ESL One Cologne 2018

The event used Valve's Active Duty map pool. On April 20, 2018, Valve announced that revamped Dust II would be replacing Cobblestone in the Active Duty map pool.[5]

Maps

Two teams from the European qualifier moved on to the main event in Germany. North tore through the bracket after suffering an initial scare against the unknown WASD Sports while Gambit qualified through the loser's bracket after HellRaisers forfeited the series.[6]

EU Cologne 2018 Qualifier

First Round

Second Round

Third Round

Semifinals

Finals

Winner's Bracket

Gambit Esports

2

Valiance

0

Gambit Esports

0

HellRaisers

2

Space Soldiers

1

HellRaisers

2

HellRaisers

0

North

2

Heroic

1

Virtus.pro

2

Virtus.pro

1

North

2

North

2

WASD Sports

0

North

Q

Gambit Esports

Q

Loser's Bracket

Valiance

1

Space Soldiers

2

Virtus.pro

0

Space Soldiers

2

Space Soldiers

1

Heroic

0

Gambit Esports

2

HellRaisers

FF

WASD Sports

1

Gambit Esports

2

Gambit Esports

W

Heroic

2

One team from the North American qualifier was given a ticket to Cologne. Renegades dominated competition as the Australian team defeated OpTic Gaming in the finals.[7]

NA Cologne 2018 Qualifier

First Round

Second Round

Semifinals

Finals

Renegades

2

Luminosity Gaming

2

OpTic Gaming

W

eUnited

0

Renegades

2

OpTic Gaming

0

OpTic Gaming

2

NRG Esports

FF

compLexity Gaming

FF

compLexity G.

W

Renegades

3

OpTic Gaming

1

compLexity Gaming

FF

eUnited

W

OpTic Gaming

2

eUnited

2

eUnited

0

Luminosity Gaming

0

Luminosity Gaming

W

NRG eSports

FF

The Chinese powerhouse TyLoo looked to cruise its way to the main stage, but B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape pulled off a massive upset against MVP PK, the second seed in the qualifier, and then defeated the first seed TyLoo to qualify for the event.[8]

Asia Cologne 2018 Qualifier

First Round

Second Round

Third Round

Semifinals

Finals

Winner's Bracket

TyLoo

2

ArkAngel Pro Team

0

TyLoo

2

B.O.O.T-d[S]

1

B.O.O.T-d[S]

W

Eclipse

FF

TyLoo

2

VG.FlashGaming

1

The MongolZ

1

VG.Flash Gaming

2

VG.FlashGaming

2

Recca Esports

0

MVP PK

0

Recca Esports

2

TyLoo

2

B.O.O.T-d[S]

3

Loser's Bracket

ArkAngel Pro Team

W

Eclipse

FF

Recca Esports

2

ArkAngel Pro Team

0

Recca Esports

0

The MongolZ

B.O.O.T-d[S]

2

VG.FlashGaming

0

MVP PK

2

B.O.O.T-d[S]

2

B.O.O.T-d[S]

2

MVP PK

1

GG.BET Majestic would determine the final team in Cologne 2018. Gambit Esports and North were invited, but since the two teams had qualified for Cologne, two other teams would take their places. Team EnVyUs and AGO Gaming were two runner-ups for the European side, but both teams could not attend, so ENCE eSports would take North's spot. AVANGAR took Gambit's spot.[9]

GG.BET Cologne 2018 Qualifier

	First round					Semifinals					Finals
		ALTERNATE aTTaX	1
		AVANGAR	0
							ALTERNATE aTTaX	0
							Team Spirit	2
		Team Spirit	1
		ENCE eSports	0
												Team Spirit	0
											ENCE eSports	2
		AVANGAR	1
		ENCE eSports	2
							ALTERNATE aTTaX	0
							ENCE eSports	2

	Loser's Eighths					Loser's Quarterfinals					Playoff Qualifier
						3	mousesports	0
	8	ENCE eSports	2			8	ENCE eSports	2
	5	Ninjas in Pyjamas	0								8	ENCE eSports	1
											2	Natus Vincere	2
						4	Cloud9	0
	6	Gambit Esports	0			2	Natus Vincere	2
	2	Natus Vincere	2

