ESL One Katowice

2015
Tournament information
Sport	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Location	Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Dates	March 12, 2015–March 15, 2015
Administrator(s)	Valve Corporation Electronic Sports League (ESL)
Tournament format(s)	16 team GSL group stage Eight team single-elimination playoff
Venue	Spodek Arena
Teams	16 teams
Purse	$250,000 USD
Final positions
Champions	Fnatic
1st runners-up	Ninjas in Pyjamas
2nd runners-up	Team EnVyUs Virtus.pro
Tournament statistics
MVP	Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
Kills	Get_Right (Ninjas in Pyjamas) (211)
KD Ratio	NEO (Virtus.pro) (1.42)
← DreamHack Winter 2014 ESL One Cologne 2015 →

ESL One Katowice 2015, also shortened as Katowice 2015, was the fifth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Major tournament that was from March 12 to March 15, 2015 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. It was the first CS:GO Major of 2015. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve Corporation. The tournament had a total prize pool of $250,000 USD.

The playoffs had eight teams. Fnatic, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, PENTA Sports, and Team SoloMid were returning Legends from the last major. Keyd Stars was the only new Legends and became the first South American team to play in a major and become a Legend. HellRaisers had its Legend spot taken away after losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Keyd Stars in the group stage. The grand finals would play out to be one of CS:GO's finest sets of 2015 between the two legendary Swedish teams. Fnatic defeated PENTA Sports and Virtus.pro while Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Team SoloMid and Team EnVyUs on their way to the grand finals. Fnaticousted Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 in the finals.^[1] Fnatic was the first team to have more than one major title in its hand and would be the only team to do so until SK Gaming (which was Keyd Stars at this tournament) when the Brazilian team won MLG Columbus 2016 and ESL One Cologne 2016.

Background[edit]

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. In addition, the counter-terrorists can run down the clock before the terrorist can plant the bomb or kill the entire counter-terrorist team; if terrorists do run out of time (each round has one minute and forty-five seconds), the terrorists who remain alive by the end of the round earn no round bonus money. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.

There are six categories of purchasable categories, five being weapons – rifles, sub-machine guns (SMGs), heavy, pistols, and grenades – and the sixth being utilities, which includes armor and a taser. All guns have different states and all grenade types have different in-game effects. The highly explosive grenade deals damage in a small radius, the smoke grenade places a smoke screen for fifteen seconds so that nobody can see through the placed smoke, the decoy grenade emulates the player's primary gun, the flashbang temporarily blinds players who look at it explode, and the Molotov cocktail and Incendiary Grenade set a small radius of the map on fire for seven seconds.^[2] Alongside all of these weapons, the Zeus x27, a taser, can also be purchased. For most professional players, the main choice of weapons are two rifles – the AK-47 for Terrorists and the M4A4 or the M4A1-S for the Counter-Terrorists – and the AWP. However, if limited on money, players tend to choose pistols – such as the Desert Eagle, CZ-75 Auto, and the P250 – the UMP-45 – which is considered to be simply a weaker M4A4 or AK47 despite being an SMG – and the SSG 08 – which is a much inferior AWP. If players know the opposing team has a weaker inventory, then players may choose to use lesser weaponry such as the MAC-10 or the MP-9 as the SMGs give twice as much money as rifles with each kill and give players more money going into further rounds. Heavy weapons are rarely used, with the MAG-7 being the most used, as players need to be very close range in order to get an accurate shot. The Kevlar is an important part of CS:GO as having armor allows a player to have more accurate aim when while getting hit by bullets and decreases the amount of damage taken. A helmet can also be bought; the helmet does not allow certain weapons to give a one shot, one kill potential, like the M4A4. Counter-Terrorists can also buy a defuse kit, which decreases the amount of time to defuse the bomb from ten seconds to five, which saves a lot of time as the bomb explodes forty seconds after the Terrorists planted the bomb.

