ESL One Cologne 2017 - Closed qualifier line-up announced

The teams that will battle for the final spots in the closed qualifier for the main event in Cologne have been revealed.

The fun never stops in Counter-Strike, with amazing events left, right and centre. On that note, ESL One returns this July with a seriously impressive CS:GO event at the LANXESS Arena, featuring a $250,000 prize pool. Today, we were given notice of the twelve teams to receive a direct invitation to the festivities, as well as details on how the remaining spots could be won via qualifiers.

The directly invited organisations are some of the best teams in the world, although the accepted top dogs won’t be in attendance. At the time of writing Fnatic, Virtus.pro, SK Gaming, FaZe Clan, Immortals, Cloud9, mousesports, OpTic Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, North and Natus Vincere are all due to appear, with only Astralis of the ‘big five’ not part of the fun.

This stellar group of invitees should make for a stunning few days of action as the likes of SK and FaZe have shown of late they are more than able to compete with anyone, while VP and Na’Vi have points to prove after recent disappointments. This stacked line-up will be joined by four more teams determined through qualifiers. The EU closed qualifier will take place on May 20/21, with two of the selected teams securing a slot in the main event.

European closed qualifier

Invited teams:



The list has caused some controversy, with some suggesting that Gambit (for example) were unfortunate to not receive an invite at the expense of some other orgs, especially as OpTic don’t currently have five players registered to their team. Those eight teams will be joined by four others - Outlaws, k29, Polaris and BIG, the latter of which secured first place at ESL Meisterschaft.

Over on the North American side of things, the play will take place on May 20th and just one lucky team will manage to secure an ESL One Cologne slot. The four teams invited to try and qualify are listed below, with Splyce and compLexity having earned a spot in this stage through earlier, open qualifiers.

Below is the schedule for the European closed qualifier (all times expressed in CEST ):

Saturday, May 20th - Round of 12

15:00 - Matches commences

Sunday, May 21st - Play-offs

12:00 - Quarter-final #1 & #2

15:00 - Quarter-final #3 & #4

18:00 - Semi-final #1

21:00 - Semi-final #2

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The victor of each semi-final qualify for ESL One: Cologne 2017.



North American closed qualifier

Invited teams:



Below is the schedule for the North American closed qualifier (all times expressed in CEST ):

Sunday, May 21st - Play-offs

18:00 - Quarter-final #1 & #2

21:00 - Semi-final #1

Monday, May 22nd - Play-offs

00:00 - Semi-final #2

03:00 - Grand final

Winner qualifies for ESL One: Cologne 2017.



Overall, this will see three teams join the invitees, with a fourth to come from a Chinese qualifier. Astralis aside, the event is about as stacked as you could hope for, making this one you really want to mark on your calendar if you are a fan of the game, and something to look forward to this summer.

Image courtesy of ESL / Helena Kristiansson

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