ESL One Katowice 2015

ESL One Katowice 2015, also known as Katowice 2015, was the fifth '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship, held from March 12 to March 15, 2015 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. It was the first ''CS:GO'' Major of 2015. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000. The defending champion was Team EnVyUs, whose roster had won the previous Major as Team LDLC.com.

Eight teams advanced from the group stage to a playoff bracket, earning "Legends" status and automatic qualification to the following Major. Fnatic, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, PENTA Sports, and Team SoloMid were returning Legends from the previous Major. Keyd Stars was the only new Legends and became the first South American team to play in a Major and qualify to the playoff bracket. HellRaisers lost its Legends status after losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Keyd Stars in the group stage. The grand finals featured two Swedish teams. Fnatic defeated PENTA Sports and Virtus.pro in the bracket while Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Team SoloMid and Team EnVyUs on their way to the grand finals. Fnatic then beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2–1 in the finals. Fnatic became the first team to win a second Major, and remained the only team to do so until MIBR (attending Katowice 2015 as Keyd Stars) won MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016.

Format

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

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 Global StarCraft II League.

The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were best-of-three, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.

Map Pool

The seven-map pool did not change from DreamHack Winter 2014. Before each match in the group stage, both teams banned two maps. The map for the match was then randomly selected from the remaining three maps. In the playoffs, each team first banned one map, then chose one map. The two chosen maps were the first two maps in the best-of-three. If the series were to require a third map, the map was randomly selected from the three remaining maps.

Main qualifier

The 16 teams at the main qualifier were separated into two groups of 8. The teams played in a double-elimination, best of one bracket. Four teams from each group, two from the winner's bracket and two from the loser's bracket, advanced to the Major.

Group A

Group B

Broadcast Talent

Hosts
* Sean Charles
* Alex "Machine" Richardson

Analysts
* Casper "cadiaN" Møller
* Spencer "Hiko" Martin

Commentators
* Leigh "Deman" Smith
* Anders Blume
* Lauren "Pansy" Scott
* Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

Observers
* Joshua "steel" Nissan
* Yanko "YNk" Paunović

Teams

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Playoffs

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

Bracket

Quarterfinals

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports

''Casters: Deman & SPUNJ''

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars

''Casters: TosspoT & seang@res''

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere

''Casters: Pansy & natu''

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid

''Casters: Anders Blume & natu''

Semifinals

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro

''Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS''

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

''Casters: Deman & seang@res''

Finals

Both teams in the final had at one point been considered the best team in the world, and the head-to-head was split right down the middle, with Fnatic having a 16–15 lead.

''Casters: Anders Blume, TossopT, & seang@res''

Final standings

References

External links

Official webpage

{{ESLevents

2015 in Polish sport
2015 in esports
Sports competitions in Katowice
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Majors
ESL One Counter-Strike competitions
March 2015 sports events in Europe
21st century in Katowice