In the game, there are two bombsites where Terrorists can plant the bomb. Counter-Terrorist must defend the bombsites from the Terrorists. Each half starts with a pistol round, in which players can only buy utility, grenades, or pistols. Most teams tend to have three or four players buy Kevlar armor and one or two players who buy grenades and/or a defuse kit; on the Terrorist side, a player sometimes buys an upgraded pistol and gives that pistol to a teammate who as Kevlar in order to give the Terrorists a better chance to win the round, as the default Terrorists pistol, the Glock is inferior the default Counter-Terrorist pistol, the USP-S. Most teams tend to go for a force buy in the second round if they lose the pistol round; a force buy is in which a team uses up its money despite having lesser weaponry than the other team in an attempt to win the round. Other teams go for a save or economy round, in which the teams intentionally do not buy many weapons or utility to have more money to buy more ideal weapons in the following round. Teams then go into a gun round, in which both teams have decent guns, but not necessarily the ideal round, as one team may have a player who has a less than ideal gun or the team does not have many grenades. Each half consists of fifteen rounds and a regular game has a maximum of thirty rounds. The first team to reach sixteen rounds wins the game. If teams are tied at fifteen, the games goes to overtime, in which each overtime is a best of six rounds, making each half three rounds. If teams are still tied at the end of overtime, the game will go on to another overtime until a winner is decided.

The defending champion was Team LDLC.com, whose players were now with Team EnVyUs. Before the event, no team had won more than one major.

Format[edit]

The top eight teams of the DreamHack Winter 2014 received direct invitations to Katowice. In addition, eight other teams emerged from the offline qualifiers (known as "Challengers").

Teams will be split up into four groups. All group matches are best of 1. The highest seed will play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds will play against each other. The winner of those two matches will play to determine which team moves on to the Playoffs; the loser of that match will play another match against the winner of the two losing teams. The loser of the lower match is eliminated from the tournament. The last two teams will play each other and the winner of that match moves on to the playoffs.

The playoffs bracket consists of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches are a best of three, single elimination format. Teams advance in the bracket until a winner is decided.

Map Pool[edit]

The same map pool was kept at this major.

There were seven maps to choose from. In the group stage, both teams can delete two maps. From the remaining three maps, the map is randomly selected, which is played in the end. In the playoffs, each team will first remove one map. Then, each side chooses a map, which will be played in the first two matches. If the series were to go to a third map, that map is randomly selected among the three remaining maps.

Qualifiers[edit]

Regional qualifiers[edit]

A total of four European teams, one Commonwealth of Independent States team, one Polish team, and one North American team qualified for the offline qualifier. In addition, another spot was granted to a European team in a last chance qualifier.

European qualifier[edit]

Two qualifiers in Europe were held. In both European qualifiers, 64 teams played in a single elimination bracket. Two teams from the first qualifier and three teams from the second moved on to the main qualifier.

EU qualifier #1 top 16

	Round of 16					Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Katowice 2015
		3DMAX	0
		k1ck eSports Club	1
							k1ck eSports Club	0
							Team Property	1
		Team Property	1
		chosen	0
												Team Property	0
												mousesports	2
		LGB eSports	0
		webSPELL	1
							webSPELL	0
							mousesports	1
		Playing Ducks	0
		mousesports	1
																	mousesports	Q
																	Copenhagen Wolves	Q
		tryPANTS	0
		eXes eSport	1
							eXes eSport	0
							UNLEASHED	1
		UNLEASHED	1
		Planetkey Dynamics	0
												UNLEASHED	0
												Copenhagen Wolves	2
		myKPV.de	1
		No Problem!	0
							myKPV.de	0
							Copenhagen Wolves	1
		Team ALTERNATE	0
		Copenhagen Wolves	1

