15000 people watching the best teams in the world go at it.

From Tuesday, July 3th until Sunday, July 8th, the prestigious LANXESS Arena in Cologne will host the fifth iteration of the ESL One event Cologne is now famous for in the world of Counter-Strike. With 12 out of the HLTV top 15 teams attending, we are most definitely in for some great CS:GO in the upcoming week.

However, we have already had four enormously successful events in the fourth largest city in Germany with many memorable moments to look back on. It has been extremely tough to choose and stick to ten, but here we go. We’re counting down the top 10 most iconic moments in ESL One Cologne history. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

#10: NBK knifes flusha

We’ll kick things off with the opening round of the 2015 Grand Final between Team EnVyUs and fnatic. On the old dust2, the T sided EnVy team tries to get an entry towards the B site, where they find flusha trying to stop them from going through the tunnel entry.

After a few seconds, however, it is NBK who is able to close him down — with a knife in hand. Banking on the fact that flusha will not be able to reload in time, NBK gives him two big hits with the knife and kills him, helping EnVy to secure the round in the end.

2015: NBK vs. fnatic

#9: friberg 1v2 clutch

Our second moment has almost solely made it onto this list thanks to the live commentary by Anders Blume — it still is an iconic moment nonetheless.

In the all-Swedish 2014 Grand Final between Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic, both teams were going at it big time. The series started on Cobblestone and after fnatic was able to start with a 11:4 CT side on their own map pick, NiP had to dig deep in order to turn things around — which they were able to do.

At 11:10, however, fnatic looked like they locked down the A side to stop the bleeding for at least a round. Unfortunately for them, friberg was on the other side of that 2v1 in the end. Although fnatic was able to create a good crossfire setup on paper, friberg eliminated both pronax and flusha, defused the bomb and secured the momentary equaliser — and thereby has also created one of the most iconic sound bites in the history of the game.

2014: friberg vs. fnatic

#8: allu clutch vs. VP

Number 8 is another moment with an involvement of a NiP player. This time both allu and a Glock take on Virtus.Pro in the second pistol round on Train. On the first map of this quarter-final, VP wasn’t able to assert their dominance on the T half, which they immediately tried to compensate for after they switched sides.

But allu had a problem with that. After killing both pashaBiceps and TaZ, he found himself in a 1v1 vs. NEO, who had control of the bomb above Popdog. With swifty movement, allu tried to burst him while climbing up and down the ladder. With about 30 seconds to go, though, he decided to commit to going up and facing NEO — and he got rewarded for it by eliminating him with a clean headshot.

2015: allu vs. Virtus.Pro

#7: coldzera 4k 1v3 CZ75 clutch vs. C9

Different year, different player, different pistol but at least similar impact: in the second round of the 2017 Grand Final, SK Gaming found itself in a force buy situation vs. the five MGs bought by Cloud9 — and with about 30 seconds to go, coldzera found himself in a 1v3 without the bomb.

But the best player of both 2016 and 2017 wasn’t about to concede this round to them. Instead, he did what we know him best for: he punished mistakes and gave headshots to clutch it out.

The excitement this play created for himself and the team was a vital part of their 3–0 victory in the end.

2017: coldzera vs. Cloud9

#6: first dupreeh — then Hiko

The only moment not having taken place in the playoffs of either tournament is the 29th round of the winner’s match in Group D between Cloud9 and Dignitas; the map was Mirage and it was full of craziness, but this round was particularly insane.

First, dupreeh made an entry on the A side and got three kills in quick succession after simply running through the smoke which cut off the bomb site from Jungle and Connector.

This put Hiko and seang@res into a 2v4 with the bomb being planted while they had to try and retake the site. And it was Hiko who retaliated with a 3k of his own, killing aizy, Xyp9x and dupreeh in the end while seang@res made sure the bomb is being defused, which made it 15:14 for Cloud9, giving them the opportunity the close out the map in the end.

2014: dupreeh vs. Cloud9, Hiko vs. dignitas

#5: Fifflaren 4k vs. fnatic

For our number five, we return to the all-Swedish Grand Final of 2014, but this time we’re on the third and final map of the series. After the Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to steal Cobblestone and fnatic was able to get dust2 back right afterwards, we found ourselves on Inferno and, of course, it was another nailbiter.