Astralis came in as the best team in the world and proved its dominance by easily handling ENCE eSports. Cloud9 had Martin "STYKO" Styk come in as a stand-in as the team struggled to find a permanent replacement for Pujan "FNS" Mehta and after STYKO was removed from the mousesports active lineup. Although STYKO struggled somewhat, Cloud9 had no problem taking care of Ninjas in Pyjamas, as the Swedes had only a few highlights in the game. mousesports also had a new player on the team after replacing STYKO with Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski, as Snax left the legendary Polish squad Virtus.pro. However, mousesports did not need Snax to shine as mousesports easily took down Gambit Esports. In the first upset of the day, G2 Esports took down the rising Natus Vincere in a very close match as the French were able to overcome a 9–0 deficit as Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux shined. In the first best of three, Astralis was able to stifle a Cloud9 comeback on the first map and then erased all hopes in the second map with a 16–1 win as Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz dominated the field. G2 continued to crawl its way through the winner's bracket as Kenny "kennyS" Schrub showed why he was considered the best AWPer one time. Both G2 and Astralis secures spots in the playoffs. In the loser's bracket, ENCE pulled off a massive upset as Aleksi "allu" Jalli was able to completely thrash his former team and the Ninjas in Pyjamas were eliminated. Gambit had the unfortunate luck to run into a top three team in the first round of loser's as Gambit could do nothing to stop the power of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, who many are calling the world's best player. Gambit was eliminated. ENCE somehow managed to pull off an even bigger upset against mousesports by sweeping the decorated European squad in two close maps as allu took revenge on another one of his former teams. Natus Vincere and Cloud9 were also part of a very close series, but it was s1mple to outduel Timothy "autimatic" Ta to eliminate Cloud9. In the winner's finals match, G2 made a massive comeback against the world's best, but Astralis was able to take the map into overtime. Astralis took that small wave of momentum into the next map and finished off G2 with ease to guarantee a spot in the semifinals. ENCE continued its Cinderella story as it took the first map against Na'Vi. In the second map, Na'Vi looked to easily take it, but Jere "sergej" Salo was rolling as ENCE started to make a comeback; however, Na'Vi was bailed out by s1mple and Denis "electronic" Sharipov and Na'Vi scraped by and then easily took the third map to move on to the playoffs.

Group A Results

Group A matches
Astralis	16	Nuke	5	ENCE eSports
Cloud9	16	Inferno	3	Ninjas in Pyjamas
mousesports	16	Dust II	8	Gambit Esports
Natus Vincere	14	Inferno	16	G2 Esports
Astralis	16	Mirage	12	Cloud9
Astralis	16	Overpass	1	Cloud9
Astralis	–	Inferno	–	Cloud9
mousesports	14	Dust II	16	G2 Esports
mousesports	16	Mirage	10	G2 Esports
mousesports	9	Inferno	16	G2 Esports
ENCE eSports	16	Inferno	6	Ninjas in Pyjamas
ENCE eSports	16	Train	2	Ninjas in Pyjamas
ENCE eSports	–	Nuke	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Gambit Esports	6	Overpass	16	Natus Vincere
Gambit Esports	5	Train	16	Natus Vincere
Gambit Esports	–	Inferno	–	Natus Vincere
mousesports	17	Inferno	19	ENCE eSports
mousesports	12	Mirage	16	ENCE eSports
mousesports	–	Dust II	–	ENCE eSports
Cloud9	14	Inferno	16	Natus Vincere
Cloud9	12	Overpass	16	Natus Vincere
Cloud9	–	Train	–	Natus Vincere
Astralis	19	Dust II	16	G2 Esports
Astralis	16	Nuke	4	G2 Esports
Astralis	–	Overpass	–	G2 Esports
ENCE eSports	16	Dust II	14	Natus Vincere
ENCE eSports	14	Mirage	16	Natus Vincere
ENCE eSports	7	Nuke	16	Natus Vincere

	Loser's Eighths					Loser's Quarterfinals					Playoff Qualifier
						7	BIG	2
	8	B.O.O.T-d[S]	0			5	Renegades	1
	5	Renegades	2								7	BIG	2
											4	mibr	1
						4	mibr	2
	6	North	2			6	North	1
	2	Team Liquid	0