EU qualifier #2 top 16

	Round of 16					Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Katowice 2015
		3DMAX	1
		BZSX	0
							3DMAX	1
							Wizard e-Sports Club	0
		webSPELL	0
		Wizard e-Sports Club	1
												3DMAX	1
												Team WinneR	2
		Violetdreams	FF
		Team WinneR	1
							Team WinneR	1
							Team Property	0
		fm!TOXIC	0
		Team Property	1
																	Team WinneR	Q
																	FlipSid3 Tactics	Q
		FlipSid3 Tactics	1
		nEophyte	0
							FlipSid3 Tactics	1
							Team Orbit	0
		Publiclir.se	0
		Team Orbit	1
												FlipSid3 Tactics	2
												LGB eSports	1
		VOLGARE	1
		Team ALTERNATE	0
							VOLGARE	0
							LGB eSports	1
		se mi puta	0
		LGB eSports	1

	3rd place decider
		3DMAX	FF
		LGB eSports	W

North American qualifier[edit]

The North American qualifier featured 8 teams that played in a single elimination bracket and one team moved on to the main qualifier.

NA qualifier

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals
		Counter Logic Gaming	1
		Area 51 Gaming	0
							Counter Logic Gaming	1
							Mythic	0
		Denial eSports	0
		Mythic	1
												Counter Logic Gaming	2
												eLevate	1
		Ayedog	1
		SapphireKelownaDotCom	0
							Ayedog	0
							eLevate	1
		HEAT	0
		eLevate	1

CIS qualifier[edit]

In the CIS qualifier, eight teams played in a double elimination, best of one bracket.

CIS qualifier top 3

	Semifinals					Finals
						EYESports		0
	Exgaming		0			PiTER		2
	PiTER		1

Polish qualifier[edit]

In the Polish qualifier, two teams played in a best of three series after two qualifiers decided the teams.

Polish qualifier finals

	Finals
		INSHOCK	2
		MISZCZOWIE GRY	1

Main qualifier[edit]

The teams were separated into two groups of 8. The teams played in a double-elimination, best of one bracket. Four teams from each group, two from the winner's bracket and two from the loser's bracket, move on to the major.

¹Four of the five players from Team iBUYPOWER were banned by Valve for their parts in the North American match fixing scandal. In a game with NetCodeGuides.com, the players intentionally threw a game.^[3] CSGO personality and journalist Richard Lewis exposed the scandal that in exchange of a NetCodeGuides.com win, iBUYPOWER players would receive skins. Duc "cud" Pham, Derek "dboorN" Boorn, and Casey "caseyfoster" Foster, authority figures of NetCodeGuides.com, were banned by Valve. In addition, Sam "DaZeD" Marine, Keven "AZK" Larivière, Joshua "steel" Nissan, and Braxton "swag" Pierce were banned from all Valve-sponsored events.^[4] The remaining member of iBUYPOWER, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, was not banned since he was the only player who did not receive anything, thus making evidence against him inconclusive. The bans were officially made permanent on January 5, 2016.^[5] Richard Lewis later wrote an open letter to Valve, claiming the bans were too harsh.^[6]

²Team WinneR was found to be guilty of match fixing, so the team was disqualified. 3DMAX took the vacant spot. Players of ESC Gaming were also accused of match fixing, but they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

³The Polish roster of ESC Gaming was picked up by Gamers2. ESC Gaming would go on ti pick up a Danish roster.^[7][8]

Group A qualifier[edit]

Group A Bracket

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Katowice 2015

Winner's Bracket

Titan

28

PiTER

24

Titan

14

Counter Logic G.

16

Counter Logic G.

16

Gamers2

14

Counter Logic G.

