ESL One Katowice 2015

ESL One Katowice 2015

2015
The ESL One Katowice 2015 logo
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Dates	March 12, 2015–March 15, 2015
Administrator(s)	Valve ESL
Tournament format(s)	16 team GSL group stage Eight team single-elimination playoff
Venue	Spodek Arena
Teams	16 teams
Purse	$250,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Fnatic
1st runners-up	Ninjas in Pyjamas
2nd runners-up	Team EnVyUs Virtus.pro
Tournament statistics
MVP	Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
Kills	GeT RiGhT (Ninjas in Pyjamas) (211)
KD Ratio	NEO (Virtus.pro) (1.42)
← Jönköping 2014 Cologne 2015 →

ESL One Katowice 2015, also shortened as Katowice 2015, was the fifth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship that was from March 12 to March 15, 2015 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, 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 LDLC.com, whose players were now with Team EnVyUs.

The playoffs had eight teams. Fnatic, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, PENTA Sports, and Team SoloMid were returning Legends from the last major. Keyd Stars was the only new Legends and became the first South American team to play in a major and become a Legend. HellRaisers had its Legend spot taken away after losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Keyd Stars in the group stage. The grand finals would play out between the two legendary Swedish teams. Fnatic defeated PENTA Sports and Virtus.pro while Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Team SoloMid and Team EnVyUs on their way to the grand finals. Fnatic ousted Ninjas in Pyjamas 2–1 in the finals.^[1] Fnatic became the first team to win a second major title, and remain 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.^[2]

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.

Maps Cache Cobblestone Dust II Inferno Mirage Nuke Overpass

Qualifiers[]

Regional qualifiers[]

A total of four European teams, one Commonwealth of Independent States team, one Polish team, and one North American team qualified for the offline qualifier. In addition, another spot was granted to a European team in a last chance qualifier.

European qualifier[]

Two qualifiers in Europe were held. In both European qualifiers, 64 teams played in a single elimination bracket. Two teams from the first qualifier and three teams from the second moved on to the main qualifier.

North American qualifier[]

The North American qualifier featured 8 teams that played in a single elimination bracket and one team moved on to the main qualifier.

CIS qualifier[]

In the CIS qualifier, eight teams played in a double elimination, best of one bracket.

Polish qualifier[]

In the Polish qualifier, two teams played in a best of three series after two qualifiers decided the teams.

Main qualifier[]

The teams 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, move on to the major.

Invited1 Cloud9 Gamers22 KaBuM.TD Team Dignitas Team Liquid Titan Vox Eminor

Regional Qualifiers Copenhagen Wolves (Europe Qualifier 1) mousesports (Europe Qualifier 1) Flipsid3 Tactics (Europe Qualifier 2) 3DMAX2 (Europe Qualifier 2) LGB eSports (Europe Qualifier 1) PiTER (CIS Qualifier) INSHOCK (Poland Qualifier) Counter Logic Gaming (NA Qualifier) ESC Gaming3 (EU Last Chance)

¹Four of the five players from Team iBUYPOWER were banned by Valve for their parts in the North American match fixing scandal. In a game with NetCodeGuides.com, the players intentionally threw a game.^[3] CSGO personality and journalist Richard Lewis exposed the scandal that in exchange of a NetCodeGuides.com win, iBUYPOWER players would receive skins. Duc "cud" Pham, Derek "dboorN" Boorn, and Casey "caseyfoster" Foster, authority figures of NetCodeGuides.com, were banned by Valve. In addition, Sam "DaZeD" Marine, Keven "AZK" Larivière, Joshua "steel" Nissan, and Braxton "swag" Pierce were banned from all Valve-sponsored events.^[4] The remaining member of iBUYPOWER, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, was not banned since he was the only player who did not receive anything, thus making evidence against him inconclusive. The bans were officially made permanent on January 5, 2016.^[5] Richard Lewis later wrote an open letter to Valve, claiming the bans were too harsh.^[6]

²Team WinneR was found to be guilty of match fixing, so the team was disqualified. 3DMAX took the vacant spot. Players of ESC Gaming were also accused of match fixing, but they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

³The Polish roster of ESC Gaming was picked up by Gamers2. ESC Gaming would go on to pick up a Danish roster.^[7][8]

Group A qualifier[]

Group B qualifier[]

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[]

Legends Team SoloMid Fnatic Hellraisers Ninjas in Pyjamas Team EnVyUs PENTA Sports Virtus.pro Natus Vincere

Qualifiers Counter Logic Gaming LBG eSports Cloud9 Vox Eminor Flipsid3 Tactics Keyd Stars 3DMAX Titan

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev depart from HellRaisers. s1mple was replaced by Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev. Later, HellRaisers announces the signing of Egor "flamie" Vasilyev to fill up the remaining spot on the roster.^[9][10]

