and prize pool up for grabs):
EUROPE: $325,000
Sixteen teams with two groups of eight. Double Elimination best-of-three series with the top two of each group proceeding to Playoffs. Playoffs consist of eight teams in Single Elimination best-of-three series. The Grand Final will be played as a best-of-five.
NORTH AMERICA: $135,000
Eight teams with two groups of four. Double Elimination best-of-three series with the top two of each group proceeding to Playoffs. Playoffs consist of four teams in Single Elimination Best-of-three series. The Grand Final will be played as a best-of-five.
ASIA: $20,000
Four teams will compete in a double-elimination best-of-three series. The Grand Final will be played as a best-of-five with the Upper Bracket Winners holding a one map advantage (1:0).
OCEANIA: $20,000
Four teams will compete in a double-elimination best-of-three series. The Grand Final will be played as a best-of-five with the Upper Bracket Winners holding a one map advantage (1:0).
ESL One Cologne 2020 kicks off on the 18th of August and will see such teams as Fnatic, Astralis and more compete for the grand prize.
Read more about ESL One Cologne 2020 here.
Images via ESL