Q

LGB eSports

Q

Team Liquid

14

FlipSid3 Tactics

16

FlipSid3 Tactics

11

LGB eSports

16

Copenhagen Wolves

8

LGB eSports

16

Katowice 2015

→

Katowice 2015

→

Loser's Bracket

PiTER

19

Gamers2

17

FlipSid3 Tactics

16

PiTER

3

FlipSid3 Tactics

Q

Team Liquid

10

Titan

Q

Katowice 2015

→

CPH Wolves

16

Titan

16

Katowice 2015

→

Copenhagen Wolves

4

Group B qualifier[edit]

Group B Bracket

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Katowice 2015

Winner's Bracket

Cloud9

16

INSHOCK

2

Cloud9

16

mousesports

14

mousesports

16

KaBuM.TD

10

Cloud9

Q

Vox Eminor

Q

3DMAX

11

Vox Eminor

16

Vox Eminor

16

Team Dignitas

13

ESC Gaming

11

Team Dignitas

16

Katowice 2015

→

Katowice 2015

→

Loser's Bracket

INSHOCK

11

KaBuM.TD

16

Team Dignitas

3

KaBuM.TD

16

KaBuM.TD

Q

3DMAX

16

3DMAX

Q

Katowice 2015

→

ESC Gaming

8

mousesports

8

Katowice 2015

→

3DMAX

16

Broadcast Talent[edit]

Hosts

• 
  Sean Charles


• 
  Alex "Machine" Richardson

Analysts

• 
  Casper "cadiaN" Møller


• 
  Spencer "Hiko" Martin

Commentators

• 
  Leigh "Deman" Smith


• 
  Anders Blume
  


• 
  Lauren "Pansy" Scott


• 
  Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

Observers

• 
  Joshua "steel" Nissan


• 
  Yanko "YNk" Paunović

Teams[edit]

Prior to the major, changes took place.

Yegor "markeloff" Markelov and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev depart from HellRaisers. s1mple was replaced by Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev. Later, HellRaisers announces the signing of Egor "flamie" Vasilyev to fill up the remaining spot on the roster.^[9][10]

PENTA Sports adds Tobias "Troubley" Tabbert from mousesports and Johannes "nex" Maget from Planetkey Dynamics to its roster. Robin "r0bs3n" Stephan and Felix "fel1x" Zech were out of the roster.^[11][12]

Team EnVyUs acquires the full roster of Team LDLC.com.^[13]

Team Dignitas releases Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen and signs Finn "karrigan" Andersen as the in game leader.^[14] Roughly two months later, the roster is acquired by Team SoloMid.^[15]

The players of NetCodeGuides.com disbands from its organization.^[16] Counter Logic Gaming then signs four of the five players (Josh "jdm64" Marzano was the exception) and Peter "ptr" Gurney to its roster.^[17]

Flipsid3 Tactics releases its Swedish and Bosnian roster and signs the roster of dAT Team. s1mple later left the team and the team signs Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev.^[18]

Controversy[edit]

Cloud9 was alleged to have been on Adderall during the duration of the tournament. Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen was released by Cloud9 about a month after the Katowice 2015 major before being picked up by Nihilum Gaming. In an interview with the well-known Counter-Strike commentator and analyst Mohan "launders" Govindasamy, SEMPHIS admitted that his whole team was on Adderall while playing.^[19] SEMPHIS said to Launders

The ESL [communications] were kinda funny, in my opinion. I don't even care. We were all on Adderall. Like, I don't even give a fuck. Like, it was pretty obvious if you listened to the [communications].^[20]

After the interview went viral in the Counter-Strike community, tournament organizers declared their intention to combat the use of PEDs in eSports. ESL also announced that it would partner with the National Anti Doping Association, which would mean random drug tests would be the norm. Cloud9's owner Jack Etienne dismissed SEMPHIS's allegations and did not condone the use of PEDs.

