Maps

ESL One Cologne 2015 Bottom 8

Regional Qualifiers

Teams[edit]

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Team Kinguin partner with G2 Esports and the players played under the G2 banner.^[3]

After signing with G2 Esports, then known as Gamers2, Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom leaves the team and joins Titan while Swiss player Mathieu "Maniac" Quiquerez was out of Titan.^[4] Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad is then brought over from the Copenhagen Wolves to take ScreaM's place.^[5]

The roster of Team eBettle played under the name Vexed Gaming due to the organization wanting to distance its eSports and betting operations.^[6]

mousesports sign the young Bosnian Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and drop Timo "Spiidi" Richter from the active roster.^[7]

Team Liquid signs Spencer "Hiko" Martin and coach James "GBJame^s" O'Connor and release Kyle "flowsicK" Mendez.^[8]

Team Dignitas release Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen and bring in Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski from SK Gaming for an undisclosed amount.^[9]

Pre-Major Ranking[edit]

The HLTV.org October 26, 2015 rankings of teams in the major is displayed below. The ranking was the final one released before the major. It included tournaments up to PGL CS:GO Championship Series: Season 1, in which Team SoloMid defeated Virtus.pro in the finals, and DreamHack Open London 2015, in which Team EnVyUs defeated Team SoloMid in the finals.^[10]

HLTV.org Pre-Major Ranking

World Ranking
Place	Team	Points	Move†
1	Team SoloMid	892
2	Fnatic	888
3	Virtus.pro	805
4	Team EnVyUs	778
5	Ninjas in Pyjamas	440
6	Natus Vincere	432
7	Cloud9	279
8	Team Dignitas	214
9	G2 Esports	209
10	Counter Logic Gaming	208
11	Team Liquid	207	1
12	Titan	203	1
13	mousesports	197	2
14	Flipsid3 Tactics	183
15	Luminosity Gaming	175
18	Vexed Gaming	102

^†Change since October 19, 2015 ranking

Group Stage[edit]

Group A[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Luminosity Gaming	2	0	32	24	+8	6
2	Fnatic	2	1	61	44	+17	6
3	Cloud9	1	2	45	61	-16	3
4	Vexed Gaming	0	2	23	32	-9	0

Group A Matches
Fnatic	1	0	Vexed Gaming
Luminosity Gaming	1	0	Cloud9
Cloud9	1	0	Vexed Gaming
Fnatic	0	1	Luminosity Gaming
Fnatic	2	0	Cloud9

Group A Scores

Group A Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	16	Cobblestone	10	Vexed Gaming
Luminosity Gaming	16	Dust II	11	Cloud9
Cloud9	16	Cobblestone	13	Vexed Gaming
Fnatic	13	Inferno	16	Luminosity Gaming
Fnatic	16	Dust II	6	Cloud9
Fnatic	16	Overpass	12	Cloud9
Fnatic	–	Cache	–	Cloud9

Fnatic vs Vexed Gaming[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The first game of the major began with the defending champions, Fnatic, against Vexed Gaming. Fnatic pulled off one of the biggest comebacks at the ESL One Cologne 2015 grand finals against Team EnVyUs and eventually took the title. In addition, it was the only team to win more than one major title (3 titles) and the only team to win consecutive majors and had the opportunity to win three straight titles at this major. Vexed Gaming was a team that had made it to the majors but never qualified for the playoffs. It defeated Skyred and HellRaisers to qualify for the tournament. Only 1% of Valve's Pick'Em predictions had Vexed upsetting Fnatic. Fnatic started with a pistol round win, the first round, to take a 1-0 lead. Vexed nearly took the second round with limited gear as it took two players down early and was in a 3 vs 1 advantage against Robin "flusha" Rönnquist. However, flusha was able to clutch it and give Fnatic a second round. Fnatic took a third round but Vexed was able to take a 4-3 lead four rounds later. In the fifth round, Fnatic planned to take the B bombsite. The two teams traded two kills each. Bartosz "Hyper" Wolny was able to win a duel against Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson but Fnatic captain Markus "pronax" Wallsten was able to trade. Karol "rallen" Radowicz then took down pronax. Jesper "JW" Wecksell took down rallen with just 6 seconds left and planted the bomb with four seconds. JW was unable to win the 1 vs 2 as Piotr "peet" Ćwikliński took JW down and Vexed took a fifth round. Vexed then went on to take five more rounds to Fnatic's two and the Poles took a surprising 10 to 5 lead at the half against the number two team going into the major. Vexed then crumbled as its offense could not match up to its defense and Fnatic's counter-terrorist side proved to be too strong. Fnatic went on an 11 to 0 run and closed out the game 16-10. flusha lead all players with 27 kills and KRiMZ had 23. Damian "Furlan" Kisłowski of Vexed had 23 kills but it was not enough to take down the Swedes.

Luminosity Gaming vs. Cloud9[edit]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Playing in its third consecutive major, the roster of Luminosity Gaming (LG) placed 5th place at the previous two majors. However, it rose very quickly ever since its debut on the international scene at ESL One Katowice 2015 and was the first South American team to play at the major. Cloud9 defeated Team ROCCAT and Team Dignitas to qualify for the major; the American team had consistently qualified for the major. The game was fairly close throughout the map. Despite being legends, LG only had 21% of Pick'Ems in its favor. LG took an early 5-0 lead before Cloud9 took its first round. In the seventh round, Cloud9 quickly took middle with three players but LG captain Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo took down Mike "shroud" Grzesiek to make it two players. Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir took down Marcelo "coldzera" David after coldzera missed a shot on him. Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert found Lucas "steel" Lopes but Fernando "fer" Alvarenga found Cloud9 captain Sean "seang@res" Gares to make it a 3 vs 3 situation. n0thing took down fer. Ricardo "boltz" Prass found Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham but was immediately traded out by n0thing. FalleN attempted to save his gun but fREAKAZOiD was able to take him down. Cloud9 made it 7-7 going into the last round of the half. In that round, coldzera picked off seang@res in middle but the rest of Cloud9 rushed towards the A bombsite and planted the bomb. coldzera found shroud, n0thing, and fREAKAZOiD and steel took down Skadoodle and LG maintained a one-round lead going into halftime. Cloud9 took the pistol round and then took its first lead at 11-8. LG was forced to have just pistols (comparatively much less optimal weapons) in the 20th round after losing a gun round. n0thing and Skadoodle killed boltz and coldzera, respectively but steel was able to take down shroud. fer then picked off n0thing while running towards the A bombsite but Skadoodle was able to trade him out. steel took shroud's rifle and was able to kill seang@ares and to make it a 2 vs 2 scenario. steel then took down fREAKAZOiD in the B bombiste and Skadoodle from the other side of the map and LG won the round despite investing nearly nothing into the round. From there, LG went on a seven-round win streak and took the game 16-11. coldzera had the most kills with 31, with the next closest being seang@res of Cloud9 at 20. LG would face Fnatic in the winner's match.

