ESL will be hosting another Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament in Cologne with the best teams from around the world fighting for a community funded prize pool of $250,000.

Continuing ESL’s tradition of support for the CS:GO community, the announcement comes off the back of ESL’s record-breaking Counter Strike event in the Spodek Arena (Katowice, Poland) earlier this year.

The most recent CS:GO event in Katowice saw Polish team Virtus.pro leave with the trophy. The event reached an all time viewership peak for a Counter-Strike event with an unprecedented 3.5 million hours watched and over 6.2 million sessions.

Ulrich Schulze (Managing Director Pro Gaming at ESL) commented: “After our thrilling event in Katowice, we are excited to once again host a tournament with a community funded prize pool. eSports is a great place to be right now and with the community growing as it is, we’re happy to be given the opportunity to showcase the best in competitive gaming once again. The biggest gaming event in the world is the perfect place to host the best CS:GO teams from all over the globe and all of us here at ESL are looking very much forward to what gamescom has to offer.”

Up-and-coming teams will have the opportunity to qualify for the tournament. The competition line-up will include the top eight teams from the Katowice event alongside eight teams decided by regional qualifiers (six from Europe, one from North America and one from Oceania/Australia).

Invited Teams:

• Virtus.pro
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Team Dignitas
• TEAMGLOBAL (former LGB eSports)
• compLexity Gaming
• HellRaisers
• Team LDLC.com
• Fnatic

“Having watched the Finals in Katowice it will be absolutely brilliant to watch Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pyjamas take the stage again in Cologne. With exciting teams such as Team Dignitas and HellRaisers, who constantly improve their gameplay to surprise their opponents, the tournament looks to be fantastic. Can’t wait to see which teams qualify in the coming weeks. You definitely don’t want to miss this tournament.” said Alexander Nehr, Product Manager at ESL.