Group stage[edit]

Group A[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Fnatic	2	0	32	10	+22	6
2	Natus Vincere	2	1	39	21	+18	6
3	Vox Eminor	1	2	22	34	-12	3
4	FlipSid3 Tactics	0	2	4	32	-28	0

Group A matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Natus Vincere	16	Mirage	2	FlipSid3 Tactics
Fnatic	16	Inferno	3	Vox Eminor
FlipSid3 Tactics	2	Cache	16	Vox Eminor
Natus Vincere	7	Cobblestone	16	Fnatic
Natus Vincere	16	Inferno	3	Vox Eminor

Natus Vincere vs. FlipSid3 Tactics[edit]

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) came into Katowice 2015 after placing third at DreamHack Winter 2014, which was its best placing at a major ever. FlipSid3 Tactics took a difficult road to the major, as it barely scraped past Team Liquid and lost to LGB eSports before finally defeating the Russian-based team PiTER to qualify for the major. This major would start a streak for the Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy and his team of never missing a major. Historically, Na'Vi had a five to two head-to-head record over its CIS rivals.

The first game of the major started off on Mirage and it did not take very long. Lead by Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko and star AWPer Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács, Na'Vi was able to take a 6-0 lead before FlipSid3 took a round. However, that would be all the success FlipSid3 would get as Sergey "starix" Ischuk and his team would take the remaining rounds. FlipSid3 took the second half pistol round that included a Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk 1 vs. 2 clutch. However, a force buy from Na'Vi and a clean execute to the A bombsite with Zeus's three kills allowed Na'Vi to get to match point quickly. A desperate final from FlipSid3 started off with Na'Vi heading to the A bombsite. starix started off with a kill onto bondik, but Georgi "WorldEdit" Yaskin traded him out with a desert eagle headshot. Denis "seized" Kostin took down WorldEdit and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev followed up onto Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev in the middle area. B1ad3 was able to catch Zeus off-guard and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov took down GuardiaN to even the playing field, but Na'Vi still had much more firepower. seized took down markeloff through a box and planted the bomb. B1ad3 tried to clutch, but a flashbang from seized aided Edward to finalizing the score at 16-2. Zeus had 21 kills and GuardiaN had 19 in the win. bondik put in work for his team with 15 kills, but a poor performance from the rest of the team fell much short.

Fnatic vs. Vox Eminor[edit]

Fnatic came back from the previous major as the most controversial team after the infamous boost against Team LDLC.com. After DreamHack officials decided to replay the map due to LDLC also using a similar boost, Fnatic forfeited the match and the game was handed to LDLC, which went on to win the major. Vox Eminor surprised everyone at the major qualifier after defeating 3DMAX and upsetting Team Dignitas. Historically, the two teams only met once, with Fnatic easily winning a best of three in late 2013.

The teams struck to Inferno, a famous Fnatic map. This match was similar to the other Group A match, as Fnatic dominated. Vox did start off strong as it won the pistol round, but in pure Fnatic style, the Swedes won a force buy in the second round. Vox kept it close and made it 5-2 after Azad "topguN" Orami took two quick kills while heading to the B bombsite. In the next round, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer started with a kill onto topguN about thirty seconds into the round. Fnatic's captain Markus "pronax" Wallsten took out Aaron "AZR" Ward; Luke "Havoc" Paton tried to make a play, but olofmeister's aim proved to be superior. Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill finally had something going with a kill onto Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, but pronax traded immediately. Justin "jks" Savage dropped down to take down pronax from the apartments area on the map, which leads to the A bombsite. jks followed up onto olofmeister, but Jesper "JW" Wecksell was waiting while Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson was on the flank, and Fnatic reset Vox's economy. Vox would take a round in the second half, but that proved to be irrelevant as Fnatic struck back to take the match at 16-3. JW headed the scoreboard with 20 kills. topguN and AZR had 11 kills each for the Australians, but the team had no success against the Swedish powerhouse.

Vox Eminor vs. FlipSid3 Tactics[edit]

Both teams were thrashed in their opening matches, having a combined round differential of -27. FlipSid3 was expected to win this match based on having much more experience as the two teams had never met before.

