ESL One Cologne 2016
| 2016 | |
 |
|
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
| Dates | July 5, 2016–July 10, 2016 |
| Administrator(s) | Electronic Sports League (ESL) |
|
Tournament
format(s) |
16 team double-elimination group stage Eight team single-elimination playoff |
| Venue | Lanxess Arena |
| Teams | 16 teams |
| Purse | $1,000,000 USD |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 SK Gaming
|
| 1st runners-up |
 Team Liquid
|
| 2nd runners-up |
 Fnatic Virtus.pro
|
| MVP |
Marcelo "coldzera" David |
|
|
|
ESL One Cologne 2016 was an Electronic Sports League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. It was the ninth Valve-sponsored tournament in CS:GO history. It was held at the Lanxess Arena In Cologne, Germany from July 8–10. It featured 16 teams from throughout the world competing. Cologne 2016 had the second consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
The top eight teams from the MLG Columbus major are automatically invited to ESL One Cologne 2016. The top four teams – SK Gaming (formerly Luminosity Gaming), Natus Vincere, Astralis, Team Liquid – are given the first seeds of each of the four groups. The teams that placed fifth through eighth – Fnatic, Virtus.pro, Counter Logic Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas – are given the second seeds in each group.
The groups were decided by a random number generator. First the bottom four teams of the qualifier – G2 Esports, Team EnVyUs, Team Dignitas, Flipsid3 Tactics – were randomly selected to each go into one group as the fourth seeds. The top four teams of the qualifier – Gambit Gaming, OpTic Gaming, mousesports, FaZe Clan – were then randomly selected to be the third seeds. The fifth through eighth sports at the Columbus major were selected to be the second seeds. Finally, the top four teams at the major were selected to be the first seed.
The way that ESL seeded the groups drew some criticism. Group A and Group B individually had three teams in HLTV's top 20 rankings. Group D had SK Gaming (#1), G2 Esports (#2), Fnatic (#3), and FaZe (#17). CS:GO analyst Duncan "Thorin" Shields called for a more effective seeding method.
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.
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