Cloud9 vs. Vexed Gaming[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

The loser's match pitted Vexed Gaming and Cloud9. Cloud9 was the heavy favorite in this match. Cloud9 took an early 2-0 lead but Vexed was able to win an economy round to get the third round. The teams continued to trade round and Cloud9 took an 8–7 lead going into the second half. Vexed won the pistol round to tie the game at 8 and took the lead after Furlan's triple kill. Vexed extended its lead to 12–8. Cloud9 finally took a ninth round after shroud's three kills. Cloud9 was able close the gap to one round. In the 24th round, seang@res flashed and killed Hyper with a P90, a submachine gun that is considered to be worse than a rifle. However, still with the P90, the Cloud9 in game leader was abel to mow down Furlan, rallen, and peet before being taken down by Dominik "GruBy" Świderski but shroud was able to trade him out and tie the game. Vexed was only able to just find one more round and Cloud9's defense held up and won 16-13. Hyper and Furlan had 21 kills each for Vexed, but shroud had 25 kills and fREAKAZOiD had 24. Vexed was eliminated from the tournament.

Fnatic vs. Luminosity Gaming[edit]

Casters: moses & Semmler

The defending champions went up against the Brazilian hope on Inferno. Fnatic was chosen by 99% of Pick'Em predictions, thus making the Swedes heavy favorites to win group A. Fnatic took the pistol round and another three rounds and was likely to take a fifth round as LG was limited to just pistols. flusha found steel through the smoke but coldzera took down Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer to make it even. FalleN managed to find two kills on JW and pronax before being traded out by KRiMZ. KRiMZ took down boltz and flusha spotted the two remaining LG players. However, coldzera found both Swedes and LG took its first round after defusing the bomb. Fnatic took a massive 7-2 lead before LG won five rounds in a row to tie the game at 7. Fnatic took the last round of the half and an 8-7 lead. Fnatic won the pistol round and the following round to make it 10-7. Fnatic went aggressive the following round and LG was able to punish the Swedish team for that and took the round. The two teams continued to trade rounds until LG took a 12-11 lead. In the 24th round, olofmeister pushed up onto the area called "Banana," the area between the terrorist spawn and the B bombsite. olofmeister only found one kill onto FalleN before being traded out by boltz. flusha attempted to retake the man advantage but fer was able to shut him down. boltz found pronax in Banana and the other two Fnatic members elected to back off and save their guns, giving LG a 13th round. Fnatic took a timeout and then tied the game at 13 rounds. LG was on a save and only had weak pistols and no kevlar armor. However, fer found pronax and rushed down to the A bombsite. steel found flusha and coldzera took down olofmeister trying to run him down. JW was overwhelmed and KRiMZ was forced to back off and save his gun. LG took the last three rounds of the game and upset the defending champions, 16-13. olofmeister had 25 kills and flusha had 24, but it fell short against coldzera's 26 kills and FalleN's 23 kills. LG picked up first seed, the biggest upset of the tournament, and a playoffs spot while Fnatic faced against Cloud9.

Fnatic vs. Cloud9[edit]

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Cloud9 started well after Skadoodle found three kills in the pistol round. Cloud9 took 3-0 but JW clutched a 1 vs 2 in the fourth round after with one bullet after n0thing and seang@res lined up. Fnatic proceeded to win five straight before Cloud9 won an economy round. Fnatic bit back and made it 9-4, cut Cloud9 took the last two rounds of the half to make it a close 9-6 game. The game be blown wide open after Fnatic put up a relentless offense and took seven straight and took the first map 16-6. In the second map on Overpass, Fnatic took an early 3-0 but Cloud9 took the first gun round. Cloud9 tied the game at 3. The two teams continued to trade rounds until Cloud9 burst out and took a 9-6 lead at the half. However, like the first map, Cloud9 struggled in the second half. Fnatic took the lead at 11-9 before Cloud9 picked up a first round. Cloud9 tied the game at 11 after fREAKAZOiD's triple kill. Cloud9 retook the lead at 12-11 but both teams were on very low money heading into the 24th round. In that round, olofmeister found the Cloud9 leader fairly early into the round. The remaining members of Cloud9 tried to push into the B bombsite, but pronax found shroud, n0thing, and Skadoodle and KRiMZ took down fREAKAZOiD and Fnatic broke the economy of Cloud9. Cloud9 could not get back to winning ways and Fnatic was able to obtain Legends status once again after taking down the American team 16-12. In the series, n0thing lead the way for Cloud9 with 35 kills and seang@res had 34, but KRiMZ had 44 kills and olofmeister had 39 kills as Fnatic made its way to the playoffs once again.