The map was chosen to be Cache, with Vox starting on the counter-terrorist side. That might have proven to be a mistake for the Ukrainians as Vox dominated with an 8-0 start before FlipSid3 finally put one up on the board. In the next round, Havoc started with an AWP kill onto DavCost in the B bombsite and SPUNJ took down bondik in the middle area. AZR popped out to middle to take down B1ad3 before being taken down by WorldEdit. SPUNJ headed back to the B bombsite and took down markeloff in the squeaky area of the map, which is one of three entrances to the A bombsite. WorldEdit rushed up to trade, but he was still left in a 1 vs. 3. WorldEdit found another kill onto topguN in the A bombsite from the middle area. With time waning down, WorldEdit creeped up to the A bombsite to plant the bomb, but Havoc got the backstab and gave Vox the round. FlipSid3 found just one more round in the entire game and Vox cruised to an easy win. topguN and Havoc had 21 kills each to lead Vox. DavCost was the only player for FlipSid3 to get into double digit kills with 13. Vox moved on to face the loser of Na'Vi and Fnatic and FlipSid3 was eliminated.

Natus Vincere vs. Fnatic[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Pansy

A strongly anticipated matchup between the best team from Europe and the best team from the CIS region was expected to be close. Both teams dominated their opening matches. Historically, Fnatic had a 12-6 record over Natus Vincere and Na'Vi had never won anything more than a best of one against Fnatic. However, this winners' match was a best of one to the favor of Na'Vi.

The two giants went to Cobblestone, a map both teams are comfortable on. Things looked strong for Na'Vi on the pistol round as seized took down flusha in the middle area while the other Fnatic players were prepared to hop into the B bombsite. GuardiaN then took down KRiMZ in the drop area of the map, which leads to both the B bombsite and the connector area that connects the two bombsites. Zeus won a fight with JW while olofmesiter took down starix with a strong, upgraded pistol, the Tec-9. Edward took down pronax, leaving olofmeister in a 1 vs. 4. However, the man that would soon be voted best player of 2015 found two quick kills onto Edward and GuardiaN. With ten seconds left in the round, olofmeister found a favorable fight with seized and won it and then finished off Zeus, who had seven health points, to just about clutch the round in one of the most memorable pistol clutches in CS:GO history. It would prove to be a crucial round as Na'Vi only obtained two rounds in the first half. The second half was better for the CIS team, but Fnatic's defense held strong and closed out the map 16-7. olofmeister went big with 27 kills and KRiMZ took in 20 for himself. seized had 22 kills, but Na'Vi's star GuardiaN only came out with 10. Fnatic took first seed in the group and Na'Vi went on to face Vox Eminor.

Natus Vincere vs. Vox Eminor[edit]

Casters: Anders Blume & Deman

Natus Vincere was fully expected to win this match, but after Na'Vi was dominated by Fnatic and Vox Eminor pulled off an upset in big fashion over FlipSid3 Tactics. These two teams had never faced off in the past.

The teams went to Inferno. Na'Vi took a commanding 8-0 lead before Vox took one. However, that would be all the success in the half for Vox as Na'Vi ended the half with a 14-1 lead. Vox took a must win pistol round and looked to get at least four rounds. In round seventeen, Na'Vi bought as much as it could with upgraded pistols and kevlar and went up to middle to the A bombsite. GuardiaN lead the way with a quick headshot onto Havoc. AZR was able to trade out Edward, but SPUNJ fell to starix and AZR eventually fell to GuardiaN and Na'Vi planted the bomb. GuardiaN found another headshot onto topguN. jks was able to kill Zeus, but a fourth headshot from GuardiaN won Na'Vi the round. Vox took the next round, but another force buy from Na'Vi won the team the match and a Legends spot. GuardiaN lead the way with 22 kills and seized was close by with 21. AZR had 11 kills, but Vox was throttled by the CIS team. Natus Vincere moved on to the playoffs and Vox Eminor was eliminated.