PENTA Sports adds Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert from mousesports and Johannes "nex" Maget from Planetkey Dynamics to its roster. Robin "r0bs3n" Stephan and Felix "fel1x" Zech were out of the roster.^[11][12]

Team EnVyUs acquires the full roster of Team LDLC.com.^[13]

Team Dignitas releases Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen and signs Finn "karrigan" Andersen as the in game leader.^[14] Roughly two months later, the roster is acquired by Team SoloMid.^[15]

The players of NetCodeGuides.com disbands from its organization.^[16] Counter Logic Gaming then signs four of the five players (Josh "jdm64" Marzano was the exception) and Peter "ptr" Gurney to its roster.^[17]

Flipsid3 Tactics releases its Swedish and Bosnian roster and signs the roster of dAT Team. s1mple later left the team and the team signs Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev.^[18]

Controversy[]

Cloud9 was alleged to have been on Adderall during the duration of the tournament. Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen was released by Cloud9 about a month after the Katowice 2015 major before being picked up by Nihilum Gaming. In an interview with the well-known Counter-Strike commentator and analyst Mohan "launders" Govindasamy, SEMPHIS admitted that his whole team was on Adderall while playing.^[19] SEMPHIS said to Launders

The ESL [communications] were kinda funny, in my opinion. I don't even care. We were all on Adderall. Like, I don't even give a fuck. Like, it was pretty obvious if you listened to the [communications].^[20]

After the interview went viral in the Counter-Strike community, tournament organizers declared their intention to combat the use of PEDs in eSports. ESL also announced that it would partner with the National Anti Doping Association, which would mean random drug tests would be the norm. Cloud9's owner Jack Etienne dismissed SEMPHIS's allegations and did not condone the use of PEDs.

Group stage[]

Group A[]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Fnatic	2	0	32	10	+22	6
2	Natus Vincere	2	1	39	21	+18	6
3	Vox Eminor	1	2	22	34	-12	3
4	FlipSid3 Tactics	0	2	4	32	-28	0

Group A matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	16	Mirage	2	FlipSid3 Tactics
Fnatic	16	Inferno	3	Vox Eminor
FlipSid3 Tactics	2	Cache	16	Vox Eminor
Natus Vincere	7	Cobblestone	16	Fnatic
Natus Vincere	16	Inferno	3	Vox Eminor

Group B[]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Team EnVyUs	2	0	32	22	+10	6
2	PENTA Sports	2	1	35	32	+3	6
3	LGB eSports	1	2	36	35	+1	3
4	Titan	0	2	18	32	-14	0

Group B matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	16	Cobblestone	14	Titan
PENTA Sports	3	Dust II	16	LGB eSports
Team EnVyUs	16	Cache	8	LGB eSports
PENTA Sports	16	Cache	4	Titan
LGB eSports	12	Dust II	16	PENTA Sports

Group C[]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Ninjas in Pyjamas	2	0	32	16	+16	6
2	Keyd Stars	2	1	41	36	+5	6
3	Counter Logic Gaming	1	2	31	46	-15	3
4	HellRaisers	0	2	26	32	-6	0

Group C matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Inferno	9	Keyd Stars
HellRaisers	14	Nuke	16	Counter Logic Gaming
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	7	Counter Logic Gaming
HellRaisers	12	Inferno	16	Keyd Stars
Counter Logic Gaming	8	Dust II	16	Keyd Stars

Group D[]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Virtus.pro	2	0	32	16	+16	6
2	Team SoloMid	2	1	46	34	+12	6
3	Cloud9	1	2	35	46	-11	3
4	3DMAX	0	2	15	32	-17	0

Group D matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	16	Overpass	5	3DMAX
Team SoloMid	14	Nuke	16	Cloud9
Virtus.pro	16	Inferno	11	Cloud9
Team SoloMid	16	Nuke	10	3DMAX
Cloud9	8	Overpass	16	Team SoloMid

Playoffs[]

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

Bracket[]

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Fnatic

2

B2

PENTA Sports

0

A1

Fnatic

2

D1

Virtus.pro

0

D1

Virtus.pro

2

C2

Keyd Stars

1

A1

Fnatic

2

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

1

B1

Team EnVyUs

2

A2

Natus Vincere

1

B1

Team EnVyUs

0

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

2

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

2

D2

Team SoloMid

1

Quarterfinals[]

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports[]

Fnatic came into the tournament as the most dominant team in the field and looked to take its second major title. Meanwhile, PENTA Sports had some trouble against the relatively inexperienced Norwegians of LGB eSports, but managed to retain its Legends status as it went up against the best team in the world.