After a 9:6 CT half by fnatic, both teams went back and forth trading rounds and after losing three rounds in a row, fnatic was able to steal one back to make it 13:12 fnatic. Their economy was in the tank, however, and making sure NiP was not able to break it was crucial for them in the following round.

Entrance, stage left: Fifflaren. fnatic more or less tried to rush A short through mid but it was NiP’s support player who came up big for them with four kills in quick succession which allowed NiP to secure the round and break the bank of fnatic, getting two for the price of one.

2014: Fifflaren vs. fnatic

#4: SK Gaming wins ESL One Cologne 2016

The 2016 edition of the ESL One Cologne event was one of special nature, as Valve had selected it to be the second Major of the year — and it was only the second Major with a price pool of $1,000,000, after MLG Columbus earlier that year.

One of the favorites to win the tournament was SK Gaming, who won the event in Columbus under the Luminosity banner and joined the German organisation only a few days before the tournament in Cologne started.

And, well, the defending champions lived up to the expectations. Only dropping one map vs. Virtus.Pro in the semi-finals, they ran through the tournament with ease, finishing strong in the final vs. Team Liquid with 16:7 on Train and 16:6 on Cobblestone — and thereby, the team added another chapter to their legacy.

SK Gaming wins ESL One Cologne 2016

#3: KQLY vs. Pasha

One of the highest honors a player of any sport can achieve is having a sequence of play named after himself — at least when it’s in a positive context. And although he has obviously been known for something else since after a few months after this play happened, we still know this play as “the KQLY shot”.

Allow me to set the stage, because the circumstances make it even better: the year is 2014, we are in the quarter-final between LDLC and Virtus.Pro, the first map is dust2, we’re in the very last round of regulation and the score is 15:14 LDLC. It is only between KQLY and pashaBiceps to decide whether we go into overtime or if KQLY can defuse the bomb in time to make sure LDLC wins their map pick.

What follows is maybe one of the most improbable shots in tournament history executed by KQLY’s USP to win both the round and the map.

2014: KQLY vs. Virtus.Pro

#2: Hiko’s “inhuman reaction”

Our runner-up on this list is yet another pistol shot heard around the world, and it has been made famous by yet another soundbite of commentator Anders Blume.

After winning the first map in the quarter-finals of the 2014 tournament, Cloud9 found itself on dust2, their own map pick, trying to secure the series — but they didn’t really have a good start into the pistol round. Hiko found himself being the sole survivor trying to go against five terrorists. In the end, he wasn’t able to turn it around, but he himself did a complete 180° to create this magic moment, displaying his “inhuman reactions” as it has been touted by Anders.

2014: Hiko vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

#1: s1mple 1v2 clutch vs. fnatic

The most iconic moment of ESL One Cologne history goes to the current best player in the world.

After his stint on a few lower tier teams and teams like HellRaisers and FlipSid3 Tactics, s1mple was picked up by Team Liquid thanks to Hiko who recruited him and made him come to NA in order to showcase his talents there — and showcase them he did.

After a great performance at the MLG Columbus Major earlier that year, he chose another big stage for one of the sickest sequences of play in the history of Counter-Strike.

On the second map of the semi-finals vs. fnatic, s1mple found himself in a 1v2 clutch situation where he had to retake the B site on Cache vs. both dennis and KRiMZ. Dropping down from heaven, he first killed dennis with a noscope AWP shot from short distance before hitting KRiMZ with a similar shot, however making the shot travel a way longer road before eventually killing fnatic’s last man standing.

Having talked about soundbites before, this play gave us huge crowd reactions as well as Bardolph’s iconic “this is not FPL, this is a Major!”. s1mple himself must have liked it as well, because after the tournament, he dedicated a tattoo on his left shoulder to it.

2016: s1mple vs. fnatic

Conclusion

Do you agree with this list or does it lack a moment that absolutely needs to be there? ​Let me know either way.

As mentioned before, there are a lot of moments that were in contention that happened over the last four events. Let’s hope that starting Tuesday, we’ll be able to witness many, many more.

Photo courtesy of ESL