ESL has officially announced through their website that they’ve decided to transition their much-anticipated event ESL One Cologne 2020 to an online format.
Previously, there had been reports of ESL attempting to hold this tournament offline in an arena as usual; but due to the increasing complexity of the pandemic situation and some significant travel restrictions still being prevalent across various countries of the world, ESL were left with no other option than to hold ESL One Cologne 2020 online.
“Our team went above and beyond trying to make ESL One Cologne 2020 powered by Intel happen offline this year,” ESL said in their blog, “but after a thorough evaluation we’ve concluded that we have to transition to an Online Tournament.”
“The decision was made after extensive research and understanding of global travel regulations and individual national guidelines due to ongoing COVID-19 measures.”
ESL stated that the tournament is scheduled to begin from August 18th and conclude on August 30th. They also mentioned that they’re splitting the trophy across four regional divisions: Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania.
Here’s how the current confirmed teams are placed based on their division:
Europe:
- Astralis
- Fnatic
- Na’Vi
- G2
- Mousesports
- FaZe
- Vitality
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- BIG
- Sprout
- Heretics
- Complexity
- OG
- Heroic
- MAD Lions
North America:
- Team Liquid
- 100 Thieves
- Evil Geniuses
- FURIA Esports
- Cloud9
- GEN.G Esports
- MiBR
ASIA:
Oceania:
According to the ESL website, the teams were selected through a regionalized version of the original ESL One Cologne qualification rule set: the ESL Pro Tour ranking, ESL Pro Tour Challenger events and the ESL World Ranking.
ESL One Cologne 2020 will provide the highest ESL Pro Tour points value, but will not count as an ESL Pro Tour Masters Championship event due to the world’s top teams being separated.
The teams will be competing for a total prize pool of $500,000 while the other $500,000 is set to be redistributed equally to next years’ tournaments Intel Extreme Masters Katowice and ESL One Cologne 2021.
ESL has however assured fans that they’re planning to bring their upcoming year’s tournament offline at the LANXESS arena in 2021.