Casters: Deman & SPUNJ

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	16	Inferno	8	PENTA Sports
Fnatic	16	Cache	7	PENTA Sports
Fnatic	–	Overpass	–	PENTA Sports

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars[]

Virtus.pro was no surprise to be in the top eight as the reigning Katowice champions was back in the playoffs in front of its home crowd. However, Keyd Stars was the biggest surprise of the tournament as the Brazilians, who had barely any international experience, made the playoffs after pulling off two upsets in the group stage. Keyd Stars didn't even have enough money to go to the offline qualifier, but with the help of $4,000 from Robin "Flusha" Rönnquist, another couple thousand more from ESL, and donations from the community, FalleN's team was able to go to the big stage.

Casters: TosspoT & seang@res

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	16	Mirage	4	Keyd Stars
Virtus.pro	17	Overpass	19	Keyd Stars
Virtus.pro	16	Nuke	1	Keyd Stars

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere[]

Team EnVyUs was the reigning major champion after winning DreamHack Winter 2014, but a very close match against its compatriot nearly cost the team the top spot in Group B. Natus Vincere was able to stomp through the Challengers in its group, but struggled against Fnatic; however, Na'Vi looked to do better in the rematch of the Winter 2014 semifinals.

Casters: Pansy & natu

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	16	Cache	12	Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs	14	Dust II	16	Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs	16	Mirage	3	Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid[]

The team that went on Counter-Strike's most legendary winning streak, winning 87 maps in a row, looked to reach its fifth straight final. Team SoloMid looked win a title after coming close several times and hoping the acquisition of its new in-game leader karrigan could be the decisive factor.

Casters: Anders Blume & natu

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Dust II	8	Team SoloMid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	4	Inferno	16	Team SoloMid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Nuke	12	Team SoloMid

Semifinals[]

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro[]

Fnatic easily took care of PENTA in a series that did not take much time. On the other hand, Virtus.pro suffered a loss to the massive underdogs of Keyd Stars on a map that VP was widely regarded to be one of the best on. However, VP made the other two maps look easy as it pleased the crowd with its plays. However, Fnatic easily had VP's number as in 28 maps, Fnatic was able to win 21 of them.

Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	19	Cobblestone	17	Virtus.pro
Fnatic	16	Mirage	8	Virtus.pro
Fnatic	–	Overpass	–	Virtus.pro

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas[]

EnVyUs came into the semifinals as the team with the better record in the head-to-head at 33–17, but predictions were split right down the middle in the battle between Happy and Xizt. The rematch of the Winter 2014 finals was underway.

Casters: Deman & seang@res

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	9	Cache	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team EnVyUs	10	Dust II	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team EnVyUs	–	Mirage	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Finals[]

The matchup many were hoping for happened. Both teams were at one point considered the best team in the world and the head-to-head was virtually split right down the middle, with Fnatic having a 16–15 lead. Predictions were also controversial as Fnatic was barely favored in the match. The last map would go down as one of CS:GO's greatest as the arena was maxed out to standing room only.

Casters: Anders Blume, TossopT, & seang@res

Fnatic vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	16	Dust II	14	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Fnatic	10	Cache	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Fnatic	16	Inferno	13	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Final standings[]

Place	Team	Prize Money	Seed	Roster	Coach
1st	Fnatic	US$100,000	ESL One Cologne 2015	JW, flusha, pronax, olofmeister, KRiMZ	Devilwalk
2nd	Ninjas in Pyjamas	US$50,000		f0rest, GeT RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, allu	pita
3rd–4th	Team EnVyUs	US$22,000		kioShiMa, Happy, SmithZz, NBK, shox
	Virtus.pro			TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, byali, Snax	kuben
5–8th	Keyd Stars	US$10,000		FalleN, fer, steel, zqk, boltz
	Natus Vincere			Edward, Zeus, starix, seized, GuardiaN
	Team SoloMid			karrigan, dev1ce, cajunb, dupreeh, Xyp9x	3k2
	PENTA Sports			nex, Spidii, denis, kRYSTAL, Troubley	alexRr
9–12th	Vox Eminor	US$2,000	–	SPUNJ, Havoc, jks, AZR, topguN
	LGB eSports			RUBINO, rain, jkaem, zEVES, Polly
	Cloud9			ShahZam, sgares, n0thing, shroud, Semphis
	Counter Logic Gaming			hazed, reltuC, tarik, ptr, FNS
13–16th	Titan	US$2,000		kennyS, Rpk, apEX, Maniac, Ex6TenZ
	FlipSid3 Tactics			B1ad3, bondik, markeloff, WorldEdit, DavCost
	HellRaisers			ANGE1, kucher, flamie, Dosia, AdreN
	3DMAX			diSTURBED, natu, KHRN, stonde, xartE

References[]

External links[]

• Official webpage