Electronic Sports League Major Series One Katowice 2014, also known as EMS One Katowice 2014, was the second '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. The tournament was held from March 13–16, 2014 at the Spodek Arena in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian ...

, Poland. It was organized by

Electronic Sports League The ESL Gaming GmbH, doing business as ESL (formerly known as Electronic Sports League), is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, ...

and sponsored by the game's developers

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. The tournament had a total prize pool of . The Polish roster of

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won the event by beating

Ninjas in Pyjamas Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its ''Counter-Strike'' teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a '' Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' lineup upon the release of the game. Asi ...

in the finals. EMS One Katowice 2014 was streamed on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

and had a peak of over 250,000 concurrent viewers.

Format

The top eight teams from

Dreamhack Winter 2013 The 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries ''Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' Championship, also known as DreamHack Winter 2013, was the first '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. The tournament was organized by DreamHack and sponsor ...

qualified as Legends. Two teams were directly invited to participate in the tournament, while the remaining six teams qualified through an online qualifier that consisted of sixteen teams. Teams were split up into four groups, and all group matches were best-of-ones. The highest seed would play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds would play against each other. The winner of those two matches would play each other to determine which team moved on to the playoff stage, while the losers of the first round of matches also played. The loser of the lower match was then eliminated from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the two remaining teams would play an elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the

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. The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were

best-of-three There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.

Map Pool

There were five maps to choose from:

Dust II "Dust II", also known by its filename de_dust2, is a video game map featured in the first-person shooter series ''Counter-Strike''. Dust II is the successor to "Dust", another ''Counter-Strike'' map, and was developed by David Johnston prior t ...

, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Train. In the group stage, each team banned two maps and the match was played on the remaining map. In the playoffs, each team banned one map and chose one map; the remaining map would be the decider map of the best-of-three series, if needed.

Main Qualifier

Only teams from Europe competed in the main qualifier tournament. One team from the Nordic region, one team from France, one from the United Kingdom, one from Germany, two from the CIS region, and two from Poland played in their respective regional qualifiers to qualify for the main qualifier. In addition, four teams each advanced from two general European qualifiers to the main qualifier. The main qualifier was a 16 team, best of three, double elimination bracket. A total of six teams advanced to the Major. Team iBUYPOWER from the United States and Vox Eminor from Australia did not have to play in any qualifier and were invited to play in the Major.

Teams Competing

Bracket

Broadcast Talent

Host * Sean Charles Analysts * Scott "SirScoots" Smith * Duncan "Thorin" Shields Commentators * Lauren "Pansy" Scott * Stuart "TosspoT" Saw * Jason Kaplan Observer * Joshua "steel" Nissan

Teams

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Playoffs

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Final standings

References

{{ESLevents 2014 in Polish sport 2014 in esports Sports competitions in Katowice Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors ESL One Counter-Strike competitions March 2014 sports events in Europe 21st century in Katowice