The groups and first match-ups for ESL One Cologne have been announced.

The $300,000 tournament taking place in Cologne, Germany will kick off on July 3rd with 16 teams separated into two groups. The action will last until July 8th.

The group stage will have a double-elimination format with best-of-one opening matches. All the other games during the group stage will be best-of-threes.

Astralis will take on ENCE in their first group match

The top three sides from both groups will advance to the playoffs. The first team in the group will qualify for the semi-finals while the second and third placed squads book their tickets to the quarter-finals.

Group A features Astralis, mousesports, and Natus Vincere while FaZe, MIBR, and Liquid headline Group B. The full group draw can be found below:

The initial match-ups in the group stage will be as follows:

Astralis vs. ENCE

NiP vs. Cloud9

mousesports vs. Gambit

G2 vs. Natus Vincere

FaZe vs. BOOT-d[S]

Renegades vs. MIBR

fnatic vs. North

BIG vs. Liquid