How to watch ESL One Cologne 2019

Sixteen of the best CS:GO teams in the world will battle for their share of $300,000 at ESL One Cologne, which starts on Tuesday, July 2.

Cologne is one of the cathedrals of Counter-Strike and its atmosphere always delivers good matches. Nine out of the 10 best teams in the world, according to HLTV’s rankings, will be competing at the event.

Can Team Liquid win their fourth big event in a row? If they do, Liquid will win the Intel Grand Slam in 2019 and cash out an extra $1 million. Liquid will face heavy opposition in Astralis, ENCE, FURIA, Vitality, FaZe, Natus Vincere, and others.

Here’s everything you need to know about ESL One Cologne.

Stream

ESL One Cologne will be broadcasted on ESL’s two Twitch channels since the event will feature simultaneous matches until the quarterfinals. You won’t want to miss any of the action on the main broadcast or the second channel.

Format

The competition will last six days, with the grand finals set to be played on July 7. Sixteen teams will fight for their share of the $300,000 prize pool and the champion will gain one point for the Intel Grand Slam. The team that wins four out of 10 big events run by ESL, IEM, or DreamHack this year will complete the Intel Grand Slam and win $1 million. Liquid are in the lead with three points, while Astralis have one. The Danes were the first team to win the Intel Grand Slam last year.

Teams were split into two groups and the tournament will feature a double-elimination GSL format. The first matches will be played as best-of-one games, but the rest of the competition consists of best-of-three series, aside from the best-of-five grand finals. The top three teams from each group advance to the playoffs. Group stage winners will automatically advance to the semifinals, while second and third-place teams will play in the quarterfinals. 

The division of the prize pool is yet to be announced by ESL.

Teams

Group A:

• Team Liquid: Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella
• FaZe Clan: Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Håvard “rain” Nygaard, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, and Filip “NEO” Kubski
• NRG: Ethan Arnold, Tarik Celik, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz
• FURIA: Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, Yuri “yuurih” Gomes, Andrei “arT” Piovezan, Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo, and Rinaldo “ableJ” Moda
• mousesports: Finn “karrigan” Andersen, Robin “ropz” Kool, Chris “chrisJ” de Jong, Özgür “woxic” Eker, and David “frozen” Čerňanský
• Natus Vincere: Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov, and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
• Renegades: Justin “jks” Savage, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad, Aaron “AZR” Ward, Jay “liazz” Tregillgas, and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai
• MVP PK: Park “zeff” Min-Seok, Son “xeta” Seon-Ho, Kim “stax” Gu-Taek, Lee “XigN” Hyun-Pyo, and Kim “HSK” Hae-Sung

Group B:

• Astralis: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
• Vitality: Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Nathan “NBK” Schmitt, Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, and Alex McMeekin
• ENCE: Aleksi “allu” Jalli, Jere “sergej” Jalo, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, Jani “Aerial” Jussila, and Sami “xSeveN” Laasanen
• MIBR: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Marcelo “coldzera” David, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles
• Fnatic: Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Richard “Xizt” Landström, Simon “twist” Eliasson, and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
• Ninjas in Pyjamas: Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, and Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora
• Heroic: Adam Friberg, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, Niels-Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, and Martin “stavn” Lund
• BIG: Fatih “gob b” Dayik, Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz, İsmailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş, Denis Howell, and Tizian Feldbusch

Schedule

ESL One Cologne will begin at 5am CT on July 2.

Tuesday, July 2

• 5am CT: Liquid vs. MVP PK
• 5am CT: Na´Vi vs. mousesports
• 6:10am CT: FaZe vs. Renegades
• 6:10am CT: FURIA vs. NRG
• 7:20am CT: Astralis vs. BIG
• 7:20am CT: MIBR vs. Fnatic
• 8:30am CT: Vitality vs. NiP
• 8:30am CT: ENCE vs. Heroic
• 9:40am CT: Group A lower bracket first match round one
• 9:40am CT: Group A upper bracket first semifinal
• 1:10pm CT: Group A lower bracket second match round one
• 1:10pm CT: Group A upper bracket second semifinal

Wednesday, July 3

• 5am CT: Group B lower bracket first match round one
• 5am CT: Group B lower bracket second match round one
• 8:30am CT: Group A lower bracket first semifinal
• 8:30am CT: Group B upper bracket first semifinal
• 12am CT: Group A lower bracket second semifinal
• 12am CT: Group B upper bracket second semifinal

Thursday, July 4

• 5am CT: Group B lower bracket first semifinal
• 5am CT: Group B lower bracket second semifinal
• 8:30am CT: Group A upper bracket final
• 8:30am CT: Group A lower bracket final
• 12am CT: Group B upper bracket final
• 12am CT: Group B lower bracket final

Friday, July 5

• 8am CT: First quarterfinal
• 11:50am CT: Second quarterfinal

Saturday, July 6

• 8am CT: First semifinal
• 11:50am CT: Second semifinal

Sunday, July 7

• 9am CT: Grand finals

Key storylines

Liquid will try to win their fourth major tournament in a row. The North Americans are on a streak of success after collecting victories at IEM Sydney in May, DreamHack Masters Dallas earlier in June, and ESL Pro League season nine last week. Liquid have the chance to grab the Intel Grand Slam if they succeed in Cologne.

Astralis are yet to bounce back since April when they finished fourth at BLAST Pro Series Miami. The Danes haven’t won a tournament since BLAST Pro Series São Paulo in March. Astralis watched Liquid become the best team in the world in June.

ENCE and Vitality are also hunting the No. 1 spot. Vitality had success over the last few months and convincingly won cs_summit four in May and ECS season seven in June, their first major win. ENCE have slowed down a bit after they defeated Astralis at BLAST Pro Series Madrid in May, but they’re still a scary team.

Natus Vincere, NRG, and MIBR will all play their first tournament after making roster changes. Na’Vi added Boombl4 in May after not qualifying for the ESL Pro League season nine finals. NRG replaced Damian “daps” Steele with stanislaw in June, but he wasn’t able to play at ESL Pro League season nine. MIBR made their roster change during the same tournament, replacing João “felps” Vasconcellos with LUCAS1 after getting eliminated early in the event.

FURIA surprised everybody in June after placing top four at DreamHack Masters Dallas and second at ECS season seven. They surpassed MIBR in HLTV’s rankings and became the best Brazilian CS:GO team.

Mousesports’ new roster continues to show promise, especially after they placed top four at ESL Pro League season nine. FaZe are getting better under the guidance of Filip “NEO” Kubski, but they took a step back at ESL Pro League season nine after surprisingly losing to G2 in the quarterfinals.

Fnatic are the best Swedish team at the moment. They finished second in two big tournaments: StarSeries i-League season seven in March and IEM Sydney in May. NiP are looking to boost their recent bad results. They added Plopski two weeks ago in place of Dennis Edman and are looking for a replacement for GeT_RiGhT after the StarLadder Major in August.