FaZe kicked off group B with a closer-than-expected match against B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape. The two top five players on FaZe, Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Håvard "rain" Nygaard, were able to carry their team to an easy terrorist side to send the team from Singapore to the loser's bracket. mibr made its Global Offensive debut after signing one of CS:GO's most successful cores, but the legendary Brazilian brand struggled against the Noah "Nifty" Francis-lead Renegades. However, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's team showed signs of its old self: making improbable comebacks. Despite Renegades's 6–0 start and 10-5 halftime score, Marcelo "coldzera" David and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga showed why they were ranked as the best and third best players in 2017. Fnatic vs. North showcased two teams who had been struggling. Fnatic started out strong, but North winning five rounds in a row to start the second half suddenly made the game close. In the end, Fnatic was able to clutch out the 30th round to advance in the winner's bracket as Jesper "JW" Wecksell showed signs of the 2015 Fnatic days. BIG seemed eager to play in front of its home crowd and after picking up Owen "smooya" Butterfield, the team showed rapid paces of improvement. This showed in the match against Team Liquid, North America's best team as BIG was able to completely run over Liquid's defense. Although Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski topped the scoreboard out of all the ten players, the rest of his Liquid teammates struggled. After having never beaten any of FalleN's teams in his career, Finn "karrigan" Andersen found his second series win in a row in two relatively close maps as surprisingly karrigan topped the scoreboard over his superstars. In the other winner's match, Fnatic was able streak away with the series win after a close first half on the first map as the Swedes advance to the playoffs. In the loser's side, Renegades made quick work of B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape and eliminated the Singaporeans. Team Liquid struggled heavily at the event after falling to the declining North, even after a solid third-place finish at ESL One Belo Horizonte and a second-place finish at ECS Season 5. However, the American team fell to Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen's team and was ultimately eliminated. In a very tense best of three, it was the Australians and the Germans to provide the best series of the group stage. Renegades and BIG took one map each, but the third map was a toss-up. In the end BIG to end up on top in overtime behind Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz's 31 kills. Although not as exciting, North and mibr played a close best of three that went all three maps, but it was the star dup of fer and coldzera to outduel Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså and North was eliminated. In the maps they won, the players of FaZe completely dominated Fnatic. The Swedes were able to take a map, but the end result was not close. The final decider match ended up being a thriller. BIG and mibr were able to split the first two maps at the same score. The third map went to double overtime and mibr looked to take it. However, BIG was able to shut down mibr's offense and BIG would face G2 Esports in front of its home crowd. With mibr's exit, the two-time defending champions of ESL One Cologne was out of the tournament.

Group B Results

Group B matches
FaZe Clan	16	Dust II	9	B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape
mibr	16	Cache	13	Renegades
Fnatic	16	Inferno	14	North
Team Liquid	7	Dust II	16	BIG
FaZe Clan	16	Dust II	9	mibr
FaZe Clan	16	Mirage	12	mibr
FaZe Clan	–	Train	–	mibr
Fnatic	16	Cache	10	BIG
Fnatic	16	Train	4	BIG
Fnatic	–	Overpass	–	BIG
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	8	Cache	16	Renegades
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	7	Train	16	Renegades
B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape	–	Inferno	–	Renegades
North	19	Train	16	Team Liquid
North	16	Inferno	11	Team Liquid
North	–	Nuke	–	Team Liquid
BIG	13	Dust II	16	Renegades
BIG	16	Train	12	Renegades
BIG	16	Inferno	17	Renegades
mibr	14	Mirage	16	North
mibr	16	Overpass	9	North
mibr	16	Inferno	12	North
FaZe Clan	16	Overpass	4	Fnatic
FaZe Clan	11	Mirage	16	Fnatic
FaZe Clan	16	Inferno	1	Fnatic
BIG	16	Cache	9	mibr
BIG	9	Overpass	16	mibr
BIG	22	Inferno	20	mibr

July 6, 2018 13:25 CET	Report	Fnatic	0–2	Natus Vincere	Lanxess Arena, Cologne
		Score by game:
			12–16	Natus Vincere won Overpass
			10–16	Natus Vincere won Train

While Natus Vincere was the favorite to win the series, Fnatic also had a good chance to steal the series away. However, the legendary Swedish brand struggled as Na'Vi took ten of the first eleven rounds before Fnatic managed to salvage a few rounds, but Fnatic was starting on the more favored side and Na'Vi looked to easily take the first map. Na'Vi eventually reached a 15-4 scoreling, but Fnatic started a massive comeback by getting eight unanswered rounds. Na'Vi would later close out the map, but Fnatic had momentum going into the next map. Na'Vi would shut down any momentum Fnatic had as the CIS team took the last six rounds of the first half. Fnatic would try to start another comeback, but it was too late as Na'Vi closed out the series, led by Egor "flamie" Vasilyev's 54 kills.

July 6, 2018 16:45 CET	Report	BIG	2–0	G2 Esports	Lanxess Arena, Cologne
		Score by game:
		BIG won Cache	19–7
BIG won Dust II			16–1

The dark horse of the tournament made it to the Lanxess Arena in front of its home crowd against G2's new lineup. The two sides would be close in the first map on Cache in both halves, as BIG won the first half 8-7 and G2 won the second half 8–7 to send the game into overtime. In the end, it was BIG to pull off what some would consider an upset over the French despite kennyS's massive 42 kills. The first map was a thriller, but the second map on Dust II would be the complete opposite. The Germans went up 13-0 before G2 even got a round on the board. BIG would push that one round loss off to the side and simply close out the game 16–1 to cruise to the semifinals, as smooya lead his team with 48 kills in the series.

July 7, 2018 13:00 CET	Report	Astralis	1–2	Natus Vincere	Lanxess Arena, Cologne
		Score by game:
			13–16	Natus Vincere won Overpass
Astralis won Nuke			16–6
			13–16	Natus Vincere won Inferno

Na'Vi went up against the favorites of the tournament in the first semifinals. After the Danes took a 3–0 lead, Na'Vi went up 7-3 before Astralis could respond. At the end of the half, Na'Vi was up 9–6. However, Astralis was able to go up 10-9 and then 11-10 before taking a round loss that would ruin its economy. The teams would then go back and forth when Astralis made it a one-round game at 14–13. However, Na'Vi was able to shut down Astralis in the next round and then time out the terrorist side to take the first map. Astralis would fight back in the next map on Nuke as the world's number one took a 7–0 lead before Na'Vi got one on the board. However, Na'Vi would struggle as Astralis would easily take the second map despite s1mple's 24 kills. The third map went to Inferno. Na'Vi took a 10-5 halftime lead and then took the second half pistol round, so the CIS team looked to easily go up to at least a 13–5 lead. However, a force buy from the Danes proved successful as suddenly Astralis was only down one round after winning five unanswered. However, Na'Vi responded with four rounds of its own to get to map and series point. Astralis would take three more rounds. In the 29th round, Na'Vi started strong as Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev took down two Astralis players, but Astralis took down Edward and s1mple to make a 3 vs. 3. However, Astralis was not expecting flamie to be hiding and flamie took down two. Na'Vi would take down the last player to secure a spot in the finals. In a map in which the world's best player in s1mple struggle, Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko – a player who normally struggles to find kills – knocked down 31 kills to barely push Na'Vi to victory.

July 7, 2018 17:35 CET	Report	FaZe Clan	1–2	BIG	Lanxess Arena, Cologne
		Score by game:
		FaZe Clan won Dust II	19–17
			13–16	BIG won Train
			6–16	BIG won Inferno

In the first map, FaZe looked to easily take down BIG after taking an 11–4 lead, including winning seven straight rounds. FaZe won the following pistol round, but BIG was able to counter. FaZe struggled to get rounds, but eventually reached map point at 15–13. BIG was led by Fatih "gob b" Dayik to take the last two rounds in regulation to send the game to overtime. After going back and forth, FaZe was able to string two rounds together to take Dust II. The next map went to Train. BIG took an early 6–1 lead, but FaZe won the remaining eight rounds of the half to take a 9–6 lead. However, BIG's second half would be on the counter-terrorist side, which is considered to be the more favored side on Train. FaZe was able to win four out of five rounds in the middle of the half, but BIG took care of business and closed another close game. The final map went to Inferno. BIG took a massive 12–3 lead; unlike the other games in the semifinals, no comeback happened despite FaZe's best efforts and the home crowd favorites pulled off a massive upset.

July 8, 2018 14:15 CET	Report	Natus Vincere	3–1	BIG	Lanxess Arena, Cologne
		Score by game:
		Natus Vincere won Overpass	16–10
			11–16	BIG won Dust II
Natus Vincere won Train			16–10
Natus Vincere won Inferno			16–8

The grand finals started off on Overpass. After Na'Vi took a 4–2 lead, the rounds went back and forth and the half ended at 8–7 in favor of Na'Vi. Na'Vi went on the defensive afterwards and shut down most of the tactics BIG had, as the Germans could only put together three rounds, as Na'Vi slid into a 16–10 win. Dust II was a tad bit closer. Na'Vi took a 6–3 lead going into round ten, but BIG was able to figure things out as its terrorist side gave the German team an 8–7 lead. The two teams traded four rounds each in the second half, but BIG was able to pull out four more afterwards and evened the series at one. BIG once again took an 8–7 lead heading to the second half and even took a 10–7 lead. However, Na'Vi was on the more favored side and after a weak buy win, Na'Vi took that momentum and shut down BIG's offense to take the series lead. Inferno was the next map and once again there was an 8–7 lead, this time in favor of Na'Vi. However, on a map that is considered to be slightly terrorist sided, Na'Vi made it look lopsided as the CIS team took down the defense of BIG. BIG was able to salvage one round, but electronic's performance on the map outshined most of BIG's roster. After the match, s1mple was awarded as the MVP of the tournament.