ESL have revealed the new format that will be used at the upcoming ESL One Cologne 2016 Main Qualifier.

The Major qualifier set to take place at the ESL Studios in Katowice, Poland will use a Swiss-system, which is a widely used format in chess tournaments, ESL have revealed.

In this format, all 16 teams will be in the same group as each team will play a maximum of five matches in a non-elimination format. Three losses will result in elimination. After the pre-determined first round matchups, teams with the same win totals that have not played each other will get matched in the subsequent four rounds.



Graphic explaning the whole format

When all five rounds are complete, top eight teams will qualify for ESL One Cologne. The tie-breaker rules are below:

– Win-Loss ratio – Buchholz score system (the sum of wins of the team’s opponents) – Head-to-head match result – Initial seeding of the tournament

The pre-determined first round matchups use the following seeding system:

Seeding Pool 1: Rank 9-12th of the last Major (MLG Columbus 2016)

Seeding Pool 2: Rank 13-16th of the last Major (MLG Columbus 2016)

Seeding Pool 3: Winners of Regional Minor Championships for Cologne 2016

Seeding Pool 4: Runner-ups of Regional Minor Championships for Cologne 2016

The first round matches will be:

ESL also revealed the schedule for the qualifier:

Thursday, June 9 12:30 - Pre-show 13:00 - First round starts, eight matches one after another 22:00 - Estimated end of day Friday, June 10 12:30 - Pre-show 13:00 - Second round starts, eight matches one after another 22:00 - Estimated end of day Saturday, June 11 12:30 - Pre-show 13:00 - Third round starts, eight matches one after another 22:00 - Estimated end of day Sunday, June 12 12:30 - Pre-show 13:00 - Six fourth round matches followed by three fifth round matches 23:15 - Estimated end of day

If you can catch the action live from the ESL Studios in Katowice, grab yourself a ticket on the Eventbrite page.

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