Group B[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Team EnVyUs	2	0	32	22	+10	6
2	PENTA Sports	2	1	35	32	+3	6
3	LGB eSports	1	2	36	35	+1	3
4	Titan	0	2	18	32	-14	0

Group B matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	16	Cobblestone	14	Titan
PENTA Sports	3	Dust II	16	LGB eSports
Team EnVyUs	16	Cache	8	LGB eSports
PENTA Sports	16	Cache	4	Titan
LGB eSports	12	Dust II	16	PENTA Sports

Group C[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Ninjas in Pyjamas	2	0	32	16	+16	6
2	Keyd Stars	2	1	41	36	+5	6
3	Counter Logic Gaming	1	2	31	46	-15	3
4	HellRaisers	0	2	26	32	-6	0

Group C matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Inferno	9	Keyd Stars
HellRaisers	14	Nuke	16	Counter Logic Gaming
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Mirage	7	Counter Logic Gaming
HellRaisers	12	Inferno	16	Keyd Stars
Counter Logic Gaming	8	Dust II	16	Keyd Stars

Group D[edit]

Pos	Team	W	L	RF	RA	RD	Pts
1	Virtus.pro	2	0	32	16	+16	6
2	Team SoloMid	2	1	46	34	+12	6
3	Cloud9	1	2	35	46	-11	3
4	3DMAX	0	2	15	32	-17	0

Group D matches
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	16	Overpass	5	3DMAX
Team SoloMid	14	Nuke	16	Cloud9
Virtus.pro	16	Inferno	11	Cloud9
Team SoloMid	16	Nuke	10	3DMAX
Cloud9	8	Overpass	16	Team SoloMid

Playoffs[edit]

The winner of each group would play the runner-up of a different group for each quarterfinals match.

Bracket[edit]

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

A1

Fnatic

2

B2

PENTA Sports

0

A1

Fnatic

2

D1

Virtus.pro

0

D1

Virtus.pro

2

C2

Keyd Stars

1

A1

Fnatic

2

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

1

B1

Team EnVyUs

2

A2

Natus Vincere

1

B1

Team EnVyUs

0

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

2

C1

Ninjas in Pyjamas

2

D2

Team SoloMid

1

Quarterfinals[edit]

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports[edit]

Fnatic came into the tournament as the most dominant team in the field and looked to take its second major title. Meanwhile, PENTA Sports had some trouble against the relatively inexperienced Norwegians of LGB eSports, but managed to retain its Legends status as it went up against the best team in the world.

Casters: Deman & SPUNJ

Fnatic vs. PENTA Sports Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	16	Inferno	8	PENTA Sports
Fnatic	16	Cache	7	PENTA Sports
Fnatic	–	Overpass	–	PENTA Sports

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars[edit]

Virtus.pro was no surprise to be in the top eight as the reigning Katowice champions was back in the playoffs in front of its home crowd. However, Keyd Stars was the biggest surprise of the tournament as the Brazilians, who had barely any international experience, made the playoffs after pulling off two upsets in the group stage. Keyd Stars didn't even have enough money to go to the offline qualifier, but with the help of $4,000 from Robin "Flusha" Rönnquist, another couple thousand more from ESL, and donations from the community, FalleN's team was able to go to the big stage.

Casters: TosspoT & seang@res

Virtus.pro vs. Keyd Stars Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Virtus.pro	16	Mirage	4	Keyd Stars
Virtus.pro	17	Overpass	19	Keyd Stars
Virtus.pro	16	Nuke	1	Keyd Stars

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere[edit]

Team EnVyUs was the reigning major champion after winning DreamHack Winter 2014, but a very close match against its compatriot nearly cost the team the top spot in Group B. Natus Vincere was able to stomp through the Challengers in its group, but struggled against Fnatic; however, Na'Vi looked to do better in the rematch of the Winter 2014 semifinals.

Casters: Pansy & natu

Team EnVyUs vs. Natus Vincere Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	16	Cache	12	Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs	14	Dust II	16	Natus Vincere
Team EnVyUs	16	Mirage	3	Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid[edit]

The team that went on Counter-Strike's most legendary winning streak, winning 87 maps in a row, looked to reach its fifth straight final. Team SoloMid looked win a title after coming close several times and hoping the acquisition of its new in-game leader karrigan could be the decisive factor.

Casters: Anders Blume & natu

Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Team SoloMid Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Dust II	8	Team SoloMid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	4	Inferno	16	Team SoloMid
Ninjas in Pyjamas	16	Nuke	12	Team SoloMid

Semifinals[edit]

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro[edit]

Fnatic easily took care of PENTA in a series that did not take much time. On the other hand, Virtus.pro suffered a loss to the massive underdogs of Keyd Stars on a map that VP was widely regarded to be one of the best on. However, VP made the other two maps look easy as it pleased the crowd with its plays. However, Fnatic easily had VP's number as in 28 maps, Fnatic was able to win 21 of them.

Casters: Anders Blume & SEMPHIS

Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	19	Cobblestone	17	Virtus.pro
Fnatic	16	Mirage	8	Virtus.pro
Fnatic	–	Overpass	–	Virtus.pro

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas[edit]

EnVyUs came into the semifinals as the team with the better record in the head-to-head at 33-17, but predictions were split right down the middle in the battle between Happy and Xizt. The rematch of the Winter 2014 finals was underway.

Casters: Deman & seang@res

Team EnVyUs vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Team EnVyUs	9	Cache	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team EnVyUs	10	Dust II	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Team EnVyUs	–	Mirage	–	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Finals[edit]

The matchup many were hoping for happened. Both teams were at one point considered the best team in the world and the head-to-head was virtually split right down the middle, with Fnatic having a 16-15 lead. Predictions were also controversial as Fnatic was barely favored in the match. The last map would go down as one of CS:GO's greatest as the arena was maxed out to standing room only.

Casters: Anders Blume, TossopT, & seang@res

Fnatic vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas Scores
Team	Score	Map	Score	Team
Fnatic	16	Dust II	14	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Fnatic	10	Cache	16	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Fnatic	16	Inferno	13	Ninjas in Pyjamas

Final standings[edit]

Place	Team	Prize Money	Seed	Roster	Coach
1st	Fnatic	US$100,000	ESL One Cologne 2015	JW, flusha, pronax, olofmeister, KRiMZ	Devilwalk
2nd	Ninjas in Pyjamas	US$50,000		f0rest, GeT RiGhT, Xizt, friberg, allu	pita
3rd–4th	Team EnVyUs	US$22,000		kioShiMa, Happy, SmithZz, NBK, shox
	Virtus.pro			| TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, byali, Snax	kuben
5–8th	Keyd Stars	US$10,000		FalleN, fer, steel, zqk, boltz
	Natus Vincere			Edward, Zeus, starix, seized, GuardiaN
	Team SoloMid			karrigan, dev1ce, cajunb, dupreeh, Xyp9x	3k2
	PENTA Sports			nex, Spidii, denis, kRYSTAL, Troubley	alexRr
9–12th	Vox Eminor	US$2,000	–	SPUNJ, Havoc, jks, AZR, topguN
	LGB eSports			RUBINO, rain, jkaem, zEVES, Polly
	Cloud9			ShahZam, sgares, n0thing, shroud, Semphis
	Counter Logic Gaming			hazed, reltuC, tarik, ptr, FNS
13–16th	Titan	US$2,000		kennyS, Rpk, apEX, Maniac, Ex6TenZ
	FlipSid3 Tactics			B1ad3, bondik, markeloff, WorldEdit, DavCost
	HellRaisers			ANGE1, kucher, flamie, Dosia, AdreN
	3DMAX			diSTURBED, natu, KHRN, stonde, xartE