Group B[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Team SoloMid	2	0	32	12	+20	6
2	G2 Esports	2	1	69	61	+8	6
3	mousesports	1	2	61	71	-10	3
4	FlipSid3 Tactics	0	2	14	32	-18	0

Group B Matches
Team SoloMid	1	0	FlipSid3 Tactics
G2 Esports	1	0	mousesports
mousesports	1	0	FlipSid3 Tactics
Team SoloMid	1	0	G2 Esports
G2 Esports	2	1	mousesports

Group B Scores

Group B Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team SoloMid	16	Cache	6	FlipSid3 Tactics
G2 Esports	16	Inferno	8	mousesports
mousesports	16	Overpass	8	FlipSid3 Tactics
Team SoloMid	16	Dust II	6	G2 Esports
G2 Esports	19	Mirage	16	mousesports
G2 Esports	12	Inferno	16	mousesports
G2 Esports	16	Cache	5	mousesports

Team SoloMid vs. FlipSid3 Tactics[edit]

Casters: Sadokist & HenryG

Group B began with the number one Danish team and the number one HLTV.org ranked team of Team SoloMid against a top Ukrainian team of FlipSid3 Tactics. Team SoloMid (TSM) continued being denied a spot in the finals after placing third at ESL One Cologne 2015 and lost to Team EnVyUs. FlipSid3 placed 9th at the previous major and defeated Copenhagen Wolves twice to reach the major. TSM jumped to a 1-0 lead after FlipSid3 were tricked into thinking the bomb was planted on the B bombsite when it was on the A bombsite due to a TSM decoy grenade and the TSM captain, Finn "karrigan" Andersen, clutching a 1 vs 2 against Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov. TSM then took a massive 9-0 lead before FlipSid3 would get its first round. The Ukrainian side would just get one more round in the first half and a 2-13 deficit. The second half was slightly better but TSM was able to close it out with a 16-6 victory. Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin had 23 kills for Flipsid3 and Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk had 17, but those were the only two players to have a positive kills to death differential for Flipsid3. Meanwhile, Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann had 24 kills and karrigan had 19 kills for TSM to have an easy way to the winner's match of Group B.

G2 Esports vs. mousesports[edit]

Casters: ddk & natu

The fourth match of the major pitted G2 Esports and mousesports. G2, then under the Team Kinguin banner, placed fifth at the previous major, losing to TSM in the quarterfinals. mousesports defeated Winterfox and Team Liquid to qualify for the major but has had a history of struggling at the majors, including 13th place at the last major. G2 started with a 3-0 lead, but mousesports was able to win the first gun round. However, G2 reset mousesports's economy by winning the following round. G2 then jumped to a 6-1 lead before mousesports obtained a second round. In the next round, G2 set up to take the A bombsite. Chris "chrisJ" de Jong took down Håvard "rain" Nygaard but was traded out by Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad. Johannes "nex" Maget found Ricardo "fox" Pacheco as G2 was running into the bombsite. Denis "denis" Howell took down Dennis "dennis" Edman as the G2 player was attempting to plant the bomb, but denis was traded out by jkaem. Mikail "Maikelele" Bill took down nex to make it a 2 vs 2, but mousesports in-game leader Fatih "gob b" Dayik dropped down to trade him out. gob b then took down jkaem and mousesports avoided being reset. The German team was able to get to six rounds and was only in a three-round deficit heading into the second half. However, G2's defense appeared to outplay mousesport's offense and limited mousesports to just two rounds. G2 got the seven rounds it needed to win the game and took Inferno 16-8. gob b had 17 kills, but fox and dennis had 24 kills each. mousesports's star player Nikola "NiKo" Kovač only had 11 kills. G2 faced TSM in its next match.

mousesports vs. FlipSid3 Tactics[edit]

Casters: ddk & Fifflaren

mousesports and FlipSid3 Tactics both did not perform well in their respective matches. Both teams had a chance to redeem themselves on Overpass. mousesports started on the less favored side. However, FlipSid3 struggled again in the first half and the German team overran FlipSid3 and took a 12-3 lead into the halftime break. mousesports then easily closed it out with an additional four rounds despite FlipSid3 getting five rounds. Once again, WorldEdit showed up for his team with 22 kills and markeloff chimed in with 19, but the rest of their team did not, including the FlipSid3 captain Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy with just 8 kills. On the other side, NiKo and nex did well for their team with 27 kills each. mousesports would face the loser of TSM and G2. FlipSid3 was eliminated from the tournament.

Team SoloMid vs. G2 Esports[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Fifflaren

TSM and G2 struck to Dust II, historically a map TSM had innovated with its playstyle. TSM started well with a pistol round win and dupreeh found two kills in the second round. However, Maikelele was able to trade out dupreeh and René "cajunb" Borg to make it 2 vs 3 scenario. Maikelele and rain overwhelmed Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz behind them to even out the players. Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth killed rain trying to plant the bomb but Maikelele was able to trade him out. Maikelele was then able to win a duel against karrigan with just nine health points remaining and his ace won G2 the round. In the next round, with this time TSM on an economy round, the Danes were able to make it a 3 vs 3. Then in a 1 vs 1, jkaem attempted to take down dev1ce, who was on just four points of health and a pistol, and TSM set back G2. TSM jumped to a 6-1 lead before G2 found another. The half ended with a 10-5 lead for TSM. Although the halftime score was respectable for G2, TSM's offense in the second round proved to be relentless and went on a 7 to 1 run to win the game, 16-6. cajunb went big for his team with 24 kills and dupreeh had 21 kills. Everyone on G2 underperformed; Maikelele had 15 kills, but also had 16 deaths, to lead G2. G2 faced mousesports once again.

G2 Esports vs. mousesports[edit]

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

Unlike the other games in Group B, this series had close games. The first game was on Mirage. The half ended with an 8-7 advantage for mousesports. However, the second half went 8-7 in the favor of G2, ending regulation in a 15-15 score. In overtime, G2 appeared to see through gob b's calls and stormed through the German team to take the game 19-16. NiKo went big with 35 kills and chrisJ had 29, but Maikele's 34 and jkaem's 33 was able to help G2 push it over the edge for the win. The second game was on Inferno, the map mousesports was stomped on by G2 just two days earlier. mousesports appeared to learn from its past mistakes and NiKo showed up for his team with 24 kills and mousesports was able to win the map 16-12. fox was the only one on G2 to have a positive kill to death differential despite the game being close throughout. Cache was a different story in this series but was similar to the other matches in Group B – a blowout win. G2 had an 11 to 4 lead at the half and limited mousesports to just one round in the second half to win 16-5. It also stifled NiKo to just 10 kills. jkaem had 22 kills and rain had 21 kills to help G2 to the playoffs. Overall, NiKo had 69 kills and chrisJ had 62 kills as the two non-Germans on the German team did well, but the rest of their team struggled. Meanwhile, jkaem had 74 kills and fox had 62 kills to lead G2 in the three game set. G2 entered the playoffs second place in its group and mousesports was eliminated.

Group C[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Virtus.pro	2	0	35	22	+13	6
2	Ninjas in Pyjamas	2	1	61	42	+19	6
3	Titan	1	2	38	61	-23	3
4	Team Liquid	0	2	26	35	-9	0

Group C Matches
Virtus.pro	1	0	Team Liquid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	0	1	Titan
Ninjas in Pyjamas	1	0	Team Liquid
Virtus.pro	1	0	Titan
Titan	0	2	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Group C Scores

Group C Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	19	Cobblestone	15	Team Liquid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	13	Cobblestone	16	Titan
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	11	Team Liquid
Virtus.pro	16	Train	7	Titan
Titan	14	Cache	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Titan	1	Dust II	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Titan	–	Overpass	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Virtus.pro vs. Team Liquid[edit]

Casters: moses & Semmler

Virtus.pro was one of the few teams that had played in every major and made it to the playoffs the last six times. At the previous major, it placed third after defeating in the Ninjas in Pyjamas and losing to Fnatic, the eventual champions. Team Liquid defeated Renegades twice in the major qualifier to make it to Cluj-Napoca. 98% of Pick'Em predictions favored the Polish side in this game. The game took place on Cobblestone, a map in which Virtus.pro was widely known for and a map in which Team Liquid defeated Fnatic on. Virtus.pro (VP) took an early 3-0 lead after winning the pistol and the anti-economy rounds. Liquid tied the game back up at 3. In the seventh round, Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski caught Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella trying to jump in as a flashbang from a Liquid player popped and Paweł "byali" Bieliński took down Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski shortly after. pashaBiceps found Eric "adreN" Hoag through the edge of the smoke and spotted Spencer "Hiko" Martin but Hiko was finally able to put pashaBiceps down. Hiko then took down byali with about 37 seconds left in the round, but the teamwork of Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas took down Hiko and Jacob "FugLy" Medina and VP once again took the lead. Liquid was able to win the eighth round and reset VP's economy. Liquid then extended its lead to 8-4 before VP would pick up a fifth round. Each team took one round each afterwards and Liquid took a 9-6 lead into the half. The American squad started with a three-round winning streak in the second half and had a 12-6 lead. VP took three rounds for itself. Liquid won a 13th round. In the 23rd round, Liquid had just won the previous round but had a worse buy than VP and was in danger of being reset in its economy. VP committed to the A bombsite and the two teams traded kills. However, Snax and pashaBiceps quickly found two kills and then ELiGE was left in a 1 vs 3 and was forced to save his gun. The Polish veterans tied the score at 13 and then both teams reached 15 rounds to send the game to overtime. VP swept the overtime rounds and won the game 19-15. Snax had 34 kills and TaZ had 26 kills while ELiGE had 29 kills and FugLy had 24 for Liquid.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Titan[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Fifflaren

The second match of Group C pitted the Swedish powerhouse Ninjas in Pyjamas and the French and Belgian veterans in Titan. The Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) placed fifth at the previous major, losing to VP in the quarterfinals. Titan was also at the previous major, but was upset by the Renegades in the group stage. NiP was by far the favorite to win the match. However, Titan started with a strong 8-0 lead under the leadership of Titan's captain Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans and the fragging power of Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux. NiP finally got a round in the 9th round, but Titan's defense stayed strong and finished with a 13-2 halftime lead. All seemed over until NiP started mounting a comeback. In the 25th round, Titan had a limited buy while Ni{ had a full buy. Ex6TenZ found Christopher "GeT RiGhT" Alesund fairly early and then the Titan leader found NiP's leader Richard "Xizt" Landström and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy took down Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg. Although Ex6tenz was taken down by Adam "friberg" Friberg, Richard "shox" Papillon took down Aleksi "allu" Jalli, essentially securing the round for Titan. NiP was able to take three more rounds, but Titan closed it out after Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom took down f0rest. f0rest lead the way for NiP with 21 kills but friberg struggled with 15 kills. Meanwhile, shox had 23 kills and three Titan players sat on 22 kills to secure the upset win. Titan went on to face VP.

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team Liquid[edit]

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

Team Liquid nearly took down VP in the initial matches of the group stage while NiP was upset by Titan after being blown out in the first half of that game. Liquid started well after taking a 3-0 lead. In the first gun round, ELiGE found Xizt early into the round, but f0rest took down FugLy about 20 seconds later. f0rest then took down ELiGE but adreN was there to trade. friberg took down adreN in a duel and Hiko found allu, but friberg and GeT_RiGhT boxed in nitr0 and Hiko was left in a 1 vs 2. friberg took down Hiko on the A bombsite from middle and NiP took its first round. The Swedes then went on a 9 to 2 run and took home the first half 10-5. Liquid took the pistol round after nitr0 clutched it against GeT_RiGhT, who was defusing the bomb and needed less than one second more to complete the defuse and give NiP the round. Liquid got to 8 rounds heading into the 19th round. In that round, nitr0 entered the A bombsite and took down Xizt in the stairs position as allu failed to trade as the Finnish player missed a shot. ELiGE found f0rest and GeT_RiGhT traded the American player out. However, adreN was able to trade him out and FugLy found allu in the counter-terrorist spawn. friberg attempted to sneak in but nitr0 was waiting and Liquid won the important first gun round. The game was tied at 10 but Liquid failed to find much success after. NiP seemed to change its setups after game was tied at 11. The Swedes still had a chance at keeping its top eight hopes alive after taking the game 16-11. nitr0 had the best performance for Liquid with 22 kills while ELiGE and Hiko struggled with 14 and 11 kills, respectively. f0rest had 28 kills for NiP and Xizt had 25 while allu struggled with just 11 kills. NiP went on to face the loser of VP and Titan and Liquid was eliminated from the tournament.

Virtus.pro vs. Titan[edit]

Casters: moses & Sadokist

VP and Titan struck to Train, a map VP historically was famous for, especially on its terrorist side, the less favorable side on this map. VP elected to start on the counter-terrorist side. VP started with a 5-0 lead but Titan did close the gap by taking a round. However, VP took a round back to reset Titan's economy, but Titan won an economy round, setting back VP's economy. In the 9th round, pashaBiceps took down shox but SmithZz took down TaZ trying to get aggressive. Snax found ScreaM with a shotgun – a gun in which one needs to be very up close with in order to inflict good damage – and Ex6tenz had a chance to trade him out, but the Belgian player missed a flurry of shots and Snax was able to take him down. SmithZz was able to trade him out and Rpk took down Snax but byali took down SmithZz with just 13 seconds to go. VP captain Filip "NEO" Kubski inflicted lots of damage onto Rpk but the French player took him down from the other side of the map with 7 seconds to go. The clock ticked to zero and VP won the round, despite Rpk killing byali a second after the timer expired. Titan seemed to find its footing late into the half and brought the score to a close 9-6 disadvantage. However, VP showed why its terrorist side on the map was to be reckoned with as its offense took home 7 rounds and Titan was only able to find 1. VP moved on to the playoffs and Titan went on to face NiP in the decider series.

Titan vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

This series had two different storylines to it, all ending in the same result. The first game went to Cache, a map that NiP is considered to be one of the, if not the best, teams on. However, Titan put up a fight. NiP took down Titan for three rounds before Titan took a round after shox's four kills. Titan eventually took a 9-6 halftime lead. Titan then had a massive 7 round lead after winning the pistol and anti-economy rounds. In the 20th round, with Titan leading 13-6, NiP barely invested money into the round as it was saving money for the following round, thus making a 14th round very likely for the French side. However, Xizt brought down a low-health SmithZz and then followed onto shox before ScreaM took him down. Rpk brought down GeT_RiGhT and Titan executed towards the A bombsite. friberg took down ScreaM from the back of the bombsite and allu brought down Ex6tenz. Rpk traded allu, but f0rest took Rpk down and NiP picked up an important round. The game was eventually tied at 14 rounds. In the 29th round, NiP had GeT_RiGhT on a shotgun while Titan had rifles on every player. Xizt found shox with roughly a minute to go and allu took down SmithZz in a battle of the AWPs. allu then followed up on Ex6tenz and ScreaM. Rpk took down allu but friberg quickly traded him out. Titan was severely low on money the last round and NiP defense did not flounder and the Swedish team took the first map. Rpk, who was arguably the best Counter-Strike: Source player of all time, had 28 kills and shox had 32 kills, but it was not enough as SmithZz only had 11; on NiP, f0rest had 26 kills. The second map had Titan underperform heavily. NiP ran over the Frenchmen on Dust II and started with an 8-0 lead. Titan would take the 9th round, but that would be the only win it would get as NiP won nearly all exchanges and clutches. NiP won the game 16-1 after allu killed ScreaM and SmithZz. Rpk lead his team, but only with 10 kills as f0rest and allu lead NiP with 22 and 20 kills, respectively. GeT_RiGhT barely saw any action as he had 9 kills but only 4 deaths. Titan's captain, Ex6tenz, had one of the worst games in his career as he ended with just one kill while dying every single round. NiP moved on the playoffs and Titan was eliminated. This would be the last time Titan as a franchise would appear at a major as the organization ceased operations and let go of all its players on January 13, 2016, hours before its team was supposed to play in a US$200,000 tournament.^[11] ScreaM, however, said the roster would stay together.^[12] The roster is then acquired by G2 Esports after FaZe Clan bought out the old G2 roster.^[13][14]

Group D[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Team EnVyUs	2	0	32	15	+17	6
2	Natus Vincere	2	1	67	61	+6	6
3	Counter Logic Gaming	1	2	61	72	-11	3
4	Team Dignitas	0	2	20	32	-12	0

Group D Matches
Team EnVyUs	1	0	Team Dignitas
Natus Vincere	1	0	Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming	1	0	Team Dignitas
Team EnVyUs	1	0	Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere	2	1	Counter Logic Gaming

Group D Scores

Group D Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	16	Cobblestone	6	Team Dignitas
Natus Vincere	16	Cobblestone	12	Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming	16	Cobblestone	14	Team Dignitas
Team EnVyUs	16	Cobblestone	9	Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere	16	Train	9	Counter Logic Gaming
Natus Vincere	10	Cobblestone	16	Counter Logic Gaming
Natus Vincere	16	Inferno	8	Counter Logic Gaming

Team EnVyUs vs. Team Dignitas[edit]

Casters: HenryG & Sadokist

The first match of Group D put together the best French team of Team EnVyUs and the second best Danish team of Team Dignitas. EnVyUs was a finalist at the last major after finishing first in its group after it defeated Flipsid3 Tactics and Luminosity Gaming and then defeated Natus Vincere and Team SoloMid in the playoffs and had a good lead against Fnatic in the first game of the final before blowing the lead and then being blown out in the second game. Dignitas defeated Team Immunity twice to qualify for the major. EnVyUs showed why it was a finalist at the last major. Dignitas began with a 3-0 lead and then EnVyUs tied it up at 3. The game was then tied at 5 with Dignitas coming off a win in the last round. In the 11th round, EnVyUs was limited to two rifles it saved from the last round and three pistols. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire went up middle to make a play with one of EnVyUs's rifles and found the Dignitas captain Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen but then was quickly traded by Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye. Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt then fired a headshot onto Philip "aizy" Aistrup with roughly 28 seconds left and then NBK- found Jacob "Pimp" Winneche through a wall. Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey took down Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski with ease and then cleaned up onto Kjaerbye, giving EnVyUs the round. The French team never looked back after that round and went on an 11 to 1 run from the 5-5 score to take the game 16-6. aizy lead all players with 22 kills, but the rest of Dignitas struggled, as Pimp and MSL were only at 5 kills by the end of the game. Meanwhile, kioShiMa and Vincent "Happy" Cervoni had 21 kills each.

Natus Vincere vs. Counter Logic Gaming[edit]

Casters: James Bardolph & natu

The last match of day one matched Natus Vincere and Counter Logic Gaming. Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) defeated its opponent in this match at the previous major in the group stage but then fell to Team EnVyUs in the quarterfinals. Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) defeated Lounge Gaming and Flipsid3 Tactics at the Stockholm qualifier to make it to the major. Na'Vi was picked by 96% of Pick'Em predictions to defeat CLG. Na'Vi started the strong as it took 5-0 early lead and then an 11-4 lead into the half. In the second half, CLG took the pistol and the two anti-economy rounds. Na'Vi picked up the first gun round and then an anti-economy round to give the CIS team a 13-7 lead. In the 21st round, Na'Vi executed towards the B bombsite. Pujan "FNS" Mehta took down Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev while blinded by a flashbang and Tarik "tarik" Celik followed up onto Na'Vi's in-game leader Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko. tarik then took down Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács. Egor "flamie" Vasilyev was able to take down Steve "reltuC" Cutler but he and his teammate were in a 2 vs 4. CLG's star AWPer Josh "jdm64" Marzano killed Denis "seized" Kostin. tarik was taken down by a molotov, but jdm64 found flamie and CLG was able to keep its guns for the next round. CLG started a comeback and the score closed to 13-10 and then 14-12 after jdm64's 1 vs 2 clutch. However, Na'Vi was able to pull together for two rounds and it was able to take the map 16-12. GuardiaN, arguably the world's best AWPer at the time, had 26 kills top the scoreboard and flamie had 23 kills. jdm64 was the only one with a positive kill to death differential on CLG at 22-15 while James "hazed" Cobb struggled with just 11 kills. Na'Vi went on to face EnVyUS.

Counter Logic Gaming vs. Team Dignitas[edit]

Casters: ddk & natu

The final loser's match pitted Dignitas and CLG. The game was played on Cobblestone again. The game was close throughout and predictions were fairly split, with CLG being favored at 58%. CLG started with a 4-0 lead and then a 7-1. However, Dignitas went on a 5-2 run to close the half and the game became a close 9-6 scoreline. tarik's four kills won CLG the important pistol round, but tenzki's two kills the following round won Dignitas its economy round, forcing CLG to go on a save. Dignitas was able to close the gap to one round at 10-9. However, CLG extended its lead to 14-9. Dignitas started bringing things back 14-14. CLG won the 29th round and got the match point first. In the 30th round, Dignitas started planning an execute towards the B bombsite. However, shortly after beginning the execute, tarik took down tenzki and jdm64 found two kills on Kjaerbye and MSL in the drop area of the map, which is between middle and the B bombsite. Pimp then took down tarik in the back of the bombsite but FNS found aizy trying to come out of the drop room. Pimp attempted to clutch, but hazed took him down and CLG won the game. aizy went big with 37 kills and Pimp and Kjaerbye had 20 kills, but their efforts fell short against FNS's 29 kills and tarik's and reltuC's 21 kills. CLG went on to face the loser of EnVyUs and Na'Vi and Dignitas was eliminated.

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere[edit]

Casters: James Bardolph & natu

For the first time in this group, a map did not strike to Cobblestone. Instead, it went to Mirage. Despite both teams being strong, EnVyUs was heavily favored to win. The French jumped to a 3-0 lead before Na'Vi tied the score at 3. The teams then traded another set of three rounds to make the score 6-6. Na'Vi took its first lead of the game after seized clutched the round against apEX but it was short lived as EnVyUs took the last two rounds of the half. EnVyUs stretched its lead to 11-7 going into the 19th round. In that round, the first gun round of the half, apEX went aggressive up middle and took down Edward and then followed up with a highly explosive grenade onto GuardiaN. flamie took down Happy but apEX quickly traded him out. apEX found his fourth kill on the round as he took down Zeus trying to look for more information. seized was able to find kioShiMa and apEX through a box. However, EnVyUs's AWPer Kenny "kennyS" Schrub took seized down shortly after he planted the bomb and EnVyUs took the round. Na'Vi found little success in the half, only taking two rounds, as EnVyUs took the map 16-9. apEX lead all players with 24 kills, NBK- had 23, and kennyS had 22, while seized had 17 kills for Na'Vi. EnVyUs moved onto the playoffs and Na'Vi faced CLG.

Natus Vincere vs. Counter Logic Gaming[edit]

Casters: ddk & natu

The final set of the group stage displayed the American and the CIS teams of Group D. The first map was on Train, a strong Na'Vi map. Na'Vi started 5-0, but CLG was able to bring the score to 6-9. However, Na'Vi terrorist side stole the game away from CLG and won the map 16-9. seized lead all players with 23 kills and hazed was close by with 22 kills. On Cobblestone, the first half was very close. CLG had a decent lead, but Na'Vi was able to bring it back to 8-7 in its advantage. However, Na'Vi did not show the same defense it displayed it had earlier in the group stage as CLG went on a 9-2 run and closed the map 16-10. reltuC had 28 kills and tarik had 26 to lead CLG to victory while GuardiaN took down 24 for Na'Vi. The decider map was on Inferno. Na'Vi started with a 6-0 lead before CLG got one on the board. However, the American team would only find one more round in the first half and Na'Vi took a 13-2 lead. CLG slowly crawled back in the second half by taking 6 rounds, but it seemed too late as Na'Vi picked up the three rounds it needed to qualify for the playoffs. FNS had 19 kills and tarik had 18 for CLG, but seized's 29 and GuardiaN's and Zeus's 18 kills helped Na'Vi stride to victory. CLG was eliminated from the tournament.

Playoffs[edit]

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

D1

Team EnVyUs

2

A2

Fnatic

1

D1

Team EnVyUs

2

B2

G2 Esports

1

C1

Virtus.pro

0

B2

G2 Esports

2

D1

Team EnVyUs

2

D2

Natus Vincere

0

B1

Team SoloMid

0

C2

Ninjas in Pyjamas

2

C2

Ninjas in Pyjamas

0

D2

Natus Vincere

2

A1

Luminosity Gaming

0

D2

Natus Vincere

2

Quarterfinals[edit]

Team EnVyUs vs. Fnatic[edit]

The Cologne 2015 grand finals took place in the quarterfinals, after Fnatic was upset by Luminosity Gaming in Group A, forcing the Swedes to play as a lower seed in the playoffs. Otherwise, Fnatic did not drop any other game in its group against Vexed Gaming and Cloud9. Meanwhile, EnVyUs had a rather easy route in Group D, defeating Team Dignitas and Natus Vincere.

Casters: Anders Blume & Semmler

Fnatic landed on Mirage for its map choice. EnVyUs won the pistol round and the two anti-economy rounds. In the 4th round, flusha and KRiMZ were able to give Fnatic its first round after both got all five kills. In the 5th round, apEX was able to take down flusha and pronax near the terrorist spawn. JW brought down NBK-, but Fnatic was still down a man. Happy was able to take down olofmeister, who was trying to sneak into the B bombsite. The last two Fnatic members decided to go towards the B bombsite, and with ten seconds remaining kennyS took down KRiMZ dropping down and JW was forced to back off to save his gun. In the 7th round with EnVyUs leading 5-1, Fnatic was limited to very weak pistols. All five members then stormed into the B bombsite. NBK- was the only one on the site and he was only able to get one before being traded by JW. Happy missed a shot onto JW and olofmeister was able to punish him immediately with a stolen gun from NBK- for his first kill of the game. JW got another kill onto kioShiMa and Fnatic planted the bomb. olofmeister then found kennyS. apEX took down flusha but he was forced to back off in an attempt to save him gun. EnVyUs, however, was able to come back right away at the start of the 8th round, but Fnatic won a 2 vs 5 clutch to set back the French team's economy. The game was tight for the remainder of the first half and Fnatic had a one-round lead after 15 rounds. The second half started with a 7-1 Fnatic run to make it 15-8. EnVyUs took the 24th round. In the 25th round, both teams were on a full buy. JW rushed up middle and took down a jumping kioShiMa, but kennyS was able to trade right away. Happy then sneaked past a smoke grenade and took down KRiMZ. pronax took down Happy in the connector area, connects middle and the A bombsite, to make it a 3 vs 3 scenario. NBK- was taken down by olofmeister and flusha took down apEX trying to plant the bomb. kennyS picked off flusha and then olofmeister took down kennyS and Fnatic took the game 16-9. apEX and Happy each had 21 kills each but flusha had 27 kills to lead Fnatic to a win. olofmeister had 22 kills despite starting the game with 0 kills and 6 deaths.

EnVyUs chose Cobblestone, a map it played heavily at the major. EnVyUs started with a 4-0 lead, despite some of the rounds being somewhat close. Fnatic brought the score back to 4-2, but EnVyUs was able to win an economy round to make it 5-2. In the 9th round with EnVyUs leading 6-2, Happy was taken down by olofmeister through a smoke grenade. olofmeister then found apEX through the edge of the smoke but kioShiMa was able to trade after picking up Happy's AWP. kennyS then made things even after taking down flusha on the other side of the map. kioShiMa then took down JW partially through a box while blinded by a flashbang. pronax finally took down kioShiMa, but NBK- traded to put KRiMZ in a 1 vs 2 situation. KRiMZ won a duel against NBK- and then won the clutch by taking down kennyS to give Fnatic an important round. The two teams then traded three rounds each and EnVyUs took a 9-6 lead into the half. In the second half, EnVyUs's offense was able to override the Fnatic defense. EnVyUs started the half with a 6-0 run before Fnatic got on the board in the second half. The Swedes were able to pick up two more rounds, but they would get stifled in the end and EnVyUs tied the series 1-1. NBK-, kioShiMa, and kennyS all had 23 kills each while olofmeister lead his team with 20 kills.

The third map headed to Cache to determine which team goes through to the semifinals. EnVyUs aimed to look for its first title while Fnatic aimed to win its third straight major title. EnVyUs took a 5-0 lead to start the game, but Fnatic dominated the 6th round to take its first round. pronax then called for a timeout with EnVyUs leading 8-1. In the first gun round after the timeout, apEX started off by taking down flusha, but was immediately traded by KRiMZ. NBK- pushed towards KRiMZ and took him down so that EnVyUs could regain the man advantage. pronax was able to take down kennyS as EnVyUs was taking over the B bombsite, and the Fnatic captain was blinded and taken down by kioShiMa. The remaining Fnatic members backed off to save their guns, but Happy took down JW and olofmeister to deny the saved rifles. Fnatic was able to take one more round, but the half belonged to EnVyUs and took a 13-2 lead, despite starting on the less favored side. EnVyUs continued to roll and won three straight rounds to send the French to the semifinals. Happy had 20 kills and NBK- had 19 kills to lead all players while nobody on Fnatic was in the double digits in terms of kills. The number one ranked player of 2015, olofmeister was at the bottom of the scoreboard with just three kills. EnVyUs went on to face the winner of Virtus.pro and G2 Esports and Fnatic was eliminated.

Team EnVyUs vs. Fnatic
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	9	Mirage	16	Fnatic
Team EnVyUs	16	Cobblestone	9	Fnatic
Team EnVyUs	16	Cache	2	Fnatic

Virtus.pro vs. G2 Esports[edit]

Virtus.pro had to squeak by Team Liquid in the initial matches of the major but jumped back to form with a dominant win over Titan. Meanwhile, G2 Esports had a strong win against mousesports but fell to Team SoloMid. However, it was able to take the best of three series in a rematch against the German team to qualify for the playoffs. 98% of Pick'Em predictions had the Poles winning the series.

Casters: James Bardolph & ddk

The first map struck to Cache, a map G2 was known for. VP started on the counter-terrorist side. On the pistol round, G2 was getting ready for a push towards the A bombsite, but Snax was flanking to get information to his team that G2 was for sure executing towards A. However, what could have been multiple kills ended up only being one as Snax only found fox before the rest of G2 realized what was going on and turned around to kill him. TaZ was able to take rain down as G2 was running towards the bombsite but Maikelele traded him out. NEO was able to get to on dennis and jkaem and Maikelele took down pashaBiceps, but byali was able to trade him out to give VP a 1-0 lead. VP then took a 4-0 lead before G2 took a round. G2 tied the game at 4 and VP was forced to go on a save round. In the 11th round, with the score tied at 5, NEO took down rain trying to get information in the A bombsite, but jkaem took down TaZ shortly after. pashaBiceps found dennis on a boost and NEO killed fox afterwards. jkaem took down Snax through a wall and pashaBiceps was unable to find the kill onto Maikelele, letting jkaem kill him after the Polish player ran out of bullets. Maikelele then heard byali running into the bombsite and G2 was able to retake the lead at 6-5. G2 took two more rounds to make it 8-5, but VP won an economy round and then the last round of the half after Snax's two kills with the Desert Eagle and then 4 kills the following round with the AK-47 to make it a one-round game. G2 started the second half well by winning the first two rounds, but VP came back to win the next round. In the 22nd round with G2 leading 12-9, VP went aggressive up middle and Snax was able to take down rain. dennis took down TaZ in the middle of the firefight but Snax was able to trade. pashaBiceps took down Maikelele in middle, but jkaem jumped through a smoke grenade and took down Snax and NEO; while pashaBiceps was focused on jkaem, fox was able to come through the back and shoot him down, suddenly turning a 2-man disadvantage into a 1-man advantage for G2. byalii was at the A bombsite and had to retrieve the bomb, but the two G2 players were waiting. While able to bring down fox byali ran out of bullets and jkaem took advantage and gave G2 a crucial win. Later in the game, G2 lead 15-10 in the 26th round. There, both teams had ideal weapons but VP was short on grenades. VP pushed towards the Checkers area, which is directly across the B bombsite and pashaBiceps caught an unaware dennis. However, rain was able to trade as pashaBiceps attempted to acquire more information. VP started executing towards the B bombsite but fox and jkaem took down TaZ and Snax, respectively. byali was able to take down fox but jkaem spotted NEO and took him down. jkaem then followed up onto byali and G2 took the map. jkaem had 32 kills and rain had 21, while Snax had 30 for VP.

The next map was on Train, a map in which VP was considered to be the best at. G2 started with a 3-0 lead and then a 6-1 lead despite many considering VP's terrorist side to be strong. G2 had a 6-2 lead in the 9th round and had a chance to break VP's economy. VP executed towards the B bombsite. fox went aggressive and was able to catch byali off guard. and rain was able to take down Snax shortly after as he went aggressive on a different part of the map. NEO then decided to push into the B bombsite himself but Maikelele was waiting and the G2 player won the duel in the battle of the two captains. pashaBiceps was able to trade but the Poles were still in a 2 vs 4 disadvantage. fox then caught TaZ through the edge of a train and pashaBiceps missed his spray on rain and G2 once again broke the economy of VP. G2 then went up to 9 rounds, but VP was able to take the last 4 rounds before the half ended, giving them a decent chance to take the game. After the 26th round, VP managed to tie the game at 13. VP then took its first lead of the game at 14-13 after pashaBiceps's two kills. VP then was on match point at 15-13 and G2 had a very limited buy, which included three pistols. G2 started towards the B bombsite and dennis was able to take down TaZ with one of the two rifles G2 had. jkaem then took down NEO and fox followed up onto Snax. byali took down two, but Maikelele and dennis were able to clean up. G2 then forced overtime with the help of jkaem's two kills in the final round. The two teams traded one overtime round each in the first overtime half and TaZ's three kills helped VP take a one-round lead heading into the second overtime. G2 proceeded to take two terrorist rounds and had the lead once again at 18-17. In the final round of the first overtime, VP had four rifles but NEO was forced onto a pistol. fox found an early kill on byali and then hit a flick onto pashaBiceps. Snax was able to take down rain in the back of the A bombsite but jkaem quickly traded. jkaem lost a duel against NEO despite the VP leader only having a pistol but fox was able to pick him off midair as NEO was attempting to enter the site. TaZ tried to sneak his way through but fox held his ground and the Portuguese AWPer clinched the series for G2 and the huge upset. jkaem maintained his firepower from the last map with 30 kills, but fox topped the scoreboard with 32 kills. NEO and pashaBiceps had 28 kills each for VP, but it was not enough to take it over the line. G2 went on to face Team EnVyUs and VP was eliminated.

Virtus.pro vs. G2 Esports
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	10	Cache	16	G2 Esports
Virtus.pro	17	Train	19	G2 Esports
Virtus.pro	–	Mirage	–	G2 Esports

Team SoloMid vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas[edit]

Team SoloMid had an easy time in the group stage, defeating both FlipSid3 Tactics and G2 Esports 16-6. However, the Danes never made it past a semifinals majors, but recent success at other tournaments had them favorites to win their first major. Ninjas in Pyjamas had one major in its hands and many second-place finishes. The Swedes fell early to Titan in the group stage, but defeated Liquid and Titan in a best of three to retain its Legends status. 83% of Pick'Em predictions had TSM winning the best of three.

Casters: Anders